“Whatcha hiding around your waist, little girl? Hake, grab her and take a look.”
“Sure thing, Stuckey.”
“Don’t touch them,” Gamaliel said with a growl.
“Shut him up first,” Stuckey said.
Hake followed the order by slamming Gamaliel Bailey up against the wall, shoving a handkerchief in his mouth, and then spinning the man around. He started wrapping a rope around Gamaliel’s wrists.
“There sure is a lot of rope around here,” Dak muttered. “You could make a whole lotta shoestrings with that. Whole lotta shoestrings.”
Sera’s brows knit together. She glanced down at her feet. “Yes, yes you could. At least one, two, maybe three!” she cried. Both Dak and Sera kicked out at once, Dak making contact with Stuckey’s hand so that he yanked it up and away and the saber stuck in the ceiling, and Sera aiming high to connect with the man’s chest, sending Stuckey reeling into Hake, whose head smashed into the wall. Sera dove between his legs and scrambled out the door while Dak grabbed the saber and pulled it out of the ceiling. He dodged around Stuckey’s outstretched leg, and pounded the Time Warden’s thigh with the butt of the saber as he went past, hoping to give the man a wicked charley horse.
They dashed out of the cabin and tore through the cutter, startling the ship hands. “There are two men after us! They’ve got Dr. Bailey held hostage up in the cabin!” Dak shoved the saber at one of the sailors, who took it gratefully and ran to go abaft.
Just then, Stuckey came pounding out of the cabin. Sera shrieked and ran aft, but there was not much she could do other than continue to run around the deck. Dak tried to tackle the Time Warden, but it was like trying to tackle one of the pillars on the White House. He bounced right off and fell to the deck, breathless.
Stuckey chased after Sera, who tripped on the hem of her dress and fell sprawling. “Oof!” she said. She scrambled to her feet again, her knees and palms stinging like crazy, and then before she could pick up speed, Stuckey caught her by the shawl and yanked. The shawl clotheslined Sera and then came off in his hand, exposing the Infinity Ring’s satchel around her waist. Stuckey grabbed Sera by the shoulder, whirled her around, and ripped the instrument off her belt.
“You give that back!” Sera screamed in the man’s ear as loud as she could, jumping for the Infinity Ring and digging her fingernails into his neck. She wrenched the Ring from him again and punched him in the eye. He staggered back, apparently not knowing quite who he was dealing with.
“Dak! Catch!” Sera shouted and tossed the Ring to him. He caught it and ran the other way.
Stuckey ran around the deck in the opposite direction to face Dak head-on. He charged at the boy, butting into Dak’s stomach with his head. Wild-eyed and breathless, Dak threw the Ring back to Sera as he plummeted to the deck with a thud, but the toss was too high. Even though she jumped, it sailed over Sera’s head and plunked into the dark water off the edge of the boat.
Without a second’s hesitation, Sera took a running leap, vaulting over the side, and dove into the icy water after it.
“MAN OVERBOARD!” yelled one of the sailors at the back of the ship. He immediately dropped the saber Dak had given him and reached for a cylindrical cork life preserver attached to a rope, like an oversized Frisbee. He flung it behind the boat with all his might. Within seconds the word traveled around the ship and the sailors reacted.
“Sera!” Dak screamed. The water was freezing. She could die. He turned to Stuckey and screamed, “I hate you!” And then, spying the saber, he picked it up and ran at the man, brandishing it before him.
“Watch it, kid!” Stuckey yelled, scooting around the blade. “You’re the one who threw it in the water. If she drowns, it’s on your head, not mine.”
The worst thing about that, for Dak, was that it was completely true. With a wild yell he waved the saber, and then drew it back to stab it through Stuckey’s heart. Stuckey scrambled out of the way and ran smack into three equally enormous sailors who had come running when the distress call went out. It took them about four seconds to have Stuckey restrained, and then one of them grabbed Dak around the waist and lifted him up. “Let’s not have anybody lose any body parts just yet,” the sailor said. “We’ll focus on your friend first, and we’ll deal with him later.”
