The Wand & the Sea (29 page)

Holly could call Almaric himself, she thought next, or Jade or Ranulf. But what would be the point? They couldn't fight Raethius. He would just kill them as he had Áedán. She didn't dare call the
Sea Witch
, even if it was possible to call an entire ship. If they weren't ready, she would put them all in danger.

She rubbed the tears off her cheeks. There was nothing for it: She would need to call Ben and tell him to leave her and go home. He would be stubborn and refuse, but she would have to convince him.

The chapel was empty. Ben would be safe for the few moments she would speak to him, and even if Raethius appeared, she could just send Ben back. She put down the fluorite and picked up the clouded crystal. She pictured Ben on board the
Sea Witch
. She had never called someone from the present, but how different could it be?

“Benjamin Shepard of the brigantine
Sea Witch
, come to me in this hour of need. Benjamin Shepard of the brigantine
Sea Witch
, come to me in this hour of need. . . .”

Holly kept her eyes closed, the tears running down her face.
Please come, Ben,
she thought as she chanted.
Please come to say good-bye
.

“Do not attempt to waylay us,” Avery said to Jade in his most imperious voice. “ 'Tis a mission of honor we seek.”

The cat sat down in the midst of their circle and curled his paws around Holly's wand, which he had brought with him. “Why would I waylay you? I am Lady Holly's familiar. I wish to accompany you.” He eyed the prince's wand, which Avery held up as if ready to cast a spell. “You have not the mastery of that instrument.”

“Of course I do,” Avery snapped. “Now, cat, you will verify that I have the Vanishment incantation correct.”

“I did
not
say that the Vanishment was the correct way to proceed,” Jade said, “and certainly not without the
Black Dragon
in our sights.”

“Nonsense! I can see it in my mind's eye; that is all that is required.”

“And you say this considering your vast knowledge of Adept magic?”

“I feel funny,” Ben said. His face was screwed up in a wince, and he shifted uncomfortably. One knee was touching Everett's.

“I believe I raise the wand and cry the word,” said Avery, but before he could do anything, Everett grabbed hold of his wrist. “Unhand our royal person,” Avery said, sounding very much like the prince Everett had first met a year before.

“Just wait,” said Everett. “We've all got to agree.”

Jade's tail twitched, flicking against the prince's other side.

“Really not good at all,” Ben said, holding his stomach with one hand.

“Are you seasick?” Everett started to back away, but Ben grabbed him with one hand.

“No, it's—like a pulling. It's—it's—”

For that one moment, all four of them were touching one another.

Ben's words were lost in a loud, baffled sound like an enormous turbine, and the planks beneath them began to fade.

“Avery!” Everett shouted. “What're you doing? Stop it!”

“ 'Tis not I! I have not even used the wand!”

Everything around them began to turn. Everett felt what Ben had described—a tugging. All four of them began to whirl like one huge top. The brig, the pickle barrel, the lantern, all of it turned faster and faster until they were a colorful blur. It lasted nearly a minute, and then, abruptly, Everett felt a hard bump as he landed on his backside in the middle of what looked like a cold, dark, empty church.

“Benjamin Shepard of the brigantine
Sea Witch
, come to me in my hour of need,” Holly whispered for the fifth time.

That's when she heard the
oof
and the
get off me
and the
what's this ruddy place
and the
you shouldn't have done that.
Her eyes flew open. Right in the center of the chapel was a tangle of arms and legs and one black tail. Holly was both overjoyed and horrified.

“What—how did you all get here?” she cried, and then lowered her voice at once. “You've got to get out! He might be back any second.”

Jade extricated himself from the mess of boys and darted to her side. “Lady Holly, we are here to aid you. Has the Sorcerer done this?”

“This, and a lot more.”

Jade eyed the stones spread out in front of her. “It was you, not the prince,” he mused, then raised his glittery green eyes to her with pride. “You called us. And without this.” He dropped the wand through the bars of her cell.

