The Wand & the Sea (30 page)

“Take Ben!” she said. “I have to wait for Jade.”

But just as she spoke, the cat came flying from the forecastle like a streak of black lightning, something clutched in his mouth. Behind him rose a figure, a
thing
, the likes of which Everett had never seen before.

Its very presence stilled the crew as if they were caught in a game of freeze tag. The waves flattened. Everett, panting, was somehow frozen too, hanging off the ropes, Ben's sleeve clutched in his fist. When the figure spoke, its voice was like an icicle dagger.

“Adept,” it said. “You have not fulfilled your contract.”

Everett yanked hard on Ben's sleeve, pulling him over, and the two of them tumbled through the cold air, farther than Everett had hoped, waiting for the blast of icy water. It smacked them, then engulfed them.

At once, Everett's fingers went numb, but he tightened his grip on Ben's sleeve. All he could think of was how he'd nearly lost Ben in the castle moat, and he wasn't about to let it happen again. He hauled the two of them to the surface.

Everett could just see Holly over the curve of the great hull, standing her ground, her face set hard. Behind her back, she was waving the wand in tiny circles, and little eddies of water were swirling in their direction. Had she run out of strength at last? Was Raethius draining her somehow?

But then he saw what she was doing. The longboat, far adrift, was bobbing toward them on the tiny tide Holly had created.

She was shouting something at the Sorcerer now, trying to distract him. Everett couldn't see Jade. He held Ben up by the collar of his shirt. He hung from Everett's grasp, his teeth chattering, too cold to flail about. That was a blessing; at least he wasn't fighting. Everett paddled toward the boat, and it glided to them. He shoved Ben up. “Grab it,” he panted. Ben kicked, but he was too short and weak to pull himself in. “Hold on,” said Everett, and dragged himself aboard. He grabbed Ben's arms and pulled him into the boat, then collapsed, breathing hard. He looked up at the deck of the
Black Dragon
.

He was glad he did, or he would've missed it: Holly, so small, but straight, her brown braids hanging down; Raethius, so tall and terrible, raising up his horrid black wings. Avery, huddled close to Holly, shouted at the Sorcerer, distracting him for a moment. Holly held something in her left hand. Everett couldn't see what it was, but she brought it to her mouth and kissed it; and then her hand blazed with a golden light, and a bolt of fire shot from it like a laser beam.

Beside him, shivering, Ben gasped. “That was—wasn't it?”

Áedán.

And even though Everett couldn't help thinking it was futile, such a little flame against such a prodigious foe, a warm hope filled him. Áedán struck again, and the protective fire sprang up around Holly. Raethius raised his fingers as if to counter the Salamander's spell, but Avery leaped at him, knocking him off-balance. Raethius roared and struck out a hand, sending the prince flying into the sea. Holly scrambled onto the poop-deck railing. Jade followed. They hesitated only a moment, Áedán's ball of fire a bright beacon against the black sky; and then they plunged.

Holly bobbed to the surface almost at once. The protective flames Áedán had cast were swallowed in the sea. Up on the deck of the
Black Dragon
, Raethius smiled, unconcerned. Where could they go now? He would just pluck them out of the water unless she did something.

Holly, Jade, and Avery, who was nearby, swam for the longboat as Everett paddled toward them. Her ankle gave a wrench as he pulled them aboard, but she felt it only for a moment. She scooped Áedán off her shoulder and cupped him in her hands. She blew on him to warm him, and Jade added his breath as well. The Salamander glowed.

“Holllllly!”

Her chin jerked up.

Ben wasn't in the longboat.

“Up there!” Everett cried, pointing at the sky.

She saw her brother silhouetted against the nearly full moon, suspended in a cyclone. On the deck of the
Black Dragon
, the Sorcerer stood extending his white fingers toward Ben. “I warned you, Adept!” he shouted. “Fulfill your contract and none shall be harmed. You have my word.”

“His
word
,” Avery said, his voice breaking. He raised his wand.

“No, don't.” Holly caught his sleeve. “Let me.”

Áedán's magic had already proved too weak against the Sorcerer's. And Raethius's command of the waves was better than hers too. She couldn't beat him with fire or water.

But fire
and
water?

Almaric had said it wouldn't work. Ailith had told her it couldn't be done. Even Jade had argued against it. They knew more than she did, but Áedán crouched in her palm, ready. He knew what she wanted.

“Together,” she whispered to him.

Áedán shot the firebolt from his splayed, sticky foot.

Holly called the water with a flourish of her wand.

The sea churned around them, but she couldn't make it rise. The fire in her hand was fighting against it. She closed her eyes.

“Let the fire help you,” Jade whispered.

She felt his warm paw on her arm. The wand trembled in her fist; she relaxed her grip, letting its power pour through her hands, down through her arm, until it filled her heart, gathered strength, and rebounded. She pointed the wand at the sky, pulling Áedán's firestream closer to her; then she threw it into the sea, and Áedán shot it aloft. The sea boiled; it spiked; a wave rocked the longboat, fell back, and finally rose alongside the firestream.

Her arms shook with the struggle to hold the two elements in place; the broken ankle throbbed. Sweat poured off her forehead into her eyes, despite the frozen wind and the ice chunks floating around them. In the air, Ben flailed on his back, his eyes round, his face as white as the moon. The Sorcerer drew the cyclone closer to the schooner.

“You can do it, Holly!”

She could barely hear him above the churning waves and the roaring wind. Or perhaps she only imagined him saying it, Ben who never doubted her, who thought she could do anything.

She had no choice but to prove him right.

The firestream shot to the cyclone and swallowed it with a greedy
thwump
. Right behind it, Holly's saltwater wave caught Ben and tempered the flames. The two streams intertwined in a slow dance, the silver water glinting in the moonlight, the orange fire dazzling her eyes. They interlocked.

