Chapter Fifteen

Sam

While Sam and Mason ran from Depository Section 100, the undoing spray spread, unlocking doors above and below them. Glittering word ribbons spilled everywhere.

Mason began gathering up as many words as she could, stuffing them into her pockets. “Maybe we can find who lost these and give them back.”

Goblins began to shout, above and below. Some howled with glee as they scooped up words. Others, including the prospectors who were working on the new boxes, growled, outraged. A group of goblins led by a thin figure in a captain’s coat began to descend the stairs toward Section 100.

“Mason, we have to go!” Sam tugged at her sleeve.

They scrambled up a ladder to Section 225, where the storage boxes looked like bamboo-and-willow containers, then through Section 314, which was filled with school lockers.

Finally they reached Section 500, part of the newly refurbished glass boxes. Inside, Captain Bellfont sat in front of a series of old computer towers, carefully inserting tap lines into a slot. Beside him sat the inventor and the first mate.

Each time the end of a tap line disappeared inside the slot, the computer tower glowed, and a number would appear on the glass. The captain chuckled as that number grew bigger and brighter. Beside him, Julius had attached tap lines to another hard-drive pile. The display above that group of storage boxes was spinning wildly. “It’s working, it’s working,” Julius cackled.

The goblins were so caught up in the lights and numbers, they’d missed the tumult occurring below them.

Sam still gripped the bottle of undoing spray. Only a little bit left. He lifted the sprayer and took aim.

“No you don’t!” The first mate stood. She grabbed a piece of Nana’s spellbound bat from the inventor’s coat pocket. Then she pointed it right at Sam and Mason.

As Julius reached out and said, “Wait!” the first mate spoke the curse that Nana had gathered on the baseball field.

Mason and Sam were blown back out of Section 500 by the force of the word. The bat splinter shot from the goblin’s hand and smashed into one of the computer towers, which began to smoke. Words from Sam’s father’s office poured from the box, a river of them, running all the way to the ground, near the exit of the building.

“What have you done!” The captain shouted. They could hear him a long way down, which is where they’d landed, mostly unhurt, on top of a pile of word ribbons in many different languages.

“We have to get out of here,” Mason said. She and Sam began climbing back up the staircases, and as they ran, they grabbed more words, especially from the growing pile near the door. Sam heard several from his father’s office whispering “URGENT,” and stuffed those in his bag and pockets too.

All the doors of the Depository were unlocking from the spread of the spray. The seams and hinges of some of the older boxes began to collapse.

“Nana made the spray really strong,” Sam shouted. The noise of the falling words was loud enough to make his ears ring. He scrambled to his feet and pulled Mason up with him. Then they sprinted out of the Depository.

The thin captain that they’d seen earlier shouted from a balcony far below, “Bellfont, I see your humans!” Her voice rang clearly over the fading noise of opening doors and collapsing metal. All around, the Depository’s spilled words whispered, feet clattered on stairs, and Sam’s heart pounded in his ears.

As they ran from the Depository, Sam sprayed the rest of the undoing spell on the doors until they collapsed in a heap behind him and Mason. It wasn’t much, but it would delay the pursuing goblins. Maybe long enough for them to figure out how to get away.

They ran out into the floating city of Felicity as the sun was rising.

“There!” Mason pointed at The Declension. The ship had cast off most of its lines, though Sam couldn’t see the crew onboard.

He looked back and realized why. More than a dozen goblins were trying to clear the collapsed doorway all at once. “Mason, run faster! They’re right behind us!”

When the goblins finally broke through, spilling onto the street, the two crews chased Sam and Mason all the way from the Depository to the gangway where The Declension had been docked.

Mason and Sam ran until their chests were on fire. “Who untied the ship?” Mason asked.

The Declension listed a little as its hull banged against the dock. It looked to Sam like no one was steering it.

But they could hear Captain Bellfont bellowing their names from down at the docks, so they couldn’t stop. Soon, Bellfont began shouting at his crew too, because The Declension had clearly cast off and was pulling away. Mason ran up the gangway first, and then took a great leap. She yelled as she jumped, landing on the middle deck with an oof.

