The sound of fumbling in the darkness, and then he swore. “Devil’s dawn. I can’t feel the magic in here. I can’t cast any spells.”
“What?” I held my hand before me and tried, unsuccessfully, to bring light into my hand. “Is this ship trammeled? Is there such a thing?”
“Not that I know of. I’m going to try the door.” The sound “Not that I know of. I’m going to try the door.” The soundBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 331
of footsteps and groping and then more swearing. “It’s locked.” “I could pick it,” I said. “That is…if I had the right
tools.”
“Don’t bother,” he said, his voice full of weariness. “It’s
probably a spell.” Footsteps moved toward me again, and I felt a
weight settle on the opposite side of the bed. “Is this where
you are?”
“Yes.”
“Good. We should discuss strategy.”
I turned toward him. “I was thinking jump over the side and
swim for shore.”
“Can Jasper swim?”
“I…don’t know,” I admitted. “I saw him get in the water at
Lake Kyria a few times, but he never stayed very long since Mama
couldn’t either.”
“No matter. I’m a strong swimmer. I can help him to shore.”
I heard him lean back against the pillow and, after a moment’s
consideration, I did the same. After all, Papa was asleep in the
same room. It wasn’t as if anything inappropriate would happen. “Do you think Orly’s gone for help already?”
“Maybe.
I awoke to sunlight spilling across the floor through a row
of portholes. Voices spoke nearby. I lay still for a moment,
listening.
“…told her I had no desire to spend another minute in her
unpleasant company, and next thing I know I’m waking up in here.
She’s underhanded, that one.” Papa’s voice.
“I’ve noticed. I can’t believe I brought her into my
household and never realized…” And that was Master Wendyn. “Don’t be so hard on yourself. So powers of observations
aren’t your strength. I always thought something was off about
her. She was much too excited about mundane tasks like boiling
soup and scrubbing pots.”
Master Wendyn coughed. “I’m sure you did notice,” he said
politely, though to my ears it seemed that he believed the
opposite.
“Don’t believe me? My powers of observation are keen,
Master Wendyn. For example, I noticed a long time ago that you
had feelings for Avery.”
I held very still, all at once very anxious to hear the
master’s answer.
Master Wendyn stuttered in reply. “You—that’s not—I assure
you, sir, that I have no inappropriate feelings for Avery.” The sound of movement reached my ears as Papa changed
position somehow. “I should hope you do,” Papa said heatedly.
“You’re going to have to make an honest woman of her eventually.
All this time living under the same roof? What would people say
if they knew?”
“They never will know, so it doesn’t matter.” Master Wendyn
paused, then went on. “You must see, Jasper, such a thing can
never be.”
“Why must I see that?”
“I—”
But I’d finally had enough of this conversation, and found
that I didn’t want to hear the master proclaim all the reasons
he didn’t care for me. Yawning, I stretched and sat up,
pretending to notice Papa and Master Wendyn for the first time.
“Oh. Good morning.”
Papa and Master Wendyn sat shoulder to shoulder atop one of
the beds, both looking rather sleep-rumpled. “About time you
woke up,” Papa said. “That crazy magician lady has probably been
up and about for hours now, drinking her stinky morning tea and
plotting against us.”
I swung my legs over the side of the bed. “She’s not
plotting against us. In fact, she already said she’s going to
let you go.”
“And what about you two?”
I pushed myself off the bed and stepped to the porthole to
be sure we hadn’t set sail overnight. Land rose up like a
mountain in the distance. So close, and yet so impossible to
reach. “She wants to take me to Belanok with her,” I
volunteered.
“But Avery won’t be going. Isn’t that right?” the master
prompted me.
“I certainly don’t want to go,” I said, turning. “I wish I
knew why she wants it so badly. Do you think I could have a
reasonable conversation with her about it? She seemed quite
level-headed when she was just plain old Cat Germane.” I bit my
lip as I remembered the men she’d killed in Waltney and the
attacks she’d made on Papa, Master Wendyn, and myself. “Or…maybe
not.”
Papa snorted. “Reasonable? She certainly is not. Do you
know she broke my fingers to force me to come with her? All of
them. Sure, she fixed them once we got here, after I howled and
howled about the pain for a good long while. But the woman is
ruthless.”
Less sure of myself now, I continued, “Well…we had a good
rapport at Ryker Hall. And she’s clearly capable of mercy.” “Not much,” Papa said.
“Think about it. Not only did she heal your fingers, but
she also agreed not to kill you once she saw I objected to it.” Master Wendyn held up a hand. “That may be, but I don’t
think we should rely on her capricious merciful side as a first
resort. We need a plan.”
I gazed at him steadily. “What’s stopping us from leaving
right now? Can you build us a wizard door out of here so we can
leave before she notices?”
“Wish I could. Do you notice that sort of…stifling feeling
in the air?”
I breathed deep and put a hand to my chest, where it felt
like a weight sat. “Yes. I noticed it when we came aboard,
although I’m beginning to get used to the feeling. What is
that?”
