Nadya Skylung and the Masked Kidnapper Page 5

  That stumps us. We stand in a silent circle, thinking while the ship bumps against its moorings and the shadows flicker in the mist. I can only come up with one answer, and I really, really don’t like it. “The Panpathia,” I say at last. “It links everything in the world, and if you know what you’re doing on it you can see where other people are, especially if they’re nearby.”

  Tam frowns. “But I thought only skylungs could go on the Panpathia.”

  I try to work some spit into my mouth, which has suddenly gone dry. “As far as anybody knows, yeah. Skylungs and cloudlings.”

  “So,” Pep says, raising an eyebrow, “that means they have a skylung helping them.”

  “Or a cloudling,” I add quickly. “But why would a skylung or a cloudling help them? The pirates are on the same side as the Malumbra.”

  “The Mal-what?” Tam asks.

  “Malumbra,” Salyeh says, and I wonder for a second how he knows about it before I remember that he’s read just about every book that’s ever come in front of his nose. “It’s what the skylungs and cloudlings call the thing that drove them away from the Roof of the World.”

  “It’s real,” I say. “Aaron and I saw it, or at least a part of it, on the Panpathia. And it’s nasty. It hurts people, tries to take over their minds. Nic said he thinks it wants to take over the whole world. I can’t imagine anybody helping it on purpose.”

  “Well,” Pep says, “you said it takes over minds, right? So what if it took over someone’s mind?”

  I shiver. Maybe that’s what Aaron could feel on the Panpathia. Maybe that’s why it’s so dangerous here in Far Agondy. Maybe someone’s kidnapping skylungs and cloudlings so they can turn them over to the Malumbra. “Goshend’s teeth,” I mutter again, while Tam swears more creatively next to me.

  “Hey,” Sal says, “speaking of Aaron, where’d he go?”

  I whip around. “He was right behind us a second ago.” But he’s not there anymore. “Aaron!” I whisper. “Hey, Aaron!” I stick my head into the hall, but I can’t see him. It’s too dark in here, and my night vision’s all messed up from the lights. “Did anyone see him leaving?”

  Pep and Sal shake their heads. So does Tam.

  “Shoot,” I say, and I grind my teeth. I brought him down here. I feel responsible for him. And if he wanders around until he gets caught, Nic might boot him off the ship. “I’ll find him. The rest of you get back to bed. We can talk more in the morning.”

  Salyeh nods, but Pepper just looks down and sighs. Tam shakes his head and opens his mouth to say something.

  Then there’s a creak from the floorboards near Thom’s room, and the sound of Thom’s door opening very fast.

  CHAPTER 6

  IN WHICH NADYA VERY NEARLY GETS CAUGHT.

  “Who’s there?” Thom shouts, loud enough to wake the whole ship. He’s got a whistle too, and it’s probably already halfway to his lips.

  Everyone freezes. I don’t know what to do. We’re one hundred and ten percent busted.

  “Hide!” Pep hisses, and then she walks into the hallway. “It’s just me, Mr. Abernathy,” she says forlornly, and then she disappears, walking toward Thom and away from the brig—distracting him from the rest of us.

  My heart pounds a million miles an hour, but I dive behind the tumbled-over remains of one of the pirates’ beds, just in case. Salyeh looks sick to his stomach as he steps into a deep shadow in the corner. Tam’s mouth hangs open like a snoring fish’s, but he joins me. I feel nauseous. Pep moved so fast there was nothing we could do, and now she’s going to take the heat for all of us.

  “Pepper?” Thom says. He sounds half relieved, half furious. “You’re supposed to be in bed unless you’re on duty! Didn’t you pay any attention to what Captain Vega said today? What were you even doing over there?”

  “I couldn’t sleep . . . ,” Pep says, and then her voice gets so quiet I can’t pick out the words anymore. But her footsteps, and Thom’s, keep moving away from us down the hallway. Pepper sounds upset, like she might start crying any minute. Thom sounds less and less frustrated and more and more like he wishes he could let her off. Their sounds reach the end of the hallway, then disappear up the stairs, toward the deck and Nic’s cabin.

