Saturdays at Sea

by Jessica Day George

  There was a great creaking and groaning, and the sails began to whip around.

  “She’s trying to turn,” Orlath said in a hushed voice. “She’s trying to keep her course straight.”

  “What do we do?” Pogue said. “How can we help?”

  “Come to the helm with me,” Orlath said, and started to turn away.

  A loose rope whipped across the bow, and Rufus leaped up and snatched hold of it, yanking on it as if it were a tug-o-war rope from his tower at the Castle.

  Orlath’s face brightened. More of the ropes were whipping loose as the Ship tried to adjust its sails, and the sailors, confused and frightened, were all hunched at the base of the mast.

  “What do I do?” Celie said at once.

  “Mount up,” Orlath said, as though she were a knight and Rufus her steed.

  Which, she supposed, was true. She leaped onto his back and settled herself, telling him to keep hold of the rope but not bite through it as she did so.

  “Tie that to the spar there,” he ordered, pointing, “so that the sail is pulled on an angle, that way.” He pointed in the opposite direction. “All of you: mount up! Let’s get these sails secured.” He saw Pogue and hesitated. “No, on your griffin,” he said. “Rolf, to the helm!”

  Rufus seemed to know just what to do, and Celie barely had to guide him as he flew up to hover near the spar Orlath had pointed to. Celie leaned over Rufus’s neck and grabbed the trailing end of the rope. Then she hauled it in with both hands, pulling the striped sail taut with great effort. She wrapped the rope around the spar and tied it the way one of the crew had shown her during some of the more boring days on the Ship.

  Across the way she could see Lilah and Juliet doing the same thing to another sail rope, and below were Lulath and Lorcan with two ropes that held the largest sail. Lorcan had one rope in his mouth, while Lulath had another in his hand, and they were flying straight out from the Ship, trying to drag the canvas as far to the west as they could before tying it off.

  Once they had all the sails tied into place, the Ship was still groaning and straining, but they were moving forward more than to the side. Orlath and Rolf both had their hands on the wheel. They were turning it—or, rather, keeping it turned—so that the rudder was at an angle, too.

  Celie didn’t know what else to do, so she guided Rufus to go up higher, away from the Ship, so that they could see the Well. Once they had a good view of it, Rufus froze in the air, forgetting to flap his wings. It wasn’t until they started to fall rather than glide that Celie came to her senses and shouted for him to keep them in the air.

  The Well was enormous. And horrible. A great sucking hole in the sea, with nothing but black water swirling around the edge and black nothingness in the center.

  Celie knew she was one of a handful of people to have seen the Well from above. And the only others were with her: Pogue, Lilah, and Lulath. They were all flying high, ahead of the bow of the Ship, and looking down into the Well. It wasn’t even water down at the bottom, from what Celie could tell. It was just . . . nothing.

  She shuddered, and when she gave the command for Rufus to land on the Ship, he dove for the main deck so swiftly that she slipped back a little and had to grip him tighter with her legs to keep from falling.

  Rufus landed with a thump right at the foot of the mast, and Celie staggered off his back. Her mother was there, doing something magical to the base of the mast, and spared only a glance at Celie to make certain she was all right. The others landed around her, and they all stood beside their griffins in silence and watched as Queen Celina finished painting wizardly markings around the mast.

  “How bad is it?” she asked when she was done.

  “It’s . . . bad,” Celie said.

  “We’re going to die,” Lilah agreed, but in a subdued way. Lulath put an arm around her, drawing her close to his side. “We should . . . we should have Orlath marry us. Right now. He can do that, can’t he?” she asked Lulath.

  “I shouldn’t think we need to do something so dramatic,” Queen Celina said. “And besides, you all need to leave immediately.”

  “What do you mean, Your Majesty?” Pogue was the one to ask.

  “I don’t know why we didn’t think of it before,” the queen said, almost cheerfully. “Especially when those other ships were closer! But you can all ride your griffins away from here.”

  “What are you saying?” Lilah demanded.

