effect. “It’s dark in this abyss and he won’t suspect anything. When we get into battle I’ll already be behind enemy lines. I can do more to help my king if Titan thinks I’m his injured prisoner than if I go back to the king now.”
“But how will I get back? How will the king know what Titan is doing?” Lilliana had found a friend, and now she had to leave him behind.
“You’re a stronger beastie than you know. You’ve got the Star with you and you’re not exactly unarmed,” he said looking at her feet.
“Very funny. I don’t think my toes can fight off an army of sharks.” Her stomach tightened into knots.
“Keep your eyes on the Star, and he’ll show you the way. Now just follow the cool water to go back up the trench. The sharks are still meeting, but there may be some still keeping guard so be careful. Tell the king that Titan plans to use the mermaid cave. He has some connection with their king and his witch, I mean wife.”
“Would that be Serena?” Lilliana asked.
“I see you’ve heard of her. Grab that.” Lance pointed at the sea urchin that was climbing out of his window. “Nasty things, but there’s nothing else left of my dinner.” Lilliana picked up a spine and tossed it to Lance. He made a face as he crunched open the sea urchin.
“Also, tell the king that Titan knows everything. He knew our numbers and weaknesses before he ever got to me. I still don’t know how he gets his information, but I plan to find out.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” Lilliana said.
“This is the right way. I can feel it,” urged Lance.
17. Trench
Lilliana put the crystal in her pocket as she swam towards the trench. All the sea creatures were in Titan’s meeting so there were no swimmers up ahead. Lilliana heard cheers from a cave to her left, and swam to the right to avoid the fish. Since she had talked with Lance there was no need to waste time eavesdropping on Titan.
The cool temperature made the path easy to find, but Lilliana had to push upward against the current of cold water as it dropped to the abyss. For every stroke up it felt like the current was pushing her arm back down. The swim up was more strenuous than she expected, and she was getting careless about the bubbles. One had already scorched her toe, and she was lucky it hadn’t hurt anything more important.
As Lilliana approached the edge of the cliff where the trench started she heard voices. She darted behind a large rock and listened.
“What do you mean they never want me around? I was the one who got the sharp-nosed thing to talk,” said a familiar voice. It had to be Smiley. Lilliana’s face grew hot thinking about the horrible things he had done to Lance.
“That cookie thing is gross, and you make the rest of us hungry while you gnaw on one tiny piece of flesh. It’s just not natural,” insisted the other shark. Brutus.
“Think of it as farming. I only eat a little circle of flesh that can grow back. Then I can harvest more flesh. It’s very organic.”
“Organic? What shark talks like that? You’re the freak that Titan didn’t want around and I’m here to babysit you.”
“I thought we were important guards here to make sure nobody hears about Titan’s plans,” Smiley whined.
“Who’s going to hear? The urchins said that King Nereus has called all his troops to the throne room. Titan has all of our guys in his house. That leaves you and me. Freak and his babysitter.”
The sharks swam in circles around each other. Neither one would turn his back to the other, but both of them were blocking the way up the trench. If Lilliana were to go to the fountain gate she either had to go over them and risk being seen, or confront the two of them somehow.
“Maybe Titan thinks I need to babysit you?” Smiley said. “Did you ever think of that? You’re so angry he can’t trust you to be in a room full of sharks. All I do is eat one cookie and you start to drool. We all smell it.” Smiley shoved the other shark with his fin.
Brutus was puffing out his cheeks and his tail was pulsing back and forth. Lilliana could tell the little shark was really getting to him. That gave her an idea.
“There you are Smiley,” Lilliana said as she swam confidently towards the sharks.
“It’s the prisoner-beast-thing!” Brutus said, “Capture her!”
“Don’t you dare attack your queen!” Lilliana said as she held a hand up to the shark’s face.
“What?” said both sharks.
“Come now,” she continued, “You don’t really think I could have lifted that big heavy rock with no fins do you? Titan married me in the meeting and I am now your queen.” She paused to let that sink in. The sharks stared with their mouths open. “Titan said I could pick one shark to show me around the territory and he told me where to find you, Smiley. You’ve already been so kind to me.”
