by E. G. Foley
Life in Sicily went on at its nice, andante pace.
Well, Jake decided, if Maddox wasn’t afraid (and when was he ever, aside from whenever Isabelle actually tried to talk to him?) then he was hardly going to chicken out.
Unfortunately, he could not say the same for his Gryphon, who had been delivered, safe and sound, as promised, by the haughty wood elf Lightrider, Finnderool. Having that Waypoint on the property had proved most convenient, and he’d whooped at his joyous reunion with Red.
But as the lazy days passed, Jake had secretly started getting bored. He was determined to find something to do, so he’d decided it was time to do some training with his pet.
“Oh, stop being a baby!” Jake scolded his large, winged friend, who balked presently on the sand.
While the others pursued their own interests, Jake’s beach activity for the day had been to try to help his fierce mythical beast overcome his one phobia: flying over the sea.
“Caw!” Red protested, planting his lion claws stubbornly in the sand as Jake tried to pull him toward the waterline.
“Come on, Red, you can do this! Are you forgetting your own Welsh name—Claw the Courageous? Red, you’ve fought dragons! This is no different than flying over a lake!”
“Caw?” the Gryphon bleated, begging to be excused.
“Yes, I know you’re half lion and lions can’t swim, but don’t worry! I won’t let you drown, I promise. We’ll just fly out to one of those rock formations sticking up from the water, take it little by little. See those sea rocks there? That’s not too far. We’ll just go to that point, then we’ll come right back. What do you say?”
The Gryphon snorted through his golden beak and shook his head angrily.
“Hmm. All right…you drive a hard bargain, Gryphon. Very well, what if I promised you a whole tuna, all to yourself?”
Red paused and cocked his head. “Tucaw?”
“Oh, you never tried tuna? Well, let me tell you, they’re excellent. We had grilled tuna steaks for supper just last night. Magnifico!” He kissed his fingertips. “You might even like it better than salmon.”
Red seemed to scowl at him for the bribe. He eyed the dolphins around Isabelle rather hungrily, but Jake laid hold of his beak and pulled his pet’s attention back to him. “Don’t even think about it, mate. Look out to sea! There’s all kinds of fish out there, and you could catch them easily if you’d overcome your fear. Come on, Red. You’re no coward. You’re half eagle, too, and eagles catch fish out of the ocean all the time.
“This is just a silly phobia, and I am going to help you overcome it. I owe you that, after all the ways that you’ve helped me. So, what do you say? Let’s give it a go. I’ll be with you all the way. There’s a big, juicy tuna in it for you, if you’ll just try…”
With a harrumph, the Gryphon finally grumbled a low “becaw,” which Jake interpreted as a reluctant, Oh, all right, since you refuse to leave me alone about it.
Jake grinned and patted his crimson-feathered head. “Atta boy!” Without waiting for Red to change his mind, he jumped on his back and gripped the beast’s sturdy leather collar. “Let’s go!”
“Look!” Dani said to the others, pointing with her paintbrush. “He’s gonna try it!”
“Good boy, Red! You can do it!” Isabelle called, waving from the water amid her ring of squeaky dolphins.
Maddox looked up from his nautical puttering, while Nixie and Archie cheered on their feathered friend. “Go, Red!”
“You can do it!”
With a few beats of his scarlet-feathered wings, the Gryphon climbed nervously above the waves, with Jake on his back murmuring encouragement. “You’re doing great…”
The wind ran riot through Jake’s hair. Brilliant. He tossed his head with a roguish smile, whipping his dark blond forelock out of his eyes as he held on tight, leaning forward like a jockey.
“See? This isn’t so bad…”
He continued murmuring encouragement to Red, but kept him from flying too high for fear they would be seen by beachcombers, fishermen, and sailboat cruisers below, who would probably think they’d had too much sun if they saw a lad go flying by overhead on a gryphon.
A very anxious gryphon.
“You’re doing fine, boy.” Jake patted Red’s withers.
