Fire over Swallowhaven Read Online Free

blue-tinted spectacles. Their lenses were as thick as the bottoms of bottles. The silent crews of the four windships were also moles, clad in grimy dungarees and tinted eye-concealing glasses.

    “That is Captain Thaddeus Darkside,” said the admiral. “Leader of the steam moles of Hammerland. His people live in the outer reaches of the Sundered Lands. We are very fortunate tohave their support—they seldom concern themselves with events outside their own land. Captain Darkside tells me that beneath those tarpaulins he has some experimental weaponry that he is eager to test in combat. I have not seen the weapons, but he assures me they will come in most useful when battle is joined.”
    “I don’t like ’em steam moles,” grumbled Dolly Wideawake. “You never know what they’re thinking behind them glasses. Shifty, I calls it. Dead shifty.”
    Staring out at the grimy, noisy, smoke-spewing iron windships, Trundle couldn’t help but agree with her.
    “So, twenty windships in all,” said Esmeralda. “Against twenty-five pirate windships led by the Iron Pig .” She rubbed her chin. “Hmm. Interesting odds.”
    “I bet you’re wishing you hadn’t talked us into this mess,” muttered Trundle. “But maybe we can still slipaway before things get uncomfortable. We are on an important quest, after all. There are four crowns yet to be found, remember? And this battle really doesn’t have anything to do with us, does it?”
    “He’s got a point,” whispered Jack. “What say we leg it while there’s still time?”
    Esmeralda looked from one to the other. “Yes,” she said in an undertone. “This time I think you’re both quite right. We need to skedaddle before Grizzletusk turns up.”
    “How?” asked Trundle.
    “I’m working on that,” Esmeralda replied.
    “Sail ho!” called a lookout from the masthead of the Gilded Lily .
    They turned to see the Bolt from the Blue skimming swiftly toward them under the rocky ceiling of Swallowhaven Island.
    “Pirates!” yelled a frantic female voice from the prow of the onrushing windship. “Cor, blimey,luvaduck! The pirates are here—flippin ’undreds of ’em, gawd ’elp us!”
    And with that, the Bolt from the Blue came sailing alongside the Gilded Lily . Captain Wideawake heaved herself up onto the rail and, with a fearsome war cry, leaped back aboard her own foredeck.
    “Needles in their nappers, my girls!” she hollered as the Bolt from the Blue turned, gathered speed again, and rushed off to do battle. “Pins in their posteriors! Scissors and pinking shears at the ready! Death or glory, Amazons of Swallowhaven—death or glory!”
    Admiral Firwig turned to the three friends. “Well, my young heroes,” he declared, “it’s time for you to prove your worth!” And with that, he shouted orders so the Gilded Lily cut a swift circle in the air and went flying out into the open skies.
    “Oh, my giddy aunt!” gasped Trundle, his eyes bulging.

    Filling the sky over Swallowhaven lay the entire pirate fleet—and at its head was the terrifying spectacle of Grizzletusk’s flagship: the dire and dreadful Iron Pig !

“S o, my fine young beasts,” said Admiral Firwig, lowering the telescope from his eye and turning to Trundle, Esmeralda, and Jack, “battle is about to be joined! Which tactics do you recommend?”
    Run like fun! thought Trundle as he goggled at the looming pirate fleet.
    The Iron Pig, with its grisly red sails, was in the lead, while the rest of the vessels—a motley and mongrel bunch of windships, bristling with cannonand sabre-wielding pirates—were organized in two long columns that stretched out like a pair of ugly ribbons in the flagship’s wake. Already they were bearing down on the small Swallowhaven fleet like buzzards coming in for the kill.
    “I’ve seen this formation before,” Esmeralda said grimly, gripping the rail as she stared at the approaching armada. “They’ll try to smash right through your fleet, blasting