Tears formed in Celeste's eyes as Lem described her father's bleeding paws, and the terrified eyes of the frozen people. `We have to save him. We have to save all of them.'
`We will,' he assured her. `After we have the five talismans.'
`But we aren't moving fast enough. Are we Chad?'
Chad agreed that they weren't. What he didn't say was, if the High Enchanter could became creatures like the Goch and the Enkidu, if he could control the ice and snow and make avalanches, and if he could imprison entire villages of people in glaciers, how were they going to conquer him?
Three days later they spotted a rugged coastline in the distance, and hoped it was Whale Island.
They had run out of water the night before and were thirsty and heartily sick of raw fish. Even the snow leopard growled sadly when Swift gave him his share.
`He's old and his legs ache from the cold,' Lem said. `And he doesn't like Nutty or Splash. Or any of us really, except Swift who he calls Little Cub.'
`I'm not little,' retorted Swift, and then grinned in delight. `Tell him I call him Snow.'
`And tell him Splash doesn't like him either,' said Celeste, kissing her pet on its flat green head.
It took a few hours to reach the shallower waters of turquoise sea that surrounded the island. The water was as transparent as glass and the breeze, idling down from its cone-shaped hills, was warm and smelt of flowers. They sailed straight into a pretty half-moon bay where the beach was guarded by five large statues.
Not far offshore to their right, was an old high ridge of reef, now all dead and rock-brown. Lem grabbed the tiller and turned the boat away from shore.
`What are you doing?' demanded Lyla.
`Being careful.' he said. `If this is where the High Enchanter has imprisoned the merwoman then you can be sure that he has becamed some sort of dangerous monster to stop her escaping, or anyone from rescuing her.'
Lyla was in the middle of saying that the island looked peaceful and they didn't know for certain that it was Whale Island anyway, when they heard the women singing. Their lilting voices were so beautiful that Lem and Lyla stopped arguing and with the others turned to listen. Even Snow's growling became a purr.
So enchanted was everyone by the women's song that Lem ignored his own warning about the island and handed back the tiller to Swift, who turned the boat towards the shore. No one seemed concerned that he was also steering towards the reef.
The first hint that Lem had been right to worry was the awful scraping sound along their keel, just before a spear of coral punctured the boat's starboard side.
`Plug it!' Lyla urged, as she came to her senses. She pulled the sail down to stop them from sailing straight into the coral outcrop and over the reef below it.
Celeste stuffed her spare leggings into the hole, but water still oozed in. The snow leopard climbed onto the prow and the children had to stand on the benches.
Meanwhile the singing became louder and sweeter.
`They're calling me,' Swift said, his legs already over the boat's side. `I'm going to swim to the island.'
Celeste shook her head, to clear it of the hypnotic voices, and dragged Swift back. `Block your ears. Don't listen. The singing stops you from thinking sensibly.'
Celeste tore the hem off her tunic, handed bits of it to Lyla, Lem and Chad, then stuffed her own and Swift's ears. They had to lean close to hear each other but the singing was muted.
`Celeste is right,' Lyla shouted. `The singing made us sail onto the reef without thinking. Now it's calling us to swim to the island. Don't listen to it. It's a trick.'
Lem pointed down into the crystal-clear water, to the reef which was littered with pieces of wood and metal. `And we aren't the first to fall for it. There's wreckage everywhere.'
Celeste suggested she swim to the island to ask the locals if it was Whale Island and if they knew about the merwoman. `Meanwhile Chad can look after Splash, and you three can find something to plug up the hole and prop up the boat until I get back.'
`Until we get back,' said Lyla. `And it is Whale Island because Clarissa said the local women are famous for their singing and that Whale Islanders steal other people's boats.'
`So what weapons will we take?' asked Celeste, trying to judge how far it was across the lagoon to the beach. It looked a long way to swim.
`Daggers,' Lyla said. `And the packets Edith gave us, wrapped in leather so they won't get wet, Lem's red string and some jewels from the casket in case we find the merwoman and have to bribe her serpents.'
