Sprite (Annabelle's Story Part One) (17 page)

Nodding toward the hippocampus, he offered a suggestion. “How ‘bout we use our new friend here to give us a little breather. I’d rather ride him than risk taking the jet streams.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, patting the hippocampus on its side. Perhaps it was the fact it just saved our life, but this one didn’t scare me. I was rather thankful it helped us escape. I was also thankful that I had spent so much time learning how to wrangle one. I’m sure Adrian would’ve been able to grab him, but using my affinity saved us a lot of time, and probably our lives.

“I’ll steer for a little. Why don’t you get a bite to eat then try to get some rest,” Adrian said.

“On this thing?”

“Sure, just wrap your arms around me. I’ll make sure you don’t fall off.”

Great. Just what I needed; to be pressed against Adrian, again.

“Here,” he said, steering the hippocampus down to the bottom of the ocean to grab a handful of seaweed. “Lunch.”

Double great. More seaweed.

I ate as quickly as possible, barely chewing, and basically just swallowing it down. It was just as slimy as I remembered from the night before.

Afterwards, I hesitantly moved my arms around Adrian’s waist. In the heat of the moment when the megalodon was about to eat us, I didn’t think twice about throwing my arms around him. Now, it was awkward and I was very aware of my body against his.

I was also very aware that Blake would frown at what was going on here. It wasn’t like I was doing anything wrong though. I was just trying to avoid falling off this thing.

Right?

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

I must have dozed off.

“Annabelle,” Adrian said softly. “It’s time to wake up.”

I glanced from side to side. “Where are we now?”

“We can pick up the jet stream that goes across the Mediterranean from here.”

“Do you think it’ll be safe?”

“I’m not sure. There’s no telling if the Trackers read the tablet or not.”

“I heard it crack.”

“Yeah, so did I. It actually worked out good that you dropped it in the cave. I’m hoping it shattered.”

Bringing the hippocampus to a stop, Adrian and I hopped off.

“The jet stream is just over that ridge,” Adrian said looking to the right. “I’ll take a quick look to make sure there’s no one waiting for us on the other side.”

I stroked the dark mane of our new friend while I waited for the “okay.”

The half-horse, half-fish hippocampus was a lot less threatening to me than horses on land. Maybe it was the fact that if you fell off, you landed in water and not the hard ground.

This one also didn’t try to bite me.

I hoped the hippocampus, our convenient taxicab, would be able to find his herd again. I felt bad we took him so far from home and put him in such danger.

For the third time, I scanned the ridge. This time, Adrian hovered in the water, waving his arms to signal it safe.

After one last stroke and a quiet “thank you” to the hippocampus for helping us, I swam off to join him.

“So, I don’t see any Trackers, but we still need to be careful. Stay alert and be prepared to get out of the jet stream at any moment.”

Now that I had lots of experience with jet streams, I didn’t need to roll in. I just swam into it in a controlled fashion.

Once inside, my eyes bolted around. Through the jet stream, I vaguely saw shapes of the sea zipping by. From the outside, we must’ve looked like two black blobs moving through the ocean.

It was eerie watching the shadows pass. I convinced myself time and time again that the black shapes were actually Trackers, but none of the shadows ever came to life to attack us.

Thank goodness.

Our time in the jet stream wasn’t very long, but it felt a lot longer. Before I knew it, we’d cut across the Mediterranean into the waters surrounding Italy.

Once back in the open sea, Adrian quickly scanned the waters for any danger. Satisfied, he started to discuss our game plan.

“So right now, we’re a pretty good distance from land. There’s still a threat of humans seeing us though, so we need to be careful.”

“Is there a lot of scuba diving in this area or something?”

“There never used to be, but now there is. Oddly enough, only a year ago things along the eastern coast of Sicily picked up.”

“How so?”

“Well, various businesses hoped to jumpstart scuba tourism in the area, so an inventory of good dive sites along the coast was initiated. While exploring, coins were found. Actually, a lot of coins.”