Tolver’s spiky hair appeared, just barely above the helm of The Declension. “Get on!” he yelled. “Sam, hurry!” He gripped the wheel of The Declension, knuckles pale green, as the ship slowly turned, its stern just passing the gangway. A piece of his sleeve had been torn away.

The undoing spray—Tolver had used the tiny bit from his sleeve to unlock the brig. Sam laughed, even as he pushed himself to run faster. His feet pounded hard on the gangway, and as The Declension pulled away, he prepared to jump.

Five knobby, green goblin fingers grabbed his left arm and jerked him backward, so that he fell hard on the ramp. Words he’d gathered spilled from his pockets. Some ribbons glittered as they slipped through the dock and twisted in the air, headed straight for the water.

“Ungrateful goblin thief!” Captain Bellfont shouted at Tolver. The prospector captain lifted Sam high in the air.

“The best kind,” Tolver yelled back. “We’ll come back around for you, Sam!”

But the wind caught The Declension’s airbag and pushed the ship away from the city. Tolver’s grin changed to alarm as he realized he couldn’t turn fast enough. Sam was stranded with Captain Bellfont and his crew.

“NO!” Mason shouted. She leaned over the side of the ship, hands out, reaching for Sam. “Hurry! Do something!” Then she shouted at Tolver, “Go back!”

“I can’t! I don’t know how! I’m sorry!” Tolver sounded panicked. He tried to turn the wheel, but it was too big for him.

The Declension pulled away from the floating city’s edge and headed out toward the archipelago.

As Sam watched the ship disappear, Captain Bellfont sat him up roughly on the gangway but didn’t loosen his grip. “You lost me my words, my ship! You terrible human!”

He stood over Sam, blocking out the sun. His silver mustache was speckled with spit. “You’ll spend the rest of your years earning back every bit of fuel and the cost of my ship.”

“You were never going to let me go home,” Sam said quietly.

“Well, I’m certainly not now!” The captain watched his ship grow smaller as it sailed away. “You’re worth more to me here. Who knows where else you can help us get in.” His eyes glowed red. An angry goblin was never pretty, Sam realized, and this one was furious. His eyebrows soared to his hairline, and he showed his pointed teeth. “We’ll be enjoying your company for a long time, Sam.”

Behind him, the other captain Sam had spotted in the Depository called out, “We’ll chase them with my ship, Bellfont!”

Without letting Sam go, Captain Bellfont turned to her. “Perfect.” Then he lifted Sam in the air and threw him over one shoulder. Sam stuffed his hands in his pockets to keep the words from falling out.

Meantime, both crews began to move very fast toward the other ship in port. The captain spoke as he ran, jostling Sam hard. “I used to serve on The Plumbline. You won’t enjoy Captain Geary’s brig, though that’s where you’re going.” Sam gulped, but he couldn’t get free of Bellfont’s grip.

The goblin hauled Sam aboard as Captain Geary bellowed orders. Then the ship cast off its lines and turned to pursue The Declension, which was already far from the city.

“Use all the resources you need,” she told her crew. “Just catch that ship.”

Sam watched from Bellfont’s shoulder as both crews filled the baffles with hot air. The ship’s first mate began to chant speed words, and the boat roared through the sky.

The Declension wobbled in its route. They were slowly closing on Tolver and Mason.

“Ready the weapons!” Captain Geary shouted. “Bring the hogs on deck!” Her goblin crew scrambled to obey, and Bellfont’s crew tried to help. As The Plumbline hurtled toward the horizon, The Declension slowed once again. Tolver’s lack of experience piloting a ship was showing.

But then Tolver carefully lowered a thick line toward the marshbogs. Far below, the commander of a small boat rowed closer and seized it. Nana.

The Plumbline tacked and picked up speed, bearing down on the other vessel. Julius yelled, “Capture,” and a net flew.

Ahead, The Declension hauled Nana—with a small pookah under one arm—up the rope, and the ship’s motor thrummed. The Declension zoomed forward again, and the magical net from The Plumbline fell, empty, to the water.

