Encante (10 page)

We now sat on the surface of an ocean. Below the balcony, the lower half of the ship remained submerged, but here, up here we were surrounded by air.

“Is it breathable?” Newton demanded from behind me. I heard the crackle of a radio and a muttered response. “The air outside is good, Captain,”—Newton chuckled in nervous relief—“even now Hoffrey is taking on as much as we can hold. It seems we’ll not suffocate after all.”

“It was never a possibility,” Everett declared. He thumped the rails, his face a miasma of confidence. “Just look at it!”

It was impossible not to. The ocean expanded as far as the eye could see, all of it laced with the same amber glow it had held below. High above us, I could just make out a rocky ceiling, also a deep ochre, and concluded we were in a cave system of sorts, and the water derived its colour from the surrounding rocks.

“Fascinating,” I muttered.

The Narwhal continued, propelling us out further into the ocean. The further forward we went, the clearer the water became, until it looked no different to that found on the surface of Idele. Had I not known we were within the world itself, I would not have been able to tell the difference with my eyes alone. More peculiar still was the atmosphere, which seemed to expand as we exited what must have been the end of the passageway leading from Idele’s upper ocean into the innards of her heart.

Then I looked up, and saw the sky. The scientist in me knew it wasn’t truly sky, couldn’t possibly be, yet there it was, as blue within the earth as it was without, the only hint of strangeness a proclivity towards pinkish orange clouds.

Before long, we were pressing forward once more, descending now that we had a sure and certain air supply. It seemed the ocean we were now entering was as deep as that which we had just left. I could not say for how long I stood transfixed at that window, watching nothing but the passage of the ever-deepening water around us, which once more reddened as we descended. After a time, I became aware of a delicate melody straining through the air of the ship. It was as I’d heard before, only louder this time, and far clearer.

“What is that music?” I wondered aloud.

“The encante are as renowned for their song as they are for riding rantipole,” Harrow replied. “Still, it is strange.”

I glanced at him questioningly.

“I’ve never heard them sing so
loudly
before,” he elaborated.

I was still watching the waters and enjoying the encante’s sweet song when Pipkin’s radio crackled to life in the doorway behind us.

“Captain!” he exclaimed.

“What is it, Pip?” Everett answered irritably.

“It’s the Lady Drusilla, sir.”

I whirled at the alarmed tone of his voice. His expression did nothing to ease my concern.

Chapter Twelve

“D
amnation, not now!” Everett bolted from the room and I followed closely, having no idea where Drusilla was and knowing full well I would become hopelessly lost if I tried to make my way to her alone. If he objected to my intrusion he made no mention of it.

We reached her cabin to find the door open. Horatio Drew stood outside, wringing his hands in distress while Axel squatted beside his father, hugging his own knees. I pulled myself up short as I reached them and offered Drew a sympathetic arm, upon which he leant gratefully.

“How is she?” I asked.

“Silent.”

A glance inside the cabin revealed Teddy, bent double over Drusilla’s bed, her lax form half obscured by heavy blankets. The notion of the outspoken girl holding her tongue in any situation was difficult to grasp.

“Damn it, Teddy, what ails her?” Everett demanded.

“I have no notion,” he said as I cautiously entered. “She took a sudden turn not a half hour ago and fell before anyone could catch her. She may have hit her head. She was in the engine room with Hoffrey, as I understand it, demanding the lower decks get fresh air first since he’d seen fit to deprive them of more than the rest of us.” I had to catch myself before I commented on that; now was most certainly not the time. “He brought her straight here and had someone fetch me. She’s not woken and is half frozen to the touch.”

“What can be done?” I asked.

“Not a great deal.” Teddy shook his head. “We must let her rest and hope she improves.”

“Let her damn well rest then,” Everett bellowed. “Out, everyone!” He stalked from the room, Teddy following swiftly. I was about to do the same when a hand shot out from the bed and clamped onto my arm. I looked down to see Drusilla’s wide eyes suddenly open, staring up at me. She tugged on my arm but said not a word. I glanced at Everett, who was watching us both with a calculating eye.

“You want to stay, boy?” he demanded.

“It would seem she wishes it,” I ventured.

“Very well.” He nodded brusquely. “Leave them be.”

“But—”

“Axel! I said leave them, damn you.” The door slammed shut on us and I heard the babble of voices retreat. I perched as lightly as I could on the edge of the bed and laid a hand on Drusilla’s forehead. She was indeed frozen, and clammy in a way I’d not thought her skin capable of becoming, for she was so like the encante in complexion.

“Drusilla,” I murmured softly, expecting no answer.

“I’m sorry, Simeon,” she whispered. “We’ll pay for that ruse later, I fear, but it couldn’t be helped, I simply had to get you alone.” I stared at her, wondering if I had heard aright. “I had no choice, I hope you understand.”

“Whatever’s wrong?”

Her fingers pressed hard against my lips; my attempts at whispering never seemed to be good enough. “I had to speak to you, but you must understand, you must promise!”

“Anything,” I said without hesitation.

“Good. My uncle can never know.”

“What do you mean?” I wondered for a brief, deluded moment if she were about to kiss me, perhaps even more.

“Would that I could.” She grinned at me and sat up. “But there’s no time.” I was dignified enough to blush fiercely when she chuckled. “You do that a lot, you know. Your face gives you away more than you realise. But you must leave now.”

“Leave? I thought you wished to see me.”

“I mean leave Idele, not my room.”

My heart sank. I had no wish to leave her. “Why should I leave you?”

“There are encante here, in this ocean.” She slid from her bed and righted the small table she had sat at when last I was in this room. It looked to have been kicked over as Hoffrey had clumsily brought Drusilla to her bed. “
Many
encante, do you understand?”

