Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Inkheart/Inkspell characters (but the mistress and Razz are mine)
A/N: Here's the next chapter.Hope you like it! I'd also like to give a shout-out to Duckweed, she made me fix it to make it this good.
Chapter 8
"Well, well! Looks like you are fools! And looks like my plan worked! Oh, but I have to give Dustfinger some credit, can't take it all for myself!" Capricorn said.
"Hello Capricorn," Dustfinger said with an exaggerated fake cheer.
"And what about me?" the anonymous mistress replied.
"Oh, I'm sorry, dear! I'd like to introduce my godchild," Capricorn said.
"Godchild! How does that work out?" Mo asked amazed.
"Yes, I am his godchild! Do you have a problem with this?" the mistress asked, and without waiting for a reply, she continued, "It just so happens that Capricorn took me in from the streets and let me live in his fortress years back, saying that I was his godchild. But that was before you evil bookworms brought him to your world!"
"He liked our world, just so you know little mistress! Besides, it was an accident!" Meggie replied, standing up for Mo and returning the mistress's icy stare.
"You stop your babbling! You should respect me, and my godfather! Now, we're not here to dwell on the past, we're here to get my— I mean to say, our— revenge! Out of the goodness of my heart, I'm going to give you five seconds to run before we begin the siege!" the mistress said villainously.
"Well spoken, Calamita!" Capricorn said with a sickening pride.
The fact that Capricorn raised a child was disturbing, but his vile character trait was resembled easily in the so-called Calamita. However, once this thought had passed, they began to notice their death defying situation. Everyone looked around hurriedly and in vain for a spot to hide in, or a place to run to. But the problem was, they were on a boat in the middle of the ocean. There weren't many places to run towards.
Dustfinger was unfortunately ordered to stand his ground, and he did so with the same look a mistreated puppy would give you. To their surprise, everyone else was actually moving, instead of glued to the floor in fright. Mo and Farid decided quickly to dive overboard, seeing there was no where else to go. But Roxane had something else on her mind, and she brought Resa and Meggie with her.
"Why didn't we just dive overboard like Farid and Mo?" Meggie asked, partly complaining, partly stating the obvious.
"Because there's a better place to hide than holding your breath underwater," Roxane replied.
"Where?" Resa asked. Meggie looked at her accusingly because she had thought she would know.
"A hidden compartment in your room," Roxane said.
"Ok... How come you haven't told me about it?" Meggie asked. They had arrived in Meggie room, and Roxane was touching Meggie's bed was against. With a sudden pop, a door a little larger than a cabinet popped open. Roxane crawled inside, trying her best not to take up too much room. Then she said,
"I didn't need to tell you about it because I wasn't planning to be attacked by the resurrected Capricorn!" They heard voices on deck, so Resa quickly climbed in, followed by Meggie.
"Your on my foot!"
"Who's finger is in my eye?
"Who just elbowed me?"
There were a lot of these questions until Roxane whispered hardly audibly,
"We're all cramped, but we should stop before they hear us."
Their silence showed their agreement. The new silence coming from the deck made their hearts pop out of their chests, all three of them thinking that one of Capricorn's henchmen were bound to find their hiding spot sooner or later. When they had been there for a while Meggie said,
"Wait, we left Razz!"
"No, Meggie! Don't leave this compartment! Anyways, he's probably with Farid and Mo!" Resa said trying to sound stern, but Meggie could hear the panic in her voice.
"How do we know that for sure? And I'm not gonna just let him die! He would have been better off with a lifetime on Blue Nightmare!" Meggie said fiercely. She heard Resa beginning to mutter something in reply, but she didn't wait to hear the end.
She opened the door a crack, checking to see the coast was clear. She was surprised with herself for the bravery she was showing, though behind the mask, she wanted to crawl back into their hiding place, safe and sound.
When she was all the way out, with the door closed behind her, it was so quiet that she could of sworn the pursuers had left. Then—
"Hello, princess!"
"Oh Lord!" In front of her was Basta, with his knife at the ready. He looked at the fear in her eyes with a smirk on his face. He took a swing with his knife, looking as graceful as a swan. Meggie ducked, but Basta still got a large lock of hair.
"You can try, but you eventually won't be able to doge my knife!" Basta said while giving another swing of his knife.
Meggie was horrified, though she had no intention of showing it. Pictures of the war at the end of the Adderhead's castle went through her mind— especially a glimpse of Farid with a knife in side. She frantically moved around the room, trying to keep one eye on Basta, and the other on his knife.
