by Lorna Reid
‘We used to win, and so do the Blades,’ Ivy said, wiping away tears of mirth on a bright blue handkerchief. This was the final straw for Tab, who stormed away to gales of laughter from the crew.
‘I didn’t mean anything,’ began Russell, but Patches waved the apology away.
‘Don’t worry, lad, we usually tease him worse than that.’
‘Tab will sulk for the rest of the night now and Ivy will gloat,’ drawled a young man sitting on Katrina’s right. She smiled shyly as his dark eyes found hers and he smiled. Danny felt a pang of irritation and didn’t know why. ‘This was polite compared to most nights.’ The man lounged back in his chair.
Someone shouted down from outside. ‘Jake, you’re late for shift. Kneazel’s getting twitchy.’
‘Kneazel’s always twitchy,’ he said, excusing himself with an acknowledging nod to his Captain.
Danny worked his way through his food, slowing down so that he could fit more in. He soaked up talk of the Black Pass, Aquattrox stories, banter, and taunts, tales of leave in the port, risqué jokes, gossip, and technical sailing things that sounded like a foreign language. The blanket of conversation was warm, lively, and made him feel oddly safe.
The Captain was sitting a few places to his left but, so far, had barely spoken. He was intimidating, Danny admitted, with a guarded strength and a coiled air. He glanced frequently at the door until his face split into a wide smile that Danny would have put money on not having been possible for the man.
A willowy woman came down the stairs, tying her long raven hair back with a thin cord. Her pale skin and dark eye makeup reminded him of Katrina’s mother, Jen, and he glanced at Katrina, seeing if she thought the same. She looked sad, confirming his thoughts.
The Captain stood to greet the woman and she kissed him before taking Jake’s vacant place.
‘The Chams are back in their crate, snoring,’ she said, piling food onto a plate in a way that Danny respected instantly.
‘Thanks, Min,’ said the Captain, never taking his eyes from her. She accepted the jug of red sauce from Patches with a grin. ‘This is my partner, Mineska.’ The Captain introduced Danny and the others.
She was dressed in black, too. In fact, no one around the table was wearing anything very bright, Danny realised. The only real colour in the room was from the food and from the paintings adorning the panelled walls.
‘So,’ the Captain said, taking a drink and leaning back. ‘What was so important that you stowed away on a ship about to run the Black Pass?’ Patches opened his mouth but a look from his Captain silenced him.
Katrina looked at Danny, who stared across at Russell and Poppy. He may have started this thing, but Russell and the others had helped to perpetuate it. ‘We need to warn a friend that she’s in grave danger. We need to warn everyone at Darrant Ridge,’ said Russell, clearing his throat and looking nervous.
‘So you stow away on my ship, rather than, say, use a Voxhub?’
Danny shrugged at Katrina’s puzzled look. He had no idea what one was, either. Russell’s face had already flushed and Poppy stepped in.
‘Attempts have been made to speak with her, but they failed. This is the only way to get through to her, to all of them. They’re in danger. There’s going to be a battle. She’ll die.’
A few people sniggered, which made Poppy’s face go rigid. Danny sucked in a tiny breath and caught Katrina’s ‘look out’ look.
‘A battle in Darrant Ridge? For what?’
The incredulity was clearly annoying Katrina, too, who cut in over the top of Poppy. ‘A piece of the Crowmount fragment, okay? Some creature is going to be there and our friend will die trying to defend the crystal.’
Silence. Looks were shared.
‘And before you don’t believe us, we saw it happen in an Oracle’s vision.’
A low murmur of conversation swelled to fill the room.
‘What creature?’ asked the Captain.
‘Never seen it before,’ said Danny.
Poppy looked thoughtful and tapped her fingers on the edge of the table. ‘Danny’s mum, in her message, said something about a Reaper, whatever that is. Could that be it?’
The room exploded in a fog of words – disbelief, fear, scorn, concern, questions. Darnell snapped a warning and everyone piped down.
‘You’re telling me a Reaper appears from … somewhere … when none have ever been known to have left Neath, and what? Battles the allied forces stationed at Darrant Ridge for a piece of the Ianuan Soul Core? Which is useless without the other pieces.’