  “I’m saying that we’re going to put as many as we can on the griffins, and ride them away from here,” Queen Celina said patiently.

  “But we can only carry a couple of people,” Celie spluttered. “Rolf, you, Orlath . . . What about the crew?”

  “I’ve reinforced the Ship as best I can,” the queen said. “To give us a better chance.”

  “Us?” Celie asked with deep suspicion.

  “Well, someone has to stay with the Ship,” she said. “Orlath is insisting that as the captain, it should be him.”

  Lulath made a sound of distress.

  “But since I’m the only one who can use magic, I thought it had better be me,” she finished, still smiling.

  “No,” Celie said, barely able to whisper the word.

  “I’m going to speak to my brother,” Lulath said in Grathian, looking dazed.

  “Celie,” her mother said as Lilah and Lulath hurried aft to the Ship’s wheel to speak to Orlath. “You have to go. You and Rolf. You know this.” Now there was a hint of pleading in her voice.

  “I agree,” Pogue said gruffly. He tried to lift Celie onto Rufus’s back, but she dodged away.

  “Stop that,” she snapped. He’d done it before, and it had saved her life. But this was not the time for her to be flying off free, while her family and the entire crew died. “I’m not going unless we all go.”

  “At the very least, Your Majesty,” Pogue said, “I think we could impose on Lady Griffin to carry you and someone else. That will allow two more people to escape.”

  “Did you really just say that?” Celie demanded. “There are almost two dozen men on the Ship! I’m not leaving them to die!”

  Several of the crew jerked around and stared at the sound of Celie’s voice, and one of them swore. The first mate started toward them, pushed forward by his fellows, but Queen Celina held up one hand and shook her head, smiling all the while.

  “Celie,” she whispered. “Don’t fight me on this. You need to get out of here. You and Rolf and Lilah. And Pogue and Lulath. I don’t even care about Orlath . . . but you children need to go.” Her smile never faltered, but her voice broke at the end. “Go, darling! Before it’s too late.”

  Celie started crying. Her mother gave a signal to Pogue, and he dumped her across Rufus’s back like a sack of potatoes. She tried to fight him but couldn’t, so instead she slithered off as soon as he let go.

  “I don’t want to go,” Celie pleaded. “I—”

  She fell sideways across Rufus’s back again. Pogue had taken the opportunity to boost her back up. Then he almost knocked her right back off when he fell against Rufus.

  The Ship was deep into the Well now. Even with the sails and the wheel turned to make their course as straight as possible, they were swirling around with the pull of the water. The force of it made everything and everyone tilt sideways. The crew were lurching about, shouting and cursing. Arrow spread his legs and dug into the deck with his talons, but Rufus pressed himself against the mast, which was the only way that Celie could get herself upright on his back and take hold of the harness.

  Queen Celina was pressed against the mast now, too. She crouched and then sat, her back against the tall wooden column. Her face looked strained, and Celie knew that her mother was using magic somehow, even as she shooed Celie and Rufus away.

  “Go now, darling,” she said with her jaw clenched. “Just go.”

  “I can’t leave you!” Celie said. Then another thought struck her. “The puppies!”

  Down below in Rolf’s cabin were Lulat
h’s girls and the puppies. Celie had hardly seen them since they’d been born. Kitsi kept them close, and the other dogs stood watch and made sure the new mother had her pick of their food.

  “I’ll get the puppies,” Pogue said. “Just go!”

  But Celie couldn’t. And neither could Pogue. None of them could move now.

  The force of the whirlpool was pressing them against the deck. Celie had to slide down off Rufus’s back and let the momentum paste her to the mast beside her mother. Rufus stretched out his legs until he was pinned to the deck with his limbs and wings painfully outspread.

  The Ship was tilted now, the bow pointing down, and loose ropes and barrels were falling into the Well. Celie could see it rising up around them as the Ship angled toward the blackness at the center and began to race down.

  Down.

  Down.

  Into the nothingness.

