Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Peter Pan, Captain Hook, or any of Mr. Barry's other wonderful characters. I write about them solely for my own amusement, and make no profit from it except that which I receive from knowing my writing has been enjoyed by others.
Chapter 8
To Find the Way Back
In the days that followed, Sophia was rarely seen outside of her room. More often than not, when she did appear on deck she perched herself on a tall coil of rope and stared across the water at the island as if she were a trance. Her hair became more and more unkempt, and dark circles appeared beneath her eyes.
On the afternoon that James realized he had not seen her for at least two days, he knocked on the door of her cabin, then let himself in without waiting for an answer. What he found was barely controlled chaos. Books and papers were stacked around the room, and the table where she sat was overflowing. Candle stubs were scattered about her workspace, and three fresh candles burned near the paper she was studying.
"How long has it been since you've eaten?" James asked.
Sophia, who had not been aware of his presence up to this point, jumped and miswrote the letter she was forming.
"This morning? No, maybe yesterday," she said absently.
"I'll not have you making yourself ill over this," James said.
Sophia's hazel eyes blinked owlishly at him from behind her glasses. "Really, James. I'm fine. Very busy, as you can see…" Her eyes shifted between the door and her visitor, plainly indicating that she wished for him to leave.
"Fine, hmm? The word I was going to use was 'obsessed,'" James said. He pulled an apple out of his coat pocket and held it out to her. She hesitated for a moment, then snatched it out of his hands and bit into the red skin hungrily.
"I suppose I am a little hungry. Sometimes I forget when I'm working…"
He pointed at her bed, which was also covered in her research materials. "Do you mind of I sit for a while?" he asked.
"Just… be careful. It may look like a mess, but I know where every scrap of paper is," she said.
James carefully shifted a pile of papers onto the floor and sat down on her bed. He pulled another apple out of his pocket and began to eat it as he watched her work. She was attempting to write and eat the fruit he had brought her at the same time, and her hunger was interfering with her haste in writing. It would have been amusing had it not been for the nervous, feverish look on her face as she wrote.
"Where did all of this come from, anyway?" James asked. Sophia looked up from her writing, her forehead creased in confusion. "All of these books. Are you telling me I had them on the Jolly Roger the whole time? Or… you didn't… summon them, did you?" If Sophia had developed the ability to summon objects to the island that had not been there before, he needed to have a talk with her about improving the ship's artillery.
"No, no summoning," Sophia said. "I… just had to go look for them. It's quite amazing, really. The hold of this ship… I believe it's enchanted."
"This whole island is enchanted, Sophia," James reminded her.
"But your hold is special. Here, think about this. In the time you and your crew have been in Neverland, you must have consumed a vast amount of wine, rum, and other spirits. Tell me, do you manufacture these things for yourself in some place you haven't showed me?"
"Well, no," James said, not quite sure of what she was getting at.
"How about clothing for your men? Shoes? Salt? Sugar? Are you getting those things from the island or making them yourselves?"
"We've never had a lack of any of those things. I suppose I didn't question why we never ran out," he said. The idea that even his ship was susceptible to the unnatural laws that governed Neverland unnerved him. He had thought that the Jolly Roger, at least, was nothing more than a ship.
"Of course you didn't!" Sophia said triumphantly. "You simply send some men down to the hold to get more when you need it. And it's always there. When you needed women's clothes for me, you found them. When you need ammunition for your guns, you find it. And so, when I needed books about magic, spells, and enchantments, I found them. Had to do a good bit of looking first, but…"
James cut her off. "Are you saying that if the need, or the desire, is great enough, the hold will supply us with it?"
"Within reason, I believe so," Sophia said.
"And how does this help us leave the island?" he asked.
Sophia's shoulders slumped and she sighed glumly. "It doesn't. I have realized many things about Neverland that, while they are very interesting, do not help me in the least."
"You will find an answer eventually," he said.
Sophia took off her glasses and rubbed her the spot on her forehead between her eyes. "I wish I had your certainty," she said. "I'm missing something. I feel like it should be obvious, but…" She put her elbows on her desk and rested her chin in her hands. "I simply can't see it."