‘Not if it’s the Darklanders who summon the Reaper and they already have some of the pieces,’ retorted Katrina. ‘They’re harvesting them, we were told.’ She looked at Danny, who had committed every word of his mother’s message to memory. His throat swelled up.
This drew a fresh wave of concern from the crew around the packed room.
‘Or you could disbelieve us because we’re young. We’re obviously about to risk this Black Pass place for laugh. Those nightmares about shadow assassins and the murder of the Oracle that keep swallowing my dreams are nothing, then.’ Katrina slapped her napkin down onto her plate and looked half-angry and half as though she would burst into tears.
There was a shuffling and what felt like a collective holding of breath around the room. The sudden tension prickled at Danny’s neck and he saw Russell bury his face in his hands. If anything got them chucked overboard, it would be this. He thought his temper was bad.
‘What’s your name again? I don’t believe I caught it,’ asked the Captain in an alarmingly quiet tone.
‘You were busy being angry,’ said Patches. ‘This is Katrina.’ The Captain’s eyes flickered. Danny saw Mineska’s eyes move to him and then back to Katrina before moving to Poppy and Russell. There was a dawning of something on both her’s and the Captain’s faces.
‘And you’re Danny. Stone. Which means you’re John and Josie’s daughter,’ the Captain said, addressing Poppy, ‘and you’re Jack’s boy,’ he said to Russell. ‘Oh fuck.’ The Captain slid his hands down over his face and then raked them through his hair. ‘I know your parents,’ the Captain said. ‘I’m about to take you through the fucking Black Pass. Armies won’t brave that place.’
‘Which should tell you that they’re telling the truth,’ said Patches. ‘And you know as well as I that an Oracle’s prophecy, especially her last, is never wrong.’
‘I know,’ he whispered. ‘Sometimes we just wish they were.’ He drew a breath and some of his tension left him.
‘Katrina. I know your mother. She’s a friend. So was your father.’
‘My father is an abusive bastard,’ she muttered. ‘I don’t want to talk about him.’
‘I understand,’ he said. For a moment, he appeared to want to say something but checked himself. Danny knew that he was on to a lost cause there. Her father was a touchy subject. One moment she could be upset and missing him, upset and combing over happy memories, then guilty at being upset, angry at what he did, or confused and angry that he had left without saying goodbye – that he had vanished from her life. She had a lot of anger, he thought. Maybe as much as he did himself. Maybe that’s why I like her.
‘I can’t turn back now, we have time-sensitive cargo, but you shouldn’t be here.’
‘There was no one to tell, no one to help, no one to believe us in time. We had to come. We had to try,’ said Poppy, going on to explain that they were meant to be staying as the guests of the Sentrum for several days until Peter could return to fetch them. She detailed as best she could what had happened. Russell and Danny also filled in what details they could.
When they had finished, the Captain got up. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I need to take care of something.’ He left and hurried up the stairs.
‘You shouldn’t be so bloody rude. We need help to get to Darrant Ridge,’ Poppy chided Katrina, flicking her hair back.
‘You should stop telling people what to do,’ sniped Katrina. ‘It
’s boring. And anyway, it won’t make any difference. I saw the Oracle die, and she died. What hope do we have of saving Isa?’ She shoved a potato miserably around her plate, clearly struggling to hold her collapsing emotions together.
‘Does that mean we shouldn’t try?’ said Russell in a quiet voice, cutting in as Poppy was about to shoot a hot retort back. ‘Because even if it’s true, and she’ll die regardless … if we don’t bother because it’s inevitable, isn’t that like killing her anyway?’ His voice trembled and the room was still, hanging on his wavering words.
‘We’ll contribute to the inevitability of her death. We’re responsible. We can’t not do this.’ He buried his face in his drink. He’s right, Danny thought. The silence in the room roared in his ears and Katrina and Poppy nodded, mostly to themselves.
‘You’ll have all the help we can give, I can assure you,’ said Mineska after a long minute filled with nothing but the occasional shuffling and clinking of plates and cutlery from around the room. She looked up as the Captain returned and resumed his seat.
