by E. G. Foley
“Of course, dear. Well, I’m afraid all the other guests have gone now. It’s nearly eleven, and these youngsters need to get ready for bed.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Sapphira said almost humbly.
Dani frowned at their exchange. She knew the mermaid was just trying to blend in, but she didn’t like her lying to Her Ladyship.
“Goodnight, children. Don’t linger overlong.” The baroness retreated from the doorway, but in her place, their governess appeared.
Miss Helena told them all to say goodbye to their new friend soon and go get ready for bed.
“Yes, ma’am,” the boys mumbled in tones of disappointment.
Miss Helena hurried off, once again wearing the faint look of anxiety on her face that had become so familiar of late. Dani felt sure she was heading straight for the Inkbug to see if any messages had come in during the party, either from Derek or Henry.
When Miss Helena had gone, Archie turned to Sapphira with a curious look. “I say, do mermaids have governesses?”
“Certainly not!” She tossed her head. “I do as I please—for the most part.”
“Lucky you,” Jake said wistfully.
She shrugged. “It’s not the way of my people to shelter the young overmuch. We believe that if someone can’t make it on their own by about age twelve, they probably won’t survive for very long in the ocean, anyway. So…it’s sink or swim, as we like to say.”
“Lord!” Maddox murmured with a frown.
“Well, it’s true. The sea is a dangerous place. You lot nearly killed me today, after all,” she teased.
Archie groaned and hid his face again.
Sapphira reached over and smacked him lightly on the arm. “Oh, I’m just joking! Anyway, getting run over didn’t hurt nearly as bad as sprouting these ghastly legs. How do you landers manage them? They’re so awkward and gangly.”
The boys laughed, clearly finding her adorable, but once again, Dani and Isabelle exchanged a wary look, both probably thinking the same thing. This fishy stranger had lied to Lady Bradford without batting a long, velvety eyelash. So what made the boys so sure that their slippery Bellissima was telling them the truth?
And tomorrow we’re about to put our lives in her hands?
Dani kept her mouth shut, but she looked at Jake and thought, You had better be right about this.
Because it wasn’t really Sapphira she was trusting or the younger mermaid for whom she’d be risking her life.
It was always for him.
CHAPTER 10
Under the Sea
The next morning, with the orb safely hidden away in a drawer in the boys’ bedchamber, Jake and his friends donned their bathing costumes, strapped on their favored weapons, said goodbye to Red and Teddy, and then climbed aboard the little white sailboat and set out for the open water.
Sapphira swam.
Having shed the Landwalker spell, she had returned to her true resplendent form, and easily kept up with the leisurely five knots at which the wind drove their vessel.
Even though he did not entirely trust her, Jake could admit—if only to himself—that he had somehow become a little smitten with her, too, though not as bad as either Maddox or Archie.
Strange and lovely as she was, they watched her, wonderstruck, as she bounded through the waves amid the pod of dolphins she had summoned. The creatures had been overjoyed to see her. Jumping out of the water and flipping in midair, they had dazzled everyone with their charming acrobatics.
But before long, the adventurers arrived at their destination. Sapphira called a halt with an expert glance around. Maddox tossed the anchor off the stern of their boat and briskly began the process of taking down the sails.
Jake checked Risker at his hip; the magical Norse dagger was secure in its sheath. Archie shouldered the fanciful pneumatic underwater blunderbuss he had invented for personal defense as part of the Turtle’s kit.
Maddox intended to make do with the same sort of Bowie knife Derek Stone preferred, but Sapphira had spoken of getting him a proper spear. Nixie, of course, had her wand. She set it aside to open the case in which she had stowed the vials of foul, fishy-smelling potion for each of them.
Archie looked over her shoulder. “I can’t help wondering if we’re in for as much discomfort with our transformation spell as Sapphira described having with hers.”
“We’ll soon find out,” Maddox said, tying off the last rope around a winch.
“I’ll drink it first…just to be sure,” Nixie said.