“They can’t get very far,” Captain Geary said. “Your airbags weren’t but three-quarters filled, and they’ve been burning fuel like mad.”

Sam struggled against Captain Bellfont’s grip. “I hope you never catch them,” he said.

“Your words are not currently needed, child.” Bellfont turned to his host. “May I use your brig?”

The Plumbline’s captain shook her head. “Sadly, our brig is full, but I have another option.” She opened the hatch of one of her word hogs, which Julius was inspecting for scratches.

“Put him in here, out of the way. I need all hands, including yours, Bellfont.”

Captain Geary stuffed Sam inside the brass pig while Bellfont grumbled and glared at him. Despite his delight at seeing the captain upset at being demoted to Geary’s second in command, Sam still banged on the insides of the machine until his hands went numb.

The pig swayed as they left the city behind and pursued The Declension in the open air.

Inside the word hog, The Plumbline’s rocking motion was sickening. The smell of hard use by goblins was even worse.

Sam pressed himself close to the slats of the nearest air vent, hoping for fresh air.

From his vantage point, the horizon lurched and rolled, and the crew ran past on the deck.

As he peered through the side of the brass word hog, The Declension passed beyond the farthest island, and a bright spark gleamed for a moment before a large portal opened.

“That’s a rogue portal!” Captain Geary said. “They’re going through!”

“They have help!” Captain Bellfont said angrily. He stood so close to the word hog, Sam could smell his breath.

Then he tapped the metal side of the pig with a long fingernail. “Your friends have made a terrible mistake, Sam. They’re running, in the ship, straight through to the old world. And we’re going to catch them. You’ll be reunited with them soon, never fear.”

“Make sure that portal stays open,” Captain Geary instructed her spellcaster. “We’re going in after them.”

“The whole ship?” Julius said. “Both crews? Think about the cost in fuel—”

Sam heard the swish of the long skirts Captain Geary wore beneath her canvas jacket. Through the side of his prison, he caught a glimpse of her silver hair tangled around green-and-silver goggles. She reached out and patted Julius’s cheek. “We are taking the whole ship.”

Her crew fired up the baffles, and the ship leapt forward, even as the portal began closing behind The Declension.

Beyond the portal, Sam glimpsed the roof of Ursula K. Le Guin Elementary and the trees surrounding Mount Cloud’s park. He heard cheering from a ball game. Smoke rose from a barbecue grill. Then The Plumbline entered the portal.

Sam would never get used to passing through a goblin portal. But the feeling of going through one onboard a ship, in the belly of a brass word hog, was even worse.

The Plumbline creaked and shook all around him. The word hog shrieked metallically and tried to lift from the deck. He clapped his hands over his ears. And then the terrible stretching and compressing feeling began.

The dizziness hit him first, and his stomach flipped over. This kind of portal crossing wasn’t meant to happen. Looking out the air vent, Sam saw the goblins were similarly affected and turning the color of paste that’s been left sitting out with the lid off.

“Stop slacking, prospectors! This is for progress!” The captain of The Plumbline urged them on. “We’ll capture those two mutineers and show them what happens to goblins who run off with ships.”

The doubled goblin crew rallied and shouted agreement.

“And while we’re there, we’ll take all the mis-used words we want!” the captain added. “Plenty for everyone!”

Through the cheers, Sam saw one particularly thrilled face: Julius’s. The inventor began to unroll a spool of tap lines.

No. They couldn’t. Not in Mount Cloud. My sister’s only just gotten her word back. And Ms. Malloy... Sam banged on the hatch of the pig again. He had to stop them.

When the ship emerged on the other side of the portal, The Declension was nowhere to be seen. Meantime, The Plumbline’s air pumps faltered and weakened. The gas bag slumped over the ship. They’d used up most of their fuel in the pursuit.

The vessel wobbled in the air until the captain ordered the first mate to render it invisible, and all the goblins quickly disappeared. Everything around Sam went transparent too, although he was still stuck inside the pig. He could see quite clearly now.

