by Kim Wilkins
Northseeker was a small version of King Sigurd’s own longship. Whereas the King’s ship needed twenty men to row it, Northseeker was built for two. The boards and beams were all black wood, and a carved dragon’s head decorated the prow. Its fiery eyes were inlaid with rubies, its wooden teeth were bared, and its wooden tongue rolled forward. Round shields lined the sides of the boat, painted in royal reds and golds. Its two masts were straight and high, disappearing into the mist above them. The rectangular sails were spun like cobwebs, silvery and light and fluttering in the morning breeze.
Asa pointed at the sails. “How does it sail without cloth?”
Egil sat on the gangplank and considered them. “Northseeker is a ghost ship,” he explained. “Ragni built it from mists and shadows, and it needs no wind to help it move.”
Rollo was unwinding ropes and jiggling the carved wooden tiller. “And you can’t see it unless you’re on it. Is that right?”
“Yes, that’s right,” said Egil. “You can travel the length and breadth of the sunken kingdom and the sky patrol will never find you. Unless …” He held up a cautionary finger. “Unless the rising sun hits the mast. Then, until you are in shadow again, you will be visible.”
Asa nodded, easing the tiller from Rollo’s hands before he broke it. “So as long as we stay out of the rising sun, we’re safe?”
The corner of Egil’s mouth twitched downward. “Well, not exactly.”
She felt uneasy. “What do you mean?”
“It’s a ghost ship, Asa. Men can’t see it, nor can women or children. But ghosts can—and any of the other spirits of the deep. And while you’re on board, you’ll be able to see them. For although it appears you travel in our world, you actually travel in the mist between the worlds. You will see things … things that may frighten you.”
“It’s dangerous, then?” Rollo said. “This journey.”
“Ghosts won’t bother you unless you bother them. It’s still Flood’s patrols that are your main concern. If you see a spirit, or a sea giant, just steer away. Fast.” He patted the long handle of the tiller.
Rollo indicated two large boxes sitting in the back of the ship. “What are these?”
“Supplies. Food and clothing, for you two and for Una when you rescue her. You’ll find maps and compasses, too. But if you become lost, don’t worry. Just let the tiller go and Northseeker will turn to the north.”
Asa leaned over the side of the ship and gazed down at the dark water. Although part of her was frightened by this talk of ghosts and sea giants, another part of her was thrilled by the idea of sailing off in an enchanted ship to find Una. She could hardly believe her baby sister was still alive. It made her heart ache to think about it.
“What do you say, children?” Egil asked, his voice quiet now and respectful. “Will you go?”
Asa looked at Rollo and he nodded firmly. She took a deep breath and reminded herself that she was a princess. Indeed, one day, if Flood’s evil was ever defeated, she would be the Star Queen. For these reasons, she should be brave and fulfill her royal duty.
“It was our parents’ dying wish that we go,” she said. “Thank you, Egil Cripplehand. We’ll steer Northseeker from here.”
She and Rollo went ashore for teary farewells with Aunt Katla, then stepped once more into the mist and away on their adventure. Katla and Egil watched them from the edge of the inlet as the morning sun sloped down into the valley and pierced the mist. The ship was at once visible, then the children steered it into the shadow of the tall cliffs and disappeared from view.
CHAPTER 4
THE SEA HAG
“Can I steer for a while?” Rollo asked.
Asa turned to Rollo with an irritated expression. “I’m the oldest, I should steer,” she said for the fifth time. They had left home three hours ago and her fingers hadn’t once left the tiller.
“But if I don’t learn how to steer now—”
“You keep studying the map.”
Rollo glanced down at the map, which was spread out across his lap. They had found it among a pile of other maps in one of the wooden boxes Egil had left on board. The map was inked in bright blues and yellows and reds, and all of the seaways between Two Hills Keep and Margritt’s tower were marked clearly. Rollo estimated they had eight days’ sailing ahead of them. If Asa wouldn’t let him steer at all, it would be a very boring eight days.
