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Speaking of which, a giant wave of water appears in front of us. Everyone gets quiet as the ship slides up the face of it. For a moment the front windows contain only sky… then we gradually rock forward, balancing atop the crest for a few seconds before we pitch forward and point nearly straight down at the ocean.
My girls both scream.
I’m tempted to scream right along with them.
“Aww crap,” says Kingsley.
“Hang on,” barks Angus, while yanking the wheel to the right.
I close my eyes in the abnormal stillness of the moment. We’re plummeting down the far side of a tidal wave. Either we’ll level out and resume sailing—or go straight into the ocean like a dropped dart.
If this ship smashes onto a rock or goes under, I’ve got to risk teleporting us out. Sorry, Ms. Unicorn, but my family has to come first. Maple’s words about teleportation not working too well in the presence of the unicorn—or this close to Thelmora come back to haunt me.
Oh, no… what if we can’t teleport out of here?
Though confident I can get us out of any bad situation… I scream with the others as we go down, down, down...
Weightlessness ends hard. My butt gets drilled into the seat with enough force that a shockwave rides up my spine into my skull. Then I bounce upward. If not for the seatbelt, I’d have kissed the ceiling. Everyone gets thrown around in their seats. I’m vaguely aware of a wall of seawater slamming into the front windows. For three seconds, my heart is in my throat… then the water rolls away, revealing air and ocean surface.
Luckily, we didn’t plunge into the depths like a dagger.
Relief melts out of me.
It’s short-lived as we have a near miss encounter with a huge rocky spire.
Angus gives us a crash course in Scottish swear words. He whips the wheel side to side, spinning and catching it, then doing it the other way. This large boat somehow manages to slip among the gauntlet of deadly rocks without ending up impaled. At first, his crazy motions seem way off time. Then I realize a ship this size doesn’t react immediately. He’s got to make course changes well before they’re needed.
I’m metaphorically biting my nails and trying not to have a complete nervous breakdown at the thought we’re stuck here and can’t teleport away. It finally occurs to me that Paxton isn’t screaming anymore. The only sound in the bridge is heavy breathing coming from Angus and the crew… and Tammy moaning like someone punched her in the gut.
I look forward again.
The seas are calm again. Outside, the lush green landscape of a huge land mass stretches to the horizon in both directions. It’s somewhere between jungle and Welsh forest. Still miles away, though. However, the sea between us and the land is quiet, calm, and free of rocks.
Meanwhile, Pax is hugging the unicorn, which seems significantly less tired/sick looking now. She’s positively grand and majestic.
“Thank you so much for visiting me,” she says. “I’m sorry if I made you leave your home and hurt you.” Paxton rests her head against the unicorn’s neck.
The creature nuzzles her in response, as much a ‘it’s not your fault, do not be sad’ gesture as can be conveyed without words. And then—
She disappears in a silver-white shimmering explosion of light.
The unicorn is gone.
Just like that.
Whoa.
Chapter Twenty-three
Home
I wave Paxton over.
She unbuckles her seatbelt and runs over to me, clinging to me. Whew. Sad but not crying. I can deal with this.
Tammy sits up. She looks pale and sickly, almost as white as she was in her goth phase with the makeup. “Ugh. If she could’ve just teleported herself to the island—”
“Continent,” says Anthony.
