Vesper whipped back around. “I know,” she said sharply. Then she took a breath. “This is a powerful charm… We have fourteen days before it melts. Two weeks to find the pearl.”
“How do you know?” Engle asked.
She shook her head impatiently. “The enchantment has an energy. When it spreads, or gets larger or smaller, I sense it.”
Engle perked up. “Could you make me small?” He turned to Tor. “If I was tiny, my hut would be like a palace!” He brightened. “And one doughnut would be like a thousand doughnuts!”
Melda glared at him.
Tor ignored him. “Did you see that…” He didn’t know what to call it. “Figure?”
“It’s called a spectral,” Vesper said, walking across the deck. “And if it’s helping the Calavera, we have bigger worries than we thought.”
“Those three got away,” Melda said. “They’re going to try to find the pearl by themselves, aren’t they?”
Vesper nodded. “The Calavera are the cruelest pirates to sail the seas. With the Pirate’s Pearl, they would be unstoppable. No ship or coastal town or even underwater settlement would be safe.”
Tor wanted to go back home. He didn’t want another adventure. More than anything, he wished there was someone else…someone else chosen by the Night Witch. But Estrelle was in trouble, so he found himself saying, “Then we really have to find it before they do.”
Engle scratched at his cheek. “How are we going to do that? We don’t even know where to start.”
The current had moved them steadily eastward, away from the frozen ships. Away from Estrelle. From their families.
Vesper reached toward her bracelet. “This map of the sea has been in my family for generations.” She unclipped a tiny charm the shape of a scalloped seashell and let it grow in her palm.
Then, she opened it.
Colors erupted in the air, spraying from the shell like magma from a volcano. They twisted and spiraled—the red of sunset, the blue of fish scales, the green of Zura, the silver of moonlight. The colors spilled down onto the ship’s wide deck and puddled until they formed a new three-dimensional painting, brushed across the wooden planks. Tor took a step back as a sea appeared around his feet, followed by mountains and long strips of land.
With a howl, the hues fell into place.
“That’s Emblem Island,” Melda said, looking down at the strange map.
“And that’s us!” Engle said, pointing. He was right. A tiny ship bobbed in the sea, near a line of frozen ships. Tor had to kneel to see it, Melda crouching next to him. It was as if they were giants, peeking over clouds at the island below.
Melda held her head high. “This is a very nice map, but we still don’t know where we need to go.”
“I have an idea.” Vesper turned to Tor. “Can I see that book?”
The Book of Seas had fallen to his feet when the ship had grown. He picked it up and handed it over. Vesper flipped quickly, eyes narrowed, scanning the titles of each page.
She nodded sharply. “There. I knew she’d be in it.” She closed the book before Tor could get a look at the page. “And the story’s the same as the one I’ve heard.”
“Who’d be in it?” Engle asked.
“Mora, blood queen of the sea.”
Engle’s all-seeing eyes went wide as dobbles. “Blood queen?”
“She’s known for helping those at sea with acts of vengeance. And she’s ancient. She might tell us where to find the Pirate’s Pearl, to get revenge on the Calavera. According to lore, she doesn’t want to see them gain control of the sea any more than we do.”
Melda scoffed. “Sure, she might help us. But at what cost?”
Vesper shrugged. “I suppose we’ll find out.”
Melda whirled to face Engle and Tor, as if expecting them to disagree with Vesper’s plan to seek out the blood queen.
Tor didn’t want to go against Melda. He trusted his friend’s judgment. But Vesper was from the sea, and they had no other leads.
He peered over his shoulder, at the line of ships frozen in place, farther than they had been before. The current had taken them deeper out to sea with every second.
Vesper had said the freezing enchantment would only hold for two weeks. Which meant the clock was ticking.
“I think it’s worth a try,” he said, and watched shock bloom across Melda’s face, followed by a flash of hurt.
She turned to Engle. “Do you agree?”
Engle looked less sure. But he faced Tor and smiled. Though it didn’t meet his eyes. “I’m in. I’ve never met a blood queen, but she can’t be worse than Queen Aurelia, can she?”
Melda was tense as she turned to Vesper and said, “Very well. Where do we find this blood queen?”
Vesper moved her hand through the air as if strumming an invisible harp. The map narrowed to the coast, becoming more detailed as it zeroed in, until Tor saw a cave very clearly. Inside sat a woman with blue scales down her arms and across her chest. She had silver hair, wet across her back, and bright blue eyes. She blinked, and the colors scattered. The map zoomed out again, until they saw themselves on the water once more.
“Look,” Vesper said. Tor focused on the ship, where a silver line began to form. It trailed away from the vessel, across the sea, beckoning them to follow. Tor, Vesper, Melda, and Engle walked slowly behind the line as it moved across the deck, up the stairs, and to the ship’s upper deck, weaving itself across Emblem Island’s coast. It only stopped when it reached an isle, where a miniature version of the same woman that had been projected before sat waiting.
Vesper closed the shell, and the map vanished.
“Now that we’ve found her on the map, it will show us the best route.”
“That’s lightning!” Engle said. “Do you think she has