Northseeker moved swift and silent through the water, with magic filling her sails. Rollo opened the second box and began searching.
“Egil’s thought of everything,” he said, finding a tin of barley biscuits and cracking open the lid. He offered one to Asa, but she shook her head. “Look,” he said through a mouthful. “Clothes! Some for me, some for you, and—” He held up a little blue dress. “Isn’t this too big for Una?”
Asa glanced at it. “No. Remember, we haven’t seen her for a year. She won’t be a tiny baby anymore. She’ll be walking—maybe even talking.”
Rollo folded the dress away and reached for another barley biscuit. “She’s been alive all this time and we didn’t know, Asa.”
“I can hardly believe it,” she said.
“You’ll have to believe it when we find her.”
“If we find her,” she said sternly. “We have a long way to go, and Margritt is a witch princess who bears us no love. She’s Flood’s half sister, and while it’s said she hates him, we must still be careful.”
“You’re so gloomy,” Rollo said, and turned to stare out to sea. Asa’s dark mood took the shine off his excitement. In the distance, he could see a black rock jutting out of the silver water.
“Maybe I will have one of those barley biscuits after all,” Asa whispered.
Rollo turned his attention back to her with a hopeful smile. “Let me steer for a while?”
“Yes, all right. Just a little while.” She offered him the tiller and moved out of the way so he could sit down.
Rollo grasped it.
“Now, you pull it this way to turn to your right, and this way to turn to your left. Got it?”
He pulled it the wrong way.
“No, this way,” she said patiently. “But don’t worry. We’re on course at the moment, so just hold it. I’m going to look at those maps.”
She sat across from him, pulling all the maps into her lap and sorting through them. Sunlight filtered softly through the mist and gleamed on her dark hair. The ship started veering slightly to the left, and Rollo realized he was holding the tiller too hard. He eased off and they straightened again. The black rock ahead was in the way, so he would have to steer around it as they drew closer.
“There are maps here of the whole sunken kingdom,” Asa said, her fingers tracing across them. “All the towers that are still above water and all those that are submerged. Egil must have drawn these while he was searching for us.”
Rollo peered down at the maps. Asa snapped her head up and said, “Are you watching where we’re going?”
“Yes,” he said quickly, looking out to sea again. The black rock was gone. Puzzled, he glanced around.
“That’s odd,” he said.
“What’s odd?”
Then, with water streaming off it, the rock thrust itself above the surface, just a few feet from their bow.
“Asa!” Rollo cried, yanking on the tiller.
She dropped the map. “Other way, Rollo!”
“It’s not working.”
A gray shape on the rock moved and Rollo’s blood turned to ice. It was a sea hag, her wizened face staring at them skull-like under seaweed hair. She pointed a long, bony finger at him and bared her teeth. Hissing, she turned her hand over and crooked her finger. “Come!” she called in a rasping voice.
Rollo’s heart thundered. Asa flung herself over him and grabbed the tiller.
“She’s jammed it!” she yelled.
The sea hag scrambled like a lizard across the rock to the edge of the water, with her hand stretched out. “Come! Come!” They were al
most close enough to touch.
Rollo suddenly remembered something Egil had told them. “Let it go!” He threw himself onto Asa and pushed her fingers off the tiller. “If we let the tiller go, the ship will turn to the north.”
Asa let go and fell onto her back in the bottom of the ship.
As the sea hag’s fingers grasped at Northseeker’s side, her claws dug into the wood and held fast. “Come on, tasty little ones,” she said, her voice like broken glass.
Asa screamed. The hag began to pull the ship toward her.
But there was a long creaking noise as Northseeker strained away. If the hag’s magic was stronger than the ship’s, then Asa and Rollo would be on her watery table for dinner.
There was a horrible scratching noise as the hag’s claws began to drag through the wood. She snarled.
And Northseeker turned.
