Delivery to the Lost City

by P. G. Bell

  Suzy brought her face as close to the map as she could, leaning so far forward that its glowing blue canvas passed through her visor and into the helmet’s interior.

  The map was gossamer-thin and peppered with holes, but she could still make out the circle of the moon in the center, and a collection of oddly shaped ribbons streaming out from it toward the edges. They snaked and intertwined, and it was only when she looked closely that she saw place names and landscape features marked on them.

  “Are these the Impossible Places?” she said. “Is this what they really look like?”

  “Not really,” said the Chief. “They’re a bit rough and wonky, even by the standards of our day, but it’s the void in between them that matters, and, on that front, whoever drew this knew what they were doing. There’s none more accurate. And have you noticed this?” He pointed to a darkish blotch that sat in an empty space between several ribbons of land. It was marked with a cross and labeled with a line of spidery handwriting. Suzy had to squint to read it.

  Hydroborea once was here.

  “That’s it!” said Suzy. “That’s where we need to go! You’ve found it!”

  “Hold your seahorses,” said the Chief. “Marking it on a map is one thing. Steering a safe course to it is another. Did you not see this?” He indicated the dark stain surrounding the cross. “The great void storm. A swirling maelstrom of pure nothingness that’ll chew up the strongest vessel and spit out the debris faster than you can say, ‘Whoops, we’re all going to die.’ It takes an expert sailor to find a path through.”

  Suzy regarded the dark blotch with a sense of foreboding. As much as she trusted Wilmot to pilot the H.E.C., she didn’t think he counted as an expert sailor. “I’m afraid we don’t have any choice,” she said. “We have to go. Isn’t there any advice you can give us?”

  “Advice won’t help you in the teeth of a storm, lassie,” said one of the ghosts. “Only a sharp eye and a brave hand on the tiller.”

  “I’m afraid Frank’s right,” said the Chief. “Fearless and true you may be, but that storm has been the doom of many a fine ship and her crew.” He gave her a sad sort of smile. “If you’re wise, you’ll take my advice and seek adventure elsewhere.”

  Suzy watched him roll the map up, and clenched her fists. “You don’t think we can make it,” she said.

  “It’s not for a lack of heart,” said the Chief. “Simply a lack of experience.”

  “We couldn’t live with ourselves if we knew we’d sent you to an untimely death,” said Gavin.

  “You don’t have to live with yourselves,” said Suzy. “You’re dead.” The ghosts all winced, and Suzy was vaguely aware that she had been terribly rude, but she was now too angry to stop herself. “I’m tired of being told what I can and can’t handle,” she said.

  “What knave has been telling you that?” said the Chief.

  “My parents,” said Suzy. “And they haven’t been telling me, exactly, but they’ve been implying it. A lot.”

  “My parents said that running away to sea would be the death of me,” said Gavin. “I proved them wrong every day, until I proved them right. So I probably win, all things considered.”

  Suzy stubbed the toe of her diving boot into the sand. “It’s still not fair,” she said.

  “Life isn’t fair, my dear,” said the Chief kindly. “Nor is death, for that matter. Or parents. But they’ve known you since before you knew yourself, so if you’re smart, you’ll listen to them. That’s what experience is for.”

  He drifted back toward the chest, map in hand.

  “That’s it,” she said. “Experience.”

  “I beg your pardon?” said the Chief.

  “You know how to navigate the storm,” said Suzy. “So why don’t you come with us?”

  A look of pain and sorrow crossed the Chief’s face. “I would love nothing more than to go adventuring again. We all would. Alas, we are tied to our old bones and the ship’s timbers. If we stray too far from either, we’ll cease to be.”

  Suzy’s brow knotted. “How far exactly?”

  “Ten feet or so at best,” said the Chief. “Gavin here got as far as the first outcrop of coral once, before he started to fade.”

  “It took weeks of training,” boasted Gavin. “My five-year plan is to reach the second outcrop of coral.”

  “Madness, I tells ye,” said Neville. “You’re dreaming too big.”

