Clash of the Sky Galleons
Clash of the Sky Galleons was the ninth book in The Edge Chronicles, the third book chronologically, and the third book in the Quint trilogy. In the events of the book, Quint was pulled away from his studies in Sanctaphrax to join his father, Wind Jackal, in an attempt to kill his evil quartermaster, Turbot Smeal.
Plot
In the beginning of the book we find Wind Jackal and Quint descending into the abandoned Cliff Quarries from the Galerider. Wind Jackal thought Turbot Smeal was hiding down there, as a message delivered from a ratbird said, but they found nothing but a bag of tilder guts and vast flapping creatures with pappery wings that appear as well in the Immortals. They are able to escape and they get back to Undertown.
In Undertown the crew stays for a couple of days in the Tarry Vine Tavern while the Galerider is fixed in the Sky Shipyards. They find Thaw Daggerslash who is still looking for a ship. Thaw is able to get a sky ferry, with Hubble as his crew. Wind Jackal, who gets more and more tormented by the memory of Turbot Smeal, receives a Message of No Return telling him that he would find his former quartermaster in the Sluice Tower. Wind Jackal hires a waif, Menisculis, and he and his crew (except for Maris and Tem) go there and try to find Turbot Smeal. Wind Jackal and Quint find a killer waif, who is murdered by Menisculis before they are hit by a vast torrent of water. Maris, Tem and Duggin are able to save Wind Jackal and Quint aboard the Edgehopper.
Meanwhile, the Leagues of Undertown are building a huge League ship to end up with the pirates. They start by buying the biggest flight-rock ever seen during the harvesting of the flight-rocks.
Wind Jackal asks Duggin to join his crew and, when everything is ready, the Galerider sails off to the Great Slave Market with candles to sell. They also had to get some bloodoak wood. They try to sail through a storm, but they are forced to stormlash. They descend into the Deepwoods and Quint, along with Maris, is the first to get down. However, the mast is hit by lightning and the flight-burners went out, sending the Galerider hurtling into Open Sky. Quint and Maris wander through the Deepwoods until they find an ironwood tree, and, despite his phobia of flames, Quint is able to light the top of the ironwood so that the Galerider might spot it. The sky ship is saved by the Stone Pilot by setting herself on fire (trusting her gear to protect her) and clinging to the flight cage to prevent the flight-rock from becoming too cold. She survived, but spent several days convalescing, and several weeks after that on crutches. The Galerider found Quint and Maris, both unconscious but alive, and sail to the Great Slave Market where they find Thaw Daggerslash and Hubble.
They all sail through the Deepwoods and find villages of woodtrolls where they make a deal with Chopley Polestick. They all leave to hunt a bloodoak. By this time, Ratbit, Filbus Queep, Steg and Sagbutt die.
Thaw convinces Wind Jackal that Turbot Smeal stole his sky ferry and that he's hiding in a sky wreck. When Wind Jackal boarded the sky wreck to find and kill Turbot Smeal, Thaw Daggerslash accompanied him. When the two sky pirates split up in their search, Thaw donned a mask made from the face of a skullpelt, pretending to be a horribly disfigured Turbot Smeal, and murdered Wind Jackal. When Wind Jackal's son, Quint, boarded the sky wreck, Thaw Daggerslash removed his disguise and pretended that he had just killed Turbot Smeal. With Wind Jackal dead, Thaw Daggerslash and Quint were rival contenders to become the next captain of the Galerider.
Thaw Daggerslash forced Hubble to vote for him, flattered Duggin to obtain his vote, and stole the Stone Pilot's shryke-tooth so that she could not cast her vote for Quint. Meanwhile, Tem Barkwater and Spillins voted for Quint, leaving Maris with the deciding vote. Thaw attempted to trick Maris into casting her vote for him, but she was not fooled and chose Quint, thwarting Thaw's ambition to become captain.
Thaw Daggerslash left the ship, disguised himself as Turbot Smeal once more, and sided with the Leagues of Undertown in the ensuing clash of the sky galleons, offering his services in return for the promise that he would get the Galerider when the sky pirates were defeated.
Quint asked Raffix, Phin and Stope to help him and took the Galerider to the Wilderness Lair, where the other sky pirates were and they all started a mighty battle against the Leaguesmen. The sky pirates were being defeated and the Galerider was the last that was still in battle, against the Bringer of Doom. The crew left the ship, except for Hubble and Quint, who was kissed by Maris at this point. However, the flight-rock of the Bringer of Doom malfunctioned. When the Leagues were defeated in the battle, Thaw Daggerslash, still posing as Turbot Smeal, boarded the Galerider and attempted to kill Quint, but Hubble intervened, dealing the ambitious young rogue a fatal blow. As Thaw Daggerslash died, Quint removed the skullpelt mask, revealing Thaw's deception.
The Galerider hurtled into Open Sky. Quint and Hubble parawinged themselves to safety. Quint resumed his studies at the Knights Academy, along with Raffix, Phin, Stope and his girlfriend, Maris.
Editions
| Books in the Edge Chronicles series, by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell |
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Quint Trilogy: The Curse of the Gloamglozer •The Winter Knights • Clash of the Sky Galleons Twig Trilogy: Beyond the Deepwoods • Stormchaser • Midnight Over Sanctaphrax Rook Trilogy: The Last of the Sky Pirates • Vox • Freeglader The Lost Barkscrolls: Cloud Wolf • The Stone Pilot • The Slaughterer's Quest • The Blooding of Rufus Filatine Nate Book: The Immortals Cade Trilogy: The Nameless One • Doombringer • The Descenders Other Books: The Edge Chronicles Maps • The Sky Chart Blogs: Weird New Worlds |