A Better Way to Stop Pirates Read online

CHAPTER 2

  RIDING HORSES

  Two galloping horses approached, hooves booming on the dirt and clattering against stone. Harry heard them before he saw them, as did the crowd that hurriedly parted to make way. A dapple-grey farm horse with a long mane and mud spatter running up his legs arrived first. He came to a crashing stop in front of Harry, his forward hooves showering dirt and rock. A brown sloth hung from his neck.

  A second horse arrived, cantering gracefully to a stop beside the first. She was white, young and well groomed. She also had a brown sloth hanging from her neck but moved as if she was floating above the ground.

  ‘You win!’ said the white horse, laughing as she knocked affectionately against the grey. She was shiny and still catching her breath from the run.

  ‘Wow, look, look, look at that!’ the dapple-grey horse said as he turned to face the ruins of the school. The smoke had cleared revealing a crater and smouldering rubble where the school once stood proud.

  ‘Da-da! Ma-ma!’ cried Elsie when she spied her parents.

  Harry gently lowered Elsie to the ground as her parents dropped and ran towards her on all fours. The sloth family fell together laughing in the sunshine. Elsie was bundled up and all three spun around joyfully.

  Harry approached the dapple-grey horse. He was a young stallion who couldn’t have been long out of school. ‘Can you get me to town quickly?’ he asked.

  ‘No p-p... No problem, Mr Possum. Glad to have a p-p-passenger. Come on up!’

  ‘Please call me Harry.’ He jumped, pulling himself up using the horse’s long, matted mane. Sitting on his back was like sitting on the broad branch of an oak. ‘How do I…?’ He tried to find a comfortable position. ‘Is this right or should I sit further forward?’

  ‘No, there’s fine. Just g-g-grab…’ Harry grabbed the horse’s mane. ‘Yes. And press your legs against m-m-my…’ Harry pressed his legs against the horse’s sides. ‘Yes,’ said the farm horse, breathing a sigh of relief that Harry had understood.

  ‘What’s your name?’ asked Harry.

  ‘S-S-St,’ the horse stuttered. ‘S-S-St…an…,’ he tried again, one eye twitching. Harry waited patiently. He had met stutterers before but none who had been so severely affected. The horse took a deep breath. ‘St, St…an, Stan…’

  ‘His name’s Stanley, and I’m Elizabeth,’ called out the white horse, a filly. ‘Sometimes he has trouble saying his name, especially when he’s meeting someone new.’

  Harry looked over to the white horse who smiled back with a row of perfect teeth. She was beautifully groomed and sounded as if she’d benefited from a very good education. Whereas Stanley sounded rustic, like he’d grown up in the country. If Stanley was an oak, Elizabeth was a sapling joyfully dancing in the breeze. What Stanley possessed in brute force, Elizabeth held lightly in elegance and good breeding. They were an unlikely pair and Harry liked them instantly.

  ‘Nice to meet you, Stanley,’ said Harry, reaching forward and patting Stanley’s neck. ‘You too, Elizabeth.’ He smiled warmly at the filly and was surprised to see that Larry Monkey was now sitting squarely on her back, as if that was how he usually travelled. He was small, dark and dour. Harry had never once seen the chimp smile.

  ‘I hope the m-m-monkey won’t slow you down too much!’ said Stanley to Elizabeth, laughing.

  ‘I’m the faster horse and you know it!’ A smile played at the corner of her mouth.

  ‘Well what, well what are...’ Stanley locked up, breathed calmly and tried again. No noise came out.

  Elizabeth spoke for him. ‘Well what are you waiting for?’

  Stanley nodded.

  ‘This time you say ready, set, go,’ said Elizabeth. She lowered her head an crouched. Her mane had been braided with beads.

  ‘Ready… set…’ counted off Stanley, but Elizabeth had already sprung past. ‘Hey, that’s, th-th-that’s cheating!’ he yelled out after her.

  When Stanley leapt after Elizabeth, Harry nearly tumbled from his back.

  In a heartbeat, the farm horse was galloping past neat little cottages with white picket fences and well tendered gardens awaiting the coming of spring. Wind hammered into Harry, flattening his fur and threatening to blow off his sunglasses. He pressed in his legs and wound bundles of matted mane tightly around his paws. Despite his efforts, he was bumping up and down alarmingly and felt himself tipping sideways.

  ‘Am I doing this right?’ he yelled into the wind.

  ‘Look at the m-m-monkey,’ Stanley replied. ‘See how, see how he sits loosely and works with Elizabeth’s rhythm. That makes it more comfortable for him and helps her too.’

  As Elizabeth cantered round a tight corner Harry could see what Stanley meant. The chimp did look more comfortable bouncing in time. Stanley cantered round the corner too. Harry dug in his claws and jerked about ungracefully.

