magic if they’re good enough.:
Rumford put his fork down. “Good enough? What does that
mean?”
Cat chewed another bite of pastry, and then placed it back
on her plate as she wiped her fingers delicately on her napkin.
“Well, my dear Rumford, it’s like this. Any man who thinks he
can do magic is put up against a witch to see if he can best
her. If he can, he trains alongside the females and will become
a full wizard.”
His worried expression smoothed out. “And how many wizards
in training are there?”
“Right now, none.”
“None?” He sat forward.
“Actually, there’s only ever been one. But he died before
he completed the training.”
Rumford’s face had definitely gone paler. “What did he die
from?”
Cat shrugged. “Who knows. His family tried to allege
poisoning, but they never could prove it. I heard he had an
allergic reaction.”
“You mean…you’ve asked me to come to a land where there are
no male magicians at all?”
She ruffled his hair. “You have nothing to worry about, She ruffled his hair. “You have nothing to worry about,Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 371
Rumford. With your talent, you’ll make a fine wizard. The first full wizard of Belanok in…well, ever.” He shook his head and stared at his plate, looking nauseated. He did not pick up his fork.
I couldn’t blame him. I’d never had a soft spot in my heart for Belanok, but everything I’d learned about it today had made me like it even less.
***
After breakfast Cat lectured us for three hours on Belanokian language, something that neither Orly nor myself had any interest in. But after exchanging a glance with Orly, it seemed that we were both of the same mind—we would go along with her for now, and escape later. No sense in tipping our hand just yet.
Not that we had a hand to tip.
In the afternoon Cat retreated to her cabin for “afternoon quiet time,” as she called it, with instructions to us to continue our study of Belanokian texts she had deposited in our cabin earlier in the day. She hadn’t expressly forbidden us to go anywhere or do anything on the ship, and so after a cursory flip-through of the fat books, we decided to explore. After taking a ladder to the main deck, Orly found a door, and soon we were exploring the galley. The place had a thick coating of dust covering everything. Cat apparently never did any actual cooking. She just used magic as needed. Off the galley I cooking. She just used magic as needed. Off the galley IBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 372
discovered another room, this one packed full of herbs. Two tables lined the room, work areas covered with ingredients and objects. I bent over, examining them. “Orly, I think this is her potions lab!”
Orly took a look around. “She certainly has everything she needs here. Dandelion, bilberry, nettle, chamomile.”
“I don’t suppose you remember the ingredients for that future potion?”
“Never looked at the ingredients. I wish I had. Then we’d know for certain if she was making it. Or at least that she had the ingredients.”
I put down a bottle of sweet-smelling pink sludge. “Well, she’s clearly been making something here. Look at this green dust all over everything.” I ran my hand over the tabletop and swept it off the table into the palm of my hand.
“What is it?”
“Don’t know.” I took a bit of it and stuck it on the tip of my tongue to taste. “I think…maybe nettle with a bit of lemon balm? Maybe some ginger? And something else…” The room swirled around me, and I reached a hand out to the table to steady myself. And then my vision spiraled away, or maybe my mind spiraled away, and I was sitting on one of the beds in our cabin, staring at the door. “I don’t think Rummy’s coming, Orly,” I heard my own voice say. And then I turned down the lights and lay down on the bed.
Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 373
“Avery? Are you all right?” Back in the potions lab again. I straightened, rubbing at the side of my head. “I think you were right about that future potion.”
“What makes you say that?”
I touched the green dust again and held it up to my face to examine it. “I’m pretty sure I just saw my own future.”
***
Just as I’d seen in the vision, Rumford didn’t show up that night for our escape planning session.
The winds had picked up speed, whipping the waves and rocking the ship back and forth. It didn’t take long before we were both seasick. We lay in our bunks, miserable. When we felt well enough, we talked.
“Maybe it’s a good thing Rumford didn’t show up tonight. In some ways I feel like we shouldn’t even make a plan. Would we be better off just making it up as we go along?” I thought for a minute. “Or maybe Cat will already know that future too.” I rubbed at the side of my head. “The future makes my head hurt.”
“The future is always changing,” Orly mumbled from her bed. “Cat can only drink that potion once a day. Maybe we can use that to our advantage.”
I rolled over in the bed to see her better in the darkness. “How so?”
“I don’t know. Not make any plans until after she drinks “I don’t know. Not make any plans until after she drinksBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 374
it, maybe.”
“Maybe. But we have no way of knowing when she drinks it.”
I clenched my teeth against a wave of nausea. “Ugh…I feel
awful.”
“Me too.”
“If we don’t plan something, I think I’ll go crazy. If we
can find a way to pick the locks on these fetters, and if we can
still get our hands on that pinnace, getting away could be a
fairly simple thing.”
“That’s a couple of big ifs. How are we going to get back
to Faronna once we’re outside her dampening spell? It’s too far
now for a wizard door.”
“Well…Master Wendyn could be looking for us.”
“Or he might be dead.”
My gut twisted at the thought. “Or the Council could be
looking for us. Or looking for Cat.”
