Secrets of the Deep (19 page)

Dani looked curiously at Nixie. “Am I going to get a mermaid tail, too?”

“Nothing that drastic,” Nixie replied. “Just webbed feet and hands. Gills, too. It’ll be good enough. Also, I’ll be adding in a dash of an old Stone Bones potion I know. Warlords in medieval times used to give it to their knights to harden their skeletons so they could survive bashes from a mace. For us, it’ll help our bodies withstand the water pressure around the canyon. Archie was just showing us mathematically how intense it can get at those depths. It would quickly crush us otherwise.”

“Well, that sounds lovely,” Dani muttered.

“I have a question,” Isabelle said. “How are you going to find the
Flying Dutchman
? That’s a lot of ocean to cover. Even if you do find Jones in the town, the ship with the princess on board could be anywhere.”

“Excellent question.” Sapphira nodded in approval. “Fortunately, my sister’s seahorse, Wallace, followed the ship when Jones took her hostage. Seahorses are extremely loyal to their owners. Once we get out there, I’ll call for him, and, with any luck, he’ll come to me and show us where she’s being held.” Then the princess shook her head. “It’s hard to say what we might face once we get there. My sister will be kept under guard, but
by what
is the question. We’ll have to be ready for anything.”

“Well, Maddox doesn’t scare easily,” Archie reassured Sapphira, “and Nix is first-rate with any sort of magic. You’ll be safe as houses.”

Sapphira looked at him like she did not comprehend the comparison at all.

“Maybe more of your dolphins can help there, too?” Dani suggested.

“I’m afraid that’s not possible,” Sapphira said absently. “Normally, they would, of course. But no sea creature can openly defy the Lord of the Locker—nor would I ask them to. In some ways, he outranks even the sea kings, like my father. They each have their territories, but Jones has jurisdiction over all the Seven Seas.”

“Do we know why he wants the orb so badly?” Dani asked, glancing at the object, which sat on the table in their midst.

Sapphira shrugged and shook her head. “I didn’t wait around to ask. As soon as I saw him drag Lil away, I raced off to the temple to fetch it for him. I’m the one who hid it there. But on the way, ahem, a certain someone ran me over.” She sent Archie a look of pointed amusement.

He dropped his face into his hands with a groan. “Please! I feel so awful about that!”

Dani gasped. “That was
you
? We thought we’d hit a dolphin!”

“No, that was me,” Sapphira said wryly.

Both girls began apologizing profusely, but Sapphira waved it off. “Please, that’s not necessary. The boys have been apologizing for the past two hours. It was an accident. Besides, it was my fault, too,” she admitted. “I was moving too fast and not really watching where I was going, because I was in such a panic over my sister. In the end, it’s just as well.” She shrugged. “If I’d have gone in there while the building was collapsing, I probably would’ve died. Archie knocked me out for a few seconds, but he probably saved my life. Besides, the orb wasn’t even in there at that point, since
someone
had taken it.” She arched an eyebrow at Jake.

“Hey, call me a thief if you like,” he retorted with a smile, “but it’s a good thing I nicked it when I did. Otherwise, it would’ve been smashed in the collapse, and if all else fails, we might still need it to trade for your sister.”

Archie nodded at Dani and Isabelle. “We’ve talked it over and agreed to let Sapphira give the orb to Davy Jones if our rescue plan doesn’t work.”

“But of course it’ll work,” Jake said.

“Yes, it will,” Maddox echoed serenely.

If Dani read him right, the Guardian-in-training seemed content to let Jake brag and Archie show off his knowledge, while, for his part, the strong-silent Maddox would wait patiently for his chance to dazzle Sapphira with his fighting skills when the time came to rescue her sister.

But could he still
do
all his fancy fighting techniques underwater?

Dani supposed they’d soon find out.

Just then, the classroom door opened and Lady Bradford peeked in. “Children? I was wondering where you all had gone. And who is this?” the elegant old lady asked politely.

“Um, this is, er, Miss Pesce,” said Archie. “She lives nearby.”

Apparently, they had devised an alias for the mermaid while on land; Dani recalled from hearing Mass in Latin that
pesce
was the word for fish.

“Ah.” Her Ladyship gave their visitor a cordial smile. “Hullo, dear.”

“Signorina,” Archie said, “allow me to present Lady Bradford, our aunt.”

Sapphira bowed to her, probably not steady enough on her new legs to chance a curtsy. “An honor, Lady Bradford. Thank you for allowing me to come to your party.”

“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

T
he 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.