I looked away from him. “Allpoints Island.”
The two of them exchanged a look. What was it? Shock?
“Allpoints Island?” Kyle blurted out. “So you know about —”
“Kyle!” the old merman snapped. “I’ll handle this.”
“Of course. Sorry.” Kyle drew back, bowing slightly.
Pausing briefly to pat the moray, the old merman swam toward me. “Now then,” he said in a voice as slimy as the eel, “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced. I’m Nathiel. And you are . . . ?”
“Why should I tell you who I am?” I said, my heart bashing against my chest. “Why won’t you let me go? What are you going to do with me?”
Nathiel laughed and turned away. “Questions, questions. Where shall we start, Kyle?”
Kyle shuffled his tail, pulling on his necklace. “Um . . .”
Nathiel waved him away. “Very well, little girl. I’ll tell you who we are. Seeing as you’ve been kind enough to drop in. We are your biggest fear . . . or your greatest protectors. Depending on how you view your situation at this moment.”
“You’re not my biggest fear,” I said, my heart thumping. “My biggest fear is much worse than you!”
“Oh yes?” Nathiel swam back toward me, no trace of kindness or favor on his face. He twitched his head and the eel rose up, uncoiling itself to slither along behind him. I flinched as it stretched almost up to my face.
“Do you know how powerful we are?” Nathiel asked in a quiet, biting voice. I shook my head quickly, without taking my eyes off the eel. “We are Neptune’s chosen ones, his elite force, the only ones he trusts with his most prized possession.” Nathiel edged an inch closer to me, his cold eyes shining into mine. “We, little visitor, are the kraken keepers.”
A million questions jammed into my mind. “The kraken keepers? But if you’re — but it’s —”
Nathiel laughed, a throaty sound that echoed around the room. The eel slowly stretched up. It was about three times taller than me. Please don’t open your mouth, please don’t open your mouth, I prayed silently as its jaw twitched.
With another click of Nathiel’s fingers, the eel slithered to the back of the room, folding itself once more into a perfect coil.
“Now,” Nathiel said, “that’s my side of the introductions. I think it’s time we heard a little more about you. You see, we know quite a bit about Allpoints Island, don’t we, Kyle?”
Kyle swam forward. Copying Nathiel’s sneer, he replied, “Neptune tells us everything.”
“That’s right. So, for example, he tells us about merfolk who break his laws.” Nathiel swam farther forward. “Merfolk who go meddling in places they shouldn’t,” he added, edging closer still, his nostrils flaring. “Merfolk who WAKE his beloved KRAKEN!” he shouted.
“But, I — how did you know?” I cried. My body was shaking. Water frothed around my tail. I tried to make it lie still.
Kyle stared at Nathiel. “Yes. How did you?”
“I didn’t know!” Nathiel replied. “Swam right into it, didn’t she? Come on, Kyle. What do you get if you add the kraken on the loose, an island full of merfolk who know nothing about it, and a scared merchild clearly running away from trouble? It’s a simple case of mathematics.”
“So we’ve found her?” Kyle said.
“We’ve done good work.” Nathiel patted Kyle’s arm. “Neptune will be very pleased with us. Very pleased indeed.”
“Neptune? You’re going to tell him?” My voice quivered.
“Of course! That is the whole point. Don’t you realize the danger we are all in, you foolish girl?”
“But Neptune! He’ll be furious with me.”
“You think we give a fin about that?” Kyle snapped. “We need you. All of us. There’s more than just yourself to consider.”
“What do you mean? What use am I to you?”
Nathiel shook his head. “Kyle, I’ve had enough of this whining. I think it’s time we got the boss in.”
“The boss? Neptune? He’s coming here?” I squeaked.
“Not Neptune, no. One of his most trusted aides.” Nathiel picked up a conch. Turning away from me, he spoke softly into it. I couldn’t hear what he said. I quickly scanned the room, looking for an escape. My eyes met the eel’s. Try it, they seemed to say. I shivered back against the wall.
“He’ll be along very shortly.” Nathiel put the conch down and tidied some shells on his desk.