“Everybody, take a mask.” Jake began handing out the breathing apparatuses from the Turtle, making sure the dial on each one was flipped to BREATHE AIR rather than FILTER WATER.
They weren’t naiads, after all.
Still, Jake never would’ve dreamed he might someday use one of Archie’s masks to explore a kingdom of the merfolk. He really was ridiculously lucky, he decided.
Then it was time.
Nixie lifted a vial from the case and popped the tiny cork out. “Well, bottoms up.” Without hesitation, she swallowed the stuff—and immediately gagged. “Oh, that’s horrid,” she said, wincing, her dark eyes watering at the foul taste.
Archie patted her on the back. “As long as it works.”
Still making faces of disgust, she accepted the drink of water that Maddox offered her from his canteen. “Sorry about the taste of this stuff, everyone. The Piscean Potion would’ve been bad enough by itself—it’s like the slimiest, fishiest castor oil you’ve ever been forced to take when you’re sick. But the iron shavings for the Stone Bones part of this brew made it extra nasty.”
“I can hardly wait,” Maddox teased her softly, impressed as they all were with the tough little witch’s gallantry in testing the potion on herself first. “You all right so far?”
She nodded, handing him back his canteen. “It’ll take a minute to kick in. You should feel your ears pop, and your lungs will start to feel funny. Don’t worry, though—that’s supposed to happen. I expect it’ll take some getting used to, breathing through gills, but if my calculations are correct, we should be able to speak fairly normally down there. One caution. Don’t try to leave the water until it wears off, about twelve hours. The Stone Bones ingredients will make your body so heavy, you’ll barely be able to move if you come up on land, and you could hurt yourself. Your internal organs, I mean.”
“How will we know when it starts working?”
“If it’s anything like the Landwalker spell,” Sapphira offered, treading water nearby, “you’ll know.”
And indeed they did.
They sat around watching Nixie for a minute longer, waiting to see what would happen.
“Remember,” Archie said nervously, repeating one of her warnings from earlier, “when it becomes uncomfortable to breathe the air, we’re just going to have to put our heads under and take a ‘breath’ of water. Our survival instincts, everything in us, will fight it, but we’ve got to do it, or we’ll drown like fish on dry land.”
Nixie suddenly furrowed her brow. “Hmm…”
Jake’s eyes widened when her very pale complexion took on a blue tinge.
“Ow!” She raised her hand and looked at it in amazement as webbing appeared between her fingers and even her thumb. “That smarts.”
Then her eyes changed and became slightly bulgy, like a frog’s, probably better for seeing underwater, Jake thought, but then she scared them badly when she suddenly screamed out and clapped her hands to the sides of her neck.
“What is it?” Dani cried.
Nixie couldn’t answer, suddenly choking and gasping for breath. Her weird, froggy eyes filled with terror.
“Calm down. I’ve got you.” Archie pried one of her hands away, and his jaw dropped. “Gills, Nix! You did it! It worked!”
“Put me in the water,” she rasped.
Jake wasn’t sure why she couldn’t just dive in herself, but when he moved forward to help Archie lift her, he realized why. The skinny young girl suddenly felt
like she was made of lead.
“Hurry!” Isabelle cried, for the whole boat began tipping over as they dragged Nixie to the rails.
Immediately, Jake used his telekinesis to lift her off the deck of the sailboat. Then he lowered her as gently as possible into the waves. Sapphira moved closer to help her, but there was nothing she could do.
Nixie thrashed about, instinctively fighting the transformation, gasping uselessly for air. It was rather horrible to see. Jake’s heart pounded.
“You can do it,” Sapphira said. “Just take a breath.”
“Somebody help her!” Dani cried. “She’s turning blue!”
“Nixie, blast it, take a breath of water before you drown!” Archie roared.
They all knew Nixie didn’t scare easily, but the look on her face was sheer terror as the Stone Bones elements of the potion began to pull her down. She treaded water faster, splashing wildly, then everybody screamed as she disappeared under the waves.