A backblast rocketed to earth, heaving the schooner out of the water. The Sorcerer fell to his knees on deck. The longboat's bow shot out of the water and fell back with a smack as Holly guided the united streams toward them. The two streams cradled Ben and lowered him gently into the longboat. Holly collapsed against the gunwale.

But Avery tugged her sleeve. “A sail! Lady Holly, 'tis the
Sea Witch
—perform the Vanishment!”

For once he didn't try to cast the spell himself. Holly glimpsed the brigantine's lantern on the horizon. She could only hope that Avery was right; if he wasn't, she had no idea where they'd end up. But there was no time to think of that now; she seized Avery's hand as Ben and Everett grabbed on to her, and Jade's tail wound around her ankles. With one exhausted cry, they plummeted into darkness.

“Imigh!”

The spell didn't feel as smooth as it had before. There was a good bit more jostling, and Ben squeezed her elbow so tight, her fingers went numb. She was cold, wet, and exhausted, and when the black curtain rose around them, she prayed she was seeing her own spell and not Raethius's wings. But a moment later the rough planks of the
Sea Witch
's deck solidified beneath them and they fell in a jumble somewhere amidships.

Rowan, at the helm, clanged the ship's bell. “Captain, they're here!” she cried. Every hand appeared on deck, the Elementals stretched their webbed fingers, and the seawater sped away beneath the keel, driving the brigantine forward. Holly and the others fell over as the ship rolled, and a bolt of pain shot through Holly's ankle. But on her shoulder, spent and shivering, Áedán clung to her neck with his sticky feet, and that made everything bearable.

“Get below!” shouted Morgan from the forecastle, and Holly dragged her foot to the hatch. When she threw it open, Almaric appeared at the ladder to help her down. The boys followed, and then the crew tumbled through as well. Everyone sat, cold and dripping, in the brigantine's lower deck.

Ranulf and Almaric couldn't stop hugging Holly. The centaur opened his lecture with, “These lads should never have—” But he was cut off as the ship plunged and everyone was forced to the floor.

Almaric clucked and
tsked
over Holly's ankle. “I cannot heal it,” he muttered, “but I can make you more comfortable. This will help numb the pain.” He rummaged in his knapsack and pulled out a linen cloth, which shimmered in a strange way. He tore it into strips and used it to bind her ankle. “A bit of my own magician's craft . . . Nothing to your own skill, obviously,” he said, but Holly felt the difference at once. At least she could hobble on the ankle a bit now.

“Morgan's crew have been tireless,” said the magician as he finished wrapping her ankle. “They have been driving the
Sea Witch
as if before a gale ever since you disappeared. And once we discovered the lads missing—”

“I should let it be known, Lord Magician,” Avery cut in, “that I was indeed able to perform the Vanishment spell.”

“No, you didn't,” said Ben. “Those stones of Holly's got us to the
Black Dragon
.”

Avery turned a little pink. “Well. With some assistance, no doubt.”

Holly was so tired, she didn't bother arguing with Avery. The ship sank lower and lower. Almaric fussed with his bandages, muttering as he rolled them up. “Almaric? What's wrong?”

The magician swallowed, not meeting her eyes. “Your injury, Lady Holly. It is serious. I think it time we return you to your own world, where you'll be safe.”

“We don't have to go. Not . . . not yet,” Holly said. But she supposed Almaric was right. She couldn't navigate to the Adepts' island, and now that Raethius was after her, she was putting everyone in danger.

“We'll come back, Holly,” Everett said. “We'll regroup at home, you can heal up your ankle, then we'll have another go, yeah?”

“Her ankle's broken,” Ben said. “Anybody could see that. By the time it's healed, we'll be on our way back to America.”

“Then you must stay in your own world,” said Ranulf. “Until such is your time to join us again.”

“But . . .” Holly hated the thought of leaving now that she knew what Raethius could do. She had no idea when she would be able to come back. Suppose no one was left to come back to?

Almaric's eyes also looked watery, but he rubbed them quickly. “What must be, must be. You will return to us, I am sure of it.”

“Of course I will,” Holly said at once. “The minute that I can. And so will Ben and Everett.”

Both boys nodded. Avery sat next to Everett, gazing at the floor between his knees. Holly found it rather a relief that he was silent, but Everett nudged him. “You okay?”

The prince looked up, his eyes red. “What am I to do, Everett? My father's throne is controlled by a monster. He has seen me as a traitor. I cannot return to the castle.”

Almaric and Ranulf exchanged worried looks.

“So, you'll come with us,” Everett said.

“Is that wise?” Jade asked, staring pointedly at Holly.

Was it? Holly couldn't look at Avery, the question naked in his blue eyes. He had fought alongside her; she couldn't deny that. But how could they bring someone from Anglielle home with them?

“Where would he stay?” Ben asked. “We can't just say we found him in the forest. He's a kid. They'll try to find his parents. Plus, he talks weird.”

“They wouldn't even understand him,” Holly said. “We can, because the wand translates for us. But he doesn't speak the same kind of English that we do.”

“I would make my own way,” said Avery stoutly. “I shall live in the wood and hunt for my food.”

“You've lived in a palace your whole life. You don't know anything about making your own way. Besides, you're not allowed to do that.” The ship gave a shuddering jolt. It was ascending. “Almaric, where are we going?” asked Holly.

Kailani, who was sitting close enough to overhear, answered for him. “The captain has sworn to return ye to yer land. She'll take us as close to the Elm as she can, whence we fetched ye.”

“In the forest?” Ben asked.

“Nay, she must surface in a body of water close by. From there she'll navigate to the Elm, as she did before.”

Almaric groaned, no doubt thinking of his trees.