The Magic of Hobson Jobson

by Soyna Owley

  20

  A Good Enough Mother

  Floyd opened his eyes and sputtered. He was floating on the surface of the placid circle of water surrounding the Merrow ship, suspended in a web of thick, green, slimy algae. And his shackles—they had disappeared. By gum! Was he dead?

  The aquatic plant seemed to have a mind of its own as it snaked around his arms, pulling him along the water. From the deck of the great marble ship, the Merrows were yelling and in the water, children were screaming. The circle of water surrounding them became smaller as the waves moved steadily towards the ship. In the grey skies, circular white lightning flashed, like a snake chasing its own tail.

  Floyd tried to pry the algae off but it wrapped around him persistently. Where was Farook? Gusts of icy air whirled and large raindrops pelted the ship.

  Floyd choked again as he swallowed a big gulp of salt water. His limbs felt like rotten soaked wood, about to drag him down into the depths of the ocean he had just come up from. Inexplicably, the algae was pulling him up, dragging him towards the ship. The sun peeked out from its black cover. The eclipse was ending.

  The clumping algae slithered along the side of the ship. He felt another tug as the algae wound itself around his wrists and ankles. Up it dragged him, along the smooth marble wall of the ship, like a sack of yams.

  His mouth tasted of rust and salt, its sides cracked and bleeding. The chilly air tore through his tattered clothes. He was deposited on the deck of the Merrow ship.

  He rolled over and raised his throbbing head. Somehow he was alive. Now what? The deck was almost empty. The Merrows were there but they had changed. For one, they were gasping for air. Gill slits perforated the sides of their necks and they stumbled as their legs pressed against each other and fused into tri-forked tails. Some threw themselves off the side of the ship; others tried to stab the sea algae with spears. The aggressive algae chased the Merrows, some winding themselves around Merrow ankles or tripping them up.

  Floyd pushed the wet hair off his face, tried to lift himself and almost fell down. His head was spinning. Shaitana Salamandrin was kneeling by the trunk in which Gulaab lay. Her face contorted as she caught sight of Floyd. ‘Yaksha, what have you done?’ There was another angry crack of thunder. The sky blazed for miles around.

  Gulaab’s body was reverting to its original Ressuldar form. He had his hands on his neck, as if he were choking. The scales on his body were dropping off and on one foot, the talons separated into toes.

  Phineas wobbled precariously, trying to stand on his tail. ‘Shaitana, come on, jump! Hurry, there’s no time,’ he yelled. Shaitana sobbed as she staggered towards Gulaab. Her feet fused into a tri-forked tail and her arms grew webs. Her face developed scales and three small gill slits slashed open on the side of her neck. She crawled on the deck, her tail flapping raggedly behind her.

  ‘Shaitana, JUMP NOW!’ Phineas yelled again. ‘He’s not your son, Shaitana.’ He shot Floyd a malevolent look and leapt off the deck in a graceful arc.

  Another Merrow called out, ‘Empress, I beseech you. Please, come with your subjects.’

  Shaitana gasped, ‘I can’t breathe.’ She lurched towards Gulaab. ‘My son—I need my son.’ She crumpled on to the ship deck.

  Two gasping Merrows tried to grab her but she clung to the deck and flapped them away with her tail. They retreated, crawled to the edge of the deck and jumped over.

  Gulaab was crying now. He looked at Floyd. ‘Please, help her,’ he said as small white roses fell from his mouth. Several Merrows were wailing loudly—some for their empress, others for their own plight. Several had collapsed and were dragging themselves to the edge of the deck in an attempt to throw themselves over.

  Floyd rushed to Shaitana and tried to drag her to the edge of the deck. Her arms felt soft and soggy, like a wet sponge, and the barnacles covering her skin made his hands itch and burn. He gasped. She was waterlogged and much too heavy.

  Gulaab clambered out of the box and hobbled over to Shaitana. He lowered himself on to the deck and cradled Shaitana’s head in his lap. She looked at him and then turned to Floyd. A film formed over her strange, cracked silver eyes.

  ‘It’s over, Yaksha,’ she gasped. ‘Whatever you did reverted the Merrows to an older life form. Now we will never be able to live on land again.’ She turned to Gulaab. ‘Please, whatever else, know I loved you,’ she pleaded, her mouth opening and closing rapidly. She grasped Gulaab’s hand tightly.

  Floyd turned away, tears welling in his own eyes. Shaitana gave a shudder and then was still. Gulaab sobbed softly and squeezed her hand back. He shut her eyes tenderly.

