The Voyage to Magical North (19 page)

Ewan nodded, glowering. He was still glowering as the pirates let down the boats and climbed into them. As far as Brine could tell, he was still glowering when they moved away and the towers of ice hid the
Onion
from her sight.

*   *   *

No matter where you were on the eight oceans, sitting in a boat always felt the same, Brine thought. The scenery might vary, and the weather, but the creak and splash of oars, the gentle rocking of wood beneath your legs, the knowledge that this thin shell of wood was the only thing between you and drowning—these were always the same.

Cassie rowed steadily, keeping her eyes on the
Onion
for as long as they could see it. Brine watched her and wished she knew what Cassie was thinking. She also wished that Marfak West would sit still. He kept wriggling on the narrow bench, and every time he moved, he made all his chains rattle. It was starting to get on Brine's nerves.

“Go straight on,” said the magician as Cassie veered to one side. “There's a gap just behind you.”

The ice glided past. From a distance, it had all looked very much the same shade of white. Close up, it glittered, and the colors varied from pure, brilliant silver through shades of green and turquoise and even patches of muddy yellow. And it creaked. Louder than the creaking of timber in a storm, and with the added excitement of sudden, sharp cracks that made Brine jump, expecting vast sheets of ice to come crashing down on top of them at any moment.

“Look,” said Peter, pointing as a black-and-white bird stuck its head out of the water. It blinked its round orange eyes at them. Brine wished she had some fish to throw.

“Keep away from it,” snapped Marfak West. If Brine hadn't known better, she'd have said the magician sounded afraid.

“There's another one,” said Peter.

“And another,” added Cassie.

Three birds hopped onto the ice and began to sway. A faint humming filled Brine's ears. Cassie sang as she rowed, and Brine sang along. It was strange: They were surrounded by ice, she could see her breath freezing, and yet she felt warm. A bead of sweat trickled down her back. Her gaze slid to the water. Cool, inviting.

Marfak West threw the bailing cup. The birds gave a surprised squawk and vanished. In an instant, the pressure fell from Brine's mind. She sagged forward. “What was that?”

Cassie turned her head. “Whatever they are, they're back. And—how sweet—they've brought friends.”

“Row!” yelled Marfak West. His voice startled Cassie into action. She hauled at the oars. The boat moved sluggishly. Brine saw bird-shaped specks sliding across the ice. She was ready for the humming this time, but not for the volume of it. The force almost threw her out of the boat. Through the ache in her ears, she was vaguely aware that Cassie had stopped rowing and was mopping her face; Peter was undoing his coat. Brine looked across to the other boat and saw Bill Lightning standing up. Tom grabbed him round the knees.

“What nice birds,” said Cassie dreamily, getting to her feet. “I think I shall go for a swim.”

Marfak West shouted a stream of words Brine didn't understand. Her mind filled with harsh shrieks, then sudden, wonderful silence. She slid down into the bottom of the boat. A pair of large weights landed on top of her. After a few seconds, she realized they were Cassie and Peter.

They all sat up. The birds had gone. Tom gave them a wave from the other boat. Brine rubbed her head and groaned.

Cassie drew her sword and put it to Marfak West's chest. “What did you do?” she demanded.

He gazed back calmly. “You really must stop thinking I'm trying to kill you. It is quite tiresome. I talked to the birds. I explained how we would turn them all into casserole if they didn't leave us alone, and I sent them away. You don't need magic for that, just the right words.”

Brine remembered the sea creatures he'd summoned at Morning. Her mouth was dry. “You sent them away? Where to?”

A thin smile crawled across the magician's face.

 

C
HAPTER
22

She fought giant bats and an island of rats,

And slew the dread beast in its lair.

She conquered the plague, saved us all from the grave,

The buccaneer extraordinaire.

(
From
THE
BALLAD
OF
CASSIE
O
'
PIA,
Verse 200, Author Unknown)

Ewan Hughes had been worried ever since Cassie and the others had left the
Onion
. Now, having had nothing but ice to look at for nearly an hour, he was bored as well. It was not his favorite combination. He sat below the mainsail, listening to the ice creak and trying not to think about what might be happening to the rowing boats.