“Coins?”

“Yeah, we thought that they could possibly be the same ones we looked for, so we immediately came to scout it out.”

“And?”

“And, they weren’t. Turned out the coins were from the First Punic War.”

At my blank stare, he continued.

“The Punic War was the first of three wars that were fought between Rome and Carthage. Basically, just a battle for supremacy between two power houses.”

“I see. How do they know they were from the First Punic War?”

“Well, all the coins were minted between 246 and 241 B.C., which happens to be the same years of the war.”

“What was on the coins? I’m guessing it wasn’t a flower?”

“Nah, the one side showed the face of the fertility goddess for Carthage and on the other side stars and a caduceus surrounded a horse’s head,” he said, pointing to the caduceus emblem that also appeared on the chest of his armor.

“Yeah, definitely not the coins we’re looking for.”

“If only we were so lucky. The coins were scattered along the coast. They weren’t in a chest or anything, so one-by-one the divers had to pick them up. In the end, there were over three thousand coins.”

“Wow, that must have taken forever.”

“That’s for sure. But anyways, long story short, the diving craze in this area is still going strong. We shouldn’t really have a problem until we get closer to shore. It can’t hurt to still be careful.”

“So, what’s our game plan?”

“First of all, we need to work fast. We only have the rest of today then two more days until New Year’s Day.”

“All right. I’m guessing the chest isn’t going to be in plain sight?”

“Ha, good guess. I’m thinking we should start in areas that have reef, coral, rocks… basically anything that could conceal a chest.”

“Like over there?” I said, pointing to a patch of coral.

“Exactly.”

That particular coral didn’t hide the chest. Neither did any of the other spots we explored over the next two hours. The process of searching for the chest was quite tedious. We not only had to keep an eye out for humans, but we also had to be careful of any Trackers.

A few times we quickly ducked behind a rock to avoid a group of divers. Actually, we did so more than Adrian would have guessed. The occurrences left him feeling hesitant about continuing our search. He suggested we hide out until later in the day. For me, the thought of stopping now didn’t seem like an option.

Instead, I offered to split up to help speed things up. I figured with a little help from my special affinity for water, I’d be able to protect myself. Naturally, Adrian didn’t agree with my point of view.

Eventually there came the point when we hadn’t left any stone unturned and it was necessary to venture closer to shore. Fortunately, it was later in the day and most divers and tourists had headed home for dinner.

Then the weirdest thing happened. We’d gone only a few hundred yards toward the shoreline when my body tingled.

“Adrian, can you feel that?”

“Feel what?”

“I dunno; it’s like a vibration.”

Pausing, he remained as still as possible as he stared off in the distance. Then returned his gaze to me. “I don’t feel anything.”

“Really? It’s almost like I’m being pulled that way,” I said pointing to the right.

“Like a magnet?”

“Um, maybe. It’s hard to explain.”

Up ahead there was another ridge, but I was unable to see the other side. I just had this feeling that we needed to find out what was there.

“I really think we should go toward the ridge.”

“Well you’re the one with the feeling, so I’m not going to object.”

And the feeling only got stronger the closer we moved, the temperature of the water seeming to heat up with each stroke.

The whole time we swam, Adrian’s eyes bore into me. Perhaps he was hopeful I’d have a grand revelation or something. It actually made me kind of nervous as I led him up the incline. As we approached the top, Adrian grabbed my arm. “Let me go first.”

I didn’t listen. The water was scorching. I brushed past him before he could stop me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

“That’s incredible,” I gasped.

“What is?” Adrian asked, looking around.

“The waterfall.”

“What waterfall?! We’re underwater. How can there be a waterfall?”

“Right there, in front of us,” I responded, his horrible eyesight puzzling me.

He eyed me curiously. “Annabelle, I don’t see anything.”

“Really? You can’t see that?”

“No.”

Obviously getting frustrated, he turned back to look in the same direction as me.

“There are three of them.”

“Describe them for me?”

