It shot past them so quickly, the guards only had time to yell with surprise and fall over backwards. One of them fired his pistol into the ceiling, and a baboon shrieked angrily from the rafters. “HIIII-YOOOOOOOO, Stripey!” bellowed the intruder—well, one of the intruders. “It’s Catastrophe Shane!” Carolina gasped. “What is he riding?” asked Jean. Catastrophe Shane, Jack’s most incompetent crew member, was waving a pistol in the air with one hand and using the other to clutch the mane of the strangest horse Diego had ever seen. It was a bit smaller than a normal horse, and it was covered head-to-hoof in black-and-white stripes. It brayed loudly as it galloped around the throne room, bucking and jumping. It kicked two guards in the gut before the others got smart and hustled out of its way. “I think it’s a zebra,” Carolina said, astonished. “I read about them, but I thought they were imaginary, like unicorns and hippos.” “Seize him!” King Samuel shouted, but the room was in chaos.
