Clash of the Sky Galleons Read Online Free PDF

his wealth, not least amongst the leaguesmen, but since the Tarry Vine tavern was a safe haven for all sky pirates - particularly when the Leagues were indulging in one of their perennial purges - the sky pirates, in turn, offered him their unqualified protection. In the skies above the Edgelands, league ships and sky pirate ships engaged in a constant struggle, but on the streets of Undertown, an uneasy truce was tolerated by all sides.
    ‘Next!’ Glaviel Glynte’s voice barked out.
    The character before Thaw - a short lugtroll with a squint - started back and suddenly scuttled away, apparently losing his nerve right at the last moment. Now at the front of the line, Thaw stepped forward into the small garret.
    ‘Sit down, sit down,’ Glynte told him impatiently without looking up.
    Thaw did as he was bid, stumbling slightly as he moved, for the stool, bathed in shadows, was lower than he’d anticipated. It was also positioned so that the lamp above him shone directly in his eyes. Glynte ignored him. Hunched over a vast leather-bound ledger, a scratchy quill in his right hand, he was busy transferring one column of numbers into the next. Beside him was his assistant, a tousle-feathered, beady-eyed shryke, who sat motionless and stared unblinking into mid air, an overbearing seen-it-all-before attitude about her.
    Thaw could feel his confidence ebbing away as the tavern keeper continued to ignore him. He cleared his throat and leaned forward on the low stool, and was about to say something when Glaviel Glynte abruptly looked up.

    ‘What can I do for you?’ he asked in a low, silky voice, with just a hint of menace.
    The tavern keeper’s politeness disarmed Thaw momentarily.
    ‘I need … That is, I would like … I mean, if you …’
    Glaviel Glynte laid his pen down and fixed the callow sky pirate with anintense stare. Beside him, the shryke matron turned her own unblinking eyes on him. Thaw swallowed hard.
    ‘Spit it out, son,’ said Glynte. ‘We haven’t got all day, have we, Sister Horsefeather?’
    The bird-creature shook her head from side to side while maintaining her unbroken gaze on Thaw’s face.
    ‘Sorry, sir,’ said Thaw. ‘It’s just … I need a loan. A small loan. Just enough to get me started.’ He took a deep breath. ‘I need to recruit a crew and equip a sky ship …’
    ‘You have a sky ship?’ Glynte’s eyes narrowed.
    ‘Not exactly …’ Thaw wavered under the intensity of two sets of piercing eyes. ‘I mean … I could have …’
    Glynte and Horsefeather exchanged knowing looks. The shryke opened her beak.
    ‘The tavern keeper isn’t interested in “not exactly”s and “could have”s!’ she rasped. ‘Do you have a sky ship, or not?’
    Thaw blushed furiously and looked down at his feet.
    ‘No, not yet…’
    ‘Then the tavern keeper can advance you fifty gold pieces - enough for a simple sky barge and one deckhand,’ clucked Horsefeather. ‘And you can leave your fine notions of being a sky pirate captain for when you’re a little older. Take it or leave it.’
    Ignoring the shryke, Thaw turned to Glaviel Glynte, his scalp itching with frustration.
    ‘Fifty gold pieces,’ he said bleakly. ‘But … but I was hoping for at least ten times that amount. I need the loan to get the crew on my side, then …’
    ‘Sky ship first, boy,’ clucked the shryke. ‘Then money for crew. Do you want the barge or not?’
    ‘But…’ began Thaw.
    The tavern keeper slammed the flat of his hand down on the table-top. ‘Next!’ he bellowed.
    ‘So what were we doing out there at the cliff quarries?’ Tem murmured.
    ‘Yes, Quint,’ whispered Maris, ‘why did your father sail to such a terrible place?’
    The three of them were sitting in the far corner of the Tarry Vine at a long, old table, its dark surface pitted and scarred with the carved names of generations of sky pirates. Opposite them were the other crew-members: old Spillins the oakelf, Ratbit the mobgnome and