‘We’ll get you to Varron,’ she said. ‘We can even get you to the Ridge – we’ve used those old tunnels ourselves. And Dar likes a challenge.’ Her smile actually half raised one on Katrina’s face; her soft manner and sparkling eyes seemed to put her at ease.
‘If she’s your friend, then never give up. Not ever.’
Katrina nodded, seeming happier.
‘So. This friend of yours is guarding the fragment?’ she asked.
‘No, her company has been redeployed there, from what we understand. A safety measure, given the recent attacks on Ianuan fragment locations,’ said Russell. Danny popped a potato into his mouth and privately marvelled at how much Russell paid attention.
‘You know that this is no easy journey? Especially given your age,’ said the Captain.
‘That’s what people said to you,’ Patches said. He smiled into his drink and tipped Mineska a wink, which was returned. ‘When you first sailed the Pass, when you got your first ship, when you built and modified the Riana. It never stopped you.’
‘I can’t and won’t be fast and loose with the lives of children,’ said the Captain.
‘We can’t leave them in port and we can’t wait for anyone else to get to us,’ Mineska reasoned, frowning over their options. ‘We can’t let the Oracle’s vision come to pass. And can you think of a safer place on land or water for a thousand miles around than this ship?’
The Captain smiled before closing his eyes and conceding. ‘Fine. Fine, we’ll run fast for Varron as soon as we’re finished in Clementine. We’ll get you there in time. We’ve made longer distances under worse odds,’ said the Captain.
Danny shared a happy grin with the others and began picking at a bowl of fruit, feeling much more secure. Just as the conversation restarted, the door banged open and a hulk of a man stamped down the stairs, swinging a tray in a huge tattooed hand. Poppy’s mouth froze mid-chatter and Katrina’s potato dropped off her fork into her drink.
Danny stared at the man’s thick arms, which vanished at the shoulders under a dark green apron. He looked like an evil inventor from the late-night horror films that Danny liked to watch. He piled plates and bowls onto the tray, muttering as he went – a bald, angry giant.
Russell seemed to be thinking the same thing, and Danny watched him surreptitiously edging away the bowl stuffed with newspaper, presumably in case he got the blame for the mess, which the man was now eyeballing.
The man snatched it up and smashed it onto the tray, making Russell jump, before stomping around to Katrina and staring into her cup with a look of contorted disgust.
Poppy nearly took a fit of giggles, whether it was at his face or Katrina’s petrified expression, Danny didn’t know, but he had to hide his own grin. The man caught a look from the Captain that warned him off saying anything, so he slammed the cup onto his tray and clumped back round the table.
‘Something funny?’ the huge man growled to Poppy. His eyes were different colours – one was brown and the other was blue, which made him look even more intimidating – and Poppy’s giggles vanished; Danny’s grin, however, did not.
‘Don’t take your bad mood out on her,’ snapped Patches.
The man shifted his glare and, if it was possible, Danny thought it got fiercer. ‘You’re back then. Took your time,’ growled the man.
‘Observant as ever, Stamp. I’m gutted I missed your smiling face and quick brain.’ Patches snorted into his cup.
‘You will be gutted, if you don’t shut your mouth,’ snapped Stamp.
‘Shut up, both of you,’ said Mineska, shaking her head and shooting Katrina and Poppy a reassuring smile.
‘We’re not taking them into the Pass, Captain, surely?’ Stamp protested, looking at Danny and his friends. The Captain indicated with a slight nod that this was indeed the case. ‘The Black Pass is no place for children,’ Stamp growled, scooping up plates and adding them to the growing pile on the tray.
‘Neither are ships, kitchens, or inns, according to you, but you cut your eye teeth in all of them,’ said the Captain with a smile. ‘Dinner was perfect, by the way,’ he added. Stamp nodded curtly, glared daggers at Patches, and left, his thick boots crashing on each stair.
‘He’s in a better mood than I expected.’ Patches dumped his napkin on the table.
‘Try not to antagonise him, Jal. You know how tetchy he gets before we head in,’ said the Captain.
‘Remind you of anyone else you know?’ said Patches.
