“Yessss,” Serth hissed. “This is your last stand, Fin. The Key for the girl. No way out but through the Gate. It is fated. You cannot fight it.”
Marrill squirmed against Serth’s grip, glaring at Fin and shaking her head no. “Don’t give it to him,” she begged through chattering teeth. “Get it out of here, go!”
But Fin wasn’t leaving her. Already frost formed on the fabric of her shirt where the wizard’s freezing robes touched her. If she wasn’t still dressed for the CrystalShadow Wastes, she would surely be dead.
“This ends when you give up the Key, boy,” Serth snarled. The dark trails down his white face were nearly dry now; only the barest hint of a tear ran from the corner of one eye. “And you will give up. Just as you gave up searching for your mother all those years ago.”
A cold shiver of uncertainty ran down Fin’s spine. “I didn’t give up,” he protested. “I’m still looking for her now! That’s why I went after your stupid Key in the first place!”
“Oh, really?” Serth snapped. “Is that why you never before left the Khaznot Quay? Is that why you never searched the Stream yourself?” The Oracle shook his head. “Deep down, Fin, you already know what I know. You know I came to bring you the truth. And that truth is that your mother is never coming back. She forgot.”
Fin swallowed, hard. The weight of the dark wizard’s sorrow pressed around him, heavy on his shoulders. But the worst part wasn’t the words or the magic. The worst part was the look behind Serth’s mad eyes: sympathy. Honest, genuine sympathy.
“Embrace the truth, Fin. Our paths are set, we cannot fight them.” He held out one hand, palm open, demanding what was rightfully his. “No one remembers you,” the Oracle said, and Fin knew the words were earnest, “because you are no one.”
Fin’s legs threatened to give out beneath him. Because Serth was right. Fin wasn’t good enough to be thought of. He should be forgotten. By everyone, forever.
His hand, the one holding the Key aloft, began to tremble.
“Don’t listen to him!” Marrill cried, voice breaking from the cold.
But the truth of what Serth had said was already seeping through him, tearing down any barrier he had against the sorrow. Draining any desire he had to resist. Fin fell to his knees. His chest ached, deep down in that empty place he’d carried for so long
Marrill struggled against Serth’s grip, but he held her firm. “He’s lying!” she cried. “You’re not no one! I remember you! You’re someone to me!”
“Oh, of course, Marrill,” Serth said. “Because you need someone to cling to. You need someone to prop you up, like you always do. Even if that someone is really no one at all.”
“You know what?” Marrill growled. “He’s right. I need you, Fin. And I don’t just need you to help me. I need you to hang out with me. I need you to make up signs with me. I need you to throw junk into the Stream and watch it explode, and fight off whatever monsters it turns into with me. I need you to be my friend.”
In the dark tangled cloud that Fin’s mind had become, her words filtered through. For a moment, just a moment, everything cleared. “Really?”
A smile spread over her face, as though they weren’t on a sinking ship, surrounded by pirates and shadows, at the mercy of an evil wizard bent on destroying the world. As if they were just two friends together.
Serth growled with frustration and clapped a freezing hand over Marrill’s mouth. But Marrill, a tear turning to ice on her cheek, just pressed her thumb against her chest. Their sign for friend.
Warmth flared through Fin. Marrill was right—he wasn’t no one. She remembered him. Even the fact that Serth remembered him had to mean he was somebody.
Serth was wrong. Nothing was inevitable. And right now Marrill needed his help.
“If I hand over the Key, you’ll let her go?” he called to Serth. Marrill shouted a muffled protest, but Fin crossed his ring finger over his thumb, signaling her. With a quick cut of her hand, she told him she understood.
“My word as a prophet,” Serth said. “It is already done.” His outstretched fingers flexed, hungry for the Key.
Fin stood and held up the sun-shaped crystal. “Then take it!” he shouted. He raised his free hand to the Key, the signal to Marrill. Then with all his might, he threw it in a high arc toward Serth.
Releasing Marrill, Serth coiled to jump for the bright star. At the same moment, Marrill elbowed back, hard into Serth’s stomach. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. The dark wizard reeled, missing his catch and dropping the rest of the Map.
