CHAPTER 1: The Voice of the Enemy

A long voyage includes days without wind or waves. The boat sits still on deep

water, waiting for a push. The morning sun shines through the surface of the Lonely Sea into unknown depths of blue water, and I often leaned over the side of the Warwick Beacon in search of the murky outline of a fish. A shadow the size and shape of my forearm would drift past my line of sight and disappear under the boat. Then I would race to the other side and look down, waiting until the shadow reemerges and slowly disappears out into the sea. On a calm day it was not uncommon for me to spend an hour or more at this entirely useless undertaking.

But this morning, as I leaned out over the edge of the rail, my heart caught in my throat at the thought of what I might see.

To begin with, we’d found the Five Stone Pillars, a mysterious place hidden far away from the Land of Elyon. We could see the pillars clearly, less than a nautical mile away, rising out of the sea. From all I’d been told, I knew this was an especially secret place, where Sir Alistair Wakefield hid the lost children so that no danger could find them.

But danger had found the lost children. And what’s worse, we were the ones who’d brought the danger to them. Something had been following our ship since the very beginning of our long journey away from the Land of Elyon. It was something unseen and sinister, watching our every move from the unseen depths of the sea.

I’d been standing at the rail for a while, looking into the calmest water I’d ever seen, wishing that the wind would kick up and send us on our way. There was a terrible chill in the air as I scanned the glassy surface, hoping not to spot anything larger than my own boot.

“Captain?” asked Yipes, my tiny, ever present companion. “Why is everything so still?” I chanced a fleeting look away from the smooth surface of the water and saw that he was standing very near our captain, Roland Warvold, questioning him.

Yipes tapped Roland in the leg with his finger. “Pardon me, sir.”

The captain didn’t respond. We had come within sight of our long awaited destination, but it felt as if we were anchored in place, and Roland was busy reviewing his charts and maps at the wheel of the boat. Yipes is the sort of person who has a hard time being ignored, so he kept at it, taptaptapping at the knee in front of his face until finally Roland could stand it no more.

“Can’t you find something useful to do?” Roland replied. He knelt down so that he was at eye level with Yipes, and the two began to talk as I returned to watching the Lonely Sea.

The water was so smooth and still I couldn’t stand looking at it any longer without dropping something in and breaking the glass surface. I swung around, searching the deck for something to throw, and my eyes lit on the remains of a breakfast that had yet to be cleaned up. It was only a few steps away, and when I arrived there I found several things to choose from that would suit my purpose. I picked up a string of fish bones by its crispy tail and walked back toward the rail of the boat.

“You see there,” said Roland. “At least Alexa is trying to make herself useful.”

Yipes protested, sighting the fact that he’d made the breakfast and didn’t think it was fair that he should have to clean up. I tossed the fish bones into the water and watched as the ripples circled out and bumped lazily into the side of the boat. The bones were light enough to float, which was unfortunate, because they were an ugly addition to what had been a rather enjoyable (if boring) view of things. I began to think about how I might fish the leftover breakfast out of the water, and as I did, there came a thin shadow up from the depths of the sea. It looked as if it was about the size of the very fish I’d thrown overboard, and I was curious about what sort of small sea creature it was.

The shadow grew darker as it neared the surface. Suddenly alert, I looked more carefully and saw that this was no ordinary shadow it was long and it grew wider from the tip down. The water behind the fish bones began to move ever so slightly. Big, rolling movement that was almost imperceptible, as if something huge was moving many feet below.

I heard a soft crackling sound and watched as the shadow emerged from the water. It had the look of weatherbeaten metal, like a sword or a shield after being in salty water for a hundred years. Clustered along its length were barnacles and jagged crustaceans. It looked like an ancient, metal snake for a split second when it rose from the water, but that rapidly changed. It unfurled itself and spread out thin and low over the bones on the water. Unrolled, this thing was as wide as the wheel of the ship, full of a strange energy. Ghostly sparks sizzled against the wide, flat inside. It stopped a moment and seemed to look at me, then slowly enveloped all the space around the bones, the water boiling as it came near. As I gasped, it curled back into the rolled up shape it had been, the bones in its clutches, and became a shadow under the water. The water rippled, the shadow disappeared, and all was still once more.

It seemed to me that the whole incident occurred outside of time. It had seemed slow and yet the whole event was over before I could think to cry out to Roland and Yipes about what was happening.

I waited another moment at the rail, waiting to see if the shadow would return, but it did not.

“Roland!” I yelled across the boat. He and Yipes approached and I pointed to where the bones had been.

