The Wand & the Sea (7 page)

“Why?” Holly asked. “What did Ranulf want with this . . . sea witch?”

“Before he was taken,” Almaric said, “Ranulf and I had talked of a plan to begin the overthrow of the king.”

“Really? What kind of plan?”

“The Exiles' numbers are fairly strong, but without the power of the Adepts, they remain scattered and frightened. It's difficult to rally the troops, if you will. Of course, Lady Holly, your own powers are formidable. But if we could find the rest of the Adepts and bring them home—”

“You could finish the king for good,” said Everett.

“And more to the point, we would have a chance at defeating Raethius.” Almaric pulled a stool up to the table and began eating. “Bring down the Sorcerer, and the king is as good as deposed.”

Nerys snorted. “I don't see the Adepts makin' a speedy return.”

“They are imprisoned on an unknown island,” Almaric said, as if he'd explained this several times before. “The details aren't clear, but we know they vanished off the Iardan coast by boat when Reynard's knights attacked their settlement. No doubt their exile is Raethius's doing.”

“And there's, like, a cloaking spell hiding them?” Ben suggested.

“Ranulf and I believe,” Almaric said, “that if we could sail close enough to the Adepts' island, we could detect it, even if Raethius has hidden it. With the lady Holly's help, we could break through the barrier. But we have no craft nor sailing knowledge—”

“That's why we're callin' the sea witch!” Nerys crowed. “No shame in it, dearie! It's what I do.”

“Just wait,” Holly said loudly, and everyone quieted. “Jade, tell me what you think.”

The cat's tail bristled. “We have no sea chart pointing us to the Adepts' location. But conjuring the sea witch is not to be taken lightly. She is dangerous and unreliable. How do we know she would help rescue Ranulf in the first place? Once freed, this is a genie that will be impossible to put back in its bottle.”

“She's a genie?” Ben asked eagerly.

Jade sniffed at him. “I was making a point.”

“And I say our options are very few,” said Almaric.

“What about the others who could help us?” Holly asked. “Like Fleetwing, or maybe Bittenbender?”

“As I say, I'm afraid the Exiles are somewhat scattered,” said Almaric. “Not all of them believed you would return, Lady Holly. We have not seen Fleetwing since Midsummer. The changeling has vanished. Even the Mounted have kept themselves hidden. But Hornbeak the falcon has gone to find them, as well as Bittenbender. Some of his own people, the Dvergar, are also held in the castle dungeons. He may be willing to help us, now that . . .”

Holly squeezed her hand into a fist, touching her fingertips to the long scar down her palm. “Now that I'm back.”

“But we need more magic than brute strength to overcome the castle guards, and that the sea witch can give us.” Almaric looked hard at Jade. “Regardless, this is our only chance to conjure her. Once Samhain has passed, she will be unreachable.”

“Enough talk.” The sea hag rocked back on her stool until the momentum set her upright on her squat legs. “The moon is near risen. If the sea witch's to be called, the time is now. You lot, begone, so's I can prepare.” She shooed Almaric away, but then pulled Everett by his sleeve and gave him a watery grin. “Not the lads. Ye can help me.”

Almaric stood up and lit a small glass lantern, then motioned to Holly. She grinned at Everett, who scowled back, and followed Almaric into the glade, with Jade at her heels.

They settled on the tree stumps that served as Almaric's patio furniture. “You're not taking cold, Lady Holly?” asked Jade.

The air was chilly, but the little Salamander on her shoulder warmed her enough. “It's fine.”

“But something troubles you.”

How could she explain it? She had hoped this would be easier. But what had she expected? Strolls through the forest with Ranulf? A quick, painless battle to dethrone the king? More than that, she hadn't even thought about . . .

“Raethius,” she said in a voice just above a whisper. “Jade, how bad are things? Tell me the truth.”