“See Brutus,” snickered Smiley. “Who’s the freak now?”
“After we lead Brutus back to the prison cell, you can give me a tour,” Lilliana continued ignoring Brutus’s grinding teeth.
Smiley grinned pulling back his grotesque red lips to show all of his crooked teeth.
“Prison?” Brutus asked. “Do I get to beat up a prisoner?”
“Not exactly,” Lilliana said. “It seems Titan doesn’t want you around. He says you’re … unpredictable and uncontrollable.”
Brutus’s face got red. His tail began to stir up a current as he swung it to and fro.
“Yea,” Smiley said as he swam up to the bigger shark’s face. “Nobody wants you around. Get it?” Smiley smacked Brutus across the snout.
Brutus’s eyes turned black and in an instant his jaw was snapping over Smiley. Smiley was prepared and had flipped over back ward and started swimming down the cliff toward the pit. Brutus swam fast and caught a piece of Smiley’s tail and flung him against the wall. The smaller shark glared at Brutus and snapped his jaws in his face.
Lilliana watched the two sharks flow with the cold river down into the pit as they attacked each other, bite for bite. Teeth were flashing among the glimmering bubbles as the sharks slowly swam out of sight.
Lilliana turned her attention uphill. Now she was at the bottom edge of the trench. Below her was the cliff that led to Titan and above her was the trench and Star Shadow. She positioned herself between the two walls of the trench and cautiously swam up the trench, occasionally peeking over the edge of the channel to see where she was. She kept her eyes ahead, afraid of what she might see. Would Spectrum still be lying in the trench? Did the king’s men take him away? She swallowed hard and kept swimming.
Soon Lilliana saw the boundary rocks marking the fountain gate. They were bigger than she remembered, rising like small rock castles facing each other. Lilliana swam out of the trench and towards the rocks. She could feel the hum of them as their magic filled the water. There was no sign of Spectrum in the trench. It didn’t even look as if there had been a fight. All she could see were some small scallops, two purple urchins and a crab scurrying under a rock. No horses. No friends. Not even a broken scale or bone to indicate the struggle that had been here less than two days ago.
Lilliana swam up to the huge rocks and put her hand on one of them. She could feel the magic coursing through her arm. She swam up to the passage between them. The other side looked like a blank ocean floor filled with nothing but sand and rocks. Lilliana knew as she passed through the rocks she would find the path to Star Shadow. She couldn’t waste any more time. She had to go now. Lilliana backed up a little so she could lift her feet. She started swimming and as she felt the humming from the rocks on either side she closed her eyes and kicked hard and fast through the huge rocks to the other side. She took a deep breath of water over her gills and looked around. Nothing. All she saw was the same blank ocean floor with the same empty rocks. It didn’t work.
“Nooo!” Lilliana shouted. She had to get to Nereus. She had to tell him what the shark was doing.
“I didn’t d
o anything,” a small voice replied.
Lilliana looked in the direction of the voice at the bottom of the rocks. Was this a clam talking now?
“Who’s there?” she asked.
“Promise you won’t poison me?” said the familiar voice again.
“Spike?”
Spike’s face peeked from behind one of the big mountain-rocks. He was small and deflated, but he was definitely Spike. He looked up at her with those bigger-than-life eyes.
“You remember me?”
“Of course I do, Spike. How could I forget one of my friends?”
“I’m your friend? I mean, of course I’m your friend!” Spike swam tentatively towards Lilliana.
“Spike, listen carefully, I need to find King Nereus and tell him something very important. He really needs this information!”
“I thought you were dead!” Spike insisted. “And now we’re friends!”
“Spike, I need to see the king,” Lilliana said again. “How do I get through the gate?”
“I mean after all, you were taken by the sharks and after what they did to everybody else; I just knew you were dead!”
“Spike, settle down and listen to me.”
“So, just to be sure, it is better to be friends with me than to be dead, right? My cousins always said they’d rather be dead, but that’s not really true, is it?” Spike turned his big eyes up into Lilliana’s.
“Spike I am very glad to be your friend in any circumstance. Is that settled?”
The little fish
The Prophecy of Atlantis Page 26