Hidden Island Chapter 46, part 1 of 4

Hidden Island
Chapter 46, part 1 of 4

"Pack it in, ladies and gents!" Mister North's booming voice echoed through the dawn. Thin rays of red-gold light had just begun filtering through the trees, and the camp was already bustling. "Cap'n wants us on the water after breakfast," Mister North continued.

Bella felt awful. After finishing the ritual, Quinn thanked them for trying, and she and Friday returned to their respective tents. Bella wished Friday had stayed, but the doctor wanted to check on her patients to ensure nothing had happened while they were asleep.

So, Bella was alone in Will's tent. Her body felt like wet sand, and her eyes felt like dry sand. She could only remember being this tired a few times in her life. She'd never been a morning person, and this morning felt more like a morning than any other morning in the history of time. She lay there, wondering how long she could put off getting up. Maybe she could get another half hour of sleep if she skipped breakfast. Stew liked her. She could probably charm something out of him after they were on the ship again.

A bright red furry face shoved itself under the tent's flap and chittered at her.

Bella pulled Will's pillow over her face. "Go away."

The monkey did the opposite. It climbed onto her chest and started pulling on the pillow. The ensuing tug-of-war was completely undignified, and Bella lost. She sat up in a huff.

"I always wanted a monkey," she grumbled sarcastically to herself. "They're so cute. They're so smart."

Jack the monkey began rifling through her bag. She grabbed it. Another tug-of-war began. The monkey won again, this time by simply climbing into the bag.

"I could have had a little bird. Or a cat," she muttered. "No, I had to be unique."

The monkey stuck its head out of her bag and held out the small pouch in which Bella kept sugared dates and other treats. She sighed and untied the knot. It quickly jammed its little fist inside and pulled out the last treat, barely even looking at the sugary lump before cramming the whole thing into its wide mouth. It returned its hand to the small bag and made a dissatisfied noise.

Bella copied the dissatisfied noise. "You know you could have done that without waking me up. I know how sneaky you can be. I trained you."

It threw the small bag at her in protest.

"I know!" Bella said in exasperation. "I'm sorry. I wouldn't say I like it either. I'll get more as soon as I can." She scratched its little redhead and sighed. "It sounds like we will be back in civilization later today. Treats will be at the top of my list, I promise."

The little creature curled up in her lap. She rubbed her eyes and wrinkled her nose. "You need a bath."

"Bella?" Friday's voice came from outside.

"Mumm, come in," Bella said with a yawn.

The doctor's face pushed through the tent flap. "Heard you, I," she said. "Thought I might be interrupting."

Bella gestured to the orange and white bundle of fur resting on her thighs. "Just an argument with my familiar.

Jackie, this is Friday. Friday, meet Jackie." She held the monkey's little face in one hand and looked sternly into his eyes. "She's a friend. Behave."

Jackie pulled himself out of Bella's grip to watch Friday as she moved through the tent flap. The little red and black beast was not subtle as its eyes flicked quickly across Friday's pockets and to the earrings and necklace she wore. He huffed in disappointment.

Friday laughed. "Heard, I, that they can be... opinionated."

"That's a polite way of putting it," Bella said with a tired smile. "He's usually perfect, but being on the ship was a big change, and the attack greatly scared him. He blames me, so he's been mostly avoiding me lately."

"Can feel that, you?" Friday asked, coming the rest of the way into the tent and kneeling at the edge of the blankets. She wore most of the fancy white outfit she'd been wearing when they'd first met, with what looked like a slightly bloody cook's apron.

Bella nodded. "I don't know what other animals are like, but monkey emotions are strong and much more complicated than I expected. He was pretty mad at me. I figured I'd give him his space until he was ready to talk."

"Speaks, he?" Friday asked, surprised.

"Not with words," Bella explained. "He can understand me fine but can't speak."

Friday nodded in understanding. "Does not have the right vocal cords, he."

"I guess," Bella said with a shrug. "He speaks to me by letting me feel his intent and emotion through our bond.

Our communication started pretty straightforward, but now it's complex enough to feel like having a conversation."

Friday felt a pang of envy. She had always wanted a familiar, but the ritual took far more energy than she could manage. "It must be beneficial to communicate so easily, on top of having a reserve of energy to draw from."

"A what?" Bella asked, one eyebrow raised in confusion.

Friday's eyes tightened in confusion. "A familiar reserve."

Bella shook her head, clearly not understanding.

Friday, I didn't know where to begin. "It is what familiars are for?"

Bella looked down at the monkey in her lap. "I thought they were for companionship."

Shocked understanding dawned on the doctor. "Never learned, you?"

