Krakens and Lies

by Tui T. Sutherland

  “So they took his pearl?” Logan said.

  “And I couldn’t leave him like this, with all his power gone,” Abigail said. “He’s been so sad.”

  “They,” Jasmin interjected. “You mean the Sterlings. My parents. My parents kidnapped you and stole this dragon’s pearl?” She turned to Zoe. “So they could expose your Menagerie to the world and turn it into an amusement park?”

  Zoe twisted her fingers together. “We think so. I’m sorry, Jasmin.”

  Jasmin turned and walked out, letting the door slam closed behind her. Zoe glanced at her mom, who had worry lines all over her forehead.

  “I’ll go talk to her,” Zoe said. She pulled open the door and ran out after Jasmin.

  “Poor kid,” Abigail said. “I’m not sure I’d know what to think if I found out my parents were like hers.”

  “Jasmin seems fairly resilient,” Mrs. Kahn said. “But I hope they don’t find out she helped us.”

  Logan glanced at his watch. “Then we should hurry to get back,” he said. “So we can make sure she’s home by three thirty.”

  “I don’t think we need to go back the way we came,” said Mrs. Kahn, pulling out her cell phone. “If I can find service, I’ll call Matthew to pick us up.” She shook her head. “I don’t know how we’re going to get that pearl back, though.”

  “Um,” Logan said. “I—I have a sort of half idea. It might be crazy, though.”

  “A crazy half idea is better than none,” Mrs. Kahn said.

  “Maybe we could use one of the Menagerie creatures,” Logan said. “Can he bring Nira with him?”

  “Who’s that?” his dad asked.

  “The mother griffin,” Logan said. “She’s pretty fierce. I bet she could help.”

  Mrs. Kahn gave him a quizzical look. “All right, I’ll ask.” She held up her phone, checking for a signal. “Let me go try outside.”

  Left alone again, Logan and his mom and dad looked at each other and broke into matching grins.

  “I’m so proud of you for figuring out my message,” Mom said to Dad.

  “Well, sort of,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “Some of it took me a while.”

  “But you got here,” she said. “I was afraid I’d been too clever with the Fanny reference.”

  “Right,” he said. “Because she was . . . ?”

  “Robert Louis Stevenson’s wife!” she said. “He went on a honeymoon with her to an old ghost town and wrote a book called The Silverado Squatters about it! Come on, everyone knows that.”

  “Literally nobody knows that, Mom,” Logan said, hugging her again.

  She shook her head. “Too clever. I knew it. Then what brought you to Old Silverado?”

  “Xiang sent a distress signal and the kraken picked it up,” Logan said.

  “Oh, aren’t you clever,” she said admiringly to the little dragon. “I’m so glad I convinced them to let you go swimming, then. See, even without your pearl you’re full of wisdom.”

  “Qrrrrrrrr,” said the dragon, nudging her shoulder with his nose.

  “He doesn’t want to leave without his pearl,” she said. “I’ve tried to talk him into escaping before. But it’s everything to him.”

  “We’ll get it back,” Logan said. “Come with us, and we’ll get it back together. Today. All right? I don’t know exactly how, but we will.” He imagined another night creeping around the secret staircases in the Sterling mansion and wondered where in that enormous house they could be hiding a magic pearl.

  The little dragon leaned over and reached out one of its talons. Logan gently touched it with his fingertips.

  “It has to be today,” Abigail agreed. “The Sterlings are planning something big and I think it’s happening soon.”

  “It is. Tomorrow,” Logan said. “They’re planning to expose the Menagerie at the election victory party. But if they don’t have the dragon—”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Abigail said, shaking her head. “If they have his pearl, they can compel him to come to them. He’ll have to go if he senses his pearl is in danger. I’m sure they know that.”

  Logan felt his heart sink.

  They’d rescued his mom.

  But if they didn’t find that pearl . . . then they were still going to lose the Menagerie.

  TWENTY-ONE

  Zoe sat next to Jasmin at the bar in the saloon. A dusty chalkboard overhead offered root beer floats and sassafras something-smudged. The mirror across from them reflected Jasmin’s face, but Zoe couldn’t read it, and that was only partly because of the dirty glass. Jasmin seemed to be staring into space, her hands holding up the sides of her head. She hadn’t said a word as Zoe explained the whole story—from Jonathan trying to steal the jackalope to the kraken ink to Logan and the griffin cubs to the map and Miss Sameera seeing Abigail drive away with Jasmin’s dad.

