Page 79 of Witches of Dubious Origin
We hurried to the side of the ship where one of the lifeboats was missing. I glanced over the side and Olive was sitting in the boat, which was dangling from the cables that held it. She looked completely calm, as if she were out for a leisurely ride in a canoe instead of being buffeted by the wind and rain and motion of the ferry as it sliced through the waves. Without hesitation, Eloise scrambled over the side and took a seat. I glanced quickly at Jasper and he nodded.
I clutched my backpack to my chest, holding the family grimoire close, and followed Eloise. As soon as I was seated, Jasper climbed aboard and lowered us into the water with a splash. Once the cables were disconnected, Jasper took control of the small outboard motor on the back of the boat.
We jetted away from the ferry as if…well, as if pirates were after us. Despite the cold, I felt my heart resume beating in my chest and I drew in a steadying breath. With the pirates trapped on the other side of the ferry, I felt confident we’d escaped. We were going to be all right.
Jasper opened up the small engine and we veered away from the ferry toward the island in the distance. I glanced back to confirm the pirates were gone. But they weren’t.
Instead, much to my horror, the pirate ship passed right through the ferry. The pirates were not undead as I’d assumed. They were ghost pirates on a ghost ship.
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“Bugger it! They’re ghost pirates!” Jasper shouted. “Hang on tight!” He turned the motor on high and we bounced over the waves, smacking down on the surface of the water so hard my teeth clacked together. I clutched the boat’s side, fearing I’d bounce right out of it.
Olive didn’t flinch at the sight of the ship. Instead, she said, “Get us to shore. We’ll be safe there.”
“Safe from that?” I cried, gesturing wildly at the ship rapidly closing in on us. “They’re saber-wielding ghosts!”
“Yes, I’m aware. Ghosts haunt the living either because they died a horrific death”—she paused to glance at the ship—“which in this case seems likely, or because they have unfinished business. Judging by the fact that none of them have jumped overboard to get to you, I suspect they’re bound to their ship.”
She lowered her sunglasses, which were suspiciously devoid of the water droplets that covered everything else, and studied the pirates with a narrowed gaze. Without looking away from the ship, she reached into the pocket of herovercoat and pulled out several small nutmeg shells that resembled mini conchs. She handed one to each of us. “Keep it on your person and the ghosts can’t harm you.”
I studied it, noting the thick red thread tied around the delicate brown-and-white shell. The scent of rosemary wafted up from the shell and I could see that a small sprig had been stuffed inside and secured by the thread.
Jasper pocketed his, as did Eloise. I followed suit, very doubtful that a shell the size of a walnut could protect me from a ship full of irate ghost pirates, but I wasn’t about to quibble as we raced for our lives.
I wanted to keep my gaze on Hagshill Isle as it grew larger on the horizon, but I compulsively glanced back to track the progress of the ghost ship. Gliding unimpeded over the water, it was moving more swiftly than us. There was no way we were going to make landfall before they overtook us. I felt like throwing up my coffee, but there was no time.
“What else can we do?” I asked Olive, raising my voice to be heard over the engine’s roar and the whipping wind.
She glanced at me and her dark eyes were solemn when she said, “Most likely, they’re after that book of yours. If you throw it in the sea, they might go after it instead of us.”
I felt a shiver from the backpack I’d put on backward to secure it to my chest. Was the book afraid? Instinctively, I clutched it closer and shook my head. “Unacceptable.”
Olive’s mouth tipped up in one corner a mere millimeter or two. I supposed it could have been a grimace from the impact the boat had on the water, but I preferred to believe it was approval.
“All right, then we have to scare them off,” Olive declared.
“I don’t think this boat has the fearsome quality you’re looking for in a watercraft,” Jasper shouted.
“It doesn’t need it,” Olive said. “It just needs an illusion.”
I glanced at Eloise, who was watching Olive with a curious expression. As we watched, Olive tucked her sunglasses into her pocket and moved to stand in the center of our boat. Over her shoulder, she yelled, “Hold her steady.”
Jasper nodded and turned toward the island. He slowed the speed just enough to keep the boat from slapping against the surface. I glanced at the pirate ship and noted it was closing the gap. Olive spread her arms wide, tipping her face up to the sky. The wind pulled at her coat and tugged her hair loose, letting it whip about her head and shoulders.
Fog appeared between her outstretched hands, materializing as if she’d fashioned it out of the air. As it was Olive, maybe she had. I would expect no less from her at this point. The fog mushroomed, enveloping our little boat in a thick bank. As I watched, it formed the shape of a dragon. I felt my mouth go slack as the head of the beast moved forward to loom over the ghost ship. We could hear shouts and curses from the ship, which appeared to have slowed as the body of the dragon spread out across the water, hiding us from view.
“That should do it.” Olive sat down and Jasper revved the boat back into a driving pace.
I had no idea how he was navigating us to the island through the blanket of gray that enveloped us, but it was clear he knew what he was doing. A surge of relief for the competency of those around me filled me to the brim.
It was then that a cannonball landed in the water off thestarboard side of the boat, sending up a massive splash and taking my relief with it.
“Punch it, Griffin!” Olive ordered.
Jasper shoved the throttle into a higher gear and we went back to slamming our way across the water toward the island. I heard an eerie laugh behind us and a shiver of dread whispered down my spine. They were just ghosts, I told myself. Specters. They couldn’t actually hurt us, could they?
“Wait!” I turned to Olive. “How could they be ghosts on a ghost ship that passed through another ship and have actual cannonballs that fire into the water? That makes no sense.”
