Orphans of the Tide

by Struan Murray

  From the floor, Ellie picked up a broom handle. She held it across her lap, in both hands, then began to drag one end back and forward in a rowing motion, never quite letting it touch the floorboards. She tried to imagine the sound of the sea, lapping gently against the boat. She tried to imagine the cold of the wind on her face. She tried to imagine the presence of another person in the seat across from her. She tried to imagine his smile, the sound of his voice, his laughter.

  She tried, and tried, and tried.

  Then she put the broom handle back down and sighed. She hugged her legs, her pulse resounding through her whole body. She counted thirty beats, then sat up. The other seat was still empty. Words formed in her chest, spiny and sore.

  ‘Where are you?’ she said. Her tiny voice filled the workshop.

  ‘What are you doing?’

  Ellie cried out and spun round, sending several books flying. Seth was sitting cross-legged on top of the giant turtle skeleton that hung from the ceiling, framed in moonlight.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Ellie hissed.

  Seth looked at the strange arrangement of books around her. ‘You were talking to your brother,’ he said.

  ‘I wasn’t,’ said Ellie adamantly.

  ‘There are tears on your cheeks.’

  ‘I wasn’t talking to him. Shut up.’ Ellie climbed out of the book-boat and turned away. ‘What are you doing up there?’ she said curtly. ‘You should be in the basement.’

  ‘I like the way this sways,’ he said, leaning from side to side so the skeleton swung slightly on its chains.

  Suddenly hot and embarrassed, Ellie conspicuously picked up a screwdriver and leaned over the broken net-cannon. Her nose still ached whenever she looked at it.

  ‘I couldn’t sleep,’ she said.

  Seth stood up, balancing effortlessly on the turtle. He dropped catlike to the bookcase below, then to the floor.

  ‘You were talking to your brother.’

  ‘Seth, just shut up, all right?’ said Ellie, violently prising open the side of the cannon.

  ‘I’m sorry. It’s just . . . I don’t have anyone to talk to, except you.’

  ‘Then we can talk about other things.’ Ellie reached for a pair of pliers and pulled out a bent cog. ‘Here, help me fix this. Make yourself useful for once.’

  He took the cog, and held it still while Ellie strained to bend it back into shape with her pliers.

  ‘If I’m going to live here,’ he said, ‘you’re going to have to talk to me. Is that why Anna’s angry with you? Because you don’t tell her things?’

  Ellie picked up the net-cannon. ‘What do you care about Anna? She hates you.’

  Seth shrugged. ‘Doesn’t mean I hate her,’ he said, following Ellie to another workbench, where there was a large vice. ‘Every time I ask you about yourself, you start talking about something else.’

  Ellie threw down the net-cannon with a clatter. ‘Well maybe you should take a hint and stop asking me. How would you like it if I asked you private things about yourself all the time?’

  ‘I’d love it,’ Seth said simply. ‘Only I don’t know anything about myself.’

  Ellie opened up the vice and wedged the bent cog inside. ‘It must be nice,’ she said bitterly, ‘not having any memories. Not knowing about any of the bad things that happened to you. The bad things you did. Hold these,’ she said. She held out her pliers, but Seth just stared at her. His eyes were wide in the moonlight.

  ‘Please don’t say things like that,’ he said.

  A hot guilt bubbled up in Ellie’s chest, followed by a rush of anger at Seth for making her feel that way. She turned from him, picked up a large hammer in both hands, and pounded the cog back into shape. She closed the panel on the cannon and risked a glance at Seth. He was looking at his feet.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘That was cruel.’

  There was a long silence that made Ellie’s palms itch with discomfort.

  ‘Here, why don’t you be the first to test it?’ she said, picking up the net-cannon and offering it to him. He looked at it sceptically.

  ‘It won’t backfire like last time, I promise. I fixed that little, um, issue. And it’s really fun when it’s working. Go on, try.’

  Seth took the cannon from her uncertainly, pointed it at the turtle skeleton, and pulled the trigger. There was a metal clunk and a huge black net blasted from the end of the cannon, wrapping itself snugly round the skeleton like a blanket.

  Seth looked at her, his mouth a little open. ‘That was fun,’ he said.

  ‘Help me get the net down and we can do it again.’

