Wicked as They Come

  I felt his legs behind me, urging our mare into a gallop. We topped the hill, and the city appeared below us, a gray blot on the landscape. It splayed out like Manchester squashed flat but just as ugly. Smog hovered miserably overhead. Thunder roiled in the heavy sky, and violet lightning sparked between angry black clouds.

  “Actually,” he mused, “it’s a very well-timed riot, for our purposes. It should be easy to get to the harbor.”

  Standing sentinel on a rocky outcrop was a black-and-white-striped lighthouse, its lamp spinning slowly and flashing across the city and the sea. Underneath it, ships bobbed in a dark gray harbor. Amazing, the weird mix of technology and anachronism in this world. Giant, threemasted wooden pirate ships nudged the docks alongside shiny brass footballs from 20,000 Leagues under the Sea.

  “What sort of ship do you plan on stealing?” I asked.

  “Something larger than a dinghy but small enough to pilot with just the two of us,” he said. “I don’t think you’ll be climbing the rigging in that dress. A sub would be ideal.”

  “You can drive a submarine?” By that time, I didn’t know why I was surprised.

  “How hard can it be?” he said. “I can drive the caravan’s engine. It can’t be much different. It’s not like it’s a bloody zeppelin.”

  We were getting close enough to see the giant doors set in Brighton’s wall. They had a spiked, medieval-looking portcullis, and I was more than happy to go around.

  “Hold on, sweetheart,” Criminy said, and he jerked Erris’s nose to the right. She tossed her head but obeyed, lurching off the packed dirt and finding new speed in the soft grasses of the moor. A picture-perfect gathering of bludbunnies hissed and screamed in terror, diving for cover as the huge hooves tore up swaths of grass in their bucolic meadow. I laughed.

  We were headed toward the harbor. But there was a problem. The high wall, topped with barbed wire just like the one at Manchester, extended out into the sea at least a hundred feet. All of the boats were on the other side of the wall.

  “Um, Criminy? How do we get around the wall?” I asked.

  “I’m going to scale it,” he said. “And you’re going to swim. You can swim, can’t you, pet? I’ve been told it’s as easy as floating, for your kind.”

  “I don’t think I have a choice,” I said.

  I wanted that locket, more than I’d ever wanted anything. Without it, my old life was gone. I would never see my grandmother again. And according to my own promise, I’d have to leave Criminy behind, too, maybe end up living in one of these wretched cities, ruled by the Coppers and their leader, a man who had taken away everything I loved. What’s more, that same man wanted to use my locket to kill thousands of people he wrongly considered monsters, people who had been kind to me. People like Criminy. I watched the dark waves crashing against the wall and breathed in the salt wind.

  “I can do this,” I said.

  “You can do this,” he agreed.

  A small ball of solid dread began to form in my corset-constricted belly. I could barely walk in this outfit, and now I had to swim. What about the waves, the current, the flotsam, the jetsam, the rocks, the lightning, the wall? What sorts of animals lurked under the foamy brine? Were killer whales actually killers here?

  It didn’t matter. I was doing it anyway.

  Criminy kicked Erris. As we galloped toward the wall, his arm around my waist seemed to anchor me to the world. Surely he could feel my panic. How did he seem so cool and collected? My swimming wasn’t going to be easy, but he had to scale a smooth wall expressly designed to prevent said scaling. I knew he wanted the locket to prevent a genocide, but the fire in his eyes told me that part of his fight was for me alone, and I liked him more for it.

  The smooth gallop jerked into a trot and then a bouncy walk, and then Erris was blowing against her muzzle before the wall. I looked up. Way up. It was two stories tall and smooth, without a single handhold that I could see.

  Criminy slid off the bludmare and helped me down. My legs nearly collapsed, but he caught me and drew me close. Then I felt a rude shove in the behind from Erris’s muzzle.

  “Fine, lass,” Criminy said, pulling me behind him and patting the horse’s neck. “You’ve earned your freedom.”

  In one motion, he pulled the cap and halter off the wild mare’s head and used the leather reins to slap her hindquarters. She tossed her nose and took off running for the hills, apparently deciding that freedom was better than a solid bite of measly old me.

