Disclaimer:I do not own any of the Inkheart/Inkspell charaters.
A/N: Here's the next chapter, and there's more coming on the way!
Chapter 7
When Meggie woke, the sun was setting, and it was unbearably hot. Her shirt was sticking to her, and her hair was wet with sweat.
"Meggie! Your awake!" Farid said. He was sitting beside her bed, and it was clear he had stayed there waiting for her to wake up. His ruffled hair and worried face proved it.
"Yeah, Farid, I am," she replied.
"How did you faint?" he questioned immediately.
"I don't even know the answer to that, Farid. The only thing I remember is after the cyclone, I was extremely dizzy," she replied while sitting up.
"Maybe it was that and the heat. Well now that your awake, we can go eat. Plus, everyone's on the deck waiting to know what happened," Farid said.
They went to the deck, and, it was true. The adults were eating, but they had a nervous look on their face, and their forks were shaking. Though when they saw Meggie, their worries were gone and a smile wassettled on each oftheir faces.
"Hi everyone—"
"Meggie what—" they chorused.
"If your wondering what happened," Meggie interrupted, "then I can't answer your question, well, not really. I just felt dizzy after the– wow, the sun is bright!" she finished on a new topic.
When she had looked up, she had noticed how large the sun looked. Though at sunset the sun usually looked large,it was nowabnormally large.
"Yeah, can you believe it? The cyclone brought us all the way to our destination!" Resa said happily.
"I just have to do what Dustfinger told me to do, and we're going home— but with a new passenger!" Farid said with a smile brighter than the sun. After a small moment of silence, Meggie said,
"It just seems too simple..." No one noticed her comment, so she sat down at the table.
The passengers ate and talked cheerfully, almost as a type of celebration for their accomplishment. But the whole time, Meggie couldn't stop thinking about all the pictures going through her head. It was as if someone was trying to tell her something, making her put pieces of an unsolved puzzle together.
Frustrated, she raised her head to eat. As she did so, she saw Razz smiling at her.
The mistress was in the best mood of her life. Her cyclone had worked, and it was only a matter of time for her plan to take full effect.
"Yes, soon the Inkworld will come back to its former glory!" she exclaimed.
"It's not that exciting," Basta muttered under his breath.
"What did you say!" the mistress asked in a rage.
"I said, it's the most exciting thing that can happen to my pitiful life," Basta covered.
"That's what I thought you said! Now get on the deck and see how the other ship is doing! For all I know, their ship could be ruined and our plans would be, too," she ordered.
"There's nothing I would enjoy more," Basta replied sarcastically.
The mistress ignored his remark and let him go.
On deck, Basta started barking orders himself, and soon, sitting in front of him was the Inkworld's newest invention, the Spyscope. It was a large telescope, with a large microphone to go with it. To work it, all he had to do was put headphones in his ears, and look into the telescope. The telescope allowed him to spy on his "companions". Before they had left,when Basta had tried to grab Meggie outside the city, he had stuck a nanochip on her shirt, which now allowed him to hear everything they were saying. When he put a pair of headphones in his ears, he heard the group talking:
"If your wondering what happened, then I can't answer your question, well, not really. I just felt dizzy after the– wow, the sun is bright!" that's the brat Meggie! I can't stand that little witch! Basta thought.
"Yeah, can you believe it? The cyclone brought us all the way to our destination!" That's Resa. They don't know the trouble they're in! He thought evilly.
"I just have to do what Dustfinger told me to do, and we're going home— but with a new passenger!" the fire-eater, playing right into our trap! Basta chuckled with this thought.
"It just seems too simple..." the little brat finally has some sense! Basta thought rolling his eyes. As he moved his telescope, he saw the smiling Razz, and became confused.
Who the heck is he? Probably just some kid... the mistress better let me be the one to stick my knife into him! He thought again while barking orders to have the Spyscope put away.
Like an obedient dog, he reported back to the mistress, who thought nothing of the new passenger.
"No matter, he's just another fool we'll have to get rid of!" the mistress said bored.
"When will that happen?" Basta asked.
"When the time comes I will tell you! Now go busy yourself with something else! I have work to do!" the mistress exclaimed.
"Of course," Basta replied. "But, mistress, I think it's time!"
Tonight was the night. The night everyone was waiting for. The night Farid would finally have Dustfinger, Dustfinger would have Farid, Meggie would have Farid, Farid would have her. She confused herself with these thoughts, but it was all true.
Farid was on the deck, with a bare torso as was tradition for fire-eaters. He had just eaten fire honeycombs, and was waiting for nightfall to start his spectacle.
"Are you sure your ready, Farid?" Meggie asked worried.
"Of course! If Dustfinger's coming back when this is all over, I'm willing to do more than this task!"
"Yeah, um... about that Farid," Meggie responded.
"What's wrong?" Farid asked.
"Well, remember when I fainted?"
"Clearly..."
"Well, when we landed, I started seeing all these visions in my mind's eye---like things that've been happening to us on this so called "adventure". It was as if they all could be put together to solve a puzzle to help us," she blurted out quickly.
"Plenty of odd things have happened here, but I don't think you could be becoming psychic! You already know how to read things off the pages!" Farid replied with a smile.