  Seth clambered quickly up the bookcase and snatched the net down. He looked around, eyes darting curiously. Then he vanished into the dark.

  ‘Seth?’

  ‘Let’s use this!’ he said, reappearing with a ball made from the skin of a puffer fish. ‘It’ll be more fun with a moving target.’

  Ellie grinned, feeling a tiny flutter of joy in her chest. They took it in turns, one of them throwing the ball into the air and the other one trying to catch it with the net-cannon. They kept score, and Ellie didn’t even mind when Seth got more points than her. After many rounds, and a score of twenty-one to twelve, she slumped down against a workbench, out of breath. She finally felt like sleeping.

  She realized then that she was sitting with her feet against the boat made of books. She shifted uncomfortably, looking at her lap. Seth sat down next to her.

  ‘My mum used to say that my brother and I were her greatest inventions,’ Ellie said. ‘She made a machine that could predict when a storm was coming, three days before it happened, can you believe that? But she thought me and my brother were better.’

  Ellie found that her body was trembling, her chest tight. Seth watched her silently.

  ‘I was supposed to keep him safe,’ she said. ‘I was supposed to protect him. And when he got ill . . . I should have been able to fix him.’

  She rested her head on her knees. ‘When he got sick, I did everything I could. I went to the university. I scoured every library in the City for a way to save him. But I couldn’t. I couldn’t figure it out. My mum would have known what to do, but I didn’t. And the worst bit was that he was alone. I left him alone in his bed. And when I came back to the orphanage . . .’ Ellie took a deep, trembling breath. ‘When I came back my brother was dead.’

  She heard the sound of fabric on wood as Seth shuffled nearer. She felt the closeness of his hand as it hovered by her shoulder. Then his hand retreated.

  ‘He needed me, Seth,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t fix him, and I wasn’t there for him when he died. He needed me, and I failed him.’

  ‘You didn’t –’

  ‘I did,’ she said fiercely, turning to look at him, daring him to say otherwise. Seth swallowed, and his gaze dropped from hers. They sat in silence.

  After a while, Ellie sighed, angrily wiping away her tears. She got to her feet and picked up the ball from among a pile of books. ‘Come on,’ she said, tossing it into Seth’s arms. ‘I’m going to beat your score if it takes all night.’

  How much longer they played, Ellie wasn’t sure, though they quickly started giggling again, and, as they got more and more tired, their aim became abysmal. Ellie laughed so hard her lungs started to hurt. She lay down against a bookcase.

  ‘Giving up, are you?’ said Seth.

  ‘I’m done,’ she said breathlessly. ‘And I could have beaten you easily. I was just being nice.’

  Seth tutted, but kept smiling. Then, he looked sharply across the room, like a cat noticing something no one else can see.

  ‘What is it?’ said Ellie.

  Seth walked over to the large metal tub, and pulled the lid aside.

  ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ said Ellie, rising cautiously to her feet.

  The surface of the water was utterly still. Seth took a deep breath and the water bubbled, ever so slightly. His eyes flicked to Ellie, and it stopped. He put out his hand, holding it abo
ve the water.

  At first, nothing happened.

  Then, the water rose, silently, a smooth cone-shape glistening in the moonlight. It touched the palm of Seth’s hand, and his face broke into a disbelieving smile. He laughed, and the water sputtered playfully, spraying him before collapsing back into the tub.

  Ellie bounced up and down, clapping eagerly. ‘You did it!’ she cried.

  Seth looked back at her with wide eyes. ‘I did it.’

  ~

  When Ellie awoke, her lungs still hurt from laughing. She was lying wrapped in her blanket on the workshop floor. She couldn’t remember falling asleep, but it was still dark. She looked around and saw Seth sleeping a few feet away among a pile of books. He looked very peaceful.

  There was a tiny noise in the distance. Ellie tensed and sat up.

  It was faint, but she’d know it anywhere. It was coming from the street outside, a quiet jangling of metal.

  ‘Please,’ she whispered. ‘Not tonight.’

  She closed her eyes, hoping it would go away. But the sound grew more insistent. She stepped barefoot across the workshop, collecting the oil lamp that hung from the wall. She put her eye to the spyhole to look outside, but the oil lamp in Orphanage Street had gone out and there was nothing to see but the dark.

