The Blackhope Enigma

by Teresa Flavin

  Marin’s ship shunted forward and slid away, with the pirate galley just behind. Within a few moments, they were just dark shapes dotted with constellations of twinkling lights.

  “Dean!” Sunni called out.

  “I’m here,” came his faint voice. “Over here.”

  “Tread water and keep talking.”

  She swam toward his voice until she bumped into him.

  “Come on! Swim!” she sputtered. “We have to get to that rowboat.”

  He made a choked sound and hung on to her, kicking as hard as he could as she guided him along. The skiff drifted toward them, pushed by waves from the wake of the Mars.

  With all the strength she had, Sunni grasped its side and yanked herself up. She tumbled in and hauled Dean behind her, before collapsing onto the floor.

  “You OK?” Sunni tugged on Dean’s arm. “Did you get hit?”

  “No, it j-just missed. But when I dodged it, I lost my balance.”

  “At least you’re OK and we’re still together.” She patted the timber floor. “They threw this overboard for us.”

  “For us?”

  “It must have been. They couldn’t get us themselves with Bashir on their backs.”

  “Marin knew?”

  “He must have known,” said Sunni.

  “And he let us have a boat?”

  “Uh-huh.”

  They lay there, shivering and dripping. By the time they sat up and looked around, the lights that illuminated the two galleys were just pinpricks on the horizon. The darkness around them was so dense they could not even see each other, so they curled up together and were eventually rocked to sleep by the sea.

  When the horizon grew light in the east and awakened them, Sunni rubbed her salty face and smiled at her stepbrother.

  She fiddled with an oar. “I suppose we’d better start rowing.”

  “Uh, Sun?” Dean’s eyes were riveted on something behind her. “We’d better row fast.”

  Sunni turned around to see. A ship was approaching and making straight for them.

  “Is that the pirate?” Dean said with a gulp.

  “Maybe. It’s not Marin, that’s for sure. His ship had a dragon on its flag,” said Sunni, hurriedly pulling out another oar. “Wait, it’s the ship that passed us yesterday in the fog. That girl is on the deck again. And the man from the arch is with her!”

  With her mouth set firmly, she positioned the oars and tried to row. At first the boat went around in circles and she almost lost her grip, but slowly she managed to move it forward. The palms of her hands grew red and sore as she struggled to go faster.

  “They’re almost on top of us, Sun!”

  “You have a go if you’re so much stronger!” She yanked on the oars, but she knew they had no chance against a sailing ship.

  The galley with the moon flag glided across their path. Its oars were drawn up, and it drifted slowly to a stop.

  Lady Ishbel stood regally on the poop deck, framed by its blue canopy. Next to her was Angus, a broad smile on his face.

  “Ahoy!” he called, hanging over the railing. “Sunni and Dean, just stay where you are and some sailors will come out and help you.”

  A short time later, the pair was hoisted up onto the deck, where Angus and Lady Ishbel waited.

  “Welcome to the Luna,” said Lady Ishbel sweetly. “I am Lady Ishbel Blackhope.”

  “A lady,” Dean muttered, and made an awkward bow. Sunni half curtsied and their hostess gave her a cool look.

  “Sunni, Dean.” Angus shook each of their hands. “I’m Angus Bellini, your art teacher’s cousin. He sent me after you to help you get home. Am I delighted to see you!”

  A memory flitted through Sunni’s head. She was back at the Janus arch, watching this man tussle with Blaise. Suspicion began tickling at her mind.

  “How did Mr. Bell know —?” Sunni started.

  Angus held up his hand. “That’s not important right now. Let’s get you dried off. There’s some water and food in the cabin.”

  “Not dried fish,” moaned Dean.

  “Yesterday was a fish day. Today is a flesh day. You will have meat,” Lady Ishbel said, looking at Sunni’s disheveled clothes with distaste.

  Dean clapped his hands and started to make his way below.

  “Where is Blaise?” Sunni asked Angus. “We saw you with him before.”

  “Did you? Where was that?”

  “Near the arch that took us into the maze.” Sunni looked down at her wrists, which still had faint red marks from the vine handcuffs.