"Well, depriving yourself of food and proper rest isn't helping anyone," James told her. "Come with me. We can have a late lunch, and afterwards you can get some sleep." Sophia let herself be guided to the door of her cabin. She was in no mood to resist, and had to admit that she was unlikely to come upon the solution in her present state.
-----
Two hours later, James carried Sophia back into her room and gently laid her on the bed. He spread a thin blanket over her sleeping form and sat down to keep watch over her, and insure that she didn't get out of bed the moment he left. However, her sleep was not feigned, and the only sound the Captain heard from her for a good long time was soft, even breathing.
A commotion above deck had him on his feet and alert the second he heard the excited shouting. Sophia sat up and yawned, looking around in confusion for the source of the noise.
"Stay here," Hook told her.
He opened the door, stepped out, and nearly collided with a frantic pirate.
"They caught one, Cap'n!" the sailor shouted. "The landing party caught one!" He pointed at the group disembarking from a boat. Two of the men were holding a struggling Lost Boy between them. The leader of the landing party ran up to Hook.
"Just like you ordered, Sir! Any Lost Boy caught's to be brought here straight away!"
"Tie him up," Hook ordered. "Put him in plain sight. The others will be here soon enough." He turned to face his curious crew. "Prepare for battle!" he yelled. They scattered in every direction, climbing into the rigging, manning the guns, and scurrying to the hold for ammunition.
Sophia, who had crept out of her cabin as soon as she had seen it was safe, was suddenly at his side.
"Go back to your room. I don't want you hurt," Hook said.
"I'm more than capable of defending myself," Sophia told him. "And I want to talk to the boy. He might be able to help me."
"I doubt it," Hook said, but, seeing she wasn't going to be dissuaded, added, "but feel free to try. Just get under cover when the fighting begins."
Sophia took a few steps toward the struggling child, then ran back and kissed him quickly on the cheek. "Watch yourself," she said. "I don't feel like exploring the medicinal uses of magic this evening."
Hook put his hand on the hilt of his sword and drew it out a few inches. A wicked gleam was already dancing in his eyes. "I will be fine. It's Peter Pan who had better watch his back."
He turned and hastened to the prow of the ship, his coat flaring behind him. He put his telescope to his eye, scanning the skies for the first sign of the Lost Boys.
Meanwhile, Sophia knelt at the side of the boy the pirates had captured.
"This isn't the first time you've been nabbed by the pirates, is it?" she asked. He glared at her, but finally shook his head. "Good," she said. "Then, you know that you are in no danger. Your friends are on their way, they'll have a bit of fun crossing swords with the pirates, and you'll all fly off to fight another day."
The boy narrowed his eyes at her. That this grownup woman managed to understand how the games they played worked better than he did himself made him awfully suspicious.
"I'm not going to hurt you," Sophia said. "I just want to ask you something."
The boy twisted his dirty face into a sneer. "I'll never tell you where our hideout is! Never!"
Sophia leaned in closer, and her gentle manner completely evaporated. "Listen to me, little boy. I don't care where your hideout is, and if I did, I could have found it already. Hook doesn't know I could do this, and if you answer my questions, he never will."
"You're bluffing!" the boy said. His face, however, had paled several shades.
"I never bluff," Sophia said. "I'm a horrible liar."
He gave her a barely perceptible nod. "What did you want to ask?"
"Do you know how to leave Neverland?" Sophia asked. She might have thought she had sprouted hands out of her ears from the look he gave her.
"Leave Neverland? Why would I want to do that? It's the best place ever!"
"But Peter Pan leaves sometimes, doesn't he?" Sophia prompted.
"Well… sure… but he's Peter." He stated this as if it was an obvious fact and she were an idiot for overlooking it.
Sophia resisted the urge to sigh. The boy wasn't being nearly as helpful as she thought he might be. "Have any of the other Lost Boys ever gone away?" she asked.
"If one of us really wants to go home, Peter sends fairy guides with them," he told her. "None of us would know the way back, anyway. Not that any of us want to!" Sophia stood, and he peered up at her, still a little frightened. "You won't come find us, then?"
"No. I have more important things to do than chase children," she said. She stood, smoothed the front of her dress, and walked away without another word.