“I do, but why should that mean I must leave?” She rolled her eyes, collected her cards which were scattered across the floor, and began to shuffle them methodically. The act seemed to calm her nerves.

“There have only ever been small numbers of encante in Idele’s oceans, far fewer than humans. It’s why they were so easily conquered, why they’ve never rebelled, and why very few people know of their existence, even on Idele itself—there are too few of them. Now I know why.”

“They’re all here?”

“Precisely. This place is Encantado, the mother ocean, the place of their birth. It’s the paradise beneath and above the waves, Simeon. The encante in our seas ventured out exploring, they wanted to know what was
beyond
. What they found was
us
.” She spat the word. “How disappointed they must have been.”

I was beginning to understand the implications. “Their abilities, or rather lack of abilities such as your own, come from inbreeding,” I murmured, thinking aloud. “Those now living outside were all bred from a small gene pool?”

“Exactly. They’re stunted, unable even to access their own memories.” She shook her head and sat, methodically dealing the cards as she spoke. “The encante in
this
ocean are not so dilettante; they’re an ancient race, from a time long before the gods even conceived the hairless ape. They will not take kindly to a ship aboard which their people are slaves.”

“Then we must turn back!”

“No, we must go forwards.”

“Drusilla, if what you say is true, there are a large number of creatures out there who will be hostile towards this vessel, we
must
turn back. How many of them are out there?”

“Thousands,”—she smiled up at me—“perhaps more.”

I stared at her. “This is madness; the crew will be slaughtered.”

“Yes.” She was so calm as she spoke that I envied her; my own insides had become mulch, much like the unappetising fish broth Lefe served for breakfast each morning.

“What happened?” I asked at length. “Why did you fall?”

“I had a vision. A strong vision, far stronger than any I’ve had before.”

“Of what?”

“The end of the Narwhal; the crew will indeed die. The encante, however, shall be freed. Those girls you saw below, the farmers, those working in the kitchens, Vee, Mae . . .” She tilted her head and consulted the array of cards before her, smiling as if pleased.

“Drusilla, you must
think
. Your family is aboard, your brother, your father—even if you have no love for your uncle and stepmother, and that I might well understand, I know you love Axel.”

“Of course I love Axel,” she snapped. “You think I would allow anything to befall him? My people are not evil, Simeon, they shall only punish the wicked.”

I eyed her, unsure. “You are certain?”

“As certain as I was that we’d find our way here safely.”

I snorted. So, Everett could not even claim credit for the daring of this mission. All was Drusilla. I wondered why it was she didn’t captain the ship in his stead.

“All right, I understand,” I said. “I’ll not say a word, but why must I leave? You cannot possibly think I condone the treatment of your people? You know my thoughts on the matter as well as I, perhaps better.”

“You must leave! I did not see you.”

“See me where?”

“Anywhere! In my visions of the future, you are a blind chasm into which I cannot see. I do not know if you live through this. I have not seen you die, but nor have I seen you live, and I cannot be certain.” She stood up and embraced me suddenly. “This ship is dangerous for you, Simeon, it always has been but it is more so now. I have known it from the first moment you came aboard, as has Axel. He tried to warn you, I know he did. Teddy too, in administering that bitter tonic the moment you were aboard.” She blinked suddenly, as if something unthinkable had occurred to her. “You have been taking it haven’t you? Gods, Simeon, tell me you’ve been taking it!”

“Yes, of course! Teddy was most insistent, it was for my chest.”

“No, dear one, that was for your soul.” She shook her head. “Uncle has his own potions, chemicals he uses, things brewed up by neither myself nor Teddy, but that hideous scientist of his.”

“Newton?” She nodded. “What chemicals?”

“They’re sedatives mostly, but there is more to them, something that clouds a person's mind, keeps them from thinking clearly. Teddy must have realised from the start Cage would want you for himself. He was trying to protect you.”

“Protect me from what? Drusilla, you’re making no sense, I have taken no chemicals from your uncle.”

“Oh,”—she shook her head—“sweet, unassuming boy. In your food, Simeon, they’re always in your food. The tonic Teddy gave you, it’s part his concoction, part my own. It contains a metal, a liquid metal, that neutralises the chemical compounds and renders them inert.”

I thought of the swirling, almost living nature of the potion I had been taking at the doctor’s behest, and shuddered. “Why did nobody simply tell me?”

“Fear,” she said simply. “Even I am terrified of my uncle. But I must be certain of your safety. Don’t you see? You must leave; should you die here, I could never forgive myself.”

I wrapped my arms around her and rested my chin on the top of her silken hair. “What if I do not want to leave?”

“Then you’re a fool.”

“Most men are.” I looked down at her. “Come with me.”

“What?” Her violaceous eyes widened.

I laughed; I’d actually managed to surprise her. “Come home with me.”

“What about your precious CC?”

“Cecelie be damned.” I kissed Drusila, swiftly but deeply, sensing the urgency of the situation but unable to resist. “I want a woman who can brave the oceans with me.”

She kissed me back, more forcefully, and for far longer. Evidently we weren’t in too much of a rush. “Bugger the oceans, I want to see the stars.”

Chapter Thirteen

W
e made our way swiftly through the maze, Drusilla pausing every now and then, tilting her head in that now-familiar manner. She was searching for Axel.

“I can’t leave without saying goodbye,” she whispered furtively. “I’m certain he and father will be perfectly fine, but even so, I must tell them before I go.” Her hand was delicate within my own, and I was relieved to feel it regaining warmth now the shock of her vision was fading. “Axel will understand, I know he will. He’s doing the same as me, only in reverse.”