  More sea algae were crawling up the side of the boat.

  Now what? The network of algae writhed on to the deck carrying children in its fronds.

  ‘Watch out. Behind you,’ Gulaab screamed. Floyd grabbed a discarded spear and broke into a run. The mass of green algae glided behind him, gaining ground rapidly. He found himself turning into a corridor with a dead end. There was no escape! He turned to face the mass and waved his spear.

  ‘Stay back!’ he shouted.

  The green fronds rose into the air, clinging to each other, weaving in and out, and fused into a familiar shape. In a few seconds, a wet and bedraggled Ressuldar stood in front of him. It was Balsam.

  ‘You can put that away, Yaksha,’ he said, gasping. ‘Didn’t mean to frighten you. I was in that shape for several hours—takes a little longer to change.’

  Floyd dropped the spear and gave the soaked Ressuldar a hug. He thought his chest would burst with relief. He had never been as happy to see anyone. ‘You were the sea algae? In the water?’

  ‘It wasn’t fun. That I can assure you,’ Balsam said. ‘We would have been useless if it wasn’t for what you did. That light in the water activated us. You did it, Yaksha.’

  ‘You carried all those children? You—’

  ‘Uncle Balsam?’ It was Gulaab, walking towards them.

  Balsam stood silent and very still.

  Floyd smiled. For the first time the voluble Ressuldar was at a loss for words. Gulaab’s hair sprouted small blue roses that budded and fell to the marble deck as Balsam enveloped him in a hug. Balsam’s hair sprouted large tiger lilies that released their scent as they floated to the deck. Both uncle and nephew had the same peridot eyes, gleaming with tears.

  Floyd felt his throat constrict. How he wished that it were he, hugging Farook.

  Gulaab broke away and looked at Balsam. ‘Where is Ma … and Papa … and Koos?’ he asked. ‘I feel like you were all part of a faraway dream.’

  ‘On their way—your Ma used the Inkling Room to land in the ocean once we sent her the coordinates. Koos wasn’t allowed to come. She’s waiting on the Charpoy.’

  ‘The Inkling Room …’ Gulaab’s brow cleared and he smiled. ‘Of course. I love that place.’

  ‘Come on, these people need our help,’ another Ressuldar yelled. They were emerging from large clumps of wet sea algae, dragging the sodden, exhausted children on to the ship deck. Floyd scanned the group. No Farook. His heart leapt as another lot of children was hoisted—they fell to the floor, coughing out water and sputtering. Three girls he didn’t recognize, but no sign of Farook. The Ressuldars quickly wrapped blankets around them. Then a hand reached over the ship rail and a Ressuldar deposited a thin boy, who rolled over and groaned.

  ‘Farook!’ Floyd screamed as he ran up to his brother and took his face in his hands.

  ‘Farook, you’re okay! I can’t believe it.’ Floyd kissed his twin on his head. Farook was alive! He looked into the face, so much like his own, and his heart sang. He hugged him so tight that Farook gasped. Floyd laughed.

  Farook smiled weakly. The Ressuldar put a blanket over Farook and handed Floyd a steaming cup. Floyd lifted Farook’s head so he could sip the liquid.

  A tall Ressuldar woman with tawny-orange eyes and incandescent green skin, her arms forming out of ribbons of algae, nodded brusquely. Agnita, the medical office
r, silent and formidable, was working away. ‘Take them inside immediately,’ she said. ‘Away from the deck. The water is too dangerous.’

  The Ressuldars scuttled Farook and the other children to the makeshift infirmary.

  ‘Yaksha,’ a voice said. Floyd turned. Ela crouched on the deck, bending over her slashed leg. The open wound was green, with pale veins and small tubes running through the flesh, like a leaf held against sunlight.

  ‘I was worried about you, Yaksha,’ she said, through gritted teeth.

  Floyd hugged her tightly. ‘You’re hurt.’

  ‘I’ll be okay. There are others that need taking care of,’ she said, wincing in pain. ‘There are several kids still out there. We’ve managed to get most of them aboard, but these waters are unsafe. The Merrows are raging.’

  ‘There’s someone you should meet.’ Floyd smiled. He pulled a dazed Gulaab towards her. Gulaab trembled, his green eyes wet with unshed tears as he sat next to his mother and put his head on her shoulder.