“Noooooooo!” he roared. The crystal star arced past him, across the bow, off it. “The Prophecy!”
Before Fin knew what was happening, the dark wizard launched himself over the railing just an inch behind his quarry. He shrieked, clawing at the empty air as he fell from the ship.
Fin and Marrill both raced to the railing. They made it just in time to see Serth splash headfirst into the Pirate Stream. The glowing water exploded into flames as a howl like a billion dying devils rent the air. Red fire danced across the waves, sucking into tiny whirlpools.
Fin tore his eyes away, stomach reeling from the sight. When he looked again, the stormy waters lapped hungrily against the hull.
No trace of Serth remained.
Beside him, Marrill sighed. She held up the rest of the Map. It was blank, useless. Fin bumped his shoulder against hers. “At least we finally got our explosion,” he offered.
“Oh yeah, now you’ve wrapped that up, we’re fine,” a gruff voice grumbled nearby. The Naysayer had joined them at the railing, a content, if slightly damp, Karnelius nestled in the crook of one of his arms. “Unless you count the death army over there, that is.”
He pointed behind them. Marrill and Fin turned around as one. The pirates had crowded in, tears dried on their cheeks and swords drawn against the shadow army that waited amidships, weapons at the ready.
Just beyond, the Master stood at the prow of the Iron Ship, oblivious to the glowing water of the Pirate Stream seeping up around him as his boat continued sinking. A mere arm’s length away, Ardent stood at the bow of the Kraken as Coll pulled her close enough to extend a gangplank to the Dragon’s deck. The two wizards seemed almost locked together, a halo of energy crackling and burning furiously between them.
The only way out, it seemed, was through the shadow crew.
Next to Fin, Marrill let out a long breath. “Shanks,” she muttered.
CHAPTER 40
The Bintheyr Map to Everywhere
Marrill drew closer to Fin. “I guess it was too much to ask that we’d just be able to defeat Serth and call it a day?”
Fin, for his part, didn’t look worried. “Oh, I got this one,” he told her. He reached down into his coat and pulled out a jar full of buzzing critters. With a battle cry, he smashed it against the deck.
Glass shattered, scattering shards everywhere, and a swarm of bugs burst free. Marrill jumped back. A humming sound filled the air as they took flight, heading straight for the shadow soldiers.
“They look hungry, don’t they?” Fin mused.
Marrill watched as the bugs fell on the shadows in a storm, tearing through them. “What are they?”
“Glowglitters,” he explained, as though they were the most ordinary creatures in the world. “They eat darkness.”
Marrill laughed. “Pretty cool critters to have around.” She paused. “But did you really have to break the bottle?”
Fin shrugged. “They’re pretty slow otherwise, honestly.”
From the deck of the nearby Kraken, Ardent called to them. “Hurry! I can’t hold him off much longer!” A stream of light crackled from his fingers, straight toward the Master. The Master waved his arm, his own streak of energy blasting at Ardent. The two streams met in the middle, a roiling swirl of fervid magic.
Orange cat clutched protectively in his arms, the Naysayer charged, barreling through the gap the glowglitters had chewed in the shadows. “See you on the
ship!” he called back to them, pausing to gather a few discarded knickknacks along the way.
“To the Kraken, bloods!” Fin shouted, mustering the pirates to follow them as Marrill stayed close on his heels.
The Naysayer paused in front of the gangplank, shuffling everyone aboard. “One at a time, single file,” he grumbled. “Mind your manners. No pushing.”
Marrill stepped onto the Kraken with a deep sigh of relief, relaxing in the familiarity, enjoying the sound of the Ropebone Man hauling in the rigging, the sight of the sails popping to life, even the sparkle of the half-frozen letters from the CrystalShadows Wastes strewn across the deck, slowly melting into noisy slush.
