Free Floods 3 by Colin Thompson Page A

do,’ he said.
    Vessel woke everyone. The four spies were busy poking around the dustbins for food, so the refugees slipped quietly out of the front door and off into the night.

    The refugees had many, many miles to travel to reach Shanghai and find a boat, but they were inno hurry and agreed with Vessel when he said that travelling slowly would be exactly the opposite of what the King’s spies would expect. So they took detours to beautiful villages and walked along country roads past gentle streams.
    Time passed and everyone except Valla got five months older. Little Valla got five years older. He even went to some of the village schools, where he learnt Chinese calligraphy and how to make delicate porcelain bowls.
    â€˜Because,’ he explained, ‘you never know when things like that might come in handy. And besides, fresh blood looks so appetising in a fragile white bowl.’
    They had to leave most of the villages in rather a hurry when Valla kept drinking blood out of the local chickens and his fellow students’ necks, but each time the Queen would wave her wand and do the forget-we-were-ever-here spell, so no one came after them.
    The spies did not overtake them, as Vessel had predicted, but followed at a discreet distance,staying just one village behind them. There were many occasions when the Hearse Whisperer was sure they could have overpowered the refugees and kidnapped Mordonna, but her three pathetic companions were such dreadful cowards they always found excuses why it wasn’t the right time. Even the Hearse Whisperer felt uneasy about a confrontation. She knew she could overpower Vessel, Nerlin and Mordonna on her own, but Queen Scratchrot was another story. They had crossed swords in the past and the Queen had usually come out on top. Also, only an idiot would be in a hurry to get back to Transylvania Waters and its awful king, and the Hearse Whisperer was not an idiot.
    So, she waited.
    At last the runaways reached the outskirts of Shanghai. One look at the group would tell anyone that they had as much chance of blending in as a glass of water in an oil slick, except that the Queen and her party were more like the oil slick in a sea of clean water.
    â€˜I think we should split up and meet at theharbour in two hours,’ said Vessel. ‘That way we might not stand out so much.’
    â€˜I’m not splitting up,’ said George. ‘All my insides will fall out.’
    â€˜Actually, good and faithful friend …’ the Queen began.
    â€˜Uh oh, bad stuff,’ said George. ‘Whenever you talk like that, it’s always followed by something I don’t like.’
    â€˜This time you will like it,’ said the Queen, ‘because you are going to get a huge reward.’
    â€˜Oh yes?’
    â€˜Absolutely,’ the Queen explained. ‘Which would you rather do: get on a very small boat and set off into a wild and stormy sea where you are guaranteed to be horribly seasick every ten minutes, or spend the rest of your life in this lovely field we are now standing in?’
    â€˜Boat,’ said George.
    â€˜No you wouldn’t,’ said the Queen. ‘Look at all this lovely grass.’
    â€˜Don’t like Chinese grass,’ said George.
    â€˜Yes you do,’ said the Queen. ‘You’re just being silly. Here we are offering you a life of leisure and luxury as a reward for all the hard work you have done for us, and all you can do is complain. You are a very ungrateful animal. I’ve half a mind to turn you into a boiled egg.’
    â€˜Go on then,’ said George.

    â€˜Look, any donkey would give his right hoof to be sold to this wonderful Chinese gentleman,’ said Vessel. ‘Lovely fresh ditch water, all the grass you can eat and all you have to do is carry a few really tiny bags of ultra-lightweight coal out of hislovely clean mine eighty-seven times a day.’
    â€˜Can’t I be a boiled egg