The Expeditioners and the Secret of King Triton's Lair

by S. S. Taylor

  I caught movement in the sky and looked up, shielding my eyes against the bright sun. Far off, coming from the west, a small black dot resolved itself into a bird. At first I assumed it was a gull, but something about the way its wings moved made me look again. It seemed heavier than a gull and as I watched, another black form—Pucci—rose up from the beach below me to meet it, calling out Njamba! Njamba!

  I ran back down the slope, bursting out onto the beach just as Njamba swooped down onto Joyce’s shoulder. She let her rest there for a moment and stroked the bird’s head while Zander ran to get her some fresh water and fish. Joyce waited until she’d finished drinking to remove the bag tied to her leg.

  “It’s a note,” she said, taking out a rolled slip of paper covered with typed words and reading, “‘Arriving as soon as possible. BNDL.’”

  “Hurrah!” Jack shouted. “We’re saved!”

  Joyce looked relieved and M.K. allowed herself a little cheer. But I met Sukey’s and Zander’s eyes and saw that Kemal looked downcast too.

  “By the time they get here, I will have discovered the oil,” Lazlo announced. “It will be perfect. How’s that raft repair coming, M.K.?”

  “What’s the matter?” Jack asked me. “You don’t look very happy, Kit.”

  “You’re all forgetting what happened to us just a few days ago,” I told them. “The . . . whatever it is that brought down our ship is going to bring theirs down too.”

  “He’s right,” Kemal said. “I don’t know why you all don’t see it. We’re never getting off this island.” He smiled grimly. “Better get used to fish, everyone.” Maybe he was just being sarcastic, but I almost had the sense that he didn’t care, and I remembered what the Explorer had said. If Kemal was BNDL’s spy, maybe he wanted us stuck on the island as long as possible so he could try to get the map from me.

  “You don’t know BNDL,” Lazlo said. “They’ll be able to do it. They have ships, machines, things you can’t even imagine. Zander, Jack, make preparations for our expedition tomorrow. And M.K., you’d better get those drills going for when we find it. We’re going to be waiting here with good news for them when they arrive.” He looked over at me. “Don’t worry, Kit. They’ll get here soon enough.”

  Thirty-nine

  I fell asleep that night almost as soon as I closed my eyes and dreamed that I was back in the underwater city. I swam through the streets, following a beautiful mermaid with red hair who was smiling and leading me toward King Triton’s throne in the temple. The turtles were there too, and we all made our way toward the throne. As we reached the end of the tunnel, I saw a figure seated on the throne, but before I could see who it was, I woke up to darkness. It was still the middle of the night. I heard the sound of the waves and the wind and Zander’s snoring. I snuck out of the tent, listening to make sure that no one else was up.

  Lazlo had told M.K. to try patching the raft with the rubbery substance from the trees, and from the looks of it, the repair had worked. Dad’s raft was sitting on the beach, tied to a tree and fully inflated. I was betting Lazlo would want to set out at first light.

  I didn’t have much time.

  I made my way along the path to the beach where Amy was sitting, gleaming dully in the moonlight, and I walked into the water, letting it wash around my boots, soaking the leather. Then I took out the whistle and played the song once through, as quietly as I could so I wouldn’t wake anyone.

  Nothing happened.

  I tried again. I knew I had it right. I waited for twenty minutes and he still didn’t come. I kept at it for nearly an hour, playing the song softly every few minutes before I accepted that he wasn’t going to show up.

  I sank down onto the sand. Was there nothing else I could do? I had come so close to finding the next map that Dad had left for me, and it seemed impossible that I would fail now. But the turtle wasn’t coming and there didn’t seem to be any other options. Once BNDL arrived, it would all be over. They’d find the city and the map.

  I looked out over the water. There was one other option. There was Amy. M.K. had said that she was almost fixed. But I couldn’t operate her on my own. M.K. and I wouldn’t be able to get her into the water without help. I ran back to Camp Castaway and went quietly over to the tents.

  “M.K.,” I whispered. “Wake up.”

