Orphans of the Tide

by Struan Murray

  Seth laughed, like he was surprised how well it had worked. He turned to Ellie and Anna, grinning.

  ‘Not bad, right?’

  Then his face contorted in pain and he dropped to his knees.

  Ellie and Anna helped him back up. His skin was ice-cold, his eyes unfocused. Deep booms of thunder exploded in the clouds – the storm was on them now. The sea twisted in agitation. Seth jerked and twitched, and a low growl came from his throat that he didn’t seem able to control.

  ‘It’s so loud,’ he groaned, hands on his temples. ‘It’s so loud.’

  ‘We need to get him somewhere warm,’ said Ellie. ‘Let’s get back to the workshop.’

  ‘We can’t,’ said Anna, pointing. ‘We have to lose him first.’

  The other Inquisitor, Matthews, was running along the line of rooftops towards them, his sword drawn. Ellie and Anna each put an arm round Seth and helped him shuffle towards Celestina’s Hope. They climbed a huge staircase, beneath the gaze of towering statues. They struggled through ankle-deep puddles of seawater; the rain was falling so hard that Ellie and Anna had to shout at each other to be heard.

  ‘We should hide!’ Anna cried.

  ‘No!’ yelled Ellie. ‘I have a plan!’

  ‘Come on, Nellie,’ said Finn, popping up atop the battlements. His velvet waistcoat was dry and fluffy, and he didn’t have to shout. ‘Why don’t you just ask me to kill him?’

  The rain drove painfully into Ellie’s scalp. ‘No,’ she said. ‘If I ask you to kill him, then you can kill someone else.’

  ‘I take it back. You’re no fun, Ellie Lancaster.’

  ‘Are you talking to the Enemy?’ Seth said, lifting his head groggily.

  ‘Um, yeah.’

  ‘Tell it to go drown itself.’

  Finn glared at Seth, his lip curling. ‘And tell him that I had a really enjoyable time drowning his brothers and sisters.’

  There was a splash of footsteps behind and they turned to see Matthews gaining on them. Seth raised a trembling hand but Ellie pulled it down.

  ‘No, Seth,’ she said. ‘Save your strength.’

  They ran up a long flight of crumbling stairs that wound round the side of the castle, finally coming to the top of the amphitheatre – a large, open arena surrounded by tiers of stone seats that rose steeply around the sides, like a place where gladiators might once have fought. Now it was filled with water from the tide, like a giant rock pool.

  ‘If we can get that Inquisitor to follow us round in a circle,’ shouted Ellie, ‘then we can go back the way we came!’

  ‘That’s a terrible plan!’ said Anna.

  ‘Have you got a better one?’

  They raced round the perimeter of the amphitheatre. The clouds writhed as if in pain, and waves crashed hard against the side of the building. Ellie turned her head, and caught a flash of lightning reflected from Matthews’ sword. He was following them. Ellie smiled. Her plan was working.

  There was a hysterical roar, and something huge and dark and soaking wet hurled itself over the edge of the theatre, knocking Ellie flat on her back.

  She looked up. Hargrath was lifting Seth high into the air by the neck, choking the life out of him.

  ‘NO!’ Ellie cried, rushing to her feet and batting uselessly at the immense Inquisitor. She felt a hand in her pocket, then Anna shoved her aside, stabbing the point of a screwdriver into Hargrath’s arm. He roared, dropping Seth into the water-filled arena below. Without even looking at her, Hargrath smacked Anna over the edge, then grabbed Ellie’s hair and hurled her down too.

  Ellie’s stomach flipped as she crashed hard into the water. She spluttered and swallowed salt, then pulled her head up above the waves.

  ‘Ellie!’ she heard Anna say. ‘There’s something –’

  But then the water snatched Ellie down again.

  ‘What?’ she cried, coughing as she broke the surface.

  Anna swam towards her. ‘There’s something in here with us!’

  Ellie looked around frantically. A dark shape rippled through the waves. Then a fin, poking above the water.

  ‘What’s that?’ said Seth, paddling close to Ellie and Anna.

  Ellie felt the water move as it went by. It was big: the length of a person between its fin and its tail. It turned sharply, tail swishing as it swam away from them.

  ‘It’s fine,’ said Ellie, her voice trembling only slightly. They clung to one another, kicking hard to stay afloat. ‘Sharks aren’t nearly as dangerous as people think. They only get vicious if they smell blood.’

