Peter and the Shadow Thieves Read Online Free PDF Page B

the savages can take him and melt into the jungle, as they do so wel . If I fail to release your friend, your savages can spear me, yes? And if you fail to return here at the proper time, or you arrive with more than two savages, or you try any other tricks, then your friend…” Hook quickly raised his hook, flipping the half-eaten mango into the air. As it came down… WHOOSH …the hook flashed and the mango fel to the ground, sliced cleanly through the middle into two equal-sized pieces. Even the big seed in the middle was perfectly halved.
    Hook tilted his head and addressed Peter. “Understand, boy?” he said. “This is no game. ” Peter nodded.
    “Good,” said Hook. “Be back here an hour past moonrise. Don’t forget, boy.”
    “I won’t forget,” said Peter.
    “Good boy,” said the captain. He held up his hook, turning it so that it flashed sunlight into Peter’s eyes. “I’l be waiting.” Peter shielded his eyes, turned in midair, and was gone, swooping straight up the curve of the mountain, al the while getting a nonstop I-told-you-so earful from Tinker Bel .
    In the clearing there was silence, final y broken by Smee.
    “Cap’n, d’you think he’l come back?”
    “Of course he’l come back,” said Hook. “The fool boy thinks he’s a hero. He’l do what he must to save his little friend.”
    “Ah, so you’l let the other one go?” said Smee, relieved.
    Hook barked out an ugly laugh.
    “Smee,” he said, “you are a supreme idjit.”

CHAPTER 6
THE DARKEST WAY
    AS THE LAST VESTIGES OF DAY gave way to night, the sea and sky thickened into a paste of grayish black. Le Fantome glided into a smal bay, and its crew lowered the anchor, easing it into the water as quietly as possible. Some flying fish leaped and glided, silhouetted against the disappearing horizon as the eerie cries of monkeys rose from the vast, formless jungle.
    Nerezza, standing with Slank on the quarterdeck, said, “It’l be as dark as the inside of a whale in a few minutes. I’d best alert our guest.” The plan they’d settled on was a simple one. Coming into the bay, they’d spotted a tendril of smoke rising from the island; that was their target. They’d row ashore, two boatloads of armed men—brutal men; handpicked fighters—and search out this camp. If the boy wasn’t there, whoever was in the camp would likely know where he was on an island this smal . And the boy would know where to find the starstuff. And the starstuff was why they’d come.
    Slank assumed the camp belonged to the pirates he’d left on the island—the pirates he’d defeated, before he in turn was defeated by the boy, and those hideous demon she-fish.
    But it didn’t matter whose camp it was. Anybody—or any thing —who got in their way would be no match for Nerezza’s raiders and their…guest. If the starstuff was on the island, they would have it.
    Slank tried not to think about what could happen to him if the starstuff wasn’t on the island.
    It has to be here, he told himself. It has to be.
    The men were lowering the boats now. Slank eyed the dark water; his face betrayed the apprehension he felt.
    “What is it?” sneered Nerezza. “Afraid of the fishes, are you?”
    “I ain’t afraid,” snapped Slank. “But I ain’t eager to meet up with them she-fish again.” He shuddered, remembering when he had last been there, remembering the feel of the mermaids’ teeth sinking into him, recal ing his blood clouding the water.
    Nerezza, who wasn’t sure he believed in these she-fish, coughed out a laugh. It wasn’t natural, coming from him; it sounded a bit painful. He pointed to the darkened companionway. “There’s no fish—no creature alive—can possibly match our dark friend down there,” he said. “Nothing on that island, neither.” Slank looked back to the island. He figured it to be about two miles to the smoke if they went along the shore; far shorter if they cut directly across the island. Slank wanted to take