  “So you’re trapped,” she said. “You’re prisoners here.”

  “We prefer to think of ourselves as permanent residents,” said the Chief.

  Suzy looked around the wreck. Her mind was itching again. “You say you’re tied to the wreck,” she said. “But how much of it are you tied to?”

  The ghosts looked at one another in confusion.

  Suzy reached up to a length of broken timber overhead, took a firm hold of the end, and twisted. A chunk of wood broke off in her hand. “Would this be enough?” she asked hurriedly. She could feel the minutes slipping away, and it was starting to make her anxious.

  “For what?” asked the Chief.

  “To take you with me,” she replied. “We need to get to the center of that storm right away, and you’re the only one who can get us there.”

  “Me?” said the Chief, surprised. “But I’ve never left LA ROUQUINE.”

  “Which is why we’re going to take a bit of LA ROUQUINE with us,” she replied. Without waiting for his reply, she turned and stomped out of the wreck, across the sand to the first outcrop of coral. “This is where Gavin got to, right?” she called.

  The ghosts clustered in the hole in the ship’s hull.

  “Aye, that’s the spot!” said Gavin. “None of the others got close.”

  “I want the Chief to try,” said Suzy. “Come out and meet me.”

  The Chief bobbed up and down nervously. “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s quite a long way.”

  “It’s barely thirty feet,” Suzy replied. “And if you start to fade, you can go straight back.” She planted her feet in the sand, held up the chunk of timber, and waited.

  The Chief looked longingly out at the reef and clasped his hands together.

  “Go on, Chief,” said Neville. “Nothing ventured, and all that.”

  “We’ll all be cheering for you,” said Gavin. “What if she’s right?”

  The Chief licked his lips, which, given that they were underwater, seemed a bit unnecessary, Suzy thought.

  “All right,” he said. “If you insist.” He drifted out of LA ROUQUINE and into the daylight. It shone through him so clearly that he became almost invisible: a faint outline moving against the deep blue. But Suzy saw the spectral trail leading back into the wreck, tethering him to it, and to his remains. The farther he got from the ship, the more his trail stretched, like elastic. It grew thinner, and the Chief’s glow began to dim.

  “I’m not sure I’ve got it in me,” he said, his voice strained. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh decomposed some centuries ago.” He slowed and stopped. “I’m sorry, Suzy. It was a fine idea. It just wasn’t meant to be.”

  Suzy took a step toward him to offer some words of comfort, and a curious thing happened. A strand of the Chief’s trail peeled away, drifting aimlessly for a moment, before being drawn decisively toward the piece of timber in Suzy’s hand. It made contact, and just for a second, she saw the faint outline of the wood’s ghostly counterpart. At the same time, the Chief’s glow returned, and he seemed to stand—or rather, float—a little taller again. With renewed confidence, he crossed the last few yards to Suzy and floated alongside her.

  “You did it!” she said. “It works!”

  The Chief turned to his shipmates, his smile glowing like a lightbulb. “Lads!” he said. “This changes everything!”

  “Yes, it does,” said Suzy, with a satisfied smile. “Now, where did you leave your skull?”

  * * *

  Suzy dropped back into the toilet cubicle and pressed the flush. The hatch in the
roof closed, and with the same gurgling rush as before, the water drained away. When the last drop was gone, Suzy removed her cumbersome helmet and unfastened the door. Her parents were waiting for her, and pounced.

  “You’re back!” said Amandine.

  “Are you all right?” asked Calum.

  “I’m absolutely fine,” Suzy said. “I told you I would be.”

  Her parents looked at her suspiciously.

  “And there were no sea monsters?” asked Amandine.

  “Or sharks?” asked Calum.

  “None at all,” said Suzy. “Just me, the fish, and some ghosts.”

  “How was the Chief?” said Wilmot. “I keep meaning to drop in and visit, but I’ve been so busy.”

  Suzy smiled. “Why don’t you ask him yourself?” She pulled a skull out of her delivery pouch and held it up for everyone to see. The chunk of wood rattled around inside its empty brain case, and its eye sockets glowed a spectral blue.

