by E. G. Foley
“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.”
“Would it be so bad to let him know you’re safe? Maybe you should stop at your home first,” he suggested. “We don’t mind.”
In truth, he was quite keen to see the Coral Palace and the underwater city of the merfolk she’d described.
But the princess shook her head. “If I do, he won’t let me leave again. Besides, I can’t show my face until I’ve got Liliana back, considering it’s my fault this happened in the first place. Excuse me—I need to find your warrior a weapon.”
Jake frowned as she swam off to help Maddox. Hey! I’m a warrior, too! he wanted to protest. But after the general sense of rivalry he had already overcome regarding Maddox at Merlin Hall, he was in no mood to indulge himself on that point again.
Instead, he joined in his friends’ perusal of the odds and ends from the shipwreck. Sapphira was right, anyway. Maddox was the best fighter. Still, he’d need something suitable to ward off whatever might be guarding Liliana.
“Hoy, Jake!” Dani called just then in rookery fashion. “What’d ye think?”
He glanced over and found the carrot-head trying on huge, old-fashioned hats she had found amid the wreckage. He shook his head at her, smiling.
“Peachin’ lover-ly,” he said.
“Here’s something I could use!” Maddox kicked aside a broken plank and picked up an old musket with a rusty bayonet attached. He held it up and inspected it. “I could use this as a spear.”
“What about this thing?” Dani suddenly called, swimming a few feet to her right to pull a long stick out of the sand.
When she lifted it up to show him, Maddox’s eyes lit up at the sight of the nasty hooked blade on the end.
“That’s perfect!” Casting aside the bayonet, he swam over and took the weapon from her.
It proved to be some fisherman’s lost harpoon, with a spike on the top and a nasty hook right alongside it. A frayed rope still dangled off one end.
Sapphira approached with a nod of approval. “That should do the trick.”
Dani stepped back while Maddox gave the harpoon a try, practicing with it a bit. Jake lifted his eyebrows as he watched; it was the first time he’d ever seen Maddox move awkwardly. The Guardian apprentice soon discovered it was much harder to fight underwater than on land. Without solid ground to brace against, he couldn’t get much force behind his jabs with the weapon.
Sapphira set her hands on her hips and offered a few helpful hints. “You have webbed feet now, remember? When you thrust forward with the weapon, push the water backward with your feet and your free hand to compensate for the momentum.”
He nodded and tried it. The technique still looked clumsy, but at least it seemed to work.
Jake and Dani glanced at each other and shrugged. Better than I could do, he thought.
“Let’s go,” Sapphira ordered once Maddox seemed to be getting the hang of it. “We need to keep moving.”
As they all swam on, Maddox lingered behind for a moment, still practicing with his new toy. “Guardian, come on!” Jake yelled, glancing back at him. The older boy was nothing if not determined, but as he caught up with them, he still looked a bit perplexed by the disorienting feel of their fluid environment.
From there, they swam for a long time, heading for the outlaw town of Driftwood. Sapphira’s dolphins flanked them on all sides, guarding them, especially the princess.
At one point, Jake reached out and touched one of the sleek, massive mammals; it eyed him sweetly and seemed to smile. Indeed, the whole sea around them held no shortage of wonders, the landscape continually changing as they went.
He marveled as schools of fish whizzed by overhead like shimmering silver clouds, then he tapped Archie on the shoulder and pointed when a sea turtle wafted past underneath them, slowly flapping its big green flippers.
His cousin grinned.
They were all so filled with amazement that Jake just hoped they’d be able to concentrate on the mission when the time came, for the stakes couldn’t have been higher. After a while, though, he started getting a bit more used to the mysterious underwater world and was better able to focus.
The aquamarine color of the shallows turned to cobalt, and the deeper they swam, the chillier the water grew. His ears popped a few more times and he felt a squeezing sensation of the growing water pressure around his midsection, but Nixie’s potion held.
“Hey, what’s that?” Dani asked in a flurry of bubbles, pointing below them.
Jake glanced down and spotted mysterious glowing lights in a variety of soft colors.
