Escaping Neverland

by Lynn Wahl

  I nodded, wanting no part of the Captain or William’s feud with him. “I just want to save Jake.”

  Etain surprised me with a hand on my knee. “You realize, Healer, that when you find him, he’ll have to be gagged and restrained? He won’t come quietly. The Captain usually orders them to stay on the ship. Your friend will do everything he can think of to follow that order.”

  “And once we’re away from the ship?” I asked.

  “He’ll do everything he can to get back,” Nuada said, his voice grim and unsympathetic.

  I took a deep breath. “Well, we’ll deal with that when the time comes. How are we going to do this?”

  If they were surprised by my go-get-em attitude, they didn’t say anything. Instead, they continued with their plans like I didn’t exist.

  “William will fly to the ship once night falls. Once there, he’ll use one of our finding charms to locate the boy, bind him, and fly him back to shore. From there, we’ll travel at night back to the palace.”

  I sat there, a bit confused. “Why doesn’t William just fly him all the way back there? He carried me at least that far.”

  Nuada shook his head. “Your friend will be fighting, remember. William may drop him. If you try to fly him out on your horse, he’ll jump.”

  “So that’s it? William flies in, uses the thingy bobby to find Jake, then flies out?”

  Nuada shrugged. “Once the rescue begins, many things can change. It will be up to William to avoid capture and determine the best escape route. If you are captured in your mistaken attempt to help, we will not come back for you. Whether or not William will is up to him. Once your friend is rescued, our deal is at an end. The spell on you, however, will continue until your friend is no longer a threat to us. I hate to think what it might do to you to be captured by the Captain and unable to follow through with your promise.”

  The thought of being the Captain’s prisoner made me shudder. I wondered if I could bring Jake’s drawings to life, or if my magic only worked with living things. I resolved to try it before leaving on the mission, knowing that if the Captain could use me as he could use Jake, that any “rescue” from William would likely result in my death if Jake were not there to stop him. If Jake was even able to think right after being brainwashed by the Captain.

  I stood up and looked at William. “Tell me when you leave. If you leave without me, I’ll just follow along and make everything harder.”

  He rolled his eyes and went back to the group of children, while I went to draw a small mechanical horse. To my relief, when I’d drawn it, and put in its eyes, nothing at all happened. If it didn’t have real, seeing eyes, apparently I couldn’t bring it to life. Not that handing over the ability to bring any living creature I could imagine in my head to life would be a good ability to hand over to the Captain, but at least he couldn’t use me to make more iron weapons if he caught me.

  Without anything else to do or anyone to talk to, I laid down and thought of how I might convince the Queen to send me and Jake back home once we’d rescued him, even if he was still loyal to the Captain. I had a feeling she might not be so helpful if it meant losing the one person that could heal their disfiguring and deadly iron wounds.

  “Ugh,” I said softly. “Nothing’s ever easy.”

  Lavender gave a little chirp of acknowledgement but didn’t move, so I lay as quietly as I could and pretended to be asleep.

  Seventeen: Jake

  I was working on another one of the steel horses when the Captain came into the workroom. I hadn’t seen the Captain since before he’d left for the battle with the fae and didn’t know if he knew that I’d tried to abort the mission.

  Not knowing if the Captain knew made me nervous. After dropping a screwdriver twice, I finally put it down on my work bench and sat down.

  The Captain sat across from me, flipping through the new book of drawings I had completed the night before. After finishing up the ground transport, I was moving on to helicopters. They were easy to draw, since I already knew what made up a helicopter, and I’d been able to make a number of improvements, my magic showing me the easiest way. After seeing the slaughter of the fae the day before, the designs no longer felt like magic on the page. I no longer grinned when one of my creations took its first step. Instead, I shuddered, imagining what it would be used for and how many people it would kill.

