Secrets of the Deep

by E. G. Foley

  “Then let’s get out there and fight the blackguards off! Only, I need a new weapon. Hold on, I think Maddox has an extra crossbow in our room—though, honestly, I don’t see how a few kids are supposed to beat a whole horde of undead pirates.”

  “We can’t!” Jake said, grasping Archie’s arm to keep his cousin from leaving to go find a weapon. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you! Maddox and I, Sapphira and Izzy, we’ll hold them off for as long as we can. But you and Nixie have got to get the orb out of here.”

  “What?”

  “Take it someplace—don’t even tell me where you’re going, in case they try to get it out of me. I don’t want to know. Just go, and do whatever you have to do to hide it.”

  Archie stared at him. “You want us to leave? But that’s absurd. We could simply hide it in the room with Dani and Aunt Ramona.”

  “Arch!” Jake said, hating every word of the hard truth. “The stakes are too high to risk it being found. It’s too dangerous to keep it here. You have to go. Now.”

  “But I can’t just leave you all behind–”

  “You have no choice!” he interrupted. “Archie, this is bigger than just us. If Davy Jones gets his hands on that artifact, he’ll flood the whole Earth. Millions of people will die. You can’t let that happen,” he said in a hard tone. “Get it far away from here and don’t come back until the full moon is over. I’m counting on you two.”

  Leaving no room for further discussion, Jake clapped his cousin on the shoulder and ran out to join the battle on the beach.

  # # #

  Archie and Nixie looked at each other.

  “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.

  She narrowed her eyes. “What? That I shouldn’t have let you take the blasted orb apart today? Yes, probably!” she retorted, glaring at him, and annoyed at herself over the soft spot she had for the lovable egghead. “C’mon.”

  “That wasn’t what I was thinking at all! Though it is true,” Archie confessed while she pulled him up the stairs by the wrist and strode toward the classroom, where the orb presently lay in pieces on the table. “What I was actually going to say is: how can Jake order us to leave at a time like this? Not even a Dark Druid would simply run away and leave his friends behind, let alone his own flesh and blood! I certainly can’t.”

  “Yes, you can. You have to.”

  Upon reaching the classroom, Nixie ran over to the closet and whisked out a sturdy canvas knapsack—Jake’s little-used book bag. He was no scholar, that one.

  “It is rather unfortunate timing,” Archie admitted as they swept the carefully labeled pieces of the orb into the knapsack.

  Nixie closed it, fastened the buckle, then shoved it at Archie. “Go. You’ve got to get the orb out of here. Saddle a horse and ride. When it can’t run anymore, buy another and do the same. Then take a train north, but don’t buy the ticket under your real name.”

  “Wait—you mean we,” he corrected her as she hurried him out of the room and back toward the stairs. “Jake said we’re both to go.”

  “I know that’s what he said,” Nixie said firmly. “But I’m staying here. They don’t stand a chance without me, and you know it.”

  Archie stopped short midway down the staircase. “Then I’m not leaving either! Out of the question—”

  “Archie, you have to!” She took him by the elbow and started pulling him the rest of the way down the steps. “Come on; you’ve got to get out of here. I don’t expect it will be long before the pirates get past Jake and the others. Are you sure you have all the pieces?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “You can ride a horse, can’t you?”

  “How now?” he retorted, looking slightly offended at the question. “I admit, I’m not overly fond of the creatures, but every gentleman’s son learns to ride. If only Red were here. We could fly away and those horrid fellows could never reach us. We shouldn’t have let him go,” he added.

  “Yes,” she murmured, “I have a bad feeling about that, actually. But Red’s not an option right now. Horse it is.” She hurried him to the kitchen door off the back of the villa, across the cobbled courtyard from the stable.

  When she opened the door, they could hear distant shouts and the sound of fighting coming from the direction of the beach.

  “Hurry, Arch. You don’t have much time.”