  To Floyd’s shock, Ela turned completely transparent. The veins running through her body, her beating heart, the shoots and tendrils that made up her limbs, were all visible for an instant. Then she sobbed as she staggered towards Gulaab and enveloped him in a hug. She kissed his cheeks and then his eyes. Her hair sprouted golden daffodils that fell in a circle around them.

  After a moment, Balsam cleared his throat. He was pointing at Shaitana’s still body that lay on the wet stony deck. ‘Gulaab should pay his final respects,’ he said.

  Ela burst out, ‘Balsam, she kidnapped him and put him in a box.’ Her mouth was compressed into a thin line, white at the edges. Just like Ma when she was angry.

  Balsam hugged Ela. ‘Even the foul-smelling durian yields sweet fruit inside,’ he said. ‘If it weren’t for her, the Merrows would have killed him.’

  Gulaab bent over Shaitana’s lifeless body. ‘I wasn’t always in a box. That was only in the last couple of days. Before that, she had a special room and a garden for me in the mountain. She visited me every day and read me bedtime stories. She would feed me and teach me about the Merrows. Although she was kind and would call me her son, I always knew she wasn’t my mother. I never forgot who I was.’ Rose petals as white as a snow cloud fell from his mouth and the ends of his hair, releasing a rich, soothing fragrance of fresh, sweet rainwater. The petals fell rapidly and covered Shaitana’s body in a flowery shroud.

  Floyd helped Balsam lift Shaitana’s body on to the plank. They released its latch, and the plank fell into the sea. It hit the water and sank under a frothy cloud of bubbles, leaving a ripple of white petals.

  A churning started in the water and soon the ship was surrounded by white foam. Merrows pulsed below, their tails thrashing and then, a loud, collective scream of rage came out of the ocean. The Merrow empress had returned to her home in the sea.

  Gulaab buried his face in Ela’s hair, crying softly, and the two of them walked away to the other side of the deck. Balsam folded his hands and bowed to the sea. ‘May you be at peace in your watery crypt, Shaitana,’ he said.

  ‘So what happens to the Merrows?’ Floyd asked.

  ‘The Merrows are permanently sea dwellers now,’ Balsam said. ‘Never did we dream that they would sink to such depravity as to invoke the loophole in the law. The Merrows had to either return to the sea or sacrifice a hundred souls to void the treaty. If they had sacrificed those children, they would have been here permanently.’

  ‘So they won’t ever come back?’ Floyd asked.

  Balsam nodded. ‘By putting light in the water when you did, you guaranteed that they would lose whatever power they had on land, and they had to revert to their sea-dwelling bodies. Your act cemented their fate.’

  ‘I did that?’ Floyd stammered. It seemed unbelievable.

  ‘Yes, Yaksha, you fulfilled your destiny.’ Balsam smiled. ‘But how did you know that light was needed in the water?’

  ‘The cipher beetles,’ Floyd said. ‘Thanks for those.’

  The sea algae continued to snake up the side of the boat and wound around the shivering children like cocoons, depositing them on the deck. After depositing a child on the ship, the algae would fuse together and wriggle into a Ressuldar. Floyd smiled at Farook, whose hand was clamped over his mouth as he witnessed the Ressuldars’ transformation. Farook had a lot to get used to.

  ‘All children accounted for, sir,’ a Ressuldar said to Balsam.

  ‘Then, off we go, westward ho!’ Balsam said heartily and raised his arm.

  Floyd looked at Ela, who had grown a soft leaf from her nail and was tying it around her wound. She stopped and looked back at him quizzically.

  ‘Did you see Chutney?’ Floyd asked.

  Ela’s smile disappeared and her shoulders tensed. ‘I’m sorry, Yaksha. I was in the water when he fell. I tried to grab him but he was injured so badly and fell so deep that in the scuffle, we couldn’t find him.’

  Floyd inhaled sharply as tears stabbed his eyes.

  Balsam was making clucking sounds as he looked through a shiny brass telescope, mounted on the marble deck.

  ‘These waters are unsafe,’ Balsam said, squinting through the telescope lens. ‘You defeated the Merrows. Goodness knows what they’re plotting in revenge. The problem is, we don’t know how far the Charpoy is.’

  ‘What’s a charpoy?’ Farook asked.

  ‘The Ressuldar ship,’ Floyd explained.

  ‘I’ve sent out several signals,’ Ela said. ‘Nothing yet.’

  ‘The dogs will return soon, but they will be exhausted—all this flying. We can’t use them,’ Balsam said. Floyd’s heart twinged.