A shout from the lookout had all of the pirates scrambling to get their weapons pointed seaward. Peter Pan and his band were approaching from the open water. The Jolly Roger shuddered as Long Tom discharged a blast into the clouds. Childish laughter filtered down to taunt the pirates.
"Find the range! Shoot them down!" James bellowed over the confusion. Everywhere, sailors began loading muskets and aiming at the soaring shapes. The cannon crew got off another shot, this one as ineffective as the first. Before they had time to reload, the Lost Boys were amongst them. Two Lost Boys who looked like exact replicas of one another landed on either side of their captured comrade. They cut his bonds, tossed him a knife, and the three of them threw themselves into the fray.
Sophia pressed herself up against the wall beside the door to James' cabin and watched. She had little practice in offensive magic, but she had several nasty spells ready, just in case James was ever truly in danger.
In the center of it all, Peter Pan and Hook had found one another, and were engaged in a deadly dance. Peter darted just inside of Hook's range, slashed at him, and sprang backwards into the air. James wasted no movement on striking at his opponent when he knew Pan was out of reach, and waited for the boy to come back down.
"Coward!" Hook spat. "Stop your tricks and face me like a man."
Anger flared in Peter's eyes. "I'm not a man!" he yelled, and dove straight for Hook, his knife raised for the kill. James had ample time to block, and the pirate's sword and the boy's knife came together with the sharp sound of steel on steel.
"Of course you're not," Hook said through clenched teeth. "A grown man would know better than to be so obvious I could block him in my sleep." He leapt forward and pushed Peter back. The boy was thrown off balance, and landed awkwardly a few feet away. Hook was already coming toward him, sword sweeping in a vicious arc. Peter barely rolled out of the way and sprang up, laughing.
"Too slow, Old Man!" he said.
The captain recovered quickly and feinted with his sword, causing Peter to dodge to the right. James immediately slashed at the boy with his hook. The sharp metal tip ripped a few leaves from Peter's clothing, but did nothing more. Each time he failed to hit his smaller adversary, James' eyes grew wilder, Peter's laugh more derisive.
Peter flew a few feet off the ground, beckoning Hook to follow him, always staying just out of reach. He came to stand on the railing, and Hook's sword bit into the wood a split second after Peter darted away. The boy who would not grow up hovered over the water for a moment, grinning at James like a mischievous demon. A few more inches, and Hook would have been able to slice him from neck to navel. If Pan was expecting for his nemesis to fume and rage at his taunting, he was disappointed. The Captain was unperturbed by this most recent turn of events. Instead, a confident, treacherous smile crept across Hook's face. Though he would have savored the irony of killing Pan with the very hook the boy had 'given' him, Hook was not above resorting to other methods. He dropped his sword, reached beneath his coat and pulled a pistol from his belt, already primed and ready. Quickly, he aimed at the center of Peter's chest and fired.
Peter saw Hook move, and reacted on instinct. He threw himself to the side, and the bullet only grazed his ribs. Peter's hand went immediately to his side, and he looked down at the blood on his fingers, surprised. Feeling the sting for the first time, he winced. Peter Pan was not used to pain.
Hook swore and began to reload. "One day soon, I will not miss," he promised Peter.
Pan shot into the air, calling to his friends, "Lost Boys! Rescue's done! Let's go home!"
One by one, the other boys broke off their battles and joined their leader. When they had assembled, Peter Pan crowed in triumph and soared back toward the island.
Hook kept his eyes trained on his departing enemy until the boys disappeared into the forest. Slowly, he uncurled his white-knuckled fingers from the handle of his pistol and surveyed the damage that had been done to his ship. Broken crates and boxes and their contents lay strewn about the deck, and James could see several new rips in the Jolly Roger's sails. His crew had already begun to tend to the wounded, though he didn't see any serious injuries. In the midst of the chaos, a single figure stood still as a marble statue against his room's outside wall.
Sophia had not budged since the fighting had begun. Her face was pale, and her eyes were clouded with anger and frustration. An inner fire still burned at seeing the man she loved engaged in yet another fruitless battle. She looked wild and angry, like a skittish untamed creature ready to bolt or attack at the slightest provocation. To show her that all was well, James held his hand out to her. Hesitantly, she stepped away from the wall and moved toward him. When she stood at his side at last, he kissed her hand. The red had faded from his eyes, and they were once again as blue as the sea.
