‘No it isn’t,’ Pod said, embarrassed, in case Will had taken it as a slight.
‘It is if you compare it to a cruise ship,’ Will said, unconcerned. ‘But it’s big enough for us. I’m Will.’
‘I’m Essie,’ said Essie, smiling at Blossom encouragingly. ‘I’m so excited to meet you!’
Blossom blinked at them both uncertainly. ‘Hi,’ she said.
‘Pod stinks!’ Graham rasped.
Blossom’s eyes widened. ‘Is that a talking bird? What else can it say?’
Graham ruffled his feathers. ‘Anything it wants,’ he said haughtily.
‘No offence, but you do pong,’ Will said. ‘What happened?’
‘Maybe we should have a shower,’ Pod said, ‘and then we can tell you the whole story.’
He took Blossom down to the heads and turned the shower on. ‘Do you want to go first?’ he asked.
‘Sure,’ Blossom said. She shucked off her clothes and stepped under the water. After a minute or two she opened her eyes again and noticed Essie’s shampoo and conditioner. ‘Can I use these?’ she asked.
‘I guess,’ Pod said.
She mixed them both together and lathered herself with them all over, making fragrant clouds of bubbles. When she was about to pour out a second round—which would have emptied the bottles—Pod called time. ‘I think you’re clean enough now,’ he said.
Reluctantly Blossom got out of the water and Pod stepped in, washing the garbage stink out of his hair and from under his fingernails until he was clean again. Then he quickly rinsed his clothes out too.
When he stepped out of the shower, Blossom was still standing there wrapped in a towel. ‘I’m not putting that thing on ever again,’ she said, prodding her discarded uniform with her toe.
‘Maybe Essie has something you could borrow,’ Pod said.
He called up the stairs for Essie; moments later she appeared. ‘Of course you can borrow something,’ she said.
She took Blossom into the cabin she shared with Annalie. Neither of them had brought a lot of clothes with them, but what they did have was stashed in a locker. She began looking for something that might fit Blossom, who was lean and lanky like Pod, but Blossom had already seen what she wanted.
‘What about these?’ she asked excitedly.
She pulled out the sparkly jeans and top Essie had been wearing the night she and Annalie ran away from school. Essie hadn’t worn them for a while—the sequins made her feel too conspicuous, and the jeans had been a bit hot for the Moon Islands—but it had been one of her favourite outfits once, and besides, the jeans were designer, and expensive. ‘Oh—’ she said.
But then she saw the look of longing on Blossom’s face, and thought about how she’d feel if she was a recently freed slave, and she said, ‘Well, okay. Sure.’
Blossom looked gleeful. The towel dropped to the ground. She began to get dressed. Essie left her to it.
On her way out, she told Pod, ‘We got the ransom money. We need to go back to Brundisi to get Annalie. You’d better tell Blossom we’re leaving.’
‘Okay,’ Pod said. He got an uneasy feeling as he wondered how to break this news to his sister.
Soon Blossom appeared, ready to show herself off. ‘How do I look?’
‘Fancy,’ he said.
She drew closer and lowered her voice, even though the others were up on deck and could not hear them. ‘Those people,’ she said. ‘Who are they?’
‘I told you,’ Pod said. ‘They’re my friends.’
‘But did they buy you or what?’
‘Of course not!’ Pod said. ‘Actually, they rescued me. My last master was a pirate, and he threw me overboard. These guys found me in the middle of the ocean.’
‘Serious?’ Blossom said.
‘Serious,’ Pod said.
‘So now you work for them?’
‘We all work together.’
Blossom’s brow knitted. It still wasn’t quite making sense to her. ‘So who’s their master? Whose boat is this?’
‘It belongs to Will and Annalie’s dad. He’s missing, and we’re looking for him.’
‘I thought the girl’s name was Essie?’
‘It is. You haven’t met Annalie yet. She’s Will’s twin sister.’
‘And where is she?’
‘She was kidnapped by pirates.’
Blossom’s eyes narrowed. ‘Pirates?’
Pod could see he had some explaining to do. Briefly he told her the story of Spinner and the search for the scientists, their ill-fated trip to Brundisi, and the kidnapping of Annalie. ‘Now we’re going back for her. But it’s all going to be fine, I promise.’
‘Are they rich?’ she asked eagerly.
‘No!’ Pod said.
‘Then why did the pirates kidnap her?’
‘I don’t know! All I know is we have to go and get her back.’
‘Wait—we?’
‘Yeah,’ Pod said.
‘You’re going back to Brundisi? Are you crazy?’
‘We have to get her back,’ Pod said.
‘They’re going to kill her,’ Blossom said. ‘Then they’ll take the money, take the boat, and kill you.’
‘No they’re not,’ Pod said, although this scenario had certainly occurred to him.
‘You can’t go to Brundisi,’ Blossom said. ‘It’s too dangerous. She’s his sister, let him go.’
‘We’re all going,’ Pod said. ‘We’re a team.’
‘I’m not going,’ Blossom said.
‘I can’t leave you behind,’ Pod said.
‘Of course not!’ Blossom said. ‘You’re staying right here with me. Hey, you got papers? How hard d’you think it would be to get a job here?’
‘I can’t stay here with you,’ Pod said. ‘I have to go with the others and get Annalie. They’re counting on me.’
For a long, terrible moment, Blossom stared at him, her eyes growing huge and wide. ‘But—you came to rescue me.’
‘I know I did. And now I’m taking you with me.’
‘To be killed by pirates?’ She was horrified.
‘It’s going to be all right, I promise!’ Pod said helplessly.
Blossom’s eyes were bright with tears. ‘Why take me off the ship if you’re just going to take me somewhere even worse?’ she demanded.
Her look of betrayal pierced him. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I guess I didn’t really think it through. But ever since you went away on that first boat I’ve been looking for you.’
‘You mean the Blue Water Princess?’
‘Yes! One day we ran into the Princess and me and Essie snuck aboard. That’s how I found out they’d moved you to the Duchess. And when I saw the
