Shipwreck Island

by Struan Murray

  ‘It’s the City,’ Seth said. ‘It’s just like the City now.’

  Ellie grimaced, taking a pained breath. The sea appeared beneath them in the gaps between rooftops, green-blue and inviting.

  ‘Oh, Seth,’ said Ellie. ‘I’ve been so stupid. I know you had good intentions, but I should’ve known better – I should have guessed how she’d react.’

  ‘What do you mean … good intentions?’

  ‘When you suggested I tell Kate you’re a god. Now she’s desperate for your power. I’m worried she’ll hurt you – maybe even kill you – if she thinks your spirit might pass to her. If she thinks she can become a real Vessel.’

  Seth slowed a little. ‘Oh,’ he said.

  ‘It’s all right,’ Ellie added, putting a hand on his arm. ‘We’re going to get as far away from here as possible. You should go to the docks and explain things to Janssen and Viola, tell them we have to leave.’

  ‘But what about you?’

  ‘I just need to pick up some things from the Vile Oak,’ said Ellie, thinking of Finn’s drawing that she kept on the mantlepiece. Seth stifled a cough. ‘But you’re much faster than me – you should run ahead.’

  ‘Ellie, you don’t need anything from the Vile Oak,’ said Seth.

  ‘I do!’ she said. ‘Finn’s drawing is there, of him and me and Anna. I can’t leave it behind.’

  Seth coughed again, a sore, ragged sound.

  ‘Are you all right?’ said Ellie, frowning.

  Seth massaged his throat. ‘Fine,’ he croaked. ‘Really. But if Kate knows about me, we need to leave right now.’

  ‘The Oak’s on the way to the docks, it’s barely a detour,’ she said, feeling a rising unease. ‘Seth, you know how important that picture is to me – it’s a piece of my brother.’

  Seth let out a loud, hacking cough that shook his whole body and almost forced him to one knee. He rubbed at his mouth, and when he pulled his hand away, Ellie gasped.

  Part of his cheek had peeled off, dangling in an odd, paper-like curl.

  ‘S-Seth?’ said Ellie. She took a step closer, inspecting the curl of skin. There was no blood underneath, only what appeared to be … fabric.

  She stiffened. ‘No.’

  Seth slapped the flap of skin back into place, grinning at her uncomfortably. ‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said. ‘Come on, let’s get going!’

  Ellie gripped her cane, feeling like she was about to fall through the paving stones beneath her.

  ‘It was you,’ she said. ‘It was you who came back into the workshop the other night, after Seth had gone. Who told me to tell Kate about his powers. It was you.’

  ‘Ellie, I … what are you talking about?’

  ‘No. No!’ Ellie smacked her head in anger. ‘How could I have been so stupid? Wait …’ The street spun round her as memories flashed past, her mind racing to fit the pieces together. ‘That day I set off the bomb in the mine – the day I got taken to the palace – I saw Seth with a group of boys and girls, having fun without me. That’s the whole reason I ran away, the whole reason I was anywhere near that mine in the first place! But Seth wasn’t sitting with them, really, was he? Nobody was sitting with them. It was just you.’

  ‘Of course it was me!’ he said. ‘Me – Seth. You’re talking madness, Ellie!’

  ‘And it was you who almost got us caught that night in Loren’s mansion! And then, when Seth refused to come with me to the volcano, and we had that argument – I was just arguing with you!’

  Ellie found she couldn’t breathe. ‘It was all you. Making me feel like Seth didn’t care about me. Pushing me more and more towards Kate. It was even your bloody footprints that led me to her, the day we first met. You wanted me to be her friend.’

  ‘Oh, Ellie,’ Seth said, ‘I really think you’re letting your imagination get the better of you.’

  A surge of anger throbbed through Ellie’s veins. He looked at her with big doe eyes, still holding the loose piece of skin against his cheek.

  ‘Finn,’ Ellie whispered.

  More skin peeled away, falling like ribbons to the paving stones. Frayed bandages spilled out from underneath, dripping with thick blood. Seth frantically grabbed at the coils of skin, trying to claw them back again. Ellie took a step towards him.

  ‘FINN!’ Ellie roared, letting her brother’s memory fill her mind.

  The Enemy hissed and the last of its skin fell away, revealing the bandaged child beneath. It writhed in a hideous dance before twisting in on itself, folding and collapsing until there was nothing left but the sound of Ellie’s heavy breathing.

