The Wand & the Sea (26 page)

“I'm okay, Jade. . . . I'm . . .” What was the word? She couldn't remember it now. She was very, very cold. If she could just find someplace out of the wind and rain. How could it be raining, when the sky was so clear? She curled up on the deck, which was slick from the shards of ice that had broken around them.

“Belowdecks,” Jade kept saying in her ear, tugging on her shirtsleeve. If only he would be quiet and let her sleep. “You will freeze here . . . Rowan, Her Ladyship needs aid. . . .”

But Rowan had no time to help her. Holly stretched her fingers forward, trying to crawl. The slivers of ice bored into her temples now; she could barely concentrate through the pain. The deck tipped, listing nearly perpendicular to the sea, and Holly slid like a sack of flour along the planks. Someone trampled her outstretched fingers, and she thought dully how lucky it was that her wand had not broken. Then she realized Jade had it clenched between his teeth.

On her shoulder, Áedán felt like a cold, wet lump. Could he live through so much ice? She touched him lightly, but he didn't move. “Áedán . . .”

“The water has weakened him,” said Jade. “Come, the hatch is just a bit farther. I shall call Ranulf to come help you.” The cat darted away, and she heard anxious voices below. The deck shuddered; Ranulf was somewhere nearby.

The hatch was thrown open with a boom, and Holly raised her head, hoping to find Ranulf's strong arms reaching out to her. But instead, all three of the boys scrambled up onto the deck, each holding something long and thin. Her mind was so fuzzy; those couldn't be . . .

Another splash of water revived her a little, and her eyes grew wide when she saw Everett shoulder what looked like a hunting rifle in one hand, while chewing a wad of paper that he'd stuffed in his mouth. She couldn't make sense of it. Where were Ranulf and Jade? The boys were going to be hurt, the missiles . . .

Something cold and very wet, yet solid and pressing like fingers, gathered beneath her. Had someone come to help at last? Her mind
must
be going; she heard Everett saying ridiculous things: “No, don't swallow it;
bite
it, I said! Now pour a little bit in here . . . just enough to fill it . . . and close it. Ben, yours isn't shut all the way, here, let me . . .”

The cold fingers lifted her.

“Now pull that rod thing off—see it underneath? Turn it round . . . no,
around
 . . . yeah. No, this way, Avery . . .”

Her fingers closed over Áedán. She didn't want him to fall off. They were rising; it must be Ranulf, helping her to the hatch. But she couldn't move.

“Stick it back on there, you don't want to leave it in the barrel. . . . Now cock it. Pull it all the way back—that's only halfway. Yes, Ben, that's got it. Up to your shoulder . . . rather like a bow, Avery . . . good . . .”

Then Holly's stomach dropped the same way it did when she'd looked down from the crow's nest, but Ranulf couldn't be lifting her that high. She was so very wet; she was floating in water. She opened her eyes, calling for Ranulf and for Jade, but they couldn't hear her; she was so far above them.

Above
them?

Her mind cleared for one crystal moment, suspended, and she saw what had happened: She was floating far above the
Sea Witch
. On the tiny deck below the boys raised the rifles to their shoulders, and she heard a feeble shout: “Fire!” There was a satisfying explosion and a huge puff of smoke as Everett cheered; but the next moment Kailani screamed and fell onto the deck. Everett darted forward. Avery fired his weapon, aiming for the schooner, but instead lit one of the
Sea Witch
's last remaining sails aflame; Ben peered up into the sky—to
her
—and she saw him through a wavy mirror—no, through a wall of water—and he called out to her.

He shoved Everett out of the way and started yelling at Avery, who pulled something red from his pockets.

Was it Everett's wand? The one wrapped in the red scarf?

Holly looked around. Where
was
she?

She was
sitting
on water.

A tender wave cradled her in what seemed to be a hand, but it was so cold, she had gone numb. She held Áedán tight, waiting to be flung into the sea. Instead the wave suspended them in the air, high above the melee. Avery stepped forward and thrust his right arm into the sky. How small, how fragile the wand looked, with its red scarf fluttering off one end. Where was
her
wand? She scrambled to find it, but then remembered Jade, with the wand in his teeth.

She was a prisoner of the wave.

It had started to move now, bearing her away from the brigantine, toward the higher mast and black sails of the schooner. Avery was doing something—she wasn't sure what—but she felt a tugging back toward the
Sea Witch
. The wave resisted, and the tension was horrible, like she was a fish on a line, but she moved closer to the boys and dipped lower in the sky.
If it drops me now,
she thought,
I'll still land on the deck. Or they can pull me out of the sea.

She felt a sharp
pop
. Avery's spell snapped like an overstretched rubber band. The wave broke free, bearing her aloft. She could just see Avery cursing, waving the wand in futility, Everett grabbing it from him and trying to ape his movements, but she was out of their range now, if there was such a thing as range. She could feel it: the defeat.

She was descending—no, falling—now, through the fountain of water. The masts rushed up to meet her, the rigging of the
Black Dragon
threatening to slice her in two. She heard a final gunshot echo off the bow, and she landed on the deck.

Everything—the world—went dark.

“How could they be gone? Where did they go?” Ben babbled to Everett, who heard him as so much static on a radio. All Everett could do was gaze at the empty sea. The
Black Dragon
had vanished.

And Holly with it.