The ship teetered in the air, sinking rapidly toward the park.

Tree branches brushed the hull and then cracked and bent as The Plumbline came to rest atop a big tree. From here, Sam could see all over Mount Cloud, at least until the airbag, low on fuel, collapsed over the deck. Even then, he could make out blurry forms through the layers of transparent brass and canvas. The airbag sank onto a thick bough of leaves, and a nesting sparrow erupted in anger.

The bird screeched at the invisible ship as the branches bent in new ways, making the deck creak ominously.

“Bring the rest of the word hogs on deck. Julius, bring your tap lines,” the captain addressed the assembled goblins. Through the slats in the pig’s sides, Sam could hear the crew’s canvas overalls rasping and their boots squeaking and clomping. Then the captain cleared her throat so that everyone could hear her. “Below is an entire neighborhood of word wasters, plus two escaped goblins and a stolen ship. The goblins must be captured and brought back home to face consequences. The ship will be rescued. The humans? You keep what you steal once we have enough fuel to get home again. Stay out of sight and report back by nightfall.”

The Plumbline and Declension crews cheered once more. They made ready to scour Mount Cloud on their captain’s orders.

Sam knew he had to get out of there and warn Bella and Ms. Malloy.

The crew lifted the canvas gas bag from the deck carefully. Then they fired up four of the hogs and took off in them. Sam heard the propellers spinning fainter and fainter. Before long, there would be goblins all over Mount Cloud.

Sam ran to what he thought was the front of the word hog. When he crashed into the controls, he started pushing buttons. “Come on, work.” Eventually, he remembered what the first mate had done the last time they’d flown. He took a slip of paper from his pocket and wrote “Little Free Library.”

When he fed that through the dashboard, the pig’s propellers clattered into motion, and the brass word hog lifted from The Plumbline’s deck. Then it wobbled precariously in the air.

I’m flying it! Sam could hear the captain yelling as he carefully steered away, until he could see the crosswalk and then his street. But then there was a clank and a bang. The pig began spinning out of control, and no matter what Sam pushed, he couldn’t get it back on track.

Dizzyingly, he pitched toward the street and landed with a crash in Mrs. Lockheart’s hedge. The hatch of the word hog popped open, and Sam climbed out.

Behind him, what was left of the Little Free Library, the hedge, and Mrs. Lockheart’s tulips were all crushed beneath a massive, invisible pig. Everything was flattened, but what was doing the flattening couldn’t be seen.

Before Mrs. Lockheart could come outside to yell at him, Sam ran across the street and right up to his front door as if goblins were still chasing him. The door was locked. He sped around the side of the house and squeezed through the dog door. And he was home.

Relief gave way quickly when he realized how empty the house sounded.

“Dad? Bella?”

Silence. On the fridge, where his stepmom always left information and instructions, there was Sam’s note from earlier that morning. Just below it, under a strawberry magnet sticker, his stepmom’s handwriting: Gone to the Blue Lake/Mount Cloud baseball game and then the community picnic! See you there!

Oh no. That’s why the street was empty. Everyone was at the game. Sam felt like it had been forever since he’d seen his family. He ran upstairs to his room. Starflake’s pig tracks still marked the carpet.

After trying to scrub the mud off his face in the bathroom, he grabbed a clean T-shirt and shorts and a new pair of shoes. At least these didn’t smell like goblins and saltwater.

Sam reached inside his pockets and searched his bag. He still had handfuls of words, including two whispering, familiar-sounding things: “regret” and “sorry.” His words. Sam put the one that said “regret” in his mouth and chewed fast. It tasted like damp chewing gum. Not sweet at all.

He tied the other word around his wrist. Tolver had said words could be taken more than once. He was going to be careful. But he had to move fast. Sam took off running for the baseball field.

He didn’t know how he’d find The Declension or his friends. He didn’t know how he’d locate the rest of the prospectors. But he did know one awful thing: his second and third plans had backfired terribly.

Instead of defeating the prospectors, he’d accidentally set them loose in Mount Cloud. And he had to warn Bella.