  Zoe finally trailed off. “Did—did all that make any sense?” she asked.

  “No,” Jasmin said at last. “Would it make sense to you if you found out your parents kidnapped someone else’s mom?”

  “No,” Zoe admitted.

  “Zo—are my parents going to go to jail?” Jasmin asked, unable to look at her. “I mean . . . you said there was a government agency involved. When we bring Logan’s mom back, how much trouble will they be in?”

  “That’s not how SNAPA works,” Zoe said. “They’d rather keep everything quiet than deal with trials and jail. Jasmin, it’s going to be okay, I promise. Now that Abigail is safe, we can give your parents and Jonathan kraken ink, and they’ll forget all about the Menagerie. Everything can go back to normal.”

  But Zoe couldn’t get the worried note out of her voice. Except . . . except . . . except . . . her brain kept chiming. Except we still don’t know who helped them sabotage the Menagerie or why they targeted Scratch. Except we have no idea how to give them kraken ink. Except we still have to find the dragon’s pearl before tomorrow night. Except . . .

  “They’re not bad people,” Jasmin said. “Not even Jonathan. Although he did sneak his laundry in with mine and turned my new jeans pink, that jerk.” She threw Zoe a weak smile. “If you need someone to lock up in a secret prison guarded by dragons, I volunteer him.”

  “We’ll just wipe his memories,” Zoe said. “He’ll probably be very confused for a while.”

  “So, no different than usual,” Jasmin said wryly.

  Zoe started giggling. “You know, every time I’ve seen him in the last few months, he’s had this vaguely spaced-out expression. I thought it was the kraken ink and the holes in his memory, but now I’ve realized—that’s just his face.”

  Jasmin laughed. “I know exactly the look you mean.” She thought for a moment and the smile slowly drifted away.

  “You’re right, they’re not bad people, Jasmin,” Zoe agreed. “They’ve done some bad things. But I know they’ve done good things, too, like all their work on wind energy, and I know they love you. And we can fix this.”

  “Yeah, we can,” Jasmin said, flipping her braids back and squaring her shoulders. She gave Zoe a determined look. “I know where that pearl is.”

  “You do?” Zoe cried.

  “If it’s enormous and sort of golden, then yes. It’s in my mom’s new necklace,” Jasmin said. “She never takes it off. She’s been wearing it all the time for the last six months. That’s why I noticed—I was like, ‘Mom, hello, what happened to a little variety in our accessorizing?’ and she was all ‘Simple elegance is always in style, especially if it’s wildly expensive.’ You know. Mom.”

  “Do you think she’s wearing it now?” Zoe asked. How on earth are we going to get it if she is? Maybe Mom and I can put on masks and mug her. And then Mr. Sterling can give an ironic speech about crime in Xanadu and how he’ll put a stop to it when he’s mayor.

  “I’m sure,” Jasmin said. “Still, knowing where it is is half the battle, right?”

  “Absolutely,” Zoe said, throwing her arms around Jasmin. “Thank you. Let’s go tel
l the others.”

  Jasmin stopped her as Zoe hopped down from the stool. “If my parents do get in trouble—” she said. “Will you help them?”

  “I will help you,” Zoe promised. “Whatever it takes.”

  They went back out through the swinging doors and found Zoe’s mom sitting with Logan and his parents on the fence of the corral. The dragon was coiled around Abigail’s shoulders, stretching its tail in the sun and glittering gold-pink-red. It was pretty crazy-cute. Zoe wondered what Captain Fuzzbutt would think of it. Sometimes he got a little jealous of other creatures Abigail brought in, especially if they were adorable. But she hoped they’d end up friends.

  “Matthew’s on his way,” Zoe’s mom called. “We’ll get you back in time to meet your parents, Jasmin.”

  “Oh,” she said, glancing at her watch and then at Zoe. “That’s right. Hey, maybe while I’m with them, I could grab the pearl.”

  “No way,” Zoe said, alarmed. “Jasmin! Don’t be crazy. We can’t let you do something dangerous like that. I don’t want them to have any idea that you’re helping us.” She told the others about Mrs. Sterling’s necklace.