Dak flailed for a minute, and then slowly his senses returned. He handed over the saber with a shuddered breath. “Sera!” he called out. “Sera!” His voice grew ragged from screaming, but he didn’t let up.
While the sailor who had thrown the preserver peered out into the darkness and then pulled a small raft from the hold, the rest of the crew had immediately dropped anchor so that the boat could slow to a stop. The sailor carried the raft over the side and dropped it into the water. Deftly, he climbed in and began to paddle. “No sightings yet,” he called back to the ship.
“Sera!” Dak screamed into the night. He had already lost his parents. Now his second-worst nightmare was coming true.
Sera’s eyes never left the Infinity Ring. She felt the frigid water on her face and hands first, and then, as it seeped through her clothes, she fought the urge to hyperventilate, for the chill nearly shocked her into sucking in a whole lot of water. But as a scientist, she knew how her body would react. As a swimmer, she knew a lot about chasing rings underwater. And as an inventor, there was no way she could let something so life altering go that easily. She figured she had about a half of a second before the Ring sank too far for her to see it in the darkness, and she would risk her life for that half of a second. Without question. Period.
Her eyes stung with cold and salt water as she followed the Ring down. She knew exactly how a figure-eight-shaped object of the Ring’s density and weight would react when crashing head-on with seawater that was roughly forty degrees Fahrenheit. And she knew that her own momentum and weight would allow her to travel at a much faster rate through water. So all she had to do was not lose sight of it.
But it was dark down there. A lot went through her mind, the first of which was a mistake so obvious that she wanted to kick herself and no, it wasn’t tossing the Infinity Ring on a boat, even though that hadn’t been the smartest thing to do. It was this: They’d been in the water with the Ring before. She should have thought to add some sort of phosphorus coating to it after that so it would glow in the dark. She also should have encased it in something that would allow it to float. But can a girl find Styrofoam anywhere in 1492, or 1792, or 885, or even the 1800s? Not a chance.
As it sank just beyond her grasp and the world grew black, she realized the one and only thing Dak’s cell phone would be good for at this point. She wriggled her hand into her pocket and pulled it from her sopping-wet dress. There is, indeed, an app for this, she thought with tremendous satisfaction. She punched the screen and it began to glow, shining out a good five feet in front of her.
And there it was. The Infinity Ring.
Her lungs burned, and her brain and ears told her to go up, not farther down. But she didn’t listen to either one. Instead she held the phone in one hand and propelled herself forward with the other. Nothing else mattered, not the brackish water nor the gross seaweed nor, heaven forbid, an icky fish scooting past. She blocked it all out. Finally, her ears pounding and her lungs screaming inside of her, she reached the Ring. She slipped her bumbling, numb fingers around it, scrambled around in the water, and pushed herself in the opposite direction, toward the moon, hoping to break the surface before she blacked out.
She did. Just when she thought she could bear it no longer, she saw that she was nearly there, which gave her the extra energy to shuttle forward. Her entire body ached with cold so sharp she could hardly stand it. She gasped when she broke through the surface, taking the pressure off her lungs, drawing in precious freezing cold air over and over, and then she flipped to her back, chest heaving. The Quaker clothing was weighing her down — the boots, too, making her feel like her feet were made of cement blocks.
She got her breath back
, and then she attempted to look around to see if there was anyone nearby who could help her, or if she’d just freeze to death anyway, after all of that effort. Her mind grew fuzzy with the pain of the cold water wrapped around her. The cell phone, now useless, dark, and waterlogged, drifted from Sera’s grasp and sank. She struggled with fiercely shaking fingers to shove her hand through one of the circles of the Infinity Ring as far as she could, trying to get it on her wrist, so that when her dead body washed ashore all puffy and bloated, the Ring would be there for Dak so he could get home.
She turned her head to look around, knowing that if she could keep her wooden legs moving, she could keep floating for a while. She saw the cutter in the distance, and when she raised her head out of the water, she could hear them yelling. “That’s good,” she told herself through chattering teeth. “That’s good. They must know I’m out here.” She began to kick in a clumsy manner, as best she could. And then she felt something slither over her neck.
