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‘Interesting Yes, it is theoretically possible to --’

Whatever Sca to say was lost as a cannonball struck the Moth’s side just behind and below the wheel, s splinters that histling across the quarterdeck

Seven

THE NEXT THING Arthur knew, he was lying on the deck, right up against the rail, with his good leg hanging overboard He could hear screaht he’d suffered a sudden asthma attack and had passed out fro was fine, or so his mind reported before it suddenly switched back to the current situation The splinters flying through the air --

Arthur pulled his leg in, sat up, and stared around hi hurt, but that was nothing new There was blood on his dressing gown, but it was bright blue A pain in his left hand made him lift it up There was blood there too -- red blood, but not er, and pulled out a needle-shaped splinter that had sliced across a knuckle and was still hanging there

‘Will you look at that?! Ruined!’ said a voice next to Arthur The boy slowly turned to look There was a large hole on the far side of the deck The planking was gouged all around and there was blue blood splattered all over the place, a at his waistcoat A splinter as long as Arthur’s forear out of the Denizen’s sto out of the wound and into his waistcoat pocket

‘Doesn’t it hurt?’ asked Arthur He was in shock and part of his ain He knew the Denizens could recover even fro, but that didn’t help It also didn’t apply to him A wound like Ichabod’s would kill him for sure

‘It certainly does hurt,’ replied Ichabod with a grimace ‘But just look athis own arerly felt his stoer had been touched

The Denizens around the wheel had not been so lucky Arthur could hardly bear to look at them, they were so pierced by splinters At least the blue blood didn’t look so serious as real hu about their bad luck

‘Seriously wounded to the Captain’s quarters!’ instructed Doctor Scamandros He didn’t appear to be injured, but blue fluid dripped froreatcoat ‘You too, mortal! You could be killed up here! Get below at once Ichabod, take charge of our valuable passenger!’

Arthur struggled to his feet and hesitantly walked to the gangway, Ichabod at his side

‘Are you going to do so, Doctor?’ asked Captain Catapillow plaintively, as he stared down at the spot where his foot and one of his third-best boots used to be ‘I think that cannonball was coated in Nothing’

‘You’d feel a lot worse if it was, Captain,’ said Doctor Sca, it is theoretically possible to accelerate the transfer by bringing the portal to the traveller, rather than the other way around It is of course exceedingly difficult and dangerous’

Everyone looked at the pirate vessel astern It fired again, a great gout of water exploding out of the sea a little ahead and to the port side of the Moth

‘What could happen that would be worse than eternal slavery or a slow and torturous death by Nothing-based sorceries at the hands of Feverfew?’ asked Concort He didn’t sound like he really wanted to know

‘If I fail, we shall transfer not into that Secondary Realed from existence’

‘My collection too?’ asked Captain Catapillow

‘The ship and everything on it or connected with it,’ said Sca all your stamps, sir So what are your orders?’

Arthur hesitated on the steps, waiting to hear Catapillow’s commands Surely there was some other way? Perhaps he could escape via the Infinite Stairnonot in his current state He probably didn’t have the power anymore

‘I can’t have the collection fall into Feverfew’s hands,’ said Captain Catapillow in a s!’

Arthur saw Scareatcoat The inside was lined with dozens of pockets and loops for ths of bronze rod with curved-back hooks set near their pointed ends Though they were in , they expanded as he dragged theth

‘Fire irons,’ said Ichabod ‘Matching set Very nice Co!’

Arthur started to follow Ichabod down the port-side ladder to the waist, where Sunscorch and the crew had finally succeeded in cutting away the last of the broken yard and its acco debris But Arthur stopped on the co out with a fire iron in each hand, the bronze rods continuing to extend till they becaht that reached up into the sky, and to each side of the ship

Only a few seconds later, the transforilt-framed portal to the Secondary Real The irons wavered outside the edges of the fraht theilt, there was a horrendousinto steel, nified a hundred times

Everyone on the ship stared up at the portal and the Doctor’s two levers Ichabod didn’t protest or try to o below Like everyone else, he wanted to see ould happen next

Scah Arthur like a hot wire, causing him to cry out and clap his hands to his ears The doctor shouted again, and Arthur, suddenly stripped of strength, fell down the ladder onto the deck, taking a surprised Ichabod with him

Then Scamandros yanked the fire irons back towards hi their sun-curdled length With the squeal of ten thousand fingers on a giant blackboard, the entire vast doorway to Forlorn Island shuddered towards the Moth

At first, it looked like all was going well The portal rapidly grew closer, and the Moth continued to sail straight at it

Then, when it was only yards away, the portal began to totter and shake, and the top edge started to lean forward Behind it, in place of the norlittered like so

‘Faster!’ shouted Scao faster!’