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I didn’t sleep much on the Ekonaor, and as far as I could tell, Ace didn’t sleep at all.
We reached port early in the morning anyway, just after dawn, and Captain Lafiyet roused the whole crew to help with docking. Once the process was underway, he left the first mate in charge and turned to me and Ace again.
“Alright, boys. Looks like the Ekonaor will be docked here for two days to repair the mast.”
That wasn’t terrible, but it was time we could be using to travel home.
“Chiari is about a day’s ride from here on the river,” Lafiyet continued. “We find a quick skimmer in the next two hours, we can make it there by sunset. Find a place to spend the night, and then we can report that monster attack to the palace in the morning.”
“With the right timing, you could be back here in two days, when repairs are done,” I realized.
Lafiyet nodded. “Exactly. I trust my men to get the ship fixed up right. I don’t trust you two to make it to Chiari on your own.”
I scowled, unable to argue with his assessment. Ace and I hadn’t exactly been making fantastic progress on our own. The number of times we’d almost died was concerning. It should be easier now that we were closer, but somehow, I was more nervous about our chances. Especially when he’d barely talked to me since last night.
“Why can’t you tell the guards here about the attack?” Ace asked. “Why do you have to come to Chiari with us?”
“I already sent a man with a message to the local guardhouse,” Lafiyet said. “But if there are monsters all over the kingdom, we need the King’s resources. I just hope the palace takes us seriously and grants us an audience quickly.”
I nodded. This was exactly the kind of thing the air force would be good for. “We can go directly to the king, that won’t be a problem.”
“Won’t be...what?” Lafiyet asked. “You’re saying you can get in to see the king without a fuss?”
I blinked. “Oh, um.”
Ace sighed. “His dad works at the palace. He can get in.”
That wasn’t a lie, but it felt like it was.
Lafiyet eyed us, slowly nodding. “Right. Well, then, there’s no time to waste. Let’s go find a skimmer willing to take us.”
Ace and I followed after him, exploring each pier.
The docks thrived with activity, even this early in the morning. Cargo was loaded onto waiting ships. Fishermen inspected their nets and called for lazy crew members to hurry up.
I watched one ship toss ropes from the dock to the men on deck to cast off. Wind caught the sails, and it slowly pulled away from the pier.
Ace grabbed my sleeve and tugged me along. “Come on, Lafiyet is talking with someone.”
Reluctantly, I turned away from the ship and scanned the docks again. Lafiyet was ahead of us, talking with a gruff older woman in front of a skimmer.
Skimmers were small boats meant more for racing than cargo, but they were often used to make small rush deliveries. This one would barely fit the four of us, but it looked sturdy.
I peered at the little craft, trying to read the name painted on the bow. The morning sun cast it in shadow, though, and I couldn’t make it out.
“I’ve already got a job today,” the woman said.
“This is more important,” Lafiyet insisted.
“Look, buddy, I ain’t some pleasure ship for you and your brats.”
“We’re not looking for a joyride,” Lafiyet argued. “It’s imperative we get to Chiari as soon as possible.”
The shadows on the side of the skimmer jumped. Ace and I both glanced over. Lafiyet and the new captain were too busy arguing to notice.
A gap formed in the middle of the shadow, a crescent moon on its side.
Or, a wide smile.
Ace swore.
“So, you see the grinning shadow, too?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he said, distracted. He was already scouting the docks. “Last time I saw one was a few days before I met Dr. Carl.”
Ice ran down my back. “How did he find us?”
The shadow slid off the skimmer, onto the water, and then over the dock to join with a larger shadow at the entrance of the pier.
“Questions later,” Ace said. “We need to go.”
A good idea in theory, but the only thing behind us was the river and ships we couldn’t sail by ourselves.
In front of us, Dr. Carl rose out of the shadow.
A passing sailor stopped in his tracks, eyeing Dr. Carl up and down. Blinking, he shook his head and kept walking, dismissing everything he’d just seen.
Dr. Carl stepped towards us.
Ace swore again and backed up. “Now what?”
“I don’t know,” I admitted. Should we fight? We were bound to start throwing spells, and I didn’t think the whole port would ignore that as easily as the sailor dismissed Dr. Carl’s arrival.
But there was nowhere to run, and Dr. Carl didn’t look very chatty.
Lafiyet happened to glance at us and noticed our faces. Brows scrunching together, he followed our gazes and spotted Dr. Carl. “Is that the man responsible for the monsters?”
“Yes,” Ace said with no hesitation.
Lafiyet drew his saber. “Then maybe we can end this right here.”
“What are you doing?” the female captain asked.
Dr. Carl quirked a brow at Lafiyet and then waved his hand, sending both captains flying into the river.
I had flashbacks of Dr. Carl doing the same to Lucas, and my heart ached. Lucas had deserved so much better than that.
“No more games, children. You’re coming with me,” Dr. Carl said.
“Like hell,” Ace snarled, grabbing onto my sleeve. “Get us out of here, Jack.”
Dr. Carl lunged, shadows bursting out around his shoulders like extra arms to cage us in.
I hesitated.
If I transported us now, we’d end up who knew where in the kingdom. It could take us days to get back to the river again. We were so close to Chiari right now; I couldn’t stand the thought of giving that up.
If I didn’t, Dr. Carl would capture us.
“Jack!” Ace yelled.
