The Witch Watch (29 page)

“I heard the footsteps,” Simon hissed. “I’m confident they’re ahead of us.”

Alice listened for a moment, “One set, or more?”

Simon closed his eyes, “I’m reasonably sure it was just one set of footsteps.”

“Then it might just be a member of the crew, making his rounds.”

Simon suddenly cried out in fear and surprise as he opened his eyes again. Alice spun around to see the headmaster standing in the open hatch at the end of the passage. He was just on the edge of the lantern light, his grinning face hovering in the darkness beyond the doorway.

“Hello Mouse,” he said to Simon. “Having fun with your new lady-friend? You oughtn’t have gone against the master. Now you’ll get repaid for that.”

There was a loud clang, and the hatch behind them slammed shut. The wheel turned, securing the door.

Alice handed her lantern to Simon and stepped forward, “The rats scurry into the open at last. Is this your trap? To corner us in a passage? Has the great and mighty Mordaunt been reduced to mugging his foes?”

“You’ll see it’s more than a mugging His Lordship has in mind for you, and you’ll lose more than your coin.”

Alice hitched up her skirt. Simon was so preoccupied with the sight that he nearly overlooked the small silver pistol that had been holstered to her leg. She aimed it casually at the headmaster, “I think we’ll be the ones doing the mugging.”

The headmaster reached into the room and grasped the handle on the door. Alice warned him to stop moving by pointing her pistol at him more firmly, but he gave it no heed. Alice fired a shot as he hauled the door closed. The shot went astray. The sharp crack of the gunshot was answered with a thunderous boom as the door slammed closed, leaving Alice and Simon alone in the passage.

They ran forward and stopped as the light fell on the closed door.

“Madness!” Alice cried. “How did they manage this?”

The back of the door had been covered with a broad sorcery circle, which was visible now that the door was closed. A faint mist seemed to be gathering around it. The door in front of them led forward. The door at the opposite end led aft. Both were closed. The passage was completely dark, other than the meager light supplied by their lantern.

Simon squinted at the writing in the flickering light. “Looks like it was written in grease pencil. Some of the circle was written on the door frame, and some on the door itself. The circle wasn’t completed until the door was closed. That’s a neat trick.”

“But why?” Alice asked. “I don’t recognize this spell. Let’s open the door and break it again before it causes any mischief.”

“Wait!” Simon pleaded. He murmured to himself as he read for a moment. “This spell is... the outside is a containing circle. If your spell is volatile or needs time to gather energy, you put a containing spell around it, to keep it from activating while you’re still working on it. Once you’re ready to use the spell, you erase the outer circle.”

“I don’t understand.”

“This spell isn’t doing anything yet. It won’t activate until we break the outer circle.”

“Which will happen if we open the door.”

“Yes.”

“Then I guess we should understand what it will do before we unleash it. Oh!” Alice said with alarm, “We should work fast. Look at how quickly it’s gathering.” The steel had become powerfully cold, and mist was pouring from it.

“So what does the inner circle do?” she asked. “I see ‘enérgeias’ and ‘seismós’. It’s gathering a great deal of energy, and... I don’t understand. What’s this word?”

“Kradasmoús”, Simon said quickly. “It means something like ‘vibration’, I think.” He dashed off to the other end of the passage. He was careful to step over the body, as well as the puddle of blood that slid from one side of the passage to the other with the gentle rocking of the ship. His light fell on the far door, “This one is similarly marked. I guess that explains why your device was so confused. It was torn between these two circles.”

“Not so,” Alice said. “My device can’t detect a circle until the spell is active.”

“That means there might be other circles like these around the ship!” Simon said with alarm. He turned around to face her and realized he’d left her standing in the dark. “I’m so sorry!” he said as he hurried back.

“Yes. Gilbert noticed the ethergram moving an hour ago, and it may have begun long before that. If there are other spells like this one, then they have been gathering power for a long time.”

“And sooner or later someone will stumble on one of them,” Simon said. “If it’s on a door, like this one...”

“Let’s first worry about the one in front of us,” she said, struggling to remain calm. “This spell is still growing. Frost has begun to form. Whatever this spell does, it’s going to do a great deal of it.”

The lantern grew dim as Simon held it close to the door.

“Careful!” Alice scolded. “If that goes out we will be lost.”

“If this were on the floor we could set candles around it.”

“If we had candles,” Alice said.

“Yes.”

“And if we wanted to feed this spell, which we don’t.”

“Of course.”

“I am at a loss,” Alice said after another minute. ”Can’t we just erase the inner circle?”

“The energy is gathered,” Simon said. “If we erased it, that energy could come out in unpredictable ways.”

“Better than the intended way, I should think.”

“It might still be enough to kill anyone standing close to the door. But look! The author left a lot of gaps. I suppose this is Headmaster’s writing. This is sloppy work, even for him. If I were to insert something in these spaces, then the spell might discharge safely.”

“Yes. But as you said, the energy will need to go
somewhere
,” she said quickly.

“I think I can turn it back into heat,” Simon replied as he stared at the circle intently

“Then I suggest you write while we can still see the lettering,” Alice said urgently. Condensation had been gathering on the top edge of the door and flowing downward, and this had now begun to freeze. The door was rapidly becoming sheathed in ice.