“Do you really think they’d follow her to Belanok?” I considered this for a long moment and finally had to
admit, “No. But I have to come up with a plan of some sort,
Orly. I won’t go to Belanok and become Cat’s pawn in whatever
game she’s playing.”
“I don’t want that either.”
Our conversation quieted then, at least until Orly leaned
over to vomit in a bucket we’d placed between our beds earlier,
retrieved from the galley once the seas had worsened. Relative retrieved from the galley once the seas had worsened. RelativeBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 375
silence settled in our cabin then, but for the creak of the hull and the rattle of moving items thrown about by the rolling of the ship, and I hoped that Orly had fallen asleep.
In the stillness I stared into the black night above me and reflected how slim our chances of escape had become—not to mention our chances of survival if we did manage to escape.
Could I reconcile dragging Orly into that?
# CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN By the morning the rough seas hadn’t calmed. Wind and rain lashed the portholes and open decks. When Cat knocked on our door to remind us about breakfast, we pleaded seasickness.
“Don’t worry,” she said, after cracking the door to peek in on us. “That’ll pass soon enough. We should arrive in Belanok in a few hours.”
Orly moaned.
“I’d consider calming your stomachs with a healing potion, but I find illness can make guests more docile.” She began to close the door, but stopped as another thought occurred to her. “I’ll let you k
now when it’s time to start preparing. We’ll be eating our noon meal at Cragdonne Castle. Isn’t that exciting?”
“Please don’t talk to us about food, Cat,” I said through “Please don’t talk to us about food, Cat,” I said throughBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 376
clenched teeth.
“Hmph,” she said, insulted by my disinterest. “Very well.”
She closed the door a little harder than necessary.
After a few minutes, I forced myself up in bed. “She’s
gone. If you feel as awful as I do, Orly, I’m very sorry. But we
have to go now.” We had already sailed too close to Belanok for
comfort. And I didn’t even know if our feeble excuse for a plan
would work. If I died in the process of escaping it would be
enormously unfair, considering I already felt like death. Orly pushed herself out of bed and sat there on the edge of
the mattress, head held over the bucket as she dry-heaved into
it. Nothing remained in her stomach after the night of sickness,
and looking at her wan face gave me pause. I didn’t feel well,
but I was getting around better than Orly. Was it really wise to
drag her along on this possibly foolhardy escape? But at the
same time…I couldn’t leave her here.
My bare feet hit the floor and I straightened my rumpled
clothes, wrinkled after the third night of sleeping in them. A
light tap sounded at the door.
“You two all right?” Rumford’s voice hissed through the
door.
I lurched toward the door as the ship bucked and swayed and
managed to pull it open. “We’re fine. Just a little seasick.” He entered, closing the door behind him, and I eyed him up
and down.
Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 377 “How are you looking so chipper?”
“My mother gave me a stomach-calming potion.”
“Ugh. Not fair,” Orly said.
He glanced over at her, still sitting wilted on the edge of
the bed. “Say, you don’t look so good. Are you all right?” She grunted in response.
“Orly and I have been a little seasick,” I said. “She seems
to have gotten the worst of it.” I bent to my mattress and rooted around beneath it, until I found the fork I’d stowed there. I’d swiped it from the galley, since I didn’t know what had happened to the one Master Wendyn had been using to work on his fetter. Though I’d worked on my lock the night before, I’d been unable to get it open.
“I thought you were going to meet us here last night,” I said. “What happened?”
“Long story. So what’s the plan? Is there a plan?”
“There’s a plan,” I said, and related it to him as concisely as possible.
“Sounds risky,” Rumford said, folding his arms. “Just the kind of plan I like.”
The comment pulled a small smile out of Orly, and even I grinned a little. It was nice to hear some enthusiasm for this foolhardy thing we were about to embark on.
“But really,” I said, “What happened to you last night?”
“She wouldn’t let me out of her sight. I swear, it was like “She wouldn’t let me out of her sight. I swear, it was likeBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 378
she knew I wanted to go meet you two.” Orly and I exchanged a glance. “Did she smell like turpentine this morning?”
His eyebrows rose. “Yeah, she did. How did you know that??
“It’s a potion to see the future,” Orly said.
“You mean she probably already knows the plan? Blast! Oh, I forgot. I’ve got this.” He handed over Papa’s lock-pick tool.
“About time!” I reached for it, then paused. “Did she smell like turpentine before or after you took this?”
“Before,” he said, a puzzled slant to his brow. “Why?”
A smile curved my lips. “That’s good.” I started digging at the lock with the new tool, and moments later heard a click. The fetter’s lock pulled open, and I removed the hateful thing from my neck, rubbing the skin beneath. “We’re going to arrive in Belanok in just a few hours, Rummy. We have to be gone by then.”
He stepped closer and lowered his voice. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Orly doesn’t look like she’d make it two steps without passing out.”
Orly sat up straighter. “I can hear you. And I’m fine.”
I stepped closer and knelt to work on her fetter with the lock-pick.
“Sure you are,” Rumford said.
