The Argh’s dining hall was fit for the great kings of Leo. Tables filled the large space, each surrounded by many high-backed chairs, most of which were big enough to be thrones. Two or three children could sit in each. Arghs were everywhere, standing in groups. Some of them were even sitting on the tables. Everyone wore red vests and beige tunics and trousers, which looked remarkably like old military uniforms. Most of the tunics were much too large for the children’s small frames, and many had the same worn spot on the chest where it looked as if a lion-shaped patch had been removed.
The ship’s cook, Nisba, came out of the kitchen with a group of Arghs. They all carried plates of food on each arm. Nisba didn’t look like the sort of woman you would find serving hundreds of loud children. She was slender, but her tall black boots gave the impression of toughness, as did the pile of electric-red hair that framed her face with its own sort of wildness. Barking orders to the servers, she moved through the crowd and made sure plates were set on every table.
When Emma and Herbie entered the room, it grew considerably quieter. Even Nisba turned to stare. Word had already spread that there were guests on board, and dozens of curious eyes took in Emma’s blue puffer jacket and Herbie’s green windbreaker. The younger kids in the room began puzzling out which system Herbie was from, and whispers of “Perseus” and “Orion” floated about. Emma, they figured, was just a Monkey, because the monkeys had a strong feeling about these things, and they had already said so, but Herbie—well, he was another matter.
“Perhaps he’s Draco royalty,” someone whispered.
Emma overheard this remark and snorted. “Ragnar.”
But Herbie had noticed Laika, the young girl they’d seen on deck. She was sitting at a table with Mouncey and Santher.
“Let’s sit there,” Herbie said.
“Okay. Why?”
“Didn’t you see her before? She was holding a hawk.”
They made their way to the table. Herbie took the seat beside Laika, leaving Emma with a seat facing the boys.
“Hi,” Laika said brightly. “I’m Laika. I’m from Canis Minor. And that’s—”
Mouncey cut her off. “Actually,” he said, pointing at Emma, “we want to know where you’re from.”
“I told you already,” she said a bit stiffly. “We’re from Monkey.” She wished she’d chosen a seat farther from Mouncey. He was giving her the evil eye.
Another Argh arrived at their table with plates of hot food—chicken pies and potatoes—and everyone began eating except Laika, who leaned forward conspiratorially.
“SO,” she whispered, “tell us everything you know.”
“What do you mean?” Emma asked.
“About the pirates.”
There was such a look of eager anticipation in Laika’s eyes that Emma hated to say her next words. “I don’t know anything about the pirates.”
“Good grace, Laika,” Mouncey snapped. “Would you please stop with that pirate nonsense?”
“Shut up!” she said. “You know they’re out there. They have to be.” She turned to Emma. “We know they’re very secretive.”
“Or maybe they just don’t exist,” Mouncey said.
“Uh, well, we saw a notice on Delphinus…,” Herbie offered.
Laika’s face fell.
“I’m sorry,” Emma said. “I really don’t know any pirates. We’re from a remote star on Monkey, and—”
“But you must know something,” Laika said. “Why else would the navy be chasing you?”
“Really,” Emma said. “We don’t know anything. We’ve never been to space before this.”
“Why are you looking for pirates?” Herbie asked.
“Because they’re the only ones who stand up to the Queen,” Laika said, seeming surprised that he didn’t know this already.
“We don’t know anything about that,” Herbie admitted.
“You can see that he means it,” Mouncey remarked, leaning into Laika’s ear. “Nobody knows about the pirates, because they don’t exist. The Queen killed them all. Now stop asking everyone!”
Slowly, Laika picked up her fork and started eating, glancing up occasionally to regard Emma and Herbie with disappointment.
Down a series of long, carpeted hallways, they passed a clock and a wooden statue of Leo’s King, Cor Leonis, whose sword was held aloft in a heroic aspect. However, the king’s right leg had been sawed off and was speared like a sausage at the end of his sword.
Taking a right at the statue, their guide, Wardle, led Emma and Herbie down a dead-end hallway. Wardle had small brown eyes, a thick snub nose, and a terrifically large jaw. Taken separately, his features might have been ugly, but together they were strangely handsome. Wardle came from the Cetus system, named after a terrible sea monster with gaping jaws, goatlike forelegs, and a serpent’s tail. He showed them the slight webbing between his fingers and explained that he could hold his breath underwater for twenty-eight minutes.
“Do you have gills?” Herbie asked.
“No.” Wardle looked offended. “Gills are for fish.”
They stopped at a door at the very end of the hallway. It was narrower than the others, and it took some effort to turn the key in the disused lock.
