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S imon lay on the stony harbor bed, fifteen feet underwater, wondering why he had decided to lie down in such an uncoh theboatsfrom their barnacle-encrusted keels An eel swaht and a few curious fish nuzzled at his toes In his ears the swish-swash sound of the sea mixed with the rattle of the stones on the harbor bed and the distant thud of the hulls buht as he watched his robes waft around in the cold currents of the incoe Simon did not feel the need to breathe The Darke Art of Suspension Underwater - so that the old bones of DomDaniel had made him practice every day with his head in a bucket of water - had automatically kicked in Simon smiled to hi Soht, a Darke Art ca in total control, butSimon frowned and a few bubbles loosed themselves from his eyebrows and drifted lazily to the surface far above But that was not why he was down here There was so iht of Lucy, Sih his lungs, acco, Simon tried to push himself off from the harbor bottohton what - on what?

With frantic, cold fingers Simon pulled the frayed hem of his tunic off the barb of an old anchor and, with his lungs screaravelly harbor bed The buoyancy of the water quickly propelled him upward, and a few seconds later he broke the oily surface of the harbor like a cork out of a bottle - to the a crowd

The crowd had not actually gathered to see Simon But when Si and spluttering, it quickly switched its attention from Linda and her FlashBoard to Simon And while the croatched Si draainst the water-darkened fabric, his green eyes flashing in a way that so, Linda took her chance Quietly she picked up the FlashBoard and sneaked away

Linda had not had a good reception when she had screeched to a halt on the edge of the quay A crowd had quickly gathered, theher into the harbor The Port Witch Coven was not popular in the Port, and as Linda slunk off into Fishguts Twist she knew that she had had a narrow escape Saltwater and Darke Witchcraft do not mix well A witch as steeped in the Darke as Linda would be in danger of dissolving into a pool of Darke slime within a few seconds of contact with the sea, which is one of the reasons you will never see a Darke witch cry Lucy Gringe had taken advantage of this fact and had gambled that Linda would not dare take the FlashBoard out across the water - and she was right

But Lucy had not thought past escaping the dreaded Linda And as the Marauder sailed out of the harbor Lucy began to realize that maybe she had - as her mother would have put it - jumped out of the stew pot and into the fire Lucy and Wolf Boy had leaped aboard one of the nastiest boats in the Port, skippered by a most unpleasant - and deeply superstitious - skipper If there was one thing that this skipper disliked it omen on board, especially women with braids Theodophilus Fortitude Fry, skipper of the Marauder, did not like worown up as the youngest brother of eight sisters And they had all worn braids And the biggest, bossiest one had worn them with lots of ribbons, just like Lucy did And so Skipper Fry surveyed his unexpected passengers with an expression of dismay, his bellow of, "Throw her off! Noas perhaps understandable - but not to Lucy and Wolf Boy To them, and Lucy in particular, it seemed very unreasonable There were just two crew members aboard the Marauder: one was the skipper&039;s son, Jakey Fry, a redheaded boy with a reen eyes like the sea He wore his hair cut short and a perpetually worried expression Jakey thought he was about fourteen, although no one had ever bothered to tell hie The other crew member was Thin Crowe, one of the Croins The Croere, theoretically, identical, but one was fat and one was thin - and that was the way it had always been, since the day they were born They were exceedingly stupid, possibly not e Port fish crate - indeed, there were soht have successfully disputed that Apart fro difference in size, the Croere remarkably similar Their eyes were as blank and pale as those of a dead fish on a slab, their heads were covered in a short black stubble and cuts from the razors that they occasionally scraped across their bumpy skulls, and they both wore short, filthy tunics of an indeters The Croins took turns crewing the Marauder They suited Skipper Fry - they were nasty and stupid enough to do what he wanted without asking questions And so, when Skipper Fry yelled, "Throw her off! Now! " he knew that that was exactly what Thin Croould do, without a second thought Skipper Fry didn&039;t like second thoughts

