Secrets of the Deep (37 page)

King Nereus himself, as well as his proud chief bodyguard, Tyndaris, and the old Professor Pomodori presently occupied unused soul cages nearby.

Jones had ordered them set up in the throne room, where he could keep an eye on his captives. He was beginning to regret that decision, however. Their company was tedious.

“You’ll never get away with this,” King Nereus vowed from behind the bars of his cage for the umpteenth time. “The Assembly of Sea Kings will hear of this, I promise you—”

“And do what?” Jones retorted. “What part of ‘devil of the Seven Seas’ don’t you understand, fish-man? You should have cooperated while you had the chance.”

“His Majesty did cooperate!” the warrior bellowed, trying again, uselessly, to rip apart the bars of the cage.

But thankfully, First Mate Carnahan rushed in just then to save his captain from his boredom. “News, sir! We finally got a lead!”

Jones shot to his feet. “Tell me, Carnahan!” he said to the onetime nasty British sailor whom he’d transmogrified decades ago into a rather impressive half-human thresher shark.

“There was some big commotion on the island of Nisáki a few hours ago, and a barracuda spy of ours just reported in. He saw the boy you’re looking for riding away from the island on a dolphin in service to the crown princess.”

“Sapphira?” the king breathed.

Jones ignored him. “Tell me the fish followed the lad. Did he see which way he went?”

“Aye, sir! The boy got onto a fishing boat. Barracuda followed it to Malta. He nearly lost them there, but he kept swimming back and forth along the quay until he spotted the whole crew of those brats going up the gangplank of the steam packet to Catania!”

“So…they’re somewhere on Sicily. Well, that narrows it down nicely,” Jones said. “Carnahan, redirect all your forces to scour up and down the Ionian Riviera. That cheeky lad had ‘aristocrat’ written all over him—and now he’s playing host to a pair of princesses? They’ll want someplace posh, and if it’s Sicily, then I’d wager on Taormina. Aye, rubbin’ elbows with all the Grand Tourists. And Carnahan?”

“Aye, sir?” The first mate stood at attention.

“Tell the boys to keep an eye out—and hurry up and find these brats! I want my orb. We’ve only got two nights until the full moon. If we need to go ashore to fetch it, timing’s everything.”

“Aye-aye, Cap’n.” The thresher shark man saluted, then hurried off with a swish of his long tail to redirect their search.

CHAPTER 19

Thunderclouds Gathering

I
t was funny how life could bounce you up and down like a yo-yo. After yesterday’s brush with disaster, the next day was one of the happiest of Jake’s young life.

From the moment he opened his eyes in the morning, the world looked shiny and bright. He jumped out of bed, excited to see Dani.

He put a little more care into dressing for the day and combed his hair, trying to decide before the mirror whether it looked better with the front slicked back or hanging down on his forehead. He wondered if Dani had a preference. Then he raced out of his room to see if she was up yet.

She came out of the girls’ chamber wearing a fetching blue polka-dotted dress, and climbed the few steps onto the rooftop patio at almost the exact same minute he did.

She ran toward him and he ran toward her, and then they stood staring awkwardly at each other, both grinning.

“Good morning,” she said while his heart did a little dance in his chest.

“Morning. H-how are you?” he replied.

“Fine. You?”

“Fine, too.”

They attempted to chitchat like everything was normal, but it wasn’t. Not anymore. An agonizing lag in the conversation dropped upon them probably for the first time since they’d known each other.

For a moment, they just stood there in hopeful silence, not knowing where to look.

This is terrible. I’m making a fool of myself!
thought Jake.

“Um…” He knew he had to say something to try to restore some normality between them. “About yesterday—”

“Yes?” Dani asked breathlessly.

“Those things I said on the boat…” He gulped.

“Uh-huh?” Dani nodded at top speed, while the morning sunlight danced like streaks of flame in her red hair.

“It probably came out kind of stupid, but I-I just wanted you to know how much I…uh, appreciate you.”

“Right. Oh, yes, of course—I understand. That’s very nice. Thank you. I appreciate you, too, Jake—and I…appreciate you, um, appreciating me.” She laughed lamely and he joined in.

“Right. Heh heh.”

Oh, this was excruciating.