“Something came out of the water,” I said. “It seemed small at first, like a tentacle. But then it unwound like a blanket. I think whatever it was is attached to something bigger.”

“How much bigger?” asked Yipes. His eyes were round and white with concern. When I didn’t answer, he darted to the breakfast table and returned with another row of fish bones.

“Maybe that’s not such a good idea,” said Roland. Yipes had his arm back with the fish bones by the tail, about to hurl them into the water. “Whatever’s out there, we don’t want it thinking it can find a lot of food near the boat.”

This seemed to strike Yipes as a very good thought, and he dropped the bones on the deck, then wiped his hand on Roland’s leg.

Roland looked down at me and placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Are you sure of what you saw?” he asked. “We’ve been out here for almost thirty days. The sea can play tricks on you after awhile.”

“I’m sure,” I said, a little wounded that Roland wasn’t certain he could believe me. “It looked like it was made of old armor or metal on the outside, but on the inside - when it unrolled – it was like nothing I’ve ever seen. It sparked with blue and yellow lines, like it was bursting with energy.

“Electricity,” mumbled Roland.

“What was that you said?” asked Yipes. Neither he nor I had ever heard the word used before.

“It’s nothing,” answered Roland, but I could tell that it was important. “Just something Sir Alistair Wakefield was experimenting with. I only knew of it in passing.”

I began to question him, but the captain would have none of it.

“We have to be ready for what might come next,” he said.

Yipes was alarmed by this comment and jumped onto the rail, where he could almost look Roland in the eye.

“What might come next?” Yipes asked, fidgeting nervously with one long side of his mustache.

“Who can say?”

Yipes was beside himself, which was common in situations like this. “Just a moment ago you said something might come next. What did you mean?”

“Alexa, you and Yipes go below and bring the harpoons,” said Roland. “The one’s with the shortest ropes.”

Yipes wasn’t getting the answer he was looking for, and he began grasping at straws.

“There must be some way you could make the wind blow, maybe a spell or a potion you’ve found in your travels,” he said. Roland and I looked at him like he’d gone crazy.

“We can’t just sit here and wait for what might come next, whatever that is!”

Roland drew his line of sight toward the Five Stone Pillars and saw that they were still a ways off.

“The wind will blow when it wants to, not a moment sooner,” he said. “We’ll need to be on our guard until then.”

And so it was that we each took up a different position on the Warwick Beacon and watched the still water all around us, waiting for something awful to rise from the sea. Yipes and I both carried small knives we used for preparing food or cutting a rope, and Roland had what Yipes and I liked to call the real sword, but other than that, the harpoons were the only seaworthy weapons we had. The harpoons were long but not very heavy, with sharp points and a length of rope attached to their ends. The sharp points were followed down the shaft by metal barbs meant to dig in and hold tight. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hold onto whatever was in the water if it showed itself again.

Morning made its maddeningly slow march to afternoon, afternoon lurched into early evening, and then came dusk. All the while we waited in silence for a wind that was busy somewhere else in the world and a monster that would not show its face. Over and over again, I whispered, please send the wind, Elyon. Please, send the wind.

When dusk turned to night, Yipes went below and made a hasty dinner of piping hot tea and biscuits he’d cooked up the day before. We huddled together at the wheel of the boat with steaming cups and tried to make the best of things.

“There’s really nothing quite so nice as a spot of tea and a biscuit, don’t you think?” Yipes asked. He took a big bite of his dinner and chased it with a sip from the cup. For a man of such tiny proportions, Yipes had quite an appetite. He tipped his floppy hat, smiling as he chewed. A mustache, long in need of trim and drooping almost to his chin, wobbled as he chewed. And those bright eyes of his, crinkled at the corners but bursting with energy.

“We’ll be getting tired soon,” said Roland. “I’ll take the first watch while you two get some sleep. I expect we’ll be moving again by morning.”

“How do you know when the wind will return?” I asked.

Roland sipped his tea and fiddled with the wheel of the boat. The color had long been washed out of his clothing, and his white shirt stood in stark contrast to a darkly tanned face. A daily onslaught of wind and sun had done things to his hair and beard and face that made them magical to look at. He was weathered as only a man long at sea can be.

“After ten thousand nights at sea,” he said, “a sailor knows a thing or two about the ways of the wind.”

We whispered a while longer and then Roland got up and walked to the front of the Warwick Beacon. When I looked at Yipes he was already lying back, counting the display of stars in the night sky. I had known him long enough to feel certain that he would only lie awake for a short time before sleep would take him.

“I wonder what’s at the top of the five pillars,” he mumbled, but his eyes were already turning heavy and dull.