Simon put his hand to his pocket and let out a frustrated sigh, “I have nothing for writing!”

“I didn’t bring any chalk!” Alice groaned. “I brought a gun, and no chalk!”

Suddenly heavy footsteps were heard on the other side of the door.

“You may yet need the gun,” Simon said fearfully.

The wheel on the door began to turn. Alice and Simon threw themselves against it and began pulling it the other way.

“What’s going on here?” came a muffled voice. “Why is this hatch secured? And who’s put out the lights?”

“Don’t open the door!” Alice pleaded.

“Who is that? What’s a woman doing down here? And why is this shut?” the voice replied. The turning of the wheel had stopped for the moment.

Alice pulled a narrow tool out of the leather folds of her ethergram and handed it to Simon. “Use the blood,” she whispered.

“The
blood
?”
Simon asked incredulously.

There was pounding on the door and the crewman spoke again, “Look here, you stop fooling about. I hear you talking to someone else, and I’m sure I know what you’re up to. You’ll open this door right now if you know what’s good for you.”

Simon and Alice traded confused and desperate looks as the man spoke, and finally Simon understood. Timidly, he walked over to the dead body and dipped the tool into the blood.

“That’s it! I’ve been patient enough,” the man boomed. The wheel began turning again. Alice threw herself against it, but she was hopelessly outmatched by the crewman on the other side.

Simon dashed back and added his strength to the effort. He held the wheel with one hand while he struggled to write with the other. He scratched furiously at the door, leaving bloody gouges in the ice. The brutally cold metal was painful to touch, and agonizing to grip. Their hands began to ache after just a few seconds. The ice melted under their hands, making the wheel slippery and further hindering them. As their strength failed, the wheel began to turn against them.

Alice let out a cry as she fought to push it back. Simon gave up trying to write and put both arms into the work. Suddenly his grip failed and his hands slid from the wheel. There was a clank as the mechanism released, leaving the door free to open.

“We’ll see about this!” boomed the outraged voice. The wheel stopped moving, and they heard the man stomping away.

“I’m sure he’ll be back with help,” Alice said. “Hurry up and finish your work.”

Simon had to look around for the tool, which he’d dropped in the struggle. Then he returned to work, loading it with blood and editing the circle on the door. After a few trips between the door and the blood puddle, he stood back to examine his work.

“Is it safe now?” Alice said cautiously.

“I think so. I hope so. I don’t know for certain. I don’t think there’s a way to test it safely. I guess we should count ourselves lucky that the crewman went away.”

“I’m sure he’ll be back soon. Although, it occurs to me now that perhaps he just took an alternate route to come through the opposite door.”

Almost as if he’d been waiting for this cue, the far door groaned with the sound of the wheel being turned. In a panic, Simon yanked open their own door, was briefly shocked that no magic took place, and stumbled through. He turned, expecting Alice to be on his heels, but she hadn’t moved. She was still staring into the darkness. There was a metallic creak as the hatch was opened. A light flashed and Simon was nearly blinded for a moment. Then there was a titanic blow, like the hammer of God striking the anvil of the world. Simon was pushed back, and it felt as though the air itself had struck him in the face.

He was nearly deaf from the sound. The world seemed muffled and distant. When his eyes recovered he could see the tortured metal of the hull, bending and twisting like a crumpled note. Simon of course was familiar with the idea of leaking ships, but in his mind he’d imagined that water would simply flow into the ship like water from a leaky bucket. But at this depth the water surged with a great fury. A wave of white foam roared down the passage. Alice had finally shaken off her stupor and was struggling to follow him. Simon watched helplessly as the wave overtook her, and swept her off her feet.

He moved to help her, but the wave struck his lantern and everything went black.

Gilbert was pacing the room. Alice and Simon had only been gone for a little more than half an hour, but the lack of news and the uncertainty made the minutes long.

The door banged open. Gilbert turned, expecting to see his companions. Instead he saw an older man, dirty, with an unkempt beard and a crooked smile. He was holding a lantern.

He was struck with an abrupt flash of recognition, “Soot!”

“Morning, Maypole,” the man replied, and then he hurled his lantern into the room. He fled the doorway before it even landed.

The lantern burst and burning oil spilled over the bed. Without hesitating, Gilbert scooped up the blankets and lifted them away. He charged out of the room with the fiery bundle and hurled it overboard. Then he beat out the flames on his chest and head. He was glad that he didn’t have a face, since this would have just burned it off.

Soot was running aft. Not to Steerage, as Gilbert expected, but towards the cargo area of the ship. Enraged and still smoking slightly, Gilbert gave chase.

Soot intensified his flight when he saw that Gilbert was in pursuit. He kept better pace than Gilbert would have thought possible for a man his age, but he wasn’t fast enough to escape. Gilbert was tireless and had longer strides, and quickly closed the gap. The early morning quiet was broken with the heavy pounding of their footsteps on the deck.

Gilbert saw that the door leading below was curiously unguarded. Their chase led down into the ship, through the twisting corridors, drawing closer to the cargo area. Gilbert was pleased with this. He could corner and kill Soot in the cargo area without worrying that the deed would be discovered. Sadly, he realized he’d have to perform the killing with his bare hands, since there hadn’t been time to put on his sword before the chase began.