  She felt sick. All this time, she’d thought the Enemy was too weak to hurt her, but it had found a way. And she’d been stupid enough to let it. Ellie rubbed tears from her cheeks, but more kept coming. A terrible realization was rising inside her. She glanced up at the tumbledown rows of the Shambles and spotted the Vile Oak.

  ‘Seth!’ she cried, breaking into a run. ‘Please be okay, please be okay, Seth.’

  Her foot caught on a broken paving stone, and she tripped on her bad leg and fell to her knees with a cry of pain.

  ‘Ellie!’

  Her heart leapt as she saw Viola and Molworth racing down the street towards her. Viola helped Ellie to her feet, picking up her cane.

  ‘Where’s Seth?’ Ellie cried. ‘Are you okay?’ she added, noticing a nasty bruise on Viola’s cheek, and Archibald trembling on her shoulder.

  Viola’s lips paled. ‘The Seven came to the Vile Oak.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘No!’ Molworth cried. He was clutching a little medallion of the Queen that hung from a chain round his neck, shivering.

  ‘It was them, Molworth. You saw them.’

  Molworth shook his head vehemently. ‘It wasn’t the Seven, it can’t have been! They must have been imposters. The Queen would never do anything bad.’

  ‘Don’t be stupid,’ said Viola. ‘The Queen’s not who you think she is.’

  ‘She wouldn’t,’ said Molworth, stroking the medallion. ‘She wouldn’t.’

  Ellie held a hand to her face, her lungs heaving too quickly for her to catch her breath. ‘She’s got Seth. What have I done?’

  ‘Ellie, why does she want him?’ said Viola.

  Ellie felt hot tears dribble between her fingers. ‘She knows he’s Varu,’ she whispered. ‘She might hurt him. Maybe even kill him.’

  ‘She WOULDN’T!’ said Molworth. ‘She’s the Queen. She’s a god. She’s good.’

  ‘She’s just that girl Kate,’ Viola told him. ‘And she’s taken Seth prisoner.’

  ‘No, that’s not the Queen,’ Molworth said, closing his eyes. ‘She’s not the Queen,’ he whispered. ‘Not my Queen.’

  ‘She is, Molworth,’ said Viola, but he just turned away, eyes closed, whispering to the medallion in his hand.

  ‘She’s not. She’s not. My Queen is good.’

  Viola looked up at the Ark. ‘Let’s get the fishing clans – they won’t have set sail yet. My dad can rally the sailors. We can rescue Seth.’

  ‘No – people will get hurt.’

  ‘Seth will get hurt, Ellie, if we don’t do anything. Let’s go to the docks.’

  Ellie shook her head and touched her leg. ‘I’ll slow you down. I’m going to go to the palace. I have to try and … help Kate see sense.’

  ‘All right. I’ll bring as many sailors as I can.’

  ‘Don’t try to fight the Wardens or the Seven Sentinels. There’s a secret entrance to the Ark in the abandoned butcher’s shop on Leona Street. Take Molworth – he knows the inside of the palace by heart. He’s obsessed with the place.’

  Viola looked over her shoulder, to where Molworth sat on a wall, wiping his eyes.

  ‘I’ll talk to him,’ she said, then gave Ellie a tight hug. ‘Be careful, Ellie.’

  ‘You too.’

  Ellie limped up the street, glancing back to see Viola pressing Archibald into Molworth’s hands, then sitting down next to him and hu
gging him close. Molworth stroked the kitten’s ear, and gave a tiny smile.

  ~

  Ellie’s journey back to the palace took a lifetime. The streets were empty but for her, some cats and the occasional furtive, nervous face in a window. A newspaper fluttered across the paving stones.

  THE ENEMY, LOREN, IS LOOSE. THE QUEEN SAYS: ‘HIDE INDOORS WITH YOUR LOVED ONES.’

  A cold shadow engulfed her, and Ellie looked up at the looming Ark. She crossed an empty street, passing the shop where she and Kate had once eaten their weight in honeyed nuts, then, heads full of sugar, attempted to skip-rope – in Ellie’s case, unsuccessfully.

