Hunt for the Pyxis

by Zoë Ferraris

  He wrapped his fists around the reins and yanked once. The dragon breathed a bolt of fire so powerful it blew the railing off the Hargrim. Emma yelped and curled into a ball. Setting his chin, he took the reins again and pulled twice this time. The dragon’s wings went out sharply, with military precision.

  That worked, he thought. He yanked three times, and with a terrifying kick, the dragon took off.

  Herbie gasped, swallowing air. The dragon swooped over the side and flew low to the water. Herbie gave a kick and it dove lower, its toes skimming the surface. He quickly pulled the reins back and the dragon lifted. Herbie’s heart was beating so hard it felt as if it had come up into his throat.

  They flew over three other Draconi ships. On each deck men were lying unconscious, piled in heaps. The screech bat had conquered the entire fleet.

  He had no idea where the Argh was, but he steered them back in the direction they’d come, remembering gratefully that the Argh’s top deck was large enough to land a dragon….

  The journey that had taken them an hour in a rowboat only took five minutes on a dragon’s back. They spotted the Argh sailing right alongside the islands. Someone had left the candles burning in the command room, and in this darkness, they lit up the top deck like a cruise ship. Herbie pulled gently on the reins while kicking the dragon’s sides, and with a graceful flutter the beast set down right next to the foremast and curled up its wings, giving a happy, fire-tinged burp.

  When the nurses finally allowed Emma into the infirmary, she saw at once how tiny Mom’s form looked on the outsized bed. There was a teacup on her lap, but her eyes were closed, her breathing slow and silent.

  Emma approached the bed, and Mom opened her eyes. Seeing Emma, she leapt up, throwing the bedcover aside, which sent the teacup flying, along with the medicine jars on the bedside table. She grabbed Emma in a fierce embrace. Emma was too startled to do anything but stand there.

  It took her a moment to realize that Mom was crying. Her shoulders were shaking. Emma hugged her back and waited, embarrassed, until Mom released her. Mom’s face was red and puffy.

  “Emma,” she said in a hoarse whisper, “I thought you were dead. When they threw you over the edge, I thought it would kill me too.” Choking on tears, she buried her face in Emma’s hair and kissed the crown of her head. “You don’t know what this means to me to see you alive. My whole life has changed in an instant.” She wiped the tears from her face and sat down on the bed, pulling Emma closer. “Come here. Sit down next to me. Tell me what happened. How did you survive?”

  Emma sat. She knew she ought to be crying too, but her emotions were stirring, kraken-like, deep inside. A bit nervously, she explained what had happened beneath the seas. All the while Mom studied her with deepening concern.

  “That’s remarkable,” Mom said with some puzzlement. “You seem all right, but are you seeing things?”

  “No.”

  “Have you been throwing up? Feeling dizzy?”

  “No. But Santher is sick. He was in the water with me.” Emma motioned to a bed across the room, where Santher was lying unconscious. “He got knocked out by the screech bat, and he hasn’t woken up since then. Do you know what’s wrong with him?”

  Mom was chagrined. “Being exposed to so much memory water can damage your brain.”

  “Is he going to wake up?”

  “I can’t say,” Mom said.

  “Why am I okay?” Emma asked.

  Mom shook her head. “I don’t understand. It must be because…”

  “What?” Emma asked.

  “Never mind. It’s just that falling in the memory seas is deadly. If you manage to get out alive, which, believe me, is extremely rare, it can have a dramatic effect on your mind.”

  “What?” Emma said. “Like now I’ll be scared of everything?”

  Mom gave a wan smile. “You think I’m scared of everything, is that it? You probably do. I’m so sorry, Emma. I never—”

  “So you’re not really scared?”

  Mom pursed her lips. “There’s only one thing I’ve ever truly been afraid of, and that’s losing you. You are my greatest weakness, and I love you more than anything, Emma.” Mom wrapped her in a hug, and Emma felt tears welling in her eyes. She wiped them away.

  “You survived the memory seas,” Emma said. “So what do you think is going to happen to Santher?”