“Ah,” said Sapphira. “Something useful! This way, everyone.”
Filled with curiosity, they followed her down to a clump of boulders on the seafloor. Plants—or were they animals?—growing on the rocks proved to be the source of the dainty, colorful lights.
“I say! Is that the alicia mirabilis?” Archie exclaimed, his face illumined in a yellow wash of light from the one he was inspecting.
“You’ve heard of it?” Sapphira asked in surprise.
“If you haven’t noticed yet, Archie knows nearly everything,” Dani informed her.
“He’s right. And these are very useful in our world.” The mermaid gently pried three of the strange-looking sea anemones off the rocks, then handed one to Dani and Isabelle and kept one for herself. “We call them sea candles.”
“Neat!” said Dani.
“It’s going to get very dark soon at the depths we’re going to, so I might as well hand out the rest of your supplies now,” Sapphira said. “Here. Those of you headed into the town, you might need some money—but watch out for pickpockets.”
Reaching into the satchel of supplies she’d kept stowed in the shipwreck, Sapphira took out three pale, flat sand dollars, handing one each to Dani, Archie, and Jake.
“That will buy a lot down here. You just break off pieces, however much you need to pay for whatever it is you’re buying. Isabelle, I have something else for you as our signals person.”
Thrusting her hand once more into her satchel, this time Sapphira pulled out a large pinkish-white conch shell—like a giant version of the tiny one on Jake’s necklace from his parents.
“This is called a Triton Trumpet,” the mermaid explained. “Just blow through this end if you see any signs of trouble. The sound travels a very long way. Want to try it?”
Isabelle took it from her and lifted the pointy end of the spiral-shaped seashell to her lips. She took a deep “breath” of the seawater and then blew through it.
A long, crisp note like a hunting horn sounded from the open end of the conch shell. Then she grinned, looking pleased at her assignment. “What should our signal be?”
“How about two short notes to warn Jake and his team if you see trouble headed their way?” Maddox suggested. “One long note when you see us approaching. That’ll tell them that we’ve rescued the princess and it’s time to clear out.”
Isabelle nodded.
“Everybody got that?” Sapphira asked, glancing around.
They all answered in the affirmative—except for Nixie.
“Er, Miss Valentine? Will you be joining us?” Archie asked in amusement.
“Oh—sorry.” She looked over absently from where she’d been floating nearby, experimenting with making her wand work underwater. “It just needs a little bit more of a flick than I’m used to,” she said, looking a little distracted.
Archie chuckled affectionately. “I have every confidence in you, Nix.”
Onward they went, east and ever deeper into the darkening sea. Even the dolphins started looking a little nervous.
When the indigo blue around them turned nearly black, Jake wanted even more light than the wan green glow from Dani’s sea candle, so he took out Risker and activated the gemstone in the hi
lt, sending out a cobalt beam ahead of them. It helped somewhat.
“Is it much farther?” Nixie asked at length.
Sapphira stopped swimming. “No, it’s just ahead. There.” She pointed, and they all squinted into the midnight distance.
“I think I see lights,” Archie murmured.
“Yes, that’ll be Driftwood,” Sapphira said. “Calypso Deep is just beyond it. We’ll reach the outskirts of town in just a few more minutes.”
They pressed on and the lights from the wild outpost on the edge of the canyon brightened, but not by much. The glow from whatever light source they were using was not much brighter than the gas lamps of the London streets by night, Jake mused. The abyss beyond it, however, was jet-black. He did not envy Maddox and Nixie their half of the mission, seeing that.
There was no telling what sort of sea monsters that utter darkness could hide. Jake glanced at Dani and saw her green eyes wide with trepidation in the up-light of her alicia mirabilis. He smiled at her to assure her that he had everything under control. Which was actually debatable. But it seemed to make her feel better; the carrot smiled back.
“This seems like a good lookout spot for Isabelle,” Sapphira announced at last when they reached a rugged clump of boulders on a low cliff above the town. She turned to the blonde. “This should give you a good view of anyone coming or going from Driftwood.”