“Candies and treats,” I said. “And tea. Lots of tea.”

Yipes breathed in deep and let out a nice long mmmmmmm. Then I was sure he was asleep and dreaming. It would prove harder for me to find rest, but after awhile I too was asleep on the deck. I know this only because of my eventual awakening to an unexpected feeling of warmth. When I opened my eyes I saw that there was indeed a blanket very near my face, hovering a few feet in the air and surrounding my entire body. The crackling sound of – what was it called? Electricity sparked in the air above me. Though it had no eyes that I could see, the shape of the energy itself moved with yellows and blues over the surface and created the appearance of a murky face. It felt as if it might be looking at me from somewhere in the unseen depths of the water below. And then I heard a familiar voice meant only for me.

You didn’t think I would be defeated so easily did you, Alexa Daley?

It was the dreadful sound of the darkest force in the world.

Abaddon.

I tried to move to one side but the darkness glided over with me, and what was worse, it moved lower still, the shadowy face closer and growing hotter.

It pleases me to see you there, afraid of what comes next, wishing you could escape me.

“But you were destroyed,” I said, a shaking whisper all I could manage. “Elyon did away with you.”

O.h no, not destroyed, only different.

The words were followed by a hissing laughter. The water began to move under the Warwick Beacon.

It’s not as enjoyable to be trapped under water as you might think. I prefer dry land. How convenient that you’ve led me to it!

“Yipes!” I cried. “Get up! Get up!”

Yipes was an unusually deep sleeper and it took something loud and close in order to wake him. The danger in waking Yipes with a start at times of peril is that he springs into action before he’s fully awake.

“What is it? What!” Yipes was up in a flash bouncing back and forth on the deck wielding his little wooden handled bread knife as though it were a spear. Roland had also come running from the front of the ship, where he’d been looking out at the still water. I realized something then that I hadn’t before: Only I could hear the voice of Abaddon. Until I’d yelled out for Yipes, it had been quiet on the boat.

Roland had his sword unsheathed and was soon standing by my side.

“Stay still, Alexa!” he yelled. The sizzling blanket of Abaddon curled back into a cylinder and began sliding on its long arm across the rail. Roland was holding his sword low near the deck. As I rolled out of the way he sliced upward, ripping into scales of metal and stone clusters collected from the deep. Roland fell back, stunned by some force he hadn’t expected, and there came a shrieking sound from somewhere far below us. He had not severed the piece, but it was clear that he had angered whatever was at the other end. The curled snake rose high in the air over the Warwick Beacon, its encrusted metal scales clanking as it went. It seemed to gather energy from the inside, the metal scales turning orange before our eyes. And then with a sudden burst the whole length was on fire, slapping the surface of the Warwick Beacon like a flaming whip. Everywhere it pounded, left burning patches along the top of the deck.

“Try the harpoons!” Roland cried. He had recovered from whatever force had taken his breath away and was standing again. Yipes was already climbing as only Yipes could. He was quickly near the top of the highest mast with the rope to his harpoon between his teeth. When he arrived where he could look down on the flaming beast, he wrapped his legs around the mast and hauled the harpoon up into his hand by the rope. He waited only a moment, then threw with all his might.

And what a shot it was! The harpoon hit something soft right between the metal scales of the monster and slid through to the other side. The shrieking sound from beneath the Warwick Beacon returned, and this time the snake of flaming steel retreated for its watery home. The Lonely Sea boiled and smoked and I heard Yipes howling from high above as the rope burned through his fingers and shot out into the open water, trailing behind the wicked arm of Abaddon.

Roland pointed toward two smoldering fires on the deck of the ship. “We must put those out!” he called.

This command sent us all swiftly into action. Yipes slid down the mast and pounded the nearest flame with his boots while Roland and I stamped out the larger of the two. There came a moment then when everything was very quiet as we listened for the sound of evil lurking near in the waters. I could already see the very beginning of a new day far off on the horizon. We’d slept a lot longer than I realized, and very soon it would be morning. Abaddon had come in the deepest part of the night for one purpose: To tell me that I’d not only failed to destroy him, but that I’d shown him the way to an innocent place he could ruin. A place he could call home.

“Do you feel that?” I asked.

“Feel what?” asked Yipes, troubled by the thought of what I might have noticed. But he needn’t have been afraid, for Roland had been right about what the morning would bring.

The salty sea wind had returned.

Excerpted from STARGAZER: The Land of Elyon, Book 4 © Copyright 2012 by Patrick Carman. Reprinted with permission by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic, Inc. All rights reserved.