How could you go on?
Jonathan winced, clearly feeling the same. “Let’s assume for the sake of our emotions that Aspen Thatcher did come back. She might have had her children here. For all we know, they could still be out there. So could she.” He looked up at the window as if expecting to see three faces looking back at him.
Flick squinted at the photograph. “But how would it even work? Babies born to parents from different worlds? One parent wouldn’t be human.”
“Similarities are far more common than differences,” Jonathan said. He looked back at the photograph. “It’s happened before. Look at Avery’s lineage,” he added.
Flick stood up. “We should put this picture somewhere safe. Whoever wrote those names on the back might still be out there. They might walk through the door one day. You never know.” She looked up at the clock and gasped. “We’ve wasted time. We need to get back to the Break. And then I need to…” She looked at her hands. “I need to make a schism big enough for them to get through. All of them.”
“Can you do it?”
“I don’t know. Jonathan, the amount of energy that took was… It was enormous,” she said. “I don’t know how I could have made it any bigger without bits of our world starting to get pulled in.”
He snapped his fingers. “That’s it, then.”
“What?”
“Collapse their world,” he said, as if he were suggesting something as simple as stacking bricks. “The Break. The circle. Collapse it. Use every drop of magic in the place to widen a schism enough for everyone to get through. You could do it.”
Flick stared. “I—I don’t know if—”
“There’s no time for I don’t know,” he insisted. “You just widened a schism right here in the shop. You have to try. You have to. If you don’t save them, no one will.”
Flick shut her eyes for a moment. “Even if I could do it, I don’t know how long I’ll be able to hold it open.”
“We’ll tell everyone to be ready.”
“But those ships… It will take ages.” Flick shook her head. Then looked up. “Unless they’re already traveling at speed.”
Jonathan tilted his head to one side. “Go on.”
“Moving things have energy of their own,” Flick said. “I could use that energy to keep the schism open. They’d need to have the wind behind them,” she said, looking into the middle distance as her mind raced, forming a plan. “They’d need to be going full-tilt, one after the other, building up as much energy as they could, and…” She blinked. “I think they need to go over the edge.”
“Excuse me?”
“If I could stretch the schism to be open beyond the edge of the world, and the ships could sail over the edge, I mean right over, into the empty space, they’ll have even more magical energy. And it’ll help me keep the schism open for longer. The ships would have to go first—so I could use their momentum, and so they could carry as many people as possible.” Flick pressed a finger to her lips. “I still don’t know how long I could hold it, but that would all help.”
Jonathan took a deep breath. “You want Nyfe and Captain Burnish, and all their people, to sail right over the edge of their world, in the hopes of falling into a new one?”
Flick nodded.
“Right,” Jonathan said. He unbuttoned his cuffs and pushed his sleeves up to the elbow. “We’d better get back to them before it’s too late then.”
29
We’re going to do what now?” Captain Burnish looked over his clasped hands at Jonathan and Flick.
“I know it sounds a bit mad,” Flick said.
“A bit,” Burnish repeated. He looked at Tessa, who gave him an expression that said These children have lost their minds.
Avery was giving them the same look, from extremely tired eyes. Staying for so long in the Break had clearly taken its toll on her. When Flick and Jonathan had arrived back on the ship, she had looked like she didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or punch them both in relief. She’d settled for screaming Where have you been? at them and then taking them immediately to Captain Burnish. Flick had been so pleased to see her alive and in one piece that she wanted to cry.
“It can be done, can’t it?” Jonathan asked. “You can sail over the edge?”
“You can,” Burnish said, eyebrows going up. “You probably shouldn’t, however.”
“It’s been done before?” Flick asked.
Burnish leaned back in his chair. “Yes. It has been done.”
Tessa nodded. “They thought, back in the old days, that the world was a ball. That you could sail all the way around it and come back up on the other side. Some folks went sailing.” She shook her head. “They never came back.”
Everyone went quiet.