  “But where shall I go?” he asked, looking lost. Behind his spectacles, the disbelief in his big, brown, puppy-dog eyes at what was being asked of him, this most loyal soul, tugged at her heart.

  She struggled not to waver the way she had with him this afternoon, when she had let him have the orb. “Head inland. Stay away from the coasts. And don’t come back for three days.”

  “But…how am I supposed to abandon everybody?” Archie asked. “Especially you, Nix!”

  She scowled at the pang in her heart. “Just go!” She shoved him out into the courtyard. “You have no choice. Go on, now! Grab a horse and get out of here! Go and save the world, Arch.”

  “Me!” he exclaimed. “I’m not the hero here.”

  Nixie stared at him. “You are to me.”

  Then she took an abrupt step toward him, seized the shoulder straps of his knapsack to yank him closer, and planted a quick kiss—right on his lips.

  Since we’re all probably gonna die anyway, she thought. Archie puckered up belatedly, only just recovering from his shock.

  Nixie’s heart was pounding as she stepped away a couple seconds later; she knew that her usually pale face was now bright red because her cheeks felt like they were on fire, and Archie looked dazed.

  “Sweet Bacon!” he whispered.

  “Ahem. Now, go!” she ordered, all business once again—at least on the outside. “And be careful.”

  “You be careful, too, Nix. You know I couldn’t do without you.”

  She swallowed hard. “I know. You too.”

  “I may want another one of those when I come back,” he said, cracking a grin over his shoulder as he headed toward the stable.

  “We’ll see,” she replied, taking care to sound aloof.

  Afraid her resolve might crack, since her witchy little heart was half breaking at the thought of never seeing him again, she forced herself to turn and began striding away, wand in hand.

  Herself, she couldn’t leave the others. They were the only real friends she’d ever had, and she knew full well she was one of their strongest fighters. They needed her, especially with Lady Bradford down.

  Nixie ran back through the empty villa, praying that her occasionally absentminded genius could figure out how to saddle a horse, since a future viscount usually had servants to do that sort of thing for him.

  Seconds later, she raced out onto the terrace, where she paused to look over the balustrade, assessing the situation.

  We’re doomed, Nixie thought with a grimmer-than-usual huff as her gaze swept the dreadful view below. It was a horrible scene of pirates and sailors from all different eras flooding up onto the villa’s private beach…

  All the drowned undead men who’d accepted Davy Jones’s wager.

  At least now they looked like humans instead of half-fish freaks.

  There were British sailors dressed in ragged Royal Navy uniforms, longhaired swashbucklers in knee boots with cutlasses, Barbary pirates in turbans, vests, and loose leggings, fur-clad Viking warriors who must’ve sunk their dragon boats, and, from even farther back in time, Roman galley slaves in togas. The poor souls had probably drowned still chained to their oars.

  And there, in the center of this motley crew, were Jake, Maddox, and Isabelle of all people, trying to rescue Sapphira.

  A couple of swarthy fellows had taken the crown princess by the arms. She was thrashing furiously between them, her long spiral curls whipping back and forth, but their grip on her looked unrelenting. They must have recognized her as King Nereus’s daughter—a valuable hostage, no doubt.

  What they were going to do with her, Nixie did no
t intend to wait and find out.

  Wand at the ready, she went barreling down the stone steps and rushed out onto the beach, already casting her nastiest hexes.

  CHAPTER 28

  Come the Deluge

  Out on the beach, everyone was fighting valiantly, but Jake did not know how long a few kids, even magical ones, could hold out against twenty grown, battle-tested men.

  Having managed to free Sapphira, Jake and Maddox, Isabelle and the princess had gathered into a circle, back to back to back.

  Nixie had not yet reached them, but they could see her coming, casting spells as she ran. Jake was baffled as to what she was even doing here. She was supposed to be escaping with Archie.

  But he couldn’t think about that right now.

  Jones’s men kept coming. Facing the beach, Jake continued using his telekinesis to fling the sailors back out to sea. They flew as though yanked by huge invisible rubber bands. The looks on their faces were almost comical as Jake hurled them through the air and back into the waves.