  I swallow a lump. “He’s taking her to see Nic,” I say. I decide I’ll only call him Captain Vega to his face. He’s still Nic, somewhere under there, or else the Orion isn’t really the Orion anymore.

  “What if he throws her off the ship tomorrow?” Salyeh asks. He sounds horrified.

  I stand up. “We won’t let it happen. We’ll make him throw us all off if he tries to throw any of us off. Deal?” I hold out my hand. Looking a little relieved, Sal comes over and puts his palm over my knuckles. Tam gulps and then does the same.

  “Deal,” Tam and Sal whisper in unison.

  I take a deep breath, but I only have half a second to celebrate before Salyeh speaks up again.

  “We need to get back to bed,” he says. “They might start doing checks once Thom tells Nic he found Pepper up.”

  My stomach shrivels up like a cloud vine in a storm. “What do you mean, ‘checks’?”

  Salyeh looks into the mists. The electric lights flash over his face. He looks older for a second. He always does when he talks about his past. “They used to do it in the pits back in Vash Abandi, when they were worried about kids trying to escape. A couple times a night, somebody would come check on you, just to make sure you were in bed. They did it at different times every night—sometimes twice in just a few minutes even—so you could never be sure when you’d be alone.”

  Tam curses. “We need to move, then, fast.”

  “What about Aaron?” I ask.

  Salyeh’s frown deepens. “He could be anywhere, Nadya. There isn’t time. I’ll try to cover for him if they check our room.”

  But that’s not good enough for me. I already might lose Pep tonight. Aaron’s my responsibility. I’m not gonna lose him too. “I’m going to look for him,” I say. “You guys head back to bed.”

  Tam and Salyeh shake their heads. “We’re a team,” Tam says. “We’ll help.”

  “Salyeh needs to be there in case Aaron comes back to their room, and Tam, I need you to let me know if they’re starting bed checks. Bang on the floor, cough loudly, do something that makes a bunch of noise so I’ll know I’ve got to get back to my cabin, okay?”

  Tam grunts and stares at me for a second. Then he sighs. “Be careful, all right?” Salyeh nods in agreement.

  “I will, I promise. Just go!”

  Tam and Sal look at me one last time, and then they disappear into the hallway, leaving me alone in the shadowy mist, wondering where in the world Aaron might’ve gotten to.

  * * *

  • • •

  I start my search in the engine room. Aaron liked it there out on the ocean because it was always warm and bright. Every once in a while we’d find him sitting next to the fireboxes in the middle of the night, watching the light play over the rods and gears that jut up out of the engine mechanism. But he’s not there. The engines are cold, and there’s nothing but shadows and things to bang against in the dark.

  Next I check the brig again, in case he came back to it, but it’s empty too. I pause for a few seconds, sweating. There’s a little clock ticking in my head, and it tells me I don’t have much time. Nic can’t be taking long to scold Pepper and choose whether he’s going to start checks. In the middle of the night, he tends to be pretty decisive.

  “Aaron,” I mutter, “where’d you go?” Every creak of the ship as it drifts against its moorings makes me flinch. Our all-for-one, one-for-all vow felt good when I was thinking about it protecting Pepper, but I realize now that if I get caught and Nic tries to kick me off the ship, it means Sal and Tam go down with me. I don’t wanna be responsible for that.

  Just as I’m starting to think t
here’s no hope, I hear a sound below me—a little one, like somebody talking down in the hold—and I know exactly where Aaron disappeared to.

  A few minutes later, after I’ve crutched slowly down the stairs, trying to be quiet, I find him standing in front of the gormling’s tank with his fingers splayed against the glass. The gormling, which looks like a giant, elongated catfish with enormous whiskers and glowing spots below its spine, circles in front of him hypnotically.

  “Aaron,” I whisper, “we have to get back to bed. Pepper got caught!”

  “He’s worried,” Aaron says. The glow from the gormling lights up his face in shifting aquamarine. “Can’t you f-f-feel it?”

  The gormling stops swirling and looks at me. Its eyes are deep and gold, like stars condensed into tiny pools. I can feel its fear, now that Aaron mentions it, and maybe it’s worth a minute to figure out why it’s scared, even now. We’re going to deliver it in the morning. This might be our last chance to talk to it.