“My world is a ball,” Avery said.
“Ours is a ball, too,” Flick added.
“Fascinating.” Burnish rolled his eyes. He looked weary. The Serpent and the other Buccaneers’ ships had spent the last week sailing in wide circles around what was left of the world, with the Aconite and Captain Nyfe in an endless chase. The Mer-Queen and her people had slowed some of the pursuing ships, but with Burnish ordering his allies not to harm anyone, all they could really do was try to outrun the other pirates until Flick and Jonathan returned. They were all at the end of their tether, in more ways than one.
Captain Burnish stood up and rolled his shoulders back. “No more running away. If this is to be our way out, let’s run toward that, instead. Tessa, tell the lads to get their ships together. Get word out to the Freemariners, and…”
Tessa looked up at him. “And?”
Burnish sighed. His eyes met Tessa’s. “We need to tell Nyfe.”
Tessa’s lips went thin. “Tess,” Burnish said gently, “she’s our girl.”
Avery dropped the tin mug she was holding.
Flick looked at Jonathan, whose eyebrows had disappeared into his hair. It was a surprise, but at the same time… not a surprise at all.
“She left us,” said Tessa.
“Doesn’t change the fact she’s ours,” Burnish said. “I’ve lost four children, Tess. Don’t ask me to stand here and make it five.”
Tessa closed her eyes for a moment. Then opened them and nodded. “I’ll get the word out. All the birds. I’ll ask Katyo to assemble his people. Where’s the meeting point?”
Burnish smiled. “The Scattered Isles. We can get everyone there and make for the edge of the ocean. Together.”
Tessa nodded, and walked from the room with all the regal elegance of a queen, closing the door behind her.
Captain Burnish waited until the door was closed before looking at Flick. “You didn’t know?”
“I thought maybe she could be yours,” Flick said. “But Tessa seems to dislike her so much.”
Burnish sighed and looked at the ceiling. “Look, kid, you don’t get to choose your family. And sometimes you don’t like the ones you’re handed.”
“But she’s her daughter?”
“And mine.” Burnish shrugged. “And I love them both. But one of them hates me because I wanted her to wait before trying to take control of the armada. Another can’t forgive me for losing four of our children already.”
Flick blinked. “And now Nyfe’s your enemy?”
“She’d say that. But I’d still do anything to keep her safe.”
“Why didn’t you want her to be the leader?” Avery asked.
Burnish cracked his index knuckle with his thumb. “There’s wanting to lead, and there’s wanting people to just do as you say. It’s all right to want both. But if you want the latter, you need to be able to do the former. If she’d waited a few more years, I would have handed these ships over to her gladly. She would have learned, by then, that leadership isn’t about threatening people and saying your sword is bigger than theirs. It’s not about making the people you’re supposed to be leading too afraid to ask for help. No one should be afraid of their leaders. And when enough people think their leaders a
re unjust, they rise up.” He picked his cutlass off the desk and shoved it into his belt. “Even without the circle collapsing, Nyfe’s days as Pirate Queen would have always been numbered.”
30
She wants to speak to you,” Katyo said as he surfaced beside the jolly boat. Flick and Avery had been sitting in it for hours, receiving messages from the various ships scattered around the world. Everyone, it seemed, was willing to bank everything on what must have seemed like a very foolish plan.
Everyone, that is, except Nyfe.
“When you say ‘speak to,’ ” Flick said, “do you mean ‘throttle’?”
Katyo smiled. “I suspect she honestly wants to talk. Or at least, her crew wants her to. The Aconite is a ship full of frightened people. If Nyfe doesn’t show willing, she’ll face a mutiny.”
Avery frowned. “What if some of her crew want to join us, but some don’t?”
Katyo shrugged, his skin fading to a pale gray that deepened to almost navy blue at the tips of his tentacles. “The Onslaught has plenty of room aboard it.”
