by Liz Kessler
Or Neptune.
The caves had split wide and high enough to let in a thick shaft of sunlight. I had to cover my eyes.
When I opened them, I saw him, riding into the caves, shrouded by dusty sunbeams. First the dolphins, then the chariot, gold and grand, carrying Neptune into the caves.
I should have known I’d be found out! His voice burst into my memory so clearly I could almost hear it. The memory so sharp: standing in front of him in his courtroom listening to him tell us we’d be spared prison on the condition we’d come to this island. “If you break this condition, you will be punished most severely,” he’d added in that booming voice of his. Had I broken it? What would he do to me?
The dolphins pulled Neptune into the center of the caves before swimming back into the corners, surrounding us like bodyguards. Archie swam beside the chariot.
Pausing to wait for silence, Neptune rose in his seat, lifting his trident in the air. As he waved it above his head, the cave closed again, sealing us together to face his wrath. I knew what that was like. Knowing I was to face it again was almost enough to make me give up hope altogether.
Neptune looked around the caves. “Do you KNOW why I am here?” he asked, his voice deep and grave. His sentence echoed over and over, KNOW why I am here, KNOW why I, KNOW, know . . .
No one dared to answer. No one knew. Almost no one. He was here for me — I was sure of it. I tried to calm my thumping chest before Dad heard it.
“I shall ask another question,” he said, his voice ringing around the caves. “Do you know why YOU are here?”
He looked around, narrowing his eyes. I willed myself to shrink into nothingness. Luckily his gaze passed me by.
More silence. Neptune clicked his fingers. At once, a line of sea horses appeared at the side of the caves. They gathered into a perfect formation and swam toward him. Then, hooking his golden gown in their tails, they raised it up behind him. Neptune sat down and nodded curtly, his diamond-studded tail fanning out in front of him. The sea horses instantly darted away.
“I will tell you,” Neptune said. “You are here because of ME! Because of MY generosity. This island hasn’t always been the happy little paradise you have here today. This was once a place of grave importance.”
He banged his trident on a rock. “Archieval!”
Archie swam forward. Then, bowing low, he kissed Neptune’s tail. “Your Majesty,” he said solemnly. I’d never seen Archie look like this. He had a gold sash running along his tail; his hair was tied back in a neat ponytail and seemed to shine with splashes of deep green against the pool’s reflection.
“Tell these folk their history,” Neptune said coldly. “It’s about time they were reminded.” Then he sat back in his chariot, waving his trident at Archie to beckon him forward.
The caves became silent as we waited for Archie to speak.
He cleared his throat. “Many years ago,” he began, “life here was very different. The Bermuda Triangle was an important stronghold. Together with a most trusty servant of Neptune’s, our bravest sirens worked well here, in the rich waters around Allpoints Island.” Archie paused. His tail flicked nervously. His cheeks had reddened a touch. “This is where ships were brought down. They were relieved of their riches, which were returned to the rightful owner of all that passes on the oceans.”
Ships were brought down? That wasn’t what he’d told us on the way here. He’d just said that they’d disappeared, not that they were brought down on purpose! Right here! Was our new home one of those ships? Maybe someone had died in my bedroom!
My mind swirled with grim and gruesome images: bodies under my bed, killed by the “trusty servant.” Did he mean the monster? This place wasn’t paradise at all. It was more like a setting for a horror film. I could hardly concentrate as Neptune started talking again. “Thank you, Archieval. And then what happened?”
Archie glanced back at Neptune before clearing his throat again. “The, er, the trusty servant I told you about. One day, he —”
“TELL THEM WHEN!” Neptune exploded.
“Almost a hundred years ago —”
“EXACTLY! NOT a hundred! Ninety-two years ago! Do you hear me? Ninety-two. That is my POINT!” As he shouted, a wave washed through the pool. I held on to Dad to steady myself.