The girls organised their gear, then clambered carefully out of the boat and onto the rocky reef. While Celeste, with her bag over her shoulder, dived into the lagoon, Lyla waded through the ankle-deep water. She splashed over the reef searching for a cavity big enough to hide the casket just in case the boat broke up.
Celeste resurfaced a few minutes later. `It's beautiful, Lyla. The reef is covered in huge pink sponges, purple sea-grass, seaweed fans and huge shells, and the lagoon is full of fish of every colour.'
`Anything dangerous?'
`Some giant jellyfish with lots of floating bits that may be poisonous and some very large grey fish that could be sharks.'
`Oh great!' muttered Lyla. `I think I'll walk along the reef until I can stand in the water.'
As she floated over the coral, Celeste watched the tiny fish dart in and out of the seaweed and the crabs skittle away from Lyla's feet. She could still hear the singing even through the water. It made her want to swim to the shore, it made her want to float away, it made her...
Lyla grabbed Celeste's hair and yanked her head out of the water. `Where were you going? You were floating away into the lagoon.'
Celeste blinked with surprise. `It's the singing, it was calling to me.'
`Don't listen to it. I told you. It's magic or something.'
The reef ran out quite close to the shore, so Lyla stepped into waist-deep water and Celeste stopped floating and stood up. They were about to wade the last few steps to the beach when something grabbed Celeste's ankle and pulled her under.
Lyla dived to help her cousin, caught a glimpse of swirling hair and kicking feet... then Celeste was gone.
Lyla dived and dived, her throat tight with panic, as she searched every nearby crevice and gap in the coral. All she found were walls of seaweed and pink sponges. In the same moment that she knew she was too exhausted to keep searching, she also realised just how many jellyfish were swimming around her.
Lyla quickly waded to the island. It was only then she noticed that the singing had stopped. All she could hear was the fizz of waves on the sand and the twittering of thousands of rainbow-coloured parrots flitting above the long grass.
She felt sick with worry. She should have been more careful, she should have tied Celeste to her. How was she going to tell Chad that his sister was missing? How would she look after everyone without stubborn and determined we-can-do-it Celeste to help her? Where was she?
She sat defeated on the sand waiting for the outgoing tide to expose the reef completely so she could walk back to the boat.
And then she saw a group of silver-haired, silver-clad women. They were far enough down the beach that they hadn't seen her. But then they turned together, skipped across the sand, dived into the lagoon and swam towards the boat.
Lyla could only just make out what the boys were doing. Lem was wading along the reef with a plank of wood on his head, and Chad and Swift were still in the boat on the portside trying prevent too much water from seeping in through the hole. None of them had noticed the swimmers.
Lyla considered shouting a warning but doubted they would hear her. Instead she hid behind one of the giant statues on the beach and watched helplessly as some of the women boarded the boat, grabbed the boys and threw them overboard. The women in the water then hauled them to the beach.
`What are they going to do with them?' she asked, not realising she'd spoken out loud.
A lilting voice said, `They will help us mo
ve the newest statue.'
Lyla swung around in surprise to see a boy, about her age, with silvery spiky hair and large silver grey eyes. He wore a long shirt and knee trousers made of a material that resembled fish scales.
`Who are you? And who are those women kidnapping my brothers and cousin?'
`I am Chii, and the women are from Whale Island Village. What are you called, pretty girl with the black eyes of a rainbow parrot?'
Ignoring his odd compliment Lyla told him that her name was none of his business.
`Please follow me, None of Your Business,' he said. `There is a statue to be raised. A statue bigger than these ones.' He pointed to the five statues they were standing beside. `Are they not beautiful, the way they balance on their tails?'
Lyla glanced up. The statues' smooth shapes and fluted tails were indeed beautiful. It was their human faces that she didn't like. They gave her the creeps.
`We didn't come here to move statues,' she snapped.
`So why did you come, pretty girl with hair the colour of a raven's wing?'
`Will you stop saying those silly things!'
Chii looked puzzled as if he didn't understand why she considered his words silly.
`I'm here because my cousin disappeared while swimming in the lagoon,' she told him.
