Shadows of the Lost Sun

CHAPTER 1

A Lazy Day in the Sunshine

Hey, hold this," Marrill said, passing her sketchbook to a deckhand.

Through the waving stalks of giant dandelions, a lilting melody drifted over the Enterprising Kraken, wrapping Marrill in the arms of a lovely daydream. Karny lay belly up in her arms, exposing his soft tummy to the sunlight that wove through the great fluff balls leaning over them. Not far from her, Fin dozed against the railing, arms behind his head, feet kicked up against the side of the forecastle.

On the quarterdeck, Coll let out a playful laugh. Remy guided the ship under his watchful eye, navigating it through green stems that sprouted straight up from the waters of the Pirate Stream. Marrill smiled at how happy her babysitter seemed, even though they were both so far away from home.

"What a perfect day," Marrill murmured.

Even Ardent had come out of his cabin to enjoy the scene. It was good to see his grandfatherly smile again. Ever since they'd left Monerva, the wizard had taken on a haggard look, as if the cheer had drained right out of him. After their discovery of Forthorn Forlorn at the Ashen Flume, Marrill had half feared she might never see him smile again.

"The Soporific Straits," Ardent announced to a sailor behind him. "Or so I name this place. I daresay I have not passed this way before, but I will make a habit of doing it again in the future. Just lovely." He reached out and stroked a hand across a puff ball, sending a cloud of fuzz dancing through the air.

"It's kind of hard to see through this stuff," Remy said, but it was barely a complaint. Coll was teaching her to navigate the ship by feel, after all, and the Ropebone Man and pirats made sure the leaning dandelions didn't tangle with the rigging. The world was peaceful, soft, and pleasant. After everything they'd been through, traveling through the Soporific Straits was like getting a massage straight on the brain.

Marrill knew that this was just a brief detour on their way to the Great Game of Margaham, that soon enough they would be facing untold dangers to unravel the secrets of the Master of the Iron Ship. But right now, the trip could take eternity, and she wouldn't mind one bit.

"I like your sketches," the deckhand said. He held up the pad, showing a drawing of old ships resting on scarred rock in a barren desert. Marrill could barely muster the energy to look over. He was a small man, dark haired and olive skinned like Fin. She hadn't seen him before. But then, the sailors were such an integral part of the ship, she barely noticed them at all.

"Thanks," she mumbled. Rumbly Karny purrs drifted up between her fingertips as she rubbed the ruff of his neck. "That used to be the harbor of the Salt Sand King, back before he burned his whole kingdom to ash. Those ships were his fleet. Can you believe it?"

The deckhand nodded. "Oh, yes. I see his sigil on their hulls now," he said, pointing to the symbol of a dragon beneath the waves of the Wish Machine, carefully drawn on the side of each vessel.

The melody of the straits whispered softly in Marrill's ears. "Yep," she said with a yawn. "Did you know Fin was supposed to be part of his army?"

"Is that right?"

"Turns out." Marrill nodded. That was something else they'd discovered in Monerva. Fin's origins. Why he was so forgettable. "Way back when, the Salt Sand King wished for an unbeatable army and spies who could never be seen. And Fin's people were the spies. Isn't that cool?"

"It sure is," the deckhand said. "Wonder where they are now."

Marrill shrugged. "No idea. The Salt Sand King was trapped in Monerva and never actually saw them. But now that old Salty is out of the picture, we're totally going to help Fin find his family."

She looked over at Fin. He snored ever so slightly, tossing his head in the sunshine. Of course, it would be kind of tricky convincing the crew to help find Fin's people; no one but her even remembered him for more than a few minutes. And with the Master of the Iron Ship out there, Ardent was pretty determined to visit the other Wizards of Meres. But she would make sure they found Fin's mom. No matter what.

It was one of the main reasons she'd stayed on the Stream. She couldn't leave him here alone, to be forgotten again.

