‘What …’ Kate whispered.
The sea was a shimmering wall of dark water that touched the sky, towering above the Ark. The Sentinel clutching Seth brought a sword to his neck, looking to Kate for instruction.
‘Don’t!’ Ellie cried. ‘If you kill him, the sea will crash down on us. He’s losing control of his powers. You have to let me talk to him.’
Kate stared at Seth, her eyes flicking between him and the window. At last, she nodded, and the grip on Ellie’s shoulder released. She stumbled across the chamber and fell beside Seth’s limp body, as another bone-trembling rumble issued from his throat. She hoisted him on to her lap, placing a hand on his cheek. His blue skin was icy cold against her fingers.
‘Seth, Seth, it’s me,’ she said, turning his face up towards her. Her teeth chattered as she tried to speak through her terror. ‘It’s Ellie. I’m here.’
Seth’s eyes stared uncomprehendingly. Raspy mutterings spilled from his lips, as if a chorus was crying out from deep inside him.
‘Please, Seth – I’m here, I’m here.’ She took his hand in hers, rubbing the back of his icy hand with her thumb. ‘Stay here, stay here, stay here.’
The chamber grew darker, darker, darker.
‘Stay here, stay here, Seth. Stay here with me.’
The world rumbled and roared all around. Seth went limp, nearly sliding from Ellie’s grasp. She gripped him tighter. ‘Please, Seth,’ she said. ‘Please don’t go. Please don’t leave me.’
Her tears dripped on to his face. She heard a slight intake of breath. Seth spoke in the merest whisper.
‘I feel it, Ellie. I feel all their pain.’
‘I know,’ said Ellie. ‘I know. But please, there’s more in this world than suffering. There is, I know it.’
Seth’s face scrunched up and he let out a pained gasp, like someone’s last breath escaping. ‘I … I can’t see it …’
‘I know, but stay with me, and we’ll find it together. I promise.’ She put a hand to his cheek. ‘Please, Seth.’
The swirling, depthless blue storm in Seth’s eyes cleared ever so slightly. He gazed at her for many long seconds. Then, a tiny smile formed on his lips.
‘Yes,’ he whispered. ‘Now I see it.’
The corners of Ellie’s mouth twitched, and she almost smiled, despite herself. The roaring outside calmed. Ellie was aware of daylight all around, but kept her eyes on Seth the whole time, as the roiling patterns on his face slowed, grew small, then vanished entirely. His eyelids closed, and his head lolled back. Ellie felt for his wrist, sighing as she found his pulse.
She looked up to see Kate standing above her, watching with a strange, faraway look. There was a clatter of heavy footsteps, and the doors swung open, admitting the sound of distant shouts and clashing metal. A silver-armoured Warden stood breathless and sweating in the doorway.
‘The sea!’ she cried. ‘The sea!’
‘We know,’ said Kate. ‘What’s all that noise?’
‘We’re being attacked,’ she said. ‘There are hundreds of people downstairs, sailors, I think – we don’t know how they got inside. But, Your Divinity – the sea!’
Kate snarled, then looked round at the Seven.
‘Get down there. Deal with the attackers! You, keep her here.’ She pointed to the Sentinel holding Ellie, as Ellie batted uselessly against their metal shoulder. ‘I will speak to these people.’
Six of the Seven rushed from the chamber, while the remaining Sentinel wrenched Ellie away from Seth’s prone form. A furious shout echoed up from downstairs.
‘THE REVOLUTION HAS COME!’
Kate paused by the door, looking at Ellie for a fleeting moment. She opened her mouth to speak, but as she did, Seth’s eyes flashed wide, and he flung one hand out towards the Cabinet of Tears.
There was an angry tinkling of glass and the cabinet doors flew open. A hundred vials of false tears tumbled from the shelves in a glittering cascade. Ellie thought they would smash to the floor, but instead they curved upward like a wave, spinning across the chamber. Kate yelped as one struck her in the head.
The rest flew at the Sentinel like a flock of birds. Ellie dropped to the ground, covering her head as tiny shards showered all around her. The Sentinel released Ellie, arms raised in defence.
‘Ellie, RUN!’ Seth roared.
