Krakens and Lies

by Tui T. Sutherland

  “Know someone?” Zoe said. “Like who? Another mermaid?”

  “No,” he said. “Just someone I met at Tracker camp who might be able to help. I’ll call—uh, her tonight and ask.”

  “OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH,” Zoe said. “HER? Who is this HER?”

  “Do not be an annoying little sister about this,” Matthew said, throwing a towel at her. “If Elsie does decide to come, you must promise to act normal. By which I mean normal as defined by most people. There will be none of that face.”

  “I’m not making a face!” Zoe protested, scrunching her nose around like she was trying not to smile. “I’m sure Elsie will think we’re perfectly normal.”

  Matthew rubbed his head. “This is a terrible idea,” he muttered. He got up and stalked off to the golf cart, carrying the green case.

  Zoe sat down next to Logan and poked him in the ribs. “Thank you for your help down there.”

  “No,” Logan wheezed, “problem.”

  “You should probably go take a nap,” she suggested.

  He managed, barely, to tilt his head toward her. “Why?”

  “Because we’re going to be up all night, remember?” she said. “Hanging out in the Dark Forest, waiting to catch your dad.” She bit her lip and started wrestling off one of her flippers. “Although he might not come tonight. I wonder what he’ll tell us if he does come. Will he help us stop the Sterlings? By Tuesday? Sorry, I shouldn’t be piling all my worries on you.”

  “It’s all right,” Logan said, but he couldn’t help worrying himself about what was going to happen that night. Was he hoping to catch his dad sneaking into the Menagerie or not? Did he want to know what Jackson Wilde had been doing on his earlier trips over the wall?

  Was Logan ready to finally find out the truth?

  TWELVE

  Zoe didn’t usually lie to her parents, but she decided the whole hide-in-the-Dark-Forest-to-catch-a-saboteur plan was a need-to-know thing they didn’t need to know. For one thing, she wanted to know what Mr. Wilde was up to before telling her parents about him. And for another, she had a feeling they’d get all frowny and irrational and try to stop her.

  Besides, they had enough on their minds after spending the whole day either fighting with mermaids or strategizing about the Sterlings with the SNAPA agents. There’d been one long conversation about whether the properties of kraken ink would hold up if it were baked into, say, a friendly neighbor’s apple pie. There were also a lot of snide comments from Runcible about Ruby and her poor taste in people. Everyone had looked very stressed out by the time the SNAPA agents went back to their motel, and Ruby was too busy sulking to even come down for dinner.

  So really, it was better for all involved if Zoe just waited until her parents were asleep, then tiptoed down the hall to Blue’s room.

  Still, she paused for a moment to feel guilty about it before she lightly tapped on his door.

  Blue and Logan silently slipped out and they all crept down the stairs. Zoe was wearing a black shirt and black jeans with a black hoodie over top. It had a few holes nibbled in it by baby griffins, but it should hide her in the dark. She took a flashlight from the kitchen drawer but didn’t turn it on yet.

  “What’d you do about Captain Fuzzbutt?” Logan asked.

  She sighed. “I suggested he have a sleepover with Mooncrusher, in the ice garden. You’d think I told him to go back to the cloning lab your mom rescued him from. He moped the whole day.”

  “Oh,” Logan said. “That’s what the big sad face at dinner was about.”

  “Yup,” Zoe said. “Poor Fuzzbutt.” The mammoth had pointedly sat across the room so he could give Zoe his most tragic eyes all through dinner. But really, how was she supposed to sneak out with a curious mammoth on her heels? She could just imagine the sound of the Captain’s big shaggy feet tramping merrily down the stairs after her.

  They crept out into the Menagerie and hurried past the Doghouse. Zoe heard one of the hellhounds growl, but he must have smelled her scent, because none of them barked.

  How did Logan’s dad get around the Menagerie without being noticed by the hellhounds? Zoe wondered. She glanced at Logan. The moon was shadowed by thin gray clouds, so it was hard to see his face, but his shoulders were hunched and he seemed focused on the ground in front of him. He must be even more nervous than I am.

  They soon reached the large wooden fence that separated the Dark Forest from the rest of the Menagerie. DARK FOREST, said the sign on the door. DID YOU BRING NOSE PLUGS?

