Ravencliffe (Blythewood series) (29 page)

“You’ll never get through without us,” Sheer said, with a shudder than made her skin ripple. “The only entrance to the house is through the water—through a hellgate.”

“Do you mean the whirlpool?” I asked.

“Yes,” Sheer said. “A hellgate is a whirlpool that a wizard may use as a doorway to a fortress.”

“Like the Isle of the Scholomance in Carpathia,” Miss Corey said.

“Yes,” Sheer agreed with another skin-rippling shudder. “That one was guarded by a dragon. This one is guarded by something far worse—a kraken.”

This time I was the one who shuddered. “I saw it in a vision I had of the
Titanic
sinking.”

“Yes, the Shadow Master found the monster in the North Atlantic and brought it here to guard the hellgate to his castle. That’s where he’s keeping Rue. We found her last winter, but before we could tell you, we were frozen. Rue would not come with us because she said she must stay with the other girls to protect them. She said their minds were being bent to do terrible things.” She shuddered again, this time so violently that she melted into the log where she sat.

“Sheer!” Etta called. “Stay with us. Did Rue tell you what the girls were being used to do?”

“No,” Sheer said, reassuming her shape. Her features had changed, though, to a face that looked familiar. I saw Etta pale as we both recognized Ruth’s face—or Rue’s, I supposed, as the changeling told the rest of the story in Rue’s voice.

“We are kept in a gilded palace like birds in a cage, made to dance all day and night, never to rest or eat or speak—only dance.”

“It’s Herr Hofmeister’s dancing school,” I said. “I knew it! But why—”

“We only know the steps, not where they are leading us,” Sheer said in Rue’s voice, and then in a voice that was neither Rue’s nor Sheer’s but a dozen girls all shrieking from one mouth that bulged as if all those girls were inside trying to get out. “You must stop us!”

For a moment I saw the faces of a dozen girls flit over the one changeling’s features. Among them I recognized Beatrice and Susannah and lastly Daisy, her face drawn and thin, her eyes sunken in their sockets. “Ava,” she whispered, “they are going to make us do a terrible thing, please—”

But by the time I had moved the few feet to where she sat, Daisy’s face had melted away and only the bland, mud-colored eyes of the changeling blinked up at me.

“We will take you, but you must know that the journey could kill you,” Sheer said. “Few survive the kraken.”

“Did Raven?” I asked.

Sheer shook her head. “I don’t know.”

I sank back down onto the damp log, which nearly crumbled beneath my now leaden weight. “I’ll go with you.”

“I’ll go, too,” Etta said.

Sheer shook her head. “Van Drood has put a spell on the gate to keep humans out—only a Darkling can get through—or a changeling.”

“Ava’s only half-Darkling,” Miss Corey said. “What if half isn’t enough?”

Sheer tilted her head and looked curiously at me. “We won’t know until we try.”

“That’s not good enough!” Miss Corey cried. “Ava, I can’t let you take the risk. We’ll get one of the Darklings to go.”

“I have to go,” I said, turning to Miss Corey. “The Darklings have already lost one of theirs. If the Darklings and the Order are ever to work together, they must see we’re willing to take equal risks.”

“That’s a fine speech,” Miss Corey said with a sniff. “But you’re going because of that boy.”

“Maybe,” I admitted. “If Miss Sharp was there, wouldn’t you go?”

“That’s not . . . oh, Hell’s Bells, I suppose I would. But then I’m going with you.”

“But you can’t,” Etta began, “Sheer said—”

“I said only changelings or Darklings.” Sheer stretched her arm out to Miss Corey and placed her hand on her face, her fingers tracing the mottled marks there. Miss Corey flinched but remained still, so pale the marks stood out more lividly—a pattern that appeared on Sheer’s face.

“A changeling did this to me,” Miss Corey said, tilting her chin up and staring defiantly at her mirror image. “Does that give me the power to go through the Hellgate?”

“No, Lillian, that would not give you that power, but you
can
go through the gate. A changeling didn’t do this to you. You
are
a changeling.”

31

“NO,” MISS COREY
said, swatting Sheer’s hand away. “A changeling was trying to take my shape. My father stopped it and killed it, but it left these marks on my face.”

“We don’t make marks on the faces of our hosts. Did you see any on Ruth’s face?”

“No,” Etta answered for her. “But I saw them on Rue’s sometimes.”

“When we take on a host’s personality, there’s a period of transition. Rue had not completely transformed into Ruth—and you had not completely transformed into Lillian Corey when her father found you. He probably would have killed you, only his daughter died first.”