Ellie grabbed for her cane and staggered to her feet, racing up one of the spiral staircases towards the window above. She risked a glance down. The water soaking the Sentinel was coalescing, reshaping into a shimmering ball that rushed up the gap beneath their helmet. They fell on all fours, pawing at their throat. There was a muffled sound of choking.
Ellie and Seth’s eyes met briefly, before he fell on his back, eyes closed.
‘Seth!’
Ellie hesitated, desperate to rescue him. But Kate was heading towards the staircase, sword in hand. Ellie moaned, flinging open the window and climbing out over the balcony railing.
She landed among the field of squat, featureless statues that dotted the sloping surface of the Ark’s hull. Ellie gritted her teeth, gingerly navigating her way down between them until she could see over the edge towards the ocean. She gasped.
The sea had parted.
Two immense walls of blue-black water faced one another, their insides seething with raging, flickering currents like bolts of lightning. Between them was the sea floor – a craggy red-brown expanse of earth, glistening wet and striped green with moss and seaweed, clouded here and there by patches of swirling mist. The chasm was wider than the island itself, and got wider as it stretched north to the horizon.
Hinges squeaked and Ellie looked up to see Kate stepping out on to the balcony. She stopped abruptly, eyes wide in wonder. She grinned at Ellie.
‘It worked,’ she said. ‘He actually did it.’
For the merest second, Ellie forgot what had transpired in those last few hours, and it was like the two of them were friends again. Then, a vice closed round her heart, as if her own ribcage was crushing it. She steadied herself with her cane, feeling dizzy. What was it, she wondered? Then she looked at Kate, and realized.
Kate was lost to her forever.
‘WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS?’ Ellie hurled the words at Kate, the anger tearing through her body, setting her bones alight. ‘We could have made this island such a wonderful place. You’ve destroyed everything!’
Kate looked at Ellie in surprise, then waved her away. ‘Ellie, you’re being dramatic. Now come back inside before you get hurt.’ She glanced down at the flaky statues and masonry. ‘You know this surface isn’t stable.’
Ellie took a step further away. ‘You hurt Seth. You could have killed him!’
Kate let out a small laugh, and Ellie’s heart burned with fresh rage.
‘Is that what you’re angry about?’ Kate said. ‘He seems fine! Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. He’s done it. There’s no reason to hurt him again. And I need him alive to keep the sea like this.’
‘He’s not a tool for you to use.’
Kate rolled her eyes and climbed over the balcony, landing delicately among the statues. Ellie took another step backwards.
‘That’s all I was to you,’ Ellie said. ‘A tool to help you keep your power.’
‘Ellie, now stop being ridiculous,’ Kate said sternly, moving between the statues towards her. ‘You know how dear you are to me.’
‘Then why did you hurt Seth?’
Kate blinked rapidly, her lips tightening. ‘Ellie, stop being a brat and come back in!’
‘You’ve still got your sword out,’ Ellie said, nodding at the shining blade.
‘That’s because I’m worried you might do something foolish!’
Ellie hobbled away, the ground curving steeply beneath her feet as she put more statues between them. ‘You know,’ she said, tasting tears on her lips, ‘I thought …’ She opened her mouth, but the words clogged inside her throat. She breathed, and tried again. ‘You were the most important thing to me.�
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Kate’s eyes widened for a moment, then flickered shut.
‘I wish they’d never done this to you!’ Ellie yelled. ‘I wish you’d never become a Queen!’
‘Ellie,’ Kate sighed. ‘If I wasn’t a Queen, I would be nothing at all.’
‘That’s not true,’ Ellie sobbed. ‘You’d be my friend.’
‘Ellie, you’re being –’
As Kate took another step forward, there was a sharp crack of splitting stone, as a statue loosened by her foot. Kate slipped and fell hard on her side.
‘Oh,’ she said, in mild surprise.
‘Kate!’ Ellie leapt forward, but Kate slammed into another statue, which snapped under her weight. She rolled faster down the side of the Ark, tearing at crumbling statues as she fell, spraying up lumps of clay then vanishing over the edge. Ellie heard a scream that turned her heart to ice.
‘No!’ Ellie cried, falling to her knees. She took three terrified breaths, clenching her hands to fists. She closed her eyes. ‘SAVE HER!’