Zen wound around his ankles, mewing, then tried to climb his leg. Ewan bent down. “Something you don't like, puss?” The cat purred and wriggled up inside his coat.

“Come and look at this,” called Trudi.

Holding Zen steady, Ewan strode across the frosty deck. A little man in a dinner suit loitered on a nearby plate of ice. Ewan blinked, and it turned into one of the black-and-white birds. “What's it doing?” asked Ewan. “And why don't its feet freeze?”

Trudi scratched her head. “Maybe they're pretend feet.” She leaned over the deck rail. “It swims like a fish but it's got feathers like a bird. Who's a cute fish-bird, then?”

The fish-bird slipped and almost fell, flapping its arms in comic circles to stay on its feet. A collective “awww…” rose from the deck.

“There's another one,” said Tim Burre, pointing. The crew all turned. Sure enough, another black-and-white figure was making its laborious way across the ice. Ewan Hughes saw another one bobbing in the water. All three of the birds—no, all four of them, all six of them, all eight … all
lots
of them—turned to face the
Onion
, watching intently with round orange eyes.

“It's almost as if they're trying to tell us something,” said Tim wonderingly. “Does anyone have any fish I can throw?”

*   *   *

Peter's whole body ached with cold. Marfak West sat cross-legged opposite him. His face looked sharp and eager, honed by the wind and the cold until he seemed more like an ice statue than a man.
Magical North is just the beginning
, Peter thought. His hands felt wrong without starshell to hold. His fingers kept clutching at nothing.

A lone fish-bird ducked under the boats and emerged beyond them. Something white lumbered by on the ice high above, but when Peter blinked, it vanished. He scraped his hair back out of his eyes. This was ridiculous. He didn't even know why Cassie had brought him along—he should have stayed behind on the
Onion,
where he could at least do something. He hadn't liked Cassie's assumption, either, that Marfak West could steal the starshell from him any time he wanted. Although she was probably right, which made it worse.

“Stop!” shouted Marfak West.

Cassie hauled on the oars as a whole section of ice crumbled away and slid into the sea right ahead of them. Tom's rowing boat bumped into theirs, sending them dipping and lurching before they steadied. Peter clutched the edge of the boat, gasping for breath. For a moment, he thought he was going to fall into the freezing sea. Brine pulled him back.

“I don't like this,” she said. “What if the ice isn't the sea monster after all? What if there's a real, actual sea monster waiting just around the next corner?”

“Can you please stop talking about monsters?” said Peter, his stomach still lurching. He hated that they had to rely on Marfak West to guide them. Marfak West, who had plans they knew nothing about.

A low growl made Peter jump.
Just the ice.
The sound died away with a final snarl, and silence returned. Peter sat on his hands to keep them still and pretended to enjoy the view.

It was hard to keep track of time when everything looked so much the same, but he reckoned they must have rowed for another hour, taking it in turns while Marfak West gave directions. Then, ahead of them, the sea narrowed into a point. A few large flakes of ice broke away as Cassie bumped against a snowy ridge, and that was it. No more water. The ice was a single, unbroken sheet.

Bill Lightning pulled up alongside them. His broken nose was covered in a thin layer of frost. “What's happening now?”

“Nothing.” Marfak West stepped out of the boat. “We've run out of sea. Now we walk.”

*   *   *

Ewan Hughes had a headache. A throbbing pressure behind his eyes that felt like his brain was slowly expanding. He rubbed his forehead. The pressure increased.

Fish-birds surrounded the
Onion
on all sides. They stood in rows on the ice and bobbed in the water, their orange eyes fixed on the ship. As Ewan watched, another one joined the crowd, sliding in silently at the back. Ewan turned his head, blinking. His eyes stung with shards of ice. And either the
Onion
was swaying from side to side or the birds were.

