Rise of the Reaper

by Lorna Reid

  Chapter 18

  ◊

  ‘YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN Min’s face,’ said Poppy, propping herself up on her hand. ‘I don’t know if she was angry or terrified.’

  They were all sleeping in one cabin, as the others were full of cargo for a long run, according to Patches. Even with the oddly huge interior of the ship, there was little space, thought Katrina. Bales of cloth had been pushed back, creating space on the floor for a few small mattresses and their packs, and little else.

  ‘I wanted to be at the front to see what it was like,’ said Katrina. ‘It was incredible, like it ripped the air from my lungs and punched me in the face.’

  ‘It was stupid. You could have fallen overboard,’ muttered Russell.

  Katrina shrugged. ‘That’s why there are rails. We were fine,’ she said, catching Danny’s eye roll.

  ‘It still could have happened,’ snapped Russell, turning over and pulling the blankets over his head. ‘Haven’t we got enough to worry about?’

  ‘What’s the matter with him?’ said Poppy in a stage whisper. Katrina shrugged. He had been quiet since the end of dinner. She didn’t care what he thought. She didn’t regret it. It still gave her butterflies to think about the last rolling sweep into the mouth of the Black Pass.

  ‘I’m glad Min pushed the Captain into helping us to get to Darrant Ridge,’ said Poppy. ‘At least we won’t have to worry about how to get there.’

  ‘Maybe our parents won’t be so pissed off if we have someone with us,’ Katrina suggested.

  There was a snort from under Russell’s blankets, which they both ignored.

  ‘We’re trying to help. That should mean something. If we can actually change anything,’ Katrina said.

  ‘Maybe Air got his dad to believe him. For all we know, Isa could be on her way home right now,’ said Poppy, sounding unconvinced.

  ‘Doubt it, somehow,’ said Danny, who was lying on his back, staring at the low-beamed ceiling. ‘I still want to go, anyway. That thing will still be there, and Mum will be there with it.’

  ‘Did you see if she was okay? I mean, nothing … you know … bad …’ Poppy trailed off, not wanting to finish.

  ‘No,’ Danny admitted after a long pause. ‘I just saw her fighting someone in the background. I don’t know who or why. But all I know is that thing could kill her.’

  Minutes sidled by. ‘Are the visions truly set in stone or can they be changed, do you think?’ mused Poppy. ‘I mean, you saw the Oracle die, and it happened.’ She looked at Katrina, who looked away.

  ‘Yeah. I keep thinking that. What if they had changed rooms or altered it enough? Then would it have happened?’

  ‘Like it would be that simplistic,’ came a mutter from under the blankets.

  ‘You the expert now?’ said Poppy, poking at the bundle and getting sworn at.

  ‘Some of the stuff I saw …’ Danny stopped. So far, they hadn’t shared much of what they had seen. No one had much felt like it, given recent events. ‘I saw a few fragments from the past, so they’ll already be set.’ He rolled onto his side. ‘I just don’t know if the stuff I saw of Mum in the dark somewhere is the past. What if it isn’t, and that means that I don’t get to save her, that she goes back to the darkness?’ His voice wavered and he looked away and plucked at his blanket.

  ‘You keep having the dreams, and now this vision. She’s alive and she’s going to be okay,’ said Poppy. ‘We’re going to save Isa and we’re hopefully going to save her, too, if she’s really there. Whatever your dad and Jen found out from Dreyling Tor is great, but you might actually find her soon. Maybe a few days.’ Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Danny lifted swimming eyes to give her a grateful smile.

  ‘I saw your dad, our age, sneaking out to be with Thom and my dad. He fell off the shed roof,’ said Poppy with a grin. Katrina saw the smile spread over Danny’s face and secretly thanked Poppy. She knew how to pull people out, as much as she pushed them under at times.

  ‘Really?’

  Poppy nodded. ‘An old lady started shouting at them. It was funny.’

  Katrina spoke. ‘I don’t know what half of it means yet, but most of it … the stuff I remember at the moment, anyway … I don’t think has happened yet. Dark mirrors and tombs and weird stuff.’ Everyone fell silent as they flicked back in their heads over what they had seen.

  ‘Why were you crying?’ Danny asked Poppy, suddenly. She stopped playing with her silky hair and began fiddling with a key on her charm bracelet.