  The dirt road they were on gave way to flagstones and climbed a hill. The houses here were older and jammed together without gardens in front. A family of camels hustled aside to make way for the horses. Three bright-eyed camel calves watched, admiration gleaming, long, black eyelashes flicking.

  ‘Relax, Harry. Trust m-m-m... Trust me to keep you up.’ Stanley’s breath was laboured as he pushed up the hill. They had closed the gap but Elizabeth wasn’t letting him pass.

  Harry loosened his grip and let himself move in time with Stanley’s rhythm. It was much more comfortable and he no longer felt he would fall. However, he was slowly bumping forward and his sunglasses were riding on the end of his nose. He wriggled back into position and adjusted them.

  They were weaving their way up the long hillside, the green choppy ocean behind and the golden sun above. The few clouds were high and scattered and the air was pregnant with the stirrings of spring.

  Stanley turned onto the long, straight stretch of highway that marked the town’s northern boundary. Large houses for large animals lined one side; furrowed fields behind a low stone wall lined the other. In the distance Harry could see the old aqueduct used to bring water to the town long ago. It was said to be a thousand years old. Parts of it had collapsed.

  The sun was on his back and the air rushing towards him was crisp and invigorating. The ride was exhilarating. He would never walk again if he could run like Stanley. How marvellous it must be to be a horse; to travel so fast, so effortlessly.

  ‘I’m going to take her on the stretch,’ Stanley yelled.

  Harry tightened his grip as the horse surged powerfully forward. He would never have thought it possible to go faster but clearly he was wrong. Stanley shot forward like an arrow released from an over tightened bow so that the world all-around was a blur of motion. They spent more time airborne than on the ground. Silence seemed to descend, as if they were apart from the world; above it somehow. They flew past the white horse called Elizabeth in a heartbeat. At this speed, the ride was smoother and Harry was no longer afraid of falling. He carefully looked back. Elizabeth and Larry were rapidly receding in the distance and appeared no bigger than his paw.

  Stanley didn’t slow as they approached the broad T-intersection marking the end of the highway. A signpost pointed north to farmlands and south to town. Before them was a large building fronted by a yard stacked with timber. Tall chimneys belching grey smoke towered above a gable roof. Its front gate was open and no one seemed to be about.

  ‘Shall I, shall I take the shortcut?’ yelled Stanley into the wind, one large, shiny eye looking back at Harry. He was clearly enjoying himself.

  Harry was too busy trying to hold on to answer. They hurtled through the intersection, through the open gate and across the yard without slowing. The building’s entrance was hung with two tall barn doors, one open. Stanley flashed through the opening and into a dimly lit space beyond. It was the Bombaderry Glassworks; a factory that made things from glass.

  On one side was a row of glowing furnaces. On the other, low benches on which artisans were cleverly fashioning molten glass into everyday tableware, like gl
asses and vases. The air was thick and warm, the vaulted roof was hung with gantries reached by stairs and ramps. Animals of all sorts were hard at work operating bellows that heated the fires servicing the furnaces; carrying slender rods affixed with glowing bubbles of glass soon to be blown into shape; carting raw materials and finished glass objects to and from storerooms; shaping, cutting, joining, packing, cleaning and blowing glass in a bewildering number of ways.

  Stanley flew down the narrow isle between the furnaces and benches. Harry hoped he knew what he was doing and where he was going. Galloping through a glass factory didn’t seem like a great idea.

  The workers scattered before them. Some cried and leapt aside; others dropped their molten burdens or abandoned their barrows. Stanley jumped a barrow as it tipped. Cobalt-blue glass dolphins packed in straw tumbled out and smashed on the flagstone floor.

  ‘Hey, watch out!’ Harry heard someone yell as they flew through the rear doors of the building.

  Across a muddy backyard they galloped. Stanley leapt a puddle and turned sharply as they passed through the back gate, mud splatter exploding out from under his hooves. Harry remembered to lean in as they turned onto the service lane running behind the glassworks.

  After a few more sharp turns they were on a long, straight stretch of road crowded with narrow townhouses. Neighbours were talking to one another over low front fences. There was a buzz of excitement as news about the pirates spread.

  Harry could hear the town’s alarm bell tolling, which meant they weren’t far from Town Square. Ahead of them, traffic was building so that Stanley had to slow to a trot. They wove round groups of animals walking at a quickened pace, eager to hear the news. Everyone was heading to the Square.

  The cobblestone streets in the old part of town surrounding the Square were narrow and dark, tall buildings rising up either side like old, bent over men. Animals exchanged rumours from the safety of their doorways and called to one another between open windows above. Nobody knew what had happened to the school but everyone seemed to know that pirates had been seen off the coast.

  They burst into bright sunlight and trotted across Town Square to the wide stairs fronting Town Hall where a large crowd of chattering animals had already gathered.