The castle moat.
“But the stream,” Everett said urgently to Kailani. “The stream in the wood, where we came in from our world. That’s where she should go. Can’t we tell her?”
“She navigates the sea, not freshwater,” said Jade quietly. “She has no point of reference for the forest stream. She emerged in the moat because you conjured her, and that’s where she found you. She can return there, and there only.”
“That’s pretty much exactly the wrong place to take us,” said Ben.
“It’s all right,” said Holly, thinking quickly. “I know the way from the castle to our portal. I’ll Vanish us as soon as we surface and I can get my bearings.”
“But not the entire ship, certainly?” Almaric asked.
He was right. She couldn’t take the Sea Witch with her; at most she could take five or six people. It would take too much power.
“There’s no need to be Vanishin’ us,” Kai said calmly. “We ain’t afeard of the king.”
“It’s not the king we’re worried about,” said Everett.
“Raethius can’t track us. We ain’t got the compass. The captain flung it overboard as soon as she found the Black Dragon.”
“He doesn’t need the compass,” said Ben. “The castle is his center of power. Of course that’s where he’ll go.”
Kailani’s brown eyes were steady. “ ’Tis an oath of honor. Morgan will take Her Ladyship home, Raethius or no. His ship is no swifter than the Sea Witch.”
“She needs to take us somewhere else,” said Holly. “Anywhere, it doesn’t matter. . . . The middle of another ocean. A deserted island. Anywhere that Raethius wouldn’t think to look.” She pulled herself toward to the hatch.
“No!” Ranulf caught her arm. “Only Morgan can stay on deck while the ship is submerged. You would drown us all. Whither she goes, we must go with her. It is too late to turn back.”
He was right. The ship was rising fast. Already the world through the portholes was getting lighter as they shot toward the sun.
“Another time zone, on top of everything else,” Ben muttered. “It looks like it’s day again.”
A rather long day, as it would turn out.
“Adept!” barked the captain from above. “On deck! All hands!”
Holly climbed out of the hatch to find they had surfaced not in the moat, but in the river that fed it, just upstream of the castle itself. The moat half circled the castle, pouring into a creek that entered the wood on the north side. A cold autumn wind whipped around Holly’s face as the boys scrambled on deck behind her. The castle portcullis was raised, and a dozen armed knights swarmed around the gatehouse in the dawn sunlight, yelling and pointing at the Sea Witch.
Morgan motioned to Holly, who pulled herself up the poop-deck stairs to join her at the helm. “I’ll sail the Sea Witch through the moat and down the creek into the wood. Then I’ll have to run ’er aground and sail the rest of the way through the trees to the Elm, as we did before. The Black Dragon has no powers to follow us by that route.”
Holly nodded.
“But hear me,” Morgan went on. “I dare not keep His Highness for ransom now. I must get the Sea Witch somewhere safe and make repairs. I’ll cut him loose here, then take you to the Elm.”
“You can’t do that! He’s a traitor to the king.”
“He is sure to be captured,” added Jade, who had appeared at Holly’s feet. Would the king execute his own son? Avery wasn’t Holly’s favorite person, but he had been helpful—lately, anyway.
“That’s no problem of mine,” said the captain.
“He can come with us,” Holly said, then immediately backpedaled. “I mean, maybe. At least take him as far as the Elm.”
“The longer he stays, the more of a danger he is to us all. Ye’ve been braver than I’d have thought, and ye’ve fought well. I’ll give ye that.” Crewso the parrot flapped his wings on the captain’s shoulder, and she scratched his head. “To the Elm, then. If he’s no trouble. In that case—”
But Crewso’s screech cut her off. Morgan’s face darkened as she looked over Holly’s shoulder.
Holly turned around.
Raethius had found them.
Chapter 51
* * *
The Portal
The three-masted schooner burst from the river depths, water streaming off its black sails. The guards at the castle gatehouse fell into the shadow of its dark hull, but Holly could clearly see their gape-mouthed faces as the ship rose.