  “Oh!” Logan said. “I saw it! She was wearing it the night of the Halloween party.”

  “So how are we going to get it back?” Mrs. Kahn asked.

  “Logan has an idea,” Abigail said with a smile.

  “I’m still thinking about it,” he said. “Let me figure it out a bit more.”

  “He’s a natural Tracker, Abigail,” said Zoe’s mom. “You’d be so impressed. He’s as great with the animals as Zoe is.”

  Zoe looked down at her shoes, feeling her face get warm. Her parents didn’t usually have time to stop and tell her she was good at anything.

  “Someone’s coming,” said Mr. Wilde, pointing at a cloud of dust in the distance.

  Zoe rubbed her wrists, sending up a small prayer that it wasn’t the Sterlings. There had been piles of food, a microwave, and a small refrigerator stuffed in the jail cell with Abigail, so clearly they didn’t come every day. Zoe was hoping they weren’t planning to return for the dragon until right before the victory party tomorrow. In the best-case scenario, they’d never discover he was missing because they’d be all kraken inked by sunset tonight.

  Matthew rolled up in the Kahns’ dilapidated van. “Hey there, vagrants,” he said. “Sorry, my mom says I’m not allowed to pick up hitchhikers.”

  “Ha-ha,” said Zoe’s mom, leaning in the window to kiss his forehead.

  “Hi, Ms. Hardy,” he said. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

  “Of course I am,” said Logan’s mom. “I wasn’t exactly captured by wendigos, was I? And it’s Abigail, you goober.”

  Matthew grinned. “Yes, boss.”

  As Zoe, then Jasmin, then Logan, then Logan’s dad squashed into the second row of seats, they heard a thump from the back of the van.

  “What was that?” Jasmin asked, her eyes wide.

  “Part of the plan to get the pearl back,” Logan said. “I hope. We just need to catch your mom alone.”

  “Aren’t you meeting her back at your house?” Zoe asked. She glanced at her watch. “At three thirty, right? It’s one o’clock now.”

  “Will your dad be there, too?” Logan asked.

  “Let me check.” Jasmin took out her phone and flipped to the calendar. “It looks like he’s booked all afternoon, although it just says ‘Meeting.’ That’s informative, Dad.”

  “Okay,” Logan said. He leaned forward to Matthew. “Can we go to the Sterlings’ house, then?”

  “Sure,” Matthew said.

  “And can we stop for lunch on the way?” Abigail asked from the front seat, where she was sitting between Matthew and Zoe’s mom. “I am STARVING. And so sick of microwave burritos and PB and J, you have no idea.”

  The little dragon on her lap chirped vigorously as if he agreed.

  “I don’t care what it is, as long as it’s french fries and a cheeseburger,” Abigail added.

  “QRRRRURP!” the dragon concurred.

  “And we should drop you off at school,” Zoe said to Jasmin. “You can tell them you were helping your dad in the morning, and then go home after school like normal.”

  “But what are you going to do?” Jasmin asked Logan.

  As they drove back to Xanadu, Logan explained his plan. At the end he added, “So I don’t think we all need to go in. Me and Nira and maybe one other person?”

  “No, no,” Zoe said.

  “Absolutely not,” said Mr. Wilde.

  “ME!” cried Abigail, all at the same time.

  “They don’t know you or your dad are involved,” Zoe argued. “You shouldn’t show your faces if you don’t have to. But Mom and I are obviously a part of it. It should be us.”

  “And me,” Abigail said firmly. “Absolutely definitely me. I have some things to say.”

  So that argument took up the rest of the drive, but by the time they’d dropped Jasmin at school, everyone had agreed. It was Abigail, Zoe’s mom, and Zoe who hopped out of the van in the Sterlings’ driveway. Zoe looked up at the imposing mansion and felt a weird thrill of fear.

  “We’ll be right outside,” Matthew said, leaning out the window. “Call us if anything goes wrong.”

  “Be careful,” said Logan’s dad.

  “Careful is my middle name,” said Abigail. “No, wait. It’s the other one. The opposite of that.” She winked at Zoe, then turned and passed the dragon to Logan. Xiang flicked his tail, inspected Logan’s fingers carefully, and then curled up in Logan’s lap and closed his eyes. “Take care of him till I get back. Jackson, stop worrying.”