“There’s one far off to the left,” I said, pointing. “It trickles down, splashing over a few different sets of rocks. And then at the bottom it combines with the water from the waterfall in the middle. That one spills down into a crevice, where the water overflows then merges with the other waterfalls. There’s another one to the right, it looks just like the one to the far left; like a mirror image. You really can’t see it?”

He gave me a frustrated look, but ignored my question, asking his own. “You said there are three waterfalls that connect at the bottom?”

“Yeah, but then the water disappears.”

“What do you mean it disappears?”

“See that big rock at the bottom?”

“Yeah?”

“Well, the three waterfalls meet there and the water simply vanishes… like the water is going inside of it.”

“There’s just a constant stream of water flowing?”

“Yeah, it’s spilling out from those three different spots about halfway up that main rock formation. And it’s… oh my gosh,” I said, interrupting myself. “It’s like ‘the waterer.’ Arethusa! It’s a constant stream of water!”

“Annabelle! This is incredible. I bet you anything the chest is hidden there.”

Without saying another word, we darted off in unison to the three waterfalls. When we arrived at the base, we looked up to scour the huge rocks.

“Okay, so where does the water disappear into it?”

“Right here,” I said, swimming over and placing my hand on the spot.

In a split second, he was right next to me. With a curious look, he rubbed his hand over the area in which I indicated the water to disappear, not disrupting the flow of water at all. It just kept on streaming like his hand wasn’t even there.

“I wonder…” he said, and then rapped his knuckles on various spots of the rock.

“What is it?”

“It’s hollow.”

“Let’s find something to break the rock,” I suggested.

The only things useful I found were other rocks. I quickly grabbed a smaller one and passed it to Adrian.

Banging rock against rock didn’t seem to work. It left white marks on both of the rocks, but that was the extent of it.

“This might work,” he said, pulling the sword from his sheath.

He quickly took off his armor and wrapped it around the blade of his sword. Then, holding onto the protected blade, he banged the hilt of his sword into the rock.

It made a loud noise, and I quickly scanned for any signs of Trackers or humans.

It also left more than just a white mark. The metal from his sword appeared to be denser than the thin layer of the rock, and a crack formed. With each new strike, it widened.

While he pounded away, I went in search of glowing coral. In no time at all, he’d created a hole big enough for us to crawl into and I had fastened a “torch” to guide us inside.

Teamwork at its best.

“Here,” I said, handing him the coral.

With a smile, he grabbed it. “Ready?”

I nodded back.

Then, he dove into the rock, with me right behind.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Even with the coral, it took my eyes a minute to adjust.

Then, I saw it.

I couldn’t believe it.

We’d found it. We’d found the sunken chest.

“There’s something written on it,” I pointed out.

Quickly reading it, Adrian responded. “It must be the same thing that was on the tablet.”

“Why? What’s it say?”

He read it to himself a few more times; translating it into English, then read it aloud.

Her birth into a stream caused great pain for him.

She came to rest in the waters of the quail.

Here, only his distant child will recognize the “waterer”

And find what is hidden.

“And find what’s hidden,” I repeated. “It’s gotta be the coins.”

“Well why don’t you open it and find out?” he asked, a playful edge to his voice.

“Can you try first?”

“Um, sure, but why?”

“Just humor me.”

He pulled at the lid unsuccessfully, silently stopping. I was excited, nervous, and also in disbelief. Him watching me didn’t help.

The “her” was obviously Arethusa. We’d already established that she was turned into a stream and it left her son, Abas, devastated.

The next part we had figured out too. “Quail” really meant the town of Ortygia in Italy, and here we were.

We were a little off with the whole “descendant” thing. We thought it was about Abas, but in actuality, it was about me. I was the “distant child.”

To give Adrian credit, he did mention that I could be involved, but I had brushed the idea off.

Still, that was the part that left me in disbelief.

Adrian couldn’t feel that weird vibration that led us here. Only I could.

Adrian couldn’t see the waterfall. That was me again.