Neptune sat back down in his chariot, his face purple with rage. He clicked his fingers and a dolphin rushed forward. Turning onto its back, it flapped its tail in front of Neptune’s face like a fan. After a while, Neptune cooled down and he waved the dolphin away. He motioned to Archie once again. “Continue.”
“Ninety-two years ago, this trusty servant went to sleep.”
Dad pulled away from me. “You’re talking in riddles, Archie.”
What was he doing? Had he forgotten how powerful Neptune was? Or that it was only thanks to him that we were here? Or how easy it would be for Neptune to send him back to prison? He let go of me and swam toward Archie. “Tell us what this is about. Who is the trusty servant that you keep mentioning? If you’re telling us a story, tell us the whole thing.”
Archie glanced at Neptune, who shrugged disdainfully.
“All right,” Archie said. “I’ll tell you.” He took a deep breath. “I’m talking about the kraken.”
The cave filled with sound: people whispering, talking, gasping. Merpeople turning to each other with questions on their faces and fear in their eyes.
A mergirl from my class was in front of me in the water. “What’s the kraken?” I asked in a whisper. I think in my heart I already knew.
“It’s a huge, fierce monster,” she whispered back. “It’s just a myth, though. It’s not real.” She turned back to face Archie. “Or at least that’s what we’ve always thought.”
My body shook. My tail was spinning so vigorously the water was frothing around me.
A mermaid I didn’t recognize held up her hand. She had deep wrinkles in her face and piercing blue eyes. “Archieval, if this is true, why didn’t our parents tell us about it? My great-grandparents would have been alive while it was around. Surely they would have passed this on.”
Archie glanced once more at Neptune for approval. A brief nod in reply.
“The merfolk who lived here at that time were the kraken’s keepers. The kraken works for a hundred years, then sleeps for another hundred. The last time it went to sleep, one small ship somehow managed to find its way through the Triangle’s border. With no kraken to bring it down, the ship ended up here.” Archie looked at the people sitting along the stone benches. “Those folk were your ancestors,” he said.
“But we don’t know anything about this,” one of the women called down. I recognized her from one of the ships in our bay. “Surely someone would have told us!”
“Once the people had landed on the island, it turned out that many of the merfolk were happy for them to stay. In a short time, friendships were formed. Apart from a very small number of the kraken keepers who were assigned to special duties elsewhere, most of the merfolk decided to stay here, as did most of the humans.”
“You haven’t answered my question!” the woman shouted.
“Memory drug,” Archie said simply. “They volunteered. That was their choice.”
“All of them?” the woman insisted. “The merfolk, too?”
“We can use it on anyone,” Archie replied. “And it will wipe out almost everything. What remains — well, you have all heard half-tales, stories you never quite knew what to make of, myths passed on and distorted with every telling.”
Archie’s words were slowly filtering into my brain. I didn’t want to understand, didn’t dare to follow his thinking to its logical conclusion. But the memory drug, well, I knew all about that. It was what my mom had been given for twelve years, so she wouldn’t remember that she was married to a merman. Fed to her in so-called treats from her so-called friend Mr. Beeston, the so-called lighthouse keeper! He’d always given me the creeps. He used to drop by to visit Mom all the time, for coffee and
doughnuts. He never said a lot, but he just had this really odd manner. He’d look at me sideways, and his eyes were different colors and his teeth were crooked. Well, he just made me feel uncomfortable. And then, when it turned out he’d been spying on us my entire life, it all made sense.
I’d half forgiven him in the end, when he helped me get back at Mandy Rushton. He used the memory drug on my class so no one would remember me turning into a mermaid. But he wasn’t to be trusted — and neither was anyone else who went around doling out that drug!
“As you all know, Neptune is a just and kind ruler,” Archie continued with a slight cough. “He allowed them to live together here on the island. No one needed to know about the kraken. Not yet. And so, you are here today. Allpoints Island has existed in this way for ninety-two years.”
A mermaid with glitter in her hair and a pink tail that flicked and splashed on the water raised her hand. “But why are you telling us this?” she asked in a timid voice. “Why now? And who are you, anyway? We hardly know you.”
