Cora's Mystery

by Janet Gurtler

  I knew Coach Cara was trying to calm us down, but I also knew in my heart that we needed to get that Sea Lion back. “There were salt and salty smears where the statue used to be!” I told her. “Exactly like the salt the Titania team uses on their seaweed snacks! They have to be the ones who stole the Sea Lion. They’re trying to mess up our luck!”

  All the merkids started talking at once.

  Coach Cara clapped her hands together until we were quiet once again. “I will talk to the Titania coach and see if she knows something. But it could have been anyone. Please,” she said glancing at each of us, “don’t let this mess with your minds. You don’t need the mascot to win the banner.”

  I was silent, but deep down, I knew she was wrong. I couldn’t race until we found out who had taken the Sea Lion — and got it back.

  Chapter Four

  The Titania team denied knowing the whereabouts of our Sea Lion mascot. Their coach asked every member of her team and told Coach Cara that no one knew a thing. Without some kind of proof, there was nothing we could do.

  Days went by, and there was still no sign of the Sea Lion. Our swim meet was right around the corner. And yet, my teammates seemed to have forgotten about the importance of our ritual. Or at least none of them seemed as worried as I was. After a while, no one even brought it up.

  I was the only swimmer who was having trouble making my times in practice. I knew I was being superstitious, but I couldn’t help myself. I believed in my heart that the Sea Lion had to be found. It seemed like it was up to me to solve the mystery.

  “Shyanna! Rachel! Great job today!” I called to my friends after practice. They were trying hard to race faster and had improved a lot in a couple of days.

  “Thanks,” Rachel said with a smile.

  “Are you two busy?” I asked. “I was hoping you guys would come with me to Titania. I want to look around their castle. I think we’re missing out on an important clue. The salt near the Sea Lion spot had to mean something. There are a couple of swimmers I’d like to talk to. See if I can crack them. Find out more.”

  Rachel and Shyanna glanced at each other and then back at me. “We made plans to go to shore,” Rachel said. “We didn’t ask you because we thought you were babysitting. Justin and Morgan want us to help find seashells.” At the mention of the human boys we knew onshore, Rachel winked. “Justin seemed disappointed you weren’t coming. But now you can! We’re going to go on their computer and talk to Owen.”

  I was a little tempted. Justin was cute. But … “Wouldn’t you rather go to Titania Castle?” I asked. “Shyanna?”

  Shyanna shot a look at Rachel. “I’m sorry, Cora, but we promised.”

  “I haven’t gone in a while because we’ve been so busy training for the swim meet,” Rachel added.

  “Why don’t you come with us instead?” Shyanna pressed. “Have some merfun? Stretch out your legs.”

  I shook my head, disappointed I couldn’t join them, but determined to get to the bottom of things. “I have a hunch I’m onto something,” I told them. “I need to go and check it out. It’s important. For the whole swim team.”

  They both tilted their heads and blinked at me, as if they were worried and weren’t sure what to say.

  “Well, be careful, Cora,” Rachel said. “You should take another merperson with you.”

  I shrugged. “Everyone is busy,” I said, even though I hadn’t really asked. I didn’t want to do this with anyone else other than my best friends.

  We swam together toward the exit of the castle and waved at the guards. Outside, I turned left to head for Titania, while Rachel and Shyanna headed the opposite way to go to shore.

  As if the sea life sensed my mood, the swim to Titania was quiet. No dolphins swam over to entice me to play. No crabs or lobsters waved along the way. I caught sight of a few old eels, but they just watched me with their big eyes and didn’t greet me at all.

  When I finally reached Titania, I swam into the entrance and nodded at the guard who was stationed there. “I’m here to visit a friend from the swim team,” I told him with a fake smile. When he nodded, I quickly swam past before he could ask any other questions.

  Once inside, I made my way around the castle grounds. The layout was similar to Neptunia, so I knew where to find caves and parks. I peered into places where a merperson might be able to hide a Sea Lion mascot, but I didn’t see anything.