“Gross!” she whispered, sure it was a water snake or an eel or something awful like that. It gave her a burst of adrenaline, but when the snake kept slithering, she reached her numb fingers to get it off of her. With all her effort, Sera lifted it up. It was a rope.
“That’s it,” said a friendly voice she’d never heard before. “Try to slip your arm through it, Sera. Can you hear me?”
Sera thought he meant the Infinity Ring. She nodded in the water, making a wave splash up in her nose. “I did already,” she whispered, bumping her numb hand against the Ring. She could feel herself sinking and she struggled to stay up, but wave after wave washed over her face.
“Sera!” The voice was sharper now. “Put your arm through the life preserver. Do it!”
Sera shuddered and opened her eyes. She saw the life preserver wavering at the edge of her vision, and she heaved her dead-feeling arm into it.
“That’s it,” said the voice. “I’m almost there. Hang on; I’m going to pull you. Whatever you do, don’t let go. Okay?”
“Okay,” Sera whispered. She felt her body move through the water, and soon, the hands belonging to the voice were reaching down, pulling her from under her arms, and dragging her out of the cold ocean into the even colder air. But at least she could breathe.
“Stay with me, now,” the voice said.
Dak had killed his best friend. It wasn’t all-out murder; it was more like reckless endangerment leading to manslaughter or something. Second degree, maybe third or fourth . . . he wasn’t very up on his legal terminology, he realized. He buried his face in his hands, feeling utterly miserable and helpless. He sank to the deck and curled up, hugging his knees and resting his forehead on them. His life was over.
He didn’t even care about the stupid Infinity Ring. He didn’t care that he was stuck here . . . he and his (cough) favorite person in the world, Riq, who by virtue of his skin color in this part of the world was considered to be chattel. What a life they’d have. “We’d obviously move to Canada,” he muttered. Or London, or some other cool place where people were treated better. But once they did that, Dak didn’t really care what happened. Nothing mattered without Sera. She was the only one who really understood him, and he had caused her demise.
Every second that ticked by, every minute, made the truth inevitable. The sailors scurried around him, but Dak paid no attention to them. All he knew was that he had a useless SQuare in his pocket, and he may as well hand it over to the SQ’s Time Wardens. The one person responsible for finally figuring out how to finish a time-travel device had now taken all her secrets with her to her watery grave.
“Reel ’em in!” shouted a sailor. “He’s got her in the boat. Go, go, go!”
Dak raised his head. “H-he’s got her?”
The sailor looked over. “Yes.” He didn’t sound very excited.
“Is she . . . ?” He couldn’t say it.
“I don’t know, son.” He hopped over the rail and hooked himself to the boat with a lanyard harness. He reached down. “Look smart now,” he said to another sailor as they hauled Sera up over the railing, her eyes closed and water thundering to the deck from every part of her, and laid her down.
Sera opened her eyes to find Dak hovering over her. She had never been so cold in her entire life and she couldn’t stop shaking. “Hey, mouth breather, will you get out of my face, please? When’s the last time you brushed your teeth? Your breath smells like Vígi’s.”
Dak looked up at the sailors and Captain Grunder, who looked on, silent. “Yep, she’s normal,” he said. The crew gave a round of applause as Sera sat up, then shakily got to her feet. Someone shoved a blanket at her, and Dak wrapped it around her and held on to her arm so she didn’t fall.
“Back at it, men!” the captain shouted. He looked at Sera. “We don’t, er, have any spare getups for thee.” He blushed. “But I can give thee something to wear until thy clothes are dry.”
“Anything will be fine as long as it’s not a dress,” Sera said, teeth chattering loudly.
“Aye, it is no dress.” He handed a stack of clothes to her. “Make thy way to the cabin for some privacy — the crew is removing the stowaways and tending to Dr. Bailey now. They’re stuffing the wood stove full for thee.” The kindhearted captain blushed again and departed. “We’ll be at the harbor in no time.”