  High above them, Hargrath wedged his sword between his side and the stump of his arm, then drew the palm of his hand along the blade.

  ‘No!’ Ellie cried.

  Hargrath stretched out his hand and squeezed it into a tight fist. Three thick drops of blood fell into the water.

  For a moment, the shark just kept swimming. Then its tail thrashed violently, spraying water in all directions. It circled them, again, and again, and again.

  Then it turned, arrowing straight towards them. Ellie saw its beady black eyes as they rolled back to reveal the whites beneath. She tried to grab for Seth’s hand, but a sudden, almighty force pulled her and Anna out of the shark’s path.

  When Ellie looked back, she saw that the shark had been swept to the far side of the amphitheatre, pinned against the audience seats by a glistening wave. Seth burst from the water next to Ellie. Dark, swirling patterns raced across his skin.

  ‘Enough,’ came Hargrath’s voice from high above. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his dart-gun, pointing it at Seth.

  ‘DIVE, SETH!’ Ellie cried.

  ‘No, don’t bother,’ said a lazy voice right next to her. Ellie turned to see Finn, not so much treading water as floating in it like a jellyfish. ‘Hargrath’s time is up. He knows too much.’

  Ellie stared in horror. ‘No . . . no, Finn. Don’t do it.’

  But Finn just smiled.

  There was a sickening ear-splitting crack, like a mountain being torn open. Dust sprayed in all directions, and Ellie saw Hargrath and Matthews vanish through the stone beneath them.

  She scrambled for the nearest step. She tried to get a grip but it was too slick; her fingers slipped and scraped the stone. Then the water shifted underneath her, like she was in a huge bath being sloshed from side to side. It lifted Ellie, Anna and Seth on to the steps, and they scrambled towards the top.

  Ellie looked down, and gasped. A massive hole had been torn from the stone of the amphitheatre. A perfectly round hole leading down to the sea.

  ‘I can’t see them!’ she cried.

  Seth staggered to the edge, looking into the waters and gritting his teeth. It was a moment before Ellie realized he was feeling, not seeing.

  ‘There,’ he said at last, his voice hoarse, pointing out to sea.

  Two tiny figures were being swept away from the City, pulled in sickening twists by ferocious waves.

  ‘I’ll bring them back,’ Seth muttered wearily, and then fell to his hands and knees. Anna pressed her hands against his shoulders.

  ‘Are you okay?’ she asked.

  ‘I . . . can’t,’ Seth mumbled. ‘It’s too loud.’

  Ellie turned to Finn, who was watching the sea with an amused smile.

  ‘Do something,’ she told him. ‘Save them.’

  Finn gave a small, surprised laugh. ‘You want me to save Hargrath? But he knows you’re helping Seth now. He’ll see both of you executed. Are you sure you want me to save Hargrath?’

  ‘Yes! Save him. Save both of them!’

  At this, Finn closed his eyes tight, savouring her words.

  ‘No.’

  Ellie froze. She couldn’t breathe. ‘What?’

  ‘I won’t save them. I refuse.’

  ‘No, no you can’t.’

  ‘He dies.’

  ‘But you’ll have no wishes left!’ she shouted. ‘You have to save them. Think how much stronger it will make you!’

  ‘I�
��m not going to save them.’

  ‘No. NO!’ She balled her hands into fists. ‘Finn, please! PLEASE!’

  But already Finn was gone, and Ellie could only watch as the two tiny figures were swept out and out to sea, vanishing completely beneath dark waves.

  From the Diary of Claude Hestermeyer

  I am living in the sewers.

  Twice in the last week I’ve had to ask Peter for help. Just hours ago, three Inquisitors found me while I was hiding in a tunnel. One of them was an old, dear friend of mine and Peter’s, from back at the university. He pleaded with me to turn myself in – there were tears in his eyes. But I didn’t want to be parted from Peter, so I had him curl rods of rusted metal round the Inquisitors’ legs, holding them in place while I made my escape.

  I keep this diary close. In my malaise, I forget exactly why it’s so important, and I am too tired to go back and reread the last few entries to see if I can find the reason. It is easier to just carry on writing. Peter keeps telling me to throw it away, and once I very nearly did. But something deep inside me tells me I must keep it safe.