"Ha!" Basta said getting her full attention. She moved only about a centimeter, and his knife slashed across her arm and into the wall behind her. She crawled over to her bed, trying her best to ignore the excruciating pain in her arm. When she turned to spot Basta, he was in front of her, his hands on her throat before she could flinch.
"This is the end of you, princess!" Basta exclaimed.
She was aware that she was nearing the end of consciousness, perhaps maybe the end of her life. In a small attempt to free herself, she took the piece coral and the fire flower from her bed. Her world saw her world darkening, but she gave Basta a weak hit with her "weapons".
This is the end, Meggie thought, but then she felt Basta loosen his grip on her throat, and she heard a cry of pain coming from him. When she looked at him, she saw him backing away, taking his hands off her throat completely. She lay on the floor, gasping for breath, with her prize still in her hand. The only odd thing she had noticed was the intense heat she felt coming from her little weapons.
Looking at it, she saw a blast of red light coming from her gifts. The intense heat got stronger, but she kept her grip on them tight. The stronger the light and heat got, the farther Basta had to venture away from it. Meggie used the few strength she had left to get up, and that gave her improved weapons more power. It gave off a small wave of power, getting bigger the stronger Meggie's grip became. Then, the strongest wave of power came from her weapons, and it threw Basta up and threw the ceiling, and a large splash came to Meggie's ears, signaling Basta's semi-defeat.
"You can come out now Resa and Roxane," she said amazed and warily.
They came out, with a questioning look. As if to prove it's brilliance, it gave off one more wave of power, which almost blinded all three of them. When they were able to open their eyes, Meggie saw that the two gifts had been combined, forming a staff. The piece of coral had expanded to form the actual staff, and the flower had somehow turned into a gold engravement. It was the most beautiful thing any of them had laid their eyes on.
"What happened?" Resa asked amazed.
"I don't know... I was just trying to protect myself from Basta using Farid's gifts, and they combined themselves..."
"Let me see it," Roxane said.
Meggie handed her the wand, but she let it got with a yelp as if it was a hot potato. She couldn't touch it.
"Wow... that is a powerful staff, Meggie! I've never seen anything like it..." Roxane replied with the same amazement as Meggie.
"When did Farid give you those? I never saw him do it," Resa asked with a look only mothers gave to their children.
"Long story..." Meggie replied blushing.
"Short version," Resa retorted.
"Look, we don't have time! The others are still out there!" Roxane interrupted.
"They're okay, they haven't been hurt," someone said.
When they turned, they saw Razz giving them the same smile he had given Meggie before, and the trio gave him a confused stare in return.
"You are no ordinary kid, are you Razz?" Resa asked.
"That may be true, but I have something to say," he replied, walking over to Meggie. "Use your staff wisely, but do not use it selfishly. Otherwise, I'm finished here..." he finished. Slowly, he vanished, as if he was just a figure in a dream.
"We should go help the others and think about this later," Meggie said breaking their momentary silence.
"Agreed."
The three of them walked onto the deck cautiously, looking over their shoulders with every creak of the floor. It was a very short distance to the deck, but it seemed to take them hours to get there. Once they had, the pictures of pure chaos evaporated from their heads, seeing that the only thing happening was Capricorn talking to his crew, with Dustfinger tied up behind him.
They ducked back into the hallway, not chancing being seen.
"What should we do?" Roxane asked.
"Find Farid and Mo," Resa replied stating the obvious.
"How?" Meggie asked. They stood thinking for a small moment, but a small knock interrupted their thoughts. Then:
"Down here!" It was Farid below the deck.
"Oh! Of course! I forgot about that trap door!" Roxane said, making it sound like she forgot where she put her pen.
"Anything else on this ship you haven't bothered telling us?" Meggie asked.
Roxane ignored the question and opened up the well concealed trap door. Out of it came Farid and Mo, both dripping wet from their swim.
"Have they bothered to chase you at all yet?" Mo asked.
"Basta did, but I assume he was disobeying orders," Meggie replied.
"Is he the one that gave you that gash on your arm?" Farid asked, putting a finger to the cut. "Wait, what's that?" Farid asked, taking the magic staff from out of her hands. The original trio waited for him to yelp in pain, but nothing happened.
"How did you do that? Are you playing some trick?" Roxane asked sternly.
"What did I do?"
"Touch the staff!"