Raethius stood at the helm as his horrid smoke-demon crew swarmed over the deck. His bow was pointed at the Sea Witch; he knew exactly where she’d landed. Morgan’s crew, exhausted as they were, stretched out their webbed fingers over the river, churning it to send the Sea Witch through the moat and downstream.
“Captain!” Pike called. He stood at the mainmast, pulling on the topsail braces. “It’s the prince they want. Throw him overboard and give us a chance to escape!”
“No!” Holly cried.
Morgan shifted her gaze between Holly and Pike, then shook her head. “Bring him!”
Pike dropped the lines and seized Avery, who was standing nearby. Rowan took Avery’s other arm, and together they dragged him toward the poop deck. His feet scrabbled over the stairs, and his eyes widened as he struggled. “Lady Holly!” he cried.
She pulled on Rowan’s sleeve, trying to get at Avery. “Stop! They’ll kill him!”
“Stand aside.” Pike shoved her backward, and she stumbled over her broken ankle. For a moment she couldn’t focus on anything but the pain, which shot through the top of her head like a spike. But then she heard Jade hissing, and Ben and Everett yelling as they pushed their way toward the poop deck. Quelch stepped up and grabbed Everett, holding him back easily. Cook hooked one arm under Ben’s and pulled him away, saying, “Stay out of it, lad.”
They’re pirates, after all, Holly thought.
Out of the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Ranulf, who was only now making his way through the hatch, but Pike and Avery had nearly reached the gunwale. Rowan’s sword pressed against Avery’s throat. Ranulf would never make it in time to help. Still splayed on the poop deck, Holly raised her wand.
But to do what?
“Stop!” she cried. “As an Adept, I”—she grappled for the word—“I command you!”
Pike turned to laugh at her, but his voice died when he saw the wand. Rowan froze, her ropy arms poised to pitch Avery over the side. Even the prince himself stopped struggling. Everything halted, like a snapped photograph. The captain alone strode forward.
“This is my ship,” she said in a low voice. With a rasp, she drew her cutlass. “I command it. And no Adept shall—”
Holly acted without thinking. In one swift stroke, she slashed the wand through the air, and a broad flash emitted from it, knocking the blade from Morgan’s hand. She raised it next toward Pike, but she didn’t need to strike again. Pike shoved Avery away from him. Quelch and Cook turned the boys loose; the captain staggered away from her fallen sword. Jade bristled at her feet. Áedán poised on her shoulder, gathering his power should she need it.
A heady warmth shot through Holly’s fingertips and filled her core. Even the pain in her ankle dwindled. She was the captain of the Sea Witch, and everyone aboard knew it.
She pointed the wand at Morgan. “Take us downriver, to the Elm.”
The captain studied her a moment, then retrieved her cutlass. She raised it over her head and shouted to the crew. “Downriver! All hands!”
Rowan and Pike rushed back to their stations. The river bubbled into rapids, and the brigantine began to move past the castle.
Holly poised her wand over the starboard side to help, but she hadn’t even uttered the spell before Ben, standing with Everett amidships, cried, “Look!” He pointed to the helm of the Black Dragon.
The Sorcerer’s smoke demons weren’t working to send their ship after the Sea Witch. Instead, Raethius fixed his eye on Holly, raised one talon
ed hand, and drew a jeweled dagger from his cloak. Then, with a strange combination of words, he plunged it into the deck of the schooner.
At once the earth began to rumble.
Holly thought at first that another ship was about to emerge. The tremor centered on the river between the Sea Witch and the castle, and the waves there rocked to and fro restlessly. Then suddenly they pulled away in a broad circle, clearing the way for something to ascend. Holly strained her eyes for a flagged mast.
There was none.
It was a head.
It was half as long as the deck of their ship, knobbed and triangular, elongated with a narrow snout. Huge lumps and boils mottled its brown reptilian skin, and its neck climbed higher than the foremast, higher even than the castle’s gatehouse towers; and behind it came a foot the size of their mainsail with long, curving claws.
“It’s a dragon,” Everett said in a hushed voice.
But Holly didn’t think so. Áedán huddled against her neck, hiding from the monster; he wouldn’t be afraid of a fire creature.
