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W hile Septiauntlet once eon herself She was sitting, confidently swinging her feet, on the lowest yardar of Milo&039;s long-awaited cargo Suspended froantry, a ing and twisting as it o hold Milo Banda stood at the edge of the hold, ar red tunic His dark curly hair fell to his shoulders and was held in place by yet ave hiave hiht then, Milo Banda looked like a man who had succeeded and was proud of it Far below Milo&039;s sandaled feet, the cargo hold opened into the depths of the Cerys It was lit by six torches dipped in tar, each one carried by an anxious deckhand guiding the precious chest into place The hold itself was no e objects destined for the Palace and sos that Milo intended to sell in the Port - bales of woolen cloth, a selection of pearl necklaces from the Islands of the Shallow Seas, a stack of reindeer skins fro assorted dishware, boots, cotton tunics and mousetraps procured at knock-down prices froht auctions For Sarah Heap there was a case of silver goblets, which Milo thought would be a great ih pottery ones that she insisted on using There were also the objects intended to liven up (as Milo put it) the Long Walk Aht at a good price fro Sands - accohastly ornate tourist jars of so-called singing sand, which had a habit of re silent once bottled There was also a collection of bizarre pictures iant sea snakes, which Milo (overly opti Walk ceiling

Milo was pleased with these acquisitions, but they were not the reason the Cerys had sat in her prime berth in Harbor Twelve for sovery carefully lowered past Milo&039;s watchful gaze and disappearing into the torchlit depths Milo suided by the deckhands, the chest settled into its allotted place, fitting perfectly

Milo beckoned to Jenna, still perched high on her vantage point As practiced as though she were a sailor herself, Jenna swung herself off the yardarhtly on the deck Milo watched her with a s the vine up the Palace wall, all the way up to the roof, just to collect a tennis ball, and then slid down, taking , covered in twigs and scratches - and had still won the gaht Every day he spent with Jenna, he reh sometimes Milo wished he didn&039;t - there was only so e

Jenna joined hihts He jumped onto the ladder and led the way down into the hold Jenna followed, the air beco cold and damp as she descended into the depths of the Cerys toward the flickering light of the torch flames and the buzz of excitely long way down; Jenna had not realized just how much of the ship lay beneath the waterline At last she joined Milo at the foot of the ladder and, accoht their way, he ushered her over to the chest Jenna hung back There was an odd atmosphere around the chest, and she wasn&039;t sure that she liked it very much

Milo smiled "You can touch it, it won&039;t bite," he said

Warily Jenna stepped up to the chest and touched it The ancient as as cold and hard as metal It was dented and scratched and had a deep brown-black shine that reflected the light froave it an odd appearance of movement The iron straps around it were pitted with rust and notches and the chest looked as though it had seen some troubled tie to see the top of the chest, where a large square of gold was inset into the wood Three lines of hieroglyphs were etched into the gold

"Those look interesting," said Jenna "What do they say?"

"Oh, don&039;t bother about those old things," said Milo dismissively He turned to the deckhands "Leave us," he said

The deckhands saluted briefly and left

Milo waited until the last man had climbed off the top of the ladder, then he turned to Jenna with a gleah by now to sense that he was building up to a speech She suppressed a sigh

"Well," said Milo, "this is quite a moment Ever since I met your mother I have searched for this - "

"Mywhy Sarah Heap had told Milo to go looking for a battered old chest, until she re about Queen Cerys, whom Sarah Heap called her "first mother"

"Yes, your dear, dear mother Oh, Jenna, how like her you are You know, your mother used to look at me with the very sa her all my wonderful plans But now my plans have at last borne fruit, and we have that very fruit - er, chest - safe in the Cerys And even better, my Princess is here too, at the very ood omen, would you not say?" After his many years at sea, Milo had acquired a certain amount of seafarer&039;s superstition

Jenna, who did not think much of omens, did not reply

Milo put his hands on the lid of the chest and smiled down at Jenna "I think we should open it, don&039;t you?"

Jenna nodded uncertainly Although she was very curious to see as in the chest, she could not shake off her feeling of unease in its presence Milo hardly waited for Jenna&039;s agreean to ease the ancient, hardened leather straps that held the iron bands together out of their thick brass buckles The first band sprang off with a clang and made Jenna jump; the second fell off onto Milo&039;s foot

"Oof," Milo gasped Gritting his teeth he took hold of the lid and slowly heaved it open until it ca straps

"Look inside," he said proudly "All this is yours"

Jenna stood on tiptoe and peered in "Oh," she said

"You should not be disappointed," said Milo "This is a greater treasure than you can possibly iine"

Jenna doubted that was possible - she could iine an awful lot of treasure if she put her mind to it Be such a fuss about? All she could see was bare worm-eaten wood - not even lined with silver, asranks of tiny battered and scratched lead tubes resting in neatly stacked wooden trays Each tube was sealed ax and had a sed in neat squares in batches of twelve and each set had the sale It was remarkably orderly but hardly the

"You&039;re not i a little disappointed Jenna tried to think of so positive to say "Well, there are a lot of them And, er, I&039;m sure it was really difficult to find so many"

"You have no idea quite how difficult," said Milo, gazing into the chest, enthralled

"But it will be worth it, you wait and see" He turned to Jenna, his eyes shining "Now your future as Queen is secure Oh, if only I had found it in time for your dearif she wasspecial underneath these, er, tube thingies?" she asked Milo looked a little irritated "Are these not special enough?"

"But what are they? What is so a about them?" asked Jenna