Isabelle nodded, and Sapphira clicked and squeaked to her dolphins in a manner that almost made Jake laugh. Apparently, she was giving them their instructions to stay and guard Isabelle.
Then she turned to the rest of them. “This is where we part ways. We’ll need a rendezvous point afterward, though, because I won’t be bringing my little sister into that town. It’s quite likely we’ll be pursued once we’ve rescued her, too, so everybody, look sharp. I suggest we all agree to meet up at the Keyhole.”
“What’s that?” Jake asked.
“A big rock formation at the edge of the Seaweed Forest, up that way.” She pointed to the north. “You can’t miss it. It’s a tall stone obelisk with a round hole on top—looks just like a keyhole. It’s not far, only about a mile due north from Driftwood. Sound acceptable?”
Everybody nodded.
“Our team can stop and pick up Isabelle on the way there,” Maddox volunteered. “I don’t want her having to find the rendezvous point alone.”
“That’s very kind, but I’ll be fine,” Isabelle replied crisply.
“Er, Maddox, the truth is, if we’re being chased, we might not be able to fetch her,” Sapphira said. “Don’t worry; my dolphins will escort you there safely. They know exactly where it is.” The mermaid squeaked and clicked to her pets again, apparently telling them where they were to take Isabelle when it was time.
Archie frowned. “Still. I’m her brother. I could fetch her—”
“Archie! For heaven’s sake, you boys, I am not some helpless damsel in distress!” Izzy exclaimed. “I did bash Garnock in the head with my staff, remember?”
Dani nodded. “She did. With her Keeper-of-the-Unicorns staff. I saw it. I was there.”
Sapphira arched a brow but didn’t ask. “Actually, she’ll be safer with the dolphins than the rest of us will be. They are trained to ward off enemies. Have you noticed their teeth?”
One of the dolphins bobbed his head and showed off his shiny white choppers while the others twirled about at the compliment from their mistress.
Still, Maddox wore a brooding look of worry, and though Izzy had protested, she seemed pleased by his concern, Jake noticed as his pretty cousin tried to hide her smile.
“Is everybody clear on what they are to do, then?” Sapphira prompted. “Good,” she said when they all nodded. “Then we’d best get going. We’ve got a lot of sea to cover, and my little sister’s waiting.”
Isabelle turned to Maddox. “Promise you’ll be careful.”
“We’ll be back before you know it,” he said softly. “Keep those dolphins close and put these rocks at your back so you can see whatever’s coming. You remember the signals?”
“Of course!” she said, pushing him away with a half-smile. “I’ve got the easy part. You’re the one who’s got to save the princess.”
“Jake, Archie, Dani—you three keep your wits about you in there,” Sapphira advised, nodding toward the lights of the outpost glowing in the distance. “That place is chancy enough on an ordinary day. With Davy Jones in town, anything could happen. Don’t call attention to yourselves. Just watch him from a safe distance, and if he tries to leave, you’ll have to figure out some way to detain him until you hear the signal from Isabelle telling you we’ve got Lil clear.”
“No worries,” Archie assured her. “Watch yourself out there, Nix.”
“Oh, I’ve got plenty more tricks up my sleeve,” she said with a sly smile.
“I don’t doubt it. Well then!” said Jake, eager to get going. “See you at the Keyhole, everybody.”
CHAPTER 11
Driftwood
Jake knew he should be scared—and he was nervous, no doubt about it. But excitement for the mission had taken hold.
Adventure was at hand, he had his two best mates on either side of him, and so, despite the danger, he could not have been happier.
The feeling seemed to be contagious, too, for the carrot-head and the boy genius kept exchanging glances with him and snickering at the sight of each other transformed into funny-looking fish-folk.
When they finally stepped up to the edge of town, they paused in amazement, taking in the rowdy scene before them.
Driftwood had one main road lined with rather ramshackle buildings, and peculiar streetlamps lighting up the perennial night of these dark depths.