“This is your room,” he said to Emma, his voice deep and rumbly. “A bit out of the way of things, but I guess it’s only temporary.”
She entered a cavelike chamber. It had thinning red carpets and a single bright candle flickering on the wall.
Emma turned to Wardle. “Aren’t there beds?” she asked.
Wardle pointed a thick finger at three doors in the wall. “Bedrooms’s in there,” he said. “It’s a Leo ship, you know!”
“Oh. Okay.”
Wardle motioned to Herbie. “Your room’s down the hall. Follow me.”
Emma said goodnight to Herbie and opened the first door in the wall. It looked to be a passageway into a deeper compartment. She ducked into the passage and approached an even smaller arched door. It was old and wooden, but elegantly carved with regal lions that glimmered in the candlelight.
Opening the door, she was pleased to find a small room that smelled of wood. To the left was a bed draped in a velvet quilt. To the right, a row of candles protruded from the wall, filling the room with a golden light. Three portholes above the bed were splattered with rain.
Emma sat heavily on the bed. She was trying not to think about all the things she’d lost, but remembering the Markab filled her with a sense that some malicious force in the universe was trying very hard to take every last thing away from her. First her parents, then, well…Earth. Then the Markab. And it was all because of the Pyxis.
Suddenly remembering that it was around her neck, she fumbled to unzip her jacket, felt the bump it made in her shirt, and let out a tremendous sigh of relief.
She stripped her shoes and jacket off, tossed them at the end of the bed, and climbed under the covers, where it was at least partially warm. Her eyelids felt as if they were made of lead. She hadn’t slept for at least twenty-four hours, and before that she’d only slept fitfully. She wanted to keep thinking about every crazy thing she’d seen since coming to space, but as she lay in the large, cozy bed, she felt her eyes shutting, felt the delicious sensation of falling into a deep, warm, well-deserved sleep….
The crab watch clanged its way through the Strand’s chilly night, but Emma heard nothing of it. Nestled deep inside the Argh, she was aware of the occasional patter of rain on her windows and the strange creakings and groanings of the ship—which in her dreams she mistook for a pile of snoring bears, or the wooden chuckling of a carriage on a cobblestone street. She did, however, hear the breakfast bell jangle, and the distant slamming of doors, and the thundering of feet on the carpet in the hall, but she was so exhausted and so comfortable in her bed that she simply rolled over and went back to sleep. It was only when she heard her own door open and close that she forced her eyes open and grudgingly sat up.
There was no one in the room, but a uniform was lying on the trunk by the door. It was the same beige tunic and trousers that all the Arghs wore. Beside it was a red vest and a pair of boots.
Emma was sore from all the sailing they’d done, so it was a slow, painful task to slip out of her dirty jeans and T-shirt and into the clean trousers and tunic. As she was folding up her clothes, she heard a crinkling sound and remembered the notice she’d taken from the lamppost on Amphitrite. She removed it from the pocket of her jeans.
The sight of her mother brought a wave of sadness and grudging pride. Mom looked cocky, tough, and beautiful—not Mom at all. For the first time, Emma wasn’t so embarrassed that she looked so much like her.
Then her eyes fell on her dad in the photograph. Seeing him brought a different feeling. His expression was cold in a way she’d never seen. It was easy to imagine the man in the photograph telling a blatant lie. “I was in Phoenix.” She felt a jolt of betrayal. That didn’t feel like the same Dad who’d taken her on the Markab all those years.
He must have had a good reason for lying to her. He’d been hiding the Pyxis all this time, and Emma was certain there was much more to the story than she knew. After seeing him get shot, she could believe that he’d been keeping a deadly secret—perhaps dangerous enough that he had needed to hide it from her as well. She was suddenly filled with a new burst of fear that the gunshot had killed him, that he was dead now, and that she would never see him or Mom again. Quickly folding the notice and stuffing it into her pocket, she left the room.
Emma and Herbie met in the corridor and went to the dining hall.
“I need to do something to find out where my parents are,” Emma said. “Maybe the captain can help.”
“Let’s ask around at breakfast,” Herbie said.
In the dining hall, which was nearly empty, they sat at a table. A monkey came out of the kitchen and brought them food. They had barely downed two biscuits and a glass of juice each before Santher and Laika arrived to take them to their post in the aerie. Apparently, they were late.
“First I want to talk to the captain,” Emma said.
“You can’t,” Laika replied. “Unless it’s an emergency.”
“I need some help finding my parents,” Emma said.
Laika and Santher exchanged a look. “Maybe later,” Laika said. “Right now you have to work.”