  When I swam close to the water park, I spotted a group of merboys goofing around. I swam behind them, hanging back as they swam to a smaller park. They joined a group of mergirls on swings. I watched, missing Shyanna and Rachel and thinking of them on the shore with the human boys.

  Maybe I should have gone with them, I thought briefly. I shook my head. No. I need to solve this mystery.

  I swam closer to the group, listening and looking for anything that seemed unusual. No one seemed suspicious. No one talked in hushed tones about the upcoming swim meet or the missing Sea Lion.

  After a moment, I spotted a familiar-looking merboy swimming off by himself a little. He seemed to be watching the merkids play, but not taking part, as if he were preoccupied. He held a long strand of salted seaweed taffy in his hand. He chewed on it, getting salt all over his hands and his face.

  Suddenly a jellyfish light went off in my head. That was the boy from my cave party! He was the one who’d given me strange vibes with the way he’d been skulking around. He’d disappeared right before we’d gone to the swim track to coach Rachel and Shyanna. Right before we’d discovered the missing Sea Lion! He looked dodgy, as if he could be hiding something — like a mascot from another castle!

  I watched as he swam off, leaving little smears and piles of salt around him. I glanced around to see if anyone was watching, then followed behind. I felt it in my tail. This had to be the boy who had stolen the mascot! I didn’t know why or how he’d done it, but I was going to find out.

  Chapter Five

  I followed the merboy as he swam away from the park, toward a long line of caves. He stopped suddenly and looked around, and I darted behind a nearby boulder in the nick of time. The merboy kept chewing on the salty snack, and I realized his fingers would likely leave streaks on anything he touched — streaks like the ones we’d seen at the missing statue site.

  A sound squeaked near me, and the merboy looked over his shoulder, toward me.

  Squeak. Squeak.

  A starfish on the ocean floor smiled up at me, and I frowned and shook my head at him. He exaggeratedly frowned back and then squeaked again, as if we were playing a game. What a little slimer! Usually starfish were the quietest creatures in the ocean, but this one wanted to play.

  Luckily the merboy didn’t seem to care. He turned away from the boulder and looked around before he swam past the caves toward what looked like an undeveloped part of the castle. In a moment, he disappeared into the darkness.

  I hesitated for just a moment and then swam after him. Scary-looking fish watched me with their mouths open and their pointy teeth bared. Coral waved in the darkness but instead of looking beautiful, it seemed menacing and scary. I wondered for a moment whether I was doing something really foolish but swallowed that thought and kept going.

  The merboy swam up to a tall shape covered by a cloth of seaweed. It looked like the shape of a sea lion! I gasped out loud, and the boy turned, his face evil and menacing in the dark shadows and murky bubbles. He spotted me staring at him, and his eyes flashed in anger.

  “I knew it!” I cried, trying to sound brave. “You stole our Sea Lion statue to jinx our swim team! That is so horrible … and …” I struggled to think of something else to say. “Mean,” I finished, jutting out my chin farther.

  The boy glared at me, and I looked around, realizing I was all alone in this dark area of the ocean with a suspicious and possibly dangerous thief. He swam at me so quickly it took my breath away. I did a quic
k backstroke to put some distance between us.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked. His face was bright red, but he looked confused. “And why did you follow me here? You don’t even live in this castle. What in the ocean are you up to?”

  “Me?” I swam forward. “Don’t pretend with me, thief!” I faked sounding brave as I rushed past him and reached for the seaweed cover, yanking it off the statue.

  It wasn’t the Sea Lion.

  Underneath the cover was a tall cabinet with several shelves. Some contained sharp tools like shark teeth and dead coral. On the top were lumps of clay from the ocean floor. I blinked, looking around the darkness. It had to be here.

  “Where is it?” I cried. “Where’s the Sea Lion?”

  The boy swam closer. He didn’t look embarrassed anymore, but judging by the squint in his eyes and the stiffness in his tail, he was more than a little annoyed. “What are you talking about? Why did you follow me here? What are you doing here skulking around?”

