Saturdays at Sea by Jessica Day George

Author:Jessica Day George
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2017-07-27T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter

16

The new dog mother was Kitsi, a regal creature the size of a loaf of bread and blessed with a great quantity of caramel, brown, and white hair—which is why no one had noticed that she was going to have puppies. Now she looked noticeably leaner as she reclined with her four babies nursing busily, and Celie wondered how they had missed it.

“Why does it always have to be my bed?” Rolf said ruefully.

Kitsi had chosen Rolf’s bunk to expand her family on. Dagger had also hatched from his egg in the middle of Rolf’s bed. Lady Griffin carked, and then leaned forward to nuzzle the puppies. Kitsi thumped her plumed tail in response.

“So that’s how she got up there,” Queen Celina said.

Rolf slept in the top bunk. Lulath’s girls were good jumpers, but not that good.

“She must have spread the word that your bed was the best place for having babies,” Pogue said. He grinned.

“If she doesn’t want to move, you can stay in my cabin with me,” Queen Celina told Rolf. “Although that means that Pogue will have to take care of the mother and babies on his own until they’re ready.”

“Griffins, puppies, they’re all the same,” Pogue said airily.

Lulath had apparently been too overcome with emotion to speak for a moment. Now he leaned against the side of the bunk and carefully encircled the mother and babies with one long arm.

“Such beauties,” he murmured to her in Grathian. “Delicate and lovely as their mother!”

Kitsi thumped her tail again.

Celie looked suspiciously at the other dogs. Was JouJou fatter than usual?

Pogue followed her gaze. “Any more puppies, though, and I think I’d rather swim to Larien,” he remarked.

“What’s the point?” Lilah said brokenly. She had barely glanced at the puppies, and now she slumped on Pogue’s bunk. “I’ll see if I can’t get the Ship to turn around.”

“Now, Lilah, darling,” Queen Celina said. “There’s no need to despair. The Ship knows what it’s doing.”

“Does it?” she asked, still listless.

“Come on, cheer up,” Rolf said. “First of all, no one has had puppies on your blankets.” He held up his hands when he saw they were all about to shout at him to be serious. “Sorry, sorry!

“But anyway, the Castle always knows what’s going on, even if we don’t. That’s why it moves things around, so that we foolish humans can find what we need.”

“It’s true,” Celie agreed. “It showed me the Spyglass Tower weeks before we needed it. I couldn’t figure out why we’d need some dry biscuits and a Vhervhish grammar, but sure enough, we did!”

“But how could the Ship know what’s on Larien?” Lilah protested. “The Castle knows what it knows because it’s all happening inside the Castle.”

“But how does the Castle know what’s going to happen in the future?” Pogue said. “None of us knew that Khelsh was going to try to take over—otherwise he wouldn’t have been allowed in the gates!”

“How does the Castle know the future?” Rolf said, pulling at his ear. “I never really thought about it in those terms.

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