Reluctantly, Emma and Herbie followed the others through the ship’s carpeted corridors and up two flights of stairs to the top deck. They crossed the deck and stopped at the mainmast. Herbie looked like he was getting a bit seasick. “Errr…what exactly is the aerie?” he asked.
“It’s the top of the main,” Santher said, pointing upward. A cold, harsh wind lashed at their faces as Emma and Herbie stared up and up, considering their fate. The mainmast was as thick around as a dozen oak trees tied together. There were Arghs up there already, but they were far enough away that it was impossible to tell if they were humans or monkeys. And the wind, although certainly not stormy, had an abrupt, whipping quality that seemed more deadly by the moment.
“I can’t go with you,” Santher said. “I have to be on the bridge. But Laika will show you the ropes.”
Surprised, Emma watched as he sauntered off. He turned once and winked at her over his shoulder.
“He really is cocky,” Herbie said, frowning.
Laika didn’t explain anything, and the look on her face suggested that she was still brooding over their conversation at dinner. She took hold of the ropes and began climbing.
“Uh…” Herbie cleared his throat. “Wait, we’re actually climbing to the crow’s nest?”
“Don’t say that!” Laika said. “We never call it that. It’s the aerie.”
“Why don’t you call it a crow’s—?” Herbie asked.
“Crow is a dirty word around here,” she said. “Corvans, ye see. They’re from the Crow system and they’re the ones who kidnap kids. Now hurry up.”
Emma saw that Herbie was terrifically nervous. The one time they’d gone walking on the Golden Gate Bridge, he’d gotten queasy and had muttered something about being afraid of heights.
“Are you okay with this?” she asked.
“I can handle it,” he said, setting his chin in a determined way.
Emma went first, grabbing the rope and stepping onto the ratline. It whipped in the wind, and she felt her whole body whip along with it. Although the ropes were wet, they weren’t too slippery and she found that climbing was easier than she’d thought. When she’d gone ten notches, she felt a slight yank and saw Herbie begin his ascent below.
She continued easily. Every ten feet or so, she stopped to check on Herbie’s progress. He kept pausing to wipe his hands on his pants, but otherwise he seemed to be doing all right.
It took ten more minutes to reach the wooden platform where the ratline ended, and when she crawled up into the small circular space, she was grateful for the break. Her arms were sore and she was breathing hard.
Looking around, she got a thrill. The storm clouds were behind them now, and the vast Strand spread before them, its dark-blue waters churning with foamy waves. The air was salty and fresh, and an exhilarating feeling swept through her.
When Herbie came over the side, she helped him up. He looked pale and shaken.
“Pretty good for someone who’s afraid of heights,” Emma said.
Herbie gave a wan smile.
Laika opened a small door in the side of the mast, revealing a circular staircase inside. “This way,” she said brusquely.
They followed her up a narrow passageway that smelled of wet wood and ocean and the musty odor of a birdcage. At the top was another door. They opened it and went inside.
The aerie was a spacious, circular room built around the mast. There were twelve wooden perches, six of which held eagles and hawks. Behind each perch was a window with shutters to keep out the fierce winds.
“Cool,” Herbie said, shutting the door behind him. “Are those eagles?”
Laika didn’t reply, so the three of them stood staring at one another. She didn’t seem interested in putting them to work. Instead, there was a new fierceness in her eyes.
“I think you owe us an explanation,” she said. “The navy’s after you, and you could be endangering the whole crew.”
“Okaaaay,” Emma said. She could understand that she might be putting the Arghs in danger, but the Argh itself seemed big enough to handle any foes. “Look, I’m sorry we don’t know anything about pirates. I wish we could help you but—”
“Everyone knows you’re lying about why the navy’s after you,” Laika said.
Herbie opened his mouth to answer, but Emma kicked his foot. “Like I said before, I’m looking for my parents. They were kidnapped on the Monkey system and probably brought to space. I’m trying to find them.”
The force of Emma’s words seemed to convince Laika, but she still looked dissatisfied. “Well, you’re going to have a problem doing that on the Argh,” she said. “We don’t have any way of communicating with the outside world. We’re fugitives from the navy, so it’s too dangerous to use mesmers.”
“What’s a mesmer?” Herbie asked.
“You’ve never seen a mesmer? What part of Monkey are you from? Mesmers—gosh, they’re everywhere…. ”
Herbie shrugged.
“It’s a talking glass,” Laika said. “And trust me, they’re too dangerous. They all talk to each other, and we can’t risk anyone finding out where we are.”
“Why?” Emma asked.
“Well,” Laika said, taking up a broom and sweeping the floor, “because Lovesey stole the Argh, didn’t he? And he saved our lives. If he hadn’t stolen it, the Queen would have killed us like she killed our parents.” Laika’s cheeks were flushed. Emma and Herbie exchanged a guilty look.