  “I’m not the skulker,” I said, crossing my arms. But my voice was low as I realized I might have made a big mistake and also made quite a fool of myself.

  The merboy crossed his own arms and stared back at me.

  “You stole our Sea Lion,” I said, but it came out weakly. “Our team mascot. At least I thought you did.”

  He shook his head. “No, I didn’t. Why in the ocean would I do that?”

  My cheeks burned. I glanced around, but there was no Sea Lion hiding anywhere. “I think I was wrong. I might owe you an apology.”

  The merboy started to laugh then, and a tiny feeling of relief joined the embarrassment and fear already swirling around my merbody.

  “No offense, but that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard,” he said. “Why would I steal your Sea Lion when I’m planning on cheering for your team?” He glanced around then, a little suspiciously again. “Well, maybe I won’t cheer out loud, I don’t want to be a traitor to my own castle.”

  “Why would you want to cheer for Neptunia?” I asked him.

  The boy glanced down at his fins. He had a nice shimmery tail with flickers of orange and red running through it, almost like the fire I’d seen on land with the human boys. The first time I’d seen the flames, I’d screamed. Fire was hot and scary, but also very beautiful.

  “Your friend,” he said quietly. “Shyanna, the nice one. The pretty one. The one who likes dolphins.”

  I studied the merboy and realized he wasn’t scary or dangerous or suspicious at all. His mouth had salt in the corner, and his ears were the color of a red mussel shell. He had a crush on Shyanna. I covered my smile with my hand. I was such an idiot!

  “I made this for her,” he continued. He reached over and took a beautifully carved clay dolphin off one of the shelves. The detail was amazing. The eyes looked so real, I almost expected it to click and whistle and swim away.

  “You made this?” I practically shouted.

  His ears turned bright red again, and I slowly realized the truth about what was going on — he was embarrassed. He was hiding his talent in this dark place like it was a bad thing.

  “It’s amazing,” I told him. “Shyanna will love it. She’s crazy about dolphins.”

  “I know,” he said. “I heard, and I wanted to surprise her.”

  “That’s why you were skulking around?” I asked. “To spy on Shyanna?”

  “I wasn’t skulking or spying,” he muttered, but he lowered his eyes.

  I smiled. “I’m kidding.” He’d been trying to get closer to Shyanna. It was sweet. “I’m sorry. I thought … well. I thought you were … never mind. It’s beautiful. You’re very talented. What’s your name?”

  “Kai.” He looked up. “Do you think she’ll like it? She won’t think it’s … weird?”

  “Weird?”

  “Merkids our age don’t exactly think doing clay sculptures is cool. Everyone seems to care more about swim races and winning the Castle Cup Banner.”

  “Shyanna’s very artistic. She’s an amazing singer.” I stared at him, confused. “But you’re on the swim team too, aren’t you?”

  “I only joined so I could go to your party,” he explained. “I’m not racing or in any relays or anything. I knew I had to go to your party when I saw Shyanna in the singing competition.”

  “Yeah, she’s really good. But it seems like you’re fast,” I added. I had a hard time understanding how any merperson could not want to race if he or she were fast.

  He shrugged. “I have other interests.”

  So did Shyanna and Rachel, I realized. Not everyone loved racing the way I did. “She’ll love it,” I assured him.

  Kai had a million questions about Shyanna after that. I answered as many as I could stand before I finally got back to my main reason for being in this castle.

  “Do you know who might have stolen the Sea Lion?” I finally asked when I couldn’t stand it any longer. I told him about the pile of salt where the Sea Lion statue usually stood, the reason I’d suspected him in the first place.

  “Well, everyone in Titania loves salt,” Kai said, “but the same can be said for most of the castles in Mermaid Kingdom. And I know for a fact no one from our castle would be able to steal a sea lion and get it past our guards.”

  “Why not?” Guards were good at keeping secrets. Everyone knew that.

  “Because sea lions are considered bad luck by all of Titania,” Kai told me.

  “Really?”