  In the day, I check the traps I’ve set to catch rats to eat, and the nets in some of the open pipes that fish occasionally swim down. At night, I wrap myself up as best I can. I seem to be cold all the time these days, a cold that’s inside my very bones. Peter offers to help – to light me a fire, or bring me more food, but again a part of me knows that I must not do this.

  Still, I am so grateful to have Peter with me. This would be so much harder without him. Last night I couldn’t sleep, so we went for a walk. I was angry with him at first, for reasons I can’t remember now. But then we talked for long hours, and it was as if we were right back in the university, on our eternal search for truth and knowledge. It felt so good to talk to him again, as old friends.

  I often wonder what is going on in the City above. I think a lot about Peter’s father. I hope he is all right. I wish I could go up there to see him, and tell him his son is doing well.

  Missing Parts

  Ellie sat slumped against a workbench, her hair a tangled mess, her fingernails chewed to jagged lines. In her hand was a cloth soaked in the sweat from her forehead.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she moaned. ‘This isn’t how it’s supposed to work. Finn refused to help me last night. How come I’m still getting weaker?’

  Seth and Anna’s eyelids were heavy from a lack of sleep. Anna went to get a fresh cloth. Seth rested his chin on his fist.

  ‘Maybe you’re still feeling the effects of the last wish you made, when you saved us from that fall?’ said Seth, then noticed Ellie rubbing at a shiny green and purple bruise on her arm. ‘Did Hargrath do that?’

  ‘No, I bumped into a workbench when we got back from Celestina’s Hope.’

  In her mind, Ellie saw two struggling figures stolen away by hulking waves. Guilt tugged at her chest like a hook. She blinked hard and tore a hunk of bread from the plate Anna had put in front of her. She didn’t feel hungry – the very idea of eating seemed unnatural – but she knew she had to keep her energy up. Her arms and legs were clumsy, brittle tubes. Her head was so heavy that it pulled her neck forward.

  Anna knelt at Ellie’s side, dabbing her brow with a new cloth. On the floor was Hestermeyer’s diary. Seth nudged it with his foot.

  ‘What do you think was in those missing pages?’ he said. Anna glared at him, as if now was not the time to be asking such questions. Ellie forced down the bread in her mouth. It tasted like sponge.

  ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘And I don’t know how to find out.’ She took a deep breath. ‘I think I should just turn myself in. Before anyone else gets hurt.’

  ‘You’re not turning yourself in,’ said Anna, pressing a glass of water into Ellie’s hands.

  ‘But if I’m executed then the Enemy can’t take a physical form!’ Ellie said, her voice cracking. ‘You don’t understand – once the Enemy gets out . . . Once he’s –’ she took another breath – ‘killed me. He’ll murder and destroy. What if he got into the orphanage?’

  ‘It’s not a he,’ said Anna, in a soft reprimand. ‘It’s an it.’

  Ellie looked nervously at Seth. ‘And then there’s you.’

  ‘What about me?’

  ‘Finn knows what you are – he always has. And once he gets out, he’ll want you to suffer especially. Because you’re like him. Even though you’re nothing like him,’ she added hastily. ‘Trust me, I know what Finn’s like.’

  ‘Stop it, Ellie!’ Anna said suddenly.

  Ellie looked at her in shock. ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘It’s not Finn,’ Anna said, fiercely crossing her arms, ‘so stop calling it that. Finn was your brother. He was kind and sweet and never hurt anybody.’

  Ellie looked at the floor. ‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, the words ‘kind’ and ‘sweet’ circling her thoughts. She found it hard to think of him that way.

  ‘You do remember him, don’t you?’ said Anna.

  ‘Of course I do!’ Ellie snapped, then closed her eyes. ‘Sorry, sorry. It’s just, well, my brother’s dead. This Finn is real. And even though he’s wretched, and horrible, he’s all I have left of him.’

  Anna’s lips went pale. ‘That’s a terrible thing to say.’

  ‘But it’s true.’

  Anna flinched and turned away from Ellie.

  Seth had started pacing the workshop, left and right and left again, and Ellie found she wanted to snap at him too. She worried Finn was infecting her with his spite.

  Seth spun towards them. ‘What if we left the City?’ he announced. ‘Right away, in a boat?’

  ‘The Inquisition would follow us,’ said Ellie. ‘They’d take the whale lords’ ships and chase us across the sea.’