Sera grabbed on to Dak and they hurried to the cabin, walking by two sailors with Hake. Sera glared at him as she passed. Gamaliel was just easing his way out of the cabin, a bandage on his head but otherwise looking as healthy as ever.
“Sera!” he exclaimed. “I’m so relieved to see you’re all right, and so sorry I wasn’t of more help. I feel terrible about that.”
“Don’t worry. Everything’s fine.”
“And the . . . the device?”
Sera pulled her sleeve up and showed him. “Hopefully I can get it back off my wrist again.”
Dak let out a sigh of relief. He hadn’t dared to ask.
Gamaliel and Dak stepped out of the cabin so Sera could change. She stuck her boots by the stove, put on the captain’s breeches and shirt, fairly swimming in them, and rolled over the waistband, tying a rope around the waist to keep the pants up. Then she added thick, itchy wool socks and put her dry shawl back on over her shirt. She huddled by the stove. “You can come back in now,” she called. Carefully, she worked the Infinity Ring off her wrist and with relief, hid it in the draping shirt.
Dak took one look at her and burst out laughing. “You look funny,” he said. “Ow.” He grabbed his stomach, sore from where the Time Warden had plowed into him.
“Dak . . .”
“No, wait — oh, my henna, get this.” He framed his hands so they made a marquee. “Did you realize you’re wearing — drumroll please — Captain Grunder’s pants! Get it? That one book from third grade? Captain Grunderpants? Remember?”
Sera glared at him. “No.”
“It was about those two guys who make a superhero —”
“For the love of mincemeat, how close to drowning does a girl have to come to get some peace?” Sera said.
Dak snorted and tried very hard to be quiet. It didn’t last long.
“I’m sorry,” he said, choking back a laugh. “Captain Grunder. His pants. Oh, man.” He had to leave the room. Very, very suddenly.
Sera stared at the source of heat. Her teeth still chattered, and she knew they probably would for a while, but that was a good thing. It would be a bad sign if she got so cold her teeth stopped chattering. So she knew she’d be fine. But almost losing the Infinity Ring really made her think about things. Maybe she could shackle it to herself. No, that wasn’t even a little bit funny to imagine after the shackles she’d seen lately. She’d just have to keep using the satchel — sopping wet though it was.
A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door.
“Are you finally done laughing?” Sera called out.
The door pushed open. It was the sailor from the raft — the one who had saved her. His dark br
own eyes shone when he saw her sitting up, the color back in her face — or back out of it, since her lips weren’t blue anymore. He stood for a moment, his hat in his hand. He pulled something from his pocket. “I brought you this,” he said. He held it out to her. “I found it on the deck. I’m sorry it’s broken.”
It was the gold chain that Bill had given her back in the year 911. She gasped. “I didn’t even realize I’d lost it!” she said. She stood up and threw her arms around his waist, hugging him. “Thank you! It’s very valuable — very meaningful — to me.” She looked up at his face, his deep brown skin several shades darker than her own. “Thank you for saving me,” she said, feeling a little bit shy.
“You’re welcome,” he said. “That’s my job. And now that we’re heading into the Annapolis Harbor, I’d better get back out there before the captain tans my hide.” He smiled.
Sera frowned. “Would he do that?”
The man tilted his head and smiled. “No, miss — it was just an expression.”
“Forgive my asking, but are you — are you all free?” Sera asked, hoping it was not impolite, but she was suddenly very curious what kind of man’s pants she was wearing — and if they were those of a slave owner.
“We’re all free, yes, miss. Got our papers to prove it.” He reached for his pocket.
“Oh! No — no need for that.” She waved off his efforts. “I was just wondering what kind of man Captain Grunder is.”
The sailor smiled and reached for the door. “He’s one of the good ones.” With a wink, he swung open the door and went back out.
“And so are you, sir,” Sera said to the closed door, holding up a chain of gold that last week had been new, but today was nearly a thousand years old.
LUCKILY, JAMES woke up when the U.S. Mail stagecoach stopped. He shook Riq awake. “I’m so hungry,” the boy whined, gripping his stomach.