by Liz Kessler
“Want to bet?” he replied. Mandy opened her mouth to speak, but a wave washed her words away. She spluttered and swam for the edge of the pool. Mr. Beeston lunged toward me, grabbing my arm. I tried to struggle, but he tightened his grip, his fingers scorching into my flesh as he pulled me back toward the grille at the bottom of the cave.
Mandy was shouting something as Mr. Beeston pushed me out, fighting against the raging water. I couldn’t hear her words anymore.
“What are you doing with me?” I cried as a wall of white water rushed toward us, flinging me against a wall. “What’s going on? Tell me!”
“Don’t you understand?” he shouted. “We’re all in danger here. Look at this. We can’t live like this. You’re the only one who can fix it.” We’d reached my cell. He yanked on my arm, pushing me inside. “And you will!”
Without another word, he turned and left. I heard the bolt slam across the door.
I slumped back against the wall and closed my eyes. How had it come to this? All I’d wanted to do was fit in. How had I managed to cause such devastation? I looked around my dark cell. Shadows came and went on the walls as the hours passed and daylight faded, along with my hopes.
“Emily?”
Who was that? It sounded like . . .
“Emily!”
Dad? I swam to the door. “Dad!” I screamed.
The door burst open. It was! It was him. He wrapped me in his arms.
“How did you find me?” I asked, pressing into his chest.
“I —”
“Wait!” I pulled away from the door as I heard a noise outside. “There’s someone out there,” I whispered. “How did you get past them?”
Dad took hold of my hands. “Emily,” he said in a tight voice. He wouldn’t meet my eyes.
“What? What is it?”
“They know I’m here.”
“They know? But how —”
“Archie,” Dad said simply. “I had to tell, Em. You knew that.” He looked briefly at my face and turned away again. He let go of my hands and swam around the cell. “Mr. Beeston came soon after,” he continued. He ran a hand through his hair, pulling at it as he struggled to speak. Eventually, he looked up at me. “He told me you hadn’t been on your own.”
Suddenly it clicked. I felt as though he’d punched me. “So that’s why you’re here,” I said. “You just want me to tell you who I was with.”
Dad looked down. “We have no choice, Em.”
My throat ached. He hadn’t tracked me down, after all. He only came because he had to. Well, I didn’t blame him. Why would he want me back after what I’d done?
Dad swam back toward me. “Emily, I begged Archie to let me come. He wanted to do it himself.”
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. Lifting my chin, Dad spoke almost roughly. “Remember when you found me at the prison?”
I nodded, gulping a tear away.
“That was the happiest day of my whole life,” he said. “Did you know that? And you know what was the worst?”
I shook my head.
“The day I thought I’d lost you again.”
I held his eyes for a moment before falling back against him. “Oh, Dad. It’s been so awful!” I cried. “They want me to face the kraken again.”
“I know, little ’un, I know.” He held me tight while I sobbed. “I’ll be there.”
“But you won’t! I’ve got to do it on my own.”
“Not on your own, Emily,” he said, his voice stern. “You weren’t on your own.” He spoke slowly and deliberately. “You have to tell. You don’t know what it’s been like at the island. Typhoons, giant waves. One side’s totally devastated. All the trees knocked flat. Ships have come off their moorings, and it’s only going to get worse.”
“It was Shona,” I said eventually. I squeezed him tighter. Closing my eyes, I prayed I hadn’t just killed off any last chance of her ever making up with me. I couldn’t bear to lose her forever; I just couldn’t bear it.
Dad swallowed hard. “There’s something else I’ve got to tell you.” He held me away from him and picked up both of my hands. “It’s your mom and Millie. They went out looking for you, and we can’t find them. There’s folk out searching and I’m sure it won’t be —”
“Dad! I know where they are.”
He jerked backward. “What?”
“I’ve seen them.” I told him about everything: the ship, Mandy, Mr. Beeston.
Dad listened with wild eyes. “Emily, there’s no time to waste,” he gasped when I’d finished. “We’ve got to do this. I’ll send a message to Archie.”