“I—this thing—killed her!”

“No,” Sheer said gently. “Sometimes we come to take the place of a dying human. It’s always dangerous, because if the host dies before the transformation is complete, the changeling might die, too. You nearly did.”

“My father said I almost died from the attack.”

“But he nursed you back to health. He loved you—first because you had tried to save his daughter, and then because you
became
his daughter. His love—his belief that you were
his
Lillian—saved you.”

There were tears streaming down Miss Corey’s face. “He lied to me.”

“He was afraid that you would hate yourself—that you would have felt . . .
different
.”

“I always have.” A scarlet flush swept over Miss Corey’s face. “Is this why I’m . . . why I . . .”

Sheer laughed. “Why you love whom you love? Don’t be silly. Vionetta Sharp loves you, and she’s wholly human.”

“Oh,” Miss Corey said, a small smile appearing on her face. “How do you know all that?”

“Because when I touched you, I felt how beloved you are.” Sheer looked sad for a moment; her glossy limbs lost a bit of their shine, their sheen turning chalky as dried mud. “That’s what we all dream of.” She turned to me. “I felt it in you, too, Ava. Raven loves you, and so do your friends, Helen and Daisy and Nathan. They love you, not a Darkling or a human. Just you.”

I nodded, wiping tears from my face. “Then I’d better go find Daisy and the other lost girls. I’m ready.”

“And so am I,” Miss Corey said.

I spent the afternoon exchanging information with Nathan and Mr. Bellows, who had returned from the city. They told us there were three mansions in Spuyten Duyvil owned by new investors brought in by the Council to replenish funds lost by the
Titanic
disaster.

“And now they’ve tied up their funds in some secret investment,” Nathan said. “They claim that no one can know what it is until the ‘big unveiling,’ whatever that means.” Nathan swore and flung himself out of his chair to pace across the library floor. Helen followed his movements worriedly.

“I just can’t believe we’re sending Ava and Miss Corey alone to defeat van Drood’s monster!” he continued in frustration.

“There’s no reason the other Darklings can’t go with them,” Miss Sharp pointed out, consulting a manual of wards. “Lillian and I and Nathan can go in the boat, too. Once you’re all in the mansion, Ava can disarm the wards and send the Darklings for the rest of us. We just have to wait close enough to see a signal.”

“I don’t like to wait for a bunch of birds to come fetch me,” Nathan said, scowling. “The second I see the house unwarded I’ll be there . . . with
this
.”

He drew a dagger from under his coat jacket. It was like the one I’d seen Mr. Bellows carry, but it had a different pattern on the hilt.

“Is that a knight’s dagger?” Miss Sharp asked. “I didn’t think—”

“I gave it to him,” Mr. Bellows said—rather defensively, I thought. “I know he hasn’t had the full training, but in times like these . . .”

“You did the right thing,” Miss Sharp said, her eyes shining. “We can none of us be slaves to the old ways while those dear to us are threatened.” She withdrew a dagger from the folds of her skirt. “I’ll be standing at the ready, too, waiting for the signal.”

That night, we set sail from the Ravencliffe boathouse. Miss Corey and Miss Sharp came, and the Fledgling League. Nathan said he had “borrowed” the boat from the Astors’ boathouse. I remembered that Helen had told me once that she and Nathan had played pirates on the river as children. I had always pictured them on dinghies, but it now was apparent that they both knew very well how to sail.

It was a thirty-foot teak yacht called
Half Moon
. Nathan gave orders for hauling this and raising that, which Helen followed quickly, telling us all what rope—or “line,” as I learned they were called—to hold and where to sit. At first Marlin looked baffled, but when the main sail was raised and it caught the air like a silver wing in the moonlight, his face lit up. As the boat leaned into the wind and picked up speed, the light of the full moon turned the froth from the prow white and shone on the silvery shapes of the changelings swimming beside us. One leapt through the air like a dolphin. Miss Sharp, who was sitting beside Miss Corey in the cabin, laughed aloud at the sight and whispered something into Miss Corey’s ear that made her smile. I gathered that Miss Corey had told her about being a changeling. I didn’t see that it had made any difference in Miss Sharp’s feelings, except to make her even fiercer in her affections.

“Why, it’s just like flying!” Marlin cried.

“Yes, isn’t it?” Helen beamed at him, but with a wistful look in Nathan’s direction. “Go sit with him,” Helen whispered to me. “He’s all alone.”