  “You didn’t want to be in the ocean,” I say, remembering my time with it last month, when it seemed terrified of being let loose in the deep water. “Are you afraid of Far Agondy too?”

  It jets down to the bottom of its tank and purrs there, shivering the water with its spines, then floats back up and meets my eyes again. “Why?” I ask.

  It stares at me. I can feel myself drifting into its eyes. The Panpathia calls to me. It would be so easy to let my mind trot across the little bit of glowing thread between us and find out what the gormling is worried about. Aaron just did, I think, and nothing bad happened to him. It must be safe.

  Sweating, I break my promises and give in. The Panpathia opens up in front of me in soft golden light, and I see the gormling in my mind as it sees itself—a shimmering creature of pure brightness. It doesn’t speak to me—it never does. But I can feel what it feels. There’s a shadow in the city, and it worries that the shadow is looking for it. It worries we’re going to deliver it right into its hands.

  We’re delivering you to the Lord Secretary of Far Agondy, I say softly. You’ll be as safe with him as anywhere. He’s a big muckety­muck, helps run the city.

  The gormling swirls in a circle. It seems unconvinced, so I press my forehead against the glass. I’ll come check on you then, okay? I’m getting nervous being on the Panpathia, and I want to wrap this up. Shadowy things are moving in the distance. I don’t think they’ve noticed me, but they feel like bugs crawling up my arms and legs. I’ll ask the Lord Secretary if I can visit you, before we go.

  The gormling seems to relax a little, and I realize the clock in my head has ticked way past Safe into Nadya, get out of here!

  I let go of the Panpathia. “Come on,” I say to Aaron, and I grab his hand. “Let’s go.”

  Five minutes later I’m closing the door to Salyeh’s room, breathing a sigh of relief. Sal was still awake, even though he was lying under his covers, and he explained the situation to Aaron. Hopefully he’ll be able to keep him there through the rest of the night, and I can get up to bed, and Pep won’t be in too much trouble, and we’ll get away with this.

  As I turn toward the stairs, I hear footsteps again. Heavy ones, creaking the boards as they come down. Nic’s footsteps. The light from a lamp, swinging as Nic moves, tumbles down the staircase.

  I crutch back from it like it’s poison. “Oh no,” I whisper, and I look frantically for an escape route.

  But there’s nowhere to go. This hallway runs straight along the heart of the ship, fore to aft. Salyeh’s and Tam’s bedrooms come first, then Pepper’s and Tian Li’s, then the kitchen, galley, and storage, and then the brig and Mrs. T’s old room. The galley or Mrs. T’s room would be the best places to hide, but I don’t think I can get to them in time. Tam’s and Salyeh’s rooms are a bad idea—Nic will search them first, and I might not be quick enough to hide before he gets there. Pepper’s room is out too, since he might be bringing her back down after scolding her.

  That leaves Tian Li’s room.

  I crutch into the darkness as fast as I can, which isn’t nearly fast enough to make me comfortable. Every time I plant my crutches, I’m terrified they’re going to make enough noise for Nic to hear me. His footsteps plod slowly down the steps, and the light from his lamp chases me down the hallway. By the time I get to Tian Li’s doorway, it’s right on my heels, and Nic’s just about out of stairs. I shoulder the door open, hop inside, jerk my crutches after me, and ease the door shut just as the line of Nic’s light reaches this part of the hallway.

  For a few seconds I stand there, my heart racing, breathing hard. No shouts. No footsteps coming toward me. Just a gentle squeak on the floorboards as Nic peeks into Salyeh’s room.

  So I’m safe, for now. But how long will that last? It won’t take Nic much time to check the rooms, and even if Tam pulls off some kind of distraction, I’ve got to get out of here and back up to my cabin before Nic finishes up and decides to see what I’m doing. But how?

  I look around Tian Li’s cabin. Her desk sits quietly in the misty electric light drifting in through her porthole. A framed painting of the harbor in T’an Gaban, where she’s from, hangs above it. There’s some inspirational quotes from great thinkers and the revolutionaries who founded the Free City of Myrrh written out artistically in pen and pencil on scraps of fancy paper and tacked to the walls. Her bed’s rumpled and unmade, and a pile of dirty clothes slumps in the corner next to her dresser.