“Don’t leave me!” I gripped his arm. I couldn’t be left alone again now. I couldn’t lose Dad again. Please no!
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said firmly. “I’ll be by your side the whole time.”
“Do I really have to do this?” I asked, my voice quivering.
Dad held me close as he spoke into my hair. “I’m sorry, Emily. It’s the only way.”
That creepy Mr. Beeston’s pulling me along through the water on a kind of raft. I never liked him, back at Brightport. He’s even worse now. He keeps shouting things to me. “Where’s the ship?” he bellows.
“I — I think it’s —”
“WHERE’S THE SHIP!” he repeats, about ten times louder.
“It must have moved,” I call back to him. “It was somewhere over there.” I point vaguely ahead of us.
“You know nothing, child,” he says. “I don’t know why we even brought you. No matter, we’ll find it soon. It’s probably already there.”
“Already where?” Emily calls. She’s here too, with another merman. I think it’s her dad. They keep smiling at each other. Lucky them. My chest aches as I wonder if I’ll ever get to smile at my dad again.
“The edge of the Triangle. Same place we’re heading.”
“You have to tell me!” Emily’s screaming. “Why do you need the ship?”
“We’re just getting our bearings,” Mr. Beeston says.
Emily turns to the other merman. “He’s not telling us everything,” she whimpers. “I know he’s not. Why would they be taking Mandy home? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Shh, just let’s get there. We want your mom back. This is our best chance,” he replies in a quiet voice, glancing nervously at Mr. Beeston. What are they up to? “It’ll be okay,” he says, holding Emily’s hand. “I’m here to take care of you.”
We swim on. I keep having visions of seeing Mom and Dad again. Please get me to the boat. I promise I’ll change. I won’t be horrible anymore.
The water breaks in sharp waves all around us. It’s getting really rough as we plow through enormous peaks and crash down into huge troughs. I’m grabbing the side of my raft, totally soaked.
And then I see it.
In the distance. On the horizon. I think it might be portholes, glinting in the sunlight. Yes, it is! A whole row of them! It’s the ship!
“That’s it!” I shout. “Over there!” I point to the right.
We speed toward the cruise ship. I’m going to see Mom and Dad again! I’m going to be safe!
As we get closer, I can see its shape more clearly. And then it goes out of sight. There’s something in the water, in front of the ship. It’s like an island; a sickly khaki-green island with hills and bumps. And it’s moving. Long arms reaching up, propelling it forward, blotting out the sun. I grip hard onto the raft as my stomach turns over.
The monster’s going to get the ship.
I realize I’m screaming.
“Mandy, I can stop this!” Emily yells to me. “They’ve told me I can calm it.”
“Why should I believe you?” I shout back. “You think you’re so special, don’t you? Think you can do everything better than anyone else!” Tears are streaming down my face. Mom, Dad. They’re so near and I’ll never see them again.
“Listen to me!”
“No! I won’t listen to you. If I hadn’t been trying to find yo
u, none of this would have happened! It’s all your fault! Every single thing that’s gone wrong here is YOUR FAULT!”
Emily doesn’t speak again. Her face looks like it’s been slammed between two walls. I force myself not to look, not to care.
Why should I care? No one cares about me.
I’m going to die out here, and absolutely no one cares.
I gulped as we swam, trying to swallow, trying to breathe. Trying not to think about what I had to do.
Could I really calm the kraken’s rage? Did I have any choice?
We were getting nearer to the ship — and so was the kraken. The thought of Mom on the ship was all I needed to spur me on. I had to do it.
“Look!” Dad pointed at two shapes in the water. Archie and Shona!
Archie swam up to Mr. Beeston, pulling Shona along with him. “We’ve got her,” he said simply.
Mr. Beeston nodded curtly. “Just in time.”
Shona! Excitement bubbled inside me — but quickly turned to ice when I saw her face. She wouldn’t meet my eyes. Well, I didn’t blame her. After everything I’d put her through, now she had to come face to face with the kraken again, and it was thanks to me — again. I fought back tears.