  Criminy watched her go with a crooked smile. My heart was beating in my ears, and my mouth had gone completely dry with fear. He reached out and stroked my face, tucking an errant curl behind my ear. I looked into his eyes and saw the sea behind me reflected there, the unceasing waves topped with foam. Calm descended over me. The pounding of the waves became soporific. I knew that he was using some sort of magic on me, but I didn’t care. I needed whatever he could give me.

  “Look, love,” he said. “You can do this. You’ll have to fight your way out, use all your energy to get around the wall. Once you’re on the other side, simply float in to shore. I’ll be there, waiting for you.”

  “You make it sound so easy,” I said.

  “It is easy,” he said. “A simple act. And then we’re almost done.”

  “I can do this,” I breathed.

  “Yes, you can,” he said.

  And then he kissed me, gently, and his lips were wet against mine. I should have resisted, but I couldn’t. I wanted it too badly, wanted to make sure that if I died in the sea, I’d have this last memory burning in my blood. No matter what I told myself, I was attracted to him more than I wanted to believe possible. And he was a really good kisser.

  My mouth tingled, my entire body suffused with heat and hunger. For him. I kissed him back, my tongue breaking past his lips, surprising us both. He changed his angle, moved with me, sure and powerful but gentle. The kiss deepened. I realized that I was straining against him, hungry, panting. Lightning arced to the moors, the light flashing violet against his dark hair. As the thunder boomed, I pulled away, my sight sharp again. I felt unconsciously strong and confident, like an animal.

  And, finally, I knew I could do it.

  He put his forehead against mine for just a second and murmured something that sounded like “Remember that I did this for you,” and then he was moving up the wall like a spider, his black hands stark against the stone.

  I turned to face the sea.

  I was almost ready. I opened my little bag and found the folded knife inside. Criminy hadn’t taught me how to use it yet. But I didn’t need instructions for what I was about to do.

  The dress had a bunched and bustled overskirt, and the first thing I did was cut off the heavy bustle at the waist to reveal the lighter, straight skirt below. I gathered a handful of my skirt and then chopped that off at the knee, just above the tops of my boots. I stepped out of my petticoats and threw my hat to the ground, too. And then I realized that I had to get into the water before something hungry smelled me.

  I put the knife back into the bag and tied it around my waist. With a deep breath, I waded in. The heavy gray clouds seemed as solid as the stone wall at my side, pressing down from the sky against the sea, and I imagined that in Sang, it probably was possible to sail off the end of the globe, just as old sailors in my world had feared. The horizon was a flat line broken only by jagged islands far in the distance, a goal as unreachable as my grandmother’s kitchen.

  When the first waves licked at my boot, I shivered. The water was freezing, and I could feel it through the leather. I waded deeper. Then I felt the cold lapping against my stocking-clad knees and gasped. This was going to be so much worse than jumping into a pool in a bikini on a summer day, corset or not. And I’d forgotten to loosen my corset.

  Crap.

  It was too late now. I was up to my waist, and the laces were wet. The remains of my dress were tangled around me. I had to use my arms to keep myself steady, to keep the curre
nt from tumbling me into the waves, out of control.

  I’d never feared water before, but the sea of Sang was just as bloodthirsty as the land.

  And then I was up to my shoulders, dog-paddling, the jagged cloth of my dress pulling me down toward the darkness. The waves smacked against me, cold and impersonal, and I found myself flailing, fighting. Criminy had said that Bludmen could only sink, but I could barely keep myself above the water. The salt stung my eyes, and I could taste it in the back of my throat.

  I floundered along parallel to the wall, closer and closer to my goal, the open sea. I was twenty feet away, and then ten, and then I could see the barnacles clinging to the degrading stones at the end of the wall, their hungry purple mouths grasping into the water. The little bastards were probably razor-sharp. I paddled away from them, giving myself room to mess up. I was almost there.

  And then I felt something that made my blood run cold.

  Just as I rounded the wall from ten feet away, something nudged against my leg. Something large and smooth and hard, just brushing by. Almost impersonal, like bumping a stranger’s shoulder in a crowd.

