The Book of Wonders by Jasmine Richards Page B

away.
    â€œThank you so much for stopping,” the boy shouted. “I can’t tell you how many boats didn’t.”
    â€œAre you alone?” Assam asked.
    The boy shook his head. “My brother’s gone off to ask the marsh people to help get us out of these reeds. He hasn’t come back—” He broke off, a worried look on his face.
    At once, Zardi knew this was not a trap. The note of fear in the boy’s voice was too real. He needed their help.
    Assam must have felt the same because he took the rope from Rhidan and tossed one end of it over to the boy. “What’s your name?” the captain asked.
    â€œNadeem,” the boy replied.
    â€œNadeem, listen to me closely. Tie that rope tightly around your figurehead,” Assam instructed. “We’re going to pull you out.”
    Zardi watched as the boy tied the rope around the bird-shaped figurehead of his boat. There was something about the carved bird of prey that nudged some recent memory, but she couldn’t quite grasp it.
    Assam grabbed the other end of the rope and Zardi and the rest of the crew followed the captain’s lead and fell in line behind him.
    â€œAll right, on my count,” Assam shouted. “ONE, TWO, THREE!” The five of them heaved as one. Zardi braced herself for the point of tension, the point where they’d surely meet resistance as the boat freed itself from the reeds that imprisoned it, but there was none. Instead, the smaller boat shot forward, its figurehead smashing into the hull of the Triumph and wedging there. Assam’s boat rapidly began to take on water; the fractured boards that surrounded the carved wings of the figurehead became teeth in a gaping mouth.
    The captain said a word that Zardi had never heard before and then dropped to his knees and desperately began bailing water out of the bottom of the boat with his hands. Rhidan, Hakeem, and Rakin joined the captain, but Zardi was frozen. The little boat was not stuck , she realized. It was never stuck .
    Her gaze met Nadeem’s. There was no regret in his dark eyes. Instead, they burned ember-bright with excitement. His mouth curled into a satisfied smile, and Zardi knew that the worst was still to come.
    Looking past him, she saw several figures in black drop from the trees that lined the bank. They wore daggers at their waists, and their faces were covered by thick strips of black material so only their eyes were visible. The men dove into the river and slithered like black eels through the water toward Nadeem’s boat.
    â€œCaptain!” Zardi yelled, not caring this time that the pitch of her voice was all wrong. “We’re under attack!”
    Assam’s head shot up, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted the first of the figures in black to climb up onto Nadeem’s boat and stalk toward the boy.
    The man was tall and powerfully built, and Zardi wondered if she’d been wrong about Nadeem and whether this man would harm him. She was about to cry out a warning when she saw the two of them shake hands. Nadeem then pointed at the boat and bowed with a flourish. The tall man ruffled the boy’s hair and murmured something, while Nadeem beamed with pride. There could be no doubt now—this had been a planned ambush.
    â€œPIRATES!” Assam threw the rope over the side. “We have to push ourselves off this figurehead. NOW!”
    Zardi launched herself at the carved wooden bird that had taken roost in the Triumph’s hull, barging it with her shoulder. The figurehead’s cruel face mocked her attempts, and she was relieved when Rakin and the captain joined her and rammed the full weight of their bodies against it. To her side, she could hear Rhidan and Hakeem continuing to bail water from the bottom of the boat.
    Her shoulder ached fiercely as she continued to push at the figurehead, but it refused to budge. The wooden wings of the bird of prey had hooked onto the inside of the