  I’d tried to excuse my guilt by pointing out to myself that the fae weren’t human, but I’d seen how the little fairies cried when one of their own died. I’d seen how angry they were. They might not be human, but they could think, and feel, and love, and my creations had taken that all away. The thought made me want to throw myself off the ship, but the Captain had ordered me to stay in the workroom, and I’d found I couldn’t even put one foot outside the door without breaking down into a sweating, shivering mess.

  “So, Jake. You’ve handed me a decisive victory,” the Captain said.

  I didn’t answer, braving the Captain’s displeasure to keep my eyes down.

  “If you’re worried I’ll be mad about your attempt to shut the machines down, you needn’t be. I didn’t bring you here to kill things, Jake. I brought you here to build me things that kill things. That’s why I had Terence double-check your work. But, from now on, you will not interfere with my plans in any way. Is that understood?”

  I felt the magic working on me, sinking into my brain and settling there, like a snake ready to strike. I nodded. “Yes, sir,” I said.

  “Good.” The Captain stood up to leave, but then stopped. “Your friend, the girl that came here with you. What was her skill again?”

  I felt my heart thump once, hard in my chest, and was disgusted at the jealousy that came flooding in after it. Paige had always been a better artist than me. The thought of the Captain taking interest in her made me angry, even if what the Captain was making me do was wrong. For once, I was better at something than she was.

  “She can draw, sir,” I said, no more able to avoid answering a direct question than I was able to stop breathing.

  “Hmm…It seems that I may have been mistaken about sending her back to Earth. She’s still here and has the ability to heal the fae of their iron wounds, simply by drawing them back to health. Remarkable, isn’t it? They say she created a winged horse from a drawing before a group of them left with my brother.”

  I didn’t answer, eyes blinking fast and furious at the tabletop. If she could draw things and bring them to life, the Captain would have no use for me. I didn’t pay any attention to the Captain’s talk of his brother. I had no idea who that was and didn’t care. My life was this workroom.

  I thought back to the last time Paige and I had competed against each other. It’d been in seventh grade and we’d decided to go our science projects alone instead of working on them together as we’d done in the past. I’d modified one of those pet electronic dogs to do a ton of new tricks. I thought for sure I’d win.

  Paige had raised a whole bunch of Monarch butterflies, videotaped the whole process, and released them. She’d gotten all sorts of emails from people on the east coast who’d recaptured them and contacted her based on the info she’d stuck to their wings with little stickers. She’d won the fair. I’d gotten a pat on the shoulder and a “Good job. Nice trick.”

  The memory made me angry all over again. The Captain’s hook digging into my shoulder brought me back to the present.

  “I’d like you to program your creations to recognize her. Could you draw a picture of her?” the Captain asked.

  I shrugged and then yelped as the Captain hit me across the shoulders, knocking me from my stool and knocking the breath out of me.

  “Can you or not?” the Captain asked.

  “Yes,” I gasped, trying to get my breath back.

  “Good. Have the creatures retrieve her for me if they spot her. I don’t want her harmed.” The Captain left, leaving yet another lurking snake in my mind. Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t stop myself from beginning
the drawing of her.

  As I was typing the commands into the computer console that monitored my iron creatures, I fought down the irrational jealousy and felt a moment of true despair.

  Paige was still here. And now, it was my own creations that were going to hunt her down and enslave her to the Captain.

  Eighteen: Paige

  I awoke to a hard kick in my ribs. I glared up through the fuzzy darkness to find William standing over me, his hands on his hips and lips turned up into a smile.

  “Wake up. We’re leaving,” he said.

  I resisted the urge to kick him in the balls and went to Stormy. After securing my bag around my shoulders, I led her over to a fallen log and hopped onto her back, tucking my knees in front of her wing joints. I’d ridden a lot as a little kid and was grateful that the memory of how to sit and hold myself came flooding back. Whether those lessons would help when she was flying was something I’d just have to wait and find out.

  I reached for Lavender on my shoulder, holding her in my open palm.

