The Blackhope Enigma by Teresa Flavin

Author:Teresa Flavin [Flavin Teresa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7636-6206-6
Publisher: Candlewick Press
Published: 2011-05-16T16:00:00+00:00

Blaise rolled up the map and shoved it into his bag. He looked down into the water, ready to jump, as Angus began limping along the pier.

Suddenly Blaise saw something gliding across the sea. Two triangular sails were moving swiftly toward him.

A galley ship drifted up to the pier, white sails shimmering and rows of oars protruding from its sides like a centipede’s legs. The elevated poop deck at the rear was covered with a brightly decorated canopy, and a flag showing a panther fluttered overhead. The prow had a carved figurehead Blaise couldn’t make out at first, but as it came closer, he saw it was a woman holding a lily in one hand and an apple in the other.

The main deck was bustling with sailors in loose shirts and breeches, bringing the craft safely alongside the pier. Muscular oarsmen were slumped with exhaustion on the benches that lined each side of the deck.

A sailor with an eye patch slung a rope around a post and gestured for Blaise to cross the gangplank that had been laid down for him.

As Angus’s shouts grew closer behind him, Blaise jumped onto the ship. The air smelled of sweat and fish. He was greeted by several smiling sailors, ushered down the raised gangway between the oarsmen and up onto the poop deck, where the helmsman guided the rudder. A low rumble began as men grunted and pushed the oars out like the wings of a huge bird. Within seconds the vessel shifted away from the dock.

Heart still racing, Blaise watched Angus standing motionless at the end of the pier, his face twisted with rage.

Someone tugged at his sleeve, and he turned around, startled. The one-eyed sailor, whom Blaise immediately nicknamed “Patchy,” bowed and looked expectantly at him. He seemed to be a first mate of sorts, dressed in neater breeches than the others and a tunic.

A boy peered down at Blaise from the crow’s nest atop the mainmast. Everyone else on deck had stopped work to watch the newcomer.

Who were they? What did they all want, staring at him like that? The ship pitched and he clung to the side, his stomach lurching.

Some of the men had dark hair and some had light. The same went for their skin tones and clothes. But Blaise’s stomach contracted again as he realized that their faces were all essentially the same.

They looked similar to the men in the frozen top layer of The Mariner’s Return to Arcadia. But those men did not move, while these men climbed and rowed and stared at him without blinking.

A voice broke the standoff.

“Welcome, Captain. Where you want to go?” asked Patchy in a singsong voice, offering him a skin full of water. “You tell me. We take you where you wish.”

“Captain? How could I be your captain? Don’t you have one already?” Blaise guzzled water and poured some over his face.

“No. We been waiting for you, Captain. Now you’re here, and this is your ship.”

“But how did you know

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