Orphans of the Tide

by Struan Murray

  Ellie winced at the hopeful look in Anna’s eyes as she flung open the lid of the box. Anna’s smile faltered, fell.

  ‘Oh,’ she said, reaching in and pulling out a mass of curled, smudged grey paper, the pieces all stuck together. She looked at Ellie in shock. ‘What happened to them?’

  Ellie looked sadly at the floor, her chest filling with shame. ‘I put them in that trunk for safe keeping, after the Enemy rescued them for me from the orphanage. But a few months later I saw a seal that had got tangled in a net, in a rock pool that I couldn’t reach. It was drowning, so I asked Finn –’ she took a breath – ‘I asked the Enemy to save it. He emptied all the water from the rock pool. Next time I opened the chest . . . it was full of seawater.’

  Anna returned to Ellie, frowning thoughtfully. ‘I’m pretty sure there are still some of his drawings in the storage room in the orphanage.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yeah.’ Anna’s cheeks went pink. ‘I used to go in and look at them sometimes.’

  Ellie’s body deflated with a sigh. ‘But there are thousands of old drawings in the storage room. You’d need an army to find his.’

  Anna straightened up proudly. ‘I do have an army. The orphans will help. I’ll set them to work in the morning.’ She put a hand on Ellie’s shoulder. ‘We’ll figure out how to beat it.’

  Ellie almost ran her hands through her hair, then stopped herself in case more fell out. ‘He looks like my brother so that I’ll love him. So how can I beat him? I can’t stop loving my brother.’

  ‘You don’t have to. Just stop mixing him up with the Enemy. It’s simple.’

  Ellie gritted her teeth. ‘No, it’s not. I told you – the Enemy won’t let me remember him. So all I have is the other Finn –’

  ‘The only Finn, Ellie,’ said Anna firmly, crossing her arms. ‘You need to bring him back.’

  ‘I can’t bring him back. He’s dead.’

  Anna rolled her eyes. ‘If you die, do you think you’d just stop existing?’

  ‘Yes!’

  ‘I mean, you’d be fish food, sure, but you wouldn’t be gone. I’d still remember you, and so would all the orphans. And they’d have all your inventions and the toys you made them.’

  ‘But I wouldn’t be there.’

  ‘Yes, you would, Ellie,’ Anna said, and to Ellie’s surprise her voice broke. ‘And when you leave the City with Seth tomorrow, you’ll still be with me.’ She rubbed a tear from her eye.

  Ellie stared at her, stunned. ‘I . . . I thought you were going to come with us?’

  Anna looked back at Ellie miserably. ‘I can’t. I can’t leave the others behind. You and Seth will look after each other. He’s all right, I suppose. But the orphans don’t have anyone else.’

  ‘But . . . what if we never see each other again?’ Ellie said, her voice trembling.

  ‘But I will see you, Ellie. That’s what I’m saying.’

  They stood in silence, as Anna’s sniffles filled the workshop. She took Ellie’s hands in hers, and closed her eyes.

  ‘When I first came to the orphanage, I was really angry all the time. I kept getting into fights. Mostly for stupid stuff, like when I put that spider in Agatha Timpson’s soup.’ She smiled despite herself. ‘That was when Matron Wilkins was still running the place, and every time I got in trouble she’d lock me in that coal cellar on the street until she remembered to take me out again.’ She looked at Ellie. ‘You never got put in there, did you?’

  Ellie shook her head, though she remembered the smell of the place. Dank, like old vegetables.

  ‘It was so cold in there,’ said Anna. ‘The walls were covered in this green mildew, and the only light was from the tiny barred hole in the door. I was getting put in there all the time. None of the other orphans would talk to me.

  ‘Then you and your brother arrived. I remember watching you in the art room once, surrounded by little wind-up machines. You always had pencils in your hair. I thought you were mad. But your brother was so friendly, and he was excellent at drawing pictures. The others were always crowding round him – he was good at telling stories too. And he was friendly to me, even though Agatha Timpson warned him to stay away. He would smile at me, and we would talk about sharks. Nobody had smiled at me in such a long time.

  ‘Then one day, Callum Trant pushed me over in the corridor, so I bit his ankle. I was thrown in the coal cellar again and left there for two whole days. I tried to tell myself stories to pass the time, but it was like my brain was numb. I felt like I’d been forgotten. Then, on the third morning, I heard something jingling in the street outside. A stick poked in between the bars, and stuck on the end was a bit of paper.’