Archie looked across at me. “I’m glad you’re safe,” he said, trying to smile.
“Safe? What makes you think I’m safe?”
“Come on. We don’t have any time to lose.” He started swimming again, Shona joining Mandy and me as we trailed along behind the others. Dad swam up ahead with Archie.
“I’m not surprised you’re not speaking to me,” I said, building up the courage to speak to her as we sliced through the water. Please don’t ignore me, please!
Shona looked at me through heavy eyes. “What d’you mean?” she asked. “I thought you wouldn’t be talking to me! I was so horrible to you. I’ve been a coward and a terrible friend. I wouldn’t be surprised if you never want to speak to me again.”
I grabbed her hand as we swam. “Shona, you weren’t a terrible friend! If anyone was a terrible friend, it was me. I dragged you somewhere you didn’t want to go.”
Shona squeezed my hand. “I should never have let you take the blame. I’m so sorry,” she said. Then more quietly, she added, “And so are Althea and Marina.”
“Althea and Marina? Your new best friends, you mean?”
Shona laughed. “My what? Why would I want them when I’ve got the best best friend in the world?”
I held my breath. “You mean . . . ?”
“Yes!” She grinned. “I mean you! I mean a best friend who’s crazy and impossible and maddening and strong and brave.” She held my eyes. “And unique,” she added.
My cheeks burned. “You do?” I gulped.
Shona nodded. “I was just too stubborn and stupid to realize it for a while. And you know, Althea and Marina want to be friends with you too,” she added. “They feel awful about taking us to the lagoon. They think it’s all their fault. They wanted me to tell you they’re going to make it up to you at the welcome party, when we get back.”
The welcome party. Were they still really going to hold a welcome party for us? Would I really ever be truly welcome there?
“Well, excuse me for not joining in the happy moment,” Mandy burst in, “but does either of you realize we’re all about to die out here? Shouldn’t we be trying to get out of this mess?”
“Mandy’s right,” I said, suddenly realizing Mandy and Shona had never met. Somehow, this didn’t feel like the best time for introductions. “We need to think about what we’re doing.”
Ahead of us, the kraken had dipped underwater, an occasional tentacle lashing out across the surface. The sea bubbled with expectation.
Shona turned to me. “What are we doing?”
That was a very good question.
We were there. The edge of the Triangle; the realm of the kraken. It was no longer a glassy plane over the ocean. An endless chasm stretched across the sea, giant waterfalls tearing down into the blackness below.
The ocean raged as the kraken surfaced in front of the chasm. Huge tentacles surged out of the sea, thick and lumpy, spraying water all around as they crashed onto the surface again and again.
I froze.
I couldn’t do it.
Someone was shouting at me. I think it was Archie. It could have been Mr. Beeston, or even my dad. It didn’t matter. I couldn’t change this, I couldn’t face the kraken. I closed my eyes.
“The ship.” Mandy was pulling at my arm. “The ship,” she said over and over again. “It’s going to sink the ship! Do something!”
The monster was looming over the ship as it edged toward the chasm. Tentacles reached high into the air. One swipe and it would all be over. “MOM!” I screamed into the wildness, my eyes blurred from tears and seawater.
Archie grabbed my arm. “Face it!” he screamed. “Both of you!”
“Then what?” Shona cried.
“Just do it! Face it together and be silent. Wait till it turns this way. I’ll tell you what to do then. Quick!”
Shona turned to me.
“Come on,” I said. “It’ll be okay.”
I grabbed her hand and we turned to face the kraken together, waiting in silence for the awful moment when it would turn that long, hard, horrible face toward us.
And then it did.
Nothing else moved. The sea swells stopped. The crashing waves leading down into blackness, the chasm — everything was still, held in a freeze frame. The kraken stood like a terrifying statue, motionless like iron, a giant tentacle poised over the ship, its bulging, weeping eyes locked with ours.
