Chapter 5
“ C issy never has to clean the fish,” Caleb said, rolling his eyes as he led the way back outside and tugged the leather cover off what looked like a large butcher’s block.
“It'll go fast. Plus, we have Fetch on cleanup.” The falcon dipped his head as if he’d understood exactly what I’d said, and was ready for a duty only he could love.
We’d just begun chopping heads and scraping scales when Moll broke into a cheery song.
“Therrrre once was a lady named Mary, who farmed by the sea—it was airy. She milked all the cows and planted her wheat, but goats ate her socks right off of her feet! Soooo, sheee went to the shore for some rest, till a crab pinched her toes—what a pest! It was then that she knew, she needed a shoe?—”
“Maybe two!” Caleb cried out.
Moll nodded and beamed. “But the animals weren’t impressed…”
Tristan’s lips twitched as Caleb erupted into full belly laughter.
As the others started plotting a second song, this one about a mermaid, I found myself softly whistling the tune to the first as I worked.
While my time in Alabaster had given me a taste of what it felt like to have enough food, I was still tickled by the gleaming, apricot-colored fillets in the basin and the smell of the soup bubbling on the stove just inside the door.
“We’re almost done here. Anybody want to help me make a quick dessert?” Molly flicked a glance around at each of us. “Tristan, do you think your…uh, Tink and Pan would mind if I used some flour, sugar, and an egg or two?”
“They won’t mind,” Caleb said. “Tink loves sweets. And I want to help but I'm not feeling so great all of a sudden.”
As I lay the last cleaned fillet on the block, I turned to see the little boy swaying on his feet, cheeks pale despite a day in the sunshine.
Tristan was rubbing a thick slab of soap on his hands and sudsing up as he pursed his lips and spoke out of the corner of his mouth, for my ears only. “He doesn't feel good a lot of times.”
Oh no. Was Caleb chronically ill? Or worse? There were some scary things on the island. Maybe something was making him sick? That might explain why his tattoo was fading…
I spared another glance over my shoulder as Molly pressed the back of her hand to the little boy's forehead and frowned.
“No fever. Let’s see if Tink thinks it’s a good idea for me to bring you supper in bed. I’ll even stay and tell you a story, hmm?”
I closed my eyes in an effort to hide the hot rush of tears for the boy. It was probably nothing. Kids were always wiping their boogies on everything and forgetting to wash their hands, passing germs back and forth. I was overtired, overwrought, and over reacting.
A good night’s sleep, and I’d be right as rain. Of course, that was what I thought yesterday too.
“You got some fish guts on your shirt.” Tristan’s lips tipped into a ghost of a smile. “I’m gonna start frying up these guys, but there’s a whole closet full of clothes in the empty room in the west wing of the house. Tink said to make yourself at home, so help yourself.”
I made quick work of washing my hands and then went to hunt for some clean clothes in the sprawling house. When I got to the great room, for the first time, I noticed the second hallway on the wall opposite mine and Moll’s room.
“This place is even bigger than it looks on the outside.”
I hurried down the dark corridor and made a beeline for the open door at the end of the hall.
Until I didn’t.
As I passed a large, ornately carved door to my left, my feet stopped moving of their own accord. Probably the master suite, given that it was the only door on that side of the hall, alluding to a massive space.
Keep it moving, toots. Nothing to see here…
But I found myself frozen in place. Blood rushed to my head as I glanced behind me and reached gingerly for the doorknob. I made to turn it, but it didn’t budge. Not that I’d expected it to, really.
Still…
I bent low and reached into my bag for my lock pick when Pan’s voice echoed through the house.
“Supper will be ready in ten minutes!”
My heart nearly jumped out of my chest as I shoved the lock pick back, and rushed the rest of the way down the hall.
That was beyond foolish. I’d seen exactly how powerful Tink was, and what she displayed so far probably hadn’t even scratched the surface.
She’d been nothing but kind to me, and I already had to betray her and Pan in the worst way, if I was going to get the clock and fulfill my destiny.
Why was I so intent on tempting fate on top of it?
I was still catching my breath when I stepped into the room at the end of the hall, only to lose it again when I got my bearings.
The space was large and empty, but for a single armchair in the corner. The walls, though? They were riddled with countless maps, drawings, and little swatches of cloth and pieces of parchment pinned in place with pen knives.
