Read Fire over Swallowhaven for Free Online

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    And then, almost before he knew it, Trundle found himself standing on the foredeck of the Gilded Lily ,panting for breath and gazing across the pirateless deck at his two companions.
    “They’re breaking off,” shouted Admiral Firwig. “Look at them running! Joy in the morning, my lads. Run up the signal for victory!”
    He was right. Many of the pirate ships were in flames, but those few that had escaped the attention of Captain Darkside’s flamethrowers had already turned tail and were speeding away with every sail bulging. Unfortunately, among those fleeing unharmed was the Iron Pig , and even as Trundle spotted it careening away from the battlefield, he heard a voice booming back through a megaphone.
    “We’re not done with you, Esmeralda Lightfoot!” roared the enraged Grizzletusk. “We’ll meet again, and then you and your little friends will be sorry you were ever born!”
    Esmeralda looked at Trundle. “I think we’ve upset the poor captain,” she said with a grin.

    “Amery Wilde doesn’t look too happy, either,” remarked Jack.
    Of Wilde’s six red war galleons, three were in flames and two were running, and the sixth—the Scarlet Scavenger itself—had been boarded and subdued by Dolly Wideawake’s Amazons. Captain Wilde was at that very moment being roped to his own mast, with his dented silver helmet smashed down over his eyes.
    “We can never thank you enough.” Beaming, Admiral Firwig turned to Trundle, Esmeralda, and Jack. “You shall have a triumphal parade! A victory feast! Seven days of festivities! Statues commissioned for the Grand Square! Medals! Gold! The freedom of Swallowhaven!”
    “Well, thanks very much.” Trundle smiled. “That’s very nice of you. But what we really need is for the Thief in the Night to be fully supplied with provisions so we can continue our quest.”

    “What my dear, sweet, unworldly friend means,” said Esmeralda, sidling up to Trundle and putting a firm arm around his shoulders, “is that we’d like the supplies and all that other stuff you said. If that’s okay with you, of course.”
    “No problem!” said the Admiral. He turned to a nearby officer. “Signal all the fleet, my good fellow. Tell them we’re heading for harbor!”
    And so bright and cheerful signal flags were run up the mast of the Gilded Lily, and the victorious windships of the invincible fleet of Swallowhaven headed for home.
    It was not until quite a while later that anyone noticed that the four ironclad windships of the steam moles of Hammerland had slipped quietly away.
     
    “Well, the gifts of pure gold were my favorites,” said Esmeralda as the Thief in the Night sailed away through the empty skies that stretched far beyondthe island of Swallowhaven. “Pity it was all too heavy to take with us, but it’ll make a nice little nest egg once our quest is over.”
    “I think I liked the feast best,” sighed Trundle, patting his stomach and remembering the tables of the Grand Banqueting Hall, piled so high with food and drink that you had to eat for an hour before you could even see who was sitting opposite you.
    “I just adored the songs and the dances,” said Jack, lying in the bottom of the boat, tapping his long feet rhythmically against the mast and lazily bowing his rebec. “It’s a pity we couldn’t stay for the full seven days of festivities, though.”
    “One day was quite enough,” said Esmeralda. “Another six days of feasting like that, and we wouldn’t have fitted in our clothes anymore.”
    “We wouldn’t have even fitted in the Thief in the Night, ” chortled Trundle. “We’d have had to find ourselves a bigger powerstone to keep us afloat.”

    “Hello, hello, hello,” said Esmeralda, getting to her feet and peering off into the distance. “What’s that?”
    “What?” asked Trundle.
    “That there!”
    “What where?”
    “If you’d stir your lazy bones and look, you’d see what where,” Esmeralda retorted. “It