  “Hello there!” said the skull, in the Chief ’s voice. “Permission to come aboard!”

  8

  THE END OF THE WORLD

  Everyone gathered around the table in the Belle’s navigation room as the Chief unrolled the phantom map. His glowing form trailed from the eye sockets of his skull, which Suzy still held.

  “As I was explaining to young Suzy here,” he said, “the great void storm has long been rumored to be the original site of Hydroborea’s world. Some sailors claim the storm was caused by whatever magical calamity befell the city.”

  Stonker reached out and traced a line from the storm to one of the ribbons of land that represented the Impossible Places. His finger passed straight through the map to the table beneath it.

  “It’s not too far from the rim of the Topaz Narrows,” he said.

  “The Topaz Narrows have a rim?” asked Suzy.

  “Didn’t you know?” said Frederick. “They’re a flat world. Like a dinner plate.”

  “Now I’ve heard everything,” said Suzy’s mom.

  Wilmot was still scrutinizing the map. “Are you sure you can navigate us through the storm, Chief?” he said. “It looks quite big.”

  “It’s huge, lad,” said the Chief. “A veritable monster. If I were still living, I wouldn’t dare try it.”

  Wilmot swallowed. “Oh,” he said in a very small voice. But then he drew himself up and straightened his cap. “But a delivery is a delivery,” he said. “Come rain, shine, or void storm, the Impossible Postal Express will deliver.”

  “That’s the spirit,” said the Chief.

  “And you’ll have me there to help you,” said Suzy. “We’ll find a way through.” She was vaguely aware of her parents drifting away from the table, but she was too distracted to pay them much attention.

  “Thank you, Suzy,” said Wilmot. “I suppose we’d better get ready.”

  “Yes, indeed,” said Stonker. “Prep the H.E.C. for a rolling launch, please, Postmaster. We can get you airborne without even having to slow down.” He turned to Ursel. “Let’s get some steam up. We’ll be at the rim in no time at all.”

  “Frrrrolf.” Ursel nodded and lumbered after him to the door.

  “Ah, to be adventuring again!” said the Chief. “I never thought I’d not live to see the day.” He looked out of the mullioned windows that wrapped around the front half of the navigation room and smiled. “To see the sunlight again, and hear the gulls cry. I wish the lads were here.”

  “We can always bring them up, too, once you’re back,” said Frederick. “And now that we know how to do it, you can go anywhere you want to.”

  “A capital idea,” said the Chief. “Perhaps our exploring days aren’t over just yet.” He rolled the map up, stuffed it into his jacket, and retreated back into his skull. Suzy slipped it into her satchel and turned to check on her parents. She found them huddled together in the corner, conversing in sharp whispers.

  “Mom? Dad? Are you coming down to see us off?”

  They looked around sharply, as if she had caught them doing something they knew they shouldn’t have been.

  “We’ll be right there, sweetheart,” said her father. “You go ahead and we’ll catch you up.” He took Suzy’s mom by the elbow and drew her away to the window, where they turned their backs on the room and carried on whispering.

  Suzy lingered for a moment. She had seen her parents argue before, but this looked different. They didn’t just look angry, they looked scared. When neither of them acknowledged her, she turned and followed the others downstairs.

  * * *

  The Express was quickly underway again, and while Ursel and Stonker were hard at work, Wilmot retrieved his satchel containing the book from the coat hook by the front door and made his way to the H.E.C. with Suzy and Frederick in tow.

  Suzy placed the Chief’s skull on a shelf above the control console. “Will you be all right up here?” she asked.

  “This will do nicely, thank you,” the Chief replied, his skull pulsing with blue light as he spoke.

  Wilmot started making adjustments to the control console, but as he did so, the labels on the switches and levers began evaporating beneath his fingers. “Oh no!” he cried, trying to grab at them as they coiled through the air into his satchel. “Come back! I need you!”

  It was useless, of course, and within a few seconds, the controls were all blank.

  “That’s going to make things more complicated,” said Frederick. “Can you remember how everything works?”