  Right behind him, Maddox was dealing with the pirates in a much more hands-on fashion. He was parrying swords with his rifle and using the butt of it as a club, along with doling out several well-aimed kicks.

  Isabelle was whacking the jeering sailors in their noggins with her trusty white staff, while Sapphira lunged at them again and again with her stingray spear.

  Meanwhile, Nixie was slowly making her way toward them, using all manner of spells on their foes. Unfortunately, whatever sort of magic she tried didn’t last very long—perhaps because the sailors were already under a curse.

  She miniaturized some down to the size of mice and tried turning others into radishes, but they would just pop up again to their regular heights or shrug off their vegetable shapes a moment later and keep coming. The sleeping spell she cast on a few of them seemed to have some effect, though. Here and there, the sailors dropped to the sand, snoring. But this, too, only lasted for a couple of minutes.

  The awful, rotten-fish stink of the cursed pirates surrounded the kids, but Jake had to admit he was relieved not to be seeing any shark heads tonight. Mere men were a little easier to deal with.

  There had been no sign of the legendary captain himself yet. Jake wondered what the Lord of the Locker would make of all this as he kept slamming the men with bolts of his telekinetic energy, sending them flying back many yards out to sea again. He had almost begun to take it as a game, not unlike some of the training exercises Derek had taught him and urged him to practice to continue honing his skills.

  But he couldn’t let himself think of Derek right now. His worry over the battle the adults were waging simultaneously somewhere far away was too distracting. He had to stay focused—especially when, at last, up from the surf strode Davy Jones, the fell pirate in all his dark glory.

  As he marched up slowly through the shallows and then up onto the beach, Jake was bemused to see that the Lord of the Locker had two buckets of seawater strapped to his feet. Apparently, his curse was more serious than that of his men. It seemed he had to stay in physical contact with the seawater even during the full moon.

  Davy Jones’s steps made a clomping sound and a rusty squeak as he marched ashore in his bucket shoes.

  Well, not even the infamous captain was above getting a blast of Jake’s telekinesis.

  I’m going to enjoy this, he thought with a slight, smug smile, ignoring the sailors for a moment.

  Maddox had them well in hand, anyway, slugging this one, elbowing that one in the face, warning another one back with the bayonet attached to his rifle—typical Guardian fun.

  Jake narrowed all his concentration in on the captain, stretching out both hands. I am going to send you so far back out to sea, you’re going to land in the Indian Ocean, he thought with a slight snarl of a smile.

  But when he let the telekinetic energy fly from his outstretched hands, Davy Jones quickly braced himself against it and deflected it somehow. Then he struck back at once with a similar hand motion, unleashing a burst of hurricane gales.

  Jake let out a curse as the wind barreled into him and his friends, sending all four of them tumbling into the sand along with the sailors nearest them.

  Grains of salt and sand blew into Jake’s eyes, temporarily blinding him. He’d raised his arm to try to shield his face a little too late.

  “Enough child’s play! Find the orb,” he heard Jones order his men.

  Though he still couldn’t see, eyes burning, tears running down his face, Jake could hear the buckets clanking and sloshing closer as Jones approached.

  Dread seized him. Barely able to see, Jake knew he was defenseless as he heard Jones pause right beside him.

  For a second, he thought the pirate might well stab him through the heart. But instead, the Locker lord just leaned down till Jake could feel his fishy breath close to his face.

  “Too bad you’ll never get the chance to tell your little classmates about meeting me,” Jones taunted. Jake could just make out the shape of him straightening up again in the silver glare of the full moon. “Didn’t anyone ever teach you that children shouldn’t lie to their elders?”

  “Leave us alone!” Jake bellowed.

  The captain let out a hearty laugh. “You do have pluck, boy. But that won’t be enough to save you.” Then Jones clanked on toward the villa, with half of his men already bounding up the curved stone stairs.

