Chapter 40
Previously: The Rose of Whitby – Chapter 39
Darcy didn’t think being human would shock her so much, scare her so much, where is her drac?! Even while she keeps rushing along with Arthur, she frantically reaches inside of her, relaxes when her drac, after far too long a delay, does respond to her plea, and she feels it wag its tail. Alright, it’s just an illusion, she’s still… the thought makes her stumble, herself. Between all the talks with her mother, and the walks with her night friends, she doesn’t want to be anything but a dhampir anymore. She doesn’t want to be human!
While she tries to come to terms with that realization, they reach the captain’s cabin and barricade themselves inside. Her worry gets interrupted by Pretty, who is trying to talk her into remembering the fencing lessons she surely must’ve had in the story, she’s dressed like a lady, after all! That has her scoff, as if something like that is ever in the stories, that’d be ridiculous. But maybe she can still help with him apparently being stuck in his cat form. He’s her demon prince, maybe it’s a kiss of true love he needs to break the curse. So she kisses his nose, ending up with him in her arms, looking fetching in a navy uniform.
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Arthur isn’t sure what’s going on- he was rowing to the post ship, and then he was practising rowing under the eyes of Captain Smollet and Long John Silver. He thinks for maybe a little while there, he didn’t remember who he was, really thought he was Jim Hawkins. But then Darcy and Gregory appeared, and that was wrong, and he remembered that, no, he’s Arthur, and they were investigating something, and Treasure Island is a book, a story- it’s not real.
So this must be some kind of illusion, he agrees with Darcy on that. He doesn’t want to be at the mercy of illusionary pirates, either, though, so he thinks it’s best if they get out of here. If the story follows its course, the pirates will take over the ship. If they can make it to the island, they can regroup and figure out what is going on here, how to get out of this illusion, or find who’s behind it.
The only other way out of the captain’s cabin, of course, is the big window, and he swallows as he looks out, along the smooth, curved walls of the ship and the waves below. These kinds of things are a lot more daunting when it’s not just words on a page he’s reading in the safety of his bed… But he can see the boat he was practising in, it’s not very far at all. So if he just climbs up to the top of the window, and then he can grip the railings from the outside and brace his feet against the side of the ship… and hopefully everyone will be too busy with the fighting he can hear to notice him…
He takes a deep breath- and whatever kind of illusion it is, it’s really good because he can smell water and salt and sun-heated wood and tar. He can hear the sounds of fighting above on deck, but it’s on the other side of the ship from them.
Their chances aren’t going to get better, so he carefully levers himself out of the window and gets to it.
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Gregory draws his sabre and hands Darcy his pistol, and, oh, she just knows that she’ll completely forget about it right up until the plot-important fight of the story. Gregory shields her behind him and she has trouble not swooning when, like in any proper story, the door crashes open and John Silver grins roguishly at Gregory.
Despite his missing leg and the crutch he’s using, John challenges Gregory to a duel, and easily holds his own. Darcy isn’t in the mood to help, she’s ready to have the rake throw her over a shoulder.
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When Arthur makes it back, his heart is still pounding from both fear and exertion. That doesn’t get any better when he sees what’s going on in the cabin- Gregory in the process of losing a duel against John Silver, with Darcy looking on.
And considering there are swords swishing through the air, neither Gregory nor Darcy look nearly concerned enough about this state of affairs for Arthur’s taste. Sidling up to Darcy and hissing at her: “Come on, let’s go!” while John Silver is distracted and there aren’t any more pirates storming the room doesn’t have the effect he’d wish, either. Instead of Darcy hurrying to the window and down the rope to the boat, her eyes are all for the fight, and… well, he almost thinks she’s about to bounce on her toes. It takes him insisting: “Come on!” and even tugging at her sleeve before she follows him over to the window- with far too many glances over her shoulder.
Given that John Silver is driving Gregory into a corner and will have him beat and maybe worse any moment now, those delays pluck at his nerves like cold fingers.
Finally, Darcy is swinging her leg over the window sill and climbing down the rope he’s tied to a leg of the captain’s desk- which is, of course, bolted to the floor of the cabin.
Anxious, he turns back to the fight- and Gregory is just grinning as he scrambles over a big trunk to get out of that corner. And instead of taking advantage of the moment and getting his arse over to Arthur and the window so they can escape, Gregory waits in the middle of the room for Silver to swing around the obstacle.
“What are you doing?!” Arthur hisses.
Gregory gives him a quick look (Arthur doesn’t think it’s a good idea to look away from the person you’re having a sword fight with, but what does he know?,) and looks downright… affronted?
“I couldn’t possibly hurt John Silver! He’s awesome!” Gregory declares, and then he’s got to defend himself again.
Arthur feels all jittery with nerves, and Gregory being stupid is really the last thing he can use right now- whatever this is, this illusion, whatever Gregory’s fighting is not John Silver.