Red banked and soared, but quivered at the tall spray of sea foam that speckled them when they whooshed past the huge columnlike boulder sitting in a random spot in the middle of the shallows, as if it had been hurled there by a Cyclops.
Everywhere beneath them, the colors of the Mediterranean waters were outrageous, shades of turquoise, jade, and cobalt blue beneath the azure sky.
“What a view,” Jake murmured to his pet. “You have to admit it’s pretty nice up here. Hey! What’s that down there?”
“Becaw?”
“In the water! Over there.” Jake squinted, then pointed to his right. “You see that? There’s a huge shape underneath the water. There. It looks like…a building down there!”
“Caw?”
Jake furrowed his brow while the Gryphon’s wings pumped. “Drat it, I wish I would’ve brought m’telescope. Red, take me over there. I want to get a better look.”
Red snuffled in refusal.
“Aw, don’t be that way! Aren’t you curious to find out what the deuce a building is doing underwater? They can’t have built it there. Must’ve been on dry land once, right? Archie says this region is one of the most earthquake-prone in the whole world. Let’s go see it—Red, you’re going the wrong way!”
“Becaw, caw!”
“No, Red! Listen to your master. Bad Gryphon! Take me over there—Whoooa!”
In the midst of their struggle, a flock of pelicans came flying straight at them just then, apparently having decided to migrate to the next cove for the afternoon. There were dozens of the birds, each with nearly ten-foot wingspans, the whole flock coasting ahead on a collision course with them.
“Red, look out!”
The Gryphon screeched and tried to get out of the way; the big, awkward birds likewise panicked to find themselves suddenly faced with a half-eagle thing that smelled a little like a cat.
The pelicans squawked and flapped to and fro, while Red zigged and zagged. Jake threw his arm up in front of his face in case any of those sharp beaks came too close, but letting go of Red’s collar proved a mistake.
When the Gryphon spiraled to avoid a crash, Jake lost his balance and slipped off Red’s back. Arms reeling, legs kicking, he fell like a stone amid the flapping pelicans.
“Becaw?” Red called gingerly, as if to say, Sorry!
“You big baby!” Jake hollered, and there was just enough time for him to suck in a large breath before he plunged into the warm blue waves.
Meanwhile, Claw the not-so-Courageous went flying back to land at top speed and hid himself among the garden trees in pure shame.
The height of his fall had thrust Jake well down into the green, bubbly depths, but in truth, the silky salt water was quite pleasant.
It was, after all, a fine day for a swim.
And even more intriguingly, when he looked down, the ancient, algae-covered roof of the building he had spotted from the air was now but several tantalizing yards below his feet.
He squinted, salt stinging his eyes. Why, that thing had some sort of statue atop it.
The large, human-shaped figure had clumps of barnacles growing on it, but Jake saw the stone-carved toga it was wearing and was suddenly inspired.
Crikey, is that one of those old pagan goddesses? Athena or something? Why, it seemed he’d discovered some kind of ancient Roman ruins.
A sunken temple!
The adventurer in him could not resist. Lounging on the beach was all very well, but here was a leisure activity worthy of a future Lightrider!
It was a little difficult to see in the blue-green underwater twilight, but Jake was determined to get a closer look. Might as well, since I’m already down here, he thought eagerly.
So, rather than heading for the surface, he swam down deeper to explore his mysterious find.
Though still above the building, he could see its lines somewhat clearly. There was a wide portico with columns and an entrance down there in the dark…
Unfortunately, he hadn’t gone far when he realized he couldn’t hold his breath much longer. Blast it.
Drowning would certainly put a damper on his holiday. No need to do the Dark Druids’ work for them. Besides, it would be much more fun to explore that thing with all his friends along.
Lungs burning, Jake shot toward the surface.
A long moment later, he came up sputtering.
Dani and Maddox were already on their way out to rescue him, the frantic redhead leaning forward over the bow of the sailboat like a ship’s anxious figurehead, while the Guardian apprentice sought no help from the lazy breeze in the canvas, but rowed through the waves at top speed.
“Jake! Are you all right?” Dani shouted anxiously.