The cat looked at Almaric, who shifted in his seat, looking away. “The Sorcerer has grown in power, but he shows signs of desperation. He has had the magicfolk subdued for years, but then he heard of your visit and the stirrings of an uprising. We hear rumors that dark creatures have appeared from the Gloamlands at his bidding. He poisoned a school of freshwater merfolk in one of the northern lochs. An enclave of the Dvergar was found on the moors, their bodies gutted—”

A wave of nausea washed over Holly. “I just don't understand it,” she said. “Why would he do this? Raethius is a sorcerer. Why does he kill the magicfolk?”

“We're not certain,” said Almaric. “So little is known of him. Some say he came from the Gloamlands himself—the lands in the wilds of the north. Some think he may have Elemental blood. But it is clearly his mission to subdue the magicfolk, to divide us and leave us cowering in the woods.”

“I believe his aim since the beginning has been to amass the kingdom's most powerful magicks for some other, darker purpose,” said Jade. “Why else would he travel so often? The mortalfolk are not his concern, and he uses Reynard's knights as fodder. He searches for something.” Jade raised a whiskered eyebrow at Holly. “Something he fears you will prevent his obtaining, perhaps.”

Áedán huddled close to Holly's neck with a shiver.

The cottage door opened and the sea hag popped her head out. “We're as ready as ever we'll be, Yer Ladyship. Or will ye stay in the gloamin' till dawn?”

Everett was less than happy about being drafted for sea hag duty. He had the feeling, as the others left him and Ben alone with Nerys, that Holly thought she was entitled to plan everything. Everett thought it should be more of a democracy. Yet here they were, getting ready to conjure some kind of witch who everyone seemed a bit wary of.

It seemed to Everett like a very bad idea.

At Nerys's direction, he started stacking Almaric's wicker furniture in one corner. Maybe Ben was used to Holly taking charge, but Everett wasn't. Hadn't he managed to keep himself and Ben alive the last time they were here? No one—not even Ben—knew how close Everett had come to making a horrible bargain with the Elemental. The fiery little person who called herself Sol had agreed to give Everett the magic he needed to earn his and Ben's freedom, but in exchange she wanted Holly—for what purpose, Everett was never quite sure. But when he didn't deliver her, which of course he
couldn't
do, Sol snatched the magic away from him. Although he knew he had done the right thing, he had felt the loss ever since. That wand had made him special, made him
someone
. He liked that feeling just as much as Holly did.

He wasn't sure what this old magician knew about him, though Jade clearly didn't like him. Everett was hoping that this time around he might prove himself and get to do a bit of the magic that Holly was always going on about. He set down the chair he was carrying and pulled the chain from inside his shirt. The gold locket gleamed at his touch. This, at least, was all his. No stolen wands or agreements with dodgy magical creatures. Idly, he tried to spring the catch to open the locket, but it held fast.

A finger of smoke oozed from inside it and circled him, as if something inside the locket were burning. But the gold didn't feel hot. Everett squeezed his eyes shut. His head felt thick and dizzy.

“This table ain't movin' itself,” Nerys called to him.

Everett glared at her, but he dropped the locket inside his shirt. He took a deep breath; his head cleared.

Ben helped him move Almaric's low table to the center of the room. Nerys covered it with a black cloth and opened her rucksack. Out of it she took a small skull—it might have been a monkey's, Everett told himself, but he could see it was probably a child's—and a very sharp silver-handled knife. She laid the knife crosswise to the skull, which she placed in the center of the table. She cut a long, thick rope to a length of about three feet, and laid it parallel to the knife. Finally she arranged five black beeswax candles around the other items.

Everett watched all this in silence until Ben nudged him aside. “Do you think this is okay? She's kinda—I don't know—black magicky.”

“We don't have much choice, do we?” Everett whispered back. “Anyway, they're Holly's friends, right?”

“
She's
nobody's friend, far as I can tell,” said Ben, eyeing Nerys. She was busy sprinkling something shiny on the surface of the altar. “And what's this about a sea witch? Isn't a sea
hag
bad enough?”

“All ready, methinks,” Nerys said. She gave them a hard look as if she'd heard everything they'd been saying, then walked out and called the others in from the clearing.

“It's now or never,” she said as everyone gathered around the table. “Time grows short.”

