by E. G. Foley
The next boy was slightly smaller than the first, with a sandy-blond forelock hanging over one eye. He vaulted out of the whale, landed nimbly on the sand, and then Sapphira drew in her breath. He’s got it!
The blond boy was carrying her orb under one arm as he turned to help the next girl down; she was smaller still, with shoulder-length red hair like the autumn sunset. They, too, were arguing.
Apparently, young humans argued a lot, Sapphira concluded.
She swam closer, eavesdropping; she had to hear what they were saying, since it might be important to getting her orb back.
As she approached, she was relieved to see that at least the orb wasn’t damaged. That meant there was still hope of getting Lil back safe.
So maybe their stealing it wasn’t a total disaster…
The blond boy swaggered off, and Sapphira stifled a yelp when he started tossing the Atlantean artifact of unimaginable power into the air and catching it like an ordinary ball, the sort you’d use to entertain your pet seal.
“Won’t you ever change your ways?” the red-haired girl scolded as she marched after him. “You had no business stealing that, Jake.”
“Aw, come on! If I hadn’t, it would’ve been crushed under all that mess. I’ve saved it for posterity.”
“You just wanted it. You said so yourself, you barmy thief.”
Humph! She’s right, thought Sapphira.
“You don’t even know what it is!” the girl added.
“Aye, but you have to admit it’s pretty neat, though. Look.” The carefree blond boy tossed it to her, and Sapphira froze when the girl nearly missed it.
“Jake!”
Jake laughed. “Don’t break it, Dani,” he chided with a grin. “It’s probably worth a fortune to some ratty old museum.”
Dani thrust it back into his hands, shoving it at his stomach. “Never mind the stupid thing! What are we going to do about that poor dolphin we ran over?”
They both turned to gaze toward the sea; Sapphira ducked down behind a wave.
“Do you think it’s dead?” Dani asked bluntly.
“Nah,” said Jake.
“I feel terrible about this.”
“Me too. So does Archie.”
“And Isabelle, most of all. It’s really her fault, since she was trying to call them.”
“You can’t blame Isabelle,” Jake protested, glancing toward the golden-haired girl.
“I know… Still, we’ve got to help it somehow.”
“What do you suggest? I don’t fancy goin’ back out there at the moment, considering we nearly got killed. Besides, how are we supposed to find one hurt dolphin in the whole sea? That thing could be anywhere right now.”
“Aye, bleeding! Which’ll attract sharks to come and eat it!” Dani shook her head. “It’s too horrible to think about.”
Sapphira realized abruptly they were talking about her. Dolphin? She sniggered at their mistake, but this was no time for offended royal pride. It was better all around that they had not got a good look at her.
Humans were not supposed to be allowed to start believing in the merfolk. It was safer for her kind to remain a legend.
She was rather intrigued, though, that the landers at least seemed to care about hitting the “dolphin.” It was an encouraging sign, but it surprised her.
“Isabelle, where are you going?” the black-haired boy demanded as the blonde suddenly marched off into the surf, heading for the small sailboat anchored on the beach. “You don’t even know how to sail that thing!”
“I’ll figure it out!” she belted back, sounding on the verge of angry tears. “You don’t have to help if you don’t want to, Maddox! I’ll do it myself!”
The black-haired boy, Maddox, apparently, dropped his head back and stared at the sky, as though counting to ten for patience, while Isabelle waded out to the sailboat.
Just then, an elegant lady appeared at the stone railing of the terrace above the beach. It was attached to an opulent villa.
“Children! There you are! Where on earth have you been? It’s past time to start getting ready for the party! The guests begin arriving in an hour!”
“Coming, Miss Helena!” Dani called back.
Hmm, party? Sapphira thought with a crafty gleam in her eyes.
Blond Jake rapped his fist on the side of the whale. “Arch! Nix! Come on, we’ve got to get ready. We’d better go in and humor them before Aunt Ramona starts asking questions.”