The screaming stopped.
Ellie took another breath.
She dared to open her eyes.
Kate was lying in front of her, right where she’d first fallen. She looked about in a daze.
‘How … how did I …?’
Ellie swayed. Her body felt empty, her head heavy.
‘I was … falling,’ Kate said. ‘I was falling, and then I wasn’t.’
Sweat trickled down Ellie’s brow. She shivered.
‘That’s … impossible,’ Kate said. She stood slowly, then her gaze flickered to Ellie. Her eyes widened. ‘It was you.’ She stared at Ellie with catlike focus. ‘You saved me.’
‘I … I …’
‘The Inquisitor was right about you,’ Kate whispered. ‘That’s why you’re so clever, isn’t it? How you made all your devious inventions.’
Ellie flinched. Her mouth felt full of salt.
‘You’re the Enemy’s Vessel. Aren’t you, Ellie?’
Ellie shook her head feebly. She tried to say no, but a sob constricted her throat.
Kate glanced around, her gaze landing on her sword. She bent to pick it up.
‘Please,’ Ellie managed, head swimming. ‘I’m … I’m not dangerous. I’d never do anything to hurt you.’
Kate held up the sword between them, pointing the tip at Ellie’s heart. Her hand trembled only slightly. ‘I know that, Ellie,’ she said. ‘But imagine what I could do with the Enemy’s power?’
Ellie froze, as she realized what Kate intended.
‘Kate, please. You don’t want this. If you kill me … Believe me – being the Enemy’s Vessel is the most terrible thing you can imagine. It would destroy you.’
Kate’s face was blank, her voice hollow. ‘It hasn’t destroyed you. I think I’ll manage.’
‘No, no, it will tear you apart.’ Ellie’s eyes stung with tears. ‘It will take all your shame and your doubt and your regret and it will break you!’
‘Oh, shut UP, Ellie,’ Kate said, and swung her sword.
It missed Ellie by an arm’s length, and they both stood there, unable to move, watching the sword between them and struggling to believe what had just happened.
Ellie took a deep breath. ‘Did you …’ She swallowed. ‘Did you ever love me?’
Tears shone on Kate’s eyelashes. ‘I … I don’t know, Ellie. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to feel. I’m so sorry.’
She lowered her sword, and her shoulders sagged. Ellie took a slow, careful step towards her.
Kate’s eyes snapped up to hers, ringed red. ‘But I need that power.’
She lashed out with her sword and Ellie threw up her cane in defence. Kate’s sword bit again and again, and Ellie yelped as her cane split in half. She staggered to the side, and Kate mirrored her movements, tripping against a statue. As she recovered, Ellie put five steps between them, and hurled a smoke bomb right at Kate’s face.
Kate caught it, and it did not explode. ‘Ellie – you’ve nowhere to run, and you can’t fight me; I’m hardly even trying. Please, just make this easier for us.’
Ellie slid her feet into two loops at the bottom of her coat. ‘I can … I can run.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Kate said, watching her with a bemused expression. ‘You have a limp and a broken arm.’
Ellie undid the knot at her neck that held her sling in place. It fluttered away in the breeze, and she stretched out her left arm, feeling the fresh air wrap round it, wriggling her fingers.
Kate’s eyes widened. ‘That powder of yours worked?’
Ellie nodded, holding back fresh tears. ‘I wish you had trusted me,’ she choked. ‘We could have done so much good together.’
With that, Ellie turned, took a few fast, reckless steps –
And jumped from the Ark.
The screaming wind tore at her face, whipping her hair against her neck like cords of rope. The rooftops of the Shambles rushed up to meet her. Ellie stretched out her arms and legs, and pulled at the cords in the sleeves of her coat.
The heavy outer layers ripped away, spraying smoke bombs and flash-bangs that detonated in bursts of cloud and light in the streets below. Between her arms and legs were two long pieces of silk that tautened as they captured the rising air – not like wings but something else, something she might never have dreamed of had she not seen them once on a squirrel.
The world below was still rising, rising, yet somehow, it had stopped rising so quickly. Shipwreck Island slipped beneath her, and she flew over the muddy-red valley Seth had created, the flanking walls of water roaring in her ears.