  Blue tapped the sign and looked at Zoe. “Well?” he said. “Did you?”

  “Why do I always have to remember everything?” she demanded.

  “Because you always do,” he pointed out, maddeningly. “So no one else bothers.”

  “Well, if we don’t disturb Guava, he should leave us alone,” Zoe said, “and then we won’t really need nose plugs.”

  “Famous last words,” Logan said. His voice was a little wobblier than usual, but he was clearly trying to sound cheerful and unworried.

  Zoe lifted the latch and they all went through. Large damp leaves smacked them in the face as soon as they were inside the fence. Zoe felt her sneakers sink slightly into the marshy undergrowth, and she could hear the quiet buzz of insects all around them.

  “Whoa,” Logan said, pushing his hood back. “How is it so warm in here?” He reached out and brushed one of the enormous fan-shaped leaves with his fingers. “These aren’t evergreens.”

  “Guava and Mochi need an environment more like a jungle to live in,” Zoe said. “So we had to hire those.” She pointed to the nine small balls of light that were zipping madly through the trees toward them, as if they were racing—which, in fact, they were. Each was a slightly different color, but they were all about the size of a tennis ball and glowed like they were made of an unearthly fire.

  The blue one reached them first. It seemed to skid to a halt in the air, where it turned in a slow circle, and then it darted up to Zoe’s face, then Blue’s, then Logan’s. In front of Logan it jumped a bit—recognizing that he was someone new—and then did a little wiggly happy-dance.

  “It’s a will-o’-the-wisp,” Zoe explained. “Sometimes called elf-fire, although not by actual elves, who get all offended and are like, ‘Ahem, our fire is no different from your fire, and we have nothing to do with these attention-seeking flame balls.’”

  “It’s really cool,” Logan said. “Will it burn me if I touch it?”

  “No, but it won’t let you touch it,” Zoe said. “They’re fast. And just so you know, right now it is trying very, very hard to hypnotize you.”

  Logan blinked at the blue fireball, which was slowly bobbing up and down before his eyes, wobbling its little flames around as eerily as it could.

  “Don’t stare at it for too long, or it might work,” Blue added.

  “Why would it hypnotize me?” Logan asked, covering his eyes. “What does it want?”

  “To lead you far astray into the marshy swamp,” Zoe said in a spooky voice, “where you will be lost forever.”

  “Whoa,” Logan said. “Really?”

  “Poor things,” Blue said. “They haven’t completely wrapped their tiny fire-minds around the fact that there is no ‘lost’ in here, or that their purpose now is warming up this mini-jungle for other creatures, instead of leading travelers to their doom.”

  “Doom?” Logan echoed. “Are they evil?”

  “No, that’s just what will-o’-the-wisps do,” Zoe said. “Like if fireflies could give you malaria, but they wouldn’t be doing it on purpose. They’re no more evil than bugs.”

  Five more little fireballs arrived in the clearing at once, colliding with each other as they darted frantically around examining the visitors. Their flames all shot upward excitedly as they discovered Logan, and in a minute he had six will-o’-the-wisps floating in front of him, jostling and bumping each other as they tried to get his attention and look mysteriously mesmerizing at the same time. The effect
was not terribly menacing.

  “Anyway,” Zoe said, “now that you know what they’re trying to do, it won’t work on you. And the scarab would protect you from them regardless. Just ignore them and they’ll give up soon.”

  “Okay,” Logan said. “You know, I thought my nose was starting to recover from the basilisk, but—”

  “That’s Guava,” Zoe said with a sigh. “Our mapinguari.” The giant sloth smelled like a mountain of rotting mangoes, no matter how many baths he got. She was kind of used to it by now. “I’m still on bath duty for glitter bombing Matthew and Agent Runcible, so I know he had a bath yesterday, but it never seems to help. On the plus side, he weirdly loves baths. Just try not to breathe through your nose.”

  “It’s actually not much worse than it’s been all day,” Logan said with a shrug.

  “It is for me,” Blue protested, holding his nose.

  “Come on,” Zoe said, tugging on Logan’s sleeve. “I figure we’ll hide near the camera that caught your dad coming in.”

  She led them to a swathe of thick bushes halfway between the mapinguari’s hut and the wall. They crouched down below the leaves and Blue made a disgruntled noise.