  I have no idea how I’m going to get out of here.

  There’s a thump and a shout from Tam’s room, followed by a quick scuffle and some harsh words. My heart races again. That’s Tam’s signal, meant to warn me.

  My eyes keep lingering on the porthole. It opens. There’s a way out there. But I have no idea how I could get from the window up to my cabin.

  The conversation in Tam’s room quiets down. That’s it for the checks down here, so unless Nic’s going to do something with Pepper or Tian Li, I’m almost out of time. Whatever I’m gonna do, I’ve gotta do it fast.

  I hear more talking from Tam’s room, and then the voices head this way. I freeze, but they pass by toward the fore of the ship. I catch a few words as they do.

  “What did you hear, Tam? Quick, tell me exactly,” Nic says. Tam’s really pulling out the stops for me. He must’ve heard me dropping Aaron off and figured out the score.

  The two of them go by, and I turn back to the porthole. If Tam can be brave enough to distract Nic, then I can be brave enough to at least try to get out of Tian Li’s room.

  I throw open the porthole. Cold, misty air flows in, and I stick out my head, looking around in the electric light. The Orion gets rigged a bit differently when we’re in port. There are lots of lines tying her to the slip, to make sure she doesn’t move in the wind and damage it. When she needs repairs like she does this trip, other lines get slung around her hull to help the work crews.

  Goshend be good, one of those lines is right under the porthole, running fore to stern. In the morning, the work crews will clip onto it while they check the damage to the hull. But tonight I can probably squeeze out on top of it, then work toward my cabin. I’ll still have to get up to the deck, but one of the mooring lines is drooping down near the ship’s bow, and maybe I can climb it.

  I look down at the Mighty Lady, hanging there in the shadows and the mist, a little sore, a little swollen after all I’ve put her through recently. “You’re gonna help me on this one, right?” I whisper. “Don’t let me forget I’m missing a foot.”

  I still do that sometimes, when I’m focusing real hard on something else. Usually it just means I trip and fall on my face and it’s embarrassing. But if I’m going to be out on those ropes, no safety belt, nothing to tie me to the ship, it could be a whole lot worse if I fall.

  I’ve got no other choice worth making though. There’s supposed to be a net under the Orion in port, to keep anything that fa
lls or gets dropped off it from hitting the ship below us. As long as it’s there, it’ll catch me if I fall, so all I’ve got at risk is getting caught out of bed, right?

  I lean out Tian Li’s porthole again to check the net, but I can’t see it. The mist’s too thick. There’s a few shadows in the electric lights below that might be a net, but nothing I’m totally sure of.

  My fears lurch up from the depths of my heart like that shadow-touched leviathan, and I hesitate. Maybe it’s not worth it. Maybe I should just own up to what happened tonight and quit trying to keep things from Nic. Maybe he’s got a reason for all this, and he’s not going to throw anyone off the ship after all.

  But that seems a worse risk. The net has to be there. It’s always been there before.

  I take a deep breath and hide my crutches under Tian Li’s bed. Footsteps down the hall. Nic’s voice coming closer again. No more time to think.

  I squeeze through the porthole and stick my legs into the mist. Facing the dock, I gingerly let myself down until my foot finds the rope. It wiggles and sways when I put my weight on it, but not so much I can’t keep my balance.

  Carefully, I slip out of the porthole and sit on the rope. I take a couple seconds there, listening to Nic lecture Tam inside the ship and getting used to the way the rope moves when I shift my weight. The mist tickles my nose. My stomach flutters. I’m pretty high up, and I’m not tied to anything. The lights scatter around me like sun coming through a crystal vase in the early morning.

  Softly, I lean against the Orion’s side and slide toward the bow. “You’ve got me, right, old girl?” I whisper, and the Orion creaks back reassuringly. I slide a little farther, then do it again. As I get closer to the fore of the ship, I see the mooring line I was counting on more clearly, dangling toward me just this side of the hole in the hull. It runs up to a ring on the Orion’s rail, then down into the mists, probably hooked to one of the bigger iron rings in the dock. The angle’s pretty tough, but I bet I can climb it.