“Sophia,” Shadrack said now. “You need to get some sleep.”
“I’m not sleepy. I’ll just stay here with you.”
“Why don’t you go ask Peaches which room to use, and just try putting your head down. If you like, send Veressa to keep me company—she’ll want to see this.”
It was easier to agree. Sophia found the Metls looking out over the side of the boldevela at the icy water below. “Veressa,” she said. “Shadrack wants to show you the map—the one I brought from the pyramid.”
Veressa eyed her thoughtfully. “Had enough of maps for one day?”
“Yes. I think so.”
“Very sensible.” The cartologer rested her hand briefly on Sophia’s shoulder. “I’ll go down and see him.”
As she left, Martin called, “Look at this, Sophia.” She joined him and saw that the wheels of the boldevela were once again visible. The waters had grown shallow. The ship shuddered as the wheels made ground, and Burr shouted orders to the pirates adjusting the sails.
“We’re almost at the Nochtland gates,” Sophia said with surprise, looking up with at the high walls.
“Yes, almost there,” Martin said.
“Why are we going back?” She looked warily at the unguarded gates, which stood ominously ajar. “What about you and Theo?”
“We’ll be fine. The last thing anyone cares about now is a few iron bones.”
“Burr wants to go back to look for Mazapán,” Theo himself said, joining them. “Everyone says he’s probably gone, but Burr says no.”
The boldevela rolled through the open gates, and everyone aboard fell silent. Nochtland was deserted. The fountains and canals still ran with water, and the crowded gardens still leaned out into the sunlight, but there were no people to be seen. “Everyone’s gone,” Sophia said.
“Oh, I’m sure they’ll return,” Martin replied, “once they realize the waters are receding.”
As she looked over the desolate city, she found it hard to believe.
“Look, there’s someone!” Theo said, pointing to a woman who watched them from a window.
The woman waved. “Has the storm passed?”
“Yes!” Martin shouted, waving back. “It’s safe now.” He turned to Sophia. “You see—not everyone is gone.”
The boldevela moved slowly through the streets until it reached the broad avenue at the city center and rumbled to a stop just outside the palace. To Sophia’s astonishment, the palace gates too stood open. There was not a guard in sight. “We’re home!” Martin exclaimed.
While Burr and Theo went in search of Mazapán, Calixta accompanied Martin and Veressa to the palace. Sophia was aware of the pirates resting and talking to one another on the deck, but her mind was miles away, watching Blanca’s face contort as she pushed the heavy stone over the edge of the balcony. The memories were as vivid as they would have been on a map.
“Sophia?”
She started. Grandmother Pearl had joined her.
“How are you doing, my dear?”
“It’s strange,” she replied slowly.
“What is?”
“I can’t seem to get any of it out of my mind.”
“You have seen and heard terrible things,” the old woman replied. “And they are not easy to forget. Nor should they be. Be patient with yourself.”
“We might have all become Lachrima. We could all be wandering now, lost—somewhere out there.” She waved vaguely at the city around her.
“That was not our fate. Your fate,” Pearl said quietly. “Yours is a different story.”
Sophia reflected for a moment. “Yes. A different story. The one you told me—about the boy with the scarred face and the underground city—it’s as if I saw the story happening. It wasn’t exactly the same. But it was still very true.”
“Ah—yes,” Grandmother Pearl replied. “That is almost always the way with stories. True to their very core, even when the events and the people in them are different.”
Sophia looked down at her tattered, salt-encrusted boots. “The underground city was a city from another Age. The boy with the scar on his face was a woman. The city was a hall full of maps. It all happened as the story said it would, only a little differently.” She hesitated. “At least, almost all of it. I don’t think the scars were erased the way they were in the story. But even with that difference, both stories are just as sad.”
Grandmother Pearl linked her arm through Sophia’s. “Perhaps you’re right. But you never know. There may yet be a time when you see the scars fade away.”
—13-Hour 40: At the Nochtland Palace—
VERESSA AND MARTIN returned to the boldevela some time later with Calixta, and they reported that the palace was entirely abandoned. Soon afterward, Theo and Burr arrived victoriously with Mazapán, his wife Olina, and large wooden crates full of food and chocolate dishes. In the dying light of the afternoon, they prepared a banquet on the ship’s deck.
Burr and Peaches carried Shadrack up the spiral staircase, and every manner of gilded chair from the cabins was brought topside. It was a night for celebration. The meal was delicious, the chocolate tableware was superb—both as serving dishes and dessert—and there was more than enough for everyone. Peaches discovered a harp that someone had left behind in the Nochtland gardens, and for several hours the sweet, lulling sound of ballads filled the air.
When they all finally went to bed, even Sophia had forgotten some of her troubling memories. Most of the pirates returned with Martin and Veressa to the palace, where they promptly took command of the royal suites. Theo and Sophia stayed with Shadrack on the boldevela. She fell asleep almost at once.
But she awoke in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, panicked by a nightmare that she could not remember. She sat up, stretched her sore legs, and looked out the porthole at the pale moonlight. Her heart took a little while to stop racing. When it did, she quietly climbed out of her blankets.
The deck of the boldevela was still littered with remnants of the feast. Sophia stepped over the plates and cups and walked to the edge, resting her arms on the polished railing.
The moon hung over the Nochtland palace and its gardens, pale and ponderous, like the wondering face of a clock with no hands. There was the faint rushing of water from the fountains in the palace gardens.
A footstep on the deck made her turn. Theo came up and leaned his elbows on the railing beside her. “Bad dreams?”
“I can’t even remember what about.”
“Maybe this’ll help,” he said, handing her a chocolate spoon.
Sophia had to smile. She bit off a piece of the spoon and let it dissolve on her tongue. “Do you hear that?” she asked.
Theo cocked his head. “You mean the fountains?”
“No—something else. It’s farther away,” she hesitated. “Someone crying?”
If she had not known him better, Sophia would have said Theo looked almost worried. “I don’t hear anything,” he said softly.
“There must still be Lachrima in this city. Who knows how many.”
“You’ll hear them less once you leave.”
Sophia was silent for a moment. “I suppose everyone will go different ways now,” she said, taking another bite of chocolate.
“Veressa and Martin said they’ll stay as long as Justa doesn’t return.”
“Do you think she will?”
Theo shrugged. “I doubt she’ll want to—with the ice just miles from the gates.”
Sophia considered the blank face of the moon. “What about you?” she asked. “Are you going to stay, too?”
“Nah. Sure, the palace is nice, but who wants to sit around all day and look at flowers? I want to be out doing things, seeing new places.”
Sophia’s mind turned to the pirates and how quickly Theo had taken to life aboard the Swan. “I’m sure Calixta and Burr would be happy if you sailed with them.”