The thing opened its mouth.
A torrent of water gushed from its maw with a gurgled roar. Ben gripped Everett’s arm, and they scrambled up next to Holly and Avery on the poop deck. The monster belched a river of water like a burst pipe. Inside of a minute the moat flooded the banks and spread to inundate the trees.
“Lady Holly,” said Jade at her feet. “The portal! We shall have to sail there.”
“No, I can . . . I can Vanish us there.” Why was she wasting time? She ought to have done the spell already, but seeing Raethius, she couldn’t just leave the others to him. The boys huddled closer to her; Avery stepped up behind and held on too.
Holly looked up over the gunwale to get her bearings. She had to visualize the path to the portal if she was to do the spell successfully. And it was . . .
Which way?
A new sea stretched as far as she could see, in every direction.
The kingdom was gone.
Everett stood like a stone, watching Anglielle sink below the waves. The castle towers, the wood, the river . . . It had all disappeared. He almost believed they were on the high seas again, except that when he peered over the railing and into the depths, he could just make out the willows that bordered the river. It had happened so fast, even Holly hadn’t been able to stop it.
Everett turned to Avery, only to find he’d raced down the poop-deck stairs. He stood at the mainmast, gaping at the creature. Everett followed and tugged on Avery’s arm. “Okay, time to really use that wand.”
“Why, what’re you doing?” Ben asked, coming up behind them.
“Just watch.” Everett fished in Avery’s coat and yanked the wand out. He wrapped the red silk scarf tightly around it. It was time he did something real, time to redeem himself for stealing the wand in the first place, for lying to everyone about Sol. If he could get rid of the monster—
“The castle,” Avery said in a hollow voice. “It has vanished. Everyone is drowned.”
The sea serpent roared and raised its impossibly long neck. Everett pointed the wand at its head—he wished now he had the musket again—and flourished it, just as he had during his joust the year before.
Nothing happened.
The creature reared its tail and swept it across the stern of the Sea Witch. Holly pulled the captain out of the way as the poop deck collapsed, and the two of them tumbled into Morgan’s cabin below.
“Holly!” Ben cried.
“She’s all right,” Everett said, though he didn’t check to make sure. “We’ve got to get this wand working—Avery—”
The prince snapped out of his daze and seized the wand. His face was hard; his blue eyes blazed in his face. He lashed the wand like a whip at the creature, and a laserlike spark struck its neck. It howled, but the scales were like armor; Everett couldn’t even see a wound.
“That’s got it distracted, at least. Keep going!”
The sea serpent gave a furious cry and lunged at the bow, biting off the new bowsprit. Innes screamed as she tumbled into the sea, but the monster ignored her, focusing on the Sea Witch.
Avery aimed the wand at its huge, olive-green eye.
Morgan hollered orders as the crew moved the ship.
Avery’s shot bounced off, but the monster opened its maw, displaying double rows of sharklike teeth.
“Now you’ve made it mad,” Ben said.
“Let me help,” Everett said, grabbing at the wand.
“This castle is my home. I shall defend it!” Avery pulled hard the other way.
The sea monster threw its tail across the deck amidships only inches from their feet. A deep crack splintered the ship nearly in two, and seawater poured over the bow, flooding the deck.
“Give it to me,” Everett said. “I’ve done it before!”
“I must defend the castle!”
“But I’m the better shot!”
“Cut it out, you guys!” Ben shouted. Something hard came down on Everett’s arm, which was locked with Avery’s, and he pulled away. Ben had butted them with his sword hilt. He wrenched the wand out of Avery’s hand and pointed it at the beast. “Abra—blastifor—cowabunga!” he shouted, and another laser beam burst across the sea monster’s tail, slicing off a large chunk of it.
Everett and Avery stood open-mouthed. How had Ben, of all people, managed to work the wand? And why, Everett couldn’t help wondering, was Avery able to do what he couldn’t? The red scarf—the lady’s favor—should work for any of them.
Ben shoved the wand back at Avery and grabbed Everett’s sleeve. “Come on, we gotta get out of here!”