Two more land kids climbed out of the metal whale: the boy she had seen driving the thing, and a scrawny, very pale girl with onyx hair.
Watching them from this closer distance, Sapphira was suddenly able to make out the name painted on the hull. She scoffed. That doesn’t look anything like a sea turtle.
“Chop, chop!” The lady up on the terrace clapped her hands sharply at the youths and then swept back inside.
Maddox trudged wearily out to the sailboat, into which Isabelle had just climbed. “Go on, get ready for the party. You’re needed. I’ll go.”
Isabelle looked at him in misery, but Dani suddenly shouted from the beach, “Wait, you two! I have an idea!”
Sapphira watched intently. Though a few years older than her sister, there was a cheerful spunk about the red-haired girl that reminded her of Lil, renewing her heartache.
“Isabelle! Just summon more dolphins and ask them to go out and look for the one that’s hurt! Tell them to bring him back here so we can help him.”
Isabelle can talk to dolphins? Sapphira was impressed. Maybe this blond human girl had a little mer-blood somewhere in her ancestry.
“Once they bring the hurt one here, then Jake could use one of Red’s healing feathers on him. It should work on a dolphin, shouldn’t it? Since it’s a mammal, not a fish?” Dani said breathlessly.
“It might,” Jake said, nodding.
“And that way, Maddox can come to the party, too!” Dani finished.
“Honestly, I’d rather go find the dolphin,” Maddox muttered.
Gathering around, they seemed to have worked out their plan—and likewise, Sapphira decided on hers.
Hopefully, they wouldn’t notice an extra guest at their party tonight.
Then she could simply slip into the villa and steal back her orb from these thieves.
It could work.
Of course, the thought of having to undergo the harrowing Landwalker’s spell to trade in her lovely blue tail for pale, awkward human legs and disgusting human feet made her grimace.
Some merfolk enjoyed using that old sea-magic spell to sneak ashore and mingle in disguise among the humans. She had a wild and glamorous older cousin, Angelina, aged twenty. She and her pod of fun-loving friends loved to don the appearance of human girls and sneak ashore to flirt with human boys.
“They’re so gullible, they believe anything you tell them!” she had said, laughing. Of course, Angelina was very beautiful, but apparently, human males could not resist the little dash of sea magic every mermaid possessed.
“But what if you get caught?” Sapphira had asked her cousin in concern.
“Oh, I don’t worry about that,” Angelina had said, admiring herself in her mirror. “If you get into any trouble, all you have to do is sing a bit, and it puts them in a trance for a few minutes. Then you can get away, if need be. They’ll do anything you say in that state. It’s so amusing! The only thing you really have to watch out for on land is not to get splashed with salt water—or then, you’re cooked.”
Angelina pooh-poohed the risks of visiting the human world, but as crown princess, Sapphira could not have gone gallivanting about in the human world even if she wanted to.
Which she didn’t.
Because the transformation involved in undergoing the Landwalker’s spell was painful, scary, and unpleasant. The most terrifying part was the transition from having water glide easily and naturally through her gills to breathing air through her mouth and nose. It always felt like she was dying at first, choking to deat
h…
Not to mention she was terrible at walking. Her body felt so heavy on land. Dragging her full weight around on every step made her back hurt, and if human feet weren’t icky enough in themselves, the bizarre coverings they wore on them—“shoes”—usually gave her blisters.
Unfortunately, her little sister’s life was at stake. Besides, it was just one quick visit to the dry world.
If Davy Jones didn’t get his orb, she might never see her poor Barnacle alive again. Indeed, for all she knew, the mad pirate might destroy the whole kingdom in a temper tantrum if he didn’t get what he wanted.
To the party, then, she thought grimly.
