“I’m sure of it. I bet you they’re who took her.” The kids were gathered in their room at the inn listening to Gemma explain her theory. “Think about it, they left not long after we went to our rooms, and we saw Seraphina just after that.”

“Sure, but they left.” Bobby replied.

“Yeah, but what if they didn’t leave straight away? What if they took a look around? And what if they ran into Seraphina while they were looking, just after she left the inn window?”

They all looked at her doubtfully.

Bobby shook his head. “It’s not like we can just go and check if she’s on that ship. If she’s even on the ship.”

They were silent for awhile. Then Katrina spoke. “I might have an idea how we can find out.”

She was seated on her bed, new spell book open on her lap. She had been intending to pack her things up, not that there was much to pack, but the lure of the book had proved too tempting and she’d taken a moment to flick through it instead.

“Not a spell?” Bobby sighed. He’d had enough of sorcery for one day.

Katrina nodded, then held the book up so they could see. “A tracking spell.”

That got their attention. All but Salem now looked intrigued. The hairs on the back of Salem’s neck rose and he swallowed hard.

“And it’s an easy one,” Katrina continued. “No weird ingredients, just a little bit of blood. And we can use our own.”

“How does it work?” Bobby asked.

Gemma reached out and took the book Katrina offered. She studied the page.

Katrina gave them a summary. “All we need is a pen, some paper, a little bit of blood, and then we read some words. Easy as.”

“It doesn’t say how much blood,” Gemma observed.

“I think the more we use the better the spell,” Katrina replied. “But we shouldn’t need to use a lot. Jade’s dad does tracking spells as part of his work and he’s one person. He and mum used to do spells all the time when they were kids.”

“Werewolves are always hunting though, he’s probably got heaps of deer blood to use,” Bobby said.

“It’s supposed to be fresh,” Katrina ducked her eyes, but quickly peered back up, waiting for their response.

Sasha sat on the top bunk, swinging her feet off the edge. “I don’t want to kill a deer,” she complained.

“I don’t think we should be doing a spell at all,” Salem added.

“What else are we going to do? Wander around all afternoon just hoping she turns up?” Katrina asked, her gaze directed at her older siblings.

Gemma looked down at the spell again.

Bobby glanced up at the top bunk, at Sasha. “You don’t want to kill a deer? What about that rabbit fur on your hood? Shall we go rabbit hunting instead?”

“Bobby!” Gemma warned. She handed the book back to Katrina. “Alright, do the tracking spell. I guarantee it points toward that ship.”

Bobby glanced swiftly at her. “What do we do if it does?”

“We figure that out then.” Gemma hadn’t yet thought that far ahead. “Anyway, with your healing powers,” she nodded at Bobby and drew out her knife, “Taking blood should be easy.”

“You haven’t cleaned that since the bird,” Bobby pointed out.

Gemma sighed. “Fine, wait here.” She left the room.

“Where’s she going?” Katrina asked.

“To clean the knife I presume,” Bobby replied.

“She should have just heated it with her flame.” Katrina rolled her eyes.

Bobby sat on the end of Katrina’s bed. He glanced at her. “That sorcerer said healing reduces efficiency of spells though right?”

“I think that’s just during. It should be alright if you heal after or if we collect the blood and then heal separate from collection? We can each give some blood.”

“Uh uh, no way.’ Salem shook his head.

“You don’t have to,” Bobby reassured him.

Sasha poked her head over the edge of the bed. “I’ll give some,” she offered.

Bobby frowned but before he could reply, Gemma returned to the room. “They’re waiting for us. We can do the spell on the ship.”

They quickly packed up the last of their things in silence. This time they carried their bags back with them, rather than rely on Benny to summon them.

It was in also silence that they spent most of the walk back to the ship, barring a couple of questions from their mum as to when they’d had food, and if they’d enjoyed their day. For the most part, however, Amanda and Sirius were locked in conversation regarding their current predicament with the ship being stuck on the beach.

By the time they were all settled back on the ship, it was early evening, and the sky was already tinged with purple.

An early dinner was being served up when they got back so they sat down to eat before returning to their rooms.

Near the end of dinner, Neko leaned across the table to talk to Amanda. “I know what you said about no singing, but well, we’re well away from the village, and last night I could hear that other ship. They were making quite the racket, and nothing was bothering them. Maybe we could have some music after all, what do you say? Start us off with a song?” Neko started to raise a guitar from beneath his seat.

Amanda shot him a firm look. “No singing, until we’re off this beach. You can recite poetry if you want, but do so quietly.”

Neko sighed and put the instrument back away.

The kids regrouped in the girl’s room after dinner.