Marrill sighed as the wind trailed through her hair, dandelion puffs tickling her cheeks as they drifted past. Thinking about Fin's mom reminded her of her own. She couldn't imagine what it would be like to grow up without her parents. And that reminded her of the other reason she'd stayed on the Stream. Back home in her own world, her mom was sick. There had to be something, in all the magic of the Pirate Stream, that could help her.

Fortunately, Marrill still had time to find it. Her mom and dad were still in Boston. They wouldn't be missing her yet. And even if it took a little longer, even if they figured out she was gone again, showing up with the magic to make her mom better would make it all worth it.

Besides, Monerva had shown her that time could be flexible. Maybe she would find a way to go back home before she'd even left.

She closed her eyes and let the melody wash over her, smiling at the sound of Fin's snores. The sun speckled her skin, and the breeze was cool on her cheeks. Just yesterday, it had all been overwhelming: finding Fin's people; curing her mom; knowing that the Master was still out there, playing his role in the Meressian Prophecy to bring about the end of the Stream.

But in the peace of the Soporific Straits, that all seemed doable somehow. Just new adventures to have, new quests to embark on. The worst was behind them. No more living fires. No more Iron Tide chasing them through whirlpools. No more Serth spouting dark prophecies and turning people into weeping slaves.

"You know what would be a good idea?" one of the sailors whispered in her ear. "We should all go check on something. Something inside."

Marrill's drowsy mind couldn't tell if she was sleeping or awake. She felt like she needed to check on something… but she couldn't even tell where the thought had come from. She grasped for the first thing that came to mind. "The Map to Everywhere?"

"Sure," the voice whispered. "The Map to Everywhere… You really should check on it… now."

Marrill sat up with a start, looking around. Right behind her, a sailor was strolling away, joining a few others walking the deck, securing the ropes. She shook her head, realizing she'd been dozing.

A thought occurred to her, still clinging from the dream. "Hey, Ardent," she called, lowering Karny to the ground. The cat gave her a withering glare with his one good eye and slunk over to plop down in a sun patch. "I just had the strangest thought—maybe we should check the Map?"

Ardent turned away from some poor sailor he'd caught in a lecture and raised an eyebrow. He seemed to roll the thought around in his head. "Odd you mention it. I was just thinking there was something I needed to check on.…"

"Me too," Coll added from the quarterdeck. "Remy and I were just talking about it with…" He looked around.

Remy looked around the other way, mimicking the motion. "Someone," she finished.

"Most peculiar," Ardent said. "Well, if we all had the same thought… hmm… it has been a while since we checked on the Map. Perhaps we best follow our joint intuition." He spun, lazily kicking aside the hem of his purple robe, and ambled toward his cabin at the rear of the ship. Marrill rose to follow, leaving Fin to snooze in comfort for the time being.

Inside, the wizard's cabin was a wreck. Boxes lay on their sides, one of them oozing a bulbous pink substance. A scary-looking nightmare shield hung crooked over the bed, which was itself heaped with random debris. Nearly every surface was piled with open books and old scrolls filled with Ardent's florid writing.

She picked up the book nearest her, glancing idly at the spine. "Riddles in the Dark," she read. Her eyes skipped to the subtitle. "On Magical Games and Playing to Incinerate."

"Oh, not literally incinerate," Ardent offered as his fingers entered the combination to a lock only he could see. "Usually. Regardless, all valuable knowledge we will need if we are to best Margaham at his game. Which is, of course, the only way to have a meaningful conversation with the crazy—ah, here we are!"

Ardent turned to them, slapping the Map to Everywhere onto the center of the table. It still surprised Marrill how ordinary the thing could look—just a scrap of old parchment with curling corners. And yet, it held tremendous power. The Map could lead you anywhere you needed to go. And with its Key, you could use it to find anything on the Pirate Stream.

But the Map was more than that. It was a prison created by the Dzane, the first wizards. They made it to hold the Lost Sun of Dzannin, the mythical Star of Destruction, prophesied to destroy the entire Pirate Stream. And now Serth, the Meressian Oracle who'd spoken that Prophecy, was trapped inside it as well.

The last time she'd seen the Map in Monerva, it had been blank. But now lines of ink flowed across its surface, tracing together into the scrawled shape of a bird.

