The Goblin's Gift by Conrad Mason

troll’s gaze shifted from the fairy to Joseph and Tabitha. The ones who’d let this thief out of his cell …
    â€˜Run,’ croaked Tabitha.
    Joseph bolted out of the room, his cutlass banging against his legs as he raced towards the door that led back to the beach. Slik buzzed overhead with his cake and Tabitha pushed past, reaching up with one hand and somehow managing to snag the fairy’s legs and tug him down. She crammed him into her coat pocket and fumbled to do up the buttons, ignoring Slik’s muffled complaints.
    Joseph heard the heavy footsteps of the troll coming after them. He ran faster. There was a swish of air at his back as the cudgel swung dangerously close.
    Tabitha threw open the door and leaped down the steps.
    The troll was taking aim again. Joseph ducked as the cudgel sailed overhead, thwacking into thewooden wall of the corridor. He sprang forward, out of the door.
    The tide had come in, and the bottom of the steps was awash with seawater. Joseph skipped down into it, feeling the waves soak through his shoes instantly. He kept moving, panting, not looking back, dreading the next blow. The blow that would smash his brains out. But no blow came. He stumbled out of the surf onto the hard wet sand. Tabitha was just ahead, running up the beach, each footstep sinking deep.
    Joseph chanced a look back. The troll was gone. What the … ? And then he saw the jailer standing on the steps of the Brig just above the water, holding his skirts up and frowning at the waves.
    â€˜The dress …’ said Tabitha. She had collapsed onto the sand ahead, gasping for air. ‘He doesn’t … want to … get it wet.’
    The troll ventured down a step, then thought better of it. He scowled at them. At last he swept back inside and slammed the door behind him.
    Joseph could have almost cried with relief. He sank down next to Tabitha, his shoes waterlogged and full of sand, his muscles aching from running.
    â€˜You all right?’ she asked.
    â€˜Just about.’
    They lay there in silence except for their pantingand the sounds of Slik gorging himself on his bit of cake inside Tabitha’s pocket.
    â€˜So where now?’ asked Joseph finally.
    â€˜Bootles’,’ agreed Tabitha. ‘I don’t know about you, but I’m starving.’

Chapter Eleven
    RAINDROPS SPATTERED ON the leaf shelter the troll twins had built. The island was tiny, but there were a couple of trees, clinging on for dear life among the barren rocks. A good thing too, because otherwise they would all have been soaked by now.
    Again.
    Hal sneezed, wrapped his coat tighter around himself and shivered. As if it wasn’t bad enough being stuck with Phineus Clagg and his few remaining crewmen, now they had to huddle up together to keep warm and fit under the leafy canopy. Jammed between a pair of sweating, stinking smugglers, Halcould think of places he’d rather be. Quite a lot of them, in fact.
    They all watched in silence as the mermaid swam towards them through the rain-pocked sea.
    Lunch, on its way.
    â€˜Bet you anything in the Ebony Ocean it’s fish again,’ said Frank.
    His twin brother chuckled, but everyone else was too dispirited to reply.
    The mermaid reached the shallow water and rose up out of it. Some silver objects flashed in her hands, and she tossed a few to land on the beach.
    â€˜There’s a surprise,’ muttered Clagg, and took a swig from his bottle. He seemed determined to drink away the memory of his lost ship. At the rate he was going, it was incredible that he was still conscious.
    â€˜I’ll go,’ said Hal, before anyone else could offer. He squeezed out from between his smelly neighbours and headed out of the shelter, into the rain. It might be wet out there, but he needed to escape the smugglers’ company for a few moments and get some time alone.
    He clambered across the wet rocks, down onto the beach. As he passed