“That doesn’t matter. So long as we don’t wake them, everything will be all right.” He gestured to his left. “We’ll circle around behind the prisoners, keeping well clear of the guard. Then we should be able to get close enough to untie them.”
“Optimist,” Chaz muttered as he trailed along behind the two bipeds.
Will’s plan proved as efficient as he’d hoped. The single guard snuffled noisily but did not awaken. Soon they were near enough to discern the individual knots and shackles that secured the captives.
“See how many ropes.” Chaz ground his lower jaw against the upper. “I think I could bite through the lower ones.”
“That’ll take too much time.” Will strained for a better look. “Those look like ship ropes. They’ll be tough and well seasoned.” He glanced at Keelk, whose smaller beak and digging claws were equally ill-suited to the task. “I guess it’s up to me. This is what humans are best at, anyway. Intricate manipulation.”
“Of things or words?” Chaz offered the rejoinder gently to show that he meant no anger.
“You two keep back here, out of the way.” Bending low, Will started forward.
“What are you going to do?” Chaz asked anxiously.
His friend smiled encouragingly back at him, his teeth white against the darkness. “Free everyone, of course. That’s what heroes do in books.”
After their human companion had moved off, Chaz whispered to Keelk in the struthie tongue, “Of course, this is no book.”
Keeping to cover and shadows, Will succeeded in reaching the three posts unnoticed. With their acute hearing, the struthies heard him coming. Senses fully alerted, they spoke not a word as they watched the young human approach. His clothing was reassurance enough, a familiar Dinotopian style.
Putting a finger to his lips in the universal sign for silence, Will ducked down behind Hisaulk and began to work on his bindings. The two youngsters did not have to be instructed by their parents on how to behave. Feigning continued sleep, they kept silent despite their rising excitement.
Tied slightly apart from the others, Prettykill sensed voices and motion. One eye opened slightly, the only movement in the squatting mass of muscle. She watched silently and without comment as the new arrival busied himself undoing the adult male Strutbiomimus’s ropes.
“Easy, now.” Will’s face contorted with his efforts. The tough sea ropes were proving as difficult to undo has he’d feared. “I’m getting it.” Fortunately, he’d had plenty of time to study similar knots on the long voyage out from America that had eventually shipwrecked him and his father here. As an apprentice skybax rider, his knowledge of knots had only improved.
It took more time than he’d hoped but less than he’d feared for him to free the adult male. Hisaulk stretched surreptitiously, keeping his movements slow and subtle. From her place of concealment Keelk waved anxiously. Relieved to see her safe, Hisaulk acknowledged her presence with a nod. But while he was free to join her, he did not, refusing to leave until the rest of his family had been liberated. While the big male loosened cramped muscles, Will started in on the female’s bonds.
The instant she was free, he turned his attention to the two youngsters. His fingers were raw and sore, but he refused to rest. When all had at last been freed, he had the pleasure of watching them depart silently to join their long-separated sibling. Graceful necks entwined in heartfelt, silent embrace.
His own participation in the celebration would have to wait. One more set of ropes needed to be undone. Rising from behind the malachite post, he advanced on the young tyrannosaur. She was fully awake now, tracking his approach with intense yellow eyes.
He was halfway to her when he felt something catch his ankle. Looking down, he saw to his horror that between a pair of fallen poles he’d been carefully stepping over lay a dark, wiry man with a thick mustache. Bright brown eyes glared inquisitively up at him. Fingers like steel bands held his right ankle in an unyielding grip.
“Hoy, now, mate. Where did you drop from?”
XVIII
desperately will wrenched forward, trying to free his leg. The man held on with the tenacity of a starving cat. Twisting and reaching up with his free arm, the pirate got his right hand around Will’s other leg and began shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Avast, there! To arms—we are betrayed!”
The call of the abruptly awakened pirate sparked an explosion of activity on the part of the young tyrannosaur. Until that moment seemingly sound asleep, she was now fighting furiously with her restraints, twisting and writhing and throwing a veritable fit as she did everything possible to try to free herself. But her captors had tied her well. Unable to bring even her comparatively tiny forearms to bear on the ropes, she couldn’t move more than a foot in any direction.