"Rose!" Marrill breathed.

The Compass Rose of the Map to Everywhere flapped to life, beating her scrawled wings as if trying to claw her way off the page. Her beak opened in a soundless screech, filling Marrill with dread.

"Is that… normal?" Remy asked.

Ardent shook his head. "No.… She's trying to warn us of something." He bent over the parchment.

"I don't like this," Coll said. "I don't like any of this. Something isn't right."

Marrill gulped. She could feel it, too. Something was off. A memory tickled the back of her mind but danced away when she tried to grab it. "Do you think it's the Meressian Prophecy?"

Ardent arched an owl-like eyebrow at her. "All the more reason for us to hurry to reach Margaham. Because if it is, something very significant is about to hap—"

Just then, Fin flew into the room at a full run, chest heaving, eyes wide. "We've been boarded!"

"Nice of you to announce it," Coll growled, advancing with one hand on his dagger.

Fin shook his head furiously. "Not by me. I'm with Marrill."

Marrill sighed, nodding to reassure the others. As forgettable as Fin was, Coll tried to throw him in the brig at least twice a day. "He's with us," she reminded the captain. "Fin, what's going on?"

"Shhhh!" he hissed. "Look!" He slammed his body up against the side of the doorframe, peeking out at the deck beyond. "They're everywhere!"

As one, they all joined him at the doorway. But as Marrill scanned the deck, she didn't see any invaders. Just sailors, pulling ropes and securing lines.

"Are you all right, young man?" Ardent asked. "There doesn't seem to be anyone out there."

Remy nodded in agreement. Over her shoulder, Coll snorted derisively. Marrill touched Fin lightly on the arm, wondering if perhaps he'd just woken from a bad dream.

But Fin looked at them like they were crazy. "What about all those people?" he whispered, pointing from one crewman to the next.

Marrill's brow furrowed. Now that she was forced to focus on them, now that Fin specifically pointed them out, the sailors were all behaving quite oddly. They weren't hauling ropes, she realized, so much as tying them to one another in a tangle. Instead of raising and trimming the sails, they'd lowered them. Several clustered together, whispering and motioning toward the cabin. One leaned off the bowsprit, waving a shiny mirror to catch the light.

Signaling to someone, Marrill realized.

Remy leaned in beside her. "What's going on with the deck… hands…?" She trailed off.

Fin caught Marrill's eye. Coll twitched with fear-tinged anger. Ardent stroked his beard furiously. Marrill gulped and dared to say what they were all thinking:

"The Kraken doesn't have any deckhands."

CHAPTER 2

A Few Extra Hands

Fin blinked in disbelief. Twenty, maybe even thirty, sailors moved across the deck as if they belonged there. It took a lot of effort to look that effortless. Fin knew—he'd done the same thing a million times himself.

But style wasn't the only thing he had in common with the invaders. They all had olive skin, dark hair, rounded features. Features he recognized from the fragments of his earliest memories, back from the night he first arrived at the Khaznot Quay when he was a child.

They were the features of his mother. The same features he saw every time he looked in a mirror.

These people looked like him.

The revelation twirled around in his stomach, fear and awe and hope and confusion all mixed together as one. Heart pounding, he spun to face the rest of the Kraken crew. "How long have they been on board?"

Ardent frowned. "How long has who been on board?"

Fin resisted the desire to roll his eyes. "Them," he said, flinging an arm toward the sailors.

"Oh." Ardent's forehead pinched. "We seem to have been boarded. When did that happen?" he asked Coll.

"Um," Coll said.

Marrill and Remy glanced at each other, slow embarrassment creeping across their faces.

Fin raised an eyebrow in alarm. "You don't know?"

Remy shrugged. "I remember talking to someone earlier, but… it just didn't seem that significant."

Ardent tugged on his beard. "Powerful magic must be at work here. And yet, I would have sensed that. Whatever is causing this, it isn't magical."