  ‘I saw Dad’s grave; it was in the Gateway,’ she managed.

  ‘The Gateway?’ said Katrina. ‘Why didn’t anyone say?’

  Poppy shrugged. ‘Maybe Mum was going to tell me when we had a longer talk about everything. Thom was there. I don’t know how long after Dad had … He was badly hurt, he was a mess. I think it was after the same battle – Crowmount.’ The place name stuck in her throat. ‘I despise even the feel of that word,’ she whispered.

  By mutual consent they changed the subject and began to speculate on what the worst punishment would be when they eventually got home, spending an age trying to outdo one another to see who could come up with the most ludicrous things.

  *

  Russell unstuck his eyes and blinked into the mirror above the sink, watching his reflection slowly unblur. He didn’t know what time he had finally got to sleep, but it had been late, thanks to the others yammering on about nonsense and what they had seen in the Oracle’s chamber.

  He had desperately wanted to join in, but she stopped him. Her. His mother’s face swam into his head again, followed by a swarm of questions writhing around her like Medusa’s hair.

  After what he’d seen, he wasn’t sure what to think anymore. He didn’t know what the others would think, either, so he remained silent. It made him feel isolated. As if being stuck on a ship in the middle of some dark, twisted-up place isn’t bad enough, he thought.

  Russell had felt sick since they had gone out on deck the previous evening, and his stomach flipped and floundered constantly. He hated it; it made him grumpy and lethargic and, despite his best efforts to ignore it, it wasn’t subsiding.

  He dipped his head into the small white sink, letting the cold water chill his skull before washing and changing into the clean shirt Mineska had found for him. He eventually vacated the bathroom for Poppy, who had begun banging on the door. Whatever magical modifications the Captain had made to the ship, he was grateful for a proper bathroom at least.

  Mineska was taking them on a tour before breakfast, but Russell didn’t have the energy or appetite for either. He sank onto his makeshift bed just as the ship lurched again, and fought the queasy boiling in his stomach. He lay, only half-aware of people shuttling to and fro, and let his mind wander.

  Unwanted, unbidden, the visions slunk into his head until they crowded out all else. His mother, putting something in his father’s drink, fighting Danny’s mother. And the scream, the howling scream of the Reaper, and a smaller, insignificant cry that he realised, as Isa’s body fell to the ground, was his own.

  Russell jerked when he felt a cool hand on his forehead. Mineska was crouched beside him with a beaker in her hand. ‘Take this. It’ll help get rid of the sickness, but it will knock you out for a bit.’

  ‘Will I dream?’ he asked.

  She frowned in surprise and then tucked him up. The tenderness made Russell want to cry. More than anything he wanted his father there, despite all the trouble he would likely be in. He wanted his father there to protect him from the alien person in his head that was supposed to be his mother. The person who, until recently, he had wanted to come home.

  Now, he just wanted peace and for his stomach to calm down. He eyed the fizzing, yellow liquid – it smelled like cider and damp carpet, but he was desperate enough to try anything. He took a deep breath and swallowed it in one go, cringing at the sharp, dirty taste and feeling the bubbles snap like popping candy in his throat.

  It was like someone was hosing
his insides down with ice water and the sickness swiftly melted away. ‘Thank you,’ he mumbled.

  ‘Try and get some rest. We’ll see you a little later,’ said Min, leading everyone from the room. The last thing that he remembered was Katrina’s sad wave as she left, and the warm feeling it gave him.

  *

  Breakfast was a lot quieter than dinner had been, Katrina noticed, with most of the crew just dashing in for a quick snack. The air carried a note of tension, and the joviality of the previous evening was decidedly more muted. ‘Is it true that ships go missing here?’ asked Katrina, buttering a roll.

  Mineska sipped at her fruit juice. ‘They get lost, wrecked, drawn into traps by Wreck Rats. They sink in storms, get attacked, or just vanish without a trace. It’s not a safe place to spend time.’

  ‘Or they’re found adrift weeks later with no one aboard,’ volunteered Patches, pulling up a chair. ‘Most famous was the Circlesea Star. Big ship. She was expected at Hammer, one of the towns deep down in the Pass, but went overdue by a month. She was eventually found drifting by the spit of the Noose, no hands aboard.’