Katrina had sourced a pen, a paper, a large bowl, and some flexible tubing from the first aid compartment. “Okay, so the idea is we collect some blood in the bowl, and we place the pen upright on the paper, somehow. Then we use the tube to feed the blood into the top of the pen while we chant the words.” She lay the paper on floor in the middle of the room. The other’s gathered around. Sasha took a seat on one of the beds.

Bobby rubbed his neck. “How much blood?”

Katrina hesitated. “I don’t know.”

Gemma pointed to the pen Katrina had selected. “That’s a ball point pen.”

“So?”

“Shouldn’t we use a fountain pen? How else are we going feed to blood in? If it’s supposed to write with it like ink? Is it supposed to write with the blood as ink?”

Katrina grabbed the book and reread over what now seemed like very minimalistic instructions. “Err...”

“Maybe we only need to fill the inside of the pen up then?” Bobby mused.

“Well I think more blood’s safer. Anyway, I’m pretty sure the way Wolf does it uses a tube,” Gemma replied.

Sasha suddenly leapt to her feet. “I know where a fountain pen might be.” She dashed out of the room before anyone could stop her.

Salem sat on the other end of the bed, watching all of this with a worried expression on his face.

Bobby looked over at him and spoke to him in a kind voice. “You don’t have to be here if you don’t want. You can go hang out in our room.”

Salem looked down at the paper on the floor, then up at his sibling’s faces. He shook his head. “I’ll help. If you’re gonna do it anyway, I might as well. More of us will make it safer.”

Sasha returned soon, out of breath, but clutching a fancy looking fountain pen.

“Where did you get that?” Gemma asked.

“Ship library, from dad’s desk.”

“Won’t he miss it?” Salem asked. “I mean, if we’re gonna put blood through it, it’s not like we can take it back.”

Katrina glanced up from the book. “We can clean it. I saw a cleaning spell in here. Although, I think the spell should use all the blood anyway?” She finished her reply with a raised inflection and another worried glance down at the book.

“Soo, how much blood?” Bobby asked again. This time he looked to Gemma.

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“It’s not like we can try it twice, so...” Gemma contemplated.

“A litre?” Katrina suggested.

“Each or total?” Bobby asked with a concerned look.

Gemma shook her head. “Not each. That’s way too much, but maybe total. That’s 200ml each. That doesn’t sound too unreasonable right?”

“Less for Sash and Salem,” Bobby replied.

Gemma nodded. “People talk about blood in pints right, so maybe if we try for a set number of pints. How much is a pint anyway?”

“500 ish, mls,” Bobby replied with a shrug.

“So, two pints roughly. That sounds... does that sound like an amount that would be used for a spell?” Gemma looked from Katrina to Bobby and back again.

Katrina frowned. “It’s not like we’re going to be able to measure it exactly anyway. But yeah, I guess roughly half a cup each is probably plenty.”

“I could get a cup from the kitchen?” Sasha offered, already making for the door again.

Bobby reached out to stop her. “It’s no good you doing a whole bunch of running before giving blood. Besides, we can just eyeball it.”

“We’ve got some chickens in the hold don’t we?” Salem asked.

“No. No,” Katrina replied swiftly. “We are doing this without animal sacrifices.” A large part of her longed to prove the sorcerer wrong. To show that magic could be done without the use of animals. Both the sorcerer and Salem. She narrowed her eyes at him. “Besides, weren’t you the one who hated sorcery because it uses sacrifices?”

Salem shook his head. “I don’t like it cause it uses blood and other body parts.” He scrunched up his nose. “But if you’re going to do a spell anyway, the guy kinda has a point about the safety thing. It’s not like you wouldn’t eat a chicken.” He crossed his arms.

Bobby frowned. “The sorcerer said all magic is blood magic.”

Salem shook his head. “It’s not the same. Anyway...” He shrugged. “Maybe as long as it’s only small amounts of blood and it’s for a really good reason then it’s okay. I just think it’s good to have a hard line.”

“What, in case you accidentally commit some horrific act without realising it?” Katrina jabbed.

Salem gave her a serious expression. “So if you do something in the heat of the moment you don’t later regret it. Knowing where you stand in advance means you make better decisions in the future when there’s little time to think.”

“I think there’s some things you just can’t plan for,” Gemma replied with a roll of the eyes. “Look, lets just do the spell and get it over with. Who’s first?”

“Me,” Bobby volunteered.

“Me. It’s my spell,” Katrina butted in.

“I’m the oldest,” Gemma replied.

“I think the youngest should go first,” Salem suggested. He’d decided that he really didn’t want to wait for everyone else but he also didn’t want to be first himself.

Sasha frowned at him.

Salem shrugged.

Bobby rubbed his face indecisively.

“Maybe he’s right,” Gemma said.

“What?” came a chorus of voices, including Salem.

“Well, not right, but I think we need someone who’s making decisions going last because blood loss might make decision making worse. On the other hand,” She bit her lip and nodded at Bobby, “Going first is probably just as risky as going last because your ability to heal will be lessened.”