  Ellie swallowed, forcing the memory down, down, down, carrying on towards the palace gates. The Wardens admitted her with a nod. Inside, the Great Atrium was illuminated by the new morning light, sunbeams stabbing through the many hundred windows. All that moved were glowing dust motes; there wasn’t a person in sight. Not a sound but the hammering of Ellie’s heart.

  She climbed the stairs, and with every painful stab in her leg, a fresh, happy memory of Kate tormented her. At last, the double doors to Kate’s chamber loomed before her. She took a long breath and held out her free arm, trying very hard to imagine another hand reaching to take hold of hers. And when she looked right she could almost see him: sandy blonde hair, green eyes, and a loving smile.

  She nodded to her brother in gratitude, and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

  She reached for the golden door handle.

  Leila’s Diary

  0 days on the new island

  The Ark ended up almost vertical when we crashed into the island. I clung to the torn stump of one of the masts, afraid that if I didn’t I would fall to my death. People were lying all over the deck, clinging to wreckage or each other and moaning from cuts or bruises or worse. I wanted to weep for the Crone but knew I had to find Varu first.

  I grabbed a length of rope and tied it round the mast stump, lowering myself down the Sky Deck, calling out Varu’s name. My own voice sounded scared to me and got worse every time I cried out. I had a big cut on my leg but there was no time to care.

  I found him draped round another mast, limp as seaweed. His eyes were closed but his skin wasn’t blue any more.

  ‘Varu!’ I cried, lifting him off the mast and holding him in my arms. He wasn’t bleeding and all his limbs were in good shape. ‘Varu? Varu, wake up! You did it! You sailed us to a new land! You’ve saved everyone – we’ll be able to grow proper crops, and there’ll be more space for us to live and everyone will be happy again. And you and me can train those killer whales and we can all go out hunting together! It’s all better. You did it, Varu. You did it …’

  I don’t know why I kept talking and talking, because I think a part of me knew already that he was dead. Eventually I was still talking but there were tears all over my cheeks, and then I was trying to talk but just sobbing and sobbing instead with my head on his chest, because he had died to save us all and it wasn’t fair.

  I heard a cry. It wasn’t a person – I knew right away it was larger and greater and much more powerful. I caught a flash of purple up in the masts, and thought I saw feathers too. Then the cry came again, and the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen flew from one end of the Ark to the other, wings spread wide. As it passed, everyone turned to look, and the people who’d been moaning in pain weren’t moaning any more. Flowers of every colour bloomed from the allotment patches dotting the deck. The cut on my leg was gone.

  I looked down at Varu hopefully, expectantly, because surely if the bird could heal then it could …

  ‘Varu? Varu!’ I shook him. ‘Come on, please, come on.’

  The colossal bird landed in the rigging above, folding its wings and looking down at me with impossible eyes, dark as whirlpools. ‘Bring him back,’ I told it. ‘BRING HIM BACK!’

  A voice spoke. I thought it was right by my ear, then realized it was in my head.

  I cannot bring him back.

  ‘Why not?’ I shrieked at the bird. ‘You’ve got to!’

  The sea overcame him. His soul is still not mended, and he was not ready to control his powers. But do not weep, child. He will return, in time.

  ‘But he was hurting,’ I sobbed. ‘It’s not fair – he died saving everyone. We have to help him!’

  That is beyond both of us now, child. But I feel … one day, there will be someone who can heal him. One who can give him hope. Do not fear for his fate, brave Leila. Now, we must look to ourselves. A new day dawns, and we shall meet it together.

  ‘What do you mean … together?’

  The bird’s eyes filled my mind.

  I mean, I am in need of a new Vessel.

  The Great Inventor

  Kate stood tall between the golden spiral staircases, beneath the glittering God-Bird. She wore her black dress, her purple make-up reapplied, her hair still curled in two horns. She was as unmoving as the armoured Sentinels standing round the chamber, her large golden eyes watching Ellie impassively.

  Seth was on his knees at her feet, hands bound, breathing heavily. He had a cut on his brow, an angry red bruise across one cheek. Kate had her sword drawn, and was holding it to Seth’s neck.

  ‘Ellie,’ said Seth, his voice hoarse. ‘Ellie, run.’

  Ellie took a step forward, but a cold metal hand gripped her shoulder. She glanced back to find one of the Seven standing right behind her.

  ‘Why are you doing this?’ she said.

