ElsBeth and the Call of the Castle Ghosties, Book III in the Cape Cod Witch Series. Chris Palmer
was tied to the mast but was still washed half-over the rail. She pulled herself up and scanned the deck. Hillman-Jones was still at the helm, lashed in, but was bent over and holding his side. The wheel must have knocked into him.
Frankie and Nelson boxed Amy and Veronica between them. Everyone was soaked. Lisa Lee huddled under the mast, now frantically yelling something technical about this “impossible course change.” But Johnny ... where was Johnny Twofeathers?
There. Behind a rolled sail, on the deck, unmoving.
ElsBeth shouted to Hillman-Jones but her voice couldn’t carry against the roaring wind. She had to use a little magic. It was really not OK to use magic with other people but this was an emergency.
She sent a silent streamer of pure intention to Robert with the thought, “Hold on tight, but get Frankie and come forward. We have to get Johnny to the cabin.”
Robert’s head whipped around and their eyes met.
Robert was clearly hurt, too, but he scrambled over to Frankie and pointed to the bow. Nothing could be heard over that wind, and ElsBeth hoped Robert didn’t wonder how she’d gotten through to him — but there was no chance to wonder long or much in this storm.
The boys struggled forward to carry their friend below.
***
ElsBeth led the way into the cabin. Frankie was about to put Johnny’s head on the bunk when a lump under the blanket moved. Frankie froze. He stared spellbound at the shifting shape, and started to back away.
ElsBeth now heard Frankie’s thoughts in her head.
“This is sinister! Maybe it’s a headless seaman — like a headless horseman but at sea.”
Frankie’s thoughts were out of control. His body was, too. His heart boomed and he quivered like Jell-0.
Robert was holding Johnny’s legs and he couldn’t see why they’d stopped. He tried to push forward. But Frankie was a big guy and he wasn’t going anywhere.
A rough black form crept slowly from the covers and aimed a green eye straight at Frankie. He squealed.
Sylvanas turned a lazy head and smiled white teeth at the paralyzed boy.
ElsBeth was embarrassed when she saw Frankie trying to hold himself from wetting his pants — which were already soaked, so at least no one would notice.
Thankfully Frankie finally focused — it was only a cat, even if it was Sylvanas.
ElsBeth looked down at Johnny. He didn’t look like he was breathing, and panic clawed at her. Then she remembered what the lifeguards taught them on Beach Safety Day.
“Robert, help me roll him over.” They tugged Johnny onto his side and ElsBeth pounded his back. She whacked him hard, over and over.
“Are you trying to kill him?” Hillman-Jones howled.
Johnny’s chest heaved, and a great gout of seawater gushed from his mouth and onto Robert’s expensive boat shoes.
“Eewww, that’s disgusting,” Frankie said.
Johnny coughed and spat, but he was breathing. ElsBeth was so thankful she’d paid attention at Beach Safety class. This was as good as magic.
But it was all too much for Sylvanas, and he jumped off the bunk. He snagged a bag of turkey jerky on his way down, and set out to investigate the goings-on. At his own pace.
ElsBeth knew Sylvanas wasn’t going to rush into anything. Unless it involved doughnuts, or a few other select items.
“How did that cat get aboard?” Robert asked.
ElsBeth said nothing. She could see that Sylvanas was on a mission and was not to be interrupted, by her or anyone else. She was just glad he was here with them — even if he was someone else to worry about.
ElsBeth took a deep breath, and had a new thought. She was just a young witch and this weather was a powerful enchantment.
She looked again at Johnny and took another deep breath.
But if anyone used magic and one of her friends got really hurt ... she was not going to put up with it. She had to get to the bottom of this.
She climbed back into the stinging storm, more determined with each step.
Chapter 4
Magic and Science
Back on deck ElsBeth looked South Wind square in the face. “Why?” she demanded, and two very different things happened at once.
One was an earsplitting crash, which could have passed for thunder but ElsBeth knew better. It was some kind of magic. The other was her grandmother’s voice, carrying lightly through the storm on its own breeze. “ElsBeth, remember. Sometimes it’s OK to break the rules.”
These were followed by an echo that sounded like her familiar, Professor Badinoff. “Think, ElsBeth. We can’t be with you now. You must think for yourself, just as I taught you.”
And if she felt before that she was only a young witch, alone against powerful magic, she felt even more at sea now.
ElsBeth really wanted to talk with Grandmother, and Professor Badinoff, but that was not going to happen. So just to let them know she was OK, she thought the loudest thought she could, and sent it to them as directly as she could, “I HEARD YOU.”
Now she had something serious to think about. Her grandmother had never before said she could do magic by herself — that was the “Big Rule.”
Most of the time this had been fine by her. ElsBeth knew magic could be tricky and you could make a real mess of things if you didn’t know what you were doing. The “Big Rule” didn’t seem so Big now, though, and didn’t even seem like a Rule.
She wanted to think for herself. She knew this meant more freedom, and was how she’d be able to make her own future. She just didn’t expect more freedom to feel so much like ... more responsibility. And she thought her future was supposed to be ... in the future.
ElsBeth got herself wound up in these worries, and for the moment she forgot about the strange thunder-like sound from the sky.
***
Sylvanas, however, had not forgotten. When he was up on deck in the storm he’d felt a ghostly presence behind South Wind … then disaster had struck. Sea spray had splashed his beautiful black self.
He vowed now horrible revenge on the being behind all this. Sylvanas would not let anyone who dared get him wet go unpunished. They would be sorry. Oh, yes, they would.
He stalked the ship, searching for signs of magical interference. He had trouble focusing, though. He felt a little “off,” and he began to wander and weave from rail to rail.
The turkey jerky, he realized, was full of preservatives. “I’ve been poisoned,” he mumbled, and negative thoughts whirled through him. He wasn’t used to artificial ingredients, and he worried how he would survive the day without Hannah Goodspell’s excellent cooking.
***
ElsBeth tried again to reach South Wind but could not get through. One of her best skills, though, was calming the winds to protect fishing boats in storms at sea. She’d practiced this with Grandmother from the widow’s walk on the roof of their home.
So she did the best thing she could. She turned away from her friends, and “singing” a little above the range of sound, she cast a spell to settle the wind just above the deck and make them all safer.
A short moment later Lisa Lee called out, “I calculated the probability of this unusual new wind pattern and found it more than ninety-nine percent improbable. This means,” she added,