  ‘Not if they couldn’t see us!’ said Anna eagerly. ‘We could use your underwater boat.’

  ‘It doesn’t work.’

  ‘Then we’ll fix it,’ said Seth.

  Ellie laughed bitterly. ‘I can’t even fix one of these stupid crabs.’ She slapped the oyster-catcher next to her. Then she coughed, and coughed, and coughed some more. She bent over and buried her face in both hands.

  ‘We could go to one of the farming islands,’ Anna said, patting Ellie on the back.

  Seth frowned. ‘The farmers would turn us in. But that map we saw yesterday –’

  ‘What map?’ said Anna.

  ‘In the stronghold. It had the City on it, and all the farming islands, but there were other islands too, far, far to the south. And one of them was big. Even bigger than the City.’

  Anna frowned. ‘But the City is the biggest island.’

  ‘Not according to this map,’ said Seth.

  ‘But if there were other islands, why would the Inquisition keep them a secret?’ asked Anna.

  Seth licked his lips. ‘Let’s find out. We take a boat – at night, so nobody sees us leave – and we sail across the ocean.’

  ‘The three of us can’t cross the ocean in some tiny boat,’ said Ellie.

  ‘We can if I’m in it,’ said Seth firmly.

  ‘Finn will follow us. I won’t stop being the Vessel just because I’m not in the City.’

  ‘But there won’t be any Inquisitors there to hunt you,’ Seth said eagerly. ‘You won’t have to make any more wishes, because you won’t be in danger.’

  Ellie sat up, comforted by the determined look in Seth’s eye. She imagined the three of them in some strange new land, where people smiled and the word ‘Enemy’ was never spoken in terror. But even if the people were cruel, and even if the ground was ash, it couldn’t be worse than the fate that would find her in the City.

  ‘Okay,’ she said at last. ‘Let’s do it.’

  Seth’s eyes went wide in delight, and Ellie leaned on Anna’s shoulder. Even the act of making a decision left her exhausted. Anna glanced eagerly round the workshop.

  ‘Right, we’ll need food and water, maps, and a boat,’ she said. ‘And we should take the rifle as well.�
�� Seth gave her a look. ‘You know, just in case there are bears.’

  Ellie found she was smiling and wasn’t quite sure why. She felt a need to tell them how grateful she was, but wasn’t sure what words to say. Instead, she looked down, and her fingers brushed the open pages of Hestermeyer’s diary. Seth stopped pacing, watching her curiously.

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘In this entry –’ Ellie pointed at the left-hand page – ‘Hestermeyer suddenly starts talking about the Enemy as if it is Peter, like they’re the same thing – he doesn’t seem to realize there’s a difference.’ She frowned, biting her thumb. ‘The Enemy appeared to Hestermeyer as his best friend. And he appears to me as my brother. Maybe he always does that?’

  ‘It,’ Anna corrected.

  ‘How do you think the Enemy chooses its Vessel?’ said Seth. ‘I mean, it’s not just random, is it?’

  Ellie stroked her chin, while Anna stretched out on her front, flicking idly through Hestermeyer’s diary. ‘The Enemy is a parasite. Like one of those crook wasps that lay their eggs inside other insects,’ Anna read aloud. She looked up at the jars of dead animals on the shelves nearby. ‘You don’t have one of these crook wasp things in here, do you?’ she said. ‘I’d love to see one.’

  Seth knelt down next to Anna, reading the diary over her shoulder.

  ‘Parasite,’ Ellie muttered. She’d pulled the oyster pearl from her pocket, rolling it about in her palm.

  Seth and Anna looked up. ‘What was that, Ellie?’ Seth asked.

  ‘He’s a parasite,’ she said.

  ‘It,’ Anna corrected.

  ‘It’s a parasite,’ said Ellie. ‘It feeds off the host to grow strong, so it can break out on its own. But the Enemy isn’t a living thing – it doesn’t eat. So what’s it feeding on?’

  Ellie winced as she pushed herself to her feet. Anna hopped up to help her.

  ‘Thanks,’ Ellie said, tottering over to the many thousand sketches on the wall, plucking down a picture of a crook wasp. ‘Maybe that’s why he picked me – because there’s something in me that he can feed on. Something that’s not in you.’ She looked at Seth. ‘Or you.’ She looked at Anna. ‘Or anyone else.’