Thin Croiry, with rabbed Lucy around the waist, lifted her off her feet and headed rapidly to the side of the boat "Let go!" squealed Lucy Wolf Boy lunged at hirab hold of him too

"Throw &039;em both off," said Skipper Fry

Wolf Boy froze He had a horror of falling fro the day&039;s trash overboard, Thin Crowe heaved Wolf Boy and Lucy over the side of the boat But the Marauder&039;s hurried departure had led to what Skipper Fry would call sloppy sea down over the side Wolf Boy and Lucy grabbed the rope as they fell and dangled like a couple of fenders as the Marauder sped through the waves

Expertly - for he had done this an to pry Wolf Boy&039;s fingers froent seaman would have cut the rope, but this did not occur to hi irowled "Let &039;em sink or swim"

"I can&039;t swim!" Lucy&039;s voice came fro," said the skipper with a gap-toothed scowl On the tiller Jakey Fry watched in dismay By now the Marauder had cleared the harbor and was heading out to open sea, where Jakey knew there was no hope for anyone who fell into the sea and could not swiht Wolf Boy and Lucy - especially Lucy - looked like fun With the days on the boat with his unpredictable father and the bullying Crowe suddenly took on a less dreadful aspect And besides, Jakey didn&039;t agree with throwing anyone off boats - even girls

"No, Pa! Stop!" yelled Jakey "If they drown &039;tis worse luck even than the witch&039;s evil eye"

"Don&039;t mention the witch!" yelled Skipper Fry, beset with ht to be

"Stop &039;i the rope, Pa Stop &039;im or I&039;ll turn back to Port"

"You will not!"

"I will!" With that, Jakey Fry pushed the tiller hard away fro across and the Marauder began to turn Skipper Fry gave in To return to Port on the very tide on which a boat had left was known to be the worst luck of all It was more than he could take

"Leave &039;e the rope with his blunt fish knife He was enjoying himself and was reluctant to stop

"I said leave &039;em!" yelled the skipper "That&039;s an order, Crowe Pull &039;erinned He pulled the tiller toward hi back on course, he watched Lucy and Wolf Boy being pushed through the hatch into the hold below The hatch was slaan to whistle happily This voyage was going to bethan usual Back on the harborside, Simon shook off concerned inquiries He politely refused offers froet dry and, instead, set off back to his attic room in the Custonored the familiar voice He wanted to be alone But Maureen froht up with him and placed a friendly hand on his arm Simon turned to face her and Maureen was shocked - his lips were blue and his face was as white as the plates on which she displayed her pies

"Siet warm by the ovens I&039;ll make you a nice hot chocolate"

Simon shook his head, but Maureen was adah his and propelled him across the square to the pie shop Once inside, Maureen put up the Closed sign and pushed Sih to the kitchen at the back

"Now, sit," she instructed, as if Sih to jump into the harbor Obediently Si pie oven Suddenly he began to shiver uncontrollably "I&039;ll go and get soet out of that wet stuff and I&039;ll dry it overnight"

Five h, woolen blankets Now and then a shiver passed through hier pie-plate white "So, you saw Lucy?" Maureen was asking Siot so aith him I told you she would I don&039;t blame her" He put his head in his hands and another uncontrollable bout of shivering overcame him Maureen was a practical wo She also believed that things were not always as bad as they ht look

"That&039;s not what I heard," she said "I heard that she and the boy were escaping from the Coven We all saw the witch, Simon"

"Witch?" Simon raised his head "What witch?"

"The really nasty one The one that Shrank poor Florrie Bundy to the size of a tea bag, so they say"

"What?"

"A tea bag The tea-bag witch was chasing Lucy and the boy She was after thes"

"Chasing Lucy?" Si hard In the past he had paid the occasional visit to the Coven It was not so, but at the time he had respected the Coven for their Darke Powers, and he had particularly respected Linda, who, he rehbor But Linda&039;s commitment to the Darke, combined with her ht that she had been chasing Lucy made him shudder Maureen added another blanket "It does explain why they escaped on the Marauder," she said, getting up to tend the boiling kettle that dangled above the fire