“Go … away…,” muttered Trudi. Her lips barely moved. Ewan waved a hand in front of her face, and she didn't even blink. The fish-birds all rattled their flippers, making a sound like icicles in a high wind. A subtle tremor ran through the hull of the
Onion
.

No one moved. No one was going to, either, thought Ewan. His vision blurred.

“What a lovely day,” said Trudi beside him. “I think I shall take a bath.” Something inside Ewan's head echoed that he really should consider joining her.

Then Zen stuck his claws in Ewan's earlobe. The shock of pain splintered the pressure on his mind. He gasped, seeing for the first time the fully massed ranks of fish-birds. They stood on every piece of ice, motionless apart from an occasional flap of a black flipper, all staring.

One of the crew climbed up onto the deck rail and launched himself off with a shout. Ewan yelled and grabbed a rope, too late. Fifty black-and-white birds slid into the water. A scream rose up, then the sound of fifty sharp beaks tearing at flesh. Ewan's stomach turned over. Trudi staggered past him, her arms waving. Ewan grabbed her and shook her until her eyes cleared. Two other pirates were trying to escape overboard. He leaped for them and hauled them back by the legs.

“Tie yourself to the mast!” he shouted at Trudi. “Tie everyone else as well. Masts, rail, anything that won't move.” He grabbed a piece of rope and looped it around his own waist. The birds all turned in his direction. The urge to fling himself off the
Onion
would have been overwhelming were it not for Zen's claws raking his face. Ewan wrestled his gloves off and managed to tie the rope to the mast before his hands went numb. Another pirate was poised to jump. Ewan took a couple of running steps and brought his fists together on the man's head, knocking him unconscious.

“Fine!” Ewan yelled at the birds. “You want me to go mad, I'll go mad.
But you're not going to like it.
”

*   *   *

Seven people stood in a place where people had probably never stood before. Peter felt he should have more of a sense of achievement at the fact. It wasn't that long ago, after all, that he was Tallis Magus's apprentice and had never left the islands of Minutes. Yes, and he would happily go back there and be a nobody for the rest of his life if it meant getting out of this place. He shielded his eyes from the never-ending sunshine and looked around for landmarks. There were none.

Marfak West eased his shoulders in a circle. “I suppose you wouldn't care to unchain my hands now?”

Cassie drew her sword. “Correct. I wouldn't care to. This is where you start earning your keep. Which way?”

Marfak West couldn't possibly know, Peter thought. Even if he'd memorized the location of Magical North as he'd claimed, he had nothing to guide them by. The ground sloped away, gently rising until it merged into the sky. Every direction looked the same to Peter.

Tom and Brine huddled beside him. Tom clutched the box holding the messenger gull under his coat. The bird hadn't made a sound since they'd gotten into the rowing boat. Peter hoped it was all right.

Marfak West surveyed the ice, his expression unchanging. “This way,” he said after a moment.

Bill Lightning shook his head, teeth chattering. “He's lying. He wants to freeze us all.”

“Maybe I do,” agreed the magician. “But I'd prefer to do it after we reach Magical North. You forget, I have devoted years to studying Boswell's last voyage. The ice plains have grown since then, and Boswell arrived by a slightly different route, but he had no clear idea of what he was looking for, and I do. Peter, try to feel the magic around you. Does it seem stronger in any direction?”

Peter automatically put his hand in his pocket for his starshell before remembering Cassie had left the three pieces with Ewan back on the
Onion
.

Brine turned her head and sneezed. Peter grinned. “He's right. That way.”

They walked in single file, Marfak West leading the way with Cassie just behind him. Rob Grosse and Bill Lightning brought up the rear. Peter had expected the ice to be slippery and was surprised to find that it wasn't. The snow formed a powdery, perfectly dry layer underfoot.

“How much farther?” asked Bill Lightning.

Marfak West turned his head. “We'll get there before you freeze to death, don't worry.”

The snow up ahead shifted. Peter blinked and shook his head, trying to get his vision straight. When everything was the same shade of ghostly white, it was far too easy to imagine ferocious creatures crouched in the snow, waiting to ambush them.

Tom stopped walking. “What was that?”