  Nothing to hear but the tinkling of metal.

  Delicately, she undid each bolt, as quietly as she could, so as not to wake Seth. She slid the door open, holding her lamp up to the alleyway across the street.

  ‘Oh, hello,’ said Finn timidly. ‘I’m so glad you heard me.’

  He was standing where the street met a narrow alley, twenty paces away from her, drawing one finger across the chain at his neck.

  ‘It’s cold,’ he said, his pretty features lit up with golden lamplight. ‘I was worried you might leave me out here.’

  ‘What is it?’ said Ellie, gripping her blanket tighter and pulling the workshop door shut behind her. She didn’t want Seth to hear anything.

  ‘I thought you’d want to know how I rescued him,’ said Finn.

  ‘I don’t.’

  ‘Oh,’ he said, looking dejected. ‘But I thought . . . It was very clever, what I did. I know how much you like clever things.’

  ‘I don’t care, Finn,’ she said. ‘Just go away.’

  He scratched his head. ‘I don’t understand. You asked for my help?’

  ‘I didn’t have any choice. He was going to die.’

  ‘I know . . . I went to all that effort to save him. Don’t you care?’

  ‘Finn, no more games.’

  He sniffed and rubbed his nose. ‘But you always used to like our games. I thought, maybe, now that I’ve helped you . . . maybe you’d let me forgive you?’

  ‘Stop it, Finn!’

  ‘Why are you being so cruel?’ he moaned. ‘Aren’t I your –’

  Ellie dropped the lamp and the blanket and ran at him, pushing him roughly backwards.

  ‘NO! You are nothing to me. You are nothing!’

  Finn’s breathing was shallow. ‘You’ve got to listen to me! I know you like having Seth around – I know you like the company. And I know that rescuing him makes you feel less guilty about all the terrible things you’ve done.’

  ‘Shut up, Finn.’

  ‘But please, Nellie, you can’t keep him – he’ll lead the Inquisition straight to you!’

  ‘He’s not safe on the streets,’ said Ellie. ‘He’s staying here. And there’s nothing you can do about it!’

  Finn scrunched up his face, fat tears dribbling down both cheeks. Ellie fought the maddening urge to comfort him, and turned away instead.

  He spoke in a tiny voice behind her. ‘But . . . there is something I can do, Nellie. You know there is.’

  The words were like a knife slid between her ribs. Her throat was dry. She turned.

  ‘No. You can’t.’

  He swallowed, sorrow in his eyes. ‘I have to do something. It’s for your own good.’

  ‘Finn!’

  ‘I’m sorry, Nellie.’

  ‘He’s innocent. He’s done nothing wrong.’

  ‘It’s not safe for you.’

  ‘No, please. I don’t want you to!’

  ‘But you need me to. I wish it didn’t have to be this way.’

  ‘Yes, you do,’ Ellie snarled. ‘You love to see people suffer. You’ll enjoy it!’

  Finn stared at her, astonished. ‘Why would I want that, Nellie? I’d never be so cruel. I only want what’s best for you.’

  Again, something deep in the pit of Ellie’s stomach pleaded for her to comfort him, and again she silenced it. His eyes were still watery, his bottom lip quivering. He stared pitifully at his feet. Then he looked at her.

  And the corners of his mouth twitched upward.

  He put a hand up to hide his face. Ellie’s heart was pounding. ‘You smiled,’ she said.

  He shook his head fervently. ‘No . . . no, I didn’t.’

  ‘You did, I saw you!’

  ‘No, Nellie, really, I didn’t smile. I promise.’

  ‘You monster,’ she spat, picking up a loose cobblestone from the ground and throwing it at his face. Finn dodged nimbly aside, and then was fleeing, racing off along the alleyway, swiftly lost to the darkness.

  From the Diary of Claude Hestermeyer

  ‘What have you done?’ I said, staring in horror at the money. ‘How did you do this?’

  ‘Because that’s how it works, Claude,’ said the Enemy, sitting comfortably in his armchair. ‘What, did you think that the only price for my help is that you feel a bit tired for a while? No, dear friend, I’m afraid it’s not so simple. You’re the Vessel, and I’m the Enemy. When you make a wish, I get to make a wish of my own. You asked me to pick up that starfish, so I used a starfish to wedge your door open so the servant would go in. You asked me to get money for Peter’s father, so I stole some more money from the university and put it on your desk.’