"You are not hurt?" he asked.
"No. I'm fine. And you?" She brushed his hair from his face, inspecting it for blood.
"I am not hurt," James said.
"When will they come again?" she asked, and pressed her cheek against the soft fabric of his coat.
"They attack without rhyme or reason. They will return when Pan feels the need for another adventure, whenever that may be," he told her. He was not anxious, for he had long ago been forced to resign himself to the haphazard nature of his existence.
"I'm sorry," Sophia said softly. She cast her eyes down to the floor.
"Whatever for?" James put his hand under her chin and gently but insistently made her look up at him.
"I… haven't found a way to get us away from this place. Not yet."
"Don't be sorry. You will find a way. And in the meantime, things will continue on as they always have," he said. Though his voice was calm, Sophia could sense the tension building in his body at the thought of spending day after day fighting with and hunting one small boy.
"But, every day you stay here, Neverland causes you pain," Sophia said. "And I am helpless to stop it."
"I hate this place," he admitted. "And yet, I am bound to it." Sophia gasped and stepped back from him suddenly, her eyes wide.
"That's… it. Or it might be… Why didn't I think of that before?" she asked.
Hook, who had no idea what she was talking about, stared at her in confusion and waited for further explanation.
"Emotion! That's could be it… what ties humans to the island… it would make sense, don't you see?" Sophia said excitedly. From the look on James face, he didn't see, but she continued anyway, thinking out loud rather than actually trying to make things clear to him. "Lost Boys love this place, they wouldn't want to leave. And if they do want to leave, they need a fairy guide. From what I've seen, the Indians are attached to this place, they revere it as their home. But pirates… Pirates hate Neverland, and they can't leave."
"You're saying Neverland knows what is in our minds?" James asked.
"Not… exactly. I've heard of such things, magical barriers that only allow those with the correct state of mind to pass through. I'd have to read…"
Before James had any time to react to any of this, Sophia gathered her skirts in one hand, kissed him quickly on the cheek, and ran back towards her study.
No one saw much of Sophia for the rest of the afternoon. Her door did open once, when the moon had just sunk below the horizon, but the watch did not notice her. Sophia crept across the deck and knelt by the railing, arranging her skirt neatly around her. She stared intently in the water for several minutes until a pair of dark eyes and a head of kelp green hair appeared above the water.
Greetings, Sister, the mermaid said. Speak quickly. We are on the hunt. For a moment, Sophia's mind was filled with the image of a huge school of fish, thousands of silver bodies swimming just beneath the surface. She felt a surge of hunger rise in her, and she shivered. The mermaid broke contact with her and almost managed to look apologetic.
"I was wondering… You and the others like you swim out far beyond the island, don't you?" Sophia asked.
All the waters are our home. But this is a good place.
"But you can leave whenever you'd like," Sophia said.
We have magic in our blood. We are not as men are. The wall that cannot be seen does not affect us. That is what you ask?
Sophia pressed her face against the balusters, trying to get closer. "Then you know what is beyond the waters near the island," she said.
Darkness. More water. Strange lands many months' journey away, even swimming with the current.
A high, keening wail echoed in the distance, and the mermaid hissed and turned in the direction of the call.
My sisters call! she said.
"Do not let me keep you from your hunt. I thank you for speaking with me," Sophia said politely. The mermaid nodded, then arched her back and dove. The silvery green scales of her tailfin caught the starlight for a moment just before she disappeared from sight.
-----
The news that Sophia was close to finding a way to leave the island spread quickly through the crew. When she emerged from her cabin the next morning and went in search of the Captain, the eyes of every man on board followed her anxiously. She was dressed for a journey in a sensible dark blue dress and her old grey sweater. She found James standing at the wheel of his ship, his hand resting lightly on the polished wood. He cut a fine figure, and Sophia smiled. She knew it had been a long time since the Captain had raised the anchor and taken the Jolly Roger out onto the open sea, but if her plan was a success, he would be able to do so very soon. She hurried to his side and tapped him on the shoulder.
"I would like to try an experiment," she said.
"And what might that be?" James asked.
"I'm going to try to get out of sight of Neverland. I believe that if I can keep myself from having any strong feelings connected to the island, I should be able to pass through the barrier. But I'm not sure," she said.