She must have thought so too. “Ahem. So, what are you going to do today?” she asked earnestly, folding her arms across her chest.

“I dunno. Try not to get killed,” he joked. “You?”

“I don’t know either.” She shrugged, lifting her dainty shoulders. “I thought I’d see what you’re doing. And then…if you’re not really doing anything…maybe we could do something together?”

“Yes!” Jake blurted out a little too forcefully.

She didn’t seem to notice, smiling with relief. “Good.”

“Oh—I almost forgot,” he said. “How are your hands? I know you scraped them up a bit, and your knees, when you fell. I could get a healing feather from Red if you—”

“No, it’s all right. Nixie already…did some sort of little tapping thing on them last night with her wand, and they seem to be all better.” She held up her hands and showed him they were smooth and healed. Only the slightest traces of her cuts and scrapes remained. “But thank you, though. It’s…really sweet of you to offer.”

“I should’ve thought of it last night.”

They stared at each other for a second, neither knowing what to say, when suddenly, a loud “Ahem” sounded from the stairs leading up from the boys’ bedchamber.

They stepped back quickly from each other, sheepish and blushing, as Maddox came marching up onto the patio.

Not that it was really a secret anymore that Jake liked her, after the way he had exploded the rock monster yesterday in front of everyone.

“What is going on here?” Maddox drawled as he walked past them to the breakfast spread already laid out on the rooftop table.

“Nothing,” they said in unison. Then they exchanged a twinkling glance and followed him, and sat down to eat.

The others soon drifted up to the patio for breakfast, as well. Red alighted from where he had been sleeping in the trees, landing in their midst with a pounce, and then eyeing the breakfast table.

“Good morning, sir. I think he missed us yesterday,” Jake remarked, helplessly aware that he was glancing and smiling at Dani much too often. But he couldn’t seem to stop.

Maddox stared at him like he was annoyed by his cheerfulness.

Then Sapphira arrived on the terrace with Liliana, coming up from their surfside pavilion to join them for breakfast. Dani glanced cautiously from Jake to the elder mermaid and back again, but he all but ignored Sapphira, merely mumbling a greeting along with the rest of them.

“How are you feeling today?” Sapphira asked Maddox as she and Lil sat down. “It looked like you got bashed pretty hard against those rocks.”

Maddox grunted wordlessly and shrugged. Apparently, he was no longer impressed by her sea magic either.

Nixie arrived looking much better than she had last night. Isabelle drifted out a few minutes later.

Archie was the last to come dragging himself out of bed. The boy genius slept poorly these days, as Jake and Maddox both knew quite well. It was hard to share a room with him, because he’d mumbled in his sleep ever since he started having his peculiar dreams.

He was prone to waking up at odd hours with a yelp.

Jake wondered about what his cousin saw in those dreams. Or visions, or nightmares, or whatever they were. No wonder he was so addicted to espresso, either to avoid falling asleep in the first place, or to manage his daytime fatigue after another night of tossing and turning.

Thankfully, everything seemed back to normal with everyone today. Isabelle reported she had asked Miss Helena, but there was still no news from Derek or Henry.

Nor had Wallace received any messages from Coral City for Sapphira and Lil. Both princesses yearned to know what was happening back home, but on the whole, Jake was grateful for how things stood at the moment.

The orb was now dented, but at least they had escaped the rock monsters alive. They had discovered the rest of the Atlantean treasure trove, and left it in a state that would be very difficult, if not impossible, for anyone to get to. Neither Davy Jones nor the Dark Druids had found them. And they had learned the identity of the one who had made those rock golems: Lord Wyvern.

Jake was itching to ask Aunt Ramona if she knew this person, but he hesitated, knowing it would only rouse her suspicions, and then she’d figure out he’d lied to her. Getting in trouble with any adult was not fun, but angering an Elder witch was another matter entirely.

Despite all the high-stakes danger of what they were involved in, though, Jake felt ridiculously happy, unbothered by it all for some reason. He didn’t care what he had to face as long as Dani was nearby. Even better, he could feel it in her smile that she felt the same. He didn’t care how Maddox rolled his eyes or Nixie smirked at them.

Of course, he had not dared hold Dani’s hand again, but at least she graciously spared him any mention of his foolish disappearing act yesterday, after he had spilled his guts.