  Zoe’s mom glanced up and down the street to make sure it was deserted, then opened the rear doors of the van. Nira, the beautiful white griffin, lifted her head. The van was still full of pillows from transporting Pelly, and she was sprawled across them with her wings spread. She clacked her eagle beak at them.

  Are we here? she said. Do we have to be? That was the longest nap I’ve been able to have in months. Oh, hello, Abigail, nice to see you.

  “Hi, Nira,” Abigail said. “Let’s get you inside fast.”

  The griffin stretched her wings and legs and then hopped down from the van. She paced over to the Sterlings’ garden wall, flew up to the top, and vanished inside.

  “Now us,” said Abigail, closing the van doors. She led the way around to a more sheltered spot—the same tree that Zoe had used to climb into Jasmin’s garden more than once. Zoe could hear her mom muttering soft curses at the branches as they scrambled up, then over to the wall, and then dropped down on the other side.

  “We should fix the Buddha first,” Zoe remembered. She looked at her watch. Nearly two thirty. Mrs. Sterling might come back before Jasmin was due home. They’d better hurry.

  Nira was prowling around the garden, sniffing the pool suspiciously. It felt like a hallucination, seeing one of the Menagerie’s creatures here, in the Sterlings’ yard in broad daylight.

  Zoe and her mom shoved the Buddha into place while Abigail got the rake and smoothed out the sand to hide their footprints. They went in through the kitchen door and Zoe put the three flashlights back in the drawer where Mrs. Sterling always neatly stored flashlights, matches, candles, and takeout menus for the only two restaurants in Xanadu whose food she was willing to eat.

  Shiny place, Nira observed, her voice echoing in Zoe’s head. Cold and glittery. Full of secrets and lies and whispers. I can see why Sage was interested, and then frightened of it.

  The littlest griffin cub had chosen this place to look for treasure, which was why Zoe and Logan had had to sneak in to find and rescue her. “Oh,” Zoe said, turning to her mother. “I wonder if Sage was drawn here because she could feel the power of the pearl. Maybe she somehow knew the most valuable treasure in Xanadu was here.”

  Probably, Nira said complacently. I do have very precocious cubs.

  “Should we wait in here?” Abigail asked, turning slowly to take in the g
leaming cherrywood and silver.

  “No, in case Jasmin comes back first. She needs to be able to say she had no idea we were here,” Zoe pointed out.

  “Upstairs, then,” said Zoe’s mom, and Zoe nodded.

  Goose bumps prickled along her skin as they climbed the wide marble staircase to the upper balcony. The house was so still and perfect and chilly, like an abandoned museum with all its exhibits still intact. This is breaking and entering, she thought. But then we could accuse them of kidnapping. Who would the police believe, though? And we’re the ones with the biggest secret to keep. We’re the ones who can’t afford a public spectacle.

  She pressed her fingers together and then shook them out, taking deep breaths.

  The master bedroom was on the same side of the house as Jasmin’s bedroom; on either side of the doorway sat a jade frog with glittering diamond eyes. They slipped inside, into a room with wall-to-wall dark-gray carpet and black dressers. The king-sized bed was perfectly made as if it had been ironed into crisp even lines, with a light-purple-and-silver comforter and several of those small pointless matching pillows that Zoe had seen in magazines but never understood.

  Nira’s claws sank into the carpet. She turned in a small circle, then sat down facing the door and curled her lion tail around her claws. Her white fur was normally spattered with the various messes her cubs had made that day, but she must have cleaned herself up for this, because she glowed like a marble statue that utterly belonged in this room.

  “Maybe they’re vampires,” Abigail said, glancing around. “I mean, do they actually sleep in here? Have they ever even been in this room? It’s horrifyingly neat.” She pulled open a door and found a huge walk-in closet. “Holy cats, it’s all color-coordinated. And who needs this many shoes?” She crouched and picked up a pair of strappy red sandals with a heel as long as Zoe’s pointer finger. “No,” she said, waving them at Zoe. “Just no.”

  “It’d be so much easier if they were vampires,” Zoe’s mom sighed. “Then we could report them to SNAMHP and leave them to sort it out.”

  Zoe sat down on the bed and pulled out her phone. Abigail came and peeked over her shoulder as Zoe scrolled through photos.