  “Oh, yes. Blaise and I got separated after that. He’s on a ship up ahead somewhere. That’s where we’re headed, to find him.”

  The painter grinned down at her. The scratches running down his face and his tangled hair gave him the look of a jungle warrior. But although his mouth was smiling, his eyes were not.

  Sunni felt a chill as she looked around the cabin. It was just like the Mars and made her wonder what had befallen Marin.

  Lady Ishbel watched Sunni eat and drink, her eyes darting occasionally toward Angus.

  “We’re lucky to be with Lady Ishbel,” Angus announced. He had been explaining to the children what he had learned from Lady Ishbel about the layout of Corvo’s creation. “Everyone else here is a threat. They’ve been going round and round chasing and ambushing each other for ages with no idea how fast time was flying in the outside world.”

  “That’s what worries me,” said Sunni, “that we’ll get home and find out years have passed.”

  “No, I think we’ll be fine, with Lady Ishbel’s help.” He smiled knowingly at Sir Innes’s niece. “And Blaise’s.”

  “Blaise? How’s he going to help?”

  Lady Ishbel said haughtily, “He has a map — my map — which he found before he boarded his ship. The boy must return it to me.”

  “Right,” said Sunni. “So that’s how Blaise is going to help you. But Angus says you’ll help us, too.”

  Lady Ishbel’s lip curled. “You are very bold.”

  Angus jumped in. “Sunni, Lady Ishbel was kind enough to rescue us. Now she’s taking us to rendezvous with Blaise. She’ll get her map, and we’ll get Blaise. Then we can go home.”

  Sunni lowered her eyes to the floor. “Any clue how to get home?”

  “Yeah!” Dean chimed in.

  “It could very well be marked on the map,” Angus said. “That’s why we all need to cooperate.”

  “What if it’s not?” Sunni looked sideways at Lady Ishbel, whose pretty face was sour.

  “Then we keep searching together.”

  “You must know your way around Arcadia very well,” Sunni said to Lady Ishbel.

  “You’ve probably seen all the monsters and beasts, too,” added Dean.

  Lady Ishbel nodded.

  “Why did your uncle want Arcadia to be so dangerous?” he asked.

  “He loved adventure and vanquishing opponents. He came here to test himself whenever he wished. Arcadia was made in such a way that he could have a new adventure on a new ship every time he visited.”

  “But he didn’t tell you how to get out,” Sunni said.

  “No. He believed I would grow up to be clever enough to find the way myself.”

  “But you haven’t,” Sunni guessed. The two girls eyed each other.

  “I have not wanted to leave,” said Lady Ishbel. “If I had gone back, my father would have married me to the elderly suitor he had chosen.”

  “How old was he?” Dean piped up.

  “Thirty-eight,” said Lady Ishbel in a horrified tone. Then she rose from her chair and stalked toward the cabin door. “The air down here is stale. I will see you up on deck.”

  Angus frowned at Sunni. “Don’t you think you might be a little friendlier? She could just have left us all in the brine, but she didn’t.”

  “All right. I’ll go up and apologize.”

  She found Lady Ishbel on the poop deck. “I’m sorry if I seem rude to you. The truth is that I
’m tired and grumpy and I want to go home.”

  “I accept your apology.”

  “And thank you for saving Dean and me.”

  Lady Ishbel gave a dismissive shrug. “I saw you on Marin’s ship. Where was he going?”

  “We were following Blaise, too. Marin thinks he’s a spy. He isn’t, though, and neither are we.”

  “So, Marin is attempting to capture Blaise,” said Lady Ishbel. “Then he may obtain my map before I do.”

  “Maybe,” said Sunni, “except that after we went overboard, Marin was chased off by a pirate called Bashir.”

  “Ah! They have skirmished many times. Bashir will not keep Marin from his aims.”

  “He may have delayed him, though. Have you skirmished with Bashir, too?”

  “Yes. One day I will take my rightful place as heiress of Arcadia and force him and all other outsiders to leave. Except those whom I invite to stay with me, of course.”

  “I would be fed up with them all by now if I were you,” said Sunni. “Who would you allow to stay?”