Archie let out a wordless murmur of wonder as he noted the source of the illumination. Atop the lamp poles, rather than glassed-in flames, small schools of phosphorescent sea creatures had been gathered into sacks of fine netting.
They twinkled all down the row of buildings that made up the center of the disreputable town.
“Let’s go,” Jake murmured.
They headed in, marveling to read the signs on each unexpected establishment along the bustling street.
PIRATE BANK – Stow Your Loot Here, No Questions Asked! Strongest Vaults in the Sea.
DRY GOODS GENERAL STORE – Weapons, Edibles, Supplies
LIVERY STABLE – Good Seahorses, No Papers
“Must be stolen,” Jake remarked with a knowing air as they swam-strolled on.
BARBER SHOP, DENTIST & SURGEON – We Trim Hair, Pull Teeth Night or Day. Amputations Half Price – Tuesdays Only!
“Good to know,” Dani drawled.
Most of the buildings in Driftwood were seedy saloons with swinging doors and seahorses tied to the hitching posts out front.
Electric eels lit up the signs for these dubious establishments, their garish gleam luring dupes in to gamble. The sounds coming from inside these gaming taverns were raucous: jangling music and the din of many voices.
“Looks like the sorts of places your brothers frequent,” Jake said, elbowing Dani.
She snorted with a little flurry of bubbles.
“This place is amazing,” Archie said, glancing up as a school of long, thin fish arrowed over the main street.
Jake had to admit that the outlaw town had an atmosphere of rowdy excitement. The characters loitering around, however, looked a little dicey. Many wore cowboy hats like Lightrider Tex did, the brims pulled low over their eyes, while neckerchiefs that perhaps doubled as bandit masks hung knotted around their throats.
Long duster coats floated out behind them as they swam upright down the main thoroughfare.
With Sapphira’s warning about the local cutthroats ringing in his ears, Jake looked more closely at one of the shady passersby and was shocked to see it was not a merman, but something closer to a fish person. He nudged Archie and exchanged a wide-eyed glance with his cousin, who had also been studying the citizens of Driftwood.
&n
bsp; A few cautious glances revealed that there were many such beings about: humanoid fish people of all kinds and colors.
They appeared to be built on a basic human plan, with arms and legs, heads and trunks, and then any variation of fish parts. Most had large, wide-set eyes and flattened noses; the hue of their scaly skins varied, many with impressive stripes or dots.
Jake saw no two of them exactly alike. Some had ridges down the center of their skulls or flowery little fins protruding from the sides of their necks like fancy collars. Others had small, spiky protrusions bristling out of their faces like puffer fish, while a few here and there had lobsterlike antennae or hard shells across their backs.
The females he could tell by their frilly dresses as they swaggered around flirting with the outlaws, waving sea-fans. There were a few merfolk about, as well, but as far as Jake could discern, the three of them were the only humans present.
Realizing this, they kept their heads down to avoid standing out. Hopefully, Nixie’s potion would help disguise the fact that, in this place, they were the oddballs.
Dani looked around discreetly. “I’ll bet you-know-who is in one of these gaming houses.”
“What do you think: the Salty Dog or the Lone Barnacle?” Archie asked, raising a brow.
“We’ll just have to peek into them all as we go by. Come on,” Jake murmured.
They pressed on.
There was something about walking down the main street of Driftwood that made him swagger a bit, though of course he could not quite stay entirely upright. His gait was more of a float than a proper walk. But his Lightrider friend, Tex, would’ve loved this place, he imagined, and a smile tugged at his lips as he recalled the term the cowboy had taught him: Yee-haw.
“I should invent an underwater camera,” Archie mused aloud, then Dani suddenly gripped them both by the arm.
“Boys, look! Want to get our fortunes told? It says it’s only a quarter sand dollar!”
“We don’t have time for that nonsense,” Jake muttered, shaking off her hold.
But as they passed the glass-encased carnival box that housed the fortuneteller, he was taken aback by the bizarre, flesh-colored blob fish inside. It had an almost human, melted-looking face, and it watched them shrewdly as they walked by.