Shadows cut off any escape route we might have had on foot.
There was no choice. I had to transport us. But maybe I didn’t have to risk our progress.
I grabbed my watch and Ace’s hand, focusing on a point on the docks beyond the pier, on the other side of Dr. Carl.
Wood blended into water, and sound warped and twisted around us. My stomach lurched as the world righted itself, ten feet over a pyramid of barrels.
“Why?” Ace demanded, right before we crashed into the barrels. Some went rolling down the docks. A few broke under us, spilling fruit all over the planks.
“Where the bloody hell did you come from?” a sailor asked, standing over us.
“Sorry,” I said, getting up as fast as I could. I slipped on a pear and fell back down, squishing plums beneath me.
Lovely. The dirt and river water weren’t bad enough, now I’d be covered in sticky juice, too.
Ace groaned and climbed to his feet. “I meant get us out of town!”
“I didn’t want to risk getting lost again,” I said.
“Because dealing with him is such a better option?” Ace asked, pointing at Dr. Carl running up the pier towards us.
“I imagined this being much quieter,” I admitted. I hadn’t anticipated crushing a bunch of barrels and causing a scene to immediately give away our location.
“Look at this mess!” the sailor said. “Who’s going to pay for all this ruined fruit?”
I winced. “I’m really sorry—”
“Run!” Ace yelled. He grabbed my wrist to pull me away, weaving through the small crowd starting to gather.
“Seize them!” Dr. Carl yelled. “They’re thieves!”
Ace swore, loudly and colorfully.
The next thing I knew, a bunch of hands reached out for us.
Sailors apparently really hated thieves. “He’s lying!” I yelled, knocking aside someone’s hand.
“They don’t care,” Ace said, ducking down and crawling through someone’s legs. He let go of my wrist, and the separation sent panic down my throat. “Stay close!”
I tried to follow his route as best I could, but he bobbed and weaved through the men like a dance. Without breaking his stride, he jumped up on a barrel and over their heads, rolling when he hit the ground and popping back up like he’d never stopped.
There was no chance of me replicating his graceful stride. I wasn’t nearly so agile or quick. The only way I could avoid capture was magic.
I didn’t want to be obvious about using it, though, so I limited myself to my levitation spell, keeping people’s hands just out of reach so I could slip by.
It was nerve wracking to work our way through the crowd. Even after we were through the worst of it and could flat out run, my heart beat over time.
“You can’t run forever!” Dr. Carl yelled behind us, lost somewhere in the crowd.
“He’s got a point,” Ace turned back to me. “Where are we going?”
“Find somewhere quiet where we can catch our breath,” I said, gasping for air. It didn’t matter how big the stitch in my side grew, stopping wasn’t an option.
There was a flash of green and gold, and then Ace made a sharp turn up a street. I skidded on the cobblestones to make the same turn, getting a glimpse of Dr. Carl coming up the street behind us fast.
I followed Ace down the street and around another corner. Away from the docks, the town wasn’t so busy this early in the day. There wasn’t anyone to avoid, no one jumping out to try and cut us off.
Ace turned down an alley, aiming for a stack of crates. He bounded up them like a set of stairs, jumping from the highest one and catching the edge of the roof above, effortlessly hauling himself up.
Stopping in front of the crates, I looked up at him in disbelief. He was skinnier than a twig, where did he hide the muscles to do that? I had no breath to call up to him and ask him to slow down, to tell him that I couldn’t follow this kind of path.
His face peeked over the edge. “Just use your watch!”
Oh, that was a good idea. I used another levitation spell to join him on the roof, and not a moment too soon.
Once we were out of sight, Dr. Carl rounded the alleyway. He paused when he didn’t find us, and shadows roamed over the walls ahead of him.
Ace tugged my arm, dragging me away from the edge. We carefully crept over the roof. He made it look easy, barely even checking where he put his feet. I almost lost my balance every other step, and every minor slip was another mini heart attack.
But we didn’t see Dr. Carl again, or any of his shadow scouts. “The roof was a good idea,” I told him.
He nodded, scanning the surrounding roofs to plan our next step. “People rarely think to look up.”
It certainly wouldn’t be my first guess. No matter how many times I watched him, I still didn’t understand how he climbed up here.
The houses weren’t all the same height, and we took a break on a lower house so we could lean against the siding of the house next to it.
“We’ll lay low here for a while,” Ace said, putting his hands behind his head and making himself comfortable.
I gave up on being comfortable days ago. “We should go find Lafiyet,” I argued. “Maybe it’s not too late for him to escort us to Chiari.”
“Dr. Carl probably has those weird shadows looking for us all over the city,” Ace said. “He knows we’re close.”
I frowned. “I still don’t understand what he wants with us in the first place.”
He shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“Kind of,” I said. “What if he has accomplices? Or there’s a huge scheme that involves us?”
“Then we don’t get caught, and whatever he’s planning won’t work. Which, again, does not require knowing his master plan.”
There wasn’t any point arguing more about it, but I didn’t agree with him. What if he wasn’t the only one who wanted us?
And how badly did he want to capture us? What lengths was he willing to go to?
I hugged my knees to my chest. “The sooner we’re home where he can’t reach us, the better.”
“Well, if you want to make it there, we need to be smart about this,” Ace said.
Sighing, I put my head on my knees. “I know. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
He snorted. “Welcome to the real world.”