The Door That Waited in the Sea Part 4

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Part 4 The Voyage That Refused to End
Elara stood before the blue door, listening to her own voice. “Whatever you do, do not return the ship.” Pip backed away. Nox raised his lantern. Beyond the frame lay a narrow cabin and four empty chairs. A fifth chair faced the wall. The voice spoke again. “If you can hear me, the nineteenth voyage has already failed.” Elara stepped forward. A hand appeared on the other side, holding a brass compass identical to Corren's, except that all four needles pointed down. “Not yet,” said the voice. “First, count your keys.” Elara, Nox and Corren each held one. Pip's still lay on the pier. Something clicked beneath the fifth chair. A brass key slid across the cabin floor and stopped at the threshold. Its nameplate was blank. Corren knelt. On its back were four words: FOR THE FIRST BORROWER. The Wanderer's mooring rope tightened. Far out in the white harbour, a bell rang without moving. A second rope appeared, leading from the ship into the blue doorway. “The ship has two berths,” Nox said. Elara looked at the vacant chairs. “Then someone is still aboard.” She crossed the threshold. On the table lay a logbook. The first page read VOYAGE ZERO — DEPARTURE DENIED. Below it was a signature in Elara's handwriting. “I never signed that.” The voice answered from behind the wall. “You will.” Pip followed her inside, clutching his blue coat. Nox and Corren entered. The blue door shut behind them. The fifth chair turned by itself. It was empty, but its cushion bore the shape of someone sitting. Corren swallowed. “I remember that chair.” The logbook opened to a drawing of the Wanderer beneath a black sun. Beside it stood five figures. Four had faces. The fifth had been cut out of the page. The lantern flickered. A whisper came from the empty chair. “The person who lent you the ship.” The cabin lurched. Through its windows Elara saw the white harbour sliding away, although the Wanderer remained tied to the pier. The walls stretched, becoming a corridor lined with doors. Each carried a number from one to eighteen. Door nineteen was missing. Pip pressed his ear to door seven. From within came his own laughter, followed by a tremendous crash. “I remember that one,” he said. Elara approached door eighteen. A small plaque read CREW RETURNED — NONE. The key marked ELARA grew warm. She fitted it into the lock. Inside stood the Wanderer, stranded on a beach of white sand beneath a motionless sea. Four figures lay asleep on its deck. One was Elara. A figure in a dark blue coat stood at the helm, facing away. Elara called out. The figure turned. It had no face, only a blank wooden mask marked with a small golden door. “The Keeper,” Corren whispered. The scene vanished. Elara found herself back in the corridor. A new inscription appeared on door eighteen: BORROWERS NOT RETURNED. Pip stared at it. Nox touched his key. The blank key rose from the floor and drifted toward Corren. He stepped back. Corren's face lost its colour. “There was a fifth?” The corridor lights dimmed. A distant knock echoed three times. Elara seized his arm. “Think. Before the first door, before the ship, who was with us?” Corren shut his eyes. “A harbour clerk. A woman with a red scarf. She said the Wanderer belonged to someone who couldn't leave.” The fifth chair appeared at the end of the corridor. A red scarf lay across it. The scarf lifted, as if caught by an invisible breeze, and settled around an unseen neck. A woman's voice said, “I didn't lend you the ship. I lent you my way home.” The corridor dissolved into the original white harbour. At the farthest pier stood a woman in a red scarf. “My name is Sera,” the woman said. “I was the first borrower.” Sera opened her suitcase. Inside was a miniature sea, with a tiny golden door standing on its floor. “Long ago the Harbour offered travellers passage to places they had lost. I borrowed the Wanderer to find my brother. But every journey needed a return.” “You couldn't return?” Elara asked. “I found him. He no longer remembered me.” “I brought the ship back,” Sera continued, “but I couldn't decide where home was. The Harbour kept my return unfinished. Then it began borrowing other people to complete it.” Nox stared at the eighteen numbered doors now standing along the pier. “Every voyage was another attempt.” Corren held up the blank key. Letters slowly appeared: SERA. Sera looked toward the Wanderer. “Because returning it completes the Harbour's bargain. It will choose a home for me. And everyone who travelled in my place will be sent there too.” A bell rang. The white sky split, revealing a distant town beneath dark water. Hundreds of windows glowed below the surface. “The place my brother chose,” Sera said. “He went there before the sea arrived.” The Harbour began to tilt toward the underwater town. The mooring rope pulled tight. Elara caught the railing. “Then we stop the return.” “You already completed it,” Sera said.