Bella looked momentarily angry but stopped herself from speaking. A moment later, she looked hurt and sad. "I guess not."

"Did I upset you?" Friday asked.

Bella sighed. "Working with you reminds me of everything I don't know. It isn't your fault. The things I don't know seem like they surprise you. It can come across... I don't know. It's a bit condescending, I guess. I think I'm just sensitive about it. I try not to let it get to me, but I'm exhausted now."

"Oh," Friday said, pursing her lips apologetically. "Meant no disrespect, I. It does take me by surprise. A much stronger witch than I, you."

Bella shrugged. "It's alright. My education wasn't anything like yours. A lot of what I do is self-taught. Learning where the gaps in my knowledge are important."

"Self-taught? As a fortune weaver?" Friday said with eyes wide. "Loa prezève! A prodigy, you!"

It was Bella's turn to look shocked. "Really? It doesn't feel that way."

"Fortune magic is very complex. I was taught the basic theory, and I barely understood it. It manipulates time, space, and spirit. It requires great strength and finesse, and the consequences of mistakes can be drastic. Even when I walked through the creation of an essential luck charm, I failed three times. I had terrible luck for weeks afterward.

When I finally got it right, my charm only lasted an hour." Friday explained. "Being self-taught... Can't even imagine, I."

"I don't make up new things. I mostly figure out how to do things I already know can be done. I figure if someone else can do it, so can I. I must figure out how because I don't have anyone to teach me." Bella said with a shrug. "My people invented fortune magic. I don't think it's that impressive. I get things wrong often, but I'm good at warding off the fortune rebound when I mess up. Back home, I have a warded box full of accidentally made bad luck charms."

Friday shook her head in disbelief. "Don't understand, you," She held out her hand and moved it, flexing her fingers, tapping each one to her thumb. "What you describe... that is like seeing a human hand and deciding to build one simply. Have reverse engineered you, something that the brightest minds in the world barely comprehend the complexities of."

"Couldn't you do that though?" Bella asked. "Assemble the bones and whatnot, bind a spirit to it, and make it move?" Bella asked.

"Well, yes, but I am both a doctor and a witch. It took more than ten years of study to reach the skill where I could attempt such a complex task. I could never have figured out how to do it alone. Even then, if I animate a hand, it will pale compared to the real thing. I could not feel anything with it. I would have to command it deliberately. The spirit animating it would have impulses outside my intent. There would be many differences.

Perhaps better than not having a hand at all, but it would be nothing more than a macabre prosthetic." Friday shook her head emphatically. "And even that complex puppetry is child's play compared to the manipulation of fate."

Bella still wasn't convinced. She scowled in thought. "It's not as though I understand it all either. I tell the magic what my destination is, and it figures out how to get there. I don't need to know all the complexities of how.

Reading a fortune is mostly about knowing how to ask a question correctly. Changing fortune is harder. You have to make a spell that tells the magic what you want the answer to a question to be, and then give it enough power to figure out how to arrange the question so that your answer makes sense," She mimicked Friday's display of skill with her hand. "I don't need to know how my hand works to make it move."

"The question you are arranging is reality itself," Friday said, still wrapping her head around Bella's methods. It seemed like her new friend was performing surgery with a hammer, somehow saving lives. She sighed and decided to drop the more significant subject and return to the original topic. "Well, you have learned the hard part, you. Binding a familiar takes a great deal of power and control. Learning to tap into your familiar's energy should be much easier."

"Once we aren't in such dire circumstances, I'm looking forward to some sort of drunken night of talking about the craft and figuring out all the things I never learned," Bella said wistfully.

"Exactly what I came to discuss, that," Friday said. She pulled herself into a more comfortable cross-legged position and pulled a folded paper out of her apron pocket. "Have to stay here, I. I hope that you will help me with some shopping."

Bella took the paper and unfolded it. "Of course. Why do you have to stay here, though?"

"Some patients are too hurt to be moved yet," Friday explained solemnly. "Also, Captain Vex is concerned about the grindylow infection. Everyone stung by them is staying here where I can keep an eye on them."

"What?" Bella asked, alarmed. She sat up and mirrored Friday's cross-legged position, ignoring her nudity as the blankets fell and the squawked protests of the monkey that had been curled up on her legs.

"Of course. New information, that. Not sure who knows yet, and who does not. I discovered that the grindylow is parasitic. Believe, I, that their stingers are how they reproduce," Friday explained.

Bella's eyes went wide, and her hand covered her mouth. "Oh no. Is that why they look like people?! Everyone who was stung..." her words trailed off in horror. "Can you stop it?

"Think so, I," Friday said. She pointed to the list clutched in Bella's other hand. "With those ingredients, I can start testing."

