Spike quickly explained everything that had happened in the last few days.
An older narwhal pushed past the others. “Star, is that you? Come here. Let me see you. You must be my lost baby! Do you have a star on your belly?”
Spike rolled on his back.
“Look, there’s a star!” Lana said.
“Star! It’s me, Maris! I’m your mother!” the older narwhal cried.
“I can’t believe it! But what happened? How did you lose me?” Spike asked.
Spike’s mom looked down and sighed. “It was my fault. We were chasing a school of halibut. The biggest school I’d ever seen. I was so excited, I rushed ahead, and I lost you. I looked for days, but we couldn’t find you.”
Lana felt so sad hearing the story.
“How did I end up with the dolphins?” Spike asked.
“There was a school of dolphins going after the fish, too. You must’ve gone off with them by mistake. You didn’t have your tusk yet. I’m sure you blended in.”
“I didn’t even know I was a narwhal. I thought I was a misfit dolphin!” Spike said. “I can’t believe I finally found my way home!”
“I can’t believe it, either!” said his mother. “My Star is back!”
Spike paused. “Um, can we stick with the name Spike?”
“Of course, dear!” Maris said.
“Why don’t you have a tusk?” he asked her.
“The females usually don’t,” his mom said. “But yours is beautiful.”
Spike turned to Marina and Lana. “Thanks so much for helping me find my way home. I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Did you come to visit the mermaids?” his mother asked Lana.
Mermaids? Lana was too stunned to say anything.
“There are mermaids here?” Marina asked.
Spike’s mom nodded. “I can take you to them if you’d like.”
Lana blinked a few times before she said, “Yes, please!”
Spike’s mom led them from the open water and dove under the ice. They swam until they came to the base of a huge glacier. An elaborate gate was carved into the milky white ice.
“This is Glister Kingdom,” Maris explained. “All the merfolk live here, but they rarely venture far from the glacier.”
“I wonder why,” Lana said. “There’s so much to explore in the ocean.”
“I’m not sure. We don’t interact with the merpeople very often.”
Slowly, the gate lifted. Two mermen holding crystal staffs swam out.
“State the purpose of your visit,” one of the men said.
Lana froze. She didn’t know what to say. Luckily, Marina did.
“We’re from the kingdom of Stillwater,” the seapony explained. “This is Princess Lana, daughter of King Keel and Queen Nerina. We were escorting this young narwhal home when we learned there is a colony of mermaids here. We’d like to meet them.”
Lana nodded. “That’s right.”
“Very well. We’ll get the king and queen,” one of the guards said before they both swam inside and closed the gate.
Lana turned to Marina. “Why doesn’t anyone know merfolk live up here?”
“I have no idea. This is quite a discovery. Wait until you tell the principal,” Marina said.
Lana frowned. She didn’t want to think about the Rescue Crew School.
The gate opened again, and the king and queen swam out, followed by a mergirl around the same age as Lana and a merboy who looked to be about a year younger. They were all wearing crowns. Their skin had a pearly sheen, and their hair was brightly colored, similar to Lana’s.
The queen swam toward them. “Hello. I am Queen Yara, and this is King Marinus of the Glister Kingdom. These are our children, Princess Meri and Prince Hurley.”
Lana surprised herself with how easily she said, “Hi, I’m Princess Lana of the Stillwater Kingdom. And this is my magical seapony partner, Marina.”
“It’s lovely to meet you,” the king said. “I’ve always wondered if there were other merfolk in the sea.”
Lana nodded. “There are lots of other merpeople in kingdoms all across the Eastern Seas.”
“What brought you here?” the queen asked.
“We helped my friend Spike find his home.” Lana started telling the story.
A loud noise from overhead interrupted her tale. Her eyes widened.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A bell hanging from the side of the glacier started clanging.
“We must get inside at once!” the queen cried.
Merfolk appeared in the distance, swimming toward the glacier.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Lana felt frozen in place. “What is that?” she whispered.
“I don’t know, but let’s go!” Marina said.
Princess Meri grabbed Lana’s hand, pulling her toward the castle. Before they slipped inside, Lana looked up and saw four huge black paws stalking across the ice above. It looked like they’d come crashing down on their heads at any moment!
Merfolk flooded through the gates.
Inside, a small crystal city spread out in the hollow interior. A beautiful castle was nestled in the ice at the back of the glacier.
“Wow!” Marina said.
The booming outside continued. Lana wondered what kind of enormous creature was stalking overhead, sending panic throughout the kingdom.
The gate to the glacier started to close.
A mermaid shrieked. “No! My little Pasha isn’t here. She was right behind me, but she’s gone. Keep the gate open!”
“I’m sorry,” one of the guards said. “We must keep it closed until the beast passes. We have to guard the kingdom.”
“Someone help me!” the mermaid cried.
Marina looked at Lana. “We should look for the child.”
“But Principal Vanora told me I can’t lead a mission,” Lana said.
“No one else from the Rescue Crew is here!” Marina said. “We have to help.”
Lana hung her head. “Remember what happened last time a merchild went missing? I froze and did nothing.”
