“Just relax, Gwen,” Lasiandra coaxed. “With the stars' help, I've brought you all you desire. It's just waiting for you to wake up and seize it. Everything you want is here now.”
Her head seemed to spin clockwise, but everything in her vision seemed spun counterclockwise. Nothing made sense, but Lasiandra was speaking of desires. She spoke of everything Gwen had ever wanted. The girl choked before she could force her question out.
“Where's Jay?” Gwen gasped. Lasiandra had promised to protect him, to get him home safe, to do what he asked of her…
But Lasiandra was no longer a mermaid. She was a person, and people lied. “I'm sorry, Gwen,” she apologized, grabbing Gwen by the hair and forcing her into the water. Her face hit the water, her friend's voice the last thing she heard before the water blotted everything out. “You'll thank me for this someday.”
Nothing followed but the breathless struggle to break out of Lasiandra's hold and surface out of the water. She fought and fought, but hopelessness closed in as everything in her throbbing head and exhausted body got harder, slower, and darker.
And then there wasn't anything.
Chapter 28
“Gwen? Gwen? Come on, Gwen. Wake up.”
She heard fear in his voice. Gwen could tell, even before she attached the voice to a person, that someone feared she wouldn't wake up.
She didn't want to wake up. Her head hurt and she had endured a horrible nightmare. She wanted to escape the nightmare, into dreams. Where could she go but dreams when she knew she was still in Neverland? She didn't want to wake up, but she didn't want him to worry. She wanted to let him know she was only looking for better dreams. The worst of it had passed if she could dream now, and maybe find a Neverland in her mind didn't have nearly as much treachery.
She turned her head into him, nestling into the arms that held her. She didn't even notice he was soaking wet. After all, so was she.
She heard him sigh, and she could feel the strength of his relief through his chest as his lungs exhaled. “I was really worried about you for a minute there, Gwen.”
She opened her eyes. She saw two skies, two shorelines, and two Starkeys holding her. Everything appeared in subtle double. The images almost matched up, almost formed one picture, but everything fell a little off kilter. She tried to focus her eyes on Starkey and reduce the effect, but the pain in her head intensified, punishing her for the effort.
“Are you hurt?” he asked her.
“I hit my head…”
“Okay, you can talk. That's a good sign.” He started walking, wading through the water as he carting her in his arms. Her waterlogged satchel dragged behind her on the water. “We're going to get you something to eat and have you lie down for a bit. I think you might have a concussion, Gwendolyn.”
Confused by his use of we, Gwen tipped her head just enough to see two pirates approaching in a small boat. No longer confined to their dinghies, they piloted one of the black coats' motorized beach landers.
One shouted over to them, his words weighed down with a heavy French accent. “She awake? If she isn't, we can use one of Fishface Fletcher's socks. It's no smelling salts, but it'll do the trick.”
“How did you get one of their boats…?” Gwen muttered. Pirates in naval beach landers seemed out of place.
“We're pirates,” Starkey told her, smiling. “We stole it.”
The two pirates piloted the mechanical craft remarkably well for seafarers who looked like they'd never seen so much as an electric light. They beached, and Starkey carried Gwen over to the commandeered raft as the puttering engine idled.
“Mr. Starkey… you were right,” Gwen said. She felt like she was crying, but she couldn't tell. “You can't trust a mermaid.”
“Ah, so that's what this is,” Starkey sighed. The French pirate with the sharp blond mustache helped him as he lowered Gwen into the boat. “I'm sorry today of all days the mermaids came to reckon with you.”
“She tried to drown me!” Gwen cried, but her voice stayed sad and meek. Nothing humbled a girl like a betrayal, so swift and total.
“Nah, lass,” the swollen-faced and hoarse-voiced pirate told her. “If a mermaid tried to drown ye, ye'd be drowned.”
The other pirate agreed, “Oui, it's true. It's lucky that Capitan spotted you while we were hauling prisoners off the island.”
“Take us back to the ship, Fishface,” Starkey instructed.
“Aye, aye, Captain,” he croaked.
“No…” Gwen objected, weak and in pain. “I need to find Peter. I need his help.”
“You need rest,” Starkey told her. “You're not a child, Gwen. You can't run around pretending you're invincible. Your head needs time to recover. You've got bump the size of a blueberry there.” He put his hand on her head and checked the swelling again. She pulled back and yelped—her injury was unbearably sore to the touch.
The boat whizzed along, the lightweight craft bouncing as it pushed past the moderate waves of the sea's surface. A wretched feeling of nausea seized her. The jarring motion of the boat in conjunction with her dizzying headache made her feel trapped on a roller coaster that spun and moved in opposing directions
She couldn't argue with Starkey while the wind whipped by, too loud and fast to hold a conversation. She held tight to the boat's ropes, fearing she would fall off if they hit a large enough wave. The boat continued to crash through the surf toward the towering Grammarian, and the cannonfire bellowed on the other side.
The crew saw them approach, and threw down the ladder. “Lacroix, hold her steady. You go up first, Fishface,” Starkey told the ugly pirate. “Gwen and I will follow.”
She watched Fishface Fletcher effortlessly climb the ladder. She envisioned herself trying to get up, one rung at a time, like a sloth on a bad day. She didn't think she