  “What?” she asked, a little too loudly. I put a hand over her mouth and she sat up. I nodded toward the beach and she grabbed her vest and followed me.

  “I need you to wake up Sukey,” I told her. “Meet me on the beach where you’ve been working on Amy.”

  Good old M.K. She didn’t ask any questions. She just nodded and I headed for the tent Zander and I were sharing with Kemal. I shook Zander awake and put a finger to my lips, and he slipped on his shoes and followed me out onto the beach. We waited silently for M.K. and Sukey, Pucci sitting on Zander’s shoulder and nuzzling his ear.

  When they appeared, I pointed and they all followed me along the path to the other beach.

  “Okay,” Zander said. “What’s going on?”

  “We have to get Amy going,” I told them. “Right now. Can you, M.K.? It’s really important.”

  “I’m close,” she said. “I was going to try my fuse trick from the Derudan challenge next.”

  “Kit, what the—” Zander started.

  “I know I’m asking a lot,” I told him. “I’m sorry, but I found something under the water. I can’t explain now, but we have to get there before BNDL arrives. If they get here first, it could be disastrous. M.K., what do you say?”

  She fiddled with one of the wires in her vest, then went over to Amy and knelt down on the sand, working on the engine in the light from her vest.

  “Damn it,” she said. “I need a finer wire. Anybody have anything?”

  Zander and I searched our vests but came up empty. She kept fiddling. Finally, she stood up. “Okay,” she said. “I think that should do it, but we won’t know until we start her up.”

  “Let’s try starting her in the water,” I said. I was hoping that would muffle the sound of the engine so the others wouldn’t hear.

  We each took an arm and slowly, with a lot of effort, pushed and pulled her along the beach until we could ease her into the water. Zander told Pucci to wait for us, and the bird gave us each a little nuzzle before he flew up to perch in a palm tree. Then we waded into the water and climbed into the cockpit, shutting the hatch and settling into the four seats. I checked that the diving suits were there.

  “Okay, let’s try it,” I said.

  M.K. pushed the engine’s starter button.

  Nothing happened.

  She did it again. “Come on, Amy. Come on,” I said.

  The engine coughed once and was silent. “Please, Amy,” M.K. whispered.

  She tried once more and the engine came to life.

  We all clapped and gave M.K. high fives.

  “You’re amazing, M.K.,” I told her. “Absolutely amazing.”

  “Thanks very much.” She switched on Amy’s lights and eased the throttle forward. The submersible scuttled along the sand and out into the deeper water of the bay, but this time I couldn’t see much of our descent. We gazed out into the dark water. I felt a rush of panic as we went out farther and farther. It had been different when I’d been in the turtle, but even though I knew Amy was solid and seaworthy, I felt vulnerable and couldn’t help remembering the cold water pressing in on me after the ship sank. If something went wrong, we were all dead. The look on Sukey’s face told me she was thinking the same thing. We sped up and I got my compass out and gave M.K. some directions. “North-northeast until I tell you differently,” I said.

  “Whoa.” Sukey was staring out the window at the illuminated murkiness. Every once in a while, a fish or small eel would cross our path, but Amy’s lights didn’t reach the reef or any of the marvelous things I’d seen the last time I’d been here. “We’re actually under the water.”

  “We are under the water,” said Zander.
“And I for one wish Kit would tell us what we’re doing here under the water. What is it we have to see before BNDL arrives?”

  “It’s not going to make any sense to you until we get there,” I told them. “I just want you to see it.”

  “Kit,” Zander said. “You can’t do that to us. We’re risking our lives under here.”

  In the dimly lit cockpit, I glanced at Sukey. She nodded.

  “All right.” I took a deep breath. “It sounds crazy, but there are these giant sea turtles. And one of them took me under the water in his . . . shell. There were more of them and—”

  “His shell? Kit, what are you saying?”

  “Did you eat any strange berries before you found us?” M.K. asked me, turning away from Amy’s controls and gauges for a moment.