He held up a hand and a tiny spurt of fire took life, then
immediately died out. “The flow of magic is severely constricted
about this ship. She must have some kind of a spell in place.
I’ve already tried to build a wizard door and this happened.” He
held his hands up, muttering spells, and the faint magic that
built quickly fizzed and died out.
I raised my own hand and attempted a fire spell, with a
similar result to the master’s. “Bones,” I said bleakly. “That’s
hardly convenient.”
“Still,” Papa inserted, “the fact you two can do some magic
must mean something. Figure out how to use it against her.” Master Wendyn ran a hand over his face. “At least your
friend Orly is still out there. She’ll have gone for help by friend Orly is still out there. She’ll have gone for help byBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 336
now. Not to mention the fact that the Council is hunting Ingerman as we speak. If we’re lucky they’re getting close.” He paused and considered. “Of course, it’s quite possible she’s using a spell that makes her impossible to track with a scrying spell. And the Council won’t have the benefit of knowing there are other people aboard they could scry after, like Jasper or you or I.”
The
door opened, and the three of us jumped guiltily. “Oh good, you’re all up,” Cat said, smoothing the skirt of her chic gown. “It’s time for breakfast and, hopefully, a chat.” She held the door open and gestured for us to follow as she led the way down the corridor. The three of us stared at one another for a long moment, as though debating whether we would obey her or not, until finally I straightened and followed. I heard Papa and Master Wendyn fall into step behind me. Cat opened another door off to the right, revealing an elegant dining cabin furnished with a long table set with fine cutlery.
But I stopped short at the cabin’s entrance, causing Papa and Garrick to run into the back of me, as I saw the table’s lone occupant. Orly sat seated at the table, a trammel fixed around her neck.
***
“Oh, I forgot to mention,” Cat said casually. “Your friend Orly is here. And I didn’t even know she did magic.”
“Orly?” I hurried to her side. “Are you all right?”
She smiled at me sheepishly. “I’m fine. I got anxious last night when the sail unfurled and thought you were going to leave. So I sneaked aboard to help. It was stupid.”
“So you never…” I began.
Orly shook her head, her expression chagrined.
Bones. And we’d been relying on the thought that Father Wendyn would be sending the cavalry to rescue us. But Orly looked so gutted that I patted her awkwardly on the back. “Don’t worry,” I said in a low voice. “It’ll be all right.”
But I wasn’t at all certain of that fact.
“Yes.” Cat rubbed her hands together. “Everything is going to be just fine. You, Orly, now have the distinction of becoming my second guest to Belanok.”
“I can’t,” Orly said blankly. “I have to get home and help with the library.”
“Library?” Cat chortled. “You’re wasting your talent there, little one. With your abilities you could be a better magician than any of these clowns on the Wizard Council. You’ll see that when we get to Belanok.”
Orly folded her hands primly in her lap. “I’d rather not, thank you.”
“It wasn’t an invitation. Rather, a summons.” Cat took her seat and waved for the rest of us to follow suit.
Uneasily Papa, Master Wendyn, and I did so, spreading out next to Orly while Cat sat on the opposite side of the table.
“As far as the rest of you, I think it’s time you wore these.” She gestured. Next to the door a long cupboard opened and a small stack of what looked to be trammels flew out. Cat caught them with ease.
I spoke hastily. “There’s no need for that, Cat. We promise to behave.” Magic or not, trammels were awfully uncomfortable.
“Will you?”
“Yes. I know you don’t want to hurt any of us.” I hoped it was true.
Her meditative glance fell on Papa. “What do you think, Jasper? Can I trust you?”
“I assure you,” Papa said, “You can trust me. As far a these two—well, they’ve already been talking this morning about how to use their magic to get the best of you.”
“Papa!” I burst out angrily, but Master Wendyn put a restraining hand on my arm.
“Were they?” Cat leaned on her hands and listened to his answer.
Papa nodded. “Yes. Tried to build a wizard door out of here, but it didn’t work.”
“I think you’ll find that building a wizard door while aboard my ship is nigh on to impossible. Other than the door I built myself to the shore, no new doors will be permitted aboard the Lovely Witch. Simpler that way. It’s so off-putting when guests leave before I’m ready.”
I kicked Papa under the table.
“Ow! Anyway, I just think you should take that treachery into account before you decide to take Avery back to Belanok with you. She’s really quite disloyal. Take me, her own father. She’s spent most of her life hating me, the man who raised her. Now that’s gratitude for you.”
I blinked as I realized that Papa was actually trying to talk Cat into leaving me behind. Perhaps he hadn’t intended to betray me at all.
Cat reached across the table and patted his hand in a comforting gesture. “Yes, well, perhaps the loathing was well earned.” She clapped her hands. “Trammels first, then breakfast.”
“But what’s the point of a trammel, Cat?” I asked. “The magic in here is already so stifled. It’s practically unusable.”
She looked pleased. “That’s a dampening spell. Developed it myself. Under normal circumstances, I keep it in place around me at all times. I’ve learned to work around it, but most people around me haven’t. It ensures I always have the upper hand. Clever, no?”