Instantly, Sapphira dove in with a flick of her tail above the waves to go and help their friend.
Jake gripped the wails, his heart hammering as he watched in dread, waiting as the seconds ticked by.
If anything happened to Nixie all because he had wanted to have an adventure, he would never forgive himself. Archie pulled up his mask and dove into the water, swimming down to see if Nixie was alive. Maddox joined him, vaulting over the side of the boat and plunging into the waves to find her.
From the corner of his eye, Jake saw Isabelle and Dani exchange a petrified glance. All of a sudden, Nixie came shooting up out of the water and breached liked the world’s skinniest whale, arcing her body over the waves with a nasal-sounding “Wheeeee!”
Archie’s head popped up to the surface a moment later. “Nixie! Get back here! What happened? Let me see you! Are you all right?”
She surfaced a few seconds later and swam over to him, keeping her neck in the water. She seemed to be breathing quite comfortably through her gills now.
“I’m fine. Well, go on. What are you all waiting for?” she said in a strange voice that sounded like she was holding her nose. “Get into the water first, though. Hard to move once it starts. Don’t be scared to take your first breath underwater. It works.”
Dani was the first to break the silence that followed. “I’m not sure I still want to do this,” she said.
“Me neither,” Isabelle admitted.
“You can’t chicken out now,” Archie said.
Jake gave the girls a regretful look, refusing to admit that he shared their sentiments after seeing that. Not even Maddox looked enthused about what they would have to go through. And to think, poor Sapphira had had to go through something similar alone.
“C’mon, everybody,” Jake urged. “I know it looked bad, but Nixie seems fine now. Our plan requires all of us to help. We each have our roles, and we can’t leave that little mermaid princess out there in the clutches of an undead pirate.”
“I hate you,” Dani mumbled, then hopped into the sea.
“Somebody throw me my wand before you take the potion,” Nixie croaked.
“I’ll get it.” Isabelle ducked into the sailboat’s little cabin.
Nixie glided over to the side of the boat, cutting through the waves as easily as a seal. “Don’t worry,” she told them all. “It looks worse than it is. Once you’re through it, it’s fun.”
“If you say so.” Jake dove in, and soon everyone was treading water beside the boat, except for Isabelle.
She remained aboard for the moment, first giving Nixie her wand, and then handing out vials of potion to everyone. They waited for her to join them, having decided they would all take it at the same time.
Closing the now-empty case, Isabelle held her vial of potion delicately as she climbed down the stern swim-ladder in her frilly striped bathing costume.
The moment was upon them.
As Jake scanned his friends’ faces, everyone looked both scared and excited. Sapphira watched, clearly fascinated that a bunch of “landers” should be willing to put themselves through this for a stranger.
“Well, cheers, everybody,” Jake said grimly.
“Cheers,” they echoed, holding up their vials. Then they all downed the potion.
“Oh, blech!” said everyone.
The taste was repulsive, like drinking a puree of raw fish. Spitting out the traces of the flavor, they laughed nervously in disgust. It was not long, however, before the potion began to take effect.
Over the next few minutes, it happened with each of them just as it had with Nixie. Jake wanted to keep his thoughts focused on his friends, especially Dani, since he knew she was scared.
But as the potion began to work, he suddenly couldn’t think about anything else except the sting in his hands and feet, his whole body growing awkward and heavy; it became hard to swim, and he wasn’t sure if that was right. He was doing his best to ward off the panic clawing at the edges of his mind, when suddenly, a searing sensation descended.
It felt like someone was cutting slashes in the sides of his neck with a razorblade. A howl of pain broke from his lips—and then the terror really hit, for when he went to draw a breath, he couldn’t get air.
She’s killed us!
Something had to be wrong with the potion; he knew it. Surely he’d gotten a bad vial. He started choking, treading water violently as fast as he could, but his body was so heavy that he couldn’t stay above the waves. He was sinking, sinking…
I’m going to drown! He held his breath for as long as he could. All around him, his friends were thrashing, sinking like stones, just as he was.