  Anna’s eyes were wet. She broke into a big smile. ‘It was a drawing of me, on a ship, with a spear. I was hunting for sharks. I stared at it for hours. It was like I was somewhere else.’ Her eyes focused back on Ellie. ‘Every time I was put in the cellar after that, Finn sent new drawings through the bars. Sometimes it was just me, slaying monsters, but after you and me became friends, it was the three of us, out on some adventure at sea. So even though I was alone in there . . . I didn’t feel alone.’

  Anna looked down at the floor. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks, glistening in the moonlight.

  ‘So even if you sail off with Seth, and even if the Inquisition shove all your inventions in their creepy warehouse and burn your workshop to the ground, you’ll still be here.’ She touched her chest. ‘You’ll still be here, all right?’

  Ellie pulled Anna in and hugged her tightly. They stayed that way for several happy minutes, until she heard Anna’s tummy rumble.

  Anna grimaced. ‘Do you have any food? No, wait, there’s no time. I should go and find those drawings.’ She pulled reluctantly away from Ellie. ‘Fry and Ibnet and the others’ll help. But, Ellie . . .’

  Anna looked anxiously at her feet, like she were afraid to speak.

  ‘What is it?’ Ellie asked softly.

  ‘You remember how you threw that glass at Seth yesterday, because he mentioned your brother dying?’

  Ellie nodded. Anna took a deep breath. ‘That was you who did that, not the Enemy. Maybe it’s not the Enemy who won’t let you remember Finn. Maybe it’s you.’

  Ellie’s chest twisted with a familiar cold shame. Her hand fell away from Anna’s. She looked at the floor.

  ‘You were trying to find a way to cure him,’ Anna said softly. ‘You were doing everything you could.’

  Ellie winced. ‘But if I’d been there with him –’

  There was a sharp knock at the door. Ellie and Anna shared a worried look. Who could be knocking so late?

  ‘Ellie! Ellie, are you there? Ellie, you need to wake up.’

  It was Castion’s voice.

  ‘Sir?’ said Ellie, hurrying for the door. She pulled it open and found the whale lord looking down at her. His mouth was set in a grim line. ‘What’s wrong?’

  ‘They’ve found that boat of yours that goes underwater. It washed up by the Greens half an hour ago.’

  Ellie stared. ‘But . . . it’s been in my second workshop this whole time. It’s broken.’

  Castion grimaced. ‘I don’t know what to tell you. It’s there. Some guardsmen found it. And now, well, the Inquisition’s turned up.’

  ‘What? Why?’ said Ellie. Her heart hammered in her temples.

  ‘They think it’s suspicious. You should come and explain things to them.’

  Anna rushed towards Ellie with her coat, a shirt and a pair of trousers. Castion waited outside while she hurriedly changed.

  ‘Do you think the storm could have knocked it into the sea?’ Anna asked.

  Ellie shook her head. ‘There’s no way.’ She shrugged on her coat. ‘What have you done, Finn?’ she whispered. Boyish laughter echoed inside her mind.

  Nothing! said a voice. How could I have done anything? You said I’ve got no wishes left, because I refused to help you save Hargrath. And you’re always right about everything! Aren
’t you, Nellie? So, so clever, Nellie.

  ‘Go ahead,’ Ellie said quickly to Anna. ‘I’ll catch up.’

  She opened the basement door an inch and hissed down into the dark. ‘Seth!’

  ‘Mm?’ Seth’s voice was croaky with sleep. ‘Ellie? What’s wrong?’

  ‘I have to go out,’ Ellie said. ‘Stay here. And stay safe.’

  ‘Is everything all right?’

  Ellie grimaced. ‘I don’t know. I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

  She left the workshop and caught up with Castion and Anna. Castion readjusted the straps of his mechanical leg, then led them along Orphanage Street.

  The night air was bitter. A dog barked somewhere in the distance, but the City was asleep, its windows dark. They hurried down the long, broad street of St Horace towards the waterfront. They turned a corner and the sea appeared in front of them – a line of silver moonlight drawn across the horizon.

  Before them were the Greens, named because they were the only part of the City with any plant life, and poorly named at that, for from the narrow stretch of grey, dusty soil barely a dozen dismal apple trees sprouted, twisted and bent over like old men. Beyond the Greens, a wide rooftop rose from the sea. A gathering of silhouettes had collected atop it, each one craning its neck to inspect something in the water. As Ellie got nearer, she saw what was bobbing in the sea beneath them, lengths of seaweed draped from its propellers. The bulky, metal-and-leather form of her failed underwater boat.

