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Lucy looked across the deck of the Cerys, which she thought looked surprisingly normal, apart from some spilled paint that she had stupidly stepped in Lucy bent to pick her trailing boot ribbons out of the annoying goop, which stuck to her fingers and - oh Lucy opened her mouth to scream, only to have a smelly hand shoved over it

"Shh, Lucy Don&039;t scream Please," Wolf Boy hissed

"It&039;s blood, it&039;s blood," Lucy spluttered beneath Wolf Boy&039;s grubby paw

"Yeah," muttered Wolf Boy "There&039;s a lot of it around And there&039;ll be even more if they find us" He jerked his free thumb toward the prow of the ship Suddenly Lucy realized that the deck was not quite as deserted as she had thought On a large open area in front of the ht of a lao-hold crane They had not noticed theto do with it, they were not going to notice either Slowly, stealthily, he walked Lucy backward to the cover of an upturned rowboat

"No screams, okay?" he whispered

Lucy nodded, and Wolf Boy took away his hand

The upturned boat was on the dark side of the deck, away froht Lucy slipped in behind it

"Oh, that&039;s where you all are," she whispered touchily "You could have waited for ," answered Septimus, who had rather hoped that Lucy wasn&039;t

Like a curious meerkat, Lucy suddenly stuck her head above the boat and looked around excitedly "So - what are we going to do?" she whispered eagerly, as if they were deciding on which gary yank on Lucy&039;s precious - and very stained - blue cloak "Get down, shut up and listen," she hissed Lucy looked shocked, but she settled doithout another word Jenna turned to Septimus and Wolf Boy

"You&039;re the experts," she told them "Tell us what to do and we&039;ll do it"

Five roups, one led by Septimus, the other by Wolf Boy Septirand total of one - Jenna Wolf Boy had drawn the short straith Lucy, but he figured Beetle made up for it It was decided that each troop would take one side of the deck in a pincer movement that would have impressed even the Croins Wolf Boy&039;s band was to have the shadows of the port side and Septimus&039;s creould take the ht When they arrived at the hold they were all to do their UnSeens At this Lucy had protested It wasn&039;t fair: everyone had an UnSeen except for her But Septie an UnSeen, even though he had just - he hoped - taught Beetle a very simple one

"Look, Lucy," whispered Jenna, "Beetle and I won&039;t do ours, okay? Then you won&039;t be the only one"

"All right," said Lucy grudgingly

They set off toward the lah theover ominous spatters of blood As they inched their way forward, the worrying silence on the ship persisted - the only sound they could hear was the creaking of the overhead lifting gear that Jenna had last seen used to lower the doors of the cargo hold She had not noticed the noise in the hubbub of the port, but now, in the silence of the night, the squeaking of the handle that turned the crane set her teeth on edge Luckily it also drowned out the squeal that caht was a severed hand - which turned out to be a glove used when handling ropes

Septi their eyes fixed on the scene ahead Septie He was i the crane into position over the cargo-hold doors, but every few seconds he cast a hasty glance around the deck Each ti pincers froze As soon as he turned back to the sweating Crowes and the squeaking crane, the pincersfrom pile of rope to boat to o hold Wolf Boy&039;s crew slipped behind a pile of barrels, and Septimus and Jenna found cover behind a hastily lowered sail Froave a thuo Each made a silent count of three, then slipped onto the deck and began their UnSeens, synchronized so that they could both still see each other Skipper Fry sniffed like a suspicious dog and his left eyebrow began to twitch He knehat that meant

"Stop the crane!" he yelled at the Crowes Poised above the cargo-hatch doors, the crane creaked to a halt

Skipper Fry listened hard The only sound he heard was the swash of the sea as, far below, the tide turned and began to feel its way back toward the Cerys It was a sound that told Skipper Fry he needed to getlike a caterpillar in a hurry - and he didn&039;t like it It gave Skipper Fry the creeps He preferred Darke Magyk, and not just because it didn&039;t s that he liked to do