The hag was flung off and two of her claws were left embedded in the wood. The ship picked up speed, skimming past the black rock and out into open water. Behind them, there was a splash.
“She’s following us,” Asa said. “Hurry, Northseeker!”
Rollo glanced behind him. The hag was in the water, squealing and wet and propelling herself forward with her wiry arms.
“Row,” he yelled, grabbing one of the big oars that were stored in the side of the ship.
Asa dived at the other oar and they began to pull hard. The ship picked up speed, but the hag was still closing in on them and her bloodied hand touched the side.
Asa leapt to her feet, raised her oar above her, and brought it crashing down on the sea hag’s head. There was a sickening thud and the hag let go. Northseeker, regaining her strength and filling her sails with magic, pulled away fast, until the hag was just a dark shape in the shining sea, disappearing behind them.
As Asa took her seat again and caught her breath, Rollo picked the sea hag’s claws out of the wood. They sat on his palm, sharp and yellowed, and he felt just how lucky they’d been to escape her.
“You’re right, Asa,” he said. “We have to be careful.”
“You were right, too,” she said. “If I’d let you steer earlier, you’d have known what to do.” She brought the ship back on course and offered him the tiller. “From now on, we take turns.”
CHAPTER 5
WINGS OF A RAVEN,
BREATH OF A FISH
They anchored each evening to eat and sleep, but were away each morning before sunrise, clinging to the shadows of cliffs and valleys. Day after day Northseeker sailed on, her cobweb sails fluttering in the mist, while they grew homesick for Katla’s rabbit stew and their own warm beds.
Before their journey, Asa hadn’t seen what had become of the Star Lands beyond the fields and beaches around the Keep. Katla’s house was a long way from anywhere out there, on the very last island before the Great Sea, where Flood rarely turned his gaze. Now the ship was carrying them through the heart of the sunken kingdom. Here, there had once been bustling cities, mighty towers, and broad farmlands. Since the flood, whole cities had been submerged, and villages had sprouted on hilltops and cliff edges. Occasionally, they passed a cathedral spire poking out of the water, or sailed over barely submerged turrets. Once, Asa saw the black shape of a sea giant in the shadowy depths of a drowned castle. She held her breath until Northseeker had sped them safely away between green farmhills.
No one saw the ship, but Asa and Rollo saw everyone: the farmer coaxing his cow out of the mud at the edge of the water; the village witch collecting her secret herbs at the foot of a sea willow; the children trudging up the hill with a lineful of fish to dry. Farther north, the air grew colder and they searched in the bottom of Egil’s wooden trunks for heavy cloaks of bearskin. The cliffs grew darker and rockier, and here and there the water was streaked with ice. They were nearing the tower of the witch princess. Late in the afternoon, two enormous cliffs loomed ahead of them—the passage between them narrow and dark.
“Which way?” Rollo said.
Asa studied the map. “Straight through.”
Rollo looked up at the cliffs, dizzyingly high on either side. The crumbling edges jutted out and almost met at the top. Even Northseeker slowed, as though she were wary.
“Do you think it’s safe?” Rollo asked. “Those rocks look loose.”
Asa’s eyes scanned the map nervously. She didn’t want to go through the narrow passage, either. Egil’s map had made it look like an easy course, and it was certainly the most direct. Then, as if to confirm her fears, a shower of loose stones freed themselves from the cliff face and peppered the water. She turned the map around to show Rollo.
“You see? If we want to avoid these cliffs, we’ll have to sail back the way we came”—she indicated the course with her finger—“then hook around this island here. Egil has marked it as a bay full of sea giants.”
“Or we could go this way,” Rollo said, pointing out a different route.
“That would add nearly six days to our trip.”
They gazed at each other. Northseeker, sensing their indecision, had come to a standstill.
“What should we do?” Rollo asked.
“I don’t know.”
“But you always know what to do,” he said.
“Well, I don’t this time.”
“Sea giants, or another six days on board, or between the cliffs?”
