EIGHT

“Go back, go back.” Polly hopped desperately on the wire above Toby, making it shake.

“Stop it, Pol.” Toby ground his teeth. “I’ll fall.” He looked down and froze. He was already a body length away from the Phoenix and there was nothing between him and the paddle cage below. Toby had never worried about heights, he enjoyed his stints in the crow’s nest, but this was different.

Between the Phoenix and the Banshee, colliding junk crashed and smashed in the waves.

“Toby, your heart rate is up.” Polly sprung from the cable, making it jerk once more, and flew around him.

“It’s so far,” Toby muttered. The rain-slick wire began to slip through his hands and he could not tear his eyes from the drop. He clamped his legs more tightly closed, and the thick line bit into the soft underside of his knees.

Then the sea rose, tilting the Phoenix and sliding Toby past her paddle and closer to the waves. Beneath him an ancient washing machine surfaced, door gaping. It dragged a train of plastic bags behind it and seemed to turn to follow him, waiting to swallow Toby when he fell.

Then the washer was smashed between a forklift truck and a transit van. Toby moaned as the sea hauled the two crushing weights apart to reveal the misshapen bulk of the machine, twisted and dented. The washer sank and Toby knew currents of acid waited to corrode it into nothing.

The Phoenix tilted once more, tightening the grapple, and Toby was almost flung off the suddenly taut rope. His hands ached with the fierceness of his grip.

All too easily Toby could picture himself slipping from the cable and being impaled on the forklift below. The distance between the two ships suddenly seemed insurmountable. What had he been thinking?

“I can’t do this.” Toby moved a trembling arm to slide back towards the Phoenix.

“That’s right,” Polly crooned. “Go home.”

Toby hesitated. If he went back now, he was abandoning Hiko to who knew what fate? The men of the Banshee had crawled over the rope. It was possible – Toby should be able to do it.

“I’ll get someone, they’ll pull you in.” Polly fluttered higher.

“No,” Toby groaned. “Don’t.” He set his jaw and turned to look at the Banshee once more. “It isn’t that far.” The cable creaked, drawn tight between the ships.

“It is that far, Toby. You’re not strong enough.”

“I am.” Toby released one hand, closed it around the cable ahead of him, then heaved himself upwards. He panted with the effort but his body slid a little further.

“I can do this.” He pinned his gaze on the cable, then slid his hands higher still and pulled. “I’m going to rescue Hiko.”

“You’re going to get yourself captured.”

“Everybody on the Phoenix is fighting.” Toby moved again, closer to the Banshee. “The Banshee will be almost empty and I’m good at avoiding people who want to hurt me.”

“Peel’s different, Crocker, too. The captain would kill them if they really hurt you.”

“Ha!” Toby snorted and pulled once more.

“I’m serious, Toby. You must go back.” Polly wheeled in tighter and tighter circles, agitation making her flight erratic. Toby gasped as a gust of wind rocked the cable and he swung sideways. He shut his eyes until the swaying eased.

Polly landed on the cable by his foot, careful not to make it bounce. “Please listen to me, Toby. This is rash. You haven’t got a plan.”

“Just let me get there and I’ll make one.” Toby moved a tiny bit further, pausing as the wind lashed his hair into his face. “I’m not leaving Hiko.” Toby blinked a splatter of rain from his eyes. “He’s the only other kid I’ve ever met, Polly. I want him on board.”

“Toby, I know that you’re lonely…”

“You wouldn’t understand.” Toby bunched his legs to try pushing this time. He moved further up, then the cable loosened again as the ships anchoring it rocked towards one another. Toby hung like a gull, unmoving, until they pitched sideways and tightened the rope again.

“Toby, I’m the only one of my kind.” Polly walked along the cable, keeping close to his feet. “The only one there will ever be.” She cocked her head at him.

“I’m not doing this because I’m the only kid on board, Pol – that would be dumb.” Toby pulled again. “I’m doing it because I can’t just hide while they do who knows what to the boy who saved my life. Can’t you see that?” He raised his head and looked towards the Banshee. She filled his vision now. “Won’t you help me? I can’t do this alone.”

“What choice do I have?” she snapped, and flew from his feet on to the unfamiliar gunwale. “It’s clear.” She peered down at him. “You idiot.”

Toby grinned, opened his legs and released the cable. His stomach muscles tightened as he prepared to somersault backwards over the rail and on to the Banshee’s deck.

That was when the Banshee started to wail.

Toby hung motionless, his ears ringing. The cable in his hands vibrated from the intensity of the ship’s howl and his fingers began to slip. He threw his legs back around the wire.

“Is it me? Do they know I’m here?”

The sound had forced Polly to take off and now she landed back on the rail above him. “It’s not you, Toby. Look.” She tilted her head to indicate a cable running from the Banshee’s bow.

A distant fork of lightning lit the sky as a woman in a coat that flapped like the wings of a crow flew along a zip wire to the Phoenix’s pylon mast.

At the last second, she released the strap and flipped to touch down on the prow of the Phoenix, feet splayed a shoulder-width apart.

The moment she landed, the wail cut off.

Toby dangled in the sudden silence. “Is that…?” he whispered.

Polly fixed her eyes on the Phoenix. “Captain Nell of the Banshee.”

