Maisie

What’d you guys think of the first Dwr scene? I hope you enjoyed Malcolm and Piper just as much as I do. Piper gets to be a lot of fun, and Malcolm… Well, I love Malcolm.

Today, I’m sharing with you another character very near and dear to my heart. She needs a little cherishing, because she’s been through a lot. She’s Malcolm’s little sister, and the whole reason why the two of them are on this expedition. Why is that? Well, you’ll just have to read the book and find out.

Everyone, meet the lovely little…

Maisie

Although in many ways she was a difficult character to write, she was also a lot of fun to work with. I really couldn’t predict her, at any time. She was always keeping something from me, right up to the very end.

But for me, that makes for a very fun character. I go back and read her a lot, just to remember what it was like to write her scenes.

Excerpt #2 from Dwr: People in the Water, by Rani Divine

©Copyright RAD Writing, 2016

Maisie stood from her cot inside the captain’s cabin, her decision finally made. She’d been watching the water for hours, staring in search of Mama, when finally she was there. Her head popped up from the water, her black eyes looking up toward the quarterdeck. As far as Maisie could tell, the wraith didn’t see her at all. But from where she watched, near the very back of the cabin, she saw both the creature and her brother. They looked at each other, sharing something though Maisie heard no words exchanged between them. Mothers and sons were always that way, or so she’d heard.

Seeing that finalized what she was going to do. In her eyes, there was no other option. She wanted to see her mother, whether her brother wanted her to or not.

Already today she’d been out on the deck. She’d gone out with Piper early this morning to watch while the fish swarmed around the boat. They’d been asked to leave while the fishermen were working, but the time had used up all that they were allowed on the deck. If Maisie wanted to go out there now, she would have to do so without anyone else seeing—especially Mal or the captain. There were ways to get where she wanted to go without starting out on the deck, but she didn’t want to risk hitting the side of the Helena on the way down.

Taking a deep breath, she walked out from behind the screen. No one else was in the cabin. That, at least, was in her favor.

Silently, she climbed down out of the cabin and into the main housing deck. All eyes immediately shifted to her, and she did everything in her power to ignore them. She didn’t want to look at any of them. None of what they were doing mattered to her. They always looked at her like this, every time she came out of the cabin. People didn’t expect to see her down here. It was understandable, after how much time she’d already spent up inside that small room. And she knew what people thought of her and Malcolm sleeping in that cabin, while the captain’s own daughters slept down here. Some of them believed that the captain was having his way with her, that it was the reason why she never left that room. Others believed she was only here because she’d snuck aboard, and they wanted to hide it from everyone. Very few of them truly understood the truth of it.

Refusing to make eye contact with any of them, she walked outside their quarters to the ladder, and climbed up toward the main deck. Rain still fell lightly from the thick grey clouds above, and the crew busied themselves with the rigging and the sails.

Maisie didn’t even pause to wonder what the people were doing. It didn’t matter. There were creatures in the water, and she was going to see them whether Mal wanted her to or not. He couldn’t protect her forever, no matter how much he wanted to make her believe that he could. He could never be there for her all the days of her life. He would do his best, but even his best wouldn’t be everything.

Now was time to live her own life, to do the things that she most wanted to do.

She poked her head up onto the main deck and waited until she was certain no one was looking at her. Then she climbed up onto the deck and followed a crowd of men toward the railing on the port side—the side opposite where Mal and the captain now stood.

Again, Maisie waited. She left the crowd of deckhands and cowered close to the railing, preparing herself to jump in. She heard the sounds of the sails being lowered, the anchor rising from the depths so the Helena could again make way, but none of it mattered. None of those sounds truly registered in her mind as she watched her brother on the quarterdeck. He was looking around the main deck, watching the crew go about their business while the captain held up the glass to view the path before them.

Once Malcolm looked away, she took her chance. She swung her legs over the side of the railing and took a deep breath, her eyes staring down at the water.

Her eyes registered images of teeth and fins, colors and drops of water, but none of it meant anything in the final moments before she leapt from the edge of the Helena. Mama was down there, beneath those very waves. She kept her legs tight beneath her and crossed her arms over her chest, the same as she’d seen the men do in the lake when they were about to jump into the water. Within seconds, her body was completely engulfed with icy cold water. Her legs and arms paddled as hard as they could, struggling to keep herself afloat.

Her head burst from the water, and she watched as the Helena sailed away.

She gasped loudly and swam as hard as she could toward it, unable to force herself to cry out. There was no telling what her brother or the captain would think of finding her down here, of seeing how utterly insubordinate she’d been by jumping into the water a second time. The whole thought of it was absurd, the very idea that she’d jumped into the water to find one of the wraiths, the embodiment of her mama—a ghostly figure she’d seen her brother interacting with.

As she swam, something touched her legs. She gasped again and swam even harder. The last thing she wanted to do was look down at see what it was. Then another figure burst from the waters in front of her.

Shark.

She’d heard the name before, and even seen dead ones in some of the fisheries in the village. They were deadly, killers, and they were only ever seen out here in the salty waters of the ocean.

Again, Maisie gasped loudly. This time, she stopped. The thing was in front of her. She couldn’t very well keep going that way when it was right there, waiting to swallow her whole. Instead, she took a deep breath and dove down beneath the waves. Searing pain hit her eyes the moment she opened them. Mal had told her about this, from the first few times he’d been in the water. She hadn’t thought to retrieve his goggles from their quarters.

         There were sharks all around her, swimming tight little circles a short distance away from her body. Unthinkingly, she screamed beneath the water, terrified that they would strike her, tear her limb from limb. But every time one tried to swim close to her, it hit a wall—almost literally. Their snouts bent against an invisible wall.