Neptune rose from his chariot, motioning Archie to move out of his way. “Archieval works for me,” he said. “And he has told you your history. Now let me tell you something about your present.”
He sucked in his cheeks, clenching his teeth. “Someone,” he said, almost in a whisper, “someone has dared to challenge my power.” He took a breath, lifting his trident in the air. Then, in a voice that shook the caves as much as his arrival had, he bellowed, “Someone woke the kraken before its time!”
Darting backward and forward in the pool, agitated and angry, he spoke quickly. “Eight more years. That’s how long it had. That’s how long it NEEDED. That’s when I would have been here for it. But no! Someone couldn’t wait that long. SOMEONE had to wake it early. Do you KNOW what happens when my kraken has not had the sleep it needs?”
The caves responded with silence. No one was going to attempt to answer Neptune in this kind of mood. Not that he was known for having any other kind of mood.
“I’ll tell you. It wakes in a rage. Too much of a rage for even NEPTUNE to calm it. My truly loyal servant — someone has robbed me of it!”
“What will it do?” someone asked.
“The first signs are relatively small. It will lash around in its lair, creating freak waves. This is what it does while it is still in its cave. As far as we know, it still IS in there. But it will find its way to open seas sooner or later, and when it does, it will set out on the only path it knows.” Neptune paused as he slowly surveyed the caves. “Destruction.”
My tail was shaking again. “It’s okay, little ’un,” Dad whispered, pulling me close. “I’ll look after you.” He knew nothing. Nothing.
“That is why I am the ONLY one who should wake the kraken. The one who wakes it is the ONLY one who —” Neptune stopped abruptly. He smoothed back his hair and straightened his beard.
“Well. Let me just tell you this. Without my direction, it can destroy anything in its wake. Perhaps this whole island will crumble from its rage.”
The end of the island? All because of me? I tried to swallow and found I couldn’t. I had to fix this!
“Oh yes,” Neptune continued. “And you should know this: it can bring ships toward it. Apart from a few of my loyal aides, the kraken is the only creature who knows how to pierce the magic of the Bermuda Triangle. Once the kraken leaves its cave, you are no longer safe. Discovery cannot be far away. When this happens, the days of Allpoints Island are numbered.”
Neptune sucked in his breath again. “I have not yet decided what I shall do about you all. In the meantime, I want to know WHO DID THIS! I WILL find out! It is IMPERATIVE that he or she come to me!”
He stared around the caves in the silence. An occasional drop of water plopped softly into the water. No! I couldn’t. I couldn’t! I wasn’t going to get Mom and Dad thrown off the island. I wasn’t going back to that awful jail. I had to think of something.
“WELL?” he bellowed.
Then someone coughed gently. There was a bustling sound up on the stone benches. Someone was getting up. Millie! What on earth was she doing?
She flung her black cape over her shoulder and stepped toward a barrier at the edge of the pool.
“Your Majesty,” she said firmly. “I’m not one to interfere, but I may be able to help you.”
Neptune almost smiled. He looked as though he was smiling, anyway. It might just as easily have been anger twisting his face into a contorted frown. He pulled on his beard. “Help me?” he repeated.
“I can see things,” Millie explained. “I don’t like to boast, but I have been told I have something of a gift. I just need your star sign.”
“My STAR SIGN?” Neptune yelled.
“Yes, you know, your horoscope, your —”
“I know what you mean! It’s PISCES, of course!”
“Thank you,” Millie said through tight lips. “That anger won’t do your karma any good at all,” she added in a stage whisper. Then she closed her eyes and folded her hands over her chest. “I believe I can tell you exactly what has happened,” she said. “I just need some quiet.”
Neptune looked as though he was about to burst, but he didn’t speak. Nor did anyone else. Could she really see what had happened? Millie’s cosmic ways didn’t often come to much, but she did have an accurate moment now and then. What if this was one of them?
“I see riches of some sort,” Millie murmured. “What is it? Gold? Let me focus.”