He waved back from the water. “No worries!”
He began swimming slowly toward them, but it was only a moment before Maddox pulled on the oars, slowing the boat alongside him.
“That Gryphon ought to be ashamed of himself, bucking you off like that!” Dani huffed, reaching out her hand to him as Maddox held the boat steady.
“I’m sure he is,” Jake replied.
“What took you so long to come to the surface?” she demanded as he grasped her outstretched hand and let her pull him closer.
The buoyancy of the water made him light enough for her to reel him in fairly easily. Besides, the little redhead had always been stronger than she looked—and her Irish brogue always thickened when she got upset. “Ye nearly gave me an apoplectic fit, ye daftling!”
“I’m always givin’ you apoplectic fits, Dani O’Dell. It’s what I do.”
“I thought ye hit your head down there, or got eaten by a shark!”
“Nah, but I saw something, and you’ve all got to see it, too.” He braced his other hand on the gunwale and heaved himself out of the water.
She looked at him in surprise. “What, a mermaid?”
“Not a mermaid!” he said in annoyance, and shook his head, scoffing. Girls. Jake slung his body awkwardly into the boat.
“Careful, ye lug! You’re gonna capsize us!”
While Dani fussed at him for getting water everywhere, he wiped the salt water out of his eyes and flung his wet forelock out of his face. “Did anybody bring a towel?”
“We have them back on the beach.”
“So what did you see down there?” Maddox prodded.
Dani grinned. “A pirate treasure?”
“Honestly!” Jake retorted, laughing at her wild guesses. “Something even better than that. But it’s a surprise.” He cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled toward the shore: “Ho, genius! Get the Turtle fired up! It’s time to take her out! Because I just found us the first official adventure of our holiday!”
CHAPTER 4
Maiden Voyage of the Mighty Turtle
Sailing back toward the shore, Jake, Dani, and Maddox were startled to spot the dolphins that had been frolicking around Isabelle stampeding back out to sea. Leaping as they swam, the pod raced right past the sailboat. It was an amazing sight, but it puzzled them.
“Where’d all your friends go?” Jake asked his cousin when they had returned to the beach. “Was it feeding time or something?”
Isabelle shrugged. “I don’t know. It almost seemed like something upset them, but they left too fast to tell me what was wrong. Are you all right, coz? That was quite a fall.”
“I’m fine,” he assured her as he used his telekinesis to make a towel float over to him from the neatly folded stack under the umbrella shade. But when his Gryphon came padding out from the garden, head down, Jake sent him a playful scowl. “There you are, you big baby.”
“Caaaw.”
“No, I’m not mad at you!” Jake chuckled and dried his face and ears.
Archie left the side of the Turtle, sloshing over to him in shin-deep water. “What were you yelling to me out there?” he asked, sweat beaded on his freckled brow.
“I’ve got a surprise for you all. Everybody—listen to this!” Gathering the whole group around, Jake proceeded to tell his friends what he had seen underwater.
As he’d expected, they were as fascinated as he by the prospect of exploring the sunken temple. Going down to have a look at it sounded like the perfect adventure for their first time out in Archie’s submarine.
The boy genius whooped with excitement at the chance to finally show off his latest invention. He had purposely built the submersible big enough to hold everyone, unlike his flying machine, the Mighty Pigeon, which could only carry two.
“Nix, help me get her ready?” he cried, beaming.
“Aye, aye, Cap’n,” she drawled, following with a wry look as Archie went splashing back through the shallows to make his launch preparations.
“I think I’ll sit this one out,” Isabelle murmured to Jake while the others scattered to prepare for the sub’s maiden voyage.
“Why?” Jake asked, turning to her in dismay. “Izzy, this is a big moment for your brother. What’s wrong? Don’t be a killjoy.”
“Nothing! It’s just, someone ought to stay behind in case Aunt Ramona or Miss Helena come looking for us,” she said, a tad defensively.
Jake glanced up toward the villa. “Are they still getting everything ready for the party tonight?”