Will turned and tried to kick at the man’s face. Having survived dozens of battles and street fights, the wiry seaman was not about to be so easily dislodged by a comparative boy. While continuing to yell, he ducked his head down between his arms so that Will’s frantic kicks only glanced off his shoulders.
By now, anxious shouts and queries were rising throughout the camp. Seeing that all was lost, Will yelled toward the others.
“Run for it, Chaz! Run for the gate!”
The last he saw of his friends and the liberated family were the eyes of the mother Struthiomimus, eloquent with compassion and helplessness as she shepherded her reunited brood toward the main canyon and freedom. He hoped the translator could keep up with them. Even a Protoceratops could manage a fair pace over a short distance.
As he shouted toward them, he kept trying to free himself. He might as well have been caught in a old-fashioned trap, so unyielding was the smaller man’s grasp on his legs. Twisting and bending, he tried to remember his early boxing lessons as he gave his tormentor a glancing blow on side of the head. The pirate grunted and cursed but did not let go.
Left to his own devices Will might have worn down his captor and freed himself, but just as he felt the man’s grip beginning to weaken slightly, he was surrounded by powerfully muscled, unyielding arms.
Highlighted by torchlight, the circle of faces that stared back at him were as hardened and disreputable as any he’d ever encountered in a newspaper, book, or bad dream. Filthy beards and mustaches framed scars and vacant eye sockets. Many of the men had assorted fragments of ears missing, and one showed clearly where the front part of his nose had been bitten off in a fight. The frailest among them looked tougher than driftwood.
I’m sorry, Father, he said to himself. I did what I thought was right. Maybe back in Boston they’d think it a strange choice, but he was no longer a citizen of Boston and his ethics were no longer Bostonian. He was as much a part of Dino-topia now as the half dozen dinosaurs racing to safety somewhere in the darkness behind him.
It didn’t take long for the pirates to discover that the majority of their captives had been freed and were nowhere to be seen. By whose hand was obvious enough. Muttering threateningly, several of the men edged forward. Will saw dirty, gnarled hands reaching for him.
Andreas stepped forward. “Let the captain handle this business. As for the chicken-dragons, I says good riddance to them! ” Turning, he waved expansively. “We’ve the fortune of the world about us, and the prize turkey to boot.” He nodded toward the still-restrained young tyrannosaur. “Let Mr. Smiggens be satisfied with the one. The others gave us nothing but trouble.” The men debated softly among themselves, and the tenor of their discussion showed that Andreas’s opinion was shared by more than a few.
Among the growing body of hastily awakened seamen only Anbaya sounded disappointed. “Would have made good eating,” he mumbled, gazing off into the darkness that had swallowed their former prisoners.
“Trouble, is it?” growled a new voice. “There be trouble aplenty this night, it seems.” Will saw an individual of massive size and girth approaching, shadowed by a tall but much thinner companion. Still buckling his belt about his impr
essive waist, Blackstrap strode into the light, the others parting before him like mackerel giving way to a prowling tiger shark.
His mustache, Will decided, was as ferocious as the rest of him. As he gazed at the prisoner, the look in his eyes reminded Will of the adult tyrannosaurs. He immediately determined that in temperament, if not in size, they and this man were not so very dissimilar.
“By my mistress’s betrothed.” The big man’s expression turned nasty as he moved closer to Will. “What have we here? A boy, and not a particularly impressive specimen, at that.” Will bristled at the “boy” but decided it would be exceedingly tactless to venture a complaint. The longer he could stay alive, the better. He wasn’t entirely displeased with the situation, as the brigands showed no inclination to pursue his friends. Whatever happened to him, it appeared that Keelk and her family, together with Chaz, were going to be all right.
“Why waste time on ’im?” growled a sleepy voice in irritation. “He’s nothing to us save another mouth to feed.”
“Aye, slit his throat and be done with it, Cap’n,” came a cry from the back of the group.