  # # #

  Dani heard the pirates enter the house. The distant noises from the beach had sounded bad, but the muffled male voices from downstairs terrified her.

  Silent and sweating, she stood her ground with the pneumatic blunderbuss in her hands, aimed at the door, which was well blockaded by a couple pieces of furniture. Lil stood behind her with eyes like saucers and both hands covering her mouth. Teddy was running about, barking ferociously, but not a sound came out. Even the tapping of his nails was thankfully muted by the carpet in Lady Bradford’s bedchamber.

  Her Ladyship was still unconscious, blast it. Dani would’ve felt so much better if only the Elder witch would return to her senses and do something. Especially when the girls heard the sailors spreading out through the house…and moments later, coming up the stairs.

  “You heard the cap’n! Find it!”

  She gulped but still didn’t put her finger on the trigger. Maddox had taught her that much. Maybe that’s my talent, she thought out of nowhere. Learning just a little bit from what they all do…

  The random thought dissolved as heavy footsteps reached the upper hallway outside of Lady Bradford’s sitting room. I sure hope Nixie’s spell works.

  “You two, check the rooms down there! Leave no stone unturned!” a sailor ordered his comrades in the corridor. She wondered if it was the terrifying thresher shark man. She had wanted no part of any of these monsters down in Driftwood. Right now, her reaction that day seemed only sensible: she’d taken one look at those shark men and fled.

  Lil and she stood perfectly frozen when they heard the footsteps reach the spot outside Lady Bradford’s sitting room.

  “Be quick about it, ye scurvy lot!” the same voice added. “The sooner we find this thing, the sooner we can take our shore leave.”

  She could have collapsed in relief when she heard the pirates move right past the outer doorway to Lady Bradford’s sitting room.

  Nixie, I love you, she thought with a slight tremor. She and Lil exchanged a nervous smile, realizing the witch’s illusion had fooled the invaders.

  As Dani listened to the pirates searching the house, she wondered how her friends down on the beach were faring. She could hear drawers being yanked out of dressers, mattresses being thrown off beds, closet doors banging open.

  No doubt, being pirates, they were probably stealing whatever struck their fancy.

  Well, everything else can be replaced, she thought. As long as they don’t find the orb.

  Then she heard a sound from outside and glanced toward the window. She furrowed her brow as hoofbeats cli
p-clopped across the courtyard behind the villa.

  Then a yell: “Hey! Stop that kid!”

  The hoofbeats clattered faster, but now they were joined by a barrage of running footsteps.

  “Get back here! Where do you think you’re going?”

  The horse let out a frightened whinny, and Dani drew in her breath when she heard a boy let out a yelp.

  Archie?

  # # #

  Archie had had no trouble with the saddle. The bridle was another matter, though, and he had been hesitant to force the issue with a creature so much taller than he.

  His attempt to deal politely with the stupid horse had cost him valuable time. As had the moral dilemma of what he was doing. Surely, only the vilest scoundrel would abandon his friends, his particular young lady, and even his sister, fleeing the fight.

  It went against every chivalrous bone in his body. But logic told him that, this time, Jake was right. They could not afford to let the orb stay here and fall into the wrong hands. And so he had finally shoved the bit into the chestnut gelding’s mouth and fastened the bridle, then led him out to the courtyard, boosting his short height with the mounting block.

  With the knapsack on his back and Nixie’s startling kiss inspiring him with the courage to do what he must to save the world, Archie had swung up into the saddle and nudged the horse into a swift walk toward the driveway gates, which he’d somehow have to open without falling off…

  Alas, he only made it halfway down the drive before Jones’s crewmen—fully human now—came running out of the house and surrounded him.

  “Where do you think you’re going, little lad?”

  “Giddap!” Archie shouted, and clapped his legs against the chestnut’s sides. The horse shot forward, breaking through the men surrounding them.

  One sailor waved his arms and shouted to scare the horse back in the other direction, and the animal wheeled around, wild-eyed.