Atop the quarterdeck, Coll wasted no time. He spun the massive wheel, calling orders to the pirats. The Kraken pulled off, storm winds blowing hard in her sails, just as the Stream waters washed across the prow of the Dragon. Ardent puffed himself up, bigger than Marrill ever thought his skinny frame could manage. A massive blast of orange fire flew from his fingers, staggering the Master of the Iron Ship.
As the Dragon fell behind them, Marrill and Fin made their way aft. Side by side, they watched the ships go down. The Pirate Stream swallowed the Black Dragon in a huge wave. The Iron Ship, irreparably tangled with her, sank slowly after.
Standing planted at her bow, her Master watched the Kraken go with cold eyes. Those eyes never wavered, even as the Stream water lapped up higher and higher around him.
“Who was he?” Marrill choked out as Ardent joined them.
Ardent glanced down to meet her questioning expression. The old wizard looked tired, more tired than Marrill had ever seen. But he looked wise, wise and serene like a wizard should be.
“A powerful wizard once, clearly. But now, I think he’s just what the legends say: a dark wraith of the Stream, out for souls.” He shook his head.
Marrill wanted to ask more, but something told her Ardent would give no other answers. Above them, the storm grumbled, its fury spent. And as they watched, the Iron Ship, far behind them now, slipped beneath the waves.
“Is it over?” Even to her own ears, her voice sounded small. She rubbed her thumb over the palm of her hand where the skin had turned an angry red from when she’d grasped the Key to pull apart the Map.
Ardent tugged on his beard, water droplets falling from it onto his purple robe. “I believe so, yes.”
She slumped, sad to leave behind the hope of ever seeing her family again. But thankful, even so, that at least her sacrifice had been worth it. “Good.”
Fin turned to her, his forehead furrowed with confusion. “Wait, it can’t be over. Not yet—we still have to get you home.”
She tried to smile, tried to shrug a shoulder. Tried to make it appear that she was okay. “Not without the Key, I guess.” She held up the remains of the Map. “This is useless without it.”
Alarm raced across Fin’s face. “But you touched it, when we were on Serth’s ship.” He said the words almost desperately. “I thought I saw it show you something—I thought that might be…”
“No,” she said, her voice almost a whisper. “All I saw was gibberish.” Her chin quivered.
Fin crossed his arms and then uncrossed them, shifting from foot to foot. He paced, kicking frozen letters out of his way. Marrill gave him the best smile she could muster, knowing it was halfhearted.
“It’s okay,” she told him. “You had to throw the Key away. It was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do. We both had to give something up.” Her voice cracked at what they had both lost. “You gave up the chance to find your mom,” she whispered. “I know how hard that was for you to do.”
“But—”
She placed a hand on his arm. “You saved the Pirate Stream, Fin. It had to be done.”
He shoved his hands into his unruly hair. “Maybe there’s still a way—”
“Of course there’s a way,” Ardent said. They both rounded on the wizard in unison. “What do you mean?” she asked, not ready to get her hopes up.
“You’d think you’d have figured it out already,” he said with a grandfatherly smile. “Remember, the Bintheyr Map to Everywhere is no normal map. What did I tell you about it when we first spoke?”
“That it would get me home,” Marrill said, trying not to think about her parents waiting for her, forever.
“I said,” Ardent corrected, “that it would take you where you needed to go. And didn’t it?”
“No!” Marrill cried, tossing the useless Map on the deck. She was exhausted, the reality of her situation crashing through her like the waves on the Stream beneath them. All she wanted was to cry herself to sleep. She closed her eyes, holding the tears at bay.
In the silence that followed, thunder rolled and the pirates grumbled. Wind filled the remains of the sails as the Kraken cut a path through the magical waters.
Fin broke the silence. “It did take us where we needed to go!” He picked up the Map and stared at the rolled parchment with a look of wonder.
Marrill crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. “How’s that?”
“What led you to the Pirate Stream?” he asked. His voice held a note of excitement.
Marrill tried to take a calming breath. She was so done with this. “I was out walking my cat after finding out my mother might be dying.” She spat out the last words, flinging them like throwing knives. But the only person they really hurt was her. All she could think of were the last moments she’d spent with her mom, complaining of being doomed to a life without adventure.