He nodded. `Stolen by the Merpeople, I expect. Although they don't normally take humans underwater as they know they will die. Now, please follow me.'
Lyla didn't move as he began climbing the hill behind the statues. She couldn't decide whether she should try again to find Celeste, who may have been kidnapped by the Merpeople, or follow Chii to rescue the boys.
Chii was almost at the top of the hill when he called back, `Do not be afraid. We are not cruel like the Merpeople.'
Lyla scrambled up after him. `What do you mean cruel? Will they hurt Celeste?'
`The Merpeople are capricious and fickle. One minute they love you, the next they play tricks on you. One minute they are frolicking in the waves, the next they are singing some poor sailor into diving overboard so they can steal his gold. Whale Islanders are not like that. All we want is to erect statues all around our island so that the Raiders will never raid us again.'
`Stone statues can't stop the Raiders,' Lyla scoffed.
`The Whale Island women's songs promise they will.'
`So it was your singing women who tried to make us sink our boat, not the Merpeople?
`True,' Chii said. `Now hurry we must catch up.'
`And go where?'
`To the statue quarry!'
`When we get there, and have helped erect the statue, will you talk to the Merpeople about my cousin?'
`We would have to go to Whale Island Village to do that, but if you help us, then yes I will.'
`And can you ask them if they have heard of a merwoman imprisoned in a cave under the island?'
Chii swung round so fast that his silver shirt caught the sunlight, and almost blinded her. `You ask a lot of questions pretty girl with the face of a flower. Are you a spy for the High Enchanter?'
Lyla again ignored his compliment and answered indignantly. `No I'm not! The High Enchanter is our enemy and the reason why we are here. We want to rescue the imprisoned merwoman.'
Chii began climbing again. `That is not possible. She is locked beneath Syrene Volcano and guarded by sea serpents becamed by the High Enchanter.'
`Is Syrene Volcano near here? Is it near the statue quarry that you are taking me to?'
`No. And we are there already.'
They had reached the top of the hill. Lyla looked down into a perfectly-round volcanic crater, in the centre of which was a black lake full of reeds. Carved into its steep sides were at least twenty unfinished whale sculptures and, lying on its stomach with its enormous stone tail curled in the air, was the largest statue of all.
Chii pointed to a group of women hurrying to join the many Whale Islanders standing around the whale statue. Amongst them were Lem, Chad and Swift. `We must hurry. If the statue isn't standing before sunset, the sun will not rise tomorrow.'
`The sun always rises,' argued Lyla.
But Chii was already running down the inside of the crater, so she ran after him. `If I help erect the statue will you show me where the Syrene Volcano is and will you ask the Merpeople about my cousin?'
`Oh don't worry about those things,' he shouted back. `Once the women begin to sing, you'll forget all about the merwoman, and your cousin. You'll forget everything except moving statues.'
11
The Shell & Starfish Game
Celeste caught a glimpse of Lyla's surprised face before a cloud of ink blinded her and she was dragged through a forest of seaweed. When the ink disappeared she was sitting on the sandy bottom of a large cave lit by the sunlight filtering through the water and the cracks in the reef above.
Stuck to the cave's coral ceiling, their upside-down body sacks swaying on the current, were hundreds of brown, orange and red octopi watching her with large gluttonous eyes. Beside her, with one long tentacle wrapped around her ankle, pulsated the largest octopus of them all. Its grey body sack was like an enormous balloon, and Celeste knew that if she got sucked in through its elastic-lipped mouth she'd just float around inside it.
She checked she still had her bag with her dagger, honeysuckle seeds and jewels, then gave a determined kick in an attempt to escape. The octopus slapped her over the head with another of his tentacles and dragged her back. Overhead, the watching octopi detached from from the coral and, with undulating limbs and gaping mouths, began floating to the cave floor. Their sucker-lined tentacles spread wide like sea-daisy petals as they landed and edged towards her.
This is it, Celeste thought. They're going to eat me.
`Sekcap, you cunning octopus,' sang a musical voice in her head. `Where did you find this wonderful prize?'
