Read Online Sebastian Darke: Prince of Explorers by Philip Caveney - Free Book Online

yes. I've come to take you to meet Joseph,' she said. 'Remember, the old man who visited the lost city?'
     
'Ah, excellent,' said Cornelius. 'I've been looking forward to this.'
     
Max came stumbling back from behind the hut.
     
'Did you hear that, shaggy?' said Sebastian. 'We're going to meet Joseph.'
     
'Oh, goody,' said Max.
     
'Just give me a moment.' Cornelius moved away and had a quick word with the trench-diggers, then returned to the others, smiling. 'Let's go,' he said to Keera.
     
She led them amongst the huts. The villagers were up and about, preparing fires and brewing their first shot of chai. Many bowed their heads respectfully to Sebastian as he passed. More worryingly, he noticed that some of the younger women were whispering to each other and giggling.
     
Keera saw his nervous look and tried to reassure him. 'Many of our girls think you are good-looking,' she told him. 'You set some hearts aflutter last night with your wonderful display of dancing.'
     
'Is that what he was doing?' muttered Max. 'I thought a spark from the fire had gone down his breeches.'
     
'Do you mind?' growled Sebastian.
     
'Not at all,' said Max.
     
'So you are already making ready to face the Gograth?' observed Keera, changing the subject.
     
'Oh yes,' said Cornelius. 'We believe in striking while the metal is hot. But everything must be ready, I want to leave nothing to chance. In a couple of moons, all the preparations will be ready.'
     
'The young master seems to think we shouldn't be so hard on them,' observed Max gleefully. 'If it was up to him, he'd give them nothing worse than a good telling off!'
     
Keera looked at Sebastian in surprise. 'This is true?' she asked him.
     
'Not really. As usual, he's twisting my words.' He thought for a moment. 'I think they deserve a harsh lesson, of course, but killing every last one of them . . . ? Wouldn't it be enough to destroy some of them and let the others understand that it will happen to all of them if they don't mend their ways?'
     
Keera shook her head. 'I'm afraid you do not know the Gograth,' she told him. 'They are animals, not men. Allow just one warrior to escape and he will keep his hunger for revenge alive in his heart. He would not have a moment's rest until he had taken it. They are hateful creatures, totally without conscience or remorse.'
     
'But how can that be?' reasoned Sebastian. 'There must be families amongst them – husbands, wives, children. There has to be some love there, surely? Some . . . compassion.'
     
'For their own kind perhaps . . . but not for anybody else, of that you can be certain. We have had to live with their barbaric ways for a long time now; and I have seen many of our best people die at their hands.'
     
Sebastian was about to say something else, but he saw that Keera was heading towards the doorway of a small hut. It was dark and smoky inside. She bowed her head and spoke softly into the gloom.
     
'Joseph?' she murmured. 'I have brought the visitors to meet you.'
     
There was a short silence; then a croaky voice said, 'Bring them inside.'
     

C HAPTER 8
JOSEPH'S STORY
Keera went in first; Sebastian followed, bowing his head to avoid banging it on the lintel. Cornelius strolled through easily, but Max's huge shoulders would not fit through the narrow opening, so he had to stand with his head poking through the doorway.
     
There were just two people inside. At first glance Sebastian took the first, tending a metal pot over a fire, to be a longhaired boy of perhaps fourteen summers; but as the figure turned to look at him, he realized that it was in fact a skinny girl, who regarded him with bright green eyes. It occurred to him that under the layers of grime that covered her face, she might actually have been quite pretty.
     
A few steps away from her, sitting up in a low bed, was an old man. He was skeletal beneath the animal-skin clothes he wore and his face was etched deep with the lines of a long, hard life. His grey hair