  The silhouettes resolved into three Inquisitors and four guardsmen. Three of the guardsmen had their crossbows aimed at the underwater boat, while the fourth was holding the reins of a horse, which had a trail of rope leading from its bridle down to the boat.

  Castion helped Anna up on to the rooftop, and then Ellie. ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, noticing the strained look on Ellie’s face. ‘I’m sure we can clear this up.’

  One of the Inquisitors stepped forward, a young, red-haired man. ‘Eleanor Lancaster?’ he snapped. ‘I’m told this machine belongs to you.’

  ‘Yes,’ said Ellie, in a tiny voice.

  ‘Then tell us how to open it.’

  Ellie hesitated. ‘It can’t be opened, except from the inside.’

  The Inquisitor narrowed his eyes. ‘So what’s it doing here, then?’

  She stuttered. ‘I . . . I don’t know. It was in my workshop the last time I saw it. I could never get the thing to work.’

  ‘Someone must have stolen it,’ said Anna.

  The horse reared up, whinnying in fright. The Inquisitors and the guardsmen looked at it in surprise, then down at the underwater boat.

  There was a noise coming from inside it. A tapping sound.

  A hand slapping hard against leather.

  ‘There’s someone in there!’ a guardsman cried, raising his crossbow higher on his shoulder.

  ‘Ellie,’ said Castion, into her ear. ‘Tell me what this is.’

  ‘The tanks are running out of air,’ she said, pointing down at the pressure gauge. ‘Whoever’s in there can’t breathe.’

  How delightfully familiar! cried Finn’s voice in her head. A big sea-dwelling lump washing up, with a suffocating person trapped inside!

  ‘Who is it, Ellie?’ said Castion. ‘Tell me!’

  Metal screeched as a poorly oiled wheel turned. The circular hatch atop the machine lurched up an inch, then was flung open.

  A trembling hand reached out.

  Oh, you’re going to hate this . . . said Finn.

  A man hauled himself up through the hatch, his normally neat hair now wild and greasy, his dark eyes wide with terror. He took long gasps of air. Then he saw Ellie, and his pale face contorted with hate.

  ‘You,’ he whispered. ‘YOU!’

  Ellie shrank away from him, huddling close to Anna. Castion spoke in quiet disbelief.

  ‘Hargrath.’

  The True Saint

  Two of the guardsmen lowered their crossbows and stepped forward to help Hargrath from the machine.

  ‘Leave me!’ he roared, shoving them roughly away. He pulled himself fully out of the hatch, lost his grip, then tumbled over the edge. Castion heaved him to his knees.

  ‘Castion,’ Hargrath coughed, staring miserably at the whale lord. ‘It would be you who rescued me.’

  ‘Killian,’ Castion said. ‘What happened?’

  ‘Step away from him,’ said the red-haired man to Castion. ‘This is Inquisitorial business.’

  Castion gave him a look that could have sunk a ship. ‘I was an Inquisitor when you were still learning to swim, boy. I have stared the Enemy in the eye and lived to tell of it.’

  Ellie and Anna backed away from the Inquisitors. The edges of Ellie’s vision blurred, her eyes swarming with bursts of yellow and purple. She was shaking as if from a fever.

  ‘I don’t understand,’ she whispered. ‘You refused to save him.’

  She could feel Finn’s satisfied smile in her mind. No. I refused to save both of them, he said. Him and the other Inquisitor.

  Ellie took a deep, trembling breath, and tried to remember exactly what she’d said when she made her wish.

  ‘You said: “Are you sure you want me to save Hargrath?”’

  Finn giggled. To which you said:

  ‘“Save him,”’ Ellie whispered. ‘“Save both of them.”’

  A tingling, icy pain crept up her spine, taking root at the base of her neck.

  ‘When you refused,’ she said, ‘you were only refusing to “save both of them”. You did save Hargrath.’

  Finn’s giggle became joyous laughter, so loud it made her head hurt. Exactly! I fixed your underwater boat, then used it to rescue Hargrath from the storm, just like you asked me to!

  Castion grabbed a water flask from one of the guardsmen, tipping it up to Hargrath’s mouth. Hargrath’s throat bulged as he drank greedily.