“I’m sorry,” Herbie said. “I kinda figured you were orphans, but I didn’t know the Queen killed your parents.”
“She killed them all when she destroyed our planets.” Laika’s sweeping began to intensify. Behind her, one of the eagles gave a startled flap of wings. Clouds of dust from the bird droppings rose in the air, making Emma’s eyes water. “And Lovesey saved us. So if he says we shouldn’t use a mesmer, then we shouldn’t. He gave up everything to protect us.”
“Is that why he’s burned?” Emma asked.
Laika looked disapproving as she said, “Yes, he got burned. He used to be one of the greatest admirals of the Leo fleet, but when he saw that the Queen destroyed a whole bunch of rebel systems and was about to kill all the orphans who were fleeing from the planets, he stole the Argh and helped us escape. The galaxy’s a big place, and we can avoid the navy most of the time, but there are bounty hunters who are searching for us, and they’re allowed to do whatever they can to reclaim the ship—even if it means killing us. So no, you can’t communicate with anyone outside, and we can’t help you figure out where your parents are.”
Emma was chagrined. She hadn’t fully realized until now that the Argh was full of fugitives and that they were hiding from the navy. Quietly, she had to admit that having the Pyxis on board might very well put the whole crew in greater danger. The entire navy might be coming after them now. It further disturbed her that the Arghs were orphans, and that the Queen had destroyed their planets. It was no wonder Laika was hoping the pirates would show up to fight the navy. Emma wanted to ask how the Queen could destroy a planet in the first place, but she sensed that Laika was uncomfortable talking about it.
“You’re going to have to figure out where your parents are when you get to the next port,” Laika said. “That’s Cygnus. And it’s going to take at least a week to get there.”
“That’s a long time,” Herbie said.
“I’m sorry,” Laika replied, “but there’s nothing we can do.”
Diffidently, she gave each of them a broom and put them to work. They spent the rest of the morning sweeping the floors and changing the bedding and doing every bit of grunt work she asked them to do. Herbie seemed to feel bad that Laika was upset, and he asked a few questions about the birds and the aerie. He was genuinely curious, but Laika gave only terse replies. Finally, he said, “Well, I can see why you like working up here. You’ve got the best view on the Argh.”
Laika seemed to soften a bit. “Yeah, you can see all kinds of things that you can’t see from the main deck.”
“Like what?” Herbie asked.
“Well, the dragons are the best.”
Herbie nearly dropped his broom. “You mean, real dragons?”
Laika snorted. “Of course. What other kinds are there?”
“I didn’t think they were real.”
“Oh, they’re real. You should see them on Draco,” Laika said, her voice picking up a little more enthusiasm now. “We sail there sometimes. We sneak into the edges of the system because we’re not technically allowed in, but the dragons flock really high up, so you can only see them from the aerie. It’s amazing. And they’re not really flocks—maybe just two or three at a time, but that’s a lot for dragons.”
Herbie was wide-eyed. “Are they only on Draco?”
“Aw, no, they’re all over,” Laika said. “We saw one last month on Regulus…. ”
They kept talking. Emma was relieved that Laika was warming up to them. And she had to admit it was pretty cool that there were dragons in space. But she couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d learned: there was no way to find out what was happening to her parents. It seemed pointless now to talk to the captain—if he couldn’t communicate with the outside world, then he certainly couldn’t tell her anything either. They had lost any trail they might have had, and now they were stuck on the ship until they landed on Cygnus. There had to be something else she could do….
At the end of the day, they climbed down from the aerie. It was even more difficult than going up, and when they reached the bottom, Herbie looked rattled.
“Maybe we should ask Santher to give us some other work,” Emma said.
“Like what, swab the deck?” Herbie said. “I’m not going to do that. Besides, I want to keep working in the aerie.”
“I thought you were afraid of heights,” Emma said.
“Not really,” he said. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea to put your life in danger unless there’s a really good reason.”
“Like dragons,” Emma said.
He smirked. “I just have to find a safer way to climb these ropes.”
The next morning, Emma was surprised that Herbie wasn’t waiting for her outside her room. She searched for him in the corridors and the dining hall, but he wasn’t there. Midway through breakfast, he came into the dining hall with a long coil of rope slung over his shoulder.
“I woke up early so I could rig up a safety cord for climbing to the aerie,” he said. “A couple of the monkeys helped me, and I think we worked it out.”
“Wow,” Emma said. “How did you get the monkeys to help you?”
“They just came up to me and started helping. They’re really smart and they seem to understand what I’m saying. Anyway, you can use the safety line too. But we have to go one at a time.”