Fin sucked in a breath. Ardent had said the same thing to him when trying to explain Fin's own forgettability. That confirmed it. He turned to Marrill, his eyes wide. "Marrill, they're like me! These are my people!"

"A traitor, I knew it!" Ardent snapped. "I mean, I didn't know it. I don't know you. But you seem a treacherous sort, now that I spend some time with you."

"Hush, Ardent," Marrill said. "Fin's our friend. He'd never betray us."

Fin flashed a smile of thanks at her. But as nice as it was to be championed, it didn't answer the many questions bubbling up in his head. His thoughts raced out, stumbling across one another until one made it through. "What are they doing here?"

"I'd like to know the answer to that myself," Coll said, a sharp frown creasing his forehead. He pushed himself from the doorjamb and strode confidently out to the center of the deck. The rest of the Kraken crew followed.

"You lot," Coll barked. "Explain yourselves. Now. And don't leave out the part about why I shouldn't just throw every one of you in the brig for boarding my ship without permission."

Ardent cleared his throat and stepped forward, taking charge. "What the good captain is saying is…" He frowned, looking at the newcomers and then back at the crew as though struggling to remember. "Welcome aboard?"

"That's not what I was saying at all," Coll corrected.

"It wasn't?" Ardent asked.

"I…" Coll's mouth hung open a moment. And then he closed it, scowling. "Maybe?"

"You were asking them to explain themselves," Fin reminded them. Ardent and Coll both looked at him, the usual fog of forgetfulness clouding their expressions.

Fin threw up his hands in exasperation. "You, with the braid," he called, pointing at a thin rail of a man who'd been flashing his mirror from the bow. "Yes, you. Don't duck away. I can see you. Still see you. Still see you."

The thin man straightened and crossed his arms. But it wasn't he who answered. A girl stepped out from behind him, her long dark hair framing her wispy features.

Fin recognized her instantly.

He'd only run into her once before. Or rather, she had run into him, fleeing from guards in the musty, squishy streets of Belolow City. But he was sure it was her. After all, before today, she was the only person he'd ever met who was like him. Running into her had given him hope that he wasn't alone. That there were others like him, others who might hold the answer to finding his mom.

This girl may have been forgettable, but he couldn't possibly forget her.

She beamed at him. "Brother Fade," she said, stepping toward him. "It is you!"

Fin narrowed his eyes at her cheerful greeting. They hadn't exactly parted on great terms; she'd framed him for her own crimes and fled the city. And then there was the small matter of the silver bracelet he'd swiped off her wrist in the process. Which she of course hadn't noticed, what with Fin being a master of thievery.

Then again, her presence on the Kraken strongly indicated she had picked up on it at some point.

At his side, Marrill leaned close. "You know this girl?"

"Of course he does," the girl chirped.

Fin crossed his arms, trying to appear nonchalant, as though his heart wasn't beating like a herd of giraffalisks. Whether she was here for the bracelet or not, she was here. A million questions raced through his head, but he swallowed them all. Knowing how desperate he was for answers would only give her the upper hand.

"You owe me a Puff-Decoy," he told her. "I had to use my last one getting away from those guards who were after you." The girl threw her head back and laughed. Fin felt a smile of his own twitching at his lips. "So what brings you to the Kraken?" he asked her. "Uninvited, I might add."

Her expression sobered. "We came for something, Brother. Something very important to us."

Ardent stepped forward. "Lovely!" he announced. "A negotiation it is. Coll, fetch my ransoming hat. Marrill, brew up some bargaining tea." He cupped one hand over his mouth. "Make it strong," he whispered.

All the sailors laughed together. "Oh no, friends," said the thin man with the braid. "We don't make bargains."

Ardent sighed. "Thieves then, is it? Very well. Make that my ransom-taking hat." He narrowed his eyes menacingly. "And cancel the tea."

"Guys?" Next to them, Remy tugged at Coll's arm. "Did the music here always have drums?"

Fin paused, listening. Sure enough, a steady drumbeat danced through the melody of the straits. Something about the rhythm was familiar to him. It made his mouth go dry and his gut clench. His heart seemed to fall into the same pattern, the beats short and fast.