“I can heal cuts easy enough,” Bobby replied. He nodded at the knife in her hand. “Sharp knife, clean cut, easy heal.”

“Even when you’re tired?” Gemma asked.

“We could roll a dice?” Katrina suggested.

Gemma shook her head.

“Fine, I’ll go last,” Bobby replied. “But only cause it’s gonna be me actually stopping the blood flow so you make a good point about focus.”

Gemma held out her knife. “You want to make the cut?”

Bobby hesitated.

Gemma sighed. “Alright, I’ll do it.” She turned to Katrina. “You first then.”

Katrina’s face paled significantly as she looked at the knife in Gemma’s hand and the reality of what they were about to do suddenly struck her.

“I’ll go first,” Salem’s voice piped up from across the circle. He found the apprehension overbearing and had now decided he just wanted to get it over and done with.

Gemma looked at him in surprise. After a brief pause she replied, “Alright then.” As they knelt, next to one another, Salem with his left arm out over the bowl, Gemma holding the knife, she said, “It’s too bad we don’t have anything to numb the pain.”

Katrina’s eyes widened. “Oh, wait.” She leapt toward the permanent chest that held her things and dug about inside. She held up a silver pocket watch on a long chain, one that could be worn as a necklace. “Imbued with empath powers,” she proclaimed.

“Where did you get empath powers?” Gemma asked.

“From a friend.”

Bobby frowned. “That won’t work for physical pain.”

Katrina shrugged. “No, but it’ll make it less uncomfortable.”

Gemma and Bobby looked from Katrina to one another. Both hesitated.

Finally Salem interrupted. “Oh, just do it. Without the magic. I don’t want to enjoy it, that’s too weird.”

Katrina shrugged again, and slipped the necklace into her pocket.

While Salem was still looking in Katrina’s direction, Gemma grabbed his wrist and sliced vertically. A second later, a cut ran the length of his lower arm and blood was dripping like a small stream into the bowl.

Salem was surprised initially at how little it hurt. It merely stung. But then Gemma squeezed above the cut, and he gasped.

It took only moments to fill the bowl, with what Gemma guessed was slightly less than half a cup. Then she clicked her fingers and Bobby went into healing mode.

Before Salem had fully comprehended what was happening, the entire thing was over. He stared down at his arm, which now looked no different than it had a few minutes ago. The only sense he got that anything had happened was a dull throbbing in his veins. Not unusual following a heal.

Gemma was just as fast with Sasha. She didn’t give either of them time to prepare or tense up.

She paused before moving to Katrina, giving Bobby a glance to check he was still all good with the healing and that the others still looked okay. Bobby gave her a sharp nod.

She did Katrina next.

Katrina shut her eyes tight and did not look again until Bobby had healed her.

Not a drop of blood spilled onto the floor of the ship, every ounce made it into the bowl.

“You alright?” Gemma asked of Sasha, who was looking a little pale.

Sasha nodded, then turned her gaze away from the bowl.

Gemma did herself next, and finally Bobby, who had to strain not to let his powers take over and heal before they’d collected enough.

Gemma told him when to stop and he leaned back against the wall with a sigh.

“Do you think that’s enough?” Gemma asked Katrina after a quick survey to check everyone was still alert.

Katrina nodded. “We should do the spell.”

Bobby frowned from where he leaned against the wall. “How are we going to get the blood in the pen?”

Gemma studied the setup. “We need to raise the bowl up so we can siphon it. Err...” She looked around the room, trying to find a solid surface they could place it on. Her eyes lingered on the bed, but it didn’t look that solid nor a particularly easy thing to clean any potential spillage off.

“I have an idea,” Sasha placed her hands on the floor near the bowl. Up rose a solid square cube of ice.”

“Looks a bit slippery,” Bobby remarked.

Sasha moved her hands to the middle and made a roughly bowl sized dent.

“Nice,” Gemma replied. “That’s going to make a mess when it melts though.”

Sasha grinned, but as she moved back she stumbled a little.

Salem caught and steadied her. And, after one look at her tired face, he got up and left the room, mentioning something about snacks. He returned a moment later with a bag of crisps and an orange, both of which he gave to Sasha.

Katrina nodded at the bowl of blood. “We don’t want this to sit too long.”

Gemma fixed the bowl in the dent on the ice table. She placed one end of the tube into the bowl. She nodded at Salem. “Hold this.”

Salem did as he was told.

Gemma put the other end of the tube in her mouth and sucked. No one made any comments about vampires, although the brief thought crossed a couple of minds. Once the blood had gone almost all the way through, she pinched the end. She looked to Katrina. “Now what?”