Celeste looked around until she saw a merman, or rather what she guessed was a merman swimming towards her. His upper body was human while his lower half was a beautiful fish tail of burnished-green scales at his waist that gradually changed to beautiful pink and bejewelled purple.
He smiled at her `Why haven't you drowned, little human?'
How do I answer him? she wondered. If I open my mouth it will fill with water and I'll drown.
`Think your words,' said his voice in her head.
So she did. `I was given the gift of being able to stay underwater without breathing by the two Queens of the Royal House of M'dgassy.'
The merman swam around in a circle and his silver hair and long shell earrings swirled about his handsome face. `Why would they do that?'
She hesitated. What if this man-fish, with his very sharp teeth, was a High Enchanter spy? What if she told him why they'd come to Whale Island and he ordered the octopi to eat her?
The merman laughed as he heard her thoughts. `I, Prince Torenshone of the Merpeople, a spy for the High Enchanter? Never! The High Enchanter has no jurisdiction over the Merpeople. Why do you think the Whale Islanders hide in our caverns when the Raiders come? Why do you think they raise statues of a whale god and not a land god to ward off the High Enchanter's evil magic?'
He laughed again and when the bubbles had cleared he was sitting beside her staring with his big green and gold eyes. `So I ask again. Why were you given such a gift?'
`So I can free the imprisoned merwoman.'
He shook his head and his earring tinkled like tiny chimes. `Unfortunately no one can free the blind merwoman. She is guarded by fierce serpents.'
Celeste's eyes widened with shock. `She's blind?' `Yes. She has barnacles growing over her eyes.'
`How horrible!'
`Horrible indeed.' Then, with a dismissive wave of his ring-covered fingers, the handsome merman asked the grey octopus what he wanted in exchange for her.
Releasing a spurt of black ink and bubbles the octopus grabbed Celeste's hair and held it up as if to show it off.
The merman waved the ink away from his face as Celeste
heard his words. `Sekcap says that if I want you I must win you in a game. He wants me to put up a prize of equal value to your golden hair, which we Merpeople value as an ingredient in our spells to free us from fishermen's nets or hungry sharks.' Then he turned to Sekcap and asked. `How many?'
Sekcap's answer made the merman's green and gold eyes widen and Celeste whispered, `How many what?'
`He wants twenty baskets of crimson anemones. After humans, anemones are an octopus's favourite food. It is a large price so I will have to speak with my school.'
Left alone with the octopi Celeste panicked. What if this Prince Torenshone didn't return? What if Sekcap decided a human was tastier than crimson anemones? What if she couldn't stay under water any longer and she drowned and never saw Chad, Lyla, Lem or Swift again? And what were all those octopi doing?
In a flurry of tendrils four octopi were laying out a grid of black seaweed on the sandy floor while six more swam over the grid placing fan shells and starfish in the squares. The rest of the octopi were crowding around the grid trying to find the best place to watch the game. A moment later a crowd of Merpeople, swimming in a shaft of sun motes, descended gracefully to the cavern floor.
They were all sizes and ages, from babies clinging to the fan-shaped fins of their mother's arms to silver-bearded mermen sedately waving their decorated tails. In between swam young Merpeople wearing crowns and jewellery made from shells, seaweed, fishing net and other flotsam and jetsam. The boys looked strong and handsome and the girls were beautiful with large blue-green eyes and long curling hair. It was only when they laughed that they revealed their sharp teeth.
Pushing in between the octopi, the Merpeople gossiped and laughed until a burst of bubbles overhead heralded the arrival of Prince Torenshone. He swam down in graceful spirals to join Sekcap and Celeste.
`So,' he announced loudly, `if I lose the game I forfeit twenty baskets of crimson anemones. If I win then Sekcap forfeits the human. Agreed?'
A wall of bubbles showed that the octopi and Merpeople agreed.
At first the game looked like one that she and Lem played with black and white stones on a black and white check board. But, as some moves and not others, were heralded by either bubbles blown in disgust or the angry waving of tendrils or tails, Celeste gave up trying to work out the rules and studied the Merpeople instead.
Legend of the Three Moons Page 10