mad old bat!’ he snarled.
That last strike had evaporated Lex’s previous good humour. Who would have thought one old woman could have given Lex Trent so much trouble? His temper flared angrily at the thought. ‘How does the ship run?’ he asked.
‘Horrible boy! I’ll never tell you! Never!’ the crone wept. ‘Bessa is a loyal servant to her master!’
Lex looked down as something brushed against his legs. It was the crone’s grey cat. It must have fallen from her shoulders when she lost her balance. A thought occurred to Lex and a nasty smile tugged at his mouth. He picked up the animal and in a few strides he was at the edge of the ship, his arm outstretched over the side with the terrified cat dangling in his hand, so many feet above the ocean below.
The crone screamed in horror.
‘How does it run?’ Lex asked with an uncharacteristic maliciousness.
‘Piewacket!’ the old woman sobbed. ‘Don’t hurt him! Don’t drop him! He fears the water! He cannot swim!’
‘I won’t be able to help it in a minute, the way he’s thrashing around,’ Lex said, struggling to maintain his grip on the frantic animal. ‘For God’s sake, just tell me how to get the ship moving!’
‘That’s enough, Lex!’ Schmidt snapped. ‘Put the cat down!’
‘How does the ship work?’ Lex asked again, staring at the crone.
‘I will tell you. Only give Piewacket back to me and I will tell you!’
Lex slowly retracted his arm, bringing the cat back over the side of the boat. He had meant to maintain his grip on the animal but disgruntled cats are not so easy to keep hold of without being scratched to pieces and he dropped the creature instinctively as it succeeded in sinking its claws into his arm.
Lex cursed as it scampered back to the crone, jumping onto her humped back and draping itself round her shoulders once again, staring evilly at Lex with its ears flat against its ugly head.
‘It’s a magical key, down below,’ the crone said. ‘For all the good the knowledge will do you, nasty boy; my master has taken the key with him!’
‘Show me.’
Mr Schmidt protested most vigorously as Lex forced the old crone before them, down the maze of mirrored hallways within the great ship. Lex had given her one of her sticks back but the other he had snatched from Schmidt and thrown into the sea. She was unable to attack them with just the one stick for she needed it to keep her balance. Schmidt had protested about that, too, but Lex had cut him off short with a bit of timely truth: ‘We have to be in Khestrii by sunset tomorrow or else we’ll be too late to reach the Black Tower. There’s no way of getting there that fast without using magical means.’
‘Black Tower? What’s that got to do with anything? What are you babbling about?’ the lawyer asked, staring at him suspiciously. ‘I will not be made an accomplice in such reprehensible criminal activity!’
‘If you don’t come with me to Khestrii then you won’t ever be free of the bracelets,’ Lex said. ‘You’ll be stuck with me, Mr Schmidt, until the end of your days. However long that might be. Don’t worry about stealing the ship,’ he winked at him. ‘I won’t tell anybody you helped.’
He pushed the crone on down the corridor as she led them to the ‘Bone Room’, as she called it. It had been an enjoyable thing, watching Schmidt wrestle with himself over the problem. For Lex was right. Unless they stole this ship, right now, then they would not get to Khestrii for a very long time. It could take weeks — months, even. Mr Schmidt was a moral man. He was against crime. But he didn’t want to be stuck with a body that was not his own, joined to a person that he loathed, saddled with the company of a selfish, contemptible fool for the rest of his life. And they had come this far already…
‘We’re not stealing it,’ he said at last. ‘We’re just borrowing it.’
‘It starts with all of us like that,’ Lex said, grinning.
It was not long before they were both completely disoriented because of the cursed mirrors that were everywhere. Eventually the crone stopped and pushed open a mirrored door and they stepped into a cream-coloured room, made entirely of ivory. They must have ended up at the top of the ship for panoramic windows ran all the way round the circular room, showing the view of the sea stretching out before them to one side, the sprawling docks to the other.
The walls, the floor and the window seat running around the panoramic windows were all made from the same polished ivory. The large floor was bare but for an ivory basin stood on a pedestal in the centre of the room. When Lex walked over to it he saw that it held salt water.
‘The master’s key goes in there,’ Bessa crowed. ‘His magic bone is the key for the Bone Room that makes the ship fly. It is a magic bone, shaped like a fish. He took it with him. You cannot work the ship without it,’ she finished triumphantly.
‘Magic bone,’ Lex muttered, fingering the Wishing Swanns through their pouch in his pocket and taking in the ivory room.
He turned with a smile to the crone. ‘Tell me, Bessa, does it have to be a particular magic bone or will any one do?’
The crone stared at him suspiciously. ‘You have no magic bone, horrible boy. Only great enchanters have them, horrible liar!’
Lex laughed softly as he drew the velvet pouch out of his pocket and tipped the three beautiful Swanns out onto the palm of his hand. There was the black obelisk one and the one carved from deep red bloodstone. But it was the pale cream Swann made from ivory that he selected. He glanced at the trembling crone. ‘As luck would have it,’ he said with a grin, ‘I happen to have a little magic bone of my own right here.’
He ignored the crone’s little screech of alarm…
… and dropped the ivory Swann into the basin.
Dockhands and sailors ducked for cover as great wooden shards splintered in all directions. A great chunk of the harbour was ripped away by one of the enchanted boats suddenly soaring out over the sea, easily tearing free of the ropes that anchored it and taking half the harbour with it.
Wooden splinters crashed through the shut-up stalls of the midnight market and embedded themselves in the hulls of the other boats anchored in the harbour. Lex, Schmidt and Bessa were all thrown to the ivory floor with the vicious suddenness of the movement, water sloshing over from the basin in the centre and Bessa’s one remaining cane skittering across the well-polished floor.
Lex recovered first, pulling himself up by one of the window seats and staring back at the chaotic harbour as the ship flew ever further away, not even touching the waves beneath them. He took in the damage that had been done by virtue of the great ship’s strength and laughed delightedly. ‘I hope we didn’t impale anybody back there.’
Schmidt staggered to his feet and joined Lex at the window, gasping in horror at the damage that had been done.
‘My God, Lex, don’t you care anything for the safety of other people?’
Lex waved a hand dismissively. ‘I’m sure no one was hurt,’ he said, stepping over the sprawled crone to the basin and looking in at the Swann resting on the bottom.
After that sudden shock of movement the boat seemed remarkably calm considering the speed at which it was travelling. There was no rocking on the waves as there had been on the gypsy ship for this magical boat was hardly sailing at all; it was flying over the restless ocean, not even touching the water.
‘How do you get it to stop?’ Lex asked the crone.
But even as he spoke the words, the ship slowed rapidly until it had come to a complete halt, hovering over the waves, the harbour now some way behind them.
‘Aha,’ Lex said with a slow grin.
‘It reads the mind of the key holder,’ Bessa said miserably.
‘What are you stopping for anyway? I thought you were all eager to be away?’ Schmidt asked.
‘Yes, but we don’t want any unwanted passengers, Monty,’ Lex said, smiling horribly at the old crone.
Half an hour later, Bessa was sat hunched up in her basket, which was floating on the surface of the ocean next to the great ship. They’d lowered her down over the side with ropes, having been forced to use the basket in the absence of any lifeboats.