  Chapter

  20

  Everything was blackness. There was a feeling of being pressed, hard, against the deck of the Ship, which was what saved them. Celie couldn’t see anything, but she could feel that the Ship was now standing up on its prow, with the griffin figurehead going straight down into the heart of the Well. All she could do was grip her mother with one hand and Rufus’s harness with the other and pray.

  There was an intense pressure building in her ears, and a terrible sound as though the ship were breaking apart. Then with a pop like a wine cork her ears cleared, and the Ship righted itself.

  Celie felt light on her eyelids, and opened her eyes. She hadn’t remembered closing them. But once she opened them, she closed them again. Then she tried opening them once more, but that didn’t change anything.

  They were in another world. There was no doubt about it. It was nighttime here, whereas it had been noon when they’d struck the Well. And it wasn’t just that the time of day had changed: there were two moons hanging low in the sky, and one of them was distinctly pink in color. And although Celie had never been interested in astronomy, even she could see that the stars formed new constellations.

  Queen Celina sat up straight and then stood, using Rufus to pull herself up with a groan. Then she, too, noticed the strange sky and gasped.

  “Is this Hatheland?” she asked, gazing around in fascination.

  “No,” Celie said, sliding her back up the mast until she was on her feet. “It’s not.” She looked around. Pogue was sprawled across Arrow’s back, and she hurried around the still-shaky Rufus to help him up. “Are you all right?”

  “I managed not to get knocked out this time,” Pogue said with a smile, straightening. He looked around. “This isn’t home,” he said. He looked at the pink moon. “And it isn’t Hatheland, either.”

  “How exciting!” Queen Celina said. “But where are the others?” She raised her voice. “Rolf? Lilah? Lulath?”

  “Here!” Lilah called, waving her arm.

  She was standing near the wheel. So were Rolf, Lulath, and Orlath. Grouped around them, shaking out their feathers and making irritated noises, were Lorcan and Juliet, but there was no sign of Dagger or Lady Griffin. Queen Celina noticed this at once.

  “Lady? My lady?” she called. She clapped her hands. “Lady!”

  “Dagger’s below,” Rolf called. “I’ll look for her, too.” He leaped off the aft deck and down into the hold.

  “Where are we?” Lilah said. She, too, was gazing at the pink moon.

  The first mate came over to Celie and her mother. “Yes, um, Highnesses?” he asked, uneasy. “We were wondering that. Where . . . where are we?”

  “We don’t know,” Queen Celina told him.

  The first mate stared at her. He was clearly near to panicking, and could not understand why she was smiling so widely. They were lost, and in a strange world. Several of the crew were still sitting on the deck, and Celie heard one man openly sobbing.

  “We will speak with Prince Orlath,” Celie announced loudly. “But the good news is that the Ship is still whole and no one was injured.” She looked around quickly. “No one was injured? Were they?”

  The man brightened. “I will check on every crewman,” he told her. “If it pleases Your Majesty?” He gave the queen an uncertain look.

  “A wonderful idea,” Queen Celina told him warmly. “And why don’t you gather everyone here on the main deck, and in a few minutes we will make an announcement.”

  The man nodded and hurried away.

  “I’m going to go to the bow and look around,” Celie said.

  “I’ll go with her,” Pogue said.

  “And I’m going to consult with Orlath,” Queen Celina said. She threw her arms around Celie and gave her a quick hug. “I can’t believe I’m in another world,” she said. “I’ve been so jealous of you children! And now I get to come on an adventure as well!”

  Celie didn’t know what to say, so she just nodded and guided Rufus to the bow. She heard Pogue grab Arrow, who was still clinging to the deck with his talons, and drag him along behind.

  “How . . . I just . . . ,” Celie stammered when she reached the bow and Pogue had joined her.

  “I can see her point,” Pogue said cautiously. “You and Rolf and Lilah, and, well, I, have been on a lot of adventures. We’ve been to two strange worlds now—”

  “She went to Hatheland with us, to find the griffin eggs,” Celie pointed out.

  “For a day,” Pogue countered. “And that was after the adventure part was finished and everything was ash.”