“That’s not true. You stopped and figured out what happened. Let’s go find that little mergirl!” Marina swam toward the gate.
Lana followed. Marina was right. They had to at least try. But she had no idea what they were facing. What kind of creature had paws that big?
Lana approached the king and queen. “Marina and I will search for the child. We are members of the Royal Mermaid Rescue Crew. It is our duty to keep the seas and its subjects safe.”
“You don’t even know this area,” the king said.
“Do you have any experience with polar bears?” the queen asked.
“That’s what’s stomping around?” Lana asked.
“Yes. He may just pass overhead, but if he gets into the castle it would be a catastrophe,” Queen Yara said.
“Then we have to find that child,” Lana said. “Let us out.”
The queen nodded at the guards. “Do as they say.”
“I want to go with them,” Princess Meri said.
Prince Hurley swam next to her. “So do I.”
“Absolutely not!” the king said. “It’s too dangerous. Lana and Marina are trained for this.”
Lana and Marina swam out of the gate. But right before it closed, Meri and Hurley slipped out, too.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The bear was still above them, but the noise seemed to be growing more distant.
“So what’s the plan?” Hurley asked.
Lana looked around the still, icy waters.
“What should we do?” Meri asked.
“Hang on, I’m thinking.” Lana floated there doing nothing, just like she had back at the park. Breathe, focus, solve, she reminded herself. This wasn’t a game of hide-and-seek, like in the park, but she figured this mergirl had searched for a place to hide, too—the footsteps must have scared her into taking shelter.
“Are there any caves o
r places she might hide?” Lana asked Meri and Hurley.
Meri shook her head. “That’s why everyone rushed to the castle. And that’s why we can’t go far from home.”
“So she must be nearby,” Marina said.
“Do the polar bears swim below the ice?” Lana asked.
“Not often, but we must be careful,” Meri said.
Lana turned circles in the water, looking for where she would hide if a polar bear was overhead. Nothing below the ice seemed like a decent hiding spot. “The ice above is a solid sheet?”
“Yes, on this side of the glacier,” Hurley told her.
“What about the other side?” Lana asked.
“The ice starts to break up. There is some open water there,” Meri said.
Lana looked at Marina.
“If there’s no place to hide below the ice, maybe she’s hiding above the ice. Let’s swim to the other side of the glacier,” Lana said.
Hurley crossed his arms. “I don’t know. We rarely go over there.”
“A scared mergirl might have ended up there without realizing it,” Lana said. “We need to check.” Lana swam around the glacier and Marina followed.
“We’re coming, too!” Meri hollered.
The glacier was huge. It took a few minutes to swim around it. When they got to the other side, there were patches of open sea above. Small blocks of ice bobbed in the water.
“Maybe she climbed onto one of these.” Lana poked her head above the water.
Seals sunned on a patch of ice nearby, some barking and chasing each other. Others flopped into the sea. Seabirds swarmed up into the sky. The water itself was a smooth sheet.
It was so beautiful and peaceful. But Lana couldn’t get distracted. She had to find the mergirl. “Pasha! Where are you?”
Meri and Hurley popped their heads above the water. “Pasha! Let us help you. The bear is gone.”
“I’m over here!” a faint voice called. The little mergirl was sitting on a small hunk of ice, waving her hands overhead.
“Come here, we’ll take you back!” Meri called.
“I’m too afraid to get in the water!”
“Then we’ll come get you!” Lana called. The four of them swam over to her.
Meri held out her hand. “Let’s go home.”
“What happened?” Hurley asked.
“When everyone was rushing toward the castle, I lost my mom. Then the gate closed. I wasn’t sure what to do, so I just kept swimming as fast as I could. When I saw the ice chunks, I thought I might be safe from the bear up here,” Pasha said.
“You’re safe now,” Lana said.
Meri helped Pasha into the water, and they headed back toward the gate.
Marina smiled at Lana. “You figured it out again.”
“Well, it wasn’t that hard,” Lana said quietly.
“Lana, give yourself more credit. You led this mission and you found the mergirl! Principal Vanora would be so proud,” Marina said. “You should be proud, too. And more confident. You’re a great Rescue Crew member.”
Lana was about to protest that she wasn’t, that she should have been faster or braver. But she just smiled and said, “Thanks.” Maybe she wasn’t such a bad rescuer after all. She just wished everyone else knew it.
When they got back to the other side of the glacier, the gate was open. Pasha’s mom was waiting for her and gathered her into her arms.
Hundreds of merfolk waiting by the entrance cheered.
Spike spun in a circle. “You did it!”
His mother sighed. “If only someone had found you that quickly all those years ago.”
“But I’m back now,” Spike said.
“Thank you so much, Lana!” Pasha’s mom wiped away her tears.
“Everyone helped,” Lana said.
The queen gave her children a stern look. “You two shouldn’t have swum off like that!”
“But Lana doesn’t know the area!” Hurley said.
Meri crossed her arms. “We had to help.”
“It’s been a long day,” the king said. “The sun will be setting soon, and we have something amazing to show you. But first, we’ll feast.”