“Of course, Nerys,” Almaric said, smiling nervously. Everett noticed that Nerys had spread several gold coins, like doubloons, among the other objects.

“The sea witch only comes with a price,” Nerys said, following his eyes. “Now then. All take hands round the altar.”

Holly and Jade exchanged a look, but they did as she asked.

“I don't like this,” Ben muttered.

“Not to worry, Ben,” Almaric said, smiling. But his wrinkled hand, clasping Everett's, was sweaty, and the old man's eyes roved back and forth from the door back to the altar. “All will be well.”

Nerys stood up on her waddly feet to light the candles, then rejoined them at the altar, completing the circle. Clearly, Ben wasn't crazy about holding her pudgy, algae-smelling hand, but she snatched his up and held it so tight that he winced.

“Eyes closed,” she commanded, and then began to chant:

“Beyond the land, we call to thee

Come over swell and over sea

Pull the anchor from the sand

Bide a time upon the land

Sea witch of legend, ship of yore

Whose voyage wide, from shore to shore

Will steer us true, to isles of gloom

By witch's compass, witch's broom

Come hither, to the magic elm

Where dwelleth those of earthly realm

And bring ye aid, what we desire

Through the storm, through muck and mire.”

Though the chanting was soft and lulling, at the end Nerys threw up both her flabby arms and cried in a louder, deeper voice than Everett would have believed possible:

“Now come!”

At once, a strong, wet breeze blew through the window and extinguished the candles. Ben whimpered and a chill snaked down Everett's back. He heard a soft gasp from Holly. Almaric said nothing, but grasped his hand tight; and the moon went dark.

Inside the cottage Everett could see nothing. Even the fire in the hearth had gone out, leaving a thick, palpable gloom. Outside, a gust of wind rocked the elm trees and shook the cottage. Rain followed immediately, the same sort of relentless, bucketing rain that had plagued Hawkesbury all summer. He heard a great burbling, as from the overswollen stream, though the sound was too loud for that, almost like waves crashing on a shore. The earth trembled. The front door flew open with a bang at the same moment the moon broke from the clouds, backlighting a dark figure who stood in the lashing rain.

It growled: “Who's callin' us out in this infernal weather, then?”

The fire bloomed in the hearth again, flooding the room with a weak light, and in stepped a squat, dark-haired little man with a fierce scowl and a battle-axe propped over one shoulder.

“Is't the Adept?” the creature said. “ 'Cause she owes me.”

Holly jumped as Nerys pushed away from the table. “Earthfolk!” she spat. “What the devil is
he
doin' here? The sea witch don't mix with Earthfolk! Of all the nerve.” She padded squishily over to her stool. “Spell's broken, thankee very much, I
don't
think.”

Almaric dropped Holly's hand and stood up. “Nonsense, Nerys. I've invited Bittenbender here to help us! And . . .” He looked questioningly at the Dvergar, who grunted and jerked a thumb behind him. Two other men, neither of them any taller than Ben, entered the cottage. Both were bearded, though one of them, who had a shock of very red hair, was clearly younger than the other, who was dark like Bittenbender and wore a squashed hat over a low, beetling brow.

Bittenbender waved them forward. “This here's Swikehard”—he indicated the dark-haired Dvergar—“and our ginger's Wiggers. He's not long a man, but good in a fecht, all the same.”

Bittenbender's was the first familiar face Holly had seen that didn't prompt her to give him a hug. “This is my brother, Ben, and our friend Everett,” she said. “This is Bittenbender, leader of the Dvergar.”

“I recall 'em,” said Bittenbender. “The cause of all the trouble, if memory serves.”

“Or you might say,” said Almaric, “the catalyst that brought us all together. Had we not united to rescue these boys—”

“Then some of my men would still be with us.” The little man scowled at Holly. “Did ye know about
that
? The king has been hunting us ever since the Battle of Midsummer, and here I am again, coming to Yer Ladyship's aid.”

In Holly's experience the Dvergar did very little that did not benefit himself. “We're glad you're here,” she said, trying to mean it. “But what about the sea witch?”