A moment later, the door opened. I squeezed my eyes shut in terror. Someone was swimming toward me. I bit my lip as hard as I could, forcing tears away.
“Well, what have we here, then?” a voice said. A creepy voice.
A very familiar voice.
My eyes snapped open to see a crooked smile, an odd pair of eyes: one green, one blue. A scruffy-looking merman who wasn’t all he seemed. Here he was again, all the way from Brightport.
It couldn’t be! The so-called lighthouse keeper. Mom’s so-called friend who was anything but that in reality.
“Hello, Emily,” said Mr. Beeston.
He turned to the others. “Good work, both of you,” he said, snapping something around my wrists. Handcuffs made from lobster’s legs! They bit and scratched at me.
Then he pushed me toward the door. “I’ll take over now,” he said before turning back to give me another of his lopsided smiles. “It’s time we were reacquainted.”
How could they let this happen? Twice! I can’t believe my parents! My dad. It’s all his fault. I can’t believe I agreed to this nightmare vacation in the first place.
We’re hanging on to our useless, broken boat, lying across it, gripping onto ropes. Only problem is, it’s upside down! How long before it sinks and we totally end our vacation in style? I grab the rope tighter as the swells carry us up and down. My stomach seesaws with them.
Are we through that, that whatever it was, that great big sheet of glass in the middle of the ocean?
And the other thing.
I refuse to think about it. It didn’t happen. Mom and Dad haven’t mentioned it. I must have imagined it. Delirious, that’s what I am. It was probably just the waves. Or a vision, because I’d seen it before. Yes. That’s it. Definitely. A mirage.
There’s nothing to worry about. I’m just cracking up.
“Maureen, Mandy — look!” Dad lets go of the rope with one hand and points out to sea.
It’s a ship. Coming toward us!
“Wave! Both of you! Splash your feet!” Dad yells. For the first time in our lives, Mom and I do what he says without arguing.
The ship’s coming closer and closer. Have they seen us? They must have! There’s nothing except us moving for miles all around. We’re kicking and yelling, every atom of hope screaming out of us.
“I can’t splash anymore, Dad. My legs are killing me.” I stop kicking for a moment while I catch my breath. The ship’s stopped moving. They haven’t seen us, after all. That’s it. There’s nothing we can do now. The realization slams into my mind like a block of ice: we’re going to die.
But then I notice something attached to the ship.
“Look!”
They’re lowering a lifeboat into the water! It’s coming to get us.
We’ve been saved!
Mr. Beeston unhooked the lobster claws from my wrists and pulled out a couple of jelly-like cushions. He motioned for me to sit down on one of them while settling himself on the other. I’d hardly ever seen him as a merman. He was half-human and half-merperson like me, the only other one I’d met. He looked just as creepy either way, with his crooked teeth and his crooked smile and the odd-colored eyes that stared at you from the corners.
We were in a bubble-shaped room. It felt like the inside of a huge round shell. No windows, just one small hole divided by thick metal bars. Tiny chinks of light threw pencil-thin beams across the darkness. A black damselfish with fluorescent purple spots and a bright yellow tail weaved between the rays.
I tried to stay calm. My min
d wouldn’t stop racing, though. What were they going to do with me? Would anyone find me? Dad? Shona? Were they looking for me? And what about Mom and Millie? My heart ached at the thought of them on that ship. They’d be miles away by now.
“What are you doing here?” I asked in a daze. Among the millions of questions racing around in my head, it was the only one I could seem to form into words.
“Surprised to see me?” he asked, his voice slipping across the room like slime.
“Of course I’m surprised to see you! Who’s taking care of the lighthouse in Brightport?”
“The lighthouse?” Mr. Beeston laughed. “Emily, why would I be taking care of a lighthouse?”
“It’s what you do!”
“The lighthouse was a cover. You know that.”