Bella nodded quickly, and then something occurred to her. "Will told me Mister North handles all the purchases for the ship. Should I take him with me? I'm not sure I have enough for all this."

"Mister North was stung," Friday said. "I am not sure who will take over his requisition duties."

"I'll find out," Bella said, pawing through the blankets for her discarded clothing. News of the grindylow infection had run through her like icy water, banishing her fatigue entirely. "Have you checked on Jack yet?"

"Mister Quinn still has her sedated," Friday said, passing Bella her blouse from the corner of the tent. "Spoke with her, I. She seems lucid but does not know what happened in her dream. Mister Quinn does not want to release her while the enchantment remains intact."

"I'm not sure how it could still affect her," Bella said as she pulled her vest over her white blouse and began lacing it up. "I destroyed the part of the enchantment where the spellcaster's goals and instructions were. It's like a puppet without a puppet master now."

Friday's expression turned sympathetic. "May have difficulty convincing Mister Quinn of that, you."

Bella rubbed her face with her hands and let out a groan. "I'm not sure we can break the enchantment completely."

"Think we were very close, I." Friday disagreed. "Sensed the deception, she. If not for that," she raised her palms hopefully.

Bella finished tying her laces and started working on her boots. "So, we need Will. Rahat," she cursed in her native tongue. "He's enchanted, too."

"Very complicated, this," Friday agreed.

"The ship's wrecked, a bunch of the crew is infected, and Jack and Will are enchanted," Bella grumbled.

"Complicated is putting it mildly."

"Do not forget the pirates," Friday said with an apologetic smile.

"Oh, I don't care about pirates," Bella said, waving her hands dismissively before pulling off her headscarf and going at her mess of curls with a thick wooden comb. "I'll take them over the magistrate any day."

"Agree, I. The Magistrate knows better than to come here," Friday said with a grimace. "That, at least, is a problem we will not have to deal with."

"It's dawn," Sister Victoria growled. Her patience was wearing very thin. "Mister Sterling already has a head start on us. How much longer are we expected to wait?"

"As long as it takes," Janie said firmly.

The four women were in the hidden basement of Will's lighthouse. Sister Victoria's structural Wards were set and charged with ritual and prayer. They were all exhausted, but they dared not sleep. Slowly, they kept themselves busy by digging dirt and rubble-free, doing as much as possible to unbury the passage on the other side of the collapse.

"Sir Hector's vigilance has kept the remaining riff-raff from forming another mob, but with the day will come more reinforcements," Sister Mercy said, clearly worried.

"We need to consider whether Mister Caine may be captured or dead," Sister Victoria added.

Tonya snorted derisively. "Not a chance."

"As impressive a warrior as he is, he is still just one man," Victoria said flatly.

"Sister, so far, all your inquisitor hasn't been good for anything but embarrassing yourself," Tonya pointed out flippantly.

Sister Victoria glared at the young witch.

"That is not a word," Janie said, sounding slightly pained at Tonya's casual butchering of language.

Tonya ignored the correction. "Whatever. He's alive, and I'll return just like he said."

"You can't know that," Sister Mercy insisted.

"The hell I can't," Tonya said, a touch of anger creeping into her sarcasm. "You don't know him. You don't know us. He's just fine."

Sister Victoria was stubborn, but she rarely repeated her mistakes. The boyish-looking young woman was right, as much as it stung to hear. Every assumption and inference had been wrong. "Alright," she said calmly. "How
do you know?"

"Witch stuff," Tonya shrugged.

Janie looked surprised and concerned that the young apprentice had admitted to witchcraft in front of the pair of inquisitors. "Tonya," Janie cautioned, not sure what to say.

"What?" Tonya demanded. "I already did the talk at the fort and swore the oath not to practice black magic—Bella's good. I'm good. I wouldn't even know how to use bad magic if I wanted to. I got no reason to be afraid of them."

Janie sighed at Tonya's impetuousness but nodded slowly. "I suppose that's true."

The Sisters exchanged an amused look. "Can you tell us more about this particular... witch stuff?" Sister
Victoria asked. "Have you cast some sort of divination on Mister Caine?"

"I don't know," Tonya said, turning her dirty hands upward. "It wasn't something I did on purpose. We were doing a spell, and it blew up, and I can feel him now."

Janie's eyes suddenly went wide with fear and horror. She turned to the Inquisitors. "Please, don't."

The practiced blank expressions on the Witch Hunters' faces were nearly identical. They glanced at each other, then at Janie. Mercy shook her head. "You know we must."

Victoria gave Tonya a scrutinizing look. "Can you tell us more?"



To be continued