  “There is one perhaps. But it is not for you to know who that might be.”

  “So you survived that maze, eh?” Angus winked at Dean. “And escaped from Corvo’s apprentice.”

  “Yeah. That guy thinks Sunni and I are spies,” said Dean. “He wants to trap me in a drawing.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He can draw you and then you disappear inside the drawing.” Dean was happy to tell the story now that he was far from the Mars. “He showed us drawings he’d done of two other guys he said were spies. They were still moving, trapped in the paper.”

  Lady Ishbel appeared at the door. “Marin was never meant to know such secrets. They are il Corvo’s.”

  “How do you know that?” asked Dean.

  “Zorzi, the youngest apprentice, told me himself. He rescued me from this very sea a long time ago. Corvo sent him from Venice to hide from Soranzo and his spies. My uncle Innes looked after him in Arcadia. Then Marin crept in, hunting for their master.” Lady Ishbel flushed. “Zorzi ran, keeping one step ahead of Marin and searching for il Corvo.”

  “So, even the youngest apprentice believed Corvo was here.” Angus licked his lips. “I find it hard to believe that none of you has found him yet if he is.”

  “No one has, though not for want of trying. I have myself traipsed over hills and crept under bushes searching for signs. I know the others have done the same.”

  “What happened to Zorzi?”

  “I do not know,” answered Lady Ishbel. “I have not seen him for years.”

  “We’ve gotten that far already? That’s excellent.” Blaise and Patchy were looking at the nautical chart. “But I’m not even sure I’m on the right track. And if it turns out that I am, Sunni and Dean won’t know about it.”

  Patchy listened but said nothing.

  Suddenly voices rose on deck. Blaise and Patchy hastened upstairs as two men were pulled on board. They jabbered away, using sweeping gestures as they told a long story.

  “Men from Bashir’s ship,” Patchy explained to Blaise. “The ship’s sunk, Bashir’s gone.” He added, “Bad man, Bashir.”

  “Phew, these guys were lucky to survive.”

  “What you want to do with them, Captain?”

  “Well, let them get cleaned up and give them some food and water.”

  The sailors were escorted below, and Blaise smiled at Patchy. “I guess we can keep going now, huh?”

  “No, Captain. Big problem. The ship that sunk Bashir is ahead. It came through the big reef and is waiting for us,” Patchy announced mournfully. “Marin is captain.”

  “Corvo’s apprentice. We were trying to find him. He might be the one that has my friends! That’s good news, isn’t it?”

  Patchy could only shake his head.

  At sunrise Sunni and Dean stood near the prow of the Luna, watching two distant ships grow larger and larger.

  “This could be it, Sun. If Blaise has the right map, we might be home soon.” Dean hopped up and down against the railing.

  “I hope so.” Sunni stepped back to make room for Angus, who was sauntering up, hands in pockets.

  “Good morning,” he said brightly. “I see two ships over yonder. Any idea whose?”

  Sunni squinted. “One’s got a panther on its flag, but I can’t make out the other. It’s too far away.”

  “A panther — that’s our boy!” Angus yanked his hands out of his pockets, and something dropped to the floor.

  “That’s Blaise?” Dean punched the air.

  Behind their backs Sunni picked up the scrap of paper. It was a torn-off corner with nine little figures of people and animals drawn above what looked like a group of islands. She studied the figures carefully but couldn’t work out what they were.

  Angus wheeled around suddenly.

  “Did you drop this?” Sunni asked, holding the paper out.

  “Yes.” He smiled as he stuffed the scrap back into his pocket. “Thanks.”

  Sunni excused herself and went to find a quiet place to dry out the damp pages of her sketchbook.

  A raven hovered above the three ships, which now formed a triangle in the sea. Farthest north sat Marin’s ship, the Mars, blocking a narrow strait between two islands — the only safe route to the northernmost islands, where Blaise was heading.

  Southwest of the Mars was the Venus, moving cautiously. Patchy had convinced Blaise to go carefully, though he was all for overtaking Marin’s ship and demanding Sunni and Dean back.

