A Dawn Most Wicked (Something Strange and Deadly 0.5)(24)

“Without a ladder?” Her eyes grew large. “How can the boy manage—”

My hand shot up. “Trust me. He can do it. But . . . can you help?”

“Of course I can.” She slid off the covers, and her stockinged feet hit the floor. “But who will steer the Queen?”

“You.”

“Ah.” She scooted off the bed and strode to her boots. As she stuffed her feet in without bothering to lace them up, she asked, “And what do I tell Father?”

I pushed off the bed. “Tell him the command bells are stuck. Remember that time outside Memphis when the bells weren’t working? He stormed down to the engine room himself.”

Cassidy’s face scrunched up, unsure. “I don’t know.” She moved to the door and cracked it. “He’ll know the bells aren’t broken since the paddles will be working according to what he orders, and—”

“CASSIDY!” The captain’s voice thundered from above.

In the dim room we stared at each other, unmoving.

Then Cochran’s voice roared out again. “Cassidy, come here! The bells aren’t working!”

Cass gasped, and her mouth bobbed open and closed. “Did you do something, Danny?”

“No,” I said quickly. “This has nothing to do with me! But go! It’ll work just fine.”

“Right.” She nodded decisively, and my heart swelled. To see her with her jaw set like that—to see the way she carried herself purposefully through the door . . .

It was no wonder she had tamed the Mississippi.

And it was no wonder I was in love with her.

After her cabin door had swung shut and her drumming footsteps were out of earshot, I crept to the window and peeked behind the curtain. Eight long, tight breaths later, Cochran’s broad form stomped by and swooped down the stairs. Once his head vanished I counted to ten—enough time to get him too far ahead to see me—and then squeezed out the door. With my head constantly darting left and right I surged over the Texas and down to the Hurricane Deck.

But as I raced to the next set of stairs, a flicker of movement at the front of the boat caught my eye. A body at the middle of the jack staff. My stomach hitched. Where was Cochran? If he was still stomping in the same direction as me, he could see Jie too. . . .

Two heavy heartbeats thumped past. I didn’t move. But then Jie reached the top of the pole, and I realized that me standing still and holding my breath like a Nancy wasn’t going to change a damned thing.

I sprang into a run. Once we had the horns, I needed to get Joseph and Jie out of sight—stowed away somewhere safe and private to deal with the lodestone curse.

I bounded off the final steps and onto the Passenger Deck, my breaths coming in shallow and fast. Ghosts swooped and snarled, but I skittered left, right, left, and soon reached the main stairwell.

It was then, just as my feet hammered down the last set of stairs and the Main Deck opened up before me, that Cassidy’s voice screamed out, “Depth! Barnes, I need a depth!”

I jolted, almost tripping down the remaining steps.

“Depth!” Cassidy shouted again, her voice now shrill. Panicked.

Why wasn’t the first mate answering?

For that matter, where was the first mate? I jumped off the last steps and aimed right, toward the edge of the Main Deck where the old man should be. . . .

But he wasn’t.

I skittered to a stop, my arms flying out to keep my balance. Then I twisted around, cupped my hands over my mouth, and hollered, “Cass! Barnes ain’t here!”

For several moments the only sounds were the beating paddles and thrumming engine. Then Cassidy’s voice shrieked out, “Get me a depth, Danny!”

A quick scan of the first mate’s station showed his lead line was gone, so I swiveled around and dove toward the hallway behind the stairs . . . to a series of hooks where the extra lead lines should have been. They weren’t.

“Hey!” said a girl’s voice. “We’re over here!”

I flung a sideways glance, caught sight of Joseph and Jie hovering beside the clerk’s office, but all I could do was nod at them and then charge back onto the Main Deck.

“Cassidy!” I yelled up. “Full stop! Full stop! Now!”

Jie and Joseph rushed out behind me. “Where’s the first mate?” I asked them. “The man hollering depths—have you seen him?”

Jie shook her head. “He wasn’t here when I climbed down. The horns weren’t there either,” Jie added softly.

That stopped my shouting. “What?” I rounded on her. “Not there?”

“There’s only one set up there.” Jie lifted her hands defensively. “And it said Memphis on it.”

“Someone must have taken them down recently,” Joseph said. “Jie claims the wood is damaged.”

She nodded. “Maybe someone got to ’em before the race started.”

“Danny!” Cass’s voice ripped into my brain. “I need a depth!”

“The lead line ain’t here!” I bellowed back. “You have to call for a full stop, Cass! Full stop!” My gaze dropped down to the paddles, waiting for a slow in their rhythmic beat. If Cassidy didn’t know the depth and the boat ran aground at full steam . . . it would rip a hole in the Queen’s hull that would sink us in minutes.