  ‘But,’ I began, my breath coming quickly, ‘that servant, Thomas – he saw the gold. And now he’s going to tell the master, I’m sure of it. They’re going to think I’ve been stealing from the university!’

  The Enemy leaned forward in his armchair. ‘Well then, I think you know what you have to do.’

  I made for the door. ‘No, I’m not asking you for any more favours. I’ll see to this myself.’

  ‘If you do, it will be too late,’ he said, as I reached for the door handle. ‘You can’t get there quickly enough. But I can. I can stop the servant from talking.’

  I wiped my sleeve across my brow. I stared at the pile of gold and uttered a silent prayer to St Celestina.

  ‘Don’t kill him,’ I said. ‘Stop him, but don’t kill him.’

  ‘It will be easier if I kill him,’ said the Enemy.

  ‘No,’ I snapped. ‘No killing. Just . . . hide him somewhere until I can figure this out.’

  The Enemy nodded, and stood up. ‘Very well,’ he said.

  I buried my face in my hands. When I looked up again, he was gone.

  The Oystery

  The sun had risen by the time Ellie had worked up the resolve to prod Seth’s shoulder. He looked so peaceful asleep, and she felt so guilty for waking him with such bad news.

  ‘I think Finn’s going to try and kill you today.’

  Seth blinked rapidly and eased himself up. ‘What? Why?’

  ‘He thinks you’re putting me in danger.’

  Seth massaged his temples. ‘So then why did he save my life in the first place?’

  ‘Look, I told you, he’s bad-tempered and he gets these ideas. If he says he wants to kill you then he’s certainly going to try.’

  ‘But why does he care about me? Why does he care about you?’

  Ellie grimaced. ‘It’s complicated. He doesn’t have many friends so he gets kind of, uh, territorial. As long as you stay here with me, in the workshop, then he can’t do anything without risking my safety. But we need to be ready to defend ourselves.’
/>   Seth gave her a rebellious look.

  ‘He’s a genius, Seth. You should be afraid of him.’

  Seth wrinkled his nose. ‘Fine,’ he said bitterly. ‘You have weird friends, though.’

  Ellie sighed. ‘I know. Right, we should still take some precautions – Finn might tip off the Inquisitors that you’re here, so we’ll need a way to escape the workshop. I’ve got an idea for some hidden traps.’

  There was a knock at the door and Seth snuck down to the basement to hide. Ellie opened the door and found Anna standing outside, looking as if she’d rather be anywhere else. Ellie was surprised by the leap of happiness in her chest.

  ‘Anna! I didn’t think you’d be coming today.’

  Anna shrugged. ‘Someone needs to make sure he doesn’t get you killed,’ she said, gesturing at Seth, who had reappeared at the sound of Anna’s name.

  ‘Good morning, Anna,’ said Seth cheerily.

  ‘Eugh,’ said Anna, blowing a curl of ginger hair aside. ‘Ellie, it’s the Magnus Alderdice Festival today, down in the Markets of the Unknown Saint. Let’s go to it. The whale boy can stay here, and play with the furnace or something.’

  ‘Oh, um,’ said Ellie, flustered. She looked around, and spied a broken oyster-catcher. ‘I’ve got to fix that this morning,’ she lied. ‘The owner wants it finished by noon.’

  ‘Oh, all right,’ said Anna, shrugging. ‘I’ll stay and help you then.’

  ‘No, no,’ said Ellie hurriedly. ‘You’ll have more fun at the market.’

  ‘But I want to help,’ said Anna, a frown forming on her brow.

  ‘It’s fine, really,’ said Ellie. ‘Seth can help me.’

  Anna’s face fell. Seth drew in air through his teeth.

  ‘Well, I guess you don’t need me at all then,’ said Anna, and she spun round furiously and stormed out of the workshop.

  Ellie noticed the look Seth gave her. ‘I don’t want her involved,’ she explained. ‘It’s too dangerous.’

  ‘I think Anna can take care of herself,’ said Seth.