"Is there something bad about it?" Farid asked smirking.
"This is very strange! Neither of us were able to touch the staff, but you can!" Roxane said bewildered.
"But Meggie can, too..." he replied.
"But Meggie made the staff!"
"How? And why can't any of you touch it?" Farid questioned.
"It burns our hands," Resa replied before Roxane could become tempered.
"But what is it made of? Besides, it might just be meant for—"
A sudden round of movements from on deck stopped Farid in mid-sentence. With one on top of the other, they gathered round to take a peek of the intruders on deck.
"Find them! They couldn't have gone far! I want half of you onboard, and the other half of you in the water!" Capricorn ordered his crew.
Everyone went off, leaving Capricorn, the Magpie, and the mistress to stand semi-patiently to supervise their crew.
"I found them!" a crew-member barked, making the "hidden" jump.
"Oh boy!" Farid said.
"Split up and run!" Mo instructed.
They did as they were told, running for their lives, all in different directions. If someone had a sky-view of their frantic running, it would have looked like ants trying to escape a boy with a magnifying glass. Everyone had a pursuer, each of them very deadly with an ax, sword, or knife.
Some tried to grab Meggie, but she kept them at a distance with her staff, until none of them were willing to touch her. Mo used fighting skills that had been noticed by everyone just a while ago. Resa and Roxane paired up, trying their best to keep their pursuers at bay.
But Farid was chased by the worst, a battered looking Basta, with his knife at the ready. After a series of dodges and running, they both ended up in the empty kitchen, containing nothing except the magic tray.
Oh lord, why me! There has to be a damn weapon in here somewhere! Farid thought panicking, while dodging Basta's knife.
"You're just like you lover Meggie! Keep dodging, but I'll get you eventually!" Basta said.
"That's where your wrong, since you never got to sticking your knife in her back!" Farid retorted.
That was the wrong thing to say. It enraged Basta ten times more than he already was, giving Farid little time to avoid his knife. There were swings of his knife that came dangerously close, but by sure luck Basta missed. Eventually, Farid ended up taking the tray as a shield, but Basta battered that up quickly.
Please give me a weapon! he kept pleading to God, but he seemed to be busy. Then, Basta took his knife, hitting it smack dab in the center of the tray. He pushed down on his knife with all his might, making Farid slowly sink to the floor with the pressure. When Farid was all the way on the floor, the tray right above his head, he saw a knife forming on the tray. It had a red handle with a flower engraved on it, with the sharpest blade he had ever seen. Then, it slowly dropped onto his lap, like a leaf in the wind. This doesn't just give out food, Farid thought cheerfully.
He put the tray back onto the counter and blocked off Basta's knife with his. The sharp blade proved it's quality by cutting through Basta's knife like it was an apple.
"NO! My knife! Your gonna pay fire-eater!" Basta screamed, first with a look of sadness, then with a look of rage.
Basta went to swing a fist at him, but Farid dodged him, and ran out the door, light-footed as always.
Meanwhile, Mo, Resa and Roxane were still on deck, and had ended up being chased by the same henchman. The rest of Capricorn's henchman had tried to capture Meggie, but her staff was still at her aid. Now the henchmen were running around just as frantically Mo and the rest had started off.
Now Farid joined Meggie with a look of contempt.
"Any bruises, broken bones?" Meggie asked.
"Not one!" Farid replied.
Then, a group of Capricorn's henchmen pushed them apart in their state of panic. When she tried to get back to his side, another group pushed passed her, and then another, followed by another.
"THAT'S IT!" Meggie said furiously. Then, with all her might, she brought her staff down onto the deck. At first the wave of power wasn't strong enough, but Farid came to the rescue. He put his hand on the staff too, and together, using all their will-power, a wave of power slowly got stronger, and stronger. Eventually, it covered the whole boat, throwing off all the enemies, and keeping on all friends.
The attack was over. The henchmen started swimming away from the ship, with no interest shown for what Capricorn would do to them.
Capricorn! Meggie thought again. None of them had bothered to think about what had happened to him, the Magpie, and Calamita— or what revenge they would seek.
"YOU BOOKWORM IDIOTS!" that was definitely Capricorn.
Meggie determinedly put her staff in the water, willing it to give them a speedy boost towards the nearest island. To her surprise, with a gentle hum, the boat started moving south, working just like a motorboat.
"Thank God that's over," Dustfinger said, getting a look of fury from everyone on the ship.