  “I’m not sure,” Mom said gravely. “When they threw me in the seas, I had already grown accustomed to the waters of Eridanus. I had lived with the pirates and gone through their rituals so that I could tolerate the water. You and Santher had none of that, as far as I know. I’m afraid of what this might do to you. But let’s not worry about that now. You look all right, and I’m just so glad you’re alive.”

  Emma was thinking of all the things she had intended to say: “Why did you lie to me?” “Why didn’t you tell me you were from outer space?” She wasn’t sure how to say them. She reminded herself that Mom had been a hero, and now she actually understood why.

  “I have the Pyxis,” Emma said. “Herbie has it, actually. It’s safe.”

  Mom shut her eyes, letting out a sigh of relief, but it was tinged with regret. “How did you get it?”

  “It was behind Dad’s bookshelf. He shoved us in there, you know.”

  “Yes, I figured. I’m so sorry for what happened on the ship with Captain Gent. I didn’t know how to get them to stop. I don’t think they would have, even if I had been able to give them the answer right then. They would have tried to kill you anyway.”

  “So is it true what you said?” Emma asked. “The Pyxis has to work with a map?”

  “Yes,” Mom said. “Your father had the map. He attached it to the inside of an old book.”

  “We have that too,” Emma said. “At least I think so. But Captain Gent was surprised when you told her. It’s like she didn’t believe you.”

  “Nobody knows about the map. I’ve never told anyone, and Cascabel and I intentionally spread the rumor that the Pyxis was the only way to open the Shroud. We never mentioned the map.”

  “That was smart,” Emma said. “But where did you get the map?”

  “I stole it,” Mom said. “It wasn’t very nice of me, and in general you shouldn’t steal things…. ”

  Emma rolled her eyes theatrically while Mom studied her with a seriousness that was new and intimidating.

  “You’re a pirate,” Emma said. “You can’t really tell me not to steal anything.”

  “But sometimes,” Mom finished, “you can have a good reason for stealing something.”

  “Did you have a good reason?”

  “Of course,” Mom went on. “Cascabel was becoming dangerous. We were losing the war, and he believed that the Eridanean fleet was losing its power because they had drained the water. He wanted to open the Shroud and seize the water back. He believed it was the only thing that would make him powerful enough to conquer the Queen.”

  “And you didn’t think so?”

  “No. I knew that if he opened the Shroud, the Queen would simply seize the water and all our work would be ruined. So there was only one thing left to do.”

  “Steal the Pyxis and the map, and run away.”

  “Yes,” Mom said.

  “And Dad stole it too.”

  “He was the only one I trusted with my plan.”

  “I saw a notice that said you were executed by the Queen,” Emma said.

  “I was. Cascabel realized immediately that I had stolen the Pyxis, and he was furious. Before I even managed to leave Eridanus, he struck a deal with Captain Gent. He told her what my ship looked like and where I was. He let her fleet come into Eridanus to find me. And they did. They captured me near Rigel.” Mom shrugged. “I betrayed him, so he decided to turn me over to the Queen’s navy. But I didn’t have the Pyxis. Your dad had the Pyxis and the map, and he was on a different ship. I refused to tell Gent where they were, so she executed me.”

  “How did you survive?”
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  “Oh, that’s a story for another day.” Mom reached over and took her arm. “You’re all right,” she said. “And I’m so, so sorry for all this mess. I wanted to tell you.”

  “You mean, tell me about space and about being a pirate?”

  “Yes.” Mom lowered her gaze. “Sometimes lying is safer,” she said plainly. “We wanted to protect you. We were wrong to lie.”

  Emma gazed at her. “You’re a pirate,” she said. “You can’t really tell me it’s bad to lie.”

  “But it is bad,” Mom said.

  “Unless you have a good reason.”

  “Right,” Mom said regretfully.

  Emma bit her tongue. Mom looked terribly vulnerable and pale. She took hold of Emma’s hand again. “Do you remember when you were young and you had just come back from your first sailing trip with Dad?” Emma nodded. “We sat you down and told you that there was more to the universe than just Earth. That people lived in space too. That there were whole galaxies out there with millions of people and animals and all kinds of magical things. And do you know what you said?”

