With her opposite hand, she poured Cyrus a cup and nudged it closer. Hetook the mug and paused. Rorroh grasped the other, noddedto Cyrus, and swallowed a scalding hot slurp. Several drops of tea dribbled downher narrow chin.
“Now it’s your turn,” she said, “Go on, drink.”
Cyrus lifted the mug and sipped a tiny mouthful. The liquid burnt histongue.
“Good, isn’t it?” Rorroh smirked.
The tea was bittersweet, likedandelion juice mixed with too much sugar. Trying not to gag, Cyrus smiled andnodded. The hot tea began to trickle down his throat and become ice in hisbelly.
“My only family drowned,” he slurred, “My people want me dead, and I have nowhere else to turn. I need help.Anybody’s help…”
Cyrus’ skin began to sweat.
“Now,” Rorroh said, “I can understand how youwere able to flee my island, but how you were able to elude my froskman is another matter entirely.”
“Froskman?”
Rorroh’s wordssounded muffled, Cyrus had to focus his hearing.
“Tell me, boy, have others triedto essscape, or are you the only one?”
“Others? No, I’m the only one. They tried to kill me.”
“Good, that’s good,” Rorroh cooed.
Cyrus’ guts twisted and the room started to spin. He tried to stand. Hislimbs had grown numb.
“What’s happening?” he whispered.
“It's a funny thing about venenotea,” Rorroh said, in mockconspiracy, “I’ve been drinking it for decadesss,and it’salways been good to me, but for an alvelingsuch as yourself, there’s no telling what sort of effectsss it might hold.”
Cyrus began to lose all control of his body. He slumped sideways in hischair.
“I don’t feel well.”
Rorroh set down her mug and oozedovertop of his paralyzed frame, coming face to face with the boy. Her eyes wereblack and gleamed with oil, and her narrow teeth stabbed inward, like barbedhooks.
“What are you?” Cyrus gasped.
“The Sssea Zombie.”
Then all went dark.
Chapter 18
THE PHANTOM
CYRUS AWOKE achy and nauseous.His nose filled with the stink of wood rot and mildew. Had it all been a baddream? His head felt swollen and his vision blurred. He heard the toll of abell.
“No…”
Ice slid down his spine, and hebegan to sweat. Cyrus tried to move. He discovered his wrists bound by rope as hedangled from a meat hook overhead.
“The Sea Zombie!”
He struggled to recall how he had gotten there. His memories were hazyand green. He felt cold and realized he wasclothed in nothing but his underwear. Where was Edward?
“Edward, you here?” he half whispered, half cried.
“Edward?”
He recalled his friend trapped under a glass jar. He peered around theroom. His surroundings were ill-lit andfull of shadows. The only light in the chamber came from a potbellied stoverusting in the corner.
The furnace glowed with orange embers, and on its top sat a cauldron large enough to boil a pig. Within theiron pot bubbled something that stunk of lard andseaweed. Cyrus’ vision focused. His eyes adjusted to the shadows. He saw steel shacklesand what looked like the skulls of children hanging from greasy walls.
“What in Kingdom?”
His heart began to pump fire into his limbs. He was an insect trapped ina web. He prayed Edward was somewhere safe.
He searched for a way to escape. At the back of the room, several shelvesstood stocked with objects such as crystal orbs, steel swords and strange jarsof liquid. Cyrus peered down a narrow hallway leading to the stern or aft ofthe ship. Two dim blue lights appeared from within the darkened socket. Cyrusfroze. His breath grew rapid. The orbs drifted out of the passageway. Thestove’s fire lit the contours of a dark, slender figure.
“No, get away,” Cyrus hissed.
It was the creature from the lake. The one Jim OddFoothad described in his journal. It was male, clothed in a flesh-tight suit. The suitwas made of black whale skin. It coveredall but his head, shins, and forearms.
The newcomer neared. He drew a knife from his belt and raised itoverhead. Cyrus tried to scream.
“Sshh,” the creature said, fixing a grey,webbed hand to Cyrus’ mouth.
The stranger began to cut his bonds.
“Oh, thank you,” Cyrus whispered, as the newcomer helped him to thefloor.
Cyrus’ body felt stiff and numb, andthe welt on his side stung, so with one arm over his shoulder, the strangerhelped him towards a door in the corner of the room.
From the deck above hinges creaked and footsteps crept downstairs. Thestranger’s eyes dimmed. He signaled silence, then dragged Cyrus into a corner,behind a row of shelves.
“Silly child,” a muffled voice whispered.
The cabin door opened and in hobbled Rorroh,gripping a palmed-sized, crystal sphere. Aghamorefollowed, carrying a small cork-topped vial.
“Call off the hunt. I’ve found him,” Rorrohsaid, speaking into the glowing, green orb.
“As you wish, Mistress,” the orb replied.
Its emerald glare cast shadows across Rorroh’sface. Her red painted mouth drooled with need.
She paused as she noticed the empty hook.
“Aghamore, what have you done?”
“Nothing, Mistress,” the small, hooded figure answered.
Like an owl, she twisted her head to the right. The tendons andvertebrae in her neck snapped and crackled like crushed shellfish. She cranedher head towards the ceiling and sniffed the air.
“A trespasser aboard my ship?” she asked, her tone eerily playful.
She peered down the shadowy hallway. Something drew her attention back tothe hook. Then slowly her head turned in the direction of the darkened corner.Cyrus’ breath grew shaky. What were they going to do? They were trapped in the belly of a rotting shipwith a creature claiming to be the Sea Zombie.
The blue-eyed stranger leaped frombehind the shelves and grabbed Aghamore by the neck,holding a knife to his gilled throat. Aghamoredropped the glass vial. It did not break. Cyrus slumped against the wall, his limbsstill numb.
“Make one move towards us, and Iwill cut your puppet gill to gill,” the stranger said.
His voice was odd. It hummed as if there was a bee in his throat.
“What have we here?” Rorroh asked, “A traitorin our midst?”
“The door, young Master, go!” the stranger demanded.
Cyrus’ hands and feet were full of pins and needles. He stumbled in thedirection of the door. Then he noticed a small, black shape trapped within Aghamore’s glass. Edward! He moved toward the standoff. The spider appeared to beunconscious.
“I would not touch him if I
