“What are we going to do if he can’t reach them all?’ Millie whispered to Audun.
“I’m not going to worry about that unless I have to,” Audun told her. “Let’s just hope he doesn’t run out of tentacles.”
“All right!” Octavius called after a few minutes. “I think I have them all. You can come in now, but don’t touch the walls and don’t bump me, or the whole thing might come crashing down.”
Audun entered the tunnel with Millie close behind, holding on to his tail. It was nearly pitch black inside the tunnel, but Millie could see with very little light. She followed Audun’s example and hunched down so that she was practically crawling on her knees. And then the tunnel got narrower and she was crawling. “Does it get any narrower than this?” she asked Audun.
“A little,” he said. “But unless it’s collapsed so much that we can’t get through, we should be able to fit.”
“That’s encouraging,” Millie muttered. “Ask Octavius if he can see anyone in the cave.”
“I can hear you,” said the octopus. “You can talk right to me, you know. I can’t see anything from here, but if I twist this way a little … Nope. All I can see are rocks. I can try calling if you want me to. Emma! Eadric! Grassina! Grassina’s husband whose name I can’t remember!”
“He’s my great-uncle and his name is Haywood,” said Millie.
“Yeah? Well, it doesn’t really matter. No one is answering me, anyway.”
“Is there an opening big enough for Shelton to fit through? Maybe he can see inside the cave.”
“Unh-unh,” Shelton said. “You’re not getting me to go up there until the opening is big enough for you. I’m not getting trapped in a cave when the tunnel collapses!”
Millie sighed. She was growing more anxious by the minute.
The sound of rock scraping on rock reached her ears. A moment later Audun pushed a pile of stones to her. Without letting go of his tail, she shoved the stones back with her feet, wishing she had longer legs to shove the rubble out of the tunnel. She glanced back to see how far from the entrance she had to carry them and saw something moving in the near dark.
“We have come to help, oh friend of the Great One,” said a sea snake.
“In what way may we assist you?” asked another.
“Can you drag these stones out of the tunnel?” Millie asked, tapping the rubble with her hind foot.
“Yesss,” a group of them said at once.
“Who are you talking to?” asked Octavius.
“Sea snakes,” Millie replied.
Stones clattered up ahead as if Octavius had shifted. “I hate sea snakes,” he said just loud enough for Millie to hear.
Millie would have loved to watch to see how the sea snakes moved the rubble, but Audun was already passing more rocks to her. She passed them on, then the bigger rocks that he shoved back one at a time. When Audun crept forward, she did, too, and the whole process started over. No matter how far they moved into the tunnel, the snakes were right there behind her, clearing away the rocks.
After what seemed like hours, Audun reached Octavius and began to inch past him. Millie heard only bits and pieces of their muttered comments to one another. “If you don’t move that tentacle, you’re going to have only seven.” “Watch where you put that thing!” “You want me to go where?” “Ow! Your scales are sharp!” “You’re not nearly as slimy as I thought you were.”
Millie was tired, her back ached from crouching down for so long, and she’d already broken two talons on rocks. She had tried to be patient, but worry was making her temper shorter. She wanted to snap at Audun and Octavius and tell them to hurry up, but that would just start an argument and not help anything. Finally, trying not to let her impatience show, she asked, “How far are we now? Can you see anything yet?”
“Didn’t you just ask that?” said Octavius. “No, I still can’t see a thing.”
“But I’ve almost reached it,” Audun told her. “I’m out of the water now. Just a few more feet … There,” he said, half dragging Millie past the octopus and into the cave as he lurched clear of the tunnel. He reached down and drew her up to join him and they stood side by side, looking around the enormous cave. It was dark, with a dim, pale green light coming from the green stones embedded in the walls. Water lapped around their ankles as they stepped farther into the cave. The remains of plants that normally grew in seawater hung dead and limp on the walls, as if the cave had once been filled with water. A few fish swam in the water on the floor, but they darted away at the dragons’ approach.
The walls of the cave were uneven and bore ledges of varying sizes. There were shapes perched on some of the ledges; some looked just like rocks, the rest … ?
“Mother?” Millie called, the word catching in her throat.
One of the shapes groaned. Another raised a hand a few inches before letting it fall back to the ledge.
“It’s them!” Millie let go of Audun and sped across the cave to crouch beside one of the figures. “My father is breathing,” she said and inhaled, but the air smelled stale and she found herself gasping after the first few breaths.
Shelton climbed down off her back and looked around, waving his eyestalks.
“They’ve used up most of the good air,” Audun said, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Let’s not use up the rest. We need to get them out of here before it’s all gone. Grassina is breathing, too.”
“And here’s your mother,” said Shelton, swimming through the water covering the floor of the cave.
“Are they all … breathing?” Millie asked, almost too afraid to say it.
“Barely,” said Audun as he straightened up from beside Haywood. He pulled off the chain holding the amulet and handed it to Millie. “Here, put this on. You can take your mother and Grassina out first. I’ll stay here with your father and your great-uncle.”
“But you won’t be able to breathe!” said Millie.
“There’s a little good air left. Just don’t take too long!”