“It’s working,” Dad whispered into the stillness. “It’s working!”
In the distance, a chariot was gliding over the water, pulled by dolphins. Neptune was on his way.
Archie glanced across at the chariot. “You have to do it now!” he urged. “Bring the kraken here, calm it down. Now!”
“What do we do?”
“Think.”
“Think?”
“In your minds, try to communicate with it.”
“Communicate with it?”
“Try to hold it in your power, bring it out of its rage so it can return to Neptune. You have to move fast.”
“Okay.” I pulled at my hair, twirling it around as I flicked my tail. I glanced at Shona. She nodded quickly. OK. I just have to calm the kraken’s rage. Think thoughts.
OK.
Calm down, nice kraken. I forced the words into my mind, my face squirming up with disgust and horror. A tentacle twitched, lashing out into thin air.
“You have to really feel it,” Archie said. “It’s no use pretending. It’ll know.”
Neptune was coming closer. I had to do something before he got here, prove that I wasn’t completely and utterly useless, that I hadn’t ruined absolutely everything. Shona’s eyes were closed, her face calm and focused. OK, I could do this.
Please, I thought. Please don’t destroy anything. There’s no need. Take it calmly, listen to us, trust us, it’s all okay. No one’s going to hurt you.
Random thoughts raced through my head, anything I could think of that might have some effect.
And it did — it started to. The kraken’s tentacles were softening, flopping back down onto the water, one by one. The swell of the sea had started shifting slowly, rising and falling steadily, the huge choppy waves with their sharp crests smoothing into deep swells. The chasm closed over, lying shiny and smooth like an oil slick.
“Good!” Mr. Beeston called. “Keep doing it!”
Don’t be angry. Everything will be all right. Just be calm, calm, calm.
Beside me, I could almost feel Shona’s thoughts, the same as mine, weaving in between my own words. The kraken was calming down. Its tentacles lay still and quiet, spread out across the ocean’s surface.
The chariot was coming closer. I could see Neptune, rising out of his seat, holding his trident in the air.
“We’ve do
ne it,” he cried as the dolphins brought him to my side. “Bring it here. Bring it to me now. Only when it is right in front of you can you bring it fully back into my power.”
I swallowed. Here? Right in front of us?
“Now!” Neptune repeated.
I cleared my throat as I glanced at Shona again. Her face was white, her eyes wide and terrified.
I closed my eyes. Come to us, I thought, half of me praying it wouldn’t work, the other half knowing that if it didn’t we were all lost.
Nothing happened.
“You have to mean it!” Archie said. “I’ve told you that.”
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Then, forcing myself to concentrate totally on my thoughts, I let the words come into my mind. Come to us, now. We can end this. No more rage, just calm . . . come to us now.
Something was happening in the water. Movement. I could sense it. I kept my eyes closed. It’s all right, I said in my mind. No one’s going to hurt you. Just come to us now and we can work it out. Calm. Stay calm.
“You’re doing well,” Neptune said. His voice sounded as though he was talking right into my ear. “Now, open your eyes. You have to come face to face with it, both of you. You need to hold it with your minds until the rage has completely gone.”
“How will we know when the rage has gone?” I asked.
“It will come back to me.”
I counted slowly to three, and then opened my eyes. It was all I could do not to scream at the top of my lungs. It was there! In front of me! A face as tall as an apartment building: lumpy and dark and pocked with holes and warts, tapering toward huge white eyes streaked with blood-red veins. Enormous craggy tusks pointed up, disappearing into the clouds, it seemed. Tentacles lay still all around it, like a deflated parachute.
I could hear cheering coming from the ship! The danger had passed. We’d done it. We’d really done it! I grabbed Shona’s arm. She was laughing.
“We’re not finished!” Neptune barked. “Beeston, get ready. Archie, ready?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Archie replied, swimming away from me.
“Ready for what?” I asked. No one answered. Mr. Beeston and Archie were swimming toward the ship. I grabbed Dad. “Ready for what?” I asked again. “What’s going on?”
