Morning sunlight squeezed between Jocelyn’s lids and poked her in the eye. She sat up, blinking in the dazzling light of day. Tiger Lily and her warriors were gone, off to find their silver bear. A ceiling of clear blue sky hung above, and Craggy Peak loomed directly over her. The Neverland had done some rearranging when they weren’t looking.

The three quietly munched on a breakfast of nuts and dried berries, left for them by Tiger Lily, then neatly piled their buffalo robes in a place where she would be able to find them when she came back through. Once that act of housekeeping was finished, they started up the path. Roger walked ahead and Jocelyn let him, unsure of how to approach the boy. Evie strode along next to her. Every few moments she patted her dress pockets as if she were searching for something.

“What is the matter?” Jocelyn asked.

Evie drew her eyebrows together, concentrating. “I have that unsettling feeling that I have lost or forgotten something. I don’t know what.” She shook her head. “Never mind, it will come to me, I’m sure.”

Jocelyn felt a stab of concern over Evie’s forgetfulness. “If you were at home right now, what would you be doing?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” Evie asked with a frown. “I am home.”

“I don’t mean this home,” Jocelyn said. “I mean where you live with your father, Sir Charles. You do remember him, don’t you?”

Evie lowered her eyebrows, concentrating. After a moment she shook her head. “Perhaps I have had too much sun. I nearly forgot my own father! But my life there seems so far away, like a dream.”

“Maybe it would help if we talked about it,” Jocelyn said. They spent the next half hour chatting about Hopewell Manor—Evie’s favorite places to hide from her governess, her ongoing war with the manor cat, and her fears that she would never live up to her father’s expectations. Jocelyn had not known how many things she and her mother had in common. Now that she did, it felt even more important that Evie not forget them.

“You need to be careful here,” Jocelyn said. “The Neverland can take all your memories of home if you let it. And home helps you remember who you are.”

“I suppose.” Evie sighed. “But I don’t think I want to be who I was when I lived there.”

Jocelyn frowned. Maybe Roger had been right to suggest she should tell Evie what she knew, or at least in part. She decided to share what the harbormaster had said about those who forget their homes, leaving out only that which concerned the true nature of their relationship. “…so you see,” she finished, “if you become untethered—if you forget—you will be miserable.”

Evie bit her lip, thinking. “I don’t know. Tiger Lily and her people aren’t from here, but they seem fine to me.”

Jocelyn was surprised. “They aren’t? Where are they from?”

“A woman sang their history at the feast that first night we met them. It must have been while you were getting some air. Tiger Lily’s great-grandfather led his people here from the Americas, through a passage they found while fleeing from a warring tribe. They haven’t become ‘untethered’ in all their time here, and”—Evie turned to look at Jocelyn—“neither have you. You’ve been on the Neverland ages longer than I have.”

“Tiger Lily’s people remember who they are. They keep that memory alive in the songs they sing and stories they tell. As for me, maybe I remember because no matter what happens, I still want to be myself.” She shrugged. “I guess my home is a big part of that.” Jocelyn was silent for a moment, then added, “I hope to go back one day.”

Evie threaded her arm though Jocelyn’s. “Well, I hope that’s not for a long time. I’d miss you. As for this untethering business, is that the reason you’ve been trying to get me to leave the Neverland?”

Jocelyn nodded.

“I’m glad to know it. I thought you were angry that Roger and I had become friends. I was worried you didn’t know how special you are to him.”

“I don’t know about that…” Jocelyn said, looking ahead to where Roger walked alone.

“Oh, pishposh. You two will be over this ridiculous quarrel of yours in no time. I’m sure that whatever it’s about is of less importance than your friendship.” She nudged Jocelyn with her elbow, eliciting a small smile. “And while we are talking of ridiculous things, what about this harbormaster of yours? What makes him such an expert on the ways of the Neverland? Adults are wrong all the time. I’m sure I’ll find a way around this untethering business.”

For the first time, Jocelyn felt a flicker of doubt. What if the harbormaster was wrong and Evie could be perfectly happy in the Neverland?

Jocelyn grew colder as they climbed, both inside and out. Roger’s mutiny left her feeling hollow. She filled the space with grim determination, marching through knee-high snowdrifts and wading through icy streams. He wasn’t speaking to her, but he wasn’t speaking to Evie, either. He plodded along ahead, looking every bit as miserable as Jocelyn felt.

At length they came to an ice bridge spanning a deep crevasse. How Jocelyn wished they could simply fly over it. She missed Meriwether, and not just for his supply of fairy dust. If he had been there, he would have been certain to do something to make them all laugh and break the tension.