“Could someone pass the jam?” Isabelle asked over breakfast.

Jake levitated it over to her with a smile.

“Thanks, coz.” She smiled, then glanced around and lowered her head. “I want to ask you all, has anyone else noticed Aunt Ramona acting a bit strange?”

“No. Strange how?” Jake asked.

Isabelle shrugged. “I could swear she’s avoiding me.”

“I doubt it.” Archie snorted. “You’re her favorite.”

“That’s what makes it even odder. I wonder if she’s cross at me for something?”

“Maybe she knows we lied about what we were doing yesterday,” Nixie said with a furtive glance around.

“Oh, believe me, if the ol’ girl were angry at us, she wouldn’t be shy about letting us know it,” Jake said. “We would’ve already been called in to the carpet, trust me. We’re fine.”

“So what’s everyone doing today?” Maddox asked.

Jake and Dani exchanged a smile, having already decided to pal around together for the day. The others more or less shrugged—except for Archie, who cleared his throat.

“Well, Nix and I have discussed it, and we’ve decided that the time has come for us to begin a more active study of the orb. It’s time to run some tests.”

Several of them protested.

“Is that wise?” Jake asked. “That thing is supposed to be able to create a huge flood.”

“Now that it’s damaged, it may not work at all anymore,” Archie countered. “But we need to find out what we’re really dealing with here.”

Maddox frowned, but Nixie backed up her partner with a nod.

“Archie thinks it’s important, and so do I. And let’s be honest, neither of us is usually wrong,” she added bluntly.

“Sapphira, we’d ask that you show us what you basically did to get it working the first time. Will you do that?” Archie asked.

She eyed them warily, but nodded. “I agree with you. The artifact is too important to just let it sit there. In the wrong hands, of course, it could bring disaster, but if it were in the right ones, who knows? It might be a great boon to your world, if not ours. Perhaps it could help end droughts for the landers.”

“It’s a big risk,” Dani said with a troubled frown.

“I was able to turn it off,” the mermaid reminded them. “I’m not really sure how, but it wasn’t that hard.”

“You see?” Nixie said to the others. “We’re doing this.”

“It’s dented, anyway.” Archie shrugged and buttered his toast. “Part of it cracked when Jake unfortunately dropped it. But, you know, make lemonade from lemons and all that. If we can’t get it working, then at least I can now more easily pry open its innards and see what’s inside. Figure out how she works. Who knows? Maybe I can build some sort of Atlantean replica of my own. Show that at the next Invention Convention. Ha!”

“Archimedes,” said his sister.

“Here’s a thought,” Archie said with a grin. “Anyone who doesn’t like it can stay in the schoolroom today and work on your assignments. Hmm?” He peered over his spectacles at them all. “Wouldn’t want anyone falling behind in their studies by the time Henry gets back, now, would we?”

No one offered any further protests.

Still, Jake frowned at his cousin. “You sure about this?” he murmured.

“Absolutely! Don’t worry, coz. I’ll wear my lucky bowtie,” Archie said cheerfully, then took a large bite of toast.

After breakfast, Jake and Dani started to go off by themselves, as planned, but a mix of embarrassment at their friends’ nosy glances in their direction, along with their curiosity about Archie’s experiments on the orb, soon had them hurrying back to join the others.

Before long, they all gathered down on the beach to watch the orb demonstration.

Dr. Bradford had donned goggles and white lab coat, as had his official assistant, Isabelle. Izzy stood by with a pencil and notebook, keeping an eye on the instruments and ready to jot down her genius brother’s observations as he called them out.

Nixie had brought along her wand but waited patiently, having agreed to go second with whatever magical experiments she had in mind for the orb, in case Archie’s scientific tests yielded no useful results.

Jake and Maddox carried an outdoor table from the terrace down to the beach. On it, Archie set up all his instruments in a tidy row: weather vane, barometer, thermometer, compass, a beaker to be used as a rain gauge if the orb indeed generated precipitation, and a homemade cup anemometer that he had fashioned to measure the wind speed after Sapphira described the whirling vortex the orb had created.

He gave Maddox a yardstick to go and shove down into the sand in the shallows so they could easily measure if the wave heights changed.