Dreamcatcher | ONC 2020 Honourable Mention | ✔

Chapter Twelve

"What do you mean, they won't start?" said the captain.

Rav would have felt sorry for the crew member on the receiving end of that statement if it had been anyone but Indra. The mechanic, though, kept the same cool expression he always did.

"They're mended," he said. "The coal hasn't been tampered with, and the system runs smoothly when I turn it by hand. But neither engine will start."

The captain uttered a phrase Rav hoped would bump him over a phylogenetic category in his next life. He would make a great sea cucumber.

"Curse this ship," hissed the man under his breath.

Rav's eyes widened. It was the first time he had ever heard the captain vilify Dreamcatcher. Normally he loved the ship—almost unreasonably so.

Manish finished rummaging in a galley drawer and edged out through the curtain like he didn't want to get involved. He had pocketed a fresh roll of sail-mending thread. Sanjay had discovered a huge slash in the brand new rudder this morning, and they didn't have the canvas to replace the damaged panels. Rav had seen the tear. In his most secret of thoughts, he didn't think even a knife could have done such damage.

"Keep trying," said the captain. "Cabin boy, go help him. It'll be useful for you to see how the engines work."

For when you work for me.

Rav swallowed hard and tried not to let his feelings pinch his face. He nodded. Indra's look had gone from neutral to sour at the order, but he said nothing until they were back by the engine room. Then he opened the door and swore loudly. Black smoke billowed out. Indra threw his shirt over his nose and mouth and plunged inside. There was a bang of metal on metal and the screech of a protesting valve. Rav ran down the hallway to open the hatch to the deck. The engine-room door slammed behind him.

"Someone open the damned exhaust pipe!" roared Indra to the ship at large, his back to the door. Smoke leaked from its cracks around him.

Sanjay's footsteps ran across the deck overhead. There was another creak, and a whoosh from the engine room. Rav could picture the black billow of smoke ejected from Dreamcatcher's tail end as the backed-up system exhaled. Indra wiped his sooty face with a black-stained sleeve. Rav heard him mutter something about the island.

Was the ship's first mate superstitious?

Maybe this was why he'd been in such a bad mood lately.

Indra pulled the piece of wire from his pocket and threw it at Rav. "Go feed your dragon. I need to fix this."

I don't want you in the engine room, was the real meaning Rav sensed there, but already his heart was pounding. Was he being told to go into the captain's cabin alone? Did Indra trust that he wouldn't release the dragon? Or did he no longer care?

"Are you deaf, boy?"

Rav startled like a rabbit. He had been staring at the wire in his hands. Face hot, he jogged down the hallway. Another realization heightened the feeling of stupidity: the hallway was straight. Indra could still see him from its other end.

There was another slam as the engine-room door closed again.

Rav stood rooted outside the captain's cabin. He was alone. Nobody was watching him, and he was just steps from the hatch to the deck—and from there, steps to the railing. Sanjay and Manish were up there, but he could hide the dragonette in his shirt... would she even let him go? He'd get caught disobeying orders if she didn't.

With shaking hands, Rav bent the wire, fed it through the crack in the door and knocked the latch inside free. The dragonette was as he had left her. Fear made a snake's coil of Rav's insides. Her breathing had slowed considerably since he had last been here. Her water dish at least was empty, but she still had not touched food. Rav refilled the dish, splattering water across the dragonette's tail as his hands refused to steady.