  “Lavender, I’m sorry, but you can’t come with me.”

  She chirped and cocked her head before pointing at the ship and stomping her little foot.

  I shook my head. “No, you can’t. The ship’s made of iron. If you come with me, you might get hurt.”

  Lavender hissed and then hung her head. She patted my hand and then flew off into the trees.

  With Lavender gone, I couldn’t help but start worrying about the trip. The idea of falling a couple hundred of feet into the ocean made me feel nauseous, so I focused instead on how soft the mare’s fur was under my hands and how silky her mane felt as it brushed my fingers.

  William led us to the edge of the jungle, and without a single glance at the fae gathered there, leapt into the air and was gone in the darkness. Wondering if Stormy was able to fly without a running start, I pulled back on her mane and lifted my butt off her back, just as I would if I were sending her over a jump.

  The first powerful down stroke of her wings nearly unseated me, but with the second and third, I managed to straighten myself up in time to see the ground falling away underneath us. She’d burst into the air like a bird, using her hind legs to propel her several feet before catching herself with her wings.

  I immediately began to feel sick. Although her body was solid and comforting beneath me, the way her wing beats rocked my stomach had me clenching my teeth against the bile rising in my throat. When she swooped into a long glide, wings flexing and twitching to catch and keep the wind currents, I had to swallow down the mess of food that came up. Great. You get airsick and so you made a flying horse. Brilliant, I thought to myself.

  I was so wrapped up in trying not to throw up on myself, I didn’t realize that we’d come even with William, and was grateful Stormy had had the sense to chase after him on her own.

  “You going to throw up again?” he asked.

  I shook my head, too scared to open my mouth, and glared at him. He laughed, not worrying about anyone hearing him way up here, and pointed down at the ship where it rested in the harbor.

  “You stay up here. When I find him, I’ll send you a signal.”

  I shook my head, still worried that William might just change his mind and kill Jake instead of trying to rescue him.

  “I’m going in with you,” I said.

  William looked at Stormy. “How are you going to land without making a ton of noise? You’ll give us away for sure,” he said.

  “I’ll ask her to be as quiet as she can and she will. Don’t worry about it,” I said.

  William was quiet for a moment. “If you get caught, I’ll try to come for you.”

  I looked at him, thinking back to his comments about missing me if I died.

  “I’m sorry I left you in the power station and didn’t help very much at your trial. I was very angry.”

  I didn’t really know how to answer that, but figured I ought to try. “Well, I was pretty angry too, I guess. I’m sorry too.” I paused for a moment, then managed a smile. “Friends?”

  William looked at me, floating along with his arms across his chest, and then shook his head. “I don’t want to be friends,” he said.

  Before I could pull Stormy away, William drifted in, put his hands on either side of my face, and kissed me. It was a deep kiss and startled me out of my nausea. He pulled back.

  “Are you ready?” he asked.

  I blinked, confused for a moment. “Ready?” I asked. My lips were tingling from the kiss and new little butterflies unrelated to my air sickness were jumping in my belly.

  William pointed down at the ship and arched an eyebrow.

  I started to shake my head “no,” and then realized that I really didn’t have a choice and nodded instead.

  “Alright, here we go.” William cut away from us, sinking through the air in free fall.

  I held Stormy back and leaned forward. “I need you to land on the deck of the ship as quietly as you can,” I said in her ear. “Then you need to go and circle high up and watch for me to come out of the ship. Can you do that?”

  Her ears flicked back and she made a little horse noise, so I figured that meant she understood.

  I sat back and took a deep breath. “Alright then. Let’s go.”

  Stormy folded her wings behind her and fell through the sky like a falling star. The feeling made my stomach lurch again, but I clamped down on it. I didn’t dare close my eyes with the deck of the ship rushing up at me. With a deep breath, Stormy snapped her wings out at the last second, grunting with the effort, and landed on the deck of the ship right next to where William stood waiting, eyes roving over the ship for any sentries. I waited for someone to come running at the sound of Stormy’s wings, but when everything stayed quiet, I let out the breath I’d been holding and waved her off the ship.