Committing the villa’s location to memory, she slipped back underwater, then somersaulted in the waves to head back out to sea. No doubt the Coral Palace was still in chaos, but she had no intention of going there. She didn’t dare face Father until she had fixed this. Sooner or later, the king would figure out she was the one who had caused all the trouble, as usual. It pained her to wonder, too, what her tutor would say when he found out she had directly disobeyed his instructions and more or less lied to him.
But a full catastrophe could still be averted, as long as she got the orb back.
She hurried first to the old shipwreck to pick out a dress from one of the many antique traveling trunks scattered across the seabed. Once she had found something suitable to wear, she went to visit the dotty old sea-witch in her apothecary cave.
There she purchased the long strands of the slimy magical seaweed that she’d have to wrap around her lower body to change her tail into human limbs. That mysterious seaweed was rare and expensive, and since she had fled the palace without a single sand dollar, she had to put it on credit.
Not that that was a problem, for the old sea-hag knew exactly who she was. She had recognized her from the moment she had swum into her cave. It was one of the drawbacks of being royalty.
“Good luck, dear,” the old siren said.
“Please don’t tell anyone you saw me,” Sapphira implored her.
“As you wish, Your Highness.” The sea-witch drifted to the edge of her cave, watching Sapphira swim off.
Her plan was moving right along.
With any luck, she’d have the orb back by tonight, and her sister safe at home again by tomorrow morning.
PART II
CHAPTER 7
Bellissima!
By evening, the villa was flooded with guests. Tables draped in crisp white linen and adorned with bright centerpiece bouquets were set up throughout the huge Mediterranean-style drawing room, the grand oval parlor, and outside, along the terrace, as well. They had enjoyed a fine meal, and now people were on their feet, chatting and mingling over the sweets course.
Archie had finally settled down after that harrowing ordeal, but he had been distracted throughout the whole party because of his dismay.
Sweet Bacon, it had been a close thing, that. Usually it was Jake nearly getting them killed, not him! He did not even want to think about how close he had come to taking Jake and Dani—and Nixie!—and Maddox and his dear sister all down to a watery grave. Egads.
He shook his head in belated shock at his own bad judgment. I should’ve stopped this. Badly done, Archimedes! I must be more prudent in future.
And his poor Turtle. He gave a mental groan. He couldn’t believe his beloved submersible had taken a few dents and scratches on her first real venture into the open seas. But what bothered him most even now was having run over that poor dolphin.
He was not even sure from which direction the animal had come. It was just suddenly there, and he was so very sorry. No animal was merrier than a dolphin, and not for all the world would he ever have wanted to do one harm.
He did not want to admit it to his tender-hearted sister, but he feared he had killed it. He had never killed anything before, not even his lab mice. It felt cold and horrid, being responsible for that—especially while stuck in a situation where he must socialize with strangers and pretend that everything was fine.
Not knowing what else to do, he stayed around the edges of the party and just kept eating all the dainty foods that passed by on trays.
Upon their return today, the kids had agreed not to speak about their excursion into the sunken temple. Aunt Ramona would likely throttle them, and the locals might feel funny about it, too. These proud, dramatic Sicilians could be a little unpredictable.
Now that it was all over, Archie certainly felt as though they had intruded where they did not belong. Their explorations today had been a fascinating glimpse into the past, yet he could not escape the gnawing sense that trouble might still come of it somehow.
As for the artifact Jake had nicked from the temple, not even Archie had any idea what it was. Maybe Dani was right, with all her Irish superstitions. Maybe the thing was bad luck.
He stood near her now, letting her and the other two girls make small talk with the cluster of adult guests who’d been grilling them all about how they were enjoying their holiday. Archie continued nervously nibbling on the exquisite, buttery-sweet biscuits that came in so many shapes and varieties throughout the various regions of Italy. He had not seen Jake and Maddox for a while.
His cousin was probably off stuffing his face somewhere.
“Did you feel that earthquake this afternoon? Why, it scared us half to death,” Dani joked politely with the strangers.
Isabelle and Nixie smiled and nodded, but neither of them were good in a crowd, so the redhead was doing her best to carry the conversation.