  “No. I’m completely serious. Just forget it. You’ll see what I mean.” I held my compass out and kept my eyes on it. “Keep heading due east now, M.K. That’s good.”

  “You have to tell us something,” Zander said. “We could die under here. If Amy malfunctions, if something attacks us, that’s it.”

  “Amy won’t malfunction,” M.K. grumbled. “I can’t believe you said that.”

  Zander turned to me and the scowl on his face scared me a little.

  I hesitated, unsure of where to begin. “The code, on the map, well . . .” I glanced at Sukey again. “Sukey and I figured out that it’s a series of musical notes. The Explorer with the Clockwork Hand gave me a whistle from Dad and we tried playing the music, but nothing happened. I think it was because the turtle was waiting until I was alone. Anyway, the next morning I tried again and this turtle came up on the beach and his shell opened and I was able to ride in it—I know, I know. Just listen—and he brought me under the water, just like this, to a city, an underwater city. I saw the shipwrecks too. The treasure from the wrecks is in the city.”

  There was a long silence. Amy’s engine made a deep rhythmic chugging sound.

  “Kit, do you know how crazy that sounds?” Zander said. “Turtles? That you can ride in? An underwater city?”

  “He’s right,” Sukey said. “I know it sounds crazy. But I saw them too.”

  “You went under the water with him?” Zander said.

  “No, but I think they saved our lives after the wreck. I think they brought us to the island.”

  “And that’s not even the craziest part,” I added. “They’re telepathic. I was able to communicate with my turtle without talking.”

  The ocean was dark, the path ahead illuminated only by Amy’s lights.

  “Kit,” Zander said. “That’s impossible.”

  “I know, I know. But just wait.”

  We traveled for another twenty minutes in silence and I was starting to think I’d made a navigation error when all of a sudden we saw the shapes of the shipwrecks up ahead, the masts reaching up from the ocean floor.

  “It’s the ships,” I told them, pointing. “This is where they all came to rest.”

  Zander stood up. “Aren’t we going to go explore the wrecks?’ he asked. “This is incredible. There must be millions in treasure here.”

  “We have to get to the city,” I told him. “If BNDL gets there before we do, they’ll find the map, and everything Dad worked for may be lost.”

  He didn’t say anything, just kept watching through the window as Amy motored by the ghostly shapes. “Keep going straight, M.K.,” I told her, watching my compass as we traveled. “It won’t be long. This is Girafalco’s Trench.”

  The walls of the trench sloped down steeply into blackness. “It looks so cold,” Sukey said. “It seems hard to believe that anything could survive down here.”

  “Just wait,” I told her. We traveled for another thirty minutes before I saw the walls of the cavern up ahead.

  “Oh my god,” Sukey gasped. “Look at that. The walls. They’re glowing. I can see everything.”

  M.K. maneuvered us through the cavern and then we were at the end of it, just outside the city, looking down into a wide valley of light and rippling seaweed.

  Are you there? I tried sending my thoughts out to the turtle, but I didn’t get any reply.

  “Look,” Sukey said, pointing. “Look!”

  We were approaching the entrance to the city, and in the near distance the shimmering panorama of buildings became suddenly visible.

  “I didn’t believe you,” M.K. said to me. “But . . . it’s real.”

  “My God,” Zander whispered. “I never would’ve believed you until I’d seen this with my own eyes.”

  “It’s beautiful,” Sukey said, gazing through the window at the spires and minarets and domes. “It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  I saw movement up ahead. “There’s a gate into the city up there,” I said. “Keep going. I think I see the turtles.”

  We saw fifty or more turtles just outside the city gates, but instead of guarding it, they were swimming around frantically. As we got closer, we saw that their movements were kicking up sand and eroding the walls of the city.

  “They’re destroying the buildings!” I said, watching as the pearly structures seemed to shatter in the wake of the turtles’ efforts.

  “Why would they do that?” Sukey said, staring out the window at the maelstrom.

  The turtles ignored us as Amy chugged past them. Inside the city, many more turtles were all using their flippers to crush the buildings to sand.