Her shoulders slumped in shame.
Fin stepped closer, putting his hand on her arm. “But there was something else, wasn’t there?”
Marrill looked away from him. She didn’t know why she was so mad at him; maybe just because anger was easier than all the hurt. “You mean other than this big stupid ship sailing into a parking lot?” She sighed. “Ugh, this never would have happened if Karny hadn’t chased that piece of paper to begin wi—”
Her breath caught in her throat. If Karny hadn’t chased that piece of paper… that piece of paper that led them to the parking lot. Where she stumbled upon the Kraken. The Kraken, that had been looking for a piece of paper.
She pushed her fingers to her lips, her mind spinning. “Oh, it was Rose! That piece of paper was her!”
“And how did you and I meet?” Fin prodded.
She flashed back to the Khaznot Quay, the overwhelming newness of it all. “I saw the Compass Rose and I chased after it. But just as I caught it, the wind picked me up…”
“And threw you straight at me!” he finished, beaming. “Right when I needed to escape from Serth!”
Marrill’s heart raced. Now she was in it, her mind following the thread through their adventure. “And in the Gibbering Grove, Rose was so insistent I get those acorns,” she said. “I thought she was just hungry!”
Fin practically bounced with energy. “And Rose is why I picked up that slingshot at the Naysayer’s tower! She landed right on it!” He shook his head as if he himself couldn’t believe it. “Don’t you see, Marrill? The Map took us where we needed to go. It was preparing us to defeat Serth!”
Marrill’s jaw dropped in wonder. It had to be! But then another thought crossed her mind. “But she also stole the rest of the Map and took it to Serth. She let him put it together. If we hadn’t stopped him, he would have opened the Gate and ended the world.”
Fin frowned. “Good point,” he said. He looked to Ardent.
The wizard stroked his beard in thought. “Perhaps the Map yearns to be complete, just like anything—or anyone—else,” he said, sliding a glance toward Fin. “Perhaps it wanted to be united, but not to destroy.” He shrugged. “Or perhaps not. Who can say?”
“Either way, it still doesn’t get me home,” Marrill said, her shoulders drooping.
Ardent’s expression softened. “Well, hold on,” he said. “You saw something when you pulled the Map apart, didn’t you?” Marrill nodded. “Well, whatever it sho
wed you, you needed to see!” he announced with a clap. “Now, what exactly did you see?”
Marrill shrugged. “Just numbers.” She closed her eyes and pictured the string of random numerals. She could still remember them, as if they were burned in her head. She recited them out loud. “But they didn’t make any sense…”
She was cut off by a bark of laughter. She turned to find Coll, standing with his shoulder propped against one of the smaller masts, looking at her with a devilish smirk. “Any good sailor can tell you what that means,” he said. “It’s a bearing—a designation of which Stream currents you need to catch to reach a desired destination.”
Marrill wasn’t quite sure what he’d just said, but she felt like her heart might never beat again. “You mean you can still get me home?”
Usually, Coll never acted his age. So much so that Marrill had taken to thinking of him as a grown man, despite his teenage looks. But the grin on his face made him seem like a kid again. “Duh,” he said, clinching the image.
CHAPTER 41
A Glimpse of Things to Come
While Marrill and Coll talked headings and bearings, Fin kept getting distracted by the frozen letters strewn across the Kraken’s deck. Most of them had melted into slush, but they were still close enough to the CrystalShadow Wastes that a few remained stubbornly solid.
What bothered Fin was that they were all the same four letters: F, N, U, and L. They were all different shapes and sizes, and each one was marred by dark spots, as though someone had dribbled ink across them, scarring the icy surface.
Or had been crying black tears while muttering the words.
Fin swallowed, uneasy. When he’d been in the Naysayer’s tower, he’d seen Serth by the Kraken. It would have been easy enough for the dark wizard to board and search her. And if he had, it made sense he’d have left a few traces behind.
But that it was these specific letters over and over again… that had to be on purpose. To anyone else, the trail of tearstained letters would have been gibberish. They wouldn’t make sense to anyone but Fin.