“Orly will be all right,” I said. “As soon as we’re outside the dampening field I can spell some healing into her.” Truthfully, I thought Rumford’s concerns were quite wellTruthfully, I thought Rumford’s concerns were quite wellBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 379
founded. I was starting to wonder if Orly could make it. But I wasn’t about to leave her here either. “Are you coming with us or not?”
“Of course,” Rumford said without a moment’s hesitation. “Good.” Orly’s fetter popped open beneath my fingers, and I stood. “I’m going to climb down to the pinnace. You take Orly out to the main deck and throw me a line. Then you two can use it to slide down to me.”
Rumford looked doubtful as he helped Orly stand. “You up to that?” he asked her.
She lifted her chin stubbornly. “We’re getting home today.”
He ran a hand through his hair, leaving it spiked in an oddly endearing fashion. “I’m surrounded by stubborn women,” he muttered.
I climbed out the porthole toward the starboard quarter, barefoot, as I liked to climb. Wind whipped my hair and rain stung my face. I clung to the fastened lines of the shrouds and bowlines as I climbed sideways. I’d scaled walls in rain before, but never on a moving vessel. It was a treacherous experience. My feet slipped and slid more often than I would have liked.
And then I stopped abruptly as the ship’s stern came into view. Papa’s promised pinnace was nowhere in sight.
I squinted through the rain, positive my eyes had failed me somehow. The pinnace did not appear. “Bones,” I said aloud, my voice flung back into my face by the wind. I’d been so certain voice flung back into my face by the wind. I’d been so certainBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 380
I’d see it there. Papa had said.
Should I go back? Or investigate more thoroughly? Perhaps
the pinnace was just out of view on the port side.
I decided to continue around the stern. It proved to be a
trickier climb. With the angle of the hull I had little to brace
my feet against and had to inch at a snail’s pace, my fingers
digging into the edges of every porthole as I slid sideways with
painstaking slowness. I stopped once I reached the bowlines of
the port quarter and my feet had a better hold. But I’d seen
what I needed to see. There was no sign of a pinnace on this
side either.
“Oh, Avery!” Cat’s voice cut through the wind and rain, a
barb aimed at me. I glanced up sharply, and found her on the
main deck, looking down at me. “If you’re looking for that
little boat your father tried to steal, I’m afraid it’s no use.
I destroyed it. I saw that you intended to use it, and it seemed
silly to keep it around.” She shrugged. “Oh, and before I
forget, Orly and Rumford send their regrets, but they’ve decided
to stay.”
I saw them now, just beyond Cat. Orly leaned against
Rumford as though she barely had strength to stand.
“Also, I feel I should tell you before you do something you
might regret, I’ve expanded my magic dampening spell. Something
told me I should do it after I drank my morning tea today.
You’re going to have to go pretty far to get ou
tside the reach You’re going to have to go pretty far to get outside the reachBeckstead / Shadowed by Death / 381
of the spell and use your own magic. So don’t get any silly ideas about swimming that far.” I gritted my teeth, seething in fury. I couldn’t best this woman with her all-seeing future spells. Was there anything about today that she didn’t already know? I punched the side of the ship in anger at the same moment my foot slipped. With a cry I tumbled down into the water and then splash, it closed over my head. I was already cold and wet, but now my misery was complete. I came up coughing and sputtering, the waves pushing me to and fro as I tried to tread water and stay afloat.
“That is inconvenient,” Cat yelled down at me. “Do you want me to save you, Avery?” She pointed a finger, and moments later I lifted out of the water, rising up in the air and moving toward the ship.
Orly stepped away from Rumford. “Don’t do it, Avery! Go now, while you can!” She shoved Cat, distracting her enough that the levitation spell ended and I tumbled down, down, down to the water again. The black waves closed over my head and I fell deeper this time, seawater in my eyes and mouth and ears. I clawed my way back to the surface, lungs fighting or air. At last the blackness over my head parted and I emerged into daylight, gasping for air.
“Go!” Orly screamed at me from the ship the moment my head broke through the water.
“I won’t…leave you…Orly!” I said through chattering teeth.
Beckstead / Shadowed by Death / 382
“I’ll be fine! I know you’ll find me.” “Don’t worry, Avery,” Rumford called. “We’ll look after each other.”
Orly glanced behind her, then yelled, “Go now!”
Behind her Cat climbed to her feet, her expression murderous.
I hesitated for a moment, of two minds about obeying them. And then Cat’s hands were before her and I knew I only had moments to act. I dove deep, swimming away, fighting my way through the waves. I stayed down as long as I could, until my lungs were bursting for air. Suddenly, blessedly, I felt the touch of magic along my skin. I surfaced, gasping, and took stock of my location. The ship seemed very far away. I could just see Cat standing on the main deck, Rumford and Orly nowhere in sight. Hopefully she’d only banished them below and not anything worse. I was pretty sure she didn’t see me, from the way her head moved back and forth, examining the water in every direction. At least with my current distance from the ship she couldn’t reach me with magic.
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