Nathan did look grimly solitary standing at the helm, piloting the
Half Moon
down the river like the Ancient Mariner. The first thing he said to me was, “I’m not happy about you going into that Hellgate.”

“I know,” I said. “But Miss Corey and I are the only ones who can do it. And the other Darklings will be right behind us.”

Nathan looked to where Marlin sat with Helen. “
They
certainly look like they’ve become good friends.”

“Jealous?” I asked.

He began to object, but then laughed at himself. “Yes, I suppose I am. I’ve always taken Helen for granted. She’s just always . . . been there. But seeing her like this, well, she’s different.”

“We’re all different,” I said. “How could we not be after all we’ve seen and been through?”

“You most of all,” he said. “How did you explain to Helen how you can get through the Hellgate?”

“I told her it’s because I’m a chime child. I didn’t like to lie, but . . .”

“You’re still not ready to tell her you’re half-Darkling?”

“No,” I admitted.

“Do you really think it would make a difference to her now?”

I looked at Helen laughing with Marlin and trading quips with Sirena. Cam was standing at the prow of the ship with Buzz, her face turned into the wind, her short hair ruffling in the wind. Dolores and Gus were deep in conversation, probably plotting the geometry of sails. Miss Sharp had accepted that Miss Corey was a changeling, and my friends had accepted the Darklings. Why wouldn’t they accept me?

“Maybe,” I said, “it’s because when they know what I am, I’ll have to make a choice between Blythewood and—”

“Raven?”

“Yes,” I said. “But I may already be too late. If he’s gone . . .”

“He’s not,” Nathan said with surprising certainty. “I don’t believe he let that monster eat him when he had you to live for. He’s in there—and we’re going to get him out. And when we do—” He looked at me. “If you choose to be with him, I’ll understand. But he’s not the only one who loves you.”

I stared at him open-mouthed. Was he telling me he loved me? Before I could speak, he barked a sharp order to “come about” and Helen flew into action, ordering everyone to “watch the boom” and hauling on various ropes. The yacht tacked into the wind and leaned toward the left—or port as Helen called it. The changelings struggled to keep up with us in the choppy water.

“We’re at Spuyten Duyvil,” Nathan cried, pointing to a cleft in the cliffs on the eastern bank. I could see the moonlight shining on a stream rushing into the river from between the steep cliffs. This was where the Spuyten Duyvil creek fed into the river. The whirlpool must be near.

The boat suddenly shuddered and keeled sharply to port.

“Strike down the mainsail!” Nathan screamed.

There was a flurry of confusion as Helen barked orders and she and Marlin and Buzz struggled with handfuls of flapping canvas. Nathan ordered the anchor to be thrown over. The boat righted, but it was still moving.

“We’re too close to the whirlpool!” Helen cried. “It’s sucking us in!”

I stared over the prow at the water. About thirty feet in front of us was a circular patch of churning froth where the current of the Spuyten Duyvil intersected with that of the Hudson River. I smelled salt, and guessed that the ocean tide was exerting its own force—a force stronger because of the full moon. The water spun in a circle, looking like a giant mouth, which now opened.

The boat lurched toward it, throwing everyone hither and thither. Mary nearly went overboard, but Sparrow grabbed her. We were being sucked into the swirling maw, which opened and shut with a wet smacking sound like lips, hungry for its next meal. A long wet tongue slithered out of the whirlpool. The salt smell of the ocean mingled now with the stench of rotting fish. Somebody shrieked. Above us Eirwyn let out a high-pitched screech. I heard Gus soothing Dolores by citing the Latin classification—
Microcosmus marinus
—given to the kraken by Carolus Linnaeus.

Marlin screamed an order, and the Darklings drew their swords and flexed their wings.

“We’ll attack it,” Marlin yelled at Nathan. “You get the boat away and save yourselves.”

But the boat suddenly wasn’t moving. I looked down and saw the changelings swarming around the boat, their arms straining in the moonlight. They were holding the boat back—but they wouldn’t be able to hold it for long.

Miss Corey came to stand next to me. She had stripped down to a slim, stylish bathing costume. She took my hand. Miss Sharp stood next to her.

I stripped off my dress. Underneath I wore the silly bathing costume Helen had brought for me on our outing to Coney Island. With its ruffles and bows, which hid my wings, it seemed a strange outfit in which to meet a monster, but I found it oddly comforting.

I took a deep breath, expanding my lungs as the Darklings had taught me, and, hand in hand with Miss Corey, dove into the maelstrom.