  Sailing after him was the Luna, carrying Sunni, Dean, Angus, and Lady Ishbel, who were all hoping that their galley would overtake Blaise’s ship immediately — but for different reasons.

  “Fetch Angus,” said Lady Ishbel to Sunni. “He should be on deck with us.”

  Sunni found the painter in the cabin, lounging on the bunk.

  “Lady Ishbel wants you on deck. We’re getting closer to the other ships. The first one is Blaise’s, and the second is Marin’s. We recognized the dragon flag.”

  “Actually, I’m glad you’re here, because I need to tell you something.” Angus sat up.

  Sunni waited, curious.

  “I don’t think Ishbel intends to help us at all once she has the map,” said Angus. “So I’m going to take charge of it.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “The new plan is for you to get the map and bring it back to me, secretly.”

  “Me? Why me?”

  “Blaise knows and trusts you.”

  “You want me to board Blaise’s ship and bring him and the map back?” asked Sunni skeptically.

  “That’s right. Though whether Blaise comes with you or not, I don’t care,” said Angus. “But you’ll give me the map for safekeeping either way. And you’ll tell Lady Ishbel that Blaise lost it.”

  “I still don’t see why —”

  “I suppose I will have to spell it out.” Angus stood up and flexed his hands. “This is how it works: you get the map for me and nothing bad happens to Dean.”

  “What kind of rescuer are you? You’d hurt Dean if I don’t get the map for you?” Sunni backed away, wondering where Dean was and how quickly she could find him.

  “It would be nicer for everyone if you just did as I asked.”

  “But Lady Ishbel —” Sunni started, her skin crawling with nervous sweat. “I’ll tell her you’re going to take the map —”

  “Not if you want to see Dean again, you won’t. And anyway, why would she believe you?”

  “There’s no way you can keep that map for yourself if she orders the crew to take it off you.” She took another step toward the doorway.

  Angus darted forward and caught her wrist hard in his grip. “If you want to go home, just do it.”

  Sunni could hardly breathe. Angus’s fingers dug deeper into her skin.

  “What will it be, Sunni?”

  She glared at the floor because she couldn’t bear his hard eyes. “All right, I’ll do it.”
r />   As the ship’s boy rang eight bells, Sunni stood with Dean on the main deck of the Luna. She had tied her hair back into a tight ponytail, and her face was grave.

  She watched Angus make his way toward them from the prow, where Lady Ishbel was surveying them.

  “It’ll be OK,” Sunni whispered to Dean. “Just do what I tell you.”

  He looked up at her, full of questions, but she shook her head.

  Angus stood before them, arms crossed. “Now, when I say so, both of you wave and smile for Blaise. I’ll be right here, so no messing around.”

  As their ship grew closer to Blaise’s, Angus crouched down so he could not be seen and gestured for them to start.

  On the Venus, Patchy pointed the waving figures out to Blaise.

  “A girl and boy on the ship, Captain.”

  Blaise cried, “Sunni and Dean! Finally.”

  On the Luna, Angus gave his next command. “Now make a sign that you want to come onto his ship.” Nodding, Sunni touched her chest and then pointed at Blaise.

  “They want to come over!” Blaise paced up and down. “Right, have your best guys row the boat over and get them.”

  The Venus’s skiff was lowered into the sea.

  “They’re coming over to fetch me,” Sunni said tonelessly.

  “Good,” said Angus. “Remember, Dean, you stay here with us for now.”

  “Why can’t I go?” Dean whined.

  Sunni watched the approaching skiff, her heart in her mouth.

  “Because you can’t.”

  “But why not? I thought we were all going to be together.”

  “We will, but not just yet.” Angus’s voice was building into a growl.

  The skiff slid up to the Luna, and its two oarsmen hailed the crew, waving for the children to be helped down.

  “Actually, I think Dean should come with me.” Sunni grabbed her stepbrother’s hand and turned herself and Dean to face Angus. They shuffled tentatively toward the ladder and the waiting sailors.

  “No, you don’t.” Angus called out to the crew, “Take hold of the boy.”

  As men moved toward them, Sunni pulled a blade from her waistband and held it out straight in front of her.

  “You let us both go!” she shouted.