“I’ll be as quick as I can,” said Millie. “Help me get them to the door.”
With Audun’s help, Millie was able to carry her nearly lifeless mother and great-aunt out of the cave and into the tunnel. It was difficult getting the two women past Octavius, but he proved to be exceedingly pliable, and after some maneuvering Millie was able to squeeze them through the narrow space.
Millie was anxious to return to the cave to get Audun and the men, but first she had to see the women to safety. Because she was wearing the amulet, both Emma and Grassina were able to breathe again and both began to get color back in their cheeks. Neither woman was conscious, however, which meant that Millie would have to lug two dead weights to the surface and drag them through the waves to dry land. Swimming with her front legs wrapped around bodies was a difficult process and took far longer than she would have liked.
She was nearing the surface when she felt the presence of something behind her. After checking to make sure that the women were still all right, she bent her neck to look down. A large figure was coming out of the darker reaches of the water; at first Millie couldn’t tell what it was. It wasn’t until she saw an old mermaid with dark eyes like bottomless pits and wild, nearly translucent hair that she realized it was Nastia Nautica, and the blob that kept changing shape beneath her was the sea monster.
Millie curled her lip in a dragonish snarl. Nastia Nautica had already tried to kill members of Millie’s family; she wasn’t about to give the sea witch a second chance. Thrashing her tail as hard as she could, she swept her hind legs back in a powerful swoop and shot through the water, carrying Emma and Grassina into the open air. She tried to open her wings with their usual snap, but the water slowed her so that she fell back with a splash.
Something latched on to Millie’s ankle and she shook her leg; whatever was holding on to her was strong, and it began to drag her toward the ocean floor. She glanced down and saw one of the sea monster’s tentacles wrapped around her ankle.
Emma stirred in her daughter’s grasp as the sea witch laughed with glee. “This is even better than I planned!” Nastia Nautica chortled. “Give the witch hope of escape, then take it away again. I’d heard the Green Witch’s daughter could turn into a dragon, but I never thought I’d catch her, too! Swim, you misbegotten son of a monster’s worst dream!” she screamed, prodding the sea monster with a curved whalebone. “We’ll stuff them back in the cave and shut the entrance for good!”
Millie looked down again as she jerked her leg back and forth, trying to get rid of the tentacle. The sea monster held on, but it seemed reluctant to yank at Millie. Each time it hesitated, however, Nastia Nautica used the whalebone prod, poking the monster between its sad-looking eyes. Wincing from the blow, the sea monster tugged on Millie again.
“Millie?” Emma said, her voice so faint that her daughter almost missed it. “Is that you?”
“Don’t worry, Mother,” Millie told her. “Everything will be all right.”
Even as the sea monster dragged Millie down into the ocean’s depths, she was thinking about something else entirely. She thought about the Dragon Olympics and how she had come in second after Flame Snorter, Ralf’s mother, the previous month. She thought about how it felt when fire burned hot in her belly and flame scorched her throat. She thought about what it was like to aim the flame at one point, narrowing it so that it shot in a straight line that nothing could extinguish. And then Millie arched her neck to look down at the still-laughing sea witch, and she flamed.
A tongue of fire shot from between the dragon’s puckered lips, aiming straight for the sea witch. The flame lit up the depths as water boiled around it. Nastia Nautica screamed and turned the sea monster so the fire hit it instead. The monster shrieked—an unearthly sound that seemed to echo in Millie’s ears long after it ended. Blisters appeared on its shapeless body and it writhed, letting go of Millie’s leg and sending Nastia Nautica tumbling. The sea witch screamed and once again Emma stirred in Millie’s arms.
Pulling herself upright, Emma cleared her throat. She pointed at the flailing sea witch and said, “Now it’s my turn.”
Spin around and spin around
Then rise into the air
Form a twirling tower
That will whisk away the pair
Carry them across the sea
To a place no human dwells
Where crashing waves will keep them trapped
Beneath the rising swells
Water began to swirl around the sea witch and the monster, catching them up and twirling them in an ever- rising circle, which lengthened, becoming a water spout. Millie backed away to watch the spout grow as it pulled more water into its spiral. Within seconds it had reached the surface and rose into the air, carrying Nastia Nautica and her monster with it. The monster cried out, a plaintive sound that tore at Millie. She turned her head aside, not wanting to see the look in the monster’s eyes as the water spout rose higher until it disappeared from sight.
“Are they gone?” asked Shelton, peeking out from behind Millie’s tallest ridge.
Millie smiled. She hadn’t realized that Shelton was there, but she was delighted to see him. “Yes, they’re gone, thanks to my mother. But I have a job for you now. Take this amulet to Audun,” she said, pulling the chain off over her head. “Tell him that we’re fine and we’re waiting for him here. Hurry! They didn’t have much air left.”
Shelton sighed and snagged the chain with his claw. “Why do I get all the dangerous jobs?” he said and turned to swim away.
