The Silver Swan Read Online Free PDF Page A

Ahmed, a wiry, muscular Moroccan who flashed me a quick smile.
    Papa greeted them courteously in Arabic, bowing slightly to Ahmed, one hand on his heart. Ahmed’s smile grew wider, and soon he and Papa were chatting in several languages at once, like old shipmates. Perhaps they were.
    Gideon stood to the side, shy, balanced on one foot. I moved closer and put out my hand.
    â€˜Al salaam.’ I hoped it sounded like the words Papa had used.
    Gideon grinned. ‘How d’you do?’
    â€˜You speak English?’ I asked.
    â€˜Of course,’ he replied. ‘I spent many months on an English ship.’
    â€˜In the Navy?’ I asked, eagerly. ‘Or was it a merchant ship?’
    â€˜It was a slave ship.’ He blinked. ‘I was part of the cargo.’
    â€˜I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘I didn’t know — Jem told me you’d been a prisoner of the Maltese Knights.’
    â€˜I have been a slave to many men, and none,’ Gideon said. ‘Arab traders carried me from my home, then Englishmen put me on a ship of death and sold me in the flesh markets of Algiers. The Barbary corsairs chained me to a galley oar for three years, until the Knights of Malta took our ship. We thought we would be freed, but instead they put us in their own slave crews.’ His eyes seemed to fog over as he stared out to sea, but then he smiled. ‘I was chained to Ahmed for seven months. That alone is enough of a trial for any man.’
    â€˜But now you are free,’ I said softly.
    Ahmed had moved closer to us. ‘The French set us free when they took Malta from the Knights.’ He smiled affectionately at Gideon. ‘Just in time, too, because this layabout had lost the will to live.’
    â€˜It’s true,’ said Gideon. ‘Ahmed saved me from despair. I would have lain down and never risen again, but he kept teasing me until I got so angry I had to prove him wrong. And so we survived.’
    â€˜We are brothers now.’ Ahmed patted the timber of the Mermaid ’s mast. ‘We will go on sailing.’
    â€˜Yes, indeed, I have been a slave to many men,’ said Gideon. ‘But Ahmed and I have sworn an oath — we will never be enslaved again.’
    Even Ahmed’s cheerful face was suddenly serious.
    â€˜I was a slave once,’ I told them. ‘Pirates stole meaway from my home — evil pirates.’ I pointed at Jem. ‘That one there, actually.’
    â€˜He looks pretty evil to me.’ Ahmed laughed, his solemnity forgotten. ‘But you must have forgiven him.’
    â€˜Jem never really treated me like a slave,’ I admitted. ‘But I won’t ever forgive his captain.’
    â€˜I can never forgive any of them,’ said Gideon, quietly.
    â€˜I understand,’ I said, and I did, with my whole heart.
    The other boys were larking around, showing off and pushing each other over, while the Mermaid danced at anchor in the twilight. Gideon and Ahmed ran to join them.
    â€˜Will you lot haul on that bloody halyard!’ shouted Jem, but the others just chortled.
    â€˜What am I supposed to do?’ Jem asked me. ‘They’ve all gone to Bedlam.’
    â€˜They’re happy, that’s all.’
    As the canvas finally began to bite into the breeze, I felt happy too. Running forward to feel the ship cut through the swell, I wanted to laugh, with the thrill of the night air on my skin and salt-spray sprinkling my face. I stood again — at last — on the deck of the Mermaid as she sailed out into open water.
    I was still happy when I woke up the next morning in my hammock, in my cabin. My great sword still hung on its hook, and the cloak given to me by Carlo’s mother was flung across the back of the chair, just the same as that horrible day I’dleft it all behind. My memory floated gently across everything that had happened to me since: the confrontation with Diablo; the days spent