  “How long are we going to wait?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” Logan asked. “What if he doesn’t come tonight?”

  “I think he will,” Zoe said. “He did the last time you slept over.”

  “That’s really weird,” Logan whispered. “That he was here at the same time as I was, but neither of us knew it, and we both have these huge secrets we’ve been keeping from each other.” He fell silent.

  “I’m sure he has his reasons,” Zoe said softly.

  “What do we do if he does come?” Blue asked. “Tackle him? Did you bring the griffin net? I’m kidding, Logan, don’t have a heart attack.”

  “I think we should follow him,” Zoe said. “Is that okay, Logan? So we can see what he’s doing?”

  “We could just ask him,” Logan said slowly. “I think he’d tell me the truth, especially if we catch him here, like this.” He glanced at Zoe. “But if you want to follow him first, I guess we can see where he goes.”

  Poor Logan. He doesn’t want to watch his dad do something to the Menagerie. If his dad is the saboteur, and if the saboteur is the one who rigged the fire extinguisher to blow a hole in the Reptile House . . . well, I wonder if Mr. Wilde gave him that scarab because he knew the basilisk might be loose today. She decided not to float this theory to Logan.

  Rustling and harrumphing sounds came from Guava’s hut. “Shh,” Zoe whispered. “Let’s be really quiet so Guava won’t come out to investigate.”

  “But he’s a vegetarian, right?” Logan whispered. “I remember your dad saying that.”

  “He is,” Zoe agreed. “But most mapinguaris will happily eat any humans they can catch. Ours is pretty tame, but he hasn’t had to deal with many strangers. I wouldn’t want to see him riled up.”

  Logan mimed locking his mouth with a key, pulled his hood up, and sat with his arms wrapped around his knees. The will-o’-the-wisps kept trying to entice him with flares of colorful flame and uncanny behavior, but after a while they gave up and flitted away, bumping each other crossly as if they were all saying, “You are such a failure at being eerie! I’ll have you know I won ‘most mesmerizing fireball’ at the Elflympiad! He would have followed me if you hadn’t been so annoying! Now he’ll never drown in a creepy swamp!” And so on.

  Zoe’s phone buzzed softly and she glanced at it.

  Are merboys allowed to date human girls? said the text from Jasmin. Zoe smiled at it.

  Have you ever ridden a dragon? said the next text, followed by: Can I ride a dragon?

  Yes, no, and no, Zoe texted back.

  YES?!!!!!!!! came the response.

  Allowed to, yes, Zoe typed. Smart enough to, I’m not sure.

  LOL. What is he doing right now? What is he wearing right now? Also, then what CAN I ride?

  Zoe glanced at Blue.

  “What?” he whispered.

  She shook her head and typed, Nothing.

  The response came quickly. He’s wearing NOTHING???????

  Ha-ha-ha gross, Zoe typed back. Dark blue coat, jeans, sleepy expression. We’re on a mission in the mapinguari’s habitat.

  ??? OK, you got me on that one. I’m looking it up.

  I bet Capt. Fuzzbutt would let you ride him, Zoe typed.

  Mapinguaris sound dangerous, Jasmin wrote back. You need a BFF sidekick with a totally menacing tennis racket.

  Do not sneak out of your house right now, you lunatic, Zoe typed. We are fine. I will update you in the morning.

  SIIIIIGH, Jasmin responded. OK. Call me first thing.

  Good night.

  Don’t let the chupacabras bite. OMG, you don’t have those, do you?

  Stop making me laugh! The mapinguari is sleeping.

  OK, OK. I’m off to delete all evidence of this conversation. Good night!

  “I’m guessing from your face that that was Jasmin,” Blue whispered.

  “She’s amazing,” Zoe whispered back, trying to wipe the grin off her face.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “I mean—for you! Amazing—friend—type—person.” He coughed and punched Logan’s shoulder.

  “Shhh,” she scolded him. “Don’t wake up Guava.”

  Zoe, Logan, and Blue sat quietly for a long time, staring at the wall. It was very high and made of stone, but on this side Zoe could see that a lot of the vines had grown up along it, creating an easy crisscross web to climb down. They’d have to fix that. She wished she had her notepad so she could add it to her to-do list.