  ‘A spit?’ quizzed Danny, smearing jam on his toast and sprinkling it with what looked to Katrina like raisins. She shared a wrinkled-nose look with Poppy.

  ‘Where you get spat out,’ Patches grinned, ripping into a slab of bread that looked as though it had been dropped in gravel. The Noose is a nasty run through the western depths – gets its name from the shape. It’s a devious one-way trip down there, and a long haul to anywhere safe if things go tits up.’ He dabbed at his fried egg. ‘No one knows how or why the Star ended up there, or what happened to everyone aboard.’

  ‘Were they killed?’ Danny asked.

  Patches shrugged. ‘No blood, no signs of struggle, no trace.’

  Katrina felt a chill ripple up her spine. Danny looked more sober than enthralled, which wasn’t like him.

  ‘I heard that the Black Pass is magically twisted up, so even the Great Watchtower of Dreyling Tor can’t see into it,’ Danny said. It hit Katrina what was bothering him. This was one of the places where his mother could be stuck.

  ‘Aye,’ Patches said. ‘Even Shadow Mages have trouble down here.’

  ‘Could someone be trapped, or lost?’ Danny said.

  ‘Aye, easily. They wouldn’t last long though. Still, there’s plenty of dry land, abandoned outposts, vegetation and all that. You could live wild, but it isn’t an appealing prospect unless you were able to find and make your way to one of the towns.’ Patches shook his head.

  ‘Easy to get cut off or stuck if you don’t have a vessel. Very few ships come this way as it is, and fewer still risk the depths unless they know what they’re doing,’ he added.

  Danny nodded, and Katrina and Poppy exchanged looks, not knowing what to say. Katrina wondered if Danny would come right out and ask.

  ‘Mum lit Company Thirteen’s beacon and used it to send a message. But the tower can’t trace where the signal came from. That means it’s either in a sealed-off Land or someplace like this.’ Danny dabbled his toast crust into the pot of jam, barely noticing as it broke in half.

  Patches regarded him for a long moment, trading looks with Mineska.

  ‘That’s news to us, lad. This just happen?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘We’ve searched the Pass, lad, with your father and the others long ago. Never found a trace, but then we never knew for sure that it was a strong possibility.’

  ‘Did her message … Did she mention Blake?’ Min asked.

  Danny shook his head.

  ‘Dad and Jen went to try and get a message back to her, but it’s a long shot. Maybe they’ll find out more.’

  Min and Patches seemed to get a shot of energy, and a swell of hope rose in their eyes.

  ‘If she’s down here, lad, we’ll find her. Maybe Blake, too.’

  ‘You won’t have to if you get us to Darrant Ridge,’ said Danny. ‘In my vision I saw her with that creature. She was in the background, fighting someone. We can save her if that’s the case.’

  ‘If this creature is a Reaper, then surely she’s in Neath? No one’s set foot in that Land for an age. It’s a world apart, sealed. For our protection,’ said Min.

  ‘It was someplace dark. I don’t know.’ Danny picked the toast crust out of the jam jar and ate it, his brows knitting in a frown. Min nodded and fell silent.

  ‘Erm, so this Circlesea Star,’ said Katrina, trying to change the subject. ‘No one from it ever turned up?’

  Before Patches could reply, a reedy voice piped up behind them. ‘Everyone knows it was the Interfectrix what did for her,’ whispered a scrawny man. They hadn’t noticed him before. He practically blended into the background like he was afraid to be seen, half drowning in clothes that were too big.

  His dull blonde hair fell over his neck and face, and big, sunken eyes peeped nervously from his fringe, darting to and fro as though he expected an attack at any moment. His bony, veined hands trembled as he tried to cut his bacon.

  ‘What’s the Interfectrix? We’ve heard that name before,’ asked Poppy, staring at him with as much morbid curiosity as Katrina.

  ‘Don’t ask Kneazel that,’ said Patches, shooting Min a grin. ‘He’ll be a nervous wreck before we reach Clementine.’

  Kneazel leaned forward. ‘It’s the worst thing you can ever meet in this place.’ His voice wavered.

  ‘Unless you get your throat torn out by a Ripper,’ Patches said.

  ‘Or get drained by a Dark Wraith,’ added Mineska, winking at Patches.