Flick nodded, thinking. The Onslaught belonged to a group of pirates called the Freemariners, who seemed to be somewhat like Switzerland—they didn’t take sides with anyone. They also happened to have the largest ship on the water, four times the size of the Serpent.
Flick had talked to the captain of the Onslaught herself, onboard the Serpent. The captain’s name was Nicylo Bee, though everyone called her the Stinger. She had thick dreads of hair that went down to her waist, and she listened patiently to Flick’s explanation, before asking a question.
“And if your plan fails,” she had said slowly, “what will happen to my ship and my crew?”
Flick had wished she could lie. “I think they wouldn’t come back.” The truth had been eating at her for a while. She couldn’t be sure if her plan would work at all as there was no way to test it beforehand, and if it didn’t…
The Stinger had pursed her lips. She wore a yellow and black striped neckerchief around her throat. “So if we try, and we fail, we die.”
She stood and went over to the window in Burnish’s cabin. Outside, the ocean of the Break looked peaceful and calm. It was amazing how easily it could trick you into thinking there was nothing wrong.
“The Onslaught can carry a bigger crew than any other ship,” the Stinger had said. “I understand what you say about energy, and a ship full of sailors will have more than an empty one. But, child, do you know what you are asking?”
Flick had nodded. “I’m sorry.”
The Stinger had given her a small smile. “I’ll sail the Onslaught over the edge of the world for you. I don’t want it said that, at the end, I was too afraid to try. Any sailor can choose whether or not to join me.”
Flick had felt her throat contract painfully. Every sailor was risking so much. They were willing to try, just for the tiniest sliver of hope. “Thank you,” she had said.
The meeting stayed with Flick long after the Stinger took a jolly boat back to her own ship. Thinking about it made her feel strange inside. Her fingers prickled, and she tugged her sleeves over her hands. The more she thought about the schism she had to make, the more she seemed to want to do it. It was as though there were a second Flick, buried somewhere within her, that was in charge of the magic. That Flick was desperate for another go. The Flick who was in charge of keeping herself alive was trying not to think about what might happen when they tried it.
She looked back at Katyo, who seemed to know she was struggling with the enormity of what she had to do.
“Nyfe is close. Are you ready?” he asked. “To speak again to the Pirate Queen?”
“I guess we don’t have much of a choice,” Flick said. “We need to give Nyfe’s crew a chance to escape, even if she says no. I don’t want to leave anyone behind.”
* * *
“I’m coming with you,” Jonathan said, when Flick told him where she was going. “She summoned me in the first place.”
“Yeah, but you’re not the one who’s got to…” Flick mimed ripping something with her hands. To her surprise, her fingers felt suddenly hot, and she suspected if she had looked through the magnifying glass she would have seen sparks. She dropped her hands down quickly.
No one else seemed to have noticed.
“I might not have to do the actual tearing,” Jonathan said, “but I like to think I could sell the idea rather convincingly.”
Avery raised an eyebrow and folded her arms in an admirable impression of her cousin.
“He just wants to come to make sure we know who’s in charge.” Flick grinned at her.
“That’s not accurate.” Jonathan blushed.
“Yeah? You don’t trust us, then?”
“No, I—I mean, of course I do, but—”
“But you’re in charge?” Avery suggested. “Because you’re a grown-up?” She smirked.
“No! We’re a…” Jonathan cast around for the right word. “Team,” he finished pathetically.
Avery laughed, but Flick decided to let him off the hook. “Right then, team,” she said. “We’ll all go over. Tell Nyfe this is her last chance.”
“Burnish’s sailors are hoping to condense themselves onto four ships,” said Jonathan. “One of them being the Onslaught. We’ll need to tell Nyfe she’d have to do the same with everyone sailing under her flag.”
Flick shivered. “Jonathan, I don’t know how long I can hold a schism open. I have no way of testing it. It could be five hours. It could be five seconds. What if it’s not enough for even one of the ships?”