  I saved his life! said Finn’s voice. Then all I had to do was bring him back to the City when the time was right. Now you’re as good as caught. So go on – ask me to save you. One more wish, for old times’ sake?

  Hargrath coughed up half the water he’d drunk. He was helped to his feet by Castion, then buckled over again, his body shaking with every heave.

  ‘Ellie? Are you okay?’ Anna said. ‘You’re trembling.’

  ‘No . . .’ said Ellie distantly. ‘I’m not ready.’

  I did well, though, didn’t I, Nellie? said Finn’s voice. Didn’t I do well?

  Hargrath staggered to his feet, and pointed at Ellie.

  ‘She knows where the Vessel is,’ he spat. ‘She was with him! He threw me into the sea!’

  He blurted this out with a strangled cry, then shrank into Castion’s grip and began to sob.

  Castion patted Hargrath uncertainly on the back. ‘Ellie, what does he mean?’

  Ellie opened her mouth, but no words came out. Everything was lost. Castion’s eyes widened in dismay. He turned to the Inquisitors.

  ‘Put the City on alert.’ He took a deep breath. ‘Tell all Inquisitors to head to the workshop of Eleanor Lancaster on Orphanage Street. Tell them . . . tell them the Vessel may be there.’

  The red-haired Inquisitor bristled. ‘I don’t take orders from –’

  ‘Do it,’ Hargrath snarled, coughing up a glob of phlegm. ‘Do as he says.’

  ‘I don’t take orders from you either,’ the young Inquisitor snapped. ‘You’re mad, Hargrath. The Enemy broke your mind.’

  Hargrath grabbed him by the neck, lifting him off the ground. ‘You know nothing of the Enemy,’ he growled.

  The man gurgled as he choked. Castion put a hand on Hargrath’s arm. ‘Killian,’ he said gently. ‘Let him go. We must get to the Vessel.’

  Hargrath dropped the man, who hacked and spluttered on the slate rooftop. Hargrath looked at Castion. He seemed close to crying again.

  ‘Why?’ he said, gripping Castion’s arm. ‘Why have you let me tell a lie, all these years?’

  ‘Because sainthood suited you b
etter,’ said Castion, clapping the other man’s shoulder. ‘I couldn’t be the Inquisitor who killed the Enemy. I didn’t want anything to do with it.’

  ‘You took what was mine,’ Hargrath moaned, in a quiet whisper.

  Castion smiled sadly. ‘We both failed that day, Killian. Claude was a dear friend, but I was blind to his suffering. Well, not again. This boy is suffering too. Let us end it for him, and stop the Enemy from doing to others what it did to us. Let us . . . correct the past.’

  Hargrath looked at him miserably, his giant shoulders shuddering, tears coursing down his cheeks. He nodded. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘Please.’

  ‘He’s not the Vessel,’ Ellie said, clutching herself tightly. She was so cold.

  Castion looked at her like she was a stranger. He gestured to the Inquisitors. ‘Keep her close,’ he said. ‘That one too.’ He pointed at Anna.

  ‘What about this?’ said one of the guardsmen, gesturing to the underwater boat still bobbing in the sea.

  ‘Forget about that,’ said Castion, and the guardsman untied the rope from the horse and looped it round a chimney pot instead.

  The red-haired Inquisitor grabbed Ellie’s arm, making her cry out as he squeezed one of her bruises.

  ‘Get off her!’ Anna snapped, then an Inquisitor grabbed hold of her too, twisting her arm behind her back as she tried to kick him.

  ‘Don’t hurt her!’ said Ellie.

  ‘We’ll proceed straight to her workshop,’ said Castion. ‘Killian, can you walk?’

  Hargrath grunted, wiping tears from his eyes. Castion gave Ellie one cold, distant look, then set off. An Inquisitor ran ahead to raise the alarm and the others marched in silence. Too soon, they were back in Orphanage Street.

  ‘Her keys will be in her coat,’ Castion said, as they stood outside the workshop. The red-haired Inquisitor dug a hand into Ellie’s pockets, roughly rummaging around.

  ‘Ow!’ he shouted, snatching back his hand. One of his fingers was bleeding. Anna laughed.

  ‘Ellie,’ Castion said, ‘unlock the door.’

  Ellie found her keys and put one into the lock, rattling it loudly in the hope the noise would carry to the basement.