“Spike and Maris, please join us as well,” the queen said.
King Marinus led them to the castle dining hall, where they filled up on clams and kelp cakes.
“I’m surprised you could find any clams.” Lana laughed. “We met a walrus nearby who seemed ready to eat them all!”
The queen raised an eyebrow. “They can get testy when our merchefs go harvesting.”
“What do you eat where you live?” Meri asked Lana and Marina.
“Yeah, what’s it like there?” Hurley asked.
Lana told them all about Astoria and Stillwater and the incredible sea life living in the coral reefs. She spoke for so long, and in such detail, that she surprised herself again. If she could speak up here, why couldn’t she do it at the Rescue Crew School?
“It all sounds amazing!” Meri said.
Lana snapped her fingers. “You guys should train at the Rescue Crew School! All the royal merchildren are members of the Rescue Crew. And you two are royalty here in the Glister Kingdom. And your kingdom needs Rescue Crew members!”
“You’d get to choose your own magical seapony,” Marina told them. “We’re a great team.”
“I’ve been to the rescue school,” Spike said. “They’re very nice. And they took me to the surface to meet magical ponies!” He told them all about it.
“Please, can we go, Dad?” Hurley asked.
Meri folded her hands, begging. “Please!”
Queen Yara shook her head. “It’s so very far away. And we’d miss you.”
“Rescue Crew School is only on weekends,” Lana said.
“And there’s a portal that transported us here very quickly,” Marina explained.
“You could all come with us when we leave and check it out for yourself,” Lana said.
Hurley and Meri were so excited, they swam in circles.
The king laughed. “We’ve never left the kingdom. I didn’t know about the portal. The queen can accompany the children. One of us has to stay here.”
Hurley pumped one hand in the air. “Yes!”
“This is so exciting!” Meri hugged Lana.
“I think this is the perfect time to show our guests the magic in the sky,” the queen said.
They swam out of the castle to an arch that opened up to the water. It was night, but the sky was covered in swirls of pale pink and blue and green. Lana gasped. “What is that?”
“The northern lights,” the queen explained. “It looks a little different each night, but it’s a beautiful way to end the day.”
“It looks like your hair!” Spike said.
The king nodded. “Legend has it that our first merfolk had pure white hair, until the night they gazed up at the northern lights,” he explained. “The lights shone down on them, coloring their hair and leaving a shimmer on their skin. Just like we have. And like the streaks in your hair, Lana. I daresay you have some Northern Sea mermaid ancestors.”
Lana grinned. Marina used her Sea Savvy to match the colors in the sky.
They sat on the ice and bobbed in the water, watching the sky for a long time. Lana felt so comfortable in the peaceful setting.
Later, Meri showed her and Marina to a guest room. Spike and his mom stayed over, too.
Lana had a hard time falling asleep. While the rescue that day had been a success, something else was bothering her. There were no places to hide in the kingdom. Maybe the merfolk could venture farther out and see more of the seas if they knew they had places to hide.
Lana sat up in bed. I know what to do!
The next morning, Lana couldn’t wait to share her plan during breakfast. “I’ve got an idea to help keep your kingdom safe, but we’ll need buckets and buckets of clams.”
Meri laughed. “How will clams keep us safe?”
Lana smiled. “You’ll see.”
After breakfast, Lana led her new friends to the spot where the walrus had been feeding. He was there again, snacking away.
“You better not be here for my food,” he said.
“No, we’re here to ask for help, and we’ve got loads of clams to give you in return,” Lana said. “The merfolk need some small caves dug into thick patches of ice throughout the kingdom so they can hide if there’s danger. You could use your tusks to help dig.”
The walrus twitched his whiskers. “That sounds like a fair trade.”
“Invite your friends,” Meri said. “We have lots and lots of clams.”
“I’ll show you where to build the first one!” Lana said.
“We’ll go get more clams,” Hurley said.
Lana led the walrus to the location of the first cave. “We need a few made, so you could be busy all week.”
“As long as you keep the clams coming, I’ll be digging.” The walrus started chipping away at the ice with his tusks.
“I’m sure the narwhals would be willing to help. We can use our tusks, too,” Spike said.
“That would be great!” Meri said.
Lana showed Spike where to dig, and he and his mom swam off to find their pod.
“We can use clamshells to help dig,” Meri said.
Marina smiled. “You’re thinking like a Rescue Crew member already.”
After they scouted out the perfect spot for a cave, the narwhals returned. Lana, Meri, Hurley, and a few other merfolk helped them carve out a cave.
Hurley dug into the ice. “This is such a great idea. And we can build even more after you leave.”
“I’m so glad we met you.” Meri hugged Lana.
Lana hugged her back and dropped her digging shell. It sank into a dark crevice in the ocean floor. “Oh! There aren’t any more clamshells.”
“Let me try my magic,” Marina said. “This is a spell to find the lost shell.” But the shell didn’t return. “Darn.”
Lana patted Marina’s neck. “Good try.”
“See, we both still have things to work on,” Marina said.
“I’ll get it,” Spike said. “I’ve always liked diving deep.”
Lana Swims North Page 3
