nodded. Lilliana swam lower so her face was even with the little fish’s face. When she spoke, her voice was quiet and Spike strained to hear her.
“Can you take me to the king? I have to tell him about bad sharks and witches and about Lance being captured.”
“Lance is alive too?!” Spike perked up.
“Not for long if I don’t get to the king,” Lilliana replied.
“Why didn’t you say so? You can just use your magic and go through the rocks.” Spike said.
“I tried that already. Is there something else I need to do?”
“Didn’t it work?”
“If it worked I would be there and not here,” Lilliana said gesturing to herself to make the point evident.
“Since you’re here, you can’t be there?”
“Spike! Is there another way? I can’t stay here long or the sharks will come after me.”
“I thought the sharks kicked you out. That’s what always happens to me.” Spike looked at the sandy bottom and swam in a small circle.
“Spike. Swim. Now!” Lilliana’s face was inches from the fish and she had lost all semblance of patience. There were kingdoms at stake and one of them was hers. “Go somewhere that ends at the palace! Just go!”
“OK, but the mermaids don’t like me much,” Spike said and he started swimming past the rocks and towards the deep blue emptiness behind them. Lilliana enjoyed stretching her legs and the fast swim made her feel like she was making progress. The mermaids didn’t bring any joy to her heart. They were big and somehow managed to look dirty even though they spent all their time in the water. They had had some respect for Spectrum, but there was no telling what they would do to her. Spike swam for minutes over the sandy bottom. There were no corals or animals here, just plain sand. The minutes turned into hours and the hours stretched on until Lilliana thought she couldn’t swim anymore. Then there was sea grass below her and small crabs scurrying among rocks. She could faintly make out some sort of mountain ahead and the coral was billowing with feathery worms. The ocean was still dark, but the surface was turning from black to blue.
“How are we going to get past the mermaids?” Lilliana asked Spike. “They don’t seem very friendly.”
“They’ve always kept to themselves, but Mama said they got mean when the new lady made herself queen.”
“They definitely don’t seem nice. How do we get past them?”
“We don’t,” Spike said simply. He kept his eyes straight ahead and swam intently towards the mountain.
“I thought you said we were going past the mermaids,” Lilliana insisted. “Aren’t they hard to get past?”
“We have to get to that cave before they start to wake up,” Spike said flatly.
“Spike what’s wrong? You haven’t talked to me the whole way here and you’re barely answering my questions.”
Spike puffed himself up a little and blew out a face full of bubbles. “You don’t like me. You’re mad at me. You yelled at me, and you just want to use me to see your friend the king.” Spike deflated until he was almost flat and drifted towards the bottom.
“Spike! How can you say that I don’t like you? You’re the best puffer fish I’ve ever known.”
Spike kept looking down and he started to spin in circles again, idly moving his left fin.
“Spike, you’re the only friend I have now, and I need you.”
Spike looked at Lilliana with bright blue eyes. “Are you sure you like me?”
“Oh Spike.” Lilliana put her hand out to touch him, and gently stroked his fin, avoiding the spines along his body. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. I’m still a little scared of all the things that are happening and it really is very important that I see the king. I could never do this without you. Will you forgive me?”
Spike flushed pink and flipped over backwards. “I forgive you! I have a friend!” He swam in a loop around Lilliana and kissed her cheek. His scales turned bright red and he swam in a little circle looking at the sandy bottom.
Lilliana laughed. “Shall we go through the mermaid tunnel now friend?”
Spike looked up. “Nope. We can’t go that way.”
“What do you mean?” Lilliana was never going to understand this little fish.
“There really isn’t another way into Star Shadow. The mermaids are mean and they’ll take you if you don’t have a really big fish with you. You can only get there through the tunnel or through the boundary rocks.”
“Surely there’s another way into the kingdom. How do the urchins litter the castle if there isn’t another way in?”
Spike blew bubbles and started spinning the other way. “The urchins are just tossed over the cliff by the otters. The otters eat them at the kelp forest on the outside of the volcano and they throw the leftovers or unwanted ones into the middle, which is the king’s throne room. That’s how I got there when you were seeing the king.”