“Oh, yes. Of course,” I said numbly. I’d found out before we left Brightport that Mr. Beeston was one of Neptune’s agents and that he’d been spying on us to make sure we never found out about Dad. Well, it didn’t work, did it? I found my dad. I’d beaten Mr. Beeston once. Maybe I could do it again. “But that still doesn’t explain —”
“I was promoted,” Mr. Beeston said, a crooked grin twitching at the side of his mouth. “For my bravery and good work.”
“Good work?” I spluttered. “Is that what you call turning me and Mom over to Neptune? You were supposed to be our friend. We could have been thrown in prison, like my dad.” I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed my fingernails tightly into my palms. I wasn’t going to cry. He wasn’t having that satisfaction.
Mr. Beeston flicked his tail nervously. “I — well, Emily, I did my duty. And look, I was needed here. They’re working on rebuilding this palace, and there’s a lot to do, monitoring activity in the area and keeping a gill open for any kraken-related incidents.” He narrowed his eyes at me accusingly.
“So what are you going to do with me?”
“Do with you? It’s not about what I want to do with you. It’s about what you need to do for us.”
“What d’you mean?”
Mr. Beeston shuffled forward in his cushion. I shuffled backward in mine. He tightened his lips. “I am still an agent of Neptune’s, you know,” he said sharply. “One of the highest ranking of all, now. And if I tell you that you are going to do something, you will do it. You don’t question my authority.”
I folded my arms, anxiously flicking my tail while I waited for him to continue.
“We are all in grave danger. The kraken is on the loose. It has to be calmed and brought back to Neptune.”
“But what’s that got to do with me?”
He held my eyes for a long time before replying.
“You, Emily, are the only one who can do it.”
Someone was banging on the outside of the shell. Mr. Beeston opened the porthole-shaped door we’d come through. Kyle surged into the room on a sudden wave. It flung me against the wall.
“Sir,” he said breathlessly. “I’ve had a sighting. It’s coming closer. The sea — it’s getting rough.”
“Thank you, Kyle. Good work,” Mr. Beeston said.
“It’s heading toward the palace!” Kyle panted. “I think it’s going to get us all. We might have to make our escape.”
“Make our escape? Are you off your fins, boy?” Mr. Beeston barked. “Have you been given the wrong job? You have one purpose and one purpose only. You have a wonderful opportunity to return to the old days and restore the power of the kraken. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, sir.” Kyle reddened. “I’m sorry.”
“Now, don’t let it out of your sight. I’m dealing with it. Have some faith.”
Kyle retreated, leaving a swirling cloud of silt behind him.
“Are you going to explain any of this to me?” I asked as Mr. Beeston swam back into the room. A tiny silver fish swam toward him, slithering across his stomach. He batted it away.
“The kraken is Neptune’s pet,” Mr. Beeston began.
“I know that.”
“And it sleeps for a hundred years. Without its full sleep, it wakes in a murderous rage.”
“I know that too.”
“Stop interrupting me, child! I shall tell you the story my way or not at all.”
I slammed my mouth shut.
“All but Neptune are forbidden to approach the kraken during its sleep. Neptune is the only one who should wake it. And only at the specified time. You see, when it wakes, the only person it will listen to is the one who wakes it, the one it sees first on opening its eyes. This should always be Neptune. But this time, it was you.”
“You mean . . . ?”
“Yes, Emily. The kraken will obey you and only you.”
I realized I wasn’t saying anything. My mouth moved. Opened. Closed. Nothing. The kraken would obey me and only me? I slumped back against the wall, my mind empty, my limbs numb. A thin ray of sunlight threw a diagonal line across the room like a dusty laser beam, lighting up barnacles that lined the walls. The beam shimmered and broke, rocked by the constant water movement.
“What do you want me to do?” I asked eventually.
“We need to move quickly. Neptune’s power over the kraken is fiercely protected. It wasn’t expected that anyone else would ever wake it. Most merfolk obey his rules.” He paused to scowl briefly at me. “First, you have to go to the edge of the Triangle, where its magic is strongest.”
“The edge of the Triangle?” I gasped. “You mean the current that leads to the deepest depths of the ocean?”
