Off the Plank: A Neverland Story

Chapter 25

The lost boys and I stayed up late in my treehouse, drawing out plans on the floor with chalk and sending messages to the mermaids by way of the fairies, who were skittering about the room in so great a number that we didn't even need to light candles when night fell.

"Message delivered, General," Kendan said, crash-landing softly into my hair. "Those pirate-loathing mermaids are all for it. They asked if you wish for them to do any drowning, and I said if any pirate is stupid enough to jump overboard, they may do as their hearts desire."

"Very good," I said, brushing my curls out of my eyes as I sketched a diagram of the gun deck from memory. "Speaking of heart's desire. How is Solarine?"

"Divine!" he cried from his perch atop my head. He gently took a handful of my curls and swept them up off my forehead so I could see my sketch more clearly. "Oh Silver, she is so radiant when she gives orders. She sang to summon the others and I swear by the stars, the moon stopped in its tracks just to listen! Be still, my seed-sized heart!"

He collapsed dramatically into the thicket of my hair.

"Ought to sell your wings for a tail and a growth spurt, you romantic fool," I muttered endearingly, as he began to braid my curls. I was grateful to have my hair not impeding my sketching.

"If I dared to believe the legends, perhaps one day..." he said dreamily.

"Say," I interrupted. "Am I the only one that thinks my hair has been growing rather fast?"

"Not any faster than you, little man," Kendan said, tumbling forward off my head to flutter in front of my face for a moment. "Daresay you're up another year. All this battle business is taking its toll. You may be my age by the time it's all over!"

He plopped down onto my drawing and looked up at me.

"Seventeen at the very least. You'll be all caught up with the princess before you know it."

I brushed aside the giggling he-fairy then, and pretended to be very engrossed in my diagram so he wouldn't see me blush.

Nevaeh herself later appeared amid all the excitement. I remember her showing up in my drowsier moments of the later hours, tucking herself into the chest pocket of a coat they had made me. I wondered if she had been involved in the making, and if so, the princess may have designed the pocket with this very situation in mind. When her wings were tucked, the pocket accommodated her dimensions most comfortably.

In between feeding information about the ship to the boys who were knee deep in strategy, I told the princess about my stay on Centaurus while she replied with encouraging remarks. I told her of Rein and Ruan and their parents and I felt that she understood without my telling her that I had attained the closure I'd been yearning for, a closure that would be more complete when I successfully returned Chief Taputu to his people.

As the boys began to yawn and the stones they were using to sharpen arrows and swords slipped from their sleepy fingers, the fairies dimmed their lights. Delicate blankets appeared in the treehouse, and were tucked under the boys' chins by tiny hands. I remember being coaxed into my chaise by Nevaeh and Wilthan, my loyal tree mate who had politely expressed his relief at my safe return.

"I'd become so used to being woken by the floor shaking when you rose in the morning," he said with a small smile.

Before Nevaeh flew back to her palace for the night, she asked if I was afraid.

"I'm afraid," I answered, "that even if we do get the chief safely back to Centaurus, Hailstone will follow. That he'll try again until he gets what he wants and the people will have to suffer, even die, at his merciless hands."

"Bless you, Silver," she breathed. "Every soul is precious, and your weathered eyes can see that. You have so many people on your side because of it, enough to make it appear that the odds are in our favor. But even if your enemies come storming in with hordes of greed and hate and darkness, do not fear. Light always finds its way back through."

She smiled and I could feel my heart beating in my throat.

"Just as it has found a way back into your eyes," she said. "I see it. You are content."

I wanted desperately to tell her that all that was mainly because she was so close to me, that everything she was feeling from me was everything I was feeling for her and her alone. But I said nothing and closed my eyes when she planted a tiny kiss on the space between them.

Kendan caught my eye and winked after the princess had left.

"A kiss is a curious thing, is it not?" he said "One can drive you mad, but the right one can save your life."

I rolled my eyes at him, but I held tightly to that sensation the rest of the night, hoping that if I were to die the next day it would still be with me.