  Emma only had a vague memory of this. “No,” she said.

  “You laughed at us and said we were making it up. The next day at school, you told your friends what we’d said, and that afternoon your teacher called us at home. She was concerned that we were filling your head with nonsense.” Mom paused, clearly upset at the memory. “It wasn’t your fault. That’s just what happens when you grow up on Earth. We made the decision then not to tell you anything until we could be sure that you were old enough to understand. But as the years went by, it became harder and harder.”

  “You should have trusted me,” Emma said.

  “I’m sorry we didn’t,” Mom replied.

  Emma felt another choke of tears rising in her throat. She knew she had to ask her next question, even though she was terrified of the answer.

  “Where’s Dad?” she asked. “What happened to him?”

  Mom’s face darkened. “Caz and Laine brought us on their ship. It was a Scorpio craft disguised as an Earth yacht. They sailed out to sea, blew open a vostok portal, and took us back to space. The whole time they kept us in separate rooms. I was so worried about him—they had shot him, you know—but then I could hear them interrogating him, and I could hear him talking, so I knew he was still alive.” A triumphant smile stole over her lips. “It didn’t take him very long to escape.”

  “He escaped?”

  “Yes. After a few hours on the Strand, I heard Caz and Laine shouting at each other. They were fighting because your father had somehow gotten out of his cell and jumped ship.” Mom looked at her differently now, Emma thought, almost with a strange relief that she could tell her everything. “He was always very good at escaping. It’s because of him that we were able to disappear to Earth.”

  Mom seemed to find this quality admirable, but it reminded Emma too uncomfortably of how Dad had lied to her about his trip to Phoenix.

  “I was hoping this whole time that he would find me,” Mom said. “Now I don’t know what’s become of him. But we’ll find him.”

  Emma nodded, uncertain what to say. Mom put her arm around Emma and gave her a squeeze. Quietly, Emma thrilled to her touch. Mom might have been a pirate, but she also needed protecting, and Dad wasn’t around to do it. The only person who could do it now was Emma.

  She put her arms around Mom’s neck and hugged her.

  Mom fell asleep, but Emma stayed by her side, watching the nurses putter about. The rest of the day passed in a blur. Arghs came and went from the infirmary, and Emma heard the rumors about the activity above, but it wasn’t until Herbie came in that Emma got up to talk.

  Herbie looked rumpled but excited. “Hi!” he said. “How’s your mom?”

  “She’s okay, I think. The doctors have been giving her medicine.”

  “Cool.” Herbie looked ready to burst. “Guess what! Lovesey said I can keep the dragon!”

  “What?”

  “He said he didn’t have any problem taking goods from the navy, but he did expect me to learn about the dangers of dragons before I’d be allowed to fly him again. And of course I already know all the dangers…. ”

  “I can’t believe Lovesey’s letting you keep the dragon.”

  “He’s on the top deck now. He likes to sit on the railing. I think that’s where he used to sit on his own ship. But he kind of scared the birds off, and Laika got upset, so we’re making a nest for them in the cargo hold. Oh, and Laika’s going to come up with a name for the dragon, unless you have any ideas?”

  “How about Drool?”

  Herbie laughed. “But seriously, he’s a dragon. He needs an awesome name. I was thinking…”

  “Ragnar,” they both said at once.

  Emma smiled. “That’s perfect.”

  Herbie finally seemed to be catching his breath. “But are you okay?” he asked. “You fell in the memory seas. I thought it was supposed to kill you! I mean, look what happened to—” They both turned to the bed where Santher was lying.

  “He hasn’t woken up yet,” Emma said. “Nobody knows what’s going to happen to him, not even my mom.”

  “But you’re awake,” Herbie said. “And you seem okay…. ”

  Emma shrugged. She did feel a little strange, but she figured this was because she’d finally gotten Mom back and she was trying to digest how everything was going to be different now.

  “That was so amazing,” Herbie said. “When you jumped on deck—just wow.”