  He nodded. “Really. The king lost one of his merbabies to a sea lion and banned them from our castle years ago.”

  “Oh.” I deflated a little and glanced down at my shell watch. “I have to get back. I’m supposed to babysit my sisters soon.”

  “Come on then, I’ll swim with you to the gates.” He started swimming back toward the lighter part of the ocean. I followed. “Don’t worry,” he added. “I’ve seen you race. You don’t need a mascot to make you faster.”

  I shook my head and chewed on my bottom lip.

  “You’re superstitious!” he said. “Are you like mermen who won’t shave before water polo championships and grow really long beards?”

  I shrugged. “Maybe a little.” My heart dragged like a fishing net through the ocean. I still hadn’t solved the mystery of who’d stolen the Sea Lion mascot.

  We swam quietly for a while, and before I knew it, we’d almost reached the castle entrance.

  “Can you do me a favor?” Kai asked as we drew closer.

  “Sure. Anything.” I felt bad for suspecting him of stealing the Sea Lion.

  “Don’t tell Shyanna I made her the dolphin,” he said. “I want to surprise her at the race.”

  I covered my smile. “Sure,” I said.

  “I heard Shyanna’s on your relay team now,” Kai added.

  “Yeah, she is.”

  He grinned. “Good. And good luck in the butterfly race. I know Shelby Stewart, from Hercules Castle, has been telling everyone she’s going to win this year. She’s done everything she can to beat you. But I know you’ll get her.”

  I stopped for a moment, treading water. That was it! I’d figured out who the real suspect was — Shelby Stewart. I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of it sooner. She really wanted to win the butterfly race. Would she go to any lengths to beat me?

  I had to find out.

  Chapter Six

  I made a few detours as I swam back to Neptunia, collecting some rare and delicious mussels and shrimp from a place I’d discovered with my friends. I lucked out and also found a spotted dogfish egg capsule. Mermaids used them as purses, and I tucked the rare finds and treasures inside my new bag.

  When I got back to Neptunia, I smiled my friendliest smile at the two guards on either side of the entrance. I even batted my eyelashes a little, but they didn’t react. All castle guards are well
trained and rarely respond to anything with more than a shift in their eyes. But the guards all trained together, which meant they were friendly with each other. It only made sense that the guard at our castle would know a lot about what was going on at the other castles. If only I could find a way to get them to talk.

  Fortunately, one of the guards had a son who went to my school. He always talked about how his dad had a weakness for rare fish. He told us about hunts they’d go on, and how his dad always wished he had more time to hunt.

  My luck seemed to be improving because the boy’s dad was one of the guards on duty.

  I stopped just past the entrance. “I have a question,” I said out loud, as if I were talking to the coral walls of the castle. I glanced over, and the biggest guard frowned and shook his head. It was against the rules to talk to him if he hadn’t spoken first, but I was desperate and acting foolish. I couldn’t seem to help myself.

  I reached into my newly acquired mermaid purse and took out a big, juicy shrimp, so rare I’d almost fainted with happiness when I’d spotted it lurking under a sea plant. “This is one of the rarest shrimp in the ocean. I can’t even believe I found it. I wonder if there’s any mermen who could truly appreciate it.”

  The guard narrowed his eyes. “Miss Bass, guards do not take bribes from merchildren. Guards do not take bribes from anyone.”

  I knew that too, but I also knew that once he’d spoken to me, I was free to talk to him. And despite what he’d said, I noticed he couldn’t help staring at the shrimp. “Of course. I would never bribe anyone. I mean, what would a merkid like me even need to bribe a guard for?” I fake laughed. “That’s so ridiculous no one would even believe it.”

  Both of the guards glared at me. I hoped they couldn’t tell how badly my hands were shaking or how nervous I was.

  “It’s just that … well … I know it might seem silly when you have the important job of protecting our castle, and I’m just a thirteen-year-old merkid, but our swim team — as you probably know — is swimming in the Castle Cup. I’m on the swim team, and I hate to brag, but I have a pretty good chance of winning a few races. I just love racing so much.”