And when they could no longer fight it, their mouths opened in silent screams, and the water flooded into their lungs. Jake watched in terror, and then it happened to him, too.
The sea invaded his nose and mouth, salty on his tongue, but then—to his shock—it slid right out again from the tender gills carved into the sides of his neck.
It worked…?
His heart was still pounding, but he saw to his relief that he hadn’t died. Bit by bit, the panic receded and he strove to collect himself.
Breathing water was the strangest, chilliest sensation, utterly startling, but somehow he found that he could function now.
His eyes stung a bit, and they seemed to be working differently, too; but whatever properties they’d gained, he could see much more clearly underwater now. As his vision focused, he looked around anxiously at his friends.
They, too, had switched over to breathing through gills. Everyone looked shaken up but relieved, little bubbles trailing from the sides of their necks.
This is just bizarre. Jake’s limbs felt much stronger in the water as he paddled to stay in place, but still, he was sinking.
Sapphira glided into the center and surveyed them with ease, so much more graceful now than when she’d been on land. “Is everyone all right?” Her voice was bubbly and soft.
“I think so,” said Jake, taken aback by the gurgling, nasal sound of his own.
“But why are we still sinking?” Isabelle asked, her golden tresses floating above her head as gravity pulled them all slowly toward the seabed.
“That would be the Stone Bones part of my potion,” said Nixie.
All their voices sounded slightly muffled, and the soft sound of the current was like the wind soughing through the trees.
“Perhaps we’d better take a little time to get used to how things work down here,” Archie suggested in a burbling voice.
This seemed a sensible idea, but Sapphira was impatient to rescue her sister. “Can’t you do it on the way? You’ll have time. We have to make a stop first and pick up some supplies. Come on.” As she swam off, they had no choice but to follow. After all, she was the only one who knew her way around down here.
As they were not yet used to their strange environment and new body features, such as webbed hands and feet, Jake saw that now he and all his friends looked as clumsy as Sapphira had on land. For her
part, the mermaid was totally at home here. But when she glanced over her shoulder to make sure they hadn’t lost anyone, the skeptical glint in her eyes seemed to ask, These are the people I’m trusting to save my sister?
Of course, they, in turn, were putting their lives in her hands. Jake hoped it wasn’t a mistake.
Somehow Sapphira’s beauty overrode his doubts.
He redoubled his efforts to prove himself to her. By Jove, they’d come down here to rescue Princess Liliana, and rescue her they would.
Sapphira dove deeper, and Jake glanced around at his friends as they followed her lead. It was odd to see them all swimming underwater together like a school of fish.
Everybody seemed stabilized in their new forms now, but Jake waved Dani a little ahead of him so he could keep an eye on her, make sure she stayed safe.
The first place Sapphira led them to was an old shipwreck on the seafloor. The sand was littered with lost luggage and old traveling trunks.
“I need to pick up a few things I left here earlier, plus find some sort of disguise so none of the kingdom’s subjects recognize me and tell Father where I went. Feel free to look around,” she added, beckoning them on.
They swam lower and began exploring the barnacle-crusted wreckage while Sapphira swam through a hole in the side of the sunken ship. In moments, she returned with a satchel and a medium-length spear with a bone-white blade.
Jake watched her curiously as she proceeded to open traveling trunks here and there, taking out articles of clothing, and tossing each aside carelessly until she found a hooded cloak.
He could hardly take his eyes off her. Poor girl. The taut anger in her motions gave away the fact that she blamed herself somehow for Davy Jones’s attack on her city. Jake could certainly relate, given the possible war he had started with the Dark Druids.
Maybe that was why, deep down, he needed so much to help her, he mused. He swam over to see if there was anything he could do as Sapphira put on the cloak she had found and tied the tapes around her neck.
“I don’t want to be recognized,” she explained in answer to his curious glance. “Otherwise, Commander Tyndaris of the royal guard will be here in a trice to take me back to Father. I’m sure he’s worried sick about me.”