  “All right, that’s true,” Celie admitted. “But soon the excitement will wear off, and she’ll find out that adventures are nothing but being cold and tired and hungry and scared all the time.”

  Pogue laughed, but more like he agreed with her. Together they stood in the bow and surveyed the world around them in silence. The two moons and the stars, which seemed closer than the stars at home, made things bright enough to see that they were on another ocean. The water still looked blackish, but the foam had a pink tint thanks to the smaller moon. And off to starboard there was—

  “Is that . . . ?” Celie said, and then stopped to lean farther over the bow rail.

  “Land,” Pogue said. “It’s land.”

  “It is,” Celie said. “It is!”

  “Land!” Pogue shouted, pointing.

  It was a thin white line of beach running along the horizon. Beyond it the darkness was more green than black, and too irregular to be waves.

  Behind Celie the crew were scrambling around, and so was her family. She didn’t see any point in getting in the way, however, so she stayed in the bow and kept her eyes on the land, just in case it was only a vision.

  “The Ship isn’t moving under its own power anymore,” Lilah said when she joined Celie in the bow. “Orlath will have to actually sail us into the port.”

  “Is there a port?” Celie asked, but she knew the answer. Scanning the dimly lit shore, she could see only sand and what she decided must be a thick forest.

  “You know what I mean,” Lilah said.

  The lamps on the Ship were lit, and the men were moving about with purpose now. Several of them scrambled up into the rigging to bring the sails about, and at the helm Orlath was shouting orders. The wind caught the sails, and the captain was able to turn the wheel at last, bringing the Ship around and aiming it straight at the dimly seen shore.

  “This is where those ships have been going,” Celie said as they drew closer to the shore. “Don’t you think? All those ships that disappeared over the years, falling into the Well . . . they came here.”

  Lilah gripped Celie’s arm, her face absolutely glowing in the lamplight.

  “That would be truly an amazing thing,” Lulath said gently. “But there is the small problem that so many ships have been lost here.”

  “And?” Celie said, not seeing the problem.

  “And yet there is nothing here. No dock. No other ships in sight. Not even any wreckage,” Lulath said. His voice was still gentle, and low so that it didn’t carry to
the crew.

  “What do you think happened to them, then?” Celie asked.

  “I’m thinking that they didn’t make it through the Well,” Lulath said. “It may be that we made it because of our wonderful Ship, and your mother’s magic.”

  “That can’t be possible,” Lilah said. “I refuse to accept that!” She shook her head vehemently.

  “Why?” Rolf said, coming up to them. His tunic was writhing, and it took Celie a moment to realize that he had the puppies inside it. “What are you not accepting?”

  “I’m not accepting that we’re the only ship to have made it through the Well to this world,” Lilah restated. “Because if we are, then that means . . .” She let her voice trail away.

  “That means the unicorns really are all dead,” Celie finished for her.

  “Yes,” Lilah whispered. “And we’re stuck in this world for nothing.”

  “Still,” Rolf said, “it’s a new world. There might be anything here, like more griffins, or a different kind of unicorn. Or dragons!”

  “I don’t want to be anywhere near a dragon,” Lilah said. “They breathe fire and eat people!”

  “Well, apparently unicorns aren’t that nice, either,” Rolf reminded her. “All this time we’ve been worried that the griffins would eat them, and that our ancestors were the reason they left Sleyne. It turns out that they were just horrible to begin with!”

  “It doesn’t matter; they’re all dead anyway,” Lilah moaned.

  “All right, children,” Queen Celina said, coming to the bow. “It’s time to stop bickering.”

  “And do what?” Celie asked. “Are we really going to try to reach the shore in the dark?”

  Along with there being no sign of any people (or unicorns) on the shore, there was also no sign of a lighthouse or any markers showing where rocks might be. It would be too awful if the Ship made it through the Well and into another world, only to sink on a rock within sight of land.

  That seemed to be Orlath’s fear as well. Now that they were turned in the right direction, the crew were furling the sails and dropping anchor. Queen Celina had come to tell her family that it was time for them all to get to bed.