Blackstrap turned a menacing glare on the nearest sailors, who suddenly wished themselves in the rear of the congregation. “Have you learned nothing from Mr. Smiggens? Care you nothing save for gold and your next meal?”
“What’s wrong with that, Captain?” wondered a seaman innocently.
“Nothing, Mr. Samuel. My point be that a judicious question here and there can often lead to the greater satisfaction of both desires.” He turned back to Will and smiled, a forced collaboration of mustache, teeth, cheeks, and accumulated grime that if anything was even more frightening than his previous expression.
“Now, then, boy, it seems you’ve gone and freed our dainty little dinosaurs, which we captured fair and square after a great deal of danger and hard labor. What inexplicable and foolish urge would inspire you to do such a thing?”
More than a little surprised to hear the uncouth buccaneer before him identify Keelk and the others correctly, Will hastened to explain.
“The dinosaurs of this lost land are not animals. They’re intelligent, civilized, and some of them are smarter than you or I.”
Blackstrap’s right eyebrow jumped. “Now, what’s this you say, boy?” He turned to his men. “D’you hear that, me boy os? The lad says our chickens were as intelligent as us!” The sailors roared with laughter.
No, Will thought silently, not as intelligent as you. Rather smarter, I suspect. Aloud he insisted, “It’s true! They’ve lived here for millennia in the company of other humans. They’ve built great cities and dams and have accumulated all sorts of knowledge unknown to the outside world. They didn’t die out here in Dinotopia the way they did everywhere else.” “Dinotopia, is it?” Blackstrap grinned callously down at him. “Aye, and Father Christmas will be here any minute to shower us with gifts if we will but let you go.” He leaned close and lowered his voice dangerously. His breath was, if anything, nearly as bad as that of the tyrannosaurs. “Now, then, I’ll have some straight answers from you, boy, or you’ll be wishing I let Samuel or another cut your throat. I be Brog-nar Blackstrap, captain of the good ship Condor, at this very moment lying at anchor in the lagoon to the north of here. What be your name?”
Will drew himself up to his full height. No matter how hopeless a situation seemed or how others around him were reacting, his father had always told him to show courage.
“Will Denison, son of Arthur. Five mothers American, first time Dinotopian.”
“You’re a cool lad, I’ll give you that.” Blackstrap rubbed at his stubble. “So these dinosaur-dragon-chicken-things are intelligent, you say? Didn’t see much sign of that during the time we had them in our company.”
“I understand.” Will struggled to explain. “The first time my father and I encountered them we thought exactly as you, that they were nothing more than fantastic animals. It took time and the help of others before we understood just how smart they are. But don’t worry.” He did his best to exhibit an assurance he didn’t feel. “You’ll find out. Because the ones you held prisoner will be back with friends, coming to rescue me.”
The implied threat slid off Blackstrap as easily as hog lard off hot cast iron. “So there be other people here, then. Interesting. How long you been marooned here, boy?”
“Six years, my father and I. But we’re not marooned. We’re full citizens.”
“Might be,” commented Ruskin, “but you still sound like a Yankee to me.” Several of the men snickered.
Will wondered how these intruders would have reacted had they come ashore elsewhere on Dinotopia. Near Chan-dara, perhaps, or even Sauropolis. Instead, they had landed somewhere on the Northern Plains just when that area was in the process of being evacuated until the six-year storm had passed. No worker they’d encountered no evidence of Dino-topian civilization. Evidently they’d managed to miss even the widely scattered farms.
Could he somehow turn their ignorance to his advantage? Meanwhile, he was not the only one considering his fate. “Kill him and be done with it!” muttered someone loudly. “Why waste him?” wondered another. “He has a strong back and good hands.”
“And spirit,” added Thomas with grudging admiration. “Let him carry gold for us.”
“Aye,” agreed Copperhead. “Put a pack on him.”
Will made himself stare back at the man. “I wouldn’t carry a pee-pot for you, mister! ”
Copperhead only laughed, as did those close to him.
