Salamaine's Curse (22 page)

“Yeah. But I don't think even you can pull that off.”

As Tom watched the bird devouring its meal, Zaputo stuck two fingers in his mouth and emitted an ear-splitting whistle. The bird gave a sharp caw and tore off the fish's head. Grasping it in its talons, it flew to the captain. Zaputo gave the bird an approving pat, then sucked on the slimy fish head, smacking his lips in satisfaction.

Tom's stomach turned. Disgusting.

Willa and Mudge approached. “Look,” Willa said, indicating a shimmering spot in the distance. “The Coral Canyon. We're almost there.”

Already?
Tom thought, battling a sudden bout of nerves. Keegan had allotted them only three days to retrieve the Black Book of Pernicus and return it to him. Tom knew they had to move fast. He
wanted
to move fast. But that didn't make the prospect of landing on a scavenger-infested island any less terrifying— particularly if they didn't have a firm plan in place to get off that same island.

He rose and moved to the ship's rail. Porter tucked the map away and joined him. Together the four watched in fascinated silence as the
Crimson Belle
sailed toward the canyon. From a distance, it looked like nothing more than a glowing pink blur on the horizon. But as they drew closer, Tom was able to make out a series of jagged peaks jutting up out of the sea.

He had assumed the
Crimson Belle
would merely have to make its way through a single, hourglass-shaped gap in the canyon. Difficult, but not necessarily deadly. What he saw before him, however, made his throat draw tight with fear.

The passage to the Cursed Souls Sea was far more treacherous than anything he could have imagined. The canyon wasn't actually a canyon at all. It was an obstacle course, filled with razor-sharp columns of glittery pink coral that shot up at random intervals, thrusting out of the sea like a series of spiky stalagmites. The ship would have to slalom its way through them to get to the other side, fighting against wind and currents which threatened to drive them into the coral and shred the hull.

If they'd been in a car, Tom would have wanted to slam on the brakes and turn around. But obviously that wasn't an option.

Ignoring the fluttering drum roll in his belly, his gaze returned to Salvador Zaputo. The captain had moved to the foredeck beside the ship's pilot. He lowered the spyglass he held, seemed to think for a moment, then calmly conveyed an order to his crew.

If he was at all intimidated by the task of safely navigating his ship through the perilous canyon, his face didn't show it. He looked cool and collected, completely in command.

Tom swallowed hard and tried to draw some comfort from that. He noted Willa's white-knuckled grip on the ship's rail. “We'll make it,” he said to her. “If Zaputo's not worried, we shouldn't be.”

Willa let out a shallow breath. “Right,” she said, forcing a shaky smile. But Tom noticed her grip didn't lessen any.

Zaputo's men furled the mainsails, leaving nothing but the topsails fluttering. They paused for a moment just outside the entrance to the Coral Canyon. The ship stalled, as though caught between shifting currents. Or perhaps giving them time to reconsider their decision to enter the canyon. Up close, the coral glittered like thousands of shards of broken glass, just waiting to rip them to pieces.

Despite the reassurances he'd offered Willa, Tom found he couldn't calm his own nerves. His stomach performed a series of somersaults and his heart fluttered in his chest. The
Crimson Belle
shuddered and groaned as though issuing a final protest, or maybe a warning of imminent danger ahead, just the way the
Purgatory
had before it plunged over the edge of the earth.

All around him, Tom could feel the passengers and crew of the
Crimson Belle
catching their breath and holding it. Waiting. Porter clutched the map in his fist and shifted anxiously. Mudge locked his palm around the hilt of the Sword of Five Kingdoms, which remained tucked at his side. The boy chewed his lower lip. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but his words died in his throat. No one dared break the tense silence that surrounded them.

The moment stretched out. Then, like a roller coaster reaching the crest of a hill, the ship's bow drifted into place and the ship launched.

They shot forward, propelled by winds and currents and gravitational forces Tom couldn't begin to define. Had Zaputo not been the captain he was, or his crew so highly trained, the
Crimson Belle
would have splintered into pieces many times over. Instead they repeatedly came within a hair's breadth of collision with the jagged coral peaks, only to veer away from utter disaster with just seconds to spare.

Then, just when Tom was certain their luck would finally run out, they passed their last obstacle. They'd made it through. But any elation he might have felt at still being alive withered and died as he looked at what awaited them.

The Cursed Souls Sea.