And even if there was any possibility that it was– John Silver is cool, no doubt about it, but he’s not exactly trustworthy.
So, he decides he’s had enough of this nonsense, and scoots along the cabin wall a bit, and when Silver is busy fighting Gregory into another corner, Arthur holds his breath and grabs a chair and darts in and hits him over the head with it.
And Silver goes down.
And doesn’t skewer Arthur with his sword.
And didn’t notice him coming.
So Arthur grabs Gregory and drags him to the window and all but pushes him out of it, and then gets himself down to the boat, too.
He’s worried that any moment Silver will appear at the window or cut the rope and make Arthur fall into the ocean, but they make it and he unties the rope from the boat with some tugging and pulling, and then they’re rowing off to the shores of the island.
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During their flight to the beach Darcy looks up at the blazing tropical sun overhead and feels the lack of the by-now-familiar pain deep in her soul. She feels cast out from the night, weak, and alone, until her drac cuddles up to her, making her hug her own knees since she can’t actually touch her constant companion. And she doesn’t have time to deal with that now anyway, they have an illusion to escape from. They have arrived at the beach, and hide in the vegetation for now. Gregory just sulks about Arthur having interfered in the fight while she and Arthur discuss possible solutions, story tropes, mind magic, something has to work.
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Seeing Gregory’s betrayed and wounded expression, Arthur thinks that maybe he shouldn’t have joked that Gregory is a frog now when Darcy tells him how she’s changed him back from a cat- but, well, he’s feeling a bit frazzled, and thinks it’s really unreasonable of Gregory to be upset that Arthur didn’t let him carry on fighting with Silver.
Anyway, clearly being aware that it’s an illusion isn’t doing anything to get them out of it. Arthur tries to focus on what he should really be perceiving, the cold North Sea as they’re getting towards the end of October, the post ship and the desolate little island- not the hot, tropical sun and sparkling blue water and thick, lush greenery on a much larger island.
But try as he might, the only thing he manages is to change the “Jim Hawkins” shirt and trousers back into his own. And he can’t use his powers, either, no magic obliging when he tries a small fireball.
Darcy can’t get her fangs and claws to appear, and Gregory can’t change shapes.
Though Darcy’s story logic worked before, so they try that again- but instead of waking Gregory up, it changes him back into a cat. A cat that now acts very like a cat and doesn’t talk to them.
Worried at what Gregory might do now, Darcy tries her very hardest to think of all the stories about princesses lifting curses and failing but altering it, tries again for a kiss of true love and manages to change him to her demon prince… although he’s still the size of a cat. Despite the dire situation, that’s just too funny.
Unfortunately, their laughter attracts some of the pirates who, it turns out, were roaming nearby, and so the heroes of this story (or are they?) take off in hopes of finding the abandoned fort, maybe even Ben Gunn.
Darcy keeps carrying Gregory, who of course again insisted he should stay and fight, and ends up in an argument with him. He bemoans that he can’t protect her like this, she has to be a fighting heroine now. But that just makes her pout that she doesn’t want to be one of those human emancipated women, this isn’t the first time he pushes her towards that, can she please just be herself? If she needs a rescue, she’ll trust in him and in Arthur (that has Arthur blush, naturally).
The blush lingers as Darcy notices the lack of superhuman strength and dexterity. She’s in the middle of a jungle in a long dress and impractical shoes, she can’t walk anywhere as quickly as normal and with Gregory currently doll-sized it’s Arthur who has to hold her hand and offer his arm several times to help her over fallen trees and uneven ground. Slowed down like that, Darcy really hopes the fort is more of a fortress so they can hide from their pursuers. And a small voice in the back of her mind also thinks that a hidden passage in the castle through which the charming rake could abduct her would be ever so lovely.
As they make it to the middle of the island, they see the decrepit stone castle loom over them and Darcy bounces with a slight squeal that her wish really worked out.
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Arthur’s not sure why they needed a fortress rather than the fort from the books- since they don’t have any guns or lots of people to defend it, it being bigger really doesn’t do them any good.
Also, it’s not like the illusionary pirates are their biggest problem, anyway. How to get out of the illusion is. And he’s at his wits’ end as to how to do that. Maybe if he was outside the illusion? He doesn’t know, but at least then he could… maybe investigate? Research?
He and Darcy discuss it, but they can’t come up with any other idea except focusing all their thoughts and mental energy on getting him out, waking him up.
Arthur really didn’t think it would work- not after how unpredictable changing things has been. And it’s not like he hasn’t tried waking up before.
But suddenly, he comes awake. The air isn’t warm and tropical anymore, the sunlight is paler. Instead of greenery and stone, he smells brine and tar. He’s not on an island, he’s in another rowboat. Darcy and Gregory are there, too- Gregory slumped over the oars, Darcy curled against the edge of the boat in the front. They’re drifting on the gray waves not far from the post ship.