"You'll be needing rowers, then," he said, and turned to summon some of his crew to assist her. Sophia shook her head.
"I need to go alone," she said. "I'm fairly sure that I have the discipline to control my emotions. However, if someone else accompanies me, and I fail, I won't know whether it was me or my companion who triggered the barrier." A muffled chirp came from her sweater's pocket. "That means you too, Hawk," she said, and scooped the fairy out. "You're a magical creature, and if you came with me it would ruin the whole point of the experiment. I need to know I can do this without you." Hawk Dancer nodded reluctantly, then shook a tiny fist at her, admonishing her to be careful.
"If you're going alone, how are you planning on getting off the ship?" James asked. "Surely you aren't planning to row yourself?" He chuckled at the idea of his diminutive Sophia trying to manage one of the longboats on her own.
"I don't need a boat," Sophia said. "I can do this." She held her hands out in front of her, palms up, and began to chant softly. After a few seconds, her feet left the floor and she rose several inches into the air. James blinked. Levitation was not one of the skills that Sophia had displayed before. He opened his mouth to ask her the obvious question, but she cut him off before he could get the words out.
"This is different from what Pan does," she told him. "And no, I can't make you or your crew fly. It's hard enough for me to control my own movements, and I'm the one casting the spell."
"What will happen if this doesn't work?" he asked.
"The same thing that happened to you when you tried to leave and failed, I'd imagine. I'll probably end up right back where I started."
"And if you do pass through the barrier?"
Still floating just above the deck, Sophia moved closer to him. "Once I'm sure I'm out of sight of Neverland, I'll turn around and come back, and then I will find a way to get us all out."
James eyes narrowed with concern. "I cannot tell you what lies beyond the horizon," he said.
"The Sea Between Worlds," Sophia told him. "I've read of it, and I talked to the mermaid again last night and she confirmed my suspicions. It's the great expanse that separates…" she fumbled for the right word, "otherworldly places from the real world and from each other. It's not dangerous, just empty." She put her arms around him. "Don't worry. I'll come back to you." She leaned in to kiss him, and rather enjoyed being his height for once, rather than half a foot shorter.
"I'll be waiting," James said as he let her go.
Sophia rose above the waves, into the clouds, her face schooled into an expression of intense concentration. The pirates crowded onto the deck and pointed at her as she ascended, but she paid them no mind.
As she climbed higher and higher, she kept the same thought in her mind. Neverland was unimportant. She neither hated it nor loved it. She did not care for the little jewel of an island in the least, nor did she despise it. She kept repeating the same thing to herself. Neverland is unimportant. I don't care for it at all. It means nothing to me, no more, no less than any other place. She took all of the apathy she could muster and projected it outward, using it to combat the magical shell that seemed to surround the island. It still remained to be seen whether or not her affection for one of Neverland's residents would affect her attempt. James was important. He was most important. But he was not Neverland. Her love for him was in no way bound up with the place that had brought them together.
She felt herself drifting farther and farther from the ship. The clouds whipped past her, and the wind played with her hair like an affectionate older sibling. Every moment, she felt lighter. Her heart was calm, empty, filled with no emotion that would trigger Neverland's magical barrier. She looked over her shoulder once, and the masts of the Jolly Roger were as small as matchsticks in the distance. For a moment, she felt the tingle of powerful magic passing over her and, but she encountered no resistance. And then, she looked back and the ship and island were gone. She was alone, and she had succeeded. She no longer felt the strange presence of Neverland just under her skin.
"I did it, James," she breathed quietly. She knew something done once could easily be repeated, so all that remained was to return to the ship and find a way to cast a protective spell over the whole vessel, and all of its crew. She turned around to head back, but found herself confounded. A gray fog surrounded her, and she did not remember which direction she had come from. She made an adjustment to the spell that kept her flying, and lowered herself down until her feet touched the surface of a dark, empty sea that reflected nothing.
"I don't know the way back," she whispered.
Hovering just above the Sea Between Worlds, Sophia screamed in frustration and pain. When she could scream no more, cold, dispassionate reason unfolded itself from the corner of her mind where it had been hiding, and she began to think. She had to find a way back.