Everett stood staring at the sky, the wand limp in his hand. Nothing he had tried had done any good. A horrible, airless feeling overcame him, like being slugged hard in the stomach. Near the stern, Kailani was moaning. Quelch bent over her. He ripped the sleeve off his shirt and wrapped it around her shoulder where Everett's musket ball had nicked her. She was lucky to be alive. Avery's shot had set a sail ablaze, though a wave had broken over the side the next moment and dampened it. And then the impossible: A huge, watery hand had scooped Holly right off the deck and into the sky. Ranulf, who had just arrived at the hatch, clutched at her hand but just missed it; Almaric cried out behind him. Jade made a mighty leap—Everett had never seen a cat jump like that—but was tossed back to the deck like a wet rag.

That's when Ben went mad and shoved Everett out of the way and yelled at Avery—what was wrong with him, why wasn't he using the stupid wand to save her? And Avery, for once, didn't question him but yanked the wand out of his pocket and tried. He did try.

At first it seemed to be working. His eyes were fixed on the giant water hand, and he muttered something low, making a pulling motion with his wand hand. Holly floated closer to them, and Everett held his breath. It might work; she'd be dropped and might be hurt, but she'd be all right. . . .

Avery's jaw clenched. He panted between his teeth; his knees shook. It was like a tug of war. Then with a gasp, he fell backward to the deck, and Everett seized the wand.

But whatever Avery had been doing, it didn't work for Everett. Holly had floated away on a geyser of water, all the way to the deck of the
Black Dragon
. A moment later, a great whirlpool had opened in the sea like a crater, and the schooner had disappeared into it as if down an enormous drain.

The sea was calm. The air was warm.

Ben collapsed onto the deck, crying. Almaric crawled out of the hatch and tried to comfort him. Jade looked utterly defeated. He dropped Holly's wand with a light clatter.

Only Morgan acted like nothing was wrong. She walked the length of the deck, inspecting the tattered sails and broken masts. She checked on Kailani and praised Quelch for his quick thinking. Eventually she made her way to the fore hatch, where the rest of them were assembled in a shell-shocked heap.

She didn't even mention Holly. Instead she reached out a webbed hand and grasped Everett around his shirt collar, hauling him to his feet. “Mutinous dog, shew me yer weaponry!” Then, eyeing the muskets lying on the deck, she shoved Everett aside and picked one up.

“We did essay to aid the
Sea Witch
in battle,” said Avery, standing up rather bravely to face her. “ 'Twas not against you, Captain.”

She grunted, seeming to realize this. “Are ye an Elemental, that ye spew fire such as this?” she asked, peering down the barrel. It made Everett nervous, even though the musket wasn't loaded.

“It came from the hold, Captain,” he said. “It was down near the brig. Left over from . . . wherever you got this ship.”

Her eyes narrowed, then gazed off as she tried to recall having seen them before.

“Who
cares
about the muskets?” Ben cried. “We have to get Holly back! Do your submarine thing and follow that ship!”

“Do ye dare to command me?”

“Yeah, I do! We need to get my sister back now!” Ben stood up and glared at Morgan, breathing hard.

The captain brought her hand back as if to strike Ben, but Ranulf suddenly appeared and drew his sword. “The time has come to show some honor, Captain. The Lady Adept fought well alongside you. Perhaps she even saved your ship. Now you must return the favor.”

“Put yer cutlass away,” growled Morgan. “D'ye not think I'd follow if I could? 'Tis not a matter of opening a portal wherever one wishes. I cannot follow in the wake of the
Black Dragon
. I know not whither she sails.”

Everett bent his head. Suddenly he was so very tired. Idly, he pulled the locket from inside his shirt and worried his thumb over the raised symbols. He heard a gasp and looked up. The captain was gazing hungrily at the compass.

“I cannot trace the path of the
Black Dragon
,” she said softly, then crouched on one knee and took the locket gently from Everett's hand. “But you, laddie—
you
can.”

But the
Sea Witch
wasn't going anywhere soon. Large holes were punched in the brigantine's hull and decking, the railings broken, the masts in stumps, its sails in pieces. The ship limped back to the island's lagoon, and the crew quietly set about repairing the damage.

They were a sober lot. Frigg and Gawks, who had been manning the foresails, had been swept overboard during the attack. Oggler, who'd been near the stern, had caught one leg in the rigging, which had snapped it in more than one place. Quelch tried to set it, but he muttered privately that the leg would have to come off at the knee as soon as they located the hacksaw. Kailani's wound ought to have been minor, Everett thought desperately, since the lead ball had only grazed her. But the musket, Innes explained, shot fire, and Kai was a Water Elemental. The wound was deep and painful, and though Innes thought she would recover, it would take some time.

Everett and the other passengers sat around a bleak campfire on the beach as night fell.

“It isn't perhaps as bad as we fear,” Almaric said at last. “The
Sea Witch
is no ordinary vessel. Morgan has formidable magic at her command.”

Oggler's moaning floated across the beach.

Everett felt sick in his stomach.

“The longer we wait, the harder it will be to find Holly,” he said in a low voice. “That's right, isn't it?”

“Your compass will find the
Black Dragon
wherever she may be,” said Jade. “If a sea portal can be opened, why . . .” He trailed off, as if too drained of hope to continue.

“ 'Tis how he was following us all along,” Ranulf said, completely unnecessarily, Everett thought. “It must have been the Sorcerer's plan for you to find the compass in the wood, near your portal.”

“I cannot think what you mean,” said Avery dismissively. “I tell you, we have no sorcerer in the king's employ. His Majesty despises magic. It hath always been thus.”

“Open your eyes, boy!” said Almaric, and everyone fell quiet; Everett had never seen him so angry. “Raethius of the Source has controlled the throne since long before your time. He raised your father from infancy. It is he who rules Anglielle, not Reynard.” Almaric scowled at the fire. “You were brought up in ignorance, Your Highness. It is time you grew up and realized the sort of man your father is, and his so-called advisor. They are murderers, the both of them.”