“Quite clever,” Master Wendyn inserted. I could practically see the mechanisms in his brain turning. So there was a way to perform magic within this stifled environment.
“Er…I can’t help but notice,” Papa said, “that you have three of those trammel thingums there. Since I, as you know, do three of those trammel thingums there. Since I, as you know, doBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 340
not do magic, wearing that heavy thing around my neck is unnecessary. Right?” “Wrong. I’ve seen you in Wendyn’s potions lab playing with his herbs.”
“That was one time,” Papa said. “I just wanted a drink. I was trying to spell a cup of something into being. It didn’t even work.”
She waved a hand. “Whether you do magic or not, I don’t know, but I know you’ve tried to. I don’t much want today to be the day you accidentally figure it out.”
Papa frowned. “Not fair,” he muttered, before picking up one of the trammels and opening the hinge. “Is this how you do it?”
I picked one up as well. It had a different design than the trammels I was used to seeing, but then, these were Belanokian trammels. There didn’t seem any point to arguing further, since she was so determined. This was an argument best conceded. “Like this,” I told Papa, and snapped the ring around my own neck, then turned the key in the lock. Papa did the same. After a long pause, Master Wendyn finally gave in as well, reaching across the table for the final trammel.
“Keys,” Cat said, holding a hand out, and we all handed over the keys.
“You two are a waste of a good trammel, if I’m honest,” she said, nodding at Master Wendyn and Papa. “And Avery,” she nodded said, nodding at Master Wendyn and Papa. “And Avery,” she noddedBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 341
at me, “you have a lot to learn. But there’s time. Now, breakfast.” She clapped her hands and food appeared on the table: poached eggs, sweet scones, milk, biscuits, tea, and ham. Cat dug in while the rest of us watched.
“Well? What are you waiting for?” she asked, when she finally noticed that none of us had touched her feast. “You’re going to hurt my feelings. And I hate having hurt feelings.”
Reluctantly, we helped ourselves to the food.
After I’d picked at my food for a while and eaten a few bites, I decided the time had come for Cat to answer some questions. “I’ve been trying to understand the draw to Belanok, Cat. Matthias Kurke wanted to take me there too.”
“Ah, Matt.” She sipped her tea. “Too consumed by revenge, that one. I gave him that bloodlines spell in exchange for his promise to bring you to Belanok, you know. He’s just lucky he died in the process of failing, or I’d have had to kill him myself.”
The ruthlessness in Cat’s voice turned me cold. I was beginning to think I’d been wrong all along—there would be no reasoning with Keturrah Ingerman. “But why? Why do you want me to come to Belanok?”
“It’s not just you, Avery. Orly too. It’s any female magician with talent. You’re wasted here in the three kingdoms. The only place you can really blossom is Belanok. And we need you there.”
Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 342
“Why?” Cat sat forward as though warming to the subject. “You know how a fire gets bigger the more logs you put on it? The more female magicians we gather in one place, the brighter Belanok’s flame will shine, showing the three kingdoms just what fem
ale magicians really can do. We need you there, Avery. You too, Orly. We wouldn’t be the same without you.”
Her reasoning seemed unselfish, but I couldn’t reconcile it with her cruel methods.
Papa ran a finger around his neck, beneath the trammel. “These trammel thingums are darned uncomfortable. It’s no wonder none of you want to wear them. I feel like I can hardly breathe.”
Cat barely glanced his way.
When the meal was through, Cat waved a hand and the food and dishes disappeared. “I hope none of you are susceptible to seasickness.” She waved another hand, and the boat shifted. “Shall we get underway?” She stood and started out on deck, while the rest of us remaining at the table exchanged uneasy glances before following her. Out on the quarterdeck we watched as the sails finished unfurling and the anchor dragged over the side.
“This has gone far enough, Cat,” I protested. “We’re not going with you. I’m very sorry we can’t go back with you and be part of your fire or whatever, but this is ridiculous. You can’t part of your fire or whatever, but this is ridiculous. You can’tBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 343
take four people with you against their will—” Cat held up a hand, and suddenly I found myself unable to speak. My lips wouldn’t even open. “That’s enough of that, Avery. I’m disappointed in you. Have you already forgotten the lesson I tried to teach you when Wendyn was injured? I can be violent if need be, but I’d hoped you’d have some sense.”
Master Wendyn stepped in front of me. “Violence isn’t necessary. At least let Jasper go. You promised.”
“Oh, I’ll let him go. But not quite yet.”
I tried to speak, but only succeeded in making a noise that sounded like, “Mm-mmmm!”
“Er…hello,” said a voice behind us, a new voice. I swiveled hopefully. Had the Council found us after all?
The wizard’s door from the previous night had shimmered back into existence, and there, his hand on the handle, stood Rumford Ecklebert.
“I think you’re my mother,” he said, fixing his eyes on Cat.
# CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Cat stood frozen. “Rumford?” she said at last. “My son?” “That’s me,” Rumford said. “At least…I think it is. I’m “That’s me,” Rumford said. “At least…I think it is. I’m
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