Archie felt bad he wasn’t being his usual chatty self.
“I was not aware of any earthquake today,” said a jeweled Swiss countess with a feather on her head. She had rented a villa down the beach.
“Really?” Dani tilted her head. “But it was so loud.”
“No, signorina,” a mustachioed local grandee assured her, “I am certain there was no earthquake today. My dogs, you see, would have told me. They always bark when the tremors come.”
“Perhaps the volcano rumbled a bit, then?” Dani asked.
The Sicilian noble laughed. “Oh, no, no, child. When old Etna gives a burp, everybody hears it.”
“Oh. Hmm. Anyway, what else is fun to do around here?” Dani said with polite cheerfulness that would’ve made Miss Helena smile.
As they chatted on, Archie pondered the adults’ denial that there had been an earthquake. Perhaps it had only been detectable out at sea. They had been right on top of the seabed, after all, and what else but an earthquake could have destabilized the temple to the point of making it collapse?
Still, it seemed odd they hadn’t felt it. Considering the undersea tremor had been strong enough to bring the whole temple down, he’d have thought they’d at least noticed something on land. But he shrugged it off. Seismology was not his expertise.
Midway into crunching through a biscuit, Archie suddenly stopped chewing, spotting a guest he had not noticed before. His eyes slowly widened…
Bellissima!
No offense to his favorite, Nixie, but in walked right possibly the most beautiful girl that he had ever seen.
Wide-eyed behind his spectacles, he gulped down his mouthful and stared at her astonishing beauty. A late arrival? She had to be, he thought. If that fair vision had come in while they all had stood in the receiving line, he was not likely to forget it.
She had long, blue-black spiral curls that hung to her waist, a delicate oval face, a sun-kissed complexion, and a slim figure clad in a very frilly cream-colored gown.
Admittedly, the dress was rather unfortunate. Archie was no expert on lady’s gowns, but thanks to his impeccably dressed sister and Miss Helena, even he knew that thing was a fashion disaster.
It looked like some sort of antique—very ornate, but decidedly shabby; in fact, her gown looked like it’d been through a war. Well, maybe her family had fallen on hard times. That wasn’t her fault. It was not an uncommon plight among today’s aristocracy, he thought.
Limping down the colonnade, she supported herself by bracing one hand on the furniture and wall. Maybe her shoes were too tight. Maybe the poor thing had one leg shorter than the other, or a clubfoot. Or perhaps she’d sprained a dainty ankle.
Well, a gentleman ought not to think about ankles, Archie remembered, blushing.
Whatever was the matter with her, Archie watched, perplexed, as she hobbled along, pretty as a dream, clumsy as a hunchback.
He shook his head to himself in fascination as the lovely girl shambled out of view.
Hmm! Got to show Jake. Remembering the boys’ ongoing joke, a grin flicked across Archie’s face for the first time since today’s brush with doom. Humor bubbled up inside him. I’ll point her out to Maddox, too. Maybe that’ll help take his mind off my blasted sister.
By now, everybody knew that the reason that Maddox and Isabelle could not get along was because they were both well aware they could never be together. Guardians could not have girlfriends, and daughters of viscounts did not marry blacksmiths’ sons.
No doubt it was torture for them both having to be together every day, but the only reason Maddox was there in the first place was to help protect Jake from the Dark Druids.
Whether he’d be allowed to stay if Aunt Ramona and their governess knew about the pair’s true feelings for each other, well, Archie rather doubted it.
Eager to restore the sense of fun that had rather fizzled since this afternoon, Archie excused himself politely from the group of people standing around, and went to find his rascally cousin.
Nixie sent a curious glance after him, but Isabelle’s sudden sharp look was more suspicious. Honestly, it was the very devil having an empath for a big sister. His entire childhood, he could never get away with anything! Lucky for him, he had always been a fairly rule-abiding boy.