  Sadness flickered in Kate’s eyes. ‘I’m sorry, Ellie, but this is the only way. Seth won’t use his power willingly. So I need to force him somehow.’

  Ellie frowned in confusion, then the armoured hand gripped her shoulder so tightly that she screamed, falling to her knees.

  ‘NO!’ Seth cried. ‘DON’T HURT HER!’

  ‘If you don’t want me to hurt her,’ Kate told him, her voice breaking slightly, ‘then you must do as I ask.’

  The hand released Ellie, and she sobbed, rubbing her shoulder.

  ‘Please, Kate,’ she said, trying to locate the sadness she’d seen a moment before. ‘You don’t have to do this.’

  Kate straightened, her expression hard and mask-like. ‘You don’t know what I have to do.’ For a long moment, she stared at the God-Bird above her, then back at Ellie. ‘Seth is going to part the seas. From here to the Enemy’s City.’

  Seth’s eyes filled with wild horror.

  ‘What?’ Ellie cried. ‘Why?’

  Kate took a deep breath. ‘The underwater place where my mother was stripped of her powers lies somewhere between here and there. I’m going to find it, and restore the divinity that is rightfully mine.’

  Ellie felt a spark of hope. ‘But if that’s what you need I can get you down there! We can use my underwater boat!’

  ‘No, I need Seth.’ Kate licked her lips hesitantly. ‘Going north will mean getting very near to the Enemy’s City. But if there’s no sea, I’m safe from their fleet. And the City will be unable to defend itself.’

  Ellie’s stomach lurched. ‘Wait … what do you mean, defend itself?’

  Kate’s knuckles blanched round the hilt of her sword. ‘Imagine, Ellie, how strong I’ll seem when I conquer the Enemy’s City.’

  ‘No,’ Ellie whispered. She thought of Anna, saw blood pooling between the cobblestones of Orphanage Street. ‘No!’ she cried. She inched closer to Kate, but was wrenched back by the Sentinel. ‘You can’t. You don’t need to prove anything any more. They love you here! Everyone loves you!’

  Kate stared forlornly at the ground. Her sword dropped from Seth’s neck. She looked up into Ellie’s eyes, and Ellie tried to pour their whole friendship into her gaze.

  Kate turned her head aside. She nodded.

  The Sentinel took Ellie’s bound arm in its armoured fist, then gripped so tightly Ellie felt her bones crunching. Her vision went white and she screamed and screamed, knowing only pain until a voice called out from a far distance.

  ‘Stop! Stop hurting h
er!’

  ‘Then do it,’ said Kate. ‘It’s your fault she’s hurting.’

  ‘STOP!’ Seth roared.

  The pressure released and Ellie sobbed in gratitude, the sudden ache in her arm almost pleasant.

  ‘I’ll do it,’ Seth whispered, looking at Ellie with tear-filled eyes.

  ‘Seth, don’t.’

  Seth stared at Ellie for a long moment, then closed his eyes.

  There was a hollow, unendurable silence. Kate stared fixedly at the window, tapping her sword point against the floor. Seth’s brow twitched, and Ellie winced as guilt coiled in her gut. She had done this.

  Kate gestured for one of the Sentinels to hold Seth, then stepped over to the balcony. ‘Why is nothing happening?’

  ‘Please,’ Ellie gasped. ‘Please don’t – something this big, it could kill him.’

  Seth’s eyelids scrunched tighter, his lips pressed into a thin line. Tiny swirls of blue swam across his hands and his neck.

  Kate’s eyes widened as she stared out the window. ‘The sea is frothing,’ she said eagerly. ‘Does that mean it’s working?’

  Ellie watched Seth in fear. New swirls burst upon his skin like silent fireworks.

  ‘It’s getting lower,’ said Kate.

  Ellie strained to see, but was pinned in place. Kate blinked in astonishment, bouncing on the balls of her feet. ‘The water is parting. It’s working!’

  Then she slowed, clutching the balcony rail.

  ‘What’s going on?’ she said. ‘It’s getting higher.’

  The windows rattled, the statues of Kate’s ancestors shivering. Then, an impossibly deep, ancient sound issued from Seth’s throat. His eyes opened wide, but Seth was not looking out of them. They were entirely dark blue.

  The light in the chamber dimmed, and faint screams echoed from the island below. The grip on Ellie’s arm loosened, and she rose to her knees to see better.