Smoke and Mirrors by K. D. Halbrook

Author:K. D. Halbrook
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books

CHAPTER 19

* * *

The bulb had burst. The bulb that Sasha, only the day before, had smiled over and secretly imagined becoming a flower bigger than her head, had opened while they’d been asleep. And inside the firm, shiny green capsule was not a pink daisy or a white orchid. It was a boat. And a big one too. Taller than the cottage itself, with billowing white sails that reached up into the sky and dark wood polished so hard that it gleamed like a flash of lightning.

“A boat,” Sasha repeated in awe.

“A ship,” Toddy said, feeling pleased to be able to correct his big sister. “Maybe even a pirate ship. Pirate! Is this your ship?” The kitten poked his head out the window and meowed dismissively before returning to his food bowl.

Sasha gave her brother a sidelong glance. “Pirates? Maybe we shouldn’t go in, then.” They looked at each other for a moment, then burst into laughter. “Race you!”

Sasha took off, leaving Toddy to catch up. She forgot about her skinned knees long enough to make it to the ladder that touched down on the soil, and began climbing. Toddy was right on her heels.

“I get to steer!” Toddy shouted up to her.

“You’re too small!” Sasha hollered back down.

“Am not!”

“Besides, I’m older.”

“So what? S’not fair!”

They scrambled onto the deck and tore up and down the gleaming wood planks. Sasha peered at her reflection in the shining brass accents while Toddy climbed the shrouds that led to the crow’s nest and brandished an imaginary sword.

“Arr!” he growled to a flock of birds flying overhead.

Sasha hightailed it toward the highest point on middeck and, once she’d reached it, stood, staring at the monstrous wooden helm before her. The tip of her head just barely poked over the top of it, and it was as wide as her arms were, stretched out full. The wood, like the rest of the ship, was dark and beautifully grained. She reached a hand out and touched one of the spokes of the wheel and pulled.

Suddenly a wild gust of wind lifted Sasha’s hair from the back of her neck. Her shirt flapped against her stomach as she fought to keep balance against the sudden, roaring gales. Smoke came up and swirled around the deck. Sasha’s heart tightened.

“Come down!” Sasha screamed to Toddy. Her words blew away long before they could reach the crow’s nest. The sails whipped and snapped and cracked. “Toddy!”

Toddy cried out in surprise as the ship lurched to the left with an echoing creak. He threw his arms around the mast and held on for his life. Sasha grasped at the wheel, trying to hold herself up as her feet went flying out from beneath her. The sudden windstorm rapidly grew in strength, rattling the fabric of the Cirque tents and the branches of the trees and shrubs in the garden; sequins, torn from the sparkling Cirque marquees, raced through the air and littered the top deck like confetti.

From the south an echoing growl rose to become a splintering roar.

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