Both of them were shackled hand and foot. Luke could only move by shuffling, and once again, someone else had to carry Inga.
As they were taken down a different set of stairs, he wondered what would happen if he did try to shift like this. Would the larger bones of his bear’s ankles break the cuffs? More likely, he thought, it would shatter every bone in his wrist.
They were kept together and locked in a closet-sized room, empty but for a few buckets and mops. A small porthole high on the wall gave them a limited amount of light, though it was streaked heavily with rain.
With nothing else to focus on, Luke was uncomfortably aware of the rolling of the deck as the storm worsened. To avoid thinking about that too much, he scooted over to where Inga lay, still wrapped in his slicker, and worked his knee under her head, so that she was resting in his lap again. He leaned back against the wall and sighed deeply.
Wonderful. For all their efforts, they were now captured by the very people he had been trying to get away from, who apparently had an entire ship of research scientists hostage as well.
He tried desperately to find that ursine presence inside him, the part of him that had risen up so fiercely when Inga was attacked and reacted so territorially to Mace. But it remained elusive. He couldn’t seem to contact it consciously. Whatever that mysterious ability was that had allowed him to manifest outside himself as some kind of ghost bear was equally impossible to grasp. He had all the power he could have wanted to escape—and no ability to use it.
Luke cursed quietly under his breath.
He felt the vibration of the ship’s engines. They were moving. Would Brockton try to take them out to sea, or find somewhere to hole up and wait out the storm? Surely he planned to shelter along the coast, perhaps even in Westerly Cove itself.
Indeed, the rolling movement of the ship seemed to be settling down a little, which was a relief; they must have moved somewhere more sheltered. Even Brockton wasn’t crazy enough to risk the full fury of the elements.
Luke struggled once again to reach for that elusive part of him that was his bear. Once again, nothing happened. But it occurred to him that he wasn’t the only one who seemed to have strange abilities as a result of his involuntary stay on Black Rock Island.
“Rogue!” he called softly. It seemed ridiculous to try to summon the dog, who must be back at the lighthouse with Bernie. And yet, he was well aware that Rogue had not leaped from the top of the headland to the bottom. “Rogue! Here, boy! We could really use a dog right about now.” He wet his lips and whistled.
Nothing happened.
Luke heaved a sigh and gave a little laugh at himself. Well, it had been a long shot anyway. It wasn’t like he could expect to call a dog and have it appear out of nowhere in a locked?—
There was a sudden sound, that cloth-ripping sound he’d heard earlier. And Rogue bounced out of the shadows and flung himself on Luke, licking his face.
“Whoa! Down, boy!” Luke tried to keep his voice quiet, ducking the dog’s effusive greetings. The last thing he wanted was a guard poking his head in. “Hey, there. Good dog. Good boy.”
Rogue sniffed at Inga and licked her face, then looked at Luke and whined.
“Yeah, it’s good to have you here, but I’m not sure how you can help.” Now that he’d actually achieved the impossible and gotten the dog here, against all odds, Luke wondered what Rogue could actually do. Could Rogue get the keys somehow? Luke unfortunately couldn’t think how, even if the dog understood the instructions to warp out of their cell and go find the keys. It would involve Rogue having to pick out the specific person who had the keys to the handcuffs as well as the locked door, who might easily be different people. And then Rogue would need to do what—pick the guy’s pocket? And find the right key, and carry it in his mouth?
Luke’s elation lapsed into dark thoughts again.
Inga gave a sudden gasp and a flinch. Rogue immediately started licking her face.
“Ugh! What’s happening? Oh, my head.” Inga squeezed her eyes shut, tried to move her shackled arms, and settled for turning her face against Luke’s abdomen. He tried not to enjoy it too much, given the circumstances. Slightly muffled, she said, “Is the floor moving, or is it just my head?”
“We’re on the ship.”
“Oh,” Inga mumbled. There was a silence. Then she said in a small voice, “I can’t move my hands.”
“They’re handcuffed. It’s not you.”
“Oh.” She let out a sigh. Rogue stuck his nose in her ear. “Ack!” She jerked her head up so quickly she nearly banged it on the underside of the dog’s muzzle. “What’s that?” Looking around, she frowned. “Rogue is with us?”
“Yeah, he, uh, I called him and he came.”
“Came from where?”
“Yeah, that’s a good question, isn’t it? We’re locked in,” Luke said in answer to her next unspoken question. “And we’re shackled to stop us from shifting.”
“Great.” Inga squirmed a bit. “Am I wearing your coat?”
“You’re wrapped in it. Sorry, it was all I had.”
“Wonderful.” She lay back in his lap and stared at the ceiling. “We’re prisoners and I’m naked. So how exactlydidRogue get here?”
