They had come to a familiar building – the house Ellie had found Kate spying on the day they’d first met. On the doorstep sat the three daughters and their mother, who was reading to them in the afternoon sun.
Ellie noticed Kate’s shoulders relaxing as she watched them. The mother was putting on funny voices for the different characters, causing the youngest daughter to shriek in hysterics and roll about giggling. Each time she laughed, the corners of Kate’s mouth rose.
Ellie felt she was intruding on something private, and wondered again why Kate had been watching the family that day. ‘Who are they?’ she whispered softly.
The mother closed the book and lifted the youngest girl on to her lap, stroking the tears of laughter from her cheeks. Kate raised a hand hesitantly to her own cheek, and touched it.
‘I’ve no idea who they are, Ellie,’ she said. ‘They just seem to be having such a nice time.’
Footsteps drew their attention along the street: the father, returning from the market. His daughters rushed to greet him, hugging his waist. He forced a smile, failing to hide the sorrow in his eyes. He placed an empty bag in front of his wife, and they exchanged a frightened glance. Then he gathered up his smallest daughter in his arms, and the whole family went inside.
Kate breathed heavily. ‘I must do something.’
‘You are,’ said Ellie. ‘You’re going to figure out your powers, and I’m going to get my machines working.’
Kate turned, and Ellie saw hope shining in her eyes, and knew she must do whatever she could to make sure that light did not go out.
‘Then everything will be okay. Won’t it, Ellie?’ Kate’s voice quivered slightly. ‘Everything will be okay?’
Ellie nodded. ‘Yes, of course it will.’
Kate smiled, then walked towards the house. From the pocket of her cloak, she removed four gold rings studded with gemstones. Ellie frowned, then realized what Kate was doing. She rummaged in her own pockets, and found a drawstring pouch. Kate put the rings inside, placed the pouch on the doorstep, then knocked on the door three times.
‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s make things right.’
And they raced away from the house, hand in hand.
Signs of the Enemy
That night Ellie went without sleep, tinkering away in the dimly lit workshop until her eyes hurt. At dawn, she returned to the fields to test her work, the streets already full of Wardens as they patrolled the markets, trying to restore order. Ellie placed a new spiderlike tilling machine on the dusty soil, clapping as it walked in a straight line, then whooping with delight when the improved dropping-spreader didn’t explode, dancing in the shower of guano.
The next day, Kate enlisted an army of blacksmiths to come to the palace, so that Ellie could teach them how to build her machines. By the end of the day, they’d built three soil-tillers and seven dropping-sprayers. The day after that, they had four times as many.
Soon, the farms of Shipwreck Island were crawling with the twitchy but dependable mechanical spiders, while the dropping-spreaders sprayed clouds of guano over the fields. Unfortunately, the island’s supply of guano was now being used faster than the seagull population could replenish it, so Ellie turned her mind to solving the puzzle of how Altimus Ashenholme had turned nitrogen from the air into fertilizer. She spent days pacing her workshop, poring over books and occasionally setting things on fire.
‘I’ve got it!’ she finally declared, flinging her hand out in triumph.
‘Ow!’
Ellie turned to find Kate standing behind her, rubbing one eye.
‘Oh, sorry!’ Ellie cried. ‘I didn’t know you were there!’
Kate glared at her with her other eye. ‘I’ve been standing here a full minute saying “Ellie”, over and over again.’
‘I was thinking.’
‘You were drooling.’
‘I’ve made a breakthrough. I think I know how Ash – I mean, I think I know how to get nitrogen from the air,’ she said. She didn’t think it was a good idea to mention Altimus Ashenholme in front of Kate, since he’d come from the City. ‘That’s what this big machine is for.’
The workshop had been transformed since Ellie’s arrival. It was now a messy, dangerous place, littered with shards of metal and broken inventions with jagged edges, reeking of gunpowder, burnt wood and a pungent scent of chemicals. It felt like home.
On the central bench sat a misshapen, ramshackle machine, stretching up to the ceiling; a chaotic assembly of beaten copper canisters and curling pipes, some of which sprouted straight through the wall, sucking in air from outside the palace.