  But it was cold.

  My first thought was Shark, and my second thought was Sea monster.

  Then my caveman brain kicked in, and my third thought was Swim, run, escape, kick, swim harder, go go go!

  So I did. I started kicking like a frog, putting power behind the sharp heels of my boots. My arms were cutting through the water in a breaststroke, and the current was finally on my side. I rounded the wall, and the waves began pushing me in toward the shore.

  Then I felt it again. The nudging.

  More insistent this time. Against my thigh.

  Despite myself, I looked down. The water was too dark and roiling for me to see anything, even my own body. I kicked harder, frantically, with every ounce of strength I had. My feet were numb now, my legs burning. I focused on the shore, a hundred yards away. It felt like forever. Impossible. But then I thought of Nana fighting to stay alive every day and realized that I couldn’t do any less. I took a deep breath, determined to reach land again.

  Then I felt teeth around my calf, almost gentle. Teasing. Like a dog testing a stick to see if it will break or stand up to a little rough playing.

  I gasped and got a mouthful of water. With my other boot, I aimed a kick just to the side of where I felt the teeth, and my heel connected with something thicker than a fish. Something rubbery.

  SHARK! my brain screamed. SWIM NOW!

  I kicked again, and the teeth shook a little and released, and then I was floundering, kicking, thrashing, willing myself toward the shore.

  Something nudged my belly from underneath. It felt slightly pointy, like the end of a nose. But larger.

  A sob rose, choking me.

  I was so close.

  My fingers sought the tender points of whatever was nudging from beneath me. It felt like a slimy reptile, an alligator covered in a frilly doily. I shuddered and pushed away.

  And then it felt like teeth. Fast as lightning, they grabbed my arm and dragged me under, and I inhaled water, and everything was lost in darkness.

  21

  “You have to open your eyes,” I heard in my mind as I floated in the cool blackness. “You have to swim.”

  I obeyed. I opened my eyes to an eerie, floating, greenish-gray darkness. I could see tendrils of something in front of my eyes, and after a moment, I saw my hand, trailing inky blood, the glove half ripped off.

  I was underwater.

  And there was a gentle, cool glow radiating from the other side of my hand.

  A girl.

  But she was made of light, floating weightless in the water, her bobbed hair and long dress untouched by the shifting currents. I hung suspended, my lungs cold. I wasn’t breathing.

  I shouldn’t have been alive.

  Her mouth moved.

  “You have to swim to shore,” she said in my mind, her voice musical and sweet. “Kick up, get above the waves. You’re so close.”

  Am I dead? I thought.

  “Almost,” she said. “But you have to make it to the lighthouse. You have to free me.”

  How?

  “Open the door upstairs. Find my bones and bury them. I’ve been waiting for years. Help me, and I’ll save you. Will you do it?”

  I’ll try.

  “Promise!”

  I promise. Just help me.

  “Then kick up. Break the surface. Breathe. Swim. Go now!” she cried.

  A burst of white-hot lightning shot through my muscles, shocking me into action. I gave a mighty kick, and my head broke the surface. Water dribbled from my mouth, and then I was gasping for breath, starving for air. My arms churned in the water, my legs kicked, and the waves seemed to help me, pushing me toward the shore.

  I hit the sand hard, the waves driving me into the rocky beach. I coughed and dragged myself forward with my elbows, until Criminy lifted me from the sand. He sat on the beach with me collapsed across his body, his arms holding me tight.

  “I knew you could do it, love,” he said fiercely. “I knew you could.”

  “I didn’t,” I said, holding up my ragged glove and ripped sleeve. When he saw the blood running down my fishbelly-white arm, he licked his lips and shuddered, and I tucked it under my armpit and scooted away to a safe distance. “Something dragged me down. But then there was a girl, and she helped me.”

  “A girl?” Criminy asked, eyes sharp.

  “I guess she was a ghost,” I said, hugging myself tightly and shaking, the fear finally catching up with me. “Or my mind playing tricks on me. She made me promise to go to the lighthouse and find her bones and bury them. She said she’d been waiting.”