“I tried to call Ben, that's all. I wanted . . . wanted to say good-bye. To tell him to get home as quick as he can. All of you. Stay out of Raethius's way. He wants me to take him to the Adepts' island, and I won't be able to. He'll punish you all.”

“But we're here now,” said Ben, running over, with Everett and Avery behind him. “We can get you out.”

Holly shook her head, but Ben wasn't listening. “Avery, get over here with the wand.”

“Where did
you
get a wand?” Holly asked.

“Never mind,” said Ben. “First we need to spring this lock. What's that spell? Oh-says-me?”

“Osclaígí,”
said Holly and Avery together.

The iron bars of the cell fell apart in a clattering heap. Holly gaped at the prince.

“Geez, you guys,” Ben whispered. “You want to wake up everyone in this place? Where are we, anyway?”

“On board the
Black Dragon
. I know it doesn't look like a ship, but it is.” Holly turned to the cat. “Jade, he took Áedán. He—he killed him.” Somehow she thought Jade would be the only one to understand how awful this was, but all of them stared wordlessly back at her.

Jade recovered first. “Are you certain, Lady Holly? It seems unlikely.”

“He gave him to his—his birds.” She started to cry again.

“Stop that now,” said Jade sharply. “Did you
see
Áedán harmed? Because Raethius has at least some Elemental blood himself. He would much sooner use Áedán than kill him. Where was he taken?”

“Jade, he's
gone
,” Holly said, trying to calm her hitching sobs. “Raethius threw him against that wall, and the birds flew down. . . . I don't know. . . .”

“Show me the door.” Jade darted to the far end of the chapel.

Holly limped after him, dragging the broken ankle. “I can't run. . . .” She gained the far wall and looked up at the yawning stone pedestals. “The birds kind of melted through here somehow.”

“Then unlock it.”

“But—”

“I shall do it,” Avery said, at her heels.
“Osclaígí.”

The wall shimmered, then became gauzy, like a thin curtain. Through it Holly could see the deck of the schooner, where the thin, smokelike figures darted here and there.

“No, Jade, you'll get caught. I'll lose you, too,” Holly whispered, her voice catching.

“I will return, Lady Holly. I promise.” The cat darted through the veil. It closed over him.

“What's he doing?” Holly cried as the stone wall materialized again. Her tears dried on her hot cheeks. “How will we get him back?”

“One thing at a time,” said Everett. “We need to figure a way off the ship. Maybe there's a longboat?”

“I . . . I saw one lashed to the starboard side.” Holly started toward the leaded windows, then stumbled. Avery caught her.

“What has Raethius done to you, my lady?” he asked, wincing at the sight of her ankle.

“It doesn't matter. Just help me.” Leaning on him like a crutch, Holly pulled up the painful foot and made her way to the window.

“He has always been so kind to me,” Avery murmured. “I never knew he could be such a brute. Perhaps he is under a spell.”

“He's the one
casting
the spells, you dimwit,” said Ben.

Holly was aware of how quiet Avery was, what he must be thinking, turning events over in his mind. Was it possible Raethius had ever shown anyone kindness? She thought of Áedán and Jade; the grief dug at her insides, but she fought it down. “Careful, don't let them see you.” She edged around the windowpane and spied the longboat. “Maybe I can Vanish the longboat into the water without anyone noticing, but we can't leave without Jade. And I can't Vanish us to the
Sea Witch
unless I can see it.”

“Never fear,” said Avery confidently. “I am convinced that is all myth. It be simply a matter of reciting the spell, and—”

“Are you crazy?” Holly glared at him. “Magic has rules. I don't know where the
Sea Witch
is, which means I can't visualize a path to it. We'd end up in the middle of nowhere—maybe the ocean, maybe in pieces. Nobody does that spell but me, when I'm ready. Do you get that?”