There was a crackling rip, and Ellie gasped as the silk on her right side gave way. Her bad leg seared in agony as the force of the wind wrenched it at an angle, sending her tumbling towards the valley below.
She wrestled with another cord at her waist as the wind tried to snatch it from her grasp. She tugged it sharply and a parachute exploded above her, swallowing up the air and yanking her suddenly skyward. Legs dangling, Ellie drifted, sinking steadily to the muddy ground, landing in the shadow of a tall craggy rock encrusted with seaweed and pale pink coral.
Ellie’s world spun as she crashed into the mud, her good leg racing to keep up with the ground as it sped beneath her, her bad leg falling behind. She tripped and plunged through the gloopy slurry, rising out of it with a wet pop, disentangling herself from the strings of the parachute. She pulled off the tattered remnants of her coat, throwing them to the ground with a strangled shout.
She staggered forward, trying to push down the pain in her heart. A half-sob broke from her lips, and she took a deep breath and counted to ten.
A shadow crossed her vision. She held her hand up against the sun, and saw a silhouette standing atop the tall rock. Tiny frayed bandages fluttered at its edges.
‘Go away!’ Ellie snarled.
‘Oh, Ellie. I’m so proud of you. You did it. You did it.’
‘Leave me alone!’
‘You saved her, even though she was going to kill you. And now … you’ve made me so strong.’
A cloud passed before the sun and Ellie saw the bleeding child smiling down at her. Only it wasn’t bleeding any more. Its bandages were clean. There was colour in its lips, and its hair was no longer matted but neatly tied up in a ribbon of bandage. It stood tall.
‘FINN!’ Ellie roared, taking two steps towards it.
The child flinched, as if struck by a sharp gust of wind. It looked about itself. ‘Well, isn’t that interesting?’
‘FINN!’ Ellie roared again, trying to summon every happy thought of her brother that she could. ‘FINN! FINN! FINN!’
But the only thing she could picture was Kate.
The child laughed in delight. It was a new sound – not the hacking laugh of the bleeding child, or the musical laugh it had used when it had been Finn. All the same, it sounded oddly familiar to Ellie.
‘Now listen,’ it said, ‘I have something to show you.’
> ‘Why isn’t it working?’ Ellie cried hoarsely, her throat raw and sore.
‘You thought you could defeat suffering. You thought you could save this island, save her. But now … this island is as bad as the City. And all because of you, dear Ellie. You. You. You.’
The child raised a hand to its face, and tugged at a frayed twist of fabric by its ear. The material began to unravel.
With the first inch, a sliver of pale, freckled cheek was exposed. Then the bandages round its body unravelled too, revealing thin freckled arms and curly, dirty blonde hair that fell past its shoulders. One green eye, then another. Small lips and a dimple on one cheek. A nose that curved slightly to one side.
The Enemy looked down at Ellie, smiling a kind smile. It hugged its shoulders, cradling itself adoringly.
‘You,’ it said, in Ellie’s voice.
Ellie took a step back, her breath coming quickly. She put a hand to her tangled, muddy hair. The Enemy stroked its own gleaming curls. Ellie touched a finger to her nose, and the Enemy did likewise.
It hopped backwards off the rock, and when Ellie blinked it was standing right next to her. It put a hand to her cheek. Somehow, the hand was warm.
‘You keep trying to fight me,’ it said. ‘Maybe it’s time you remembered – all the bad things that happen to you are your own fault.’
‘Your fault,’ Ellie spat.
‘Our fault,’ said the Enemy, blinking at Ellie with her own green eyes.
Ellie tried to picture Finn again – his sandy hair, his warm smile, the two of them fishing in their little rowing boat. But Kate pursued her everywhere she turned. She thought of when they’d played together in the workshop, flinging nuts and bolts across the room. She thought of Kate crying as Ellie hugged her. She thought of Kate chasing her across the surface of the Ark, and of Kate with her sword at Seth’s throat.
And of Seth, as Ellie held his limp body in her arms.
And of Seth, and the tiny smile he had given her as his eyes gazed into hers.
Yes, he had said. Now I see it.
Ellie looked at the Enemy, and it looked back curiously, a happier, healthier replica. An Ellie who had never known suffering.
Shipwreck Island Page 26