‘I’ve been trying to come up with a good name for it,’ Ellie explained. ‘So far the best I’ve managed is “fertilizer-making machine”.’
She hoped this might raise a smile, but Kate only nodded.
‘It’s almost exploded twice,’ Ellie added. Still Kate just nodded. Ellie wondered what was distracting her – she often visited the workshop to watch Ellie work, but sometimes she was so quiet it was as if she wasn’t there at all.
‘So …’ Ellie ventured. ‘Shall we practise?’
Kate screwed up her eyes. While Ellie’s work had been progressing at a rapid pace, Kate’s practice had not, unless progress was measured in smashed plant pots and frightened servants.
‘Maybe later.’
Ellie bit her lip. ‘I know you don’t enjoy it, but it’s important you keep trying.’
Kate looked at her feet, her brow a furrowed frown. Ellie felt a stab of guilt – she wasn’t sure if she was pressuring Kate to practise for the good of the island or the good of Ellie Lancaster. Ever since she’d learned Kate had the power to destroy the Enemy, Ellie had lain awake every night, imagining a life without the Enemy. Without the constant fear it would return and tear her life apart again. ‘There’s a chance my machines won’t work, you know.’
‘You said everything would be okay.’
‘I mean, I’m sure they will work,’ said Ellie, anxiously eyeing the fertilizer-making machine. ‘But there’s still the Festival of Life to worry about. People are going to expect to see you using your powers.’
Still, Kate stared at the floorboards.
‘But I do have some thoughts about that too, actually,’ Ellie said. ‘Just in case you can’t get them working in time.’ She pointed to a wooden rack of glass vials containing colourful powders, from pale pink to luminous green. ‘I’ve been sending Seth and Viola to the outer islands to collect the strangest plants they could find. Some plants have remarkable properties, you know.’
Kate offered a weary smile, then looked at the piles of boxes at the back of the table, a sheet thrown over them. Kate wrinkled her nose at the smell. ‘What’s that noise? Are those … oh, Ellie. Not more mice,’ she said, as Ellie flung the sheet aside to reveal twenty tiny, scurrying pouches of fur, in twenty wire cages.
‘I got them from Molworth,’ Ellie explained. ‘He’s named them all, can you believe that?’
Kate grimaced. ‘I’m afraid to ask, but what exactly –’
‘I’ve been feeding them the plants,’ Ellie said proudly.
‘Ellie!’ said Kate.
‘I grind them up in this mortar and pestle, then mix them with cheese to trick the mice into eating them. I’ve found one plant in particular that’s really special. See that mouse there?’ She pointed to the leftmost cage. ‘It used to have a broken paw.’
Kate looked horrified. ‘You didn’t.’
‘No – it was broken when Molworth gave it to me! But look at it now.’ Ellie poked the mouse with her pencil, and it squeaked and scurried nimbly away. She selected a vial of blood-red powder from the rack. ‘It was this plant,’ she added, unstoppering the vial. ‘I think it might make my arm heal faster, maybe even help my leg. And if it works on humans, we can give it to people at the Festival of Life and say it was your power that did it.’ Ellie grabbed another lump of cheese, dipped it in the powder, then popped it in her mouth.
Kate glanced at Ellie, back at the cages, then turned in alarm, realizing what Ellie had done. She leapt forward and grabbed Ellie’s jaw.
‘Don’t swallow!’
Ellie looked up at Kate guiltily. ‘Too late,’ she managed to say. ‘It’s all right, it didn’t do anything bad to the mouse.’
‘Humans aren’t mice, Ellie,’ Kate admonished her. ‘And some plants are extremely poisonous.’
‘It’s okay – I tried a little bit before. Nothing happened, and I swear my arm was less sore afterwards. Kate? What’s wrong?’
Kate’s lips had paled, her eyes wide. ‘Ellie,’ she said, in a hollow voice. ‘Ellie, spit it out.’
‘I can’t spit it out, I’ve swallowed it.’
‘Then you need to vomit it up.’
‘Why?’
Kate pulled her over towards the mirror on the wall. Ellie gasped.
Her skin had gone snow-white – even whiter than it had been months before, when the Enemy was at its strongest. And her eyes …
Her eyes had turned red. Blood red.