“You say there’s others here,” Blackstrap declared. “Hundreds of others. No, thousands, plus the dinosaurs.” He thought rapidly. “There’s a rifle for each man and woman, and . .. and they’ve got cannon. Big cannon, huge cannon.” “Do they, now?” Blackstrap’s smile shrank but did not disappear. “Well, then, we ought to be proper terrified, shouldn’t we, boys? Because ain’t none of us would know what to do if
somebody pointed a cannon at us.” The concerted laughter that greeted this observation was considerably lower and more dangerous in tone than any that had preceded it.
“We should keep him alive, Captain.” The skinny individual Will had noticed earlier pushed himself forward into the light. He had a lantern jaw and more intelligence in his voice than any Will had heard thus far. His eyes showed something akin to compassion.
“Not to use as a beast of burden, though I see no harm in that. But if he truly lives here and doesn’t belong to some shipwrecked crew elsewhere, his knowledge of this land should prove valuable.”
Blackstrap deliberated. “You think he speak fair about guns and cannon?”
“We can find out if he’s telling the truth.” That calm, cool comment was the most frightening thing Will had yet heard. “There might be fifteen-inch Dahlgrens hereabouts, or nothing larger than a catapult. Or not even that. The point is that the boy is full of information. It’s like panning for gold. First you extract everything, then you separate the nuggets from the dross.”
Talk of gold set Blackstrap’s thoughts on a familiar path. “Tell me, boy, is the family you come from a wealthy one? Do they also live in houses like these?” He indicated the shadowy temple complex in which they stood.
“Until just now I didn’t even know this place existed,” Will replied honestly. “I’ve never heard of it. I don’t know that anyone else knows of its existence, either. According to what I’ve learned, there’s a lot of Dinotopia that’s still pretty unexplored, especially in the vicinity of the Rainy Basin. It’s a big place. You may be the first people to have set foot in this canyon since the civilization that built these buildings.”
“You hear that, boys?” Blackstrap’s bellow was rich with irony. “We be the rightful discoverers of this place.” Mocking cheers rose from the assembled.
“Why would you be thinking of ransoming me?” Will wondered. “Isn’t this gold enough for you?”
“We need help moving it, boy. Horses, mules, wagons, and men to drive them.??
?
“Wagons you’ll find,” Will told him, “but no horses or
mules. No cattle, either, or pigs or common fowl. This is the land where the dinosaurs never lost their dominance. Modern mammals never took hold here, except for the smaller vermin that came floating in on logs. We have birds, though, blown in on storm fronts. And insects, arrived in similar fashion. And ancient mammals.”
“So say you. We’ll learn soon enough which of your words can be believed.” The pirate captain peered past his new captive into the night. “As for the chicken-dinosaurs, well, what’s done is done. Our standards have risen somewhat, and we still have the little devil.” He gestured diffidently toward the juvenile tyrannosaur, who had been watching and listening to everything. “Besides, we can always trap more if we wish.” Will responded insistently. “I told you, you can’t treat dinosaurs like common animals. They’re as intelligent as you or I.”
“You’re adamant about that, ain’t you, boy?”
“It’s the truth, sir.”
“Well, then, you should have no objection to putting it to the test.” Blackstrap’s previous unpleasant grin returned.
Will was instantly wary. “I’m not sure I follow your meaning.”
At a sign from Blackstrap, two of the pirates grabbed Will and bound his wrists behind his back. “If these beasts be intelligent, then they should be capable of reason, should they not?” “Of course.” Will was uncertain what to make of the captain’s sudden conversion from obstinacy to logic.
“Excellent. Why don’t we ask the adorable one you left us what he thinks of your opinion?” Blackstrap turned and pointed toward the young tyrannosaur. As the captain’s intent dawned on them, the crew began to joke with and nudge one another.
Will found himself being pushed and shoved urgently toward the bound carnosaur. “It’s a her,” he explained, not knowing what else to say.
“Is it, now?” Smiggens eyed the prisoner closely. “How do you know that, boy?”