the very secret society of irregular witches special edition

Researchers have been retrieving bits of the ship and its contents. To the place off the west coast of Australia where the off-course Batavia met its inglorious end. Gil has been sent to live with his crusty fisherman grandfather, Joss. He never knew his father, and Mom kept them on the move all of his brief life, until her death. Truck drivers like him because he takes an interest in their rigs. Old ladies like him, they think he’s old-fashioned. His shoes, worn down on the outsides, lend an awkward camber to his walk. Gil is made of pale skin and red hair and thrifted clothes. But we know from the beginning that the ship will not complete its trip.ġ989 – A nine-year-old boy has just endured a journey of his own. We follow Mayken’s adventures on this months-long journey across the world. Her father is a merchant who lives in a distant land where the midday sun is fierce enough to melt a Dutch child. There are treasures sewn into the seams of her clothing, small and valuable, like her. Mayken is made of pale skin and small white teeth and fine fair hair and linen and lace and wool and leather. There are many layers to this child: undergarments, middle garments, and top garments.

The girl is being sent to her father, accompanied by a nursemaid, the kindly, but very superstitious, Imke. Mayken’s mother died giving birth to a child not her husband’s. Her journey is not being undertaken by choice, though. She is setting sail on the grandest ship of the era, the Batavia, to a place by the same name, the capital of the Dutch East Indies. “They alter what people think and see.”ġ628 – Mayken van der Heuvel heads out on a long, exciting, but very dangerous adventure. “It’s the way of long journeys,” says Creesje. The gardener harvests fork-tailed carrots from his boxed plot outside the hen coop. A litter of rabbits joined together, a mass of heads and limbs. Their issue is hastily thrown overboard to prevent alarm. Monstrous births plague the onboard animals. The shape of clouds debated…A lamp taken down into the hold will now burn green. A change of wind direction must be greeted. Messmates must be served in a particular order. “Can you feel the ocean pulling at the nail heads, pressing against the planks, prizing the caulking? The water wants in.” “She’s all that lies between us and the deep dark fathoms of the sea.” John Pinten’s voice grows quiet, grave. She sees how much smaller and cleaner her hand is.

Mayken crawls forward and puts her palm next to his, flat against the planks. “Come.” John Pinten turns and puts his palm against the hull.

The very secret society of irregular witches special edition