The Captain ignored the comment, but his eyes sparkled. ‘We’re all set?’ he said.
‘Yeah. We’ll have to watch for the Port Authority in Varron. They’re having a crackdown, apparently.’ Patches grinned. There were a few snorts and more than a few laughs from the various tables.
‘So are you smugglers?’ Danny said, feeling and ignoring Russell’s fierce look. The Captain actually grinned.
‘Some say we are. I don’t like to label us like that. We just get people the things they need, regardless of what the authorities in some ports may like. We go places of which they disapprove, and help those whom the Lands have turned their backs upon.’
‘Like people in the Black Pass?’ said Poppy.
‘Yes. Among others. They need things, we bring them, we trade; we sometimes help or protect their ships – we’re part of their economy.’ He shrugged.
‘I believe it said “smuggler and criminal” on your last bounty notice in Port Widred,’ said Patches, grinning into his cup and getting a wink from Mineska.
‘Shut up, Jal.’ The Captain smiled. He seemed to take the whole thing in his stride. Danny liked that. So did Katrina, as she was obviously feeling better and showing an active interest.
‘Cap’n, we’re nearly at the mouth,’ someone called across the room from the bottom of the stairs.
‘I know. I’ll be right there.’ He rose from his seat and dropped his napkin onto his plate. ‘Well, if you’re going to be our guests for the next few days, we’ll have to find you a temporary home. For now, would you like to see what you’re getting yourselves into?’
*
The cold air smacked Danny in the face as they stepped onto the deck, and he pulled up the scratchy collar of the coat he’d been made to wear by Mineska, feeling grateful for its warmth, even if it was several sizes too big.
Dark waves rolled beneath them, unsettling his balance more than once, and he craned his neck up at the dusting of stars strewn across the night sky. He breathed deeply, tasting the biting salty air.
Ahead, just visible in the moonlight, was a vast rock face, part of a jagged near-vertical thrust of land arcing from a low mountain range that looked as though it was marching into the sea.
Spray from obliterated waves was spat into the air near the surrounding rocks, turning to icy needles that stung their faces and hands. A black opening in the rock face sucked in the faint light, as if it had simply erased part of the sea and sky, making Danny
’s eyes ache to look at it.
‘Some ships don’t even make it through the mouth,’ shouted Patches over the crashing water. Danny looked where he was pointing and could just make out the outlines of several wrecked ships clinging to the rocks beneath the craggy face.
The ship plunged and rose on the heaving water and, unlike the crew, Danny and his friends fought to keep their feet. The Captain studied the rocks and swore. ‘We’re not going in wide enough.’ He vanished back along the deck, and Mineska insisted that they move back and sit on some boxes which had been secured at the base of a mast.
The roaring intensified as the dark crack in the rock grew closer, and the air seemed to thicken with spray that soaked the deck. It was hard to even breathe.
Through his stinging eyes, Danny could see Katrina perched beside Russell. She looked freezing, but for the first time in days she was grinning, clutching her coat collar around her neck.
The ship lurched suddenly. ‘The current is trying to pull us onto the rocks,’ explained Mineska. ‘We need to pull her head hard to starboard!’ Despite shouting to be heard, she sounded almost matter of fact. How many times must they have done this for it to be like nothing to them? Danny wondered. The ship pulled against the current plucking at it and closed on the mouth of the Black Pass.
Poppy wasn’t as enthralled as Danny and Katrina, and sat back, pressed to the mast, her face peeping out from her lined hood. Russell had practically glued himself to the side of a large crate, clinging to the rope with bluing hands.
The imposing rock face seemed to blot out the stars as they reached the entrance, the ship still fighting for its head. Spray exploded up and over the rocks, punishing tired wrecks and broken masts and surging up the face, driving in fury toward the sky.
Danny couldn’t resist showing off and leapt down to run to the rail, but someone beat him to it. Katrina brushed past in a blur and, not to be outdone, he darted after her. Mineska’s shouts were lost beneath the roar of the water that boiled into the mouth of the Pass.
Katrina and Danny clung to the rail, hoods whipped back by the wind, and laughed as the Black Pass swallowed them.