  I watched as spires and domes crumbled and fell across the city. “When I was here, the turtle told me he sensed danger. They must know that BNDL is coming, and they’re destroying the city so it won’t be discovered.”

  “How do they know BNDL’s coming?” Sukey asked.

  “They must have turtles who act as scouts. And they can sense thoughts, feelings. Remember, whenever a ship came near the city, they created the whirlpools, the storms.”

  “But what is this place?” Zander asked, still staring. “What is it that they’re destroying?”

  “It’s an underwater city,” I told him. “It was abandoned by the people who lived here. The turtle called them the Men of the Sea.”

  Zander stared at me. “People? What, like mermen, merpeople? Are you telling me there’s such thing as mermaids?”

  “I don’t know, Zander. Maybe. They’re not here now. The turtles are the guardians of the city. They stayed to keep the secret, even after the Men of the Sea left. So no one would see it.”

  “But why? Why can’t anyone see it?”

  “And why are they destroying the city?” Sukey asked.

  I thought for a minute. “I’m not positive, but I think the reason that no one can see it is that there’s a map here, the map Dad wanted me—us—to see. That’s the turtles’ job. To protect the map.”

  “Why don’t they just sink the ship like they did with us?” She was right. Why didn’t they just sink the SteamShip that BNDL was coming in?

  Zander was staring out the window now. “I don’t understand any of it. The size of their shells. It’s incredible.”

  We were silent, taking it all in. I remembered the way to the temple the best I could, directing M.K. along the streets, where the turtles were now busy destroying the beautiful buildings, crushing the murals and stones and shells to dust.

  “It’s so sad,” Sukey said, watching the turtles work. “This beautiful place. All destroyed.”

  We were almost to the temple when I saw him.

  It was my turtle, up ahead, working away with the other turtles, crushing the walls of the buildings. I recognized the scar on his right flipper.

  You’re here, he said. I’m glad. I couldn’t come.

  Yes. I’m here. Why are they destroying the city?

  Someone’s coming.

  Who?

  The Men of the Land.

  I knew he was talking about BNDL. Can you take me to the map? I asked. Can you take me to the old turtle again?

  Yes. Follow me.

  “Kit?” M.K. asked me.
“Are you okay? We lost you for a minute.” “Did anyone else hear that?” I asked, searching their faces. “He was talking to me. He said someone’s coming and that’s why they’re destroying the city, so it won’t be discovered.”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” Zander said. “Who are you talking about?”

  “That turtle.” I pointed. “Follow him, M.K. We’ve got to follow him. BNDL’s coming.”

  M.K. and Zander exchanged a worried glance, but she did as I said. We followed the turtle along the streets, toward the huge domed roof of the temple.

  They were quiet as we entered. It hadn’t been touched by the turtles yet and everything was still in place, the lovely murals and the coral throne.

  “They’ll have to destroy this too,” Sukey whispered. “All these beautiful things. All because we brought BNDL here. It’s our fault.”

  I hadn’t thought of it that way, but I knew she was right. If we hadn’t written the proposal, they wouldn’t have given it to Lazlo and we never would have come here. Dad had wanted me to come and find the second map, but had he known the turtles would destroy the city?

  There wasn’t any way we could go back and change things. The only thing I could do now was what Dad had wanted me to do. I had to find the next clue. The next map.

  “The map is in a chamber behind the throne,” I told them. “I don’t think Amy can get to it. The turtle will take me. I’ll put on a diving suit.” I also didn’t think the turtles would let the others through.

  “I’ll go with you,” Zander said. “Let me get into a suit too.” He jumped up and started putting on the other diving suit.

  “No,” I said. “I think I have to do it alone.”

  “What are you talking about? Are you trying to act noble or something?”

  “I need to do this alone. I don’t think they’ll let you in. I think the turtle can only take me.”

  And then the turtle’s voice entered my head. Only you. You are the one he sent.

  Who?

  The man. Your father.

  “Kit?”