  When I looked back at William, he was holding a white stone in his hands, pointing it in different directions. I couldn’t see anything happening to it, so it must have been getting warm or something, because he pointed towards the back of the ship and started walking.

  As we went, we stayed as close to the walls or structures on the deck as we could, but we didn’t see anyone at all and eventually came to a door with a set of stairs leading upwards. In the stairwell, I kept expecting someone to come running at the sound of our boots on the metal steps, but the ship remained as quiet as a graveyard. It didn’t feel right.

  I grabbed on to William’s arm to stop him and pulled my back pack off. With trembling fingers, I retrieved my sketch pad and began to fill in one of the spider’s eyes. It was hard to focus so intently on something when I was worried that we were about to get captured, but when the spider appeared on the steps below us and didn’t move, I knew I’d done it right.

  “Follow us,” I said. “If anyone comes, bite them. Don’t eat them!” I added, repulsed at the idea. The spider was even bigger than the ones I’d seen on the river bank, nearly the size of a pony, and it made my skin crawl. I must have misjudged their size in my head, my fear making them seem bigger than they actually were in reality.

  The spider didn’t do anything to indicate it understood my orders, but as we continued up the stairs, it stayed behind us, its legs making soft little clicks on the metal floor. When we came to the top of the stairs, William opened the door and peeked out. Without any warning at all, he darted out, letting it slam in my face. I nearly fell backwards down the stairs, but a cold prickly touch on my back righted me. I darted a look at the spider, equal parts grossed out and grateful, and then opened the door.

  William was gone.

  Damn it! I shouted in my head. I bit my lip and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. I can do this, I told myself. Before leaving the stairwell, I finished another drawing of a spider, giving it the same orders as the first. With another deep breath, I opened the door and stepped out, careful to hold the door for the spiders, and took a look around.

  I was standing in a hallway with no doors in sight. I co
uld go right or left. I chose right without taking the time to think about it. When I rounded a corner and came to a door, I tried it, but it didn’t open. Resisting the urge to kick the door in frustration, I continued on. There wasn’t anything else to do. I tried three more doors before I found one that opened.

  I stepped into a dark room lit only by a large bank of computer monitors. Wires snaked every which way. When a voice spoke from the darkness, I almost peed myself.

  “Do you have a message for me?” the voice asked.

  I peered through the gloom, finally spotting a small boy behind one of the computer monitors. His hair was rough and uneven, and he had a bruise spreading over one eye and cheek.

  “Uh, no messages for you…” I trailed off, my brain whirling. “I have a message for Jake and I can’t remember which of the workshops the Captain keeps him in.”

  The boy stared at me, obviously suspicious, and then shrugged, as if he didn’t really care if he could trust me or not. “Three more down. Tell him Terence said hi.””

  I nodded and slid backwards out of the room, nearly tripping over one of the spiders. It scurried back, black eyes gleaming in the cold lights from the hallway, and I shivered again, glad they were on my side. I counted the doors as I walked down the hallway, wondering what was behind them, and stopped at the third door. I stood there for a moment, trying to gather my courage, and then opened it and stepped through.

  The workroom was crowded with big pieces of steel, computer parts, and wires, all jumbled around a big open space in the middle. I heard a clank and a quiet curse. It was Jake. I’d know his voice anywhere. Before I could stop myself, I called out.

  “Jake?”

  The noises from the middle of the room stopped. I could hear him breathing. And then one of the piles of metal moved, standing up and forming into a huge metal wolf. Its eyes, small cameras, glowed for a moment with an eerie blue light, and then it dashed towards me. With a girlish shriek, I scrambled backwards. This time I did trip over one of the spiders. The wolf sailed over the top of me, colliding with a huge crash of screeching metal into the wall next to the door.