Gold! She was describing the cave! No! Trust Millie to have one of her flukes and get it right when I desperately needed her to come out with her usual wacky nonsense. I’d heard enough. I had to get out before she told them everything. Maybe her vision had me in it!
I glanced up and tried to catch Mom’s eye. She was watching Millie with a look of admiration on her face. How would she look at me when she found out what I’d done? I couldn’t bear to imagine it.
I edged quietly away from Dad toward the darkness at the back of the pool. I could hear Millie’s voice warbling across the water. She sounded as if she was humming. Everyone was watching her. This was my only chance.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered into the darkness, and slipped quietly away.
I swam frantically through the dark tunnels, not even thinking about where they were leading me. I pounded past underwater stalagmites faintly lit up with soft, glowing crystals, around twists and turns and crevasses, almost gasping for the sight of the sky. I had to get out of the caves. Had to think.
Eventually, I came out into the open water. The light shocked me. Two little blueheads hovered at the cave’s mouth, pecking at the rock as though giving it little kisses.
A noise behind me. Splashing. Someone was following me!
I dived down into a thin cave under the rocks, stumbling upon a group of fat hogfish who looked up at me with black eyes before scattering away to find another den.
I watched the cave’s entrance. It was Dad!
I swam out from under the rock. “What are you doing here?”
“Emily!” He swam over toward me. “Why have you run away?”
I retreated farther under the rocks. “I’ve let you down. You, Mom, everyone. We’ll get thrown off the island and it’s all my fault. I’m so sorry.”
Dad squeezed into the crevasse with me, scattering clouds of sand as he slithered along the rock. “No one’s going to throw you off the island, little ’un. Why would they do that?”
“You don’t know!” I wailed. “You don’t know what I’ve done.” A tear snaked down my cheek, mingling with the water. All this time! All those years without him, and now that I’d found him, I’d done something so stupid, so awful, he’d hate me forever. I’d ruined everything.
“What? What have you done?”
I bit hard on my lip, squeezing my eyes shut.
“Whatever it is, you can tell me. We’ll figure out what to do together.”
My face was wet with tears. “It was me!” I blurted out. “I
woke the kraken!”
“You what? But how —”
“I went exploring! I knew I shouldn’t have, but I did. It was in a cave. I’m so stupid! I found it. I woke it up, Dad. I’ve ruined everything. I’ll never be able to show my face on the island again. You’ve only just got out of prison and now — oh, Dad, I’m sorry.”
Dad stroked my face. “Look. I don’t quite understand, but it’ll be okay. We’ll fix this. I’ll look after you.”
I pushed his hand away. “Dad, it won’t be okay. Don’t lie to me. I’m not a baby!”
He stared at me, his face red as though I’d hit him. As I held his gaze, he nodded slowly, as though he was watching me grow up in front of his eyes, catching up with who I really was, instead of who he remembered me being. “You’re right,” he said eventually. “Of course you’re not.” He turned to swim away.
“Wait.” I grabbed his arm. “I’m sorry.”
“You know what you are?” he asked, his voice as tight as his mouth.
I shook my head, holding back fresh tears.
“You’re my daughter, that’s what you are. You’re a Windsnap. And you know what that means?” Before I had a chance to answer, he added, “It means we’re going to straighten this out.”
“I’m not going back to the meeting. I can’t. Please.”
“Who said anything about going back there?”
“What, then?”
Dad stopped swimming and searched my face. “We’re going to the cave. Show me where it happened.”
“The kraken’s cave?”
“Why not? You heard what Neptune said. It’s probably still in there. Maybe we can straighten this mess out, somehow. Seal it back up so it’s safe again or something.”
“Dad, it was really frightening. It was the most terrifying thing ever!”
“Worse than going back to face Neptune? You stood up to him in his own court, remember.”
I dropped my head. “I know. That was pretty frightening, too.”
“Exactly. And you did that, so you can handle this as well.”
“I suppose.”
“Come on.” He held out his hand. “Let’s see what we can do.”