Dragon Kiss (11 page)

Twelve

F
rostybreath was good at giving clear directions. For the first half of the trip, Audun found himself flying over familiar territory. He saw the distant mountains where the witch’s servants had imprisoned his family, and flew over the plains and forests that he had crossed while looking for Millie. Later that same day he looked down to see a marshy area where a dragonlike beast called a knucker was chasing an unfortunate deer. He circled for a minute, wondering if he should look for fish in the marsh, but continued on, his stomach growling from hunger. Just beyond the marsh lay a forest of scruffy pine which continued to the rocky shore of the sea. It wasn’t as blue or as clear as the sea where he’d found Nastia Nautica and he couldn’t see as far into its depths, but he did see schools of fish from time to time. He had a full belly by the time he reached the island where the giants’ boat was beached.

The giants’ ship was much bigger than the wreck that was the sea witch’s home, with a mast at least fifty feet tall. It rested on a beach of silvery sand with shallow ditches on either side. Two enormous boys were standing where the wavelets washed onto the beach, tossing rocks as large as Audun’s head into the water. A woman was seated on the sand, with her head bent so that her long, brown hair hung over her face. She was sobbing and her shoulders shook with every breath she took. It was obvious that something was terribly wrong. Suddenly, Audun regretted taking the time to slide down the chute with Loolee.

The young dragon was trying to decide where to land when he noticed ripples of water arrowing toward the beach, aimed directly at the woman. “Watch out!” Audun shouted. Thinking that a sea monster was about to attack her, he tucked his wings to his sides and plummeted to the sand, pulling up short in front of the giant woman. Audun turned his back to her and faced the water, preparing to fight.

He had already tensed his muscles and spread his wings to make himself look bigger when the ripples faded away and another giant stood up, shedding a torrent of water. At least twenty-five feet tall, he was bigger than the woman and the boys. “Who’s this?” boomed the giant, brushing his dripping hair out of his eyes and looking warily at Audun. Thick sheets of water sprayed across the beach, drenching Audun and making him stagger.

Audun bowed his head and said, “King Stormclaw and his council sent me. I brought you this.” Reaching into his flap, he took out the flute and laid it on the ground at the giant’s feet.

“Ah,” said the giant, giving Audun a halfhearted smile. “I was afraid he hadn’t gotten my message. I’m not sure it will do any good now. It’s been so long . . . I didn’t see anything,” he told the woman seated behind Audun.

The woman’s crying became so loud that each sob hurt Audun’s ears. He moved away when the giant gestured for one of the boys to pick up the flute. Although the boys looked just like the giant, they weren’t nearly as tall. Audun decided they must be his sons.

Audun had to brace himself as the earth shook from the giants’ footsteps and it wasn’t until they were all sitting down that he was able to say, “May I ask what happened?”

“Our daughter is gone,” said the woman, dabbing at her tears. “The sea monster took her.”

“Let me explain,” said the man. “My name is Hugo and this is my wife, Mona, and our boys, Clifton and Tomas. We’d been visiting the islands, seeing if we’d like to settle here, when we stopped to take on more fresh water and supplies. Mona and I were collecting seaweed with the boys just over there,” he said, pointing down the beach, “when our little girl, Penelope, disappeared.”

“She’s only three,” wailed her mother.

“We think a sea monster took her. Shortly before she disappeared we saw a hideous beast with a long, whiplike tail jump out of the water as if it was trying to get a good look at us. We’ve been searching for her for days, but all we’ve found are some prints in the sand.”

“Don’t forget the picture,” said Clifton, the taller of the two boys.

Hugo sighed. “The boys found a picture made of seashells. They thought it looked like their sister.”

“It did look just like her, Papa!” said Tomas. “It was so good an artist must have done it.”

Hugo shrugged. “I didn’t see it myself. The waves had washed most of it away by the time I got there. If it was as good as the boys say, whoever made it must have seen Penelope. We thought they might want a ransom, but they never sent us a message of any sort. However, it wasn’t the picture that interested me as much as the marks in the sand. They were just above the waterline; the waves hadn’t reached them yet. It almost looked as if someone had pressed a cup over and over into the ground. The only thing we could think of was that a sea monster must have left the marks.”

“Which means that some horrible fiend had the sea monster carry her off,” said Tomas. “Those monsters aren’t smart enough to do a picture that good.”

“We don’t know anything for sure,” said Hugo. “Just that we think a sea monster was involved somehow. That’s why I asked an eagle to carry a message to King Stormclaw. I’d heard of the Sea Serpents’ Flute and knew Stormclaw could get it if anyone could. I thought we could find out what happened to her if we could talk to the sea monster.”

Clifton held up the flute, which looked like a child’s tiny toy in his hands and would have been lost in his father’s. “What happens if I blow into this?”

“The sea witch who I got it from said that it would torment sea monsters and make them leave,” said Audun.

Hugo looked puzzled. “I’d heard that it will calm sea monsters so you can talk to them.”

“That may be true,” Audun replied. “I wouldn’t trust anything that sea witch says; she’s a notorious liar.”

“Do you still think you should use it, Hugo?” his wife asked. “We wouldn’t want to torment them and drive them off if they have Penelope with them. They might hurt her . . .”

“If they haven’t already,” murmured Clifton.

His mother’s chin wobbled, but she managed to say, “Or abandon her, and then we’d never find her.”

“That’s a good point,” said Hugo.

Audun cleared his throat. “Maybe I can help. I’m pretty good at tracking things, even underwater. If sea monsters took her, I should be able to find her. Can I see something of hers, as well as the place where you found the prints?”

“I’ll get something that belongs to Penelope,” said Mona, her eyes glistening with hope.