‘Have you got any salt?’ Kate said, frantically searching the workshop. ‘If you drink lots of saltwater it can make you be sick. Wait! The vials of tears in my chamber – they’ve got saltwater in them! Silvia!’ she roared at the door. ‘Silvia! Fetch the Royal Physician!’
The door swung open and Viola and Seth came in, giggling, each carrying a crate of exotic plants in their arms. They saw Ellie and gasped, Archibald hissing from atop Viola’s shoulder.
Seth threw his crate aside and raced over, pulling Ellie away from Kate.
‘What happened?’ he said, holding Ellie’s face and glaring at Kate. ‘What did you do to her?’
‘Nothing!’ Kate snarled. ‘It was the plants you brought back that did this.’ She grabbed Ellie and tried to tug her away from Seth.
‘Please,’ Ellie managed, as her head jerked back and forth. ‘Really, I’m fine.’
The door swung open again, and Molworth bounced inside, carrying a crate of plants and grinning from ear to ear. He saw Ellie and screamed.
‘The Enemy!’ he cried, dropping his crate and throwing out an accusatory finger. ‘The Enemy has come!’ He turned to flee, but tripped over a broken mechanical spider.
Ellie winced, sharing an uncomfortable glance with Seth.
‘She’s not the Enemy,’ said Kate.
‘Everyone knows the signs of the Enemy’s Vessel!’ Molworth shrieked. ‘It has red eyes and pale skin, and worms and rats spring from the ground wherever it walks. And look!’ He pointed to the cages by the wall.
Viola squinted. ‘Those are mice.’
‘Your mice,’ said Seth.
‘I just ate a weird plant, that’s all,’ said Ellie, taking a step towards Molworth, who cringed and shrank into a corner. ‘And stop acting like that! The Queen could walk in at any moment,’ she said pointedly. ‘What would She think if She saw you cowering on the floor?’
Molworth scrabbled to his feet. ‘Really, She might come here? But I’m not wearing my good trousers!’ he yelped, rubbing furiously at a stain on his shirt.
‘You don’t own any good trousers,’ said Viola, scooping up Archibald, who’d been trying to find a way inside the mouse cages. ‘Now come on, Molworth, I need you to help me look for secret passages. Somewhere around here there’ll be huge chests of gold we can give back to the people.’ She eyed Kate warily. ‘I mean, let’s take a look around and … admire the artwork.’
Kate pressed a finger to Ellie’s cheek. ‘Hmm, I think there’s a little more colour in your face now – though it’s hard to tell. I’ve never met anyone so pale. Promise me you’ll stop eating strange plants.’
Ellie rubbed the back of her head. The door swung open.
‘It’s the Queen!’ Molworth screeched.
In fact, it was Quentin, the ancient, shrivelled man who so resembled a tortoise. He readjusted his glasses, scanning the workshop. He saw Ellie and screamed.
‘The Enemy!’ he cried, dropping his heavy book and clutching the doorframe. ‘The Enemy is here!’
‘Control yourself, Quentin,’ Kate snapped.
‘But it is; the pale skin, the red eyes – these are signs of the Enemy!’
‘What do you want?’
The old man looked round at the assemblage of strange children. ‘I … I was told the Queen was here.’
‘I am her handmaiden,’ said Kate. ‘Give me your message and I will convey it to Her.’
He hugged his book protectively. ‘It’s the farms,’ he said, smiling nervously. ‘The farmers say they’ve noticed an improvement. The crops are growing faster.’
Kate turned to Ellie, her eyes growing wide.
‘It’s still early days,’ Ellie said quickly. ‘We’ll need to wait a bit before –’
‘YOU DID IT!’ Kate cried, flinging her arms round Ellie and hugging her fiercely. Ellie hugged her back, feeling the tension drain from Kate’s body.
‘Thank you,’ Kate whispered, nestling her chin into Ellie’s shoulder. ‘Thank you.’
Leila’s Diary
4,798 days aboard the Revival
Tonight I wandered through the Ark, clutching a blue orchid from the garden. On the Market Deck, I saw Aaron Sacco being thrown out of his bakery. A huge brute hobbled behind him on one wooden leg. The First Mate.