“What does she want?”

“I can fly over and find out,” Polly suggested.

Toby shook his head. “I need you here.” He completed his somersault on to the Banshee’s deck and crouched. He pressed his face against the cold metal of the ship’s side, but his brief rest was disturbed by a hiss.

Toby lifted his face to see Polly standing in front of him, her wings spread to make herself as large as possible. In front of them… Toby blinked. In front of them a mangy cat crouched on a bollard. The black feline, fur patchy with scars, stared at them steadily. Then it opened its mouth and started to yowl.

Toby looked around for something to throw at the thing, but the deck was empty. “Shh, puss.” Toby made frantic calming gestures with his hands, but the cat’s tail shot up behind it and bushed out like a boiler brush.

“Make it stop, Polly.”

Its ears flattened.

Polly stamped towards the animal, hissing back at it. The cat retreated, showing pointed teeth.

Toby edged forward. “Shut up, cat. Go away.”

Polly made a sudden lunge towards the animal, flapping her wings and cawing. The cat jumped in the air, all four feet leaving the ground. Then it turned and vanished around a corner.

Polly flew on to the bollard the cat had vacated. “I’ll find you a hiding place.” Her tail bobbed and she flew in the opposite direction to the cat.

Toby crouched, digging his nails into his leather gloves. The deck of the Banshee under his bare toes was very different to the Phoenix. He could feel her massive pistons chugging beneath his feet, shuddering as she sucked at the last of her reserves.

The Banshee was huge. She was a city compared to the Phoenix’s small town. Toby realized that he could, for the first time, look at his own ship from the outside.

Toby exhaled. He hadn’t even known that the rustproof paint his father had used on the Phoenix was orange. The corrosive sea had faded it so that she looked like a shard of sunset floating on the waves. A stylized phoenix decorated her hull and Toby realized that the image on his Nix was a copy. A shout drew his attention to the deck of the Phoenix.

To Toby’s relief, the arrival of Nell on board appeared to have stopped the fighting. Now both captains faced one another across the quarterdeck. His father waved his hands angrily and Toby saw the crew of the Phoenix abruptly raise their weapons and shout. The Banshee’s pirates remained unmoving. They had clustered behind Nell, awaiting her orders.

Toby’s hand closed on Nix as a sound drew his attention back to his own predicament.

To his right a pyramid of compressed junk balls was shifting in time with the rolling salt. Netting held them in place, but the top one had thudded to the bottom. Toby blinked: the pyramids dotted the deck, beside cannons that shone black on oiled rollers. The Banshee could have destroyed the Phoenix at any time, so what were they after?

Now Toby’s eye fell on a giant trebuchet that rested on a turntable. The catapult was surrounded by its ammunition: car engines, truck beds, anything big and heavy enough to cause serious damage.

Six men were loading the weapon but there was no joking, singing or complaining as they worked. Their tattooed skulls glistened under the glow of lightning from the storm that was gaining once more on the immobilized ships.

“That’s aimed at the Phoenix,” Toby murmured.

Polly landed beside him in a flurry of feathers. Her processor whirred. “I calculate the payload will hit the main pylon and bring it down on top of the mess hall and pump hatch.”

“The injured are in the mess hall. Big Pad…” Toby shut his eyes against the image. “Are they going to fire?”

Polly squawked quietly. “It’s possible.”

“But not while Nell’s over there, right?” Toby spun back to look at the Phoenix. He didn’t know what Nell was saying, but his father sagged and was caught in Uma’s strong arms. The wind carried an anguished wail carried across the sea. “Toby!”

Toby leaned over the side. “What’s happening?”

“Your father knows you’re missing.”

Toby hung his head. “What do I do?”

“Fetch Hiko and return as soon as possible.”

“You’re not telling me to go straight home?” He raised his eyebrows.

“I should.” Polly bit his thumb gently. “But I found him.”

“Where?”

“Other side of the bridge. He’s in a cage. You’re right, we can’t just leave the boy.”

Toby peered around the deck housing. The bridge was fully enclosed. It hunched towards the stern of the ship behind the trebuchet and its half-dozen guards. The windows of the bridge were narrow but Toby assumed that anyone inside would be able to see out in any direction. The question was – was there anyone inside or not?

He shuffled his feet. “How do I get there without being seen?”

Polly nudged his face, turning him. “I found some passages set into the deck. If you can get into one, you’ll be able to get close.”

“Right.” Toby was about to edge into the open when there was a shout from one of the guards by the trebuchet. He was pointing towards the Phoenix. Slowly Toby turned.

Nell must have signalled because the man suddenly raced towards the prow. He pounded past Toby’s hiding place without seeing him. Toby pressed himself against the side of the deck housing, straining to see as the man gripped a winch on the end of the zip wire Nell had used, and started to wind.

On the Phoenix, Nell reached one-handed for the strap and hurdled over the side. Toby heard her shout something but the sense of her words was lost as the storm broke overhead once more.

“They’re coming back,” Polly squawked in his ear. “Move it, Toby.”

The crew of the Banshee were abandoning the Phoenix like rats. Ignoring the driving rain, each rappelled up the cables linking the two ships.

Toby was in deep trouble.