Chapter 18
A team of children lowered a rope ladder so that Great Waters, the redskin lookout, could climb into their castle. Gwen watched one of the battleship's flanking ships deploy six smaller boats. The dark rubber rafts looked like navy-issue crafts as their engines propelled them toward the cove. Blink had the spyglass, and Gwen listened as she described the zodiac boats in better detail.
“There's six grown-ups aboard each,” Blink announced. “The one in the back middle seems to do the steering. I think they have a formation, but the waters are too choppy.”
“How will we know when they're in range?” one of the little snipers called from her turret. Great Waters, poised with his bow beside Sal, tapped his head.
“You'll know,” Peter told her.
Gwen paid more attention to Goose, who regurgitated everything she heard from the radio, never slowing down even as she tripped over unrecognized words.
“The landers are to fire as soon as they are in range with orders to oblit-er-ate the sand castle! The soldiers are ordered to capture anything magical that they can. They want to preserve the island's re-sour-ces.”
Blink yelled, “They have some pretty big guns on the boats. I think we need to sink them fast.”
Before anyone could respond to this information, the morning dissolved into a fury of machine gun fire. Butted up against the ocean, the castle's wall had stood quiet and serene as shallow waves lapped at it. Now, the three boats with a clear shot of the target had their gunmen fire mercilessly at the castle's defensive wall. The black coats couldn't see the trench resting behind the wall, but if they'd ever built a sand castle, they probably knew to expect one.
The children screamed and began returning fire with their blowguns. They had tipped their little darts with the poison of the somnia lily nectar from deep in the jungles of Neverland. As all the lost children knew, the chemicals caused people to faint on contact. They had no shortage of darts, and fired them off one after another. They managed to strike several of the black coats.
While poison darts rained down on the adults, the invaders also had to worry about Great Waters and his arrows. The redskin fired shot after shot, systematically piercing their inflatable boats with his keen aim and sharp arrowheads.
The gunmen continued to direct the crafts' artillery toward penetrating the sand castle's first defensive wall. The children focused their darts on the gunmen and craft pilots, forcing other soldiers to take over these roles as their companions became casualties, decommissioned by an immediate and deep sleep.
“I'LL GIVE YOU A BED TIME!” Jam screeched, blowing another vengeful dart at the attacking forces. She incapacitated another pilot who slumped into slumber against his steering rod and subsequently took the boat far off course before another solider could wrestle away control of the craft.
The adults did not take this assault lying down. Passenger soldiers pulled out their own rifles and began aiming into the turrets' high windows in an attempt to take out children. Such tiny targets were hard to hit in the stormy waters, but the adults had undergone a massive amount of training for this mission.
“Watch out!” someone screamed.
Gwen saw as Spurt tackled Jam to the ground and a projectile came speeding into the castle. The adults used their ammo conservatively, and when Gwen saw what they were firing, she understood.
While ordinary and heavy fire pelted the castle wall, a more mysterious substance targeted the children. The bullet, the size and shape of a large marble, struck the wall and exploded into liquid after its near-miss with Jam.
It left a bluish residue on the gritty wall of the sand castle, and several of the children left their supporting roles to examine it. The snipers themselves continued blow-darting the adults at cautious intervals. Now that the crafts had come closer, some of the slingshot boys tagged out the snipers and began launching nails at the rubber crafts to expedite their sinking.
Peter reached out and touched the muckish blue residue, and a visible shiver shot down his spine.
“What is it Peter?” Inch asked.
“It's magic suppressant,” he answered. “More toxic and refined than the last time we encountered it.”
Gwen remembered the tasers and assault weapons the adults had used in reality. They had forced flying children to the ground and disabled their motor abilities. The security guard had frozen Newt in the research lab, and many of the prospective lost children had been debilitated by it during the raid with Piper.
Peter wiped the ugly blueness off his hand, on the un-magical surface of his dirty shorts. Where it impacted the sand castle, it ate into the wall like acid. A small spot on the solid and sturdy walls morphed into mere mushy sand.
Gwen knew what it did to children—who were, at heart, more real than magical—but she shuddered to think what it would do to a mermaid or redskin.
“Why aren't they using that against the castle wall?” Rosemary asked.
“They must not have much of it,” Peter remarked. “They're trying to conserve it.”
From the other end of the sandy corridor, Goose howled, “They're under order to release the shadows as soon as they make it to the jungle!”
“Oh no, not shadows!” Inch cried.
“We'll have to stop them before they get that far,” Peter said. “Peach, Pear, and Plum, ready the dungeon! We're going to take all the prisoners it can fit!”
The three would-be sisters all shouted, “Yessir!” in unison and flew down the empty shaft that led to the cavernous dungeon carved beneath the castle.
Blink had her spyglass fixed on the distant main ships. “Two of the ships are veering nouth!”
“Just wait until they get a load of the pirates!” Mint cheered.
“Captain Starkey's boat has got cannons and everything!” Yam exclaimed.
Gwen didn't share their excitement. If two ships took