"But, just think!"
"About what? Your visions? I don't think you should worry about them, Meggie!" Farid stated.
"When something happens, be prepared for me to say 'I told you so'!" Meggie responded, and stomped off to her room.
Clearly it was wrong to have gotten mad at Farid over little visions, but she couldn't help herself. Meggie knew she supported Farid when it came to him playing with fire, so why couldn't he support her?
She sat on her bed, trying to straighten out her thoughts. As if it was a reflex, she took out Farid's gifts from their swim in the beach. The fire flower was still glowing brightly, and the reef looked as if had just come out of the water. Thinking of that day lighten Meggie's mood a little.
A sudden stroke of heat brought Meggie out of the real world. Now it was clear Farid had begun without giving a thought to Meggie's sudden outburst. Might as well go and watch, Meggie thought to herself.
Though it was deep into the night, Farid's fire made it look like the sun was rising. He was sweating with the monstrous heat of his fire, but he had a smile on his face as if it was a day on the playground.
A shriek from above drew Meggie's eyes to the skies. Slowly, the fire was turning a pale white, and as it did, the shrieking got louder. Farid tookhis hands aways from his fire, to cover his ears. But the fire stayedas stiff as a wall, and continued togetting whiter.When everyone thought their ears would burst, the shrieks slowly turned into words:
You have accomplished your task,
so your prize will come at long last.
His heart is sore,
and he has betrayed you once more.
He is still intact,
though you might get attacked.
But here he is,
Yes, Dustfinger he is.
Everyone by now had discovered that it was the White Women speaking. But they still shared confused looks thinking what they might mean by their rhyme.
Another ear-shattering shriek worse than the last broke their train of thought. Up in the heavens, the white fire was swirling around in a thin column, representing a tornado. As it picked up speed, everyone on the boat had to grab on to something with white knuckles.
Oh please, make it stop! Meggie prayed. As if in an answer to her prayer, the white tornado slowed to a stop, and they could see something slowly descending. It was still at least a hundred feet up in the air, but Farid recognized the object immediately.
"Dustfinger! You're back!" Farid exclaimed, tears of joy falling down his face.
Ever so slowly, Dustfinger descended onto the deck. He looked stunned, and when his legs touched the deck theywobbled beneath him. He needn't have worried though, because Farid ran to him and embraced him tightly. With Farid's touch, Dustfinger completely came back to the real world, completely intact.
"Farid, my boy! Yes, I'm back!" Dustfinger said with a bigger smile than Farid's.
They shared a moment of joy and hugs, but all of a sudden, a look of dread passed through Dustfinger's face, and he repeated,
"Yes, I'm back..."
Going over to the couple, Meggie struggled to pry Farid away from Dustfinger. Once she had done so, she let Dustfinger sit down, and everyone crowded around him.
"What's wrong, Dustfinger?" Meggie asked.
"There isn't anything wrong, Meggie! How could there be? He's back with us!" Farid replied doubtfully.
"No, Farid, there's something wrong," Mo said, noticing Dustfinger's look of dread.
Dustfinger looked up to face Mo's icy stare. Mo, of all people obviously knew Dustfinger well enough to know there was something very wrong.
"Come clean Dustfinger! Now!" Mo said furiously.
"Ok, Mo, ok! To get back here, I had to pay a price! This lady wanted me to convince you all to come because she wanted you to be here for the arrival of somebody.." Dustfinger replied vaguely.
"Dustfinger, I know you know the exact details to what your talking about, so go ahead and tell us!" Mo rephrased his threat.
"Ok! This mistress has planned this all out! Back up to before you left Roxanne's cottage! She made the trees make you a boat, and they made her one too! Then, she got Basta—"
"Basta!" Mo asked shocked.
"Yes Basta! She got Basta to help her, and then Basta tried to grab Meggie on the cliff so she could be bait incase you decided not to come—"
"Dustfinger! How could you let that happen!" Farid and Meggie chorused.
"Yes, it happened! And this whole ride she's been following you, just a few meters behind, and you haven't noticed! And in just a few minutes, some other people are going to be coming out of the White Womens' lands, the ones she's been waiting for! And after that, that mistress and Basta and their crew are coming in for an attack!" Dustfinger finished his story in a quick pace.
"YOU LUNATIC! YOU TRAITER! I CAN'T BELIEVE I FELT FOR YOUR IDEAS AGAIN! THIS IS THE THOUSANDTH TIME YOU HAVE USED ME TO SAVE YOUR BEHIND!" Mo screamed right into Dustfinger's face. Everyone except Roxanne and Razzhad seen him use a sword and murder many people a while back, butthe look on Mo's face and thesound of his voicewere even more frightening than anything Mo had ever down before.
"Wow, Mortimer, I have never seen you become so furious with Dustfinger before," a voice said behind them.
The voice was cold and frightening, though it had said such little words. It brought back painful memories to everyone, and they were afraid to turn around.
Though once they had, in front of them were Capricorn, Mortola, an unknown woman, Basta, and the rest of the other ship's crew, all armed and ready to attack.
"I told you so, Farid," Meggie whispered.