She nodded. “We’ll have to start getting ready ourselves soon.”
Jake had been surprised to learn it was the done thing among the upper classes to entertain one’s neighbors when visiting distant lands for an extended stay. Therefore, tonight they’d be hosting a swanky gathering at the Villa di Palma to meet and greet the other rich, highborn holidaymakers visiting Taormina or staying at the other seaside mansions for the season.
Now that they’d had some time to settle in, he supposed it was expected of them. More importantly, if he knew Great-Great Aunt Ramona, the real reason for tonight’s soiree was probably just an excuse for her to inspect their holiday neighbors.
No doubt she wanted to make sure there were no suspicious characters nearby who had any dubious ties to certain unsavory wizards.
“You should see the boxes full of treats they’ve been bringing in from a local bakery for tonight.” Isabelle glanced up the curved stone steps that led to the house. “I still don’t know what I’m going to wear.”
“Any excuse for a party with you lot,” Maddox commented as he walked toward them, finished mooring the sailboat.
Isabelle lifted her nose into the air as he approached, and looked away with a sniff of disdain. “Nobody said you have to come if you don’t like it, Mr. St. Trinian.”
Maddox scowled.
“Izzy, that’s obviously not what he meant,” Jake muttered, hating the discord between these two as much as everybody else did.
He could understand her wanting to throttle Maddox—he had wanted to throttle the Guardian apprentice himself for a while, too, when he had first met him—but that was water under the bridge now.
Maddox had more than proved himself to Jake, and besides, both boys rather idolized Derek Stone. They had that in common, plus, the master Guardian had ordered them to get along.
Unfortunately, the warrior’s wishes had little impact on the sensitive heart of a young lady. Lovely as she was, Isabelle—sweet, gentle, patient, impeccably virtuous Isabelle—was not used to being ignored by any boy, and it had brought out a not-so-sweet side of her.
Jake supposed he could understand her frustration. Having finally decided on a boy she liked, the young belle simply could not seem to comprehend how Maddox could reject her.
If she only knew, Jake thought. But Maddox had no choice. As a future Guardian, he had a duty to the Order, and it didn’t involve mooning over girls.
What headaches they all were, Jake thought
with a sigh. But at least now he realized why Isabelle didn’t want to go down in the submarine.
She just didn’t like the notion of being sealed up in a confined space anywhere near Maddox. Apparently, it drove her mad that he was the only person she’d ever met whom she was completely unable to read with her empathic skills.
Well, Jake thought, at least it was nice to know she wasn’t perfect.
But the black-haired lad shook his head, sent Jake a discreet look of exasperation, and walked away, going over to see if Archie needed any help getting the Turtle ready.
Jake frowned at his cousin. “Why are you so mean to him?” he demanded in a low tone.
“I am not.”
“Yes, you are, and you know it.”
“Nonsense.” She flicked a bit of sand off her arm, avoiding his gaze. “I am a lady and he is a peasant; I treat him just as he deserves.”
Jake scoffed. “How long do you plan to keep pouting over this?”
She huffed and started to deny it just as her brother a few yards away let out an angry “What? What do you mean, she’s not coming?”
Over by the Turtle, Maddox had apparently just reported to their captain his sister’s decision to remain behind.
“Oh, yes, you are!” Leaving Maddox by the sub, Archie came stomping over through the shallows, wrench in hand, a slightly wounded look in his dark eyes behind his spectacles. “Izzy, you’ve got to be a part of this! You’re my sister! It’s bad enough Mother and Father aren’t here.”
“They wouldn’t let you do it if they were,” she replied. “You should be glad.”
“But it takes all six of us to run the Turtle if we need to go to full power. All hands on deck!” he protested. “At least until I figure out a way to rig it for a smaller crew.”
“C’mon, Izzy,” Jake urged. “Don’t be like that.”
Eyeing him and Archie skeptically, she finally heaved a sigh. “Fine! I suppose if I have to have a genius for a little brother, I might as well be there to see it when he makes history once again.” She rumpled his hair. “Of course, he does that all the time.”