Lilliana thought about the circular room where the king and his court rose to the surface to get air. That was at the center of the volcano and it was the only way someone could get to the king from the surface. What if she could go that way too? Lilliana could barely remember what it was like to breathe through her nose, except that she had different smells. Maybe she was trapped and could only breathe under water like a fish.
“Spike, do you know of any fish that can go on land and then live in the water again?”
“Nope. They either breathe air, or oxygen in the water, but never both. Why?”
“No reason. Is there a way you could take me to the kelp forest?”
“The otters will go crazy if I take you there. They hate when anybody tries to take their food,” said Spike.
“I don’t want their food. I just want to try to reach the king. I think I might be able to climb over the edge if I can just get to the land.”
“The otters aren’t the only crazy ones. How are you going to breathe? You have to climb on shore, take a hike and jump off a cliff. It’s a long way to go without water and I don’t want you to get hurt too, like Lance …and Mama.”
“I have to do something Spike. If I can’t breathe on land I’ll just hold my breath and run. I’ll be fine. I know I can do this.”
Spike studied her face. Lilliana looked him steadily in the eye.
“It was nice having you for a friend,” said Spike, “even if you are slightly crazed.”
Lilliana grinned. “Thanks Spike. I love you too.”
“Really?” Spike spun up in the water, did a flip and stopped right in front of Lilliana. “Let’s go poison goddess, I mean princess.”
18. Crabs
Spike started swimming towards the darkest part of the ocean. As they passed the mermaid cave, Lilliana glanced nervously at the opening. She saw a swish of a silver tail and a chill went down her spine as she remembered how quickly the mermen had snuck up behind her and her horse. Lilliana looked again and there was nothing but small schools of fish darting in and around the coral looking for an early breakfast.
Above them the surface of the water was just beginning to change from inky black to a deep blue, but the sea ahead of them was still dark. They traveled past the coral outcroppings and towards the barren ocean floor. The empty stretch of sand looked immense and lonely, like a desert under the sea.
“Spike, how long will it take to reach the kelp forests?”
“Not too long, if you can keep swimming.”
“I’m a little tired, but I think I can make it.” Lilliana was fighting off sleep with every stroke of her arms, but she knew she had to get to the king.
“I wasn’t talking about being tired,” continued the fish, “I meant as long as you don’t get stopped.”
Lilliana looked around her. There were no sharks or mermen, and certainly no chance of getting wrapped in seaweed. The floor was as clear of life as a cloudy night was clear of stars. Perhaps some of the sea creatures set traps, or they were invisi
ble. Maybe the mermaids were trickier than she thought.
“I thought the mermaids would leave us alone if we didn’t go near their cave,” she said.
“See the cave ahead?”
Lilliana shifted her gaze from the sandy floor to the ocean ahead of her. She peered in the dark and squinted her eyes to try to focus more clearly. The darkness wasn’t the black night of the ocean, but a huge cliff rising from the sand all the way to the surface. This must be the side of the volcano that protected the throne room, but where were the otters and the kelp?
Spike stopped swimming and turned to face the princess. “Do you see the cave or not?”
“I just see a huge black cliff. I don’t see any caves.”
“This is the way to the kelp forest. We just go through the cave.”
“Another cave?”
“It’s either the cave or swim past the mermaids and up the slope to the kelp. We would have to go twenty miles around their castle and their settlement to get to the otters.”
Lilliana looked at the base of the cliff. The rocks were sharp and jagged like they had just been thrown off the side of the mountain and the tufts of sea grass at the base peeked from under the boulders as if they had been flattened only moments ago.
“I still don’t see the cave,” Lilliana said.
“Look up.”
Lilliana shifted her gaze along the side of the cliff. She moved her eyes up twenty feet, then fifty feet. No cave. She tilted her head and looked up eighty feet, then a hundred. No cave. She strained her neck and looked to the surface of the ocean. There was a small dark spot
The Prophecy of Atlantis Page 27