I spun in a slow circle, trying to take it all in, but it was so overwhelming. My temples started to throb and I closed my eyes as a familiar panic closed over me.
“Nope,” I muttered under my breath. “Nope, that’s not what we do anymore. Don’t fight it, Harm. Use it.”
I pulled in a shuddering breath and forced my eyes open. Forced myself to see through the panic. And then there it was, like…magic. What had been jumbled and chaotic came into sharp focus.
Neverland, and all the waters and land masses that surrounded it. Noru, The Ticking Croc, sightings, plotted points of run ins with Hook, trade routes, and the changing tides and waning moons. Trophies from battles won, notes on battles lost, clues about future plans…
It was all there.
I just had to take a mental picture, and tuck it away in my mind until I needed it…
“Harmony? You alright?”
I swallowed hard at the sound of Pan’s voice, wondering if it seemed as loud to him as it did to me. “Yeah, I came in for some clean clothes and just…I’ve never seen anything like this. It sort of stopped me in my tracks.”
Pan crossed his arms and cocked his head as he looked around the room.
“Hmm, it does seem like a lot, now that you mention it. Shows you how serious I am about getting that clock back, though, doesn’t it?”
“It sure does.”
“But it’s only a matter of time, now.” He shot me a wink and lowered his voice to an exaggerated whisper. “We’ve got ‘im now.”
“Noru?” I frowned, confused.
“Yup. See, he only comes out when the sun rests, during Ebonfall. Which means we’ve got two, three days a year where we can get a shot at him.
But last time he came out of his lair, we managed to mark him with Tink’s magic.
She sprinkled some fairy dust onto my arrows.
I fired five shots, near miss, every time.
But the last one connected and pierced his hide.
Got him right in the throat.” He shrugged.
“Probably didn’t even hurt him, but who cares?
We marked him. He’s due to resurface in a couple of weeks, and we will be able to track him.
We’re going to set a booby-trap like you’ve never seen.
” He rubbed his hands together and let out a chuckle. “It’s going to be amazing!”
There were times that he seemed as much an adult as I was. Then, there were times that something about the way he acted made him seem as young as he looked. Like now.
“That sounds like a really good plan.”
Too good of a plan, actually. And it gave me my timeline. Moll and I had two weeks, until the next Ebonfall, to find Noru and beat Pan and Tink to the chase .
Fuck.
Talk about a ticking croc…
I cleared my throat and managed a smile as I gestured toward the closet. “I apologize if I held supper up. I’m just going to grab those clothes and change, then I’ll be right there, okay?”
“Sure. But like I say to the boys, don’t dilly-dally. Nobody wants to eat cold fish!”
With that, he waltzed out of the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts.
I dressed in record time, not even looking at what I’d grabbed, then spent another sixty seconds studying my surroundings and committing as much as I could to memory and mapping out the lay of this new land.
Turned out, my best was pretty dang good, now that I’d connected to my Whisper.
I’d learned that being a Tinker didn’t just mean I had the ability to pick a lock and sense the inner workings of almost any mechanism.
It had also allowed me to create mind maps and see patterns in a way others couldn’t.
I’d figured it out when I was trying to save Billy O’Donnelly from the palace dungeons back in Little Alabaster.
I was slinking my way through the falcon chutes and had hit a dead end.
Sheer panic was closing in, but I’d fought it off, trying to remember the pattern of chutes I’d seen to that point.
Once I pictured it all in my head, the rest of the layout had unfolded before me like a once-hidden map.
Clear as a bell. Like I had some hypersensitive instinct of what came next.
It was a priceless skill in this moment when I had to process so much information in such a short time.
One that allowed me to envision exactly where we were in relation to everything else, and would help us navigate our way out of here.
For once, it seemed like I was in a great position to succeed…
Yup, all I had to do was to stab some new friends straight in the back.
By the time I sat down at the dinner table a couple minutes later, my heartbeat had almost returned to its normal rhythm.
Tink was already there with Cissy, who was seated, looking and smelling fresh as a meadow.
Tristan stood with a frying pan in hand, serving up helpings of fish and green beans to go with the little mugs of pea soup already beside each place setting.
“Molly is going to eat with Caleb. He’s feeling poorly tonight,” Pan explained with a wave to the empty chairs as he took his own seat at the head of the table.
“I’m so sorry to hear that. Anything I can do to help?”