Asa gazed up at the cliffs again. A sea wind howled through the passage, buffeting the ship and stinging her eyes with cold. On the other side, just a day’s sail away, was her baby sister.
“Let’s go through,” she said.
Rollo smiled. “That’s just what I was going to say.”
They picked up speed and, laying the map out on the seat beside her, Asa took the tiller. “I’ll watch the east cliff; you watch the west one. If any rocks and stones come loose, we’ll try to steer around them.”
“Got it,” he said, turning his face up to the east cliff.
“Other one, Rollo.”
“Got it,” he said, studying the west cliff.
Asa lined the ship up and willed her to move fast through the passage. It narrowed ahead of her and Northseeker slowed again.
“Why are we going so slowly?” Rollo asked.
Asa peered over the side. “Rocks,” she said. “The cliffs continue under the water, and the ship is avoiding the reef.” She pointed ahead, just on the other side of the passage, where the water was deep and blue. “The reef drops off there, so we’ll be safe again.”
“On the other side.”
“Yes. On the other side.”
Asa concentrated hard, her eyes flicking from the reef to the arch of the cliffs above them. A scatter of small pebbles rolled down the cliff and echoed loudly. Northseeker was about to pass directly under the two jutting edges.
“Asa,” Rollo said quietly.
“What?”
“Do you see it?”
She strained her eyes. “Yes,” she said, her lungs filling with fear. A crack appeared in the edge of the western cliff.
“Northseeker, we have to go faster,” Asa said.
But the ship kept her pace and scraped lightly over a rocky protrusion.
Creak.
“It’s going to fall,” Rollo said, holding his breath.
Creeeeeeeak. The crack split, the rock dropped a fraction, then held. A shower of dust descended on them. Crack!
Asa shrieked. A huge rock, easily the size of the ship itself, was plummeting directly toward them.
Northseeker jerked forward, bumping Asa off her seat. The map next to her fluttered. The rock landed with a huge crash, barely an inch from the stern of the longship, and soaked them with icy water as they squeezed through the passage. The longship bobbed free of the reef. Just when Asa thought they were perfectly safe and that nothing else bad could happen, a howling wind raced through the passage and ripped the map skyward.
The map hovered above her for a half second. She reached for it, but accidentally knocked it farther away. T
hen the wind suddenly died and the map fell into the water.
“Oh no!” She raced to the side of the ship and watched the map sink down into the icy blue.
Rollo joined her. “Do we still need it?” he said. “You’ve been poring over it ever since we left home. You know the way, don’t you?”
She shook her head. “Around the next island, there’s a bay with lots of shallow water and the course gets very complex. If I don’t know which way to take, we could run aground, or even tear a hole in the ship.”
Safe once again in deep water, Northseeker slowed to a halt.
“We have to get the map back, then,” Rollo said, shrugging out of his fur cloak.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to get the map.”
“But it’s too deep. You’ll drown.”
Rollo grinned. “No. I can breathe underwater, remember?”
“But, Rollo—”
“Breath of a fish within me,” he shouted, and dived over the side of the longship.
“Rollo, no!” She peered over the side into the water. He had disappeared from sight. How long should she wait before she panicked? One minute? Two? What if the enchantment didn’t work? It was deep here, and dark and cold. Two minutes passed. Asa gnawed on her thumbnail and watched.
“Come on, Rollo, come on,” she muttered.
A moment later, he surfaced, clutching the map and laughing.
She reached down to help him back on board. “Did you do it? Did you breathe underwater?” she asked.
“Asa, it felt amazing!” he shouted.
She reached for a cloth to dry him off. “Wasn’t it cold?”
“Not at all. I felt like a fish. And I could see Northseeker the whole time.” He pulled his fur cloak back on. “I don’t feel ill or tired, despite what Egil said.”
Asa was thinking. How she longed to try out her special magic, too.
“Asa?”
She smiled at him, then closed her eyes and threw open her arms. “Wings of a raven upon me!”