Rowley was extremely amused by all the trouble the Blackwell sisters had caused the Queen of the pirates, all of which she’d observed via a remote-viewing spell, though currently, all was quiet, because there was no air to carry sounds.

  The Queen appeared ready to boil with rage as she stepped back into the bridge of her ship, which was as airless as the rest of Foundation Stone. There were always contingency plans for such an emergency, but they required a functional spell-core.

  To Captain Rowley’s amusement, the Queen had spent an inordinate amount of time failing to communicate with her crew, because that required an atmosphere. She’d gathered the witches that weren’t adrift in space and tried to write a message for them, only to realize all of the ink in their many inkwells had boiled away. Eventually, one of them produced a bit of charcoal and she finally got some vital instructions written down before the little, black stick ran out, leaving the tail end of the discussion unfinished, though the other witches seemed to get the gist.

  Rowley knew exactly what the Queen was up to, without having read the written orders, because the Queen had no choice. With the Blackwell sisters having given her a…black mark, so to speak, there was only one option: revenge. She had to kill them and take her spell-core back, or her lieutenants would come at her, en-masse. In fact, once Rowley had found enough time to metaphorically have been somewhere far away, with no knowledge of current events, she had every intention of joining the feeding-frenzy. She would have a better than average chance of taking down the Queen, to replace her, because she knew where the Queen’s weak points were, since she’d seen the whole thing via scrying magic.

  For the time being, however, the Queen’s plans would necessarily be smaller, because Foundation Stone hadn’t been able to slow down enough at the bottom of her orbit and was currently on a trajectory that would take her closer to Junas, after which the gas giant’s gravity would slingshot her into deep space, though that would take months.

  It was going to take days to organize every witch on board to compensate for the lack of a spell-core, since that mountain of granite was too large for one witch to manage without one. Hypothetically, they could solve that by stealing the core of a smaller ship, but that was the Queen’s problem.

  “Have we had any luck with Mina?” Rowley idly asked as she continued to watch her nemesis and current source of entertainment, “I’d like to get out of here before the Queen realizes she can solve her propulsion problems by stealing our spell-core. I’d also like to be gone before the other sharks show up. If they realize we had any part in what happened here, they’ll kill us, too.”

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  Mr. Zindo answered, “Crewman Nox just returned with the good news. He was able to make himself clear and Mina has agreed to open the bay door.”

  “Excellent. It’s amazing how many of the Queen’s crew undermine her at every turn and sad, the way she’s never noticed. I still can’t believe she filled her crew with betrayers, thinking they could never stab her in the back again, because the zombie magic forces obedience. Mina though? That poor gal knows every trick under the sun to mostly do as she pleases, while still technically obeying the letter of her orders.”

  Rowley ended her scrying spell and turned her attention outward. The docking bay door magically released itself from the surrounding stone, producing a bit of a shudder as the distant and tiny figure of Mina waved her wand to move it out of the way. Moments later, Glass House was lifted and telekinetically hurled out of Foundation Stone.

  Rowley saluted the distant witch, who returned the gesture.

  “Deploy sails! Let’s get out of here!” She called out, causing Zindo and others to repeat the order, each growing a little harder to hear, until the distant echoes faded.

  Within a few minutes, massive sheets of illusory diamond appeared around the ship, perfectly matching its crystalline motif, which split light to produce a little minimal thrust and a spectacular rainbow.

  She completed calculations for a course to the closest friendly pirate outpost, then began barking orders for adjustments to the sails.

  Marta was minding the ship’s controls, because she couldn’t sleep, despite how tired she was, while Bones slept on the floor, near her feet. Amelia had passed out just as soon as she’d scribbled instructions for a flight plan, since she’d slept only a matter of hours for several days. Iris had taken several hours to calm down enough to sleep, because both her mind and body were a total wreck, due to withdrawal.

  Marta was deeply worried about her sister, based on knowledge she’d gleaned from the Queen’s mind. If the evil witch’s memories were accurate, then it was possible the withdrawal could be lethal. To that end, Marta had been considering the option of easing Iris out of the worst of it with short, minimized versions of the spell that had screwed up her body chemistry, just to keep her alive.

  As Marta sat in the pilot’s seat and worked on the issue in her mind, the Dead Queen mentally screamed, Marta Blackwell, I’m coming for you! You won’t escape my wrath!

  “Oh, shut up.” Marta rubbed her temples, because the mental scream had been loud enough to make her head ache.

  She was surprised her nemesis had the energy for screaming, since she was so busy trying to get her ship under control.

  With nothing better to do in the mean time, Marta meditated on her connection to the Queen, hoping to cause the busy witch lots of trouble.

  To be continued…

  Starwitch and season one (AKA volume one), but not the end of The Book of Newts. Season two is next, titled Legacy of Newts.