The sky was bile green, thick with whirling gray clouds that twisted around and around like the eye of a tornado. Water spouts and towering waves sprang up from a churning sea that frothed and foamed in violent shades of purple and black. Within the waves Tom caught glimpses of scaly, gargantuan creatures that looked like squid—only unlike the squid he was used to seeing, these were armed with enormous fangs. Other sea monsters lurked just below the waterline, but Tom couldn't see those as clearly. He could only make out a sinister, slithering impression of the slippery beasts.

That alone was terrifying. But worst of all was the wind. It seemed to come at them from all sides, howling and screeching as it whipped across the deck. It wasn't a normal wind at all. This sounded like demonic laughter, as though Pernicus himself was marking their approach and shrieking with delight.

As though he'd been eagerly expecting them.

As though the
ship,
and all those aboard it, was heading right into his trap. They sailed headlong into the Cursed Souls Sea.

T
he
Crimson Belle
pitched and rolled, carried by swiftly moving currents that were beyond even Zaputo's control. A few pockets of the sea were as dark and slick as blackened sheets of ice. Other stretches churned with violently twisting whirlpools that sucked everything that came near them into their deadly wake. They scooted past those dangers, only to be drawn up into towering waves that shot them skyward, then sent them plummeting down the opposite side.

Willa let out a soft groan and lowered her head. Tom gave her a sideways glance. Although she remained standing, she was deathly pale and her skin had a delicate green hue. Seasick, he guessed.

He nodded toward her satchel. “You have any herbs in there that could help your stomach?” he asked.

“Probably, I would have taken something, but I guess I didn't think it would be this bad.”

“We're almost there,” he said, hoping to reassure her, though in truth he had no idea where they were.

She let out a long, uneven breath. “You think so?”

“Definitely.” At least he hoped so. They didn't have time to drift about aimlessly. Not if they wanted to make it out of the Cursed Souls Sea and back through the Coral Canyon before nightfall.

He started to say more, but his attention was captured by a tiny spec that appeared on the horizon. Tom squinted, watching the spec grow larger and larger until he was able to identify the object as a ship—a ship that traveled in the opposite direction they were moving.

He tensed, momentarily convinced that Keegan had decided he didn't need them after all. That his men had somehow made it to Arx, and were now on their way back to Divino with the Black Book of Pernicus.

But what he saw was much, much worse.

The passengers and crew of the
Crimson Belle
lined the rails to watch in horror as the vessel drifted past. The ship's sails had been ripped to shreds, its lines were tangled, its deck was rough and worn. There was no evidence of anyone onboard—or rather, no evidence of any
living
being onboard.

The ship had been seized by scavengers.

They hung from the masts and staggered across the decks. Seaweed-drenched scavengers clung to the hull. They peered out through the portholes and swung from the crow's nest, their rotted, mangled bodies filling every inch of the ship.

Once the
Crimson Belle
was spotted, a fevered cry went up among the creatures. They moaned and writhed in frenzied excitement, hunching up and down, their arms stretched out as though to pluck the
Crimson Belle's
passengers off the deck and greedily devour them right where they stood.

Fortunately, the ships were too far apart for that to be possible, though more than a few scavengers toppled into the sea attempting it. An octopus-like arm shot up from the murky depths, wrapped around the flailing scavengers, and pulled them under. A few seconds later a greasy stain bubbled to the surface.

Tom shuddered. The scavenger's ship continued past, becoming smaller and smaller as it drifted into the distance. Off to terrorize the people of Aquat, Divino, or some other land? he wondered. Tom tore his gaze away, looking for something else to focus on, when one of Zaputo's crewmen bellowed a single word.

“Land!”

Tom spun around. His eyes locked on a rocky, terracotta -colored island shimmering on the horizon.

Zaputo stepped forward. He peered into the distance. A triumphant glimmer entered his dark eyes. He sucked in a deep gulp of air, then breathed out a single word.

“Arx.”

They'd made it.

As the
Crimson Belle
drew closer, Tom shielded his eyes and was able to make out the skeletal remains of the island city. He saw towering buildings, coliseums, fountains, three-story pillars framing an outdoor stage, enormous statues—all carved from the same shimmering pink stone.

The site reminded him of sketches he'd seen of ancient Rome. The structures were badly decayed, huge swaths of stone now broken and crumbling to dust, but enough remained for him to imagine how spectacular the city must once have been.