  “You were the one who saved us with the screech bat.” She smiled, remembering Herbie threatening Gent with that tiny jar. “You were totally Ragnar.”

  “Yeah.” He was grinning. “Oh, by the way, I got the Pyxis out of its hiding place.” He reached into his collar and drew the amulet out of his shirt, giving it to Emma. “I thought you should have it.”

  “Thanks.”

  “We should probably find another hiding place for it. I think a lot of Arghs have guessed that you have it.”

  “Yeah,” Emma said. “You know, what my mom said is true—it works with a map.”

  Herbie raised an eyebrow. “Are you thinking the map?”

  “Yeah. She said my dad hid it in a book.”

  “Then we should hide that too,” Herbie said.

  “Yeah.” Emma tucked the Pyxis into her shirt.

  “I have to get back to Ragnar,” Herbie said. “Want to come?”

  “Okay, but I have to talk to Lovesey first,” she said. “I want to know how we’re going to get out of Eridanus. I still need to find my dad.”

  Herbie sobered instantly at this. “We should ask the monkeys to get the Markab back to the cargo hold. They might be able to fix it up again.”

  Emma nodded. Fixing the Markab was about all she could manage right now. She had no idea where to begin in the search for Dad.

  She and Herbie said goodbye. Before leaving the infirmary, Emma gave Mom one last kiss on the cheek and whispered in her sleeping ear, “I’m going to go see about fixing the Markab. The doctors are going to get rid of that squilch in your brain or whatever it is. And then we’re going to find Dad. And I’m going to keep the Pyxis safe. So don’t worry. Everything’s going to be okay.”

  She had no idea how wrong she was.

  Glossary of Terms

  Almagest: mysterious book about the constellations; contains a map

  Argh: stolen ship from the Leo system, one of the largest in the galaxy

  Artemesia (Tema) Gent: navy captain of the Newton Eel, famous for capturing and executing the notorious pirate Halifax Brightstoke

  Berenice: barmaid at Job’s Coffin tavern on Delphinus

  bridge (jelly, vostok): wall of vostok that separates the waters of a Strand from the waters of a planet; in order to pass safely, you must be wearing a vostok coat

  Cascabel: leader of the pirates, thought to be in exile on Eridanus; no one has heard from him in twelve years

  Chained Lady: Queen
Virgo’s ship, a cutter from the Andromeda system

  Delphinus: constellation in a region of the sky known as the Sea; the only system connected to Solacious in the Monkey system

  Draco: dragon system that remains loyal to Queen Virgo

  dragon-of-war: galleon-class ship from the Draco system; the deadliest of all ships

  Emma Brightstoke Garton: daughter of Halifax Brightstoke and Jack Garton

  Eridanus: river constellation; former home to pirates; its Strands are called the memory seas

  Gemini: twins constellation

  grisslin: small, beetle-like creature that eats memories from the human mind

  Halifax Brightstoke: Emma’s mother; the second-greatest pirate of the seas

  Herbert Yee: Emma’s best friend

  Jack Garton: Emma’s father; former pirate known as Mad Jack

  Laika Leashingwell: crew member on the Argh; from Canis Minor

  Leo: lion constellation

  Lynx: lynx constellation

  Markab: yacht belonging to Emma’s father, Jack Garton

  marlett: a fish with a long, sharp snout that likes to leap out of the sea and flick its sassy tail; also a name for a woman who has a high degree of cunning and impudence

  memory seas: Strands of Eridanus; legend says they contain the memories of everyone who has ever passed through there

  memory water: any water taken from the Strands of Eridanus; can turn inanimate objects into powerful tools (see scupper, mesmer)

  mesmer: communication device used on ships; usually a framed mirror containing memory water and a mesmer guard

  Monkey: galactic constellation shaped like a monkey; Earth is located here

  Newton Eel: current ship of Captain Gent, from the Scorpio system

  Nisba: cook on the Argh

  Party Bag: type of execution in which a criminal is sewn into a canvas sack with a lynx and numerous bricks or stones

  Pegasus: constellation of the mythical flying horse, Pegasus

  Pyxis: magical object that can lead its bearer to the Shroud