  ‘Ahoy mates!’ a voice shouted. Floyd saw Naveen hobbling towards them, carrying a small bag, his skin a pale green. Behind him, a familiar figure walked sulkily. Kusmati had stowed away on board despite Navin’s strict instructions and no doubt, had been given a good ticking off.

  Floyd ran and hugged Naveen.

  ‘Ah Yaksha, so brave.’ Naveen thumped Floyd’s back.

  ‘Naveen, are you okay?’ Floyd asked. Somehow Naveen had a way of making everything feel like it would be okay.

  ‘Fine, Yaksha. Just taking care of our soldiers here,’ he said as he pulled out a small glass bottle with a yellow ointment. He removed the leaf on Ela’s shin and dabbed some of the buttery yellow paste on her wound. She winced and looked at him briefly before turning away, a dark green flush staining her cheeks.

  ‘Papa?’ Gulaab said, and shyly stepped forward.

  Naveen’s hand stopped in mid-air. His hair sprouted a cascade of fiery red pepper berries. They bounced all over the deck, releasing a rich, spicy smell. Kusmati didn’t say a word. She ran up to Gulaab and hugged him. ‘I knew you’d come back.’ She kept kissing Gulaab, her hair alternately budding hydrangeas and periwinkles.

  Ela nodded, and more tears and hugs followed as his parents and sister enveloped Gulaab. Floyd’s eyes swam with tears and he heard Balsam blow his nose.

  A shout came from the crow’s nest. ‘Message from the Charpoy!’ Floyd heard a swishing sound and looked up to see the Ridgebacks flying in a perfect triangular formation. The dogs landed on the deck, one by one. Floyd scanned them, his heart aching as he hoped against futile hope.

  21

  The Rogue Wave

  ‘Hurry!’ Naveen yelled at the Ressuldars as he paced the deck. Floyd walked among the injured with a tray of steaming wine. Koos was cheering everyone up with funny stories about being in the water and being found out by her father when she tried climbing up the side of the ship. Her father hadn’t been pleased when she materialized in front of him.

  The sun had emerged, the sea was calm and the sky shone a freshly washed blue. Yet everyone was tense. The unpredictable Merrows in the water below could be dangerous.

  ‘Hoist the sails. We have to leave as soon as possible,’ Naveen barked. Running the huge Merrow ship was clearly a different experience from the Charpoy.

  About fifty Ressuldars, s
wift and silent, were bandaging wounds, setting bones and rubbing ointments on injured children and Ressuldars. Suddenly, the hum of voices was broken.

  ‘They found him, look!’ a girl yelled.

  A limp Ridgeback was hoisted on to the deck. Floyd’s heart raced. He pushed his way through the small crowd that had gathered. The hair on the back of his neck prickled. A wet dog with a red collar around his neck lay still.

  ‘Chutney!’ Floyd screamed as tears sprang to his eyes. Chutney’s wings were badly gashed, one completely tattered. They hung around him like a deathly shroud. Floyd’s chest hurt so much he thought he would faint.

  ‘Look, he’s opened his eyes!’ shouted a small girl.

  Floyd felt his heart leap. He fell to his knees and cradled the dog’s listless head in his arms. Chutney whimpered, licking Floyd’s hand feebly. Floyd kissed him on his wet nose.

  ‘He’s losing blood,’ Agnita said flatly.

  Floyd’s throat constricted. ‘Is he going to die?’

  Agnita shot him an impatient look and jerked her head at two Ressuldars, who came up to Chutney with a stretcher and lifted him gently.

  ‘He needs surgery.’ Agnita’s face was impassive. ‘The wings.’

  ‘Can’t I go with him?’

  ‘Sorry.’ Agnita’s tone was more sympathetic. ‘Sanitary precautions. I’ll let you know how he does.’

  Floyd nodded, his heart doing a wild staccato. Chutney was spirited away. Floyd put his hands over his ears as the mechanical whirring of a drill was followed by Chutney’s wails. He gritted his teeth, trying to drown out the dreadful cries and push away the image of an instrument cutting through Chutney’s body.

  Balsam came up to Floyd and patted his shoulder. ‘It must be done, Yaksha.’ Floyd nodded. If only he hadn’t asked Chutney to come back. If this beautiful dog died, he would never forgive himself.

  ‘Ship sighted!’ came the yell from the crow’s nest.

  A loud cheer arose as a tiny Merman’s Charpoy, its purple sails fluttering, appeared on the horizon. Mercy. Soon they would be off this hated stone vessel.