  “Then we must,” Criminy said, patting me from farther away than we would both have preferred. “Ghost curses are hard to break. But first you need to wrap up that wound. I can be good, but not that good.”

  He looked toward the lighthouse, and I followed his glance up the tall building, the upper story lost in thick clouds. More time lost.

  As we picked our way along the large rocks and tide pools, I asked, “Ghosts are real here?” I wasn’t surprised, not really. But I wanted to know more. Was I going to be seeing ghosts all over the place now?

  “As real as they are anywhere, I suspect,” he said. “I’ve never seen one, only the results of their handiwork. It’s only natural that a glancer would see such things. You walk the line between the worlds in more ways than one, you know.”

  He was trying very hard not to look at me, not to smell me. Despite his self-control, it was still difficult for him to ignore my freshly bleeding arm. On the beach, he had tossed me a handkerchief and kept his distance as I tied it around the wound. And then he’d found a vial in his pack and chugged it, his bright eyes never leaving me. I briefly wondered if it was the one taken from my own veins in Manchester.

  The lighthouse loomed over us, a sagging tower of loose boards and peeling paint. The stripes that had seemed so fresh and new from the hill, pitch black and snowy white, were faded to light gray and darker gray, desolate and reproachful. I didn’t want to get near it, but I was bound by my promise to a dead girl. Criminy said that she had the power to curse me, and I believed him. I didn’t want another enemy in Sang, especially not a paranormal one.

  Criminy kicked the door open. It smacked against the wall, making the entire building shake. The stark room inside was coated with dust, the furniture leaning and splintered.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  “No one’s come here for years,” Criminy said. “The ships have enough instruments and clockworks to tell the navigators where the rocks are. It’s crude and outdated technology, shining a light around the darkness.”

  “But I saw it,” I said, puzzled. “Earlier, when we looked down from the hill. It was orange, and it spun slowly and hit the water.”

  He turned to look down at me, troubled. “You saw a light? Here? In this lighthouse?”

  “
Yes,” I said. “Didn’t you?”

  “No,” he said quietly.

  I didn’t know what to say. Why was I seeing things that weren’t there?

  Criminy pointed to the spiral staircase. “If you must do this, that’s the only way up,” he said. “But I won’t think any less of you if you want to walk right back out that door and bugger the ghost. There are ways around curses, although they aren’t pretty.”

  “We’re already here,” I said. “Let’s get it over with.”

  He sighed and bowed. “After you, love.”

  My boots squelched up the tight curve of the stairs, and the ancient wood creaked threateningly under my heels. I picked up the pace, eager to be done with this errand and on to my own treasure hunt. The city, the storm, the sea, the ghost—it was high time to be gone from Brighton.

  Around and around we went, Criminy’s step light behind me. I hadn’t asked him much about his own journey over the wall, but he looked as fresh and crisp as if he’d just stepped out of his wagon. But he was missing his satchel.

  Finally, the staircase opened up in a smaller, sparse room. It was the living quarters, with one narrow metal bed against the wall, a tiny potbelly stove, and dozens of sharp metal hooks hanging empty from the faded white wood. I felt as if I was being watched, but there was nowhere for a watcher to hide.

  “This is where the lighthouse tender lived,” Criminy said softly. “One lonely person, tending the flame above.”

  “I don’t think that was her, though.”

  “I don’t see any bones,” he said. “Not even a chest or a box or a cupboard.”

  “She said there was a door upstairs,” I offered.

  “Only one way to go, love,” he said, pointing his chin at the stairs. “You’re not scared of heights, are you?”

  “Why?”

  “Because I think most of the glass has blown out, and it’s going to be windy up there.”

  I stepped gingerly back onto the staircase and clung to the inside rail on my way up. The tight curve opened onto a narrow walkway with a waist-high wooden railing. He was right. It was a long, long way down, and most of the glass was gone. The jagged remains of the windows that had once sheltered the flame invited the wind to whip us with an impersonal, random violence. Thunder boomed, making the lighthouse shake and quiver beneath us.