“And we’ll show you where we found the picture and the prints!” exclaimed Tomas.

The ground shook so much as all the giants got to their feet that Audun couldn’t stand. He was stumbling around when he finally spread his wings and rose into the air, although he didn’t go very high.

It looked like it was going to take Mona a few minutes to get something of Penelope’s, so Audun followed the boys. When they crouched beside something on the sand, Audun landed and bent down to look. Clifton said that he had placed spindly pieces of driftwood around the marks on the beach, but there were only a few indentations and the blowing sand had made them indistinct. Audun examined them for a moment, noting the acrid scent of whatever had made them, then the boys showed him where the picture had been. Most of the shells had washed away; Tomas had stacked the rest in a pile just beyond the water’s reach. Audun picked up one of the shells and sniffed it. The shell carried the same scent as the marks in the sand. He set it down when Mona arrived with Penelope’s shoes, which the girl had taken off while playing on the beach. They, too, had a very distinct smell.

“I think I’m ready now,” said Audun. “But first, tell me, can your daughter swim?”

“Like a fish,” said Hugo, who had come with his wife. “We made sure all three children could swim before we set sail.”

“Where did you spot the sea monster?”

Hugo pointed out to sea. “Just past those rocks. There, where the waves are breaking.”

“Then that’s where I’ll begin,” said Audun. After assuring himself that the amulet was still around his neck, he told the family of giants that he would do his best to find Penelope, and dove into the middle of a curling wave before it could crash over his head.

Although he had hoped to find Penelope’s scent, it was the smell from the beach that Audun detected first. It was stronger than any other scent he found, as if whatever had made it had just passed by. Audun followed the trail like a hound would a rabbit, with his nose quivering and all his attention focused on that one telling odor.

The water was colder here than where Nastia Nautica lived, but Audun liked it better this way. The water farther south had been so warm that it had made him drowsy, but the cold water rushing against his scales as he sped beneath the waves now was invigorating. The fish weren’t as brightly colored here, but there were more of them, and he would have been easily distracted if he hadn’t been on such an important mission . . . or hadn’t just eaten.

The scent grew stronger as Audun swam and he was convinced that he must be getting close. Suddenly, he glimpsed something nearly as big as himself swimming just above the edge of a rocky outcropping. Drawn by the scent, Audun followed the creature, noting the long whip-like tail that propelled it through the water. The beast was easy to see against the browns and grays of its surroundings because its long, thin body was colored a contrasting orange and yellow. As Audun drew closer, he saw that rows of thin legs ending in suckers were tucked under the monster’s body, and its eyes, when it turned to look at him, were enormous.

The creature blinked, as if in surprise at seeing a dragon, and began to swim more rapidly. When it looked back a short time later and saw that Audun was still following, its tail became a blur and it sped away faster than Audun would have thought possible. Sure that he had found the sea monster that had taken Penelope, Audun raced after it.

The creature twisted and turned, swimming around obstacles as it tried to lose the young dragon. When it sped through a school of fish so quickly they didn’t have time to get out of the way, so did Audun. When he raced through a gap in the side of a shipwreck, so did Audun. They passed islands and a peninsula that jutted out into the sea without Audun losing sight of the monster.

The water became deeper and colder. They circled the peak of a mostly submerged mountain, startling huge fish that flashed blue and silver as they changed direction. Every so often the sea monster would turn to see if Audun was still behind him, and each time the dragon was a little bit closer. Audun wasn’t aware of how far they had traveled until they entered a trench that split the floor of the sea in two. He had heard about the Mary Alice Trench, named after two mermaids who had entered it on a bet and never returned, but he didn’t know anyone who had actually gone there. Loathsome creatures supposedly inhabited its depths, which ran deeper than Audun had ever gone, but he followed the monster, not wanting to lose it.

The water around them grew even darker as they traveled downward, and Audun began to feel pains in his chest and limbs. When the sea monster’s swimming became more labored, the dragon was sure that the creature was feeling similar discomfort, but they continued to go deeper until Audun could scarcely see. Strange creatures swam past, illuminating their way with lights they carried on their bodies. Some had little lanterns dangling from their heads while others had rows of glowing spots on their sides. A few darted away at Audun’s approach, while one with ferocious teeth set in huge, gaping jaws swam a little bit closer, but none were brave enough to come after a dragon.

It was so dark now that Audun was following the sea monster by its scent alone; and then he encountered a strong mineral smell that nearly overwhelmed all the other odors. A few minutes later, he spotted the glow of a fire in the water ahead. Thinking he’d seen the sea monster pass in front of it, he swam toward the light, but it was so bright that it made him blind to everything beyond it.

Enormous plumes of fire and gas were erupting from a hole in the seafloor, heating the water. Clusters of tall tubes sprouted from the ground around the hole and Audun wondered what they might be. A slim, wormlike creature poked its head out of one of the tubes and eyed him. When he did nothing more threatening than look back at it, the worm said, “Hello!” in a cheery voice.

Instantly, a hundred other worms popped out of a hundred other tubes.

“Who are you talking to?” some said.

“Are you talking to me?” asked a dozen others.

“Look, we have company!” said the worms who had noticed Audun.

“Are you a fish?” asked three or four, while twenty wondered aloud what he could possibly be.

“I’m Audun,” replied the young dragon, who had been taught to always be polite. “I’m a dragon.”

“Ooh!” exclaimed nearly every worm. “A dragon!”

“What’s a dragon?” only one was bold enough to ask.

“I’m sorry. I’d like to stay and chat, but I’m looking for someone. Have any of you seen a sea monster with a whiplike tail who passed by here just a moment ago? We were together, but I seem to have lost him.”

“What’s a sea monster?” asked some.