Jocelyn didn’t know how things had gone so terribly wrong, but she knew that finding the Jolly Roger would be a start to setting them right. The key to the treasure map’s code would be on her father’s portrait, just as Smee suspected. It had to be! And they’d have the ship, giving them the means to finally defeat Krueger. She would rescue Meriwether and get her map back. She didn’t know what might happen after that, but she believed that everything would work out, just as it was supposed to. She only had to stay the course.

At long last, they scaled a steep incline and it came into view: the Jolly Roger. Seeing it took her breath away. She hadn’t really thought about what it would be like to stand in its presence at last. Her father’s ship! And soon it would be hers. A lump formed in her throat. Jocelyn wondered how he would feel about her taking the helm. She hoped she was pirate enough to deserve it.

“Oh, Jocelyn, it’s magnificent!” Evie said.

The ship sat low in the snow, looking for all the world as if it were cruising on an ocean of white. The mountain rose for some ways behind it, like a great ice-covered wave, frozen in time. Jocelyn shivered at the thought of that wave crashing on the deck.

“But,” Evie continued, “how will we get her down to the sea?”

Jocelyn stopped short. Her thoughts had been so consumed by finding the Jolly Roger, and by her other problems, she hadn’t even considered that.

Roger consulted his map and finally broke his silence. “The mountain butts right up to the ocean,” he told Evie. “If we weigh the anchor, I think we could ride her down the slope like a great sled.”

Evie giggled. “And why not? Snow is nothing more than frozen water. We’ll sail her right down to the sea!”

Finding the ship had lifted both Jocelyn’s hopes and her spirits. She had been waiting so long to find the key to breaking the treasure map’s code, and finally it was within her grasp. She brushed aside the problems of not actually having the map in her possession and the situation with Evie. It would work out. There in the shadow of the Jolly Roger, anything seemed possible—even making up with Roger.

She caught his eye and gave him a small smile. He didn’t quite return it, but he didn’t scowl, either. That was something, at least.

They hurried as best as they could through the deep drifts. Here, the top layer of the Neverland’s peculiar snow was as warm as fresh baked bread, not yet having had time to cool. Jocelyn grabbed fistfuls as she walked, warming her cold hands.

She reached the Jolly Roger first. There was no gangplank, but a rope ladder hung over the side where Peter Pan must have left it when he abandoned the ship. He probably sailed a new mother here in it, Jocelyn thought with a snort. Or a load of new lost boys. He does seem to have trouble hanging on to his friends.

Jocelyn didn’t want to be like that. She waited for Roger and Evie to catch up, and tried to thaw the ice between them. “Roger, meet your namesake,” she said with a grin. “You have always been the jolliest person I know, and I’m happy we are friends. I’m sorry I gave you cause to feel otherwise. As a way of apology, I’d like to give you the honor of going first.”

Roger said nothing, but he gave her a half smile and a tiny salute before climbing the rope.

Evie flashed her dimples. “Oh, Jocelyn, I’m so glad we found it. Let’s get up there and find the key to your map. Then we’ll sail it down to the sea, find and gut that awful Krueger, and get your pirate gold!” She giggled. “I never would have had a chance to say something like that at home. I wonder what Miss Eliza would think.”

Jocelyn grinned, both at the thought of Miss Eliza’s reaction and that Evie was thinking of home. “I’m sure she would find that to be quite exceptional.”

Evie’s eyebrows contracted and she stared at Jocelyn. She took a breath as if she were about to say something, but Jocelyn cut her off.

“After you, Evie.” She motioned to the rope ladder.

Evie blinked, shook her head, and began to climb.

Jocelyn did not follow right away. She touched her forehead to the rough wood planking on the hull and closed her eyes. Finding the Jolly Roger had felt impossible, as impossible as all the other problems Jocelyn was struggling with. But she had done it. Standing here at the ship—her father’s ship—gave her hope. She remembered what the harbormaster had said: The Neverland is full of impossible things. This ship was proof. In a place filled with impossible things, anything was possible, wasn’t it?

Jocelyn opened her eyes, grabbed the rope, and began to climb. Hand over hand, higher and higher she rose. Her arms burned and the ladder swayed a bit beneath her, but she cared little. Everything she wanted was within her grasp. She could feel it.

The girl reached the railing and climbed over, her feet solid on her father’s ship. She stood there a moment, looking out over the snowy sea. Jocelyn felt nearly as much triumph in that moment as when she slew the crocodile. She turned slowly, with a smile on her face. “Let’s go find that key.”

“Yes. Let’s.”

But it wasn’t Roger or Evie who replied. That would have proven difficult for either, as they were bound and gagged, captive at the feet of Captain Krueger.