Holly crawled out of the wreckage of the captain’s cabin. She had blacked out for a minute, though she could have sworn she saw Ben fighting the sea serpent with a wand. And now Avery was throwing sparks at it—or was she having a dizzy spell?
“Here, Lady Holly.” Ranulf was suddenly at her side, and he hoisted her onto his back. Jade leaped up behind her. The captain pushed past them and took up Innes’s station.
“Over to the starboard side, Ranulf,” Holly said. “I have to help Morgan get us to the portal.”
Holly and the others swirled up eddies of water, propelling the ship away from the castle’s towers, which poked a few inches above the water like toy boats. Morgan stood on the port side, trying to steer the brigantine with the water, now that its rudder was in splinters. But as soon as they started to move, the schooner did too. They simply weren’t making good enough time toward the portal. The ship was too badly damaged, and the sea monster was still coming for them.
“Everything’s ruined,” said Holly, gazing out at the endless sea. “The whole kingdom . . . the Elm . . . How will we even find the beech tree?”
Almaric, who had been pushing his way forward for some time, finally joined them on the poop deck. “Don’t despair, Lady Holly. This flood is nothing but a spell, but it works in our favor. Now that she has water to work with, Morgan can open a sea portal at her last entry point.”
“Aye,” said the captain. “ ’Tis the only way.”
“The last entry point. You mean your cottage?” Everett asked, and Almaric nodded.
“But what good’s a sea portal?” said Ben. “It’s not like we can just jump in there and get home.”
“One portal will seek out another.” Holly recalled Kailani’s words with a sick feeling in her stomach.
“Indeed,” said Almaric. “When Morgan opens the sea portal, you will dive into it. Your wand will find the beech tree like a homing pigeon and guide you the rest of the way.”
“I can’t just leave Raethius to kill you all,” Holly said, her voice breaking.
“And we can’t jump into a sea portal,” Ben said again, but Everett shushed him.
“If I know the Sorcerer, he will follow you, not the Sea Witch,” said Almaric.
Holly almost laughed. The floodwaters were pouring over the gunwale; the Sea Witch was sinking fast.
Morgan follow
ed Holly’s gaze and clenched her teeth. “Things be not as dire as they seem. This is a ship like none other. I can make our escape if the Sorcerer deserts his vessel. He will not find us without the compass.”
“Jade.” Holly twisted around to see him on Ranulf’s back. “Do you think it will work?”
“Have you not learnt to wield this wand?” asked the cat. “To control the water? This portal is naught but that, Lady Holly. Elemental water. It is what you have trained for.”
“But . . . the rest of you . . .”
“Will make do until you return.”
Holly turned back to the boys. Everett held Ben firmly by one arm, as if afraid he would bolt. Ben raised his wide, dark eyes to Holly’s, and swallowed hard. “I guess you’ve brought us this far,” he said.
Down on the fractured deck, the prince stood alone, throwing bolt after bolt at the monster with his wand. His shots were connecting, but the creature’s armor was strong. Holly wondered how long Avery could hold out.
The Black Dragon loomed closer. None of the smoke demons were firing now; they were all concentrating on pushing the schooner faster and faster to catch up with the Sea Witch.
“We’re closin’ in now, milady,” said Morgan. Her black curls were dampened with sea and sweat. “I’m ready to open the portal. Once ye’re overboard, use the wand. It will seek out the place where the veil between worlds is thinnest. But mind, I can’t say how long it will take ye to find it. Ye’ll be far beneath the sea, and ye’re no Elemental. Yer lungs may not last.”
Holly’s heart fluttered. She gave Ranulf a quick hug and slid off his back. Everett caught her arm to steady her on her one good leg. There was nothing else to do. They would just have to make it work.
Jade laid a black paw against her cheek. “The wand will not fail.”
“May Lunetia protect you,” said Almaric. Holly nodded. She took Áedán from her shoulder.
“No, Lady Holly. Keep him with you this time. You may need him.”
“But—”
“Now!” cried Morgan.
The Wand & the Sea Page 23