  Stupid dragons, she thought, shaking her head with frustration. Why had they let Mr. Wilde in—not just once, but three times? She hadn’t had a chance to question them yet because of all the chaos of the merfolk strike. She knew Scratch had neglected his guard duty to go out hunting sheep a few times, but she’d checked the log and both Clawdius and Firebella had ignored Mr. Wilde’s trespassing as well. And if they were willing to ignore him, they could have ignored anybody. For all she knew, the Sterlings could have been climbing in and out of the Menagerie for months without a single dragon saying boo about it. After all, they hadn’t so much as snorted when Jasmin came into the Menagerie.

  She hugged her knees, thinking of Jasmin. She’d wanted to bring Jasmin into the Menagerie and show her all the animals for practically her entire life. It had seemed wildly unfair to her when Jonathan got to meet them instead, just because he was Ruby’s boyfriend. And it had been even more unfair when Jonathan betrayed their trust and the rules got even stricter.

  For a while, she’d started to think she’d never have any friends but Blue, possibly ever again.

  And then she’d found Logan in her unicorn stables, holding a griffin cub.

  She glanced sideways at him again. He’d changed everything. Now she had him, and Marco, and, most miraculous of all, she had Jasmin back. But it had all started with Logan.

  “I don’t think your dad’s coming,” Blue half whispered, half yawned. “Maybe we could go back and just watch the security monitors.”

  “Right. Which, in Blue-speak, means I could watch the security monitors and you could nap on the couch,” Zoe said.

  “Well, if you insist,” Blue said with a grin.

  “Wait,” Logan whispered, touching Zoe’s knee. He pointed to the top of the wall, where a small beam of light was skimming the treetops on the other side. It blinked out, and then there was a quiet scraping sound.

  Like someone leaning a ladder up against the wall.

  Zoe could feel the tension humming through Logan. She realized she was a tiny bit terrified. She was sure Logan’s dad wouldn’t hurt them—but she was also sure he wouldn’t be happy to see them.

  Maybe I should have told Mom and Dad about this.

  She rubbed her damp palms on her jeans and felt for the flashlight in her pocket.

  Bump. Bump. Bump. Footsteps climbing the ladder.


  They didn’t have night vision without the security camera, but the moon cast enough light that they could see the shadowy head that slowly rose up above the wall. A tall, lanky figure swung himself over and carefully climbed down. He glanced around and took a couple of steps into the trees.

  The will-o’-the-wisps came shooting through the woods and surrounded him, bobbing and weaving frantically. In the light they cast, Zoe could clearly see Logan’s dad’s face. He was smiling at the little fireballs.

  Logan drew in his breath. His dad held out one hand and let the will-o’-the-wisps dance around it for a minute. His smile slowly faded, and then he dropped his hand and started toward the fence with a serious expression on his face.

  “HRRRRRMMMMMGGRRRRR.” A growl shivered through the forest. The hairs on Zoe’s arms stood on end. She whirled and saw the enormous shadow of the mapinguari come shambling out of his hut.

  “RRRRRRRRRAAAAARRRRGH,” Guava roared. He stood up to his full height and roared again. The moon reflected off his long, sharp, shiny claws.

  Logan’s dad had frozen in place when he heard the first growl. Now he took a tentative step back toward the wall, which was closer than the fence.

  The mapinguari swiveled its head toward him . . . and charged.

  THIRTEEN

  “Dad!” Logan screamed. He threw himself out of the bushes just as his dad went hurtling past, running for the wall. They crashed into each other and sprawled into the dirt.

  “HRRRRRRAAARRRRRR,” the mapinguari roared again, taking another slow, stomping step toward them. Logan sat up and scrabbled inside his shirt for the scarab. It must have protected his dad from the creature before. It would protect him again . . . Logan hoped. He pulled it out and held it up.

  “Guava, stop!” Zoe cried. She tossed the flashlight to Blue, ran up to the giant sloth, and shoved its belly with both hands. “Behave! Bad mapinguari! No eating people! Bad!”

  The mapinguari stopped and grumbled loudly. Blue got the flashlight switched on, and in its beam Logan could see that the overgrown sloth was giving Zoe a very reproachful look.