Katrina handed the book to Bobby to prop up so they could all see it. She unscrewed the end of the pen and held it point down in the middle of the paper.

“How do we tell it who we’re looking for?” Bobby asked.

“I think we just think it,” Katrina replied.

“Are you ready?” Gemma asked. She moved the pinched tube of blood toward the end of the pen.

Katrina nodded and took another look at the first of the words so she could get them right.

“How do we know what the pronunciation should be?” Bobby asked.

“Looks likes one of the old languages,” Gemma replied.

“But which one?” Bobby asked.

She shook her head. “Would it even matter if you knew? Pronunciation’s not that different across them anyway, so just go with what you remember from class.”

“I think it was quite different,” Bobby replied.

“It’s mostly similar.” Gemma emphasized the word ‘mostly.’

Katrina interrupted. “Well, we’ll just have to do the best we can.”

“Okay,” Gemma agreed with a nod. Without anymore debate she pushed the end of the tube hard into the pen that Katrina held.

Katrina shut her eyes and tried to imagine who it was they were looking for. She tried to get a sense of the power in the blood and mentally push it into the paper. As she did she mumbled the words, likely messing up some of the pronunciation but not pausing to stumble over it. She knew rhythm was just as important as the words themselves. Just like with music, timing was everything. A note could be missed or incorrect but as long as you kept going, the song would still form.

The pen began to take on a life of it’s own. Katrina withdrew her hand but it did not fall over. Forming a five-pointed circle the kids continued their chanting, each one asking the magic to tell them where Seraphina was.

When they reached the end of the words they started from the beginning again. None of them sure if that was the correct way to do it or not. In ancient tongue they recited words they did not understand but which roughly translated to,

“Spirits, mother, maiden, crone.

Help us find the one we seek.

Take our blood. Direct our feet.

Draw a cross on the one we seek.

We give ourselves, our hopes, our power.

Grant us sight, and guide us forward,

Toward the one who’s lost this hour.

Bend our will, it's yours to devour.

Upon this sheet, capture the place.

Ensure a point, and cut through space.

Until we see, quite plain as day,

The mark, the heading, the will, the way.”

Slowly the pen started to draw. The drops of blood that had run down the side of the pen were absorbed into the paper, leaving not one trace that they had ever been there.

The pen moved along the paper toward Salem. The ink was a dark black, not red at all. Salem’s eyes widened but he paused in his chanting only briefly.

The pen was almost at the edge of the paper, when suddenly it changed direction, travelling at an angle, almost back the same direction. Then it flew across the page perpendicular to the first line, and finally back toward Salem, meeting it’s earlier point. There it fell to it’s side, leaving a dark arrow on a white page. Not a drop of blood remained in the bowl.

They sat in silence for awhile.

Finally Bobby remarked in almost a whisper. “It’s pointing toward the other ship.”

His words pulled Katrina out of her trance. She leaned over the page and studied the result. Then she glanced at the book. “I thought it was supposed to make a map.”

“Well maybe we did it wrong,” Gemma observed. “We got an arrow at least.”

Bobby frowned. “But why would they take her?”

Gemma shrugged. “Ransom?”

“Then why haven’t they ransomed her yet?” Bobby asked.

“Maybe they’re waiting until we’re gone, trying to avoid a fight?” Gemma replied.

“Mum and dad aren’t going to want to attack that ship though. They’d want to avoid a fight too.” Katrina objected.

“They might to save someone though,” Bobby replied.

“Oh I bet they would. But it would be messy.” Gemma added.

“You think we should tell them that the pirates have Seraphina?” Salem asked.

Katrina widened her eyes and shook her head. “No way. They’ll want to know how we know. If they find out we did a spell...” She stuffed the clear tubing into the bowl. “We need to take these things back.” She looked about and then pushed them under the bed for now. She picked up and turned the pen over in her hand. “Do you think it still works?”

Sasha reached for it. “I’ll take it back. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just tell dad I borrowed it for drawing.”

“Just make sure mum’s not there when you do,” Gemma told her. “She’ll know if you’re lying. She always seems to know somehow.”

Sasha nodded.

“So what do we do then?” Salem asked.

“We go get her ourselves,” Bobby replied.

“Oof, Bobby’s so keen to break the rules,” Gemma teased, surprised he’d reached that conclusion so quickly.

“He’s in love,” Katrina cooed.

Bobby sighed. Looking at Gemma he replied, “Well, you’re right, if we tell mum and dad, things could get messy, not to mention the spell we just did. Plus it might take awhile to convince them and to figure out what to do. If we’re right about what happened, Seraphina’s already been on that ship since late last night. We need to do this quick and quiet. If we sneak on board and get her back without anyone noticing then there’ll be no fighting, no wasted time explaining things. And it’ll be easy for us, since we have Salem.”

“What?” Salem asked, eyes wide.