“Nonsense!” Mr. Beeston snapped. “It doesn’t do that. That’s what we tell folks to keep them out of the way.”
“So where does it go, then?”
“It leads into the realm of the kraken.”
“The realm of the kraken?” My voice cracked. Somehow, that didn’t sound much more inviting than the deepest depths of the ocean.
“The place where you can communicate with it. You must go to the edge of the Triangle and come face to face with it.”
“Face to face?” I burst out. “With the kraken?” I couldn’t face the monster again. Please no! An image squirmed into my mind: those horrific tentacles, searching, batting and thrashing, smashing into the tunnel. My eyes began to sting with tears. I didn’t care anymore if Mr. Beeston saw me cry. I couldn’t hold it back.
He spoke softly. “It’s the only way.”
“What happens then?” I asked, swallowing hard. “When we’re at the Triangle’s edge?”
“It will come to you. It will listen to you.”
“And I can save the day?”
“What? Yes, yes, of course you can save the day.”
“And it’ll do what I tell it?”
“As I told you, it will listen only to you. Its power lies in your hands.”
I suddenly realized what Mr. Beeston was telling me. I could end all of this. I could bring the kraken into my power. It would listen to me. I could calm it down and everything would be all right. I just had to face it one more time.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.”
Mr. Beeston smiled his crooked smile. “I knew you would.”
He turned to leave. “There’s just one last thing,” he said, pausing at the door. “You were on your own when you woke the kraken, weren’t you?”
“I — why do you want to know that?” I blustered.
Mr. Beeston darted back toward me. Coming so close that I could see the jagged points of his crooked yellow teeth, he leaned into my face. “If someone else was with you when the kraken woke, we need them too.”
“Why?” I asked in a tiny voice.
“Emily, if there was someone else there, it means the kraken will not obey you on your own. Whoever it saw on waking, that is who it will obey — whether that is one person or twenty. We need them all or the plan will fail.”
“I . . .”
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t! Not after everything. I wasn’t going to drag Shona into this. They’d have to think of something else. “There was no one,” I sa
id eventually, my cheeks on fire.
Mr. Beeston grabbed my arm, jerking my body like an electric shock. “You’re lying! You have to tell me. There was someone with you — I know it. Who was it?”
“I can’t tell you!” I cried. Tears slipped down my cheeks. “I can’t do it! You can’t make me.”
“Oh, I think you’ll find we can,” he hissed.
I gulped. “What if I refuse?”
Mr. Beeston twitched slightly. “Then the kraken won’t stop until it has destroyed everything in its sight. These waves we’re seeing — you know they’re just the start of it.”
I thought back to what I’d seen: the kraken smashing up Mandy’s boat, what it did to the reef, the rocks . . . the whale. But could I really make Shona face it again? Could I betray her like that? It would finish off our friendship forever.
“I — I’ll think about it,” I stammered.
He swam over to the door. “Don’t think for too long, Emily,” he said quietly. “Time is an option we don’t have.”
Now, this is more like it! This is what our vacation was supposed to be like all along. Luxury cruise liner, lounge chairs, swimming pool, free drinks. We’re even getting special attention from the crew because of our trauma.
Yeah, it’s all great.
Except. Well, except Mom and Dad haven’t spoken a word to each other since we were saved. The atmosphere’s so cold when they’re around, you’d think we were on a cruise to Antarctica. They’re so busy ignoring each other, neither of them has even asked how I am. I sometimes wonder if they’d even notice if I disappeared. I’m tempted to try it — but I’m too much of a coward. What if it only confirmed my worst fears — that no one cares about me?
And then there’s Emily. Apart from wondering what she’s doing here anyway, and not to mention the fact that she happens to be a mermaid, I just can’t believe I let her put one over me, yet again. OK, and I’m worried about her, too, all right? Just because she hates me doesn’t mean I want her dead.
We set sail again soon. They’ve been trying to get away from here, but there’s something wrong with the ship. It keeps going off course for some reason. They’re trying to figure it out, and once they do and we’re away from here, I’ll never get a chance to repay her. She’ll always have won.