At the ratlines, she saw what Herbie and the monkeys had done: they had tied ropes to the lines at twenty-foot intervals. Now, as he climbed up, he would be able to tie a line around his waist, climb twenty feet, and switch to another line. This way, he could be secured the entire way.
Herbie went first. He was still a little nervous when he grabbed the first line, but as he got higher, she saw that he was moving with more confidence. He even waved to one of the monkeys dangling near the mast. The monkey replied with a happy hoot.
They spent the next two days working in the aerie. Twice a day they sent the birds on scouting missions, and Emma and Herbie both became quite good at handling the hawks. The rest of the time was spent cleaning and talking.
As the days passed, Emma grew more frustrated being stuck on the Argh, and she spent more time staring out the aerie’s windows, scanning the Strand for stars or planets or even navy ships. She wasn’t sure what she would do if she did see a ship, but it kept her hopes up to see that the Argh was making good progress down the Strand.
Laika had become more friendly, but she wasn’t ready to give up her quest for the truth, and she continued to sneak in questions about why the navy was after them while Herbie tried to answer without revealing who Emma’s parents were. Emma began to notice just how attentive he was becoming to Laika. Every time she gave them a new assignment, Herbie jumped to do it. And every time she talked about the ship, Herbie asked a dozen questions, which Laika answered enthusiastically.
On the third afternoon, they were waiting for the hawks to return when the room grew suddenly darker.
“Uh-oh,” Laika said, rushing to the window. “I think those are screech bats. They flock this high up.”
Herbie and Emma both dropped their brooms and went to the window. About fifty yards ahead, they could see a dark shape in the sky above them.
“What are screech bats?” Herbie asked.
“They’re like regular bats,” Laika said. “But they make this horrible screeching sound that will knock you out. We’d better get earplugs.” She went to a cupboard near the door and began rooting around.
“They’re not making any noise right now,” Herbie said.
“They will if the mast disturbs them,” Laika replied. She came back to the window with a handful of cloth scraps. “We usually sail below the colonies, but this one is pretty low. We might hit them. And the babies are the worst. They’re louder than the adults. One time a baby knocked out the whole ship…. ”
A terrific thump shook one side of the room. Laika quickly handed them the cloth scraps. “Here, put these in your ears.”
“I thought bats had good navigational abilities,” Herbie said. “Why are they hitting the wall?”
“They must be babies.”
Emma and Herbie pushed the cloth into their ears just as bats began fluttering into the room. Emma shrieked. They didn’t look like bats—they were more like large insects. Laika motioned to the windows and mouthed: We’d better shut them! The three of them raced around, closing the shutters while the bats fluttered around them. The thumping continued outside.
Herbie was saying something. Emma had to pull the cloth from one ear to hear him, but the moment she did that, she was jolted with pain. It felt as if someone had stuck a Taser in her ear. A horrific SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEE filled her head, and she fainted.
When she came to, she was lying on the floor of the aerie. The air reeked of dung and feathers, and Herbie and Laika were standing by the window, arguing.
“We can’t kill it!” Laika said. “It’s just a baby!”
“It’s a killer baby,” Herbie said. “Look what it did to Emma.”
They noticed that she was awake.
“Are you okay?” Herbie bent over and helped her to her feet. “Why did you take the cloth out of your ear?”
“Because it looked like you were saying something important,” she groaned. Feeling ridiculously woozy, she sat back down.
“Oh. Sorry. When you fell, you landed on one of the babies.” He held up a small glass jar filled with water. There was a bat inside. It looked dead.
“You saved it?”
“It’s not dead,” Herbie said. “Its wing is broken.”
“Why is it in water?”
“Apparently this is the only way to get it to stop screeching.”
“They like being underwater,” Laika explained. “It’s where they sleep.”
Emma took another look at the creature—it was tiny indeed, no bigger than her thumb, and she thought she detected a grimace of pain on its little face. “I’m sorry I hurt it,” she said.
“He’ll be okay,” Laika said. “We’re going to let him heal. Then we should keep him as a pet.”
Herbie remained silent.
Once Emma stopped feeling dizzy, they left the aerie for dinner. Emma climbed down more slowly than usual, watching Herbie and Laika joking around below her. Emma didn’t mind that Herbie was becoming such good friends with Laika, but it bothered her that they seemed to be having such a great time when all Emma could think about was where her parents were and how to find them.
By the time they got to the dining hall, Emma realized that she wasn’t hungry. In fact, the only thing she wanted was to do something. She couldn’t stand waiting anymore. Telling Herbie and Laika that she had to go to the bathroom, she turned on her heel and walked out.