“Felicity.” Jonathan clamped his hands down on the tops of Flick’s arms. “Don’t start beating yourself up before you’ve even tried.” He squeezed her arms. “You did something in the City of Five Lights. You did the impossible. It wasn’t a fluke, or a mistake. It was something you did, something that probably only you can do. You’re the best chance we have of being able to help everyone in this world. And if you try, but it doesn’t work…”
Flick swallowed. “I—”
“I won’t think less of you at all,” Jonathan interrupted. “No one will. I promise you that. You could never be a disappointment, or a failure, Felicity.” He gave her arms another squeeze, before letting go and standing back.
Avery looked from one of them to the other. “Yikes. I thought you guys were about to kiss.”
Flick looked at her in unbridled disgust as Jonathan pretended to be sick. “That’s really not—”
“Good,” Avery said. “Now, unless you’ve got another heart-to-heart planned, we need to get going. We have a fleet to rescue.” Her tone was stern, but her eyes were glittering with mischief.
Flick pressed her lips together to hide a smile and followed Avery out the door.
31
Captain Burnish was determined to go to the Aconite with them, but Tessa put her foot down.
“We need you here, Ezra,” she insisted. “We have several ships to try to organize. The Freemariners will help, but they need leadership.”
“You could handle it,” Burnish pointed out.
“I could,” she said, “but I’m not the captain.”
Burnish rolled his eyes. “Fine.”
“We’ll be back as soon as we can be,” Flick said.
“Unless she throws you all in the brig and the entire plan goes to heck.” Burnish sniffed.
Avery glanced at Flick and pulled a face. “Is that likely?”
Burnish shrugged. “I’d say anything’s likely, these days.”
* * *
Katyo hauled Flick and Avery’s jolly boat through the water, toward the water-surrounded stones of the Three Maidens, where the Aconite was anchored. The Three Maidens weren’t so much islands as slender towers of rock, jutting up out of the ocean like fingers poking through holes in a blanket. Their tops were covered in thick mossy grass that trailed downward like long strands of hair, which was presumably how they had got their name.
Katyo held their boat s
teady alongside the bulging hull of the Aconite. Flick, Jonathan, and Avery could hear jeers and shouting from on board, but it didn’t seem to be directed at them. It was just general raucous shouting. The sound of people who were restless and spoiling for a fight.
It was Jereme who climbed down the rope ladder to help tie their small boat to the side of the ship. His face was drawn, and there were dark smears under his eyes, as though he hadn’t slept in days.
“Brave of you to show your faces again,” he said gruffly, knotting the rope.
Flick didn’t rise to the bait. “Is she really going to talk to us or is she planning on taking us hostage?”
Jereme snorted. “She needs to make a show of listening, even if she doesn’t act.”
“But her crew deserves a chance to escape this world with us!” Flick cried.
“Aye, we do.” Jereme gave a sad smile. “And, personally, I thank you for coming. I’m interested to hear what you have to say.” He shrugged. “But you know what they say.… You can lead a bird to seed, but you can’t make it feed.”
They climbed up the ladder. Halfway up, Flick’s arms started to tremble. Was this really wise? She’d run away with one of Nyfe’s boats, and now she was undermining her authority by offering her crew an escape.
Avery nudged her leg. “Flick, what’s wrong?”
Flick realized she’d stopped climbing. “Nothing.”
She continued up to the top, where she was greeted by a whole bunch of restless pirates, grumbling and snarling. Captain Nyfe Shaban was leaning against the main mast, arms folded across her chest. There were two cutlasses in her belt and a look on her face that told Flick in no uncertain terms that the chamber pot was about to hit the propeller.
Flick was extremely relieved when Avery clambered to stand beside her, a very Jonathan-like expression of distaste on her face. “This is cheery,” she said under her breath. Jonathan himself looked extremely nervous, but said nothing.
Nyfe pushed herself off the mast to stand straight. “Let’s hear it, then, this great plan of yours,” she barked.
The Edge of the Ocean Page 18