Scarlet Morning

That night, the sailors praise Wilmur and promote him from cabin boy to “powder monkey” (109)—a deck boy who carries powder to the guns and cannons. Viola tries to tell him what she heard in Chase’s cabin, but he brushes her off, preferring to spend more time with the sailors.

Later, Viola asks Alma for more rumors about Chase. Alma tells her that Chase is not her real name. Her real name is Rosselin Morgenstern, and she was born into a wealthy family, as evidenced by her classical fighting style. Alma says Chase was a pirate, and so were Clem, Jacoby, and Fives. They all crewed together before the Pirate Massacre. After the massacre, Clem and the others went straight, and Chase disappeared, returning years later to hire them on a new ship. She explains that the reason most people do not wear gloves is because of the story that Scarlet Morning had a scar on her left hand. People became paranoid, and the fashion died. Chase is the only one among them who wears gloves and never takes them off. Alma adds that the name Morgenstern means “morning star” (114).

Viola wakes Wilmur to tell him that the crew are former pirates and they need to leave, but Wilmur already knows. Jacoby let it slip one night when he was drunk. Viola adds that she thinks Chase is Scarlet Morning, and Wilmur scoffs at her. Viola insists that Chase/Scarlet Morning is going to use the Book for something nefarious, and it is their responsibility to stop her. She wants to steal the Book, take one of the small boats, and escape, insisting they will make it to Faire Distance on their own. Wilmur announces that he is not going to Faire Distance. He knows that Viola was only pretending to believe they would find their parents. No one is waiting for them. He wants to stay with the Calamary Rose. He leaves to sleep in the sailors’ cabin and does not return. They do not speak for the next few days.

One night, Viola offers to take supper to Chase in her cabin. She enters, finding Chase asleep at her desk. Chase has succeeded in unlocking the last section of the Book. Viola steals one page, hoping it might prevent Chase from succeeding with her mysterious plan. But Chase wakes and catches her. Viola accuses Chase of being Scarlet Morning. Chase threateningly suggests that if she were Scarlet Morning, she obviously could not let Viola walk away with that secret. She grabs Viola by the collar.

Suddenly, the ship lurches, and Chase walks out onto the deck with Viola in tow. A giant creature like a whale, except with arms and legs, crashes through the salt pack and hits the ship, tipping it sideways. Viola begins to fall, but Chase keeps hold of her shirt. The crew hits the whale with harpoons as it attacks again. Chase’s grip on Viola’s shirt loosens. Viola falls into the sea. The text falls down the page as well, as the background color shifts to black.

Viola wakes in the dark. Chase is lying on top of her. They scramble to their feet and look around. They are standing on a salt pack so solid and smooth that it reflects the sky above them, making it look as if they are standing amid clouds. An illustration helps the reader to visualize the reflective surface of the salt pack (137). There is nothing around them but the smooth surface in any direction. The Calamary Rose is gone, as is the whale or any other sign of life.

Viola fears that the ship sank. Chase explains that the ship is where they left it; they are the ones who have moved. She has heard rumors of people and ships disappearing in the ocean only to reappear someplace different, as if Dickerson’s Sea had picked them up and moved them. Once, a ship vanished and reappeared two years later, “impaled on the tallest clocktower” (139) with no crew. Another time, a girl fell out of the sky and onto an island with a ticket of passage aboard a ship that was at that very moment “being dashed to pieces five hundred leagues away” (139). She never believed the rumors until now. They are deep in the Bleachfields, where the salt is thickest and few people travel.

Viola asks why Chase fell into the water with her. Chase says she did not do it out of kindness but because Viola had the page from the Book. Begrudgingly, Viola gives the page back. Now, their only option is to walk and hope they find a ship or island along the way. In the evening, the sky fills with colorful lights. Chase calls them the “Westerly Lights” (144) and concludes they are even farther west than she thought. They stop to rest, and Chase apologizes for threatening Viola on the ship. To comfort her, Chase tells Viola they will not die because she is the infamous Scarlet Morning.

In the morning, they find enormous, crystallized waves, frozen at the moment of the Great Blow. Chase says that this is the exact spot where the storm first happened. Viola laments that she never saw the sea when it was still alive and moving. Then they spot a ship partially protruding from the salt pack.

In the crystallized water around the ship, Viola sees dead bodies beneath her feet, frozen at their moment of death. She panics, and Chase gently leads her across. She coaxes Viola to keep moving by offering to let her punch her in the face. On the ship, they find supplies, including jars of Abner and Merrytree’s Miraculous Ever Eggs. The eggs remind Viola of Wilmur, and she cries.

Chase waits for her to calm down and then offers her the punch she promised. Viola says she wants to save it for later. Viola thanks Chase for helping her. She now thinks Chase must not be Scarlet Morning because everyone knows that Scarlet Morning is heartless and would have just abandoned her. Chase pulls off her glove and reveals a star-shaped scar on her left hand. She got the scar as a child pick-pocketer, impaling her hand on an iron fence spike while trying to evade capture. Viola asks for the true story, but Chase replies that there is no truth, only stories. She thinks it might be a kinder fate not to be remembered at all. She gestures to the bodies beneath the salt, pointing out that all that remains is the moment of their deaths. She concludes: “salt preserves, just as salt destroys… You just don’t get to choose which” (162).

On the Calamary Rose, the crew gives up searching for Chase and Viola. Clem decides to finish fixing the damage to the ship and head for the nearest land. Wilmur insists that Viola is still alive. That night, he packs supplies and leaves, walking away on the salt pack.

A storm blows over Viola and Chase. They use tubs from the scavenged ship to collect rainwater. Chase finds a chart and determines their general location. She surmises that they are within several weeks’ distance of an island called Wilder’s Green. They can walk most of the way but will need help to reach the last stretch. She knows a group of former pirates who live in the Bleachfields and might be able to help.

That night, Chase tells stories about her pirate days as Viola compares the legends she’s heard to the truth. Viola is envious of Chase’s adventures and being a part of “big, important things” (173). Chase remarks that you never know you are part of big things until after the fact, when you look around at the aftermath and realize all the things you have lost on the way. Chase asks about Viola’s life. Bitterly, Viola says she has no life because the world she wanted to be part of no longer exists. When she looks to her future, all she can see is salt. She is jealous of the golden age Chase lived through. Chase is skeptical that what she had was a golden age.

The weather turns, and Chase’s compass spins wildly. Viola spots a cave in the salt waves, and they take shelter and sleep. Viola wakes sometime later to find that Chase is gone. She ventures out of the cave where the sun is a bright haze through the salt and a pale fog. Viola hears Chase calling in the distance and follows her voice.

Ahead, she sees Chase’s silhouette amid the fog. But as she approaches, she sees two more Chase-shaped silhouettes and realizes that it is a mirage like the sun dogs. She comes up behind Chase and stops just in time to see that Chase is standing at the edge of a cliff, hidden in the fog.

A strange kind of silence surrounds them, reminding Viola of the silence where the island of Old Bottle should have been. Chase mutters under her breath: “Don’t you see it? A black spot surrounded by a thin pale ring. It’s getting closer… The ring is getting thinner. When it vanishes, so do we…” (186). Chase says that Annie is waiting for her and tries to step off. Viola grabs her and pulls, but Chase is too heavy for her. Viola takes Chase’s knife from her belt and jabs the hilt into her hip. The pain startles Chase awake. Fear fills her eyes, and they stumble away from the cliff and back to the cave.