Twelve
When Audun broke the surface of the water hauling Eadric and Haywood, who were pale but very much alive, Millie was sure they’d all be able to start back to Greater Greensward soon. The humans were still dazed and disoriented, so she and Audun shouldered their burdens and turned to the distant palm trees barely visible on the horizon. While the two dragons carried the humans toward the island, their lashing tails propelling them through the waves, Millie thought about what to do next. They’d go to the island, and she’d give her parents a few minutes to rest before telling them about Felix. Then they’d all go home, find Felix, and everything would be back to normal.
As they dragged themselves out of the water and onto the beach, she told Audun that they’d be leaving soon and that he needn’t bother changing into his human form. Unfortunately, the four former captives were exhausted, ill, hungry, and desperately thirsty, so Millie waited as the old witches swarmed around them, offering them food and drink. When Millie tried to talk to her mother, Rugene shooed her away, saying that her parents needed to rest. Half an hour later, the women were still fussing over them, making sure that they had enough to drink and eat and were comfortable sitting on the witches’ own feather mattresses dredged up from the nearly repaired ruins of their cottages.
Millie could scarcely sit still. She could feel the all-too-precious time trickling away like the sand she scooped from the beach where she sat beside Audun.
“Octavius feels terrible about what he did,” said Audun, interrupting Millie’s thoughts. “He told me so while we were waiting for you to come back.”
“Why would he feel terrible? Without him we never could have gone through the tunnel to get them out,” Millie said.
“He tried to talk us into waiting for Coral. If we had listened to him, all four of them might have died.”
Millie shrugged. Any other time she might have worried about Octavius’s feelings, but right now something else caused her far more concern. “But we didn’t wait, so it worked out all right,” she said. “He doesn’t need to feel bad. I, however, feel lousy, and I don’t see you worrying about me. I know that what you said was true—my mother asked me to watch over Greater Greensward and Felix, and I couldn’t possibly be in both places at once, but I can’t help feeling that I was still responsible. I was supposed to keep an eye on him and—”
“Do all humans fret this much?” asked Audun. “Dragons are much more sensible creatures. We don’t dwell on what we did or didn’t do, or at least not in our saner moments.”
Millie’s breath escaped with a gasp. “My brother was kidnapped by a lunatic and here you are calling me crazy! I can’t believe that you would say such a—”
Audun shook his head even as he interrupted her. “I never called you crazy, nor did I mean to imply that you—”
“I’m not so sure about that,” said Millie. “This is the second time you’ve told me how much better dragons are than humans. If that’s really the way you feel, maybe we don’t belong together. Maybe it’s a good thing we haven’t finished planning our wedding. Maybe we shouldn’t have a wedding at all!”
Audun reached for her, his eyes stricken. “Millie, you can’t mean that.”
“I’m not sure if I do or not,” she said, pulling away. “If you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go try to talk to my parents again.”
Millie walked away with her back stiff and her head held high. She was still upset as she worked her way through the group of witches to Emma, who must have seen the expression on her face because she stepped forward when Cadmilla tried to intercept the young dragoness. “Thank you for your hospitality,” said Emma, “but I need to talk to my daughter.”
Millie had thought long and hard about how she would tell her parents that their baby had been kidnapped. She’d wanted to break the news to them gently, but now, when she actually had to tell them, all she could do was blurt out, “I know you’re tired and have gone through a terrible ordeal, but we have to go. I came looking for you because Olebald Wizard kidnapped Felix and took him to Soggy Molvinia.”
Emma gasped and her hand flew to her mouth. She swayed until Eadric came up behind her and put his arm around her waist. “What’s this about Felix?” he asked.
“Olebald Wizard kidnapped him,” Millie said again. “He took him to Soggy Molvinia and turned him into a frog. The fairy Raindrop helped us follow him there, but he’d already released Felix into the marsh, where he’s w
ith a billion other frogs. Francis, Oculura, Dyspepsia, and Azuria are all looking for Felix, but Audun and I came to get you because I was sure that you would know what to do.”
Eadric nodded and pulled Emma closer. “You did the right thing. We’ll go there straightaway. Your mother can find anything, can’t you, Emma?”
“Yes, but my baby! How could anyone do such a horrible thing? And of all the times for this to happen, why did Olebald have to do it now?”
“I think he was in league with Nastia Nautica,” said Audun, who had come up behind Millie. He set his talons on Millie’s shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “They must have planned it together. She lured you away and trapped you in her cave while he kidnapped Felix. Who knows what else he has in mind?”
“That’s right,” Millie told them as she twitched her shoulder out from under Audun’s touch and took a step away from him. “When Olebald brought the roc to Greater Greensward and tried to tear down the castle last year, he had green stones with him like the ones in Nastia Nautica’s cave. If he got the stones from her, he must have known her for some time.”
“We have to get to Soggy Molvinia as soon as possible,” said Eadric.
“I have a spell that could carry us there in an instant, but it won’t work on all six of us,” Emma said.
“You two go, and take Grassina and Haywood,” said Millie. “Audun and I will fly back. It won’t take us long as dragons.”
“We’ll do that,” said Emma, “but hurry. Olebald has obviously been planning this for a while. It sounds as if he’s already wielded more powerful magic than I’ve ever seen him use before. I don’t know if I’ll be able to undo his spell. If that’s the case, we’re all going to be searching the marsh for Felix.”