‘Word is, you’re the Enemy’s Vessel,’ he said.
‘What?’ said Sacco, lip trembling in horror. ‘No, that’s not true.’
The First Mate laughed. ‘Not what I heard. Heard you’ve been talking to it.’
‘No, please.’ Sacco got on his knees.
‘Tell you what, give me all your grain, and your shop, and maybe I won’t tell anyone.’
I rolled up my sleeves, ready to march forward, but then the Ark-Captain strode out from nowhere, big and angry. He helped Sacco back into his shop, then pinned the First Mate against the wall.
‘What are you doing?’ the Ark-Captain spat.
‘We need food,’ said the First Mate.
‘You can’t go around accusing people of being the Enemy’s Vessel! Things are bad enough as it is.’
‘Whale girl,’ whispered the First Mate.
The Ark-Captain turned and saw me. ‘On your way, Leila,’ he said. There was a big vein on his forehead and I could tell he wasn’t messing around, so I ran off up towards the Sky Deck.
The sea was all silver in the moonlight, wind whistling in my ears. Gripping the rail, I edged down the stairs on the outside of the Ark, to the wooden platform where Blue Eyes had died. The Ark battered its way through the ocean.
I laid the orchid on the water’s surface, but the sea whisked it away before I had time to say the words I’d prepared. I bowed my head and said them anyway.
‘I miss you, Blue Eyes. I don’t know what to do without you. I look after the garden, and the boy, only I don’t know what I can do to help him. And I’m worried about what’s happening on the Ark. Everyone’s turning against each other. When you were here, things were simpler. I don’t belong to anything any more.’
I looked out at the horizon, waiting. I wasn’t sure what I was waiting for, because I knew Blue Eyes was gone. And what else was there except the ocean and this horrible ship?
A jet of water sprayed high in the air.
A dark fin cleaved through distant waves, and my heart leapt. Then another fin, and another. I counted ten, then twenty.
‘I heard them calling for him yesterday.’
I almost fell into the sea. Varu was standing at my side, smiling. I listened harder, over the crash of the sea. There was a faint song, made of clicks and chirrups. A song I recognized.
‘Blue Eyes,’ I said.
Varu nodded. ‘They’re his family, I think.’
‘But Blue Eyes never had a family? He was alone when I found him.’
‘They must have been separated by the Drowning.’ Varu closed his eyes. Faint blue shapes swirled across his skin. ‘They’ve been searching
for him a long time.’
Jets of water split the night air again. The song was sweet, and sorrowful.
‘They must be so sad, to have come all this way for nothing.’
‘They’re not sad. They’ve found the part of him that lives on still.’
I frowned. ‘You?’
Varu shook his head. ‘Not me.’
The sleek black shapes rose and fell. Their song grew louder, until I could feel it rattling my bones, warming my heart.
‘What are they doing?’ I said. ‘What’s this for?’
Varu smiled. ‘They’re honouring you.’
The God of Life
‘Hail the Great Inventor!’
‘Not again,’ Seth moaned.
The market sellers had stopped setting up their stalls to cheer Ellie as she passed through the Azalea Markets. Ellie pushed her hair behind her ears, her whole face breaking into a smile. Seth rolled his eyes. ‘This is why you wanted to come this way, isn’t it? Even though it takes twice as long.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘You’re going to struggle getting through doors with a head that big.’
‘Oh, just because they’re not staring at you for once.’
Seth grumbled, but couldn’t quite hide his smile when a little girl rushed up to present Ellie with a crumpled flower from her tiny fist.
‘Thank you,’ said Ellie, and the girl smiled bashfully, then ran away.
A riot of squawking drew Ellie’s attention to the Ark high above, pale in the morning light, where seagulls nested among the army of statues dotting its surface. The gatekeeper bowed to Ellie as she hurried up the steps, Seth following behind with a boxful of tools in his arms.
Seth always looked out of place inside the palace, like a lion at a ballroom dance. He stared intently at the servants as they rushed by, ferrying an army’s supply of crockery: each bowl filled with a single massive barnacle, floating in a blue-coloured soup.
‘Who are they feeding?’ he said. ‘A whale?’
Shipwreck Island Page 14