She hadn't meant to speak so harshly. He had been awfully nice to her, but the idea that he would play with a spell like the Vanishment set her teeth on edge. He was still a prince; he thought everything was his right. Avery's face turned very red, and the boys on either side of him exchanged a nudging
I told you so
sort of look between them.

“Okay, then,” said Holly. “Let's get—”

But she never finished that sentence.

The three torches between the windows suddenly sputtered and went out. Tendrils of black smoke rose from them, darkened, then thickened, ropelike. They burst from the torches and swirled around them. Holly had a sickening realization: The
osclaígí
spell had called them—the smoke demons. Their acrid, decaying smell made her nauseous.

“What . . . what are these things?” Ben asked in a small voice. They were stretching now, elongating, no longer looking like smoke so much as like humanoid figures. They lifted Holly's braids, ruffled through the boys' hair, and seeped into their clothing and down their throats. Ben began to cough.

“They're like the things that came out of the compass,” said Everett.

“The torches,” Holly said, coughing too. “They're . . . they're guards. He's coming. We have to go.”

But the tendrils of smoke wove themselves into a black lattice like a spider's web encircling them. Holly tore at them, and Avery slashed with his wand, but the cage held. Everett kicked and shoved at the sticky strings; they gave, but only a little. Holly shouted the
osclaígí
spell, but the smoke demons only circled, contracting, as if circumventing her magic.

They were made of smoke, they were from fire, she thought quickly. She could control Elements too—well, one, anyway. But she couldn't conjure it. She could only move it.

Through the tall windows she could see a glint of the moon on the water. They were still at sea. Could she call the water from so far away, through glass, no less? She pointed the wand at the window.
“Tugaigí uisce!”
she cried.

At first nothing happened. Ben was turning red now and pumping his inhaler madly into his mouth. The others were gasping and choking; Avery had collapsed to his knees. He looked like he would throw up any minute. But then Holly heard it.

The growing, building
whoosh
that could mean only one thing.

A wave.

It was too black for her to see. When the wave reared over the starboard side of the schooner, it blocked the moon for a moment. It towered over the gunwale and hung for half a second before crashing to the deck, shattering the leaded windows.

The boys' mouths gaped. The wave washed over the stone floor and threw them off their feet. The smoke demons flew apart. Holly leaned on Everett, the only one of the boys who seemed strong enough to hold her up, and beckoned to the others. Their only way out was through the window.

But then—and Holly had not forgotten this—they would be trapped.

Everett was thinking the same thing as, one by one, they climbed through the window frame and emerged just below the schooner's poop deck. The ship was massive, with several quarterdecks and a hull that stretched down forever into the black sea. The crowded deck afforded plenty of hiding places, but it was too late for that. The smoke demons solidified into dark figures and swarmed over the deck and into the rigging. A flock of bloodred birds descended, screeching from the sky. Everett slashed at them with his sword. But where was the Sorcerer?

Holly positioned herself at the poop deck's railing and started throwing waves over the bow with her wand. They scattered the smoke demons, who were disorganized for the moment. But she was already tired; she couldn't keep it up for long. “I'll hold them off!” she shouted. “Just get the longboat.”

He spied it lashed to the starboard side. “Ben, come help me!”

Avery stepped up to shield him and fended off the birds with his sword. He tried to churn the waves as Holly did, but his wand only emitted a few feeble sparks. Everett and Ben untied the longboat and hoisted it between them.

The splintered wood dug into Everett's shoulder. “On three, we'll toss it over,” he said.

“What're we going to do then?” Ben asked.

“We'll have to jump for it.”

“No way!”

“It's the
only
way, now come on!”

They gave a great heave. The boat fell an impossibly long way down, then splashed—upright, at least—into the sea. Immediately they began to drift away from it. The schooner was still moving. Everett and Ben climbed over the railing, clinging to the ropes. Ben's legs trembled as he straddled the railing.

“Holly, we have to go now,” Everett said. “Avery, come on!”