Marrill pointed off the port side. "I think it's coming from that direction."

Fin spun just as the dandelion stalks bent aside in the distance. The prow of a great ship hove into view, fluff scattering on the breeze in its wake. She was bigger than the Kraken, broad and ribbed and rigged for battle. Fin couldn't see the mark emblazoned on her side, but he didn't need to. He already knew it was there.

A dragon beneath a wave-filled circle. The same sign he'd seen on the girl's ship back in Belolow. The same sign he'd seen in Monerva. The sign of his people.

The sigil of the Salt Sand King.

"We've got company!" Coll shouted. Without hesitating, the captain sprinted for the quarterdeck. "Ropebone, pirats, full sail!" he bellowed as he spun the wheel to put the oncoming ship behind them.

The ship's rigging sprang to motion all by itself. But just as quickly as they started moving, the ropes snapped to a screeching stop. Everywhere Fin looked, the lines had been tied together, tangled into elaborate knots, secured in the wrong places.

So this was what these "sailors" had been up to, he realized. They'd crippled the Kraken so this new ship could overtake her.

Fin spun toward the forgettable girl. She smirked at him, an eyebrow raised. "Sorry, Brother," she said with a shrug. "But we can't let you leave. Not until they arrive."

Fin's eyes darted to the knotted lines, tugging and testing themselves. The boarders had tied the Kraken up good. Good enough to disable just about any ship.

But then, they weren't on just any ship.

"Oh, looks like no one told you bloods," Fin said with a laugh. All around them, ropes slithered to life, untying themselves in a flurry. Sudden confusion danced across the girl's features. "A few knots are no match for the Enterprising Kraken."

Pirats galloped across the deck and through the rigging, unsecuring and resecuring lines. The boarders jumped after them, trying to keep the ship under control, but it was too late. Behind Fin, Ardent raised his hands and, with them, the main sails.

Dandelion seeds filled the air as the Kraken jumped to life, crashing through the stalks of fluff. Fin snatched one, twirling it between his fingers as he swaggered toward the forgettable girl. He pointed it back at the menacing vessel chasing them. "Bad breath of breeze on that one, jog. Seems we're going to miss your connection after all."

The oncoming ship was already losing ground. It was fast, no doubt. Just not Kraken fast. The girl's smirk faltered. She didn't seem to know what to say.

"New plan, brethren. Retreat and regroup!" the thin man with the braid called, waving his hand in a circular motion. The fake crewmen swarmed to one side of the ship. Two of them swung a coiled rope ladder over the railing to a small getaway boat lashed against the hull below.

The girl stepped back, moving to join her compatriots. "Time to go," she said, waving Fin after her. "Come on, Brother!"

Fin blinked. She was looking at him like she expected him to join her. "Come on? I don't even know you. I'm not going anywhere."

She tilted her head to the side as though trying to fit a new piece of information into an existing puzzle. "But… I can't just leave you. Not after we've been looking for you all this time."

It wasn't easy to render Fin speechless. But the forgettable girl had succeeded in robbing him of coherent thought once again. He opened his mouth and closed it twice before finally getting out, "For me?"

She blinked. "Of course. Don't you get it, Brother? We came here for you. Your whole family has been looking for you for years!"

Fin's legs seemed to have suddenly been replaced with jelly. "I have a… family?" His heart tripped unsteadily. The words sounded foreign in his ears.

"Come on, Sister Fade," the last of the crewmen yelled, slipping over the side. "We'll find another way on another day."

"Hold up!" the girl cried back. She grabbed Fin's hand. "Of course you do! Didn't you know? Didn't your mom tell you who you are? Didn't she tell you about the Rise and the Fade?"

Fin could barely even shake his head. "My mom left me at the Khaznot Quay when I was four. I've been searching for her ever since."

Her eyes widened in confusion and then concern. "Oh, Brother Fade," she said, placing her other hand on top of his. "The Khaznot Quay? That's where you've been all this time?"

There was a shout from below. "Time to go!" called the man with the braid, waving for her to hurry.