  ‘Or the ship gets pulled under the waves by the fabled colossal white squid,’ chipped in Ivy, who had nipped in to snatch a piece of bread and a handful of bacon.

  Kneazel shrieked in a horrified breath and grabbed a handful of chains from around his neck, freeing a turtle pendant.

  ‘Turtles are supposed to be lucky symbols in some places,’ explained Mineska, watching Kneazel rub the charm between his fingers.

  ‘They are. This saved me from a Ripper attack,’ he insisted.

  ‘No, Min saved you by thumping it with a lump of wood and cutting its head off,’ said Patches. Kneazel ignored him and rallied himself enough to continue.

  ‘Anyway, the Black Ship – the Black Ship – the Interfectrix, sails the Pass, spreading terror and death.’

  ‘Is it a pirate ship or a ghost or what?’ asked Katrina, fascinated in spite of how it sounded.

  ‘It’s not an ordinary ship, more … unreal,’ said the Captain, closing the door and sitting beside Mineska, who gave him a cheeky pinch and got a swift kiss in return.

  ‘It’s supernatural and twisted. A pulsating evil and a curse to these waters. You usually never see it coming until it’s too late.’

  ‘There are some nasty things stalking the Pass, and she’s one of the worst,’ said Patches. ‘She’ll drain you, body, blood, and spirit, leaving a shell – and that’s if you’re lucky. We’ve found a lot worse on our travels: wrecks, ships like floating tombs … And some of the things on board …’ He shuddered. ‘Never know what you’re going to find. Sometimes nothing; sometimes decks awash with blood.’ He pushed his plate away and swigged his tea.

  ‘What’s on board?’ asked Danny.

  ‘Nobody has got close enough to find out and lived,’ said Mineska.

  ‘A ship of evil souls or mutated Dark Wraiths or spirits – or all three,’ said Kneazel, shuddering and staring into his tea as though the Interfectrix was about to bob to the surface.

  ‘Dark, twisted things. Shades of something that reaches out of the darkness for you,’ said Patches, dribbling a few drops from his hip flask into his tea.

  That’s the first time I’ve seen him shaken, realised Katrina. He was a big, broad man, weathered and tough, and it was unsettling. If someone like Patches or the Captain could be pushed to an uncomfortable silence by the thought of this ship, then it worried her. Danny was also looking deeply unhappy.

  ‘If your mum is d
own here, it won’t matter. In a few days she’ll be out,’ Katrina said to him.

  ‘What if we don’t save her? Then anything could happen – especially if she’s somewhere like this place.’

  ‘You didn’t see anything after the fight? No resolution?’ Mineska said.

  Danny shook his head.

  ‘We’ll have you at the Ridge as soon as we can.’ She put her hand on his arm and he nodded, swirling his drink around in silence.

  They finished breakfast and were just leaving when Patches stopped by the door. ‘How come we missed you at dinner last night, Kneazel?’

  ‘Stamp threatened to poison me,’ he said, miserably, poking at his barely touched breakfast. Katrina and Poppy started to giggle.

  ‘What did you do this time?’ asked Min.

  ‘I said “good afternoon”.’

  The Captain and Min shared a grin with Patches and left the room.

  Katrina and the others finished their breakfasts as quickly as they could. She wanted to follow them and learn more about this place. The new things helped push away images of blood and the Oracle’s face. One look at Danny told her that he was having a similar battle, although the more they learned about the Black Pass the more quiet he became.

  ‘You okay?’ she asked as they stacked their plates on the table.

  ‘Yeah. No. I don’t know,’ he muttered. ‘Just thought that all this would take my mind off her. But if she is down here, I can’t help thinking about all the stuff that can kill her.’

  ‘The Captain and the crew are down here all the time. She probably isn’t here,’ said Poppy, trying to reassure him.

  ‘I don’t know if that’s worse. If she is down here, then it will be easier for them to find her if we don’t find her at Darrant Ridge. But if she’s somewhere else, at least she’s away from this “ghost ship blood” stuff, but then she’s in a Land we can’t get to.’

  ‘We’ll get her, Danny. You’ll have your family back,’ Poppy said.

  He brushed his hands over both Poppy’s and Katrina’s, unable to say the words, but he didn’t have to. They smiled.