  Wilmot’s hands hovered uncertainly over the console. “More or less,” he said. “I think.” He closed his eyes and, a little hesitantly, reached out and flicked a few switches. There was a hum of power from beneath the floor. “There. As long as I don’t confuse the life-support systems with the self-destruct, we’ll probably be fine.”

  “You’d better not mention that bit to my parents,” said Suzy. “They’re nervous enough as it is.”

  “I’m glad you noticed.” Suzy turned with a start and found her parents standing in the doorway to the sorting carriage. Her father looked uncomfortable. Her mother looked determined.

  “Mom!” Suzy exclaimed. “How long have you been standing there?”

  “Just long enough,” her mom replied. She and Suzy’s dad stepped into the H.E.C. and shut the door behind them. “Are you ready to go?”

  “Yes,” said Suzy. “Wilmot’s just getting the H.E.C. warmed up.”

  Her mom shook her head. “I mean are you ready to go home? We’re leaving.”

  Suzy stared at her in shock. “What? No!”

  “Yes, Suzanne,” said her mom. “Your father and I have talked it through, and we both agree that we don’t want you going on this delivery. It’s too dangerous.”

  “But I have to!” said Suzy. “You know how important this is. If we don’t complete the delivery, the Express is as good as finished, and so is the Ivory Tower. There could be chaos!” Her mother seemed unmoved, so Suzy looked past her to her father. “Dad, please!”

  He grimaced and rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m really sorry, sweetheart,” he said. “We’re both very proud of you, and everything you’ve been doing here. And the Impossible Places are wonderful. But…”

  “But what?” said Suzy. She felt strangely numb, as though none of this were really happening.

  “But your mother’s right,” he said. “This is all just a bit much. We’d be happier keeping you at home for the time being.”

  The numbness began to fade, replaced with a scorching anger. “You’re just going along with this because you don’t want Mom to think you’re a soft touch,” she said. Her dad looked hurt.

  “Don’t speak to your father like that, young lady,” said her mom. “We reached this decision together.”

  “When?” said Suzy. “Just now in the navigation room? Is that what you were talking about?”

  “You wanted to show us that you were safe on board this train,” said Suzy’s mom, “but so far we’ve had to deal with angry crowds, a h
aunted book, almost being blasted to atoms, scuba diving with dead people, and now you’re talking about throwing yourself headfirst into a storm as if it’s the most normal thing in the world. So we’re putting an end to it.”

  “No!” Suzy knew she was shouting—she could see the embarrassment written all over Wilmot’s face—but she was too angry to stop herself. “This isn’t fair!”

  “Get changed and give Wilmot your uniform back, please, Suzanne,” her mom said. “He’s still welcome to come and visit you once in a while.”

  “Wait, you mean you’re taking me home for good?”

  “Not necessarily,” said her dad hurriedly.

  “Yes, necessarily,” said her mom. “It’s for the best.”

  Suzy’s dad started in surprise and opened his mouth. Then, after a moment’s thought, he shut it again.

  “Wilmot!” Suzy rounded on her friend. “Tell them. Tell them I have to stay and help you!”

  Wilmot blushed scarlet. “I don’t know, Suzy,” he said. “I really want you to come, you know I do. But they’re your parents.”

  She stared at him with mounting horror. “Not you, too!”

  He shuffled his feet and looked hopefully up at Suzy’s mom. “Is there any way I can convince you to reconsider?”

  “None,” Suzy’s mom replied.

  Wilmot’s ears drooped. “I’m really sorry, Suzy. But it would be wrong of me to take you without their permission.”

  Suzy was too shocked and hurt to respond.

  “You see?” said Suzy’s mom. “Wilmot’s taking this seriously, and so should you. We all just want what’s best for you.” This only made Wilmot look even more wretched, and he turned away to fuss with the control console.

  “Well, I think it’s a terrible idea,” said Frederick. “If it wasn’t for Suzy, I’d probably still be stuck inside a snow globe and the Impossible Places would be ruled by a giant killer robot. You two have got no idea what you’re doing.”