The Dragon in the Sea (14 page)

Daisy turned to the Mermage and said, “So how come Belleweather’s a beach beauty and you’re a hideously ugly sea cucumber?”

The sea cucumber’s bristles quivered and it started to swell up.

“Oh, no!” said Star, shrinking away. “You’ve gotten him angry now.”

A storm of rotten-egg bubbles burst in their faces.

Daisy waved them away. “Maybe if he gets mad enough, he’ll answer my question,” she said.

Jesse, getting the idea, joined in. “Yeah, we didn’t realize that the great Maldew was a lowly sea cucumber. From all the stories we heard on board
The Golden Dragon
, we thought you were going to be this magnificent merman.”

The Mermage continued to swell up until he looked like an enormous blowfish.

“Oh, you’ve done it now,” said Star, covering her head as the water all around the swollen sea cucumber bubbled.

The Mermage began to speak. “I was the most magnificent merman in the Eighth Sea … until that sea witch trounced me.”

“Really?” Jesse said, continuing to bait the beast. “You let yourself be beat by a woman?”

Angry bubbles burst all around them like stink bombs. “We both wanted the dragon egg. One night, she whipped up a lightning storm the likes of which I have never seen. Belleweather was up on the bridge of
The Golden Dragon
when I rose from the boiling sea and scuttled her precious ship with
a stab of my trident.” Like leaks through pinholes in a balloon, Maldew’s words gradually reduced his size.

Daisy nudged Jesse. “He’s right,” she said. “I saw three holes in the hull of
The Golden Dragon
!”

Jesse turned back to the Mermage. “A little trident sinking a mighty ship like the
Dragon
? Like the measly ones your guards have?” Jesse said, pointing to the Red Eyes. “I bet you’re exaggerating.”

“I assure you, White Eyes, my trident is most powerful and still is,” Maldew said in a deadly quiet voice. “But Belleweather was fast. She struck me with a lightning bolt that turned me into sea sludge.”

“Ick,” Daisy said.

“As
The Golden Dragon
sank, so did I, to the bottom of the sea. I would have remained there, a powerless puddle of ooze, had I not had the good fortune to settle into the body of a sea cucumber. I was able to inhabit that sea cucumber and survive.”

“You call being turned into a sea slug
lucky
?” Jesse said with a sneer.

“What does a puny White Eyes know of luck … or power? I actually began to thrive in my new state, swelling to my current impressive proportions. The Coral Jungle grew up around me, and all merfolk
who swim into it come under my power and do my bidding … as you three soon will.”

“You mean only merpeople can fall under your power?” Daisy said. “That means you can’t control Belleweather because she’s a selkie.”

“Ah, but I do, in a way. My last act before I turned to sludge was to cast a spell on her that made her fall in love with the first lubber she laid eyes on. A daredevil surfer happened to paddle out into the midst of the storm that night. He saw Belleweather and thought he was saving her.”

“How romantic,” Daisy said, and meant it.

“Selkies who fall in love with mortals sacrifice some of their power, if only because they must live on the land to be with their lubber mates. It has kept her, for the most part, out of my way. And the remaining White Eyes have had to fend for themselves, pack of fools and knaves that you are, huddling on board Belleweather’s sunken ship. But now the dragon egg is in my possession and about to hatch. When the dragon hatches, I will harness its power to blight the White Eyes and all the other creatures of the Eighth Sea … but I will save Belleweather and her half-breed spawn for last.”

Emmy hissed, long and low.

Maldew spoke to the Red Eyes next. “Take
them and lay hands on them until their eyes are as red as my anger is hot.”

Star let out a shriek as the heft of Red Eyes began to close in on them again. Just then, Emmy transformed from a fish into a dragon. The Red Eyes fell back, cowering.

“By the Great Red Tide, you’re a full-blown dragon!” Maldew said in wonder.

Feet planted in the black sand, Emmy’s green eyes blazed. “I’ve come for the egg. Where is it, Maldew?”

Everything happened very quickly after that. The six Red Eyes raised their tridents and drove them, tines first, deep into the sand. Maldew sucked in great quantities of seawater through his puckered mouth. Emmy snatched up Jesse, Daisy, and Star and kept them from being pulled into Maldew’s maw. Along with water, all manner of objects came flying through the jungle from all directions toward Maldew—ships’ anchors and chains, spearguns, rusted pilings, and even an ancient diving helmet. All this flotsam and jetsam came to be plastered across the Mermage’s body like iron filings on the end of a giant magnet. The more objects that accumulated, the weaker Emmy grew, until she dropped first Jesse, then Daisy, and finally Star. The
dragon began to shrink slowly until she was once again a dragon fish, a pale and sickly-looking dragon fish, foaming at the mouth.

The Mermage stopped sucking and the water went still, except for the clinking of the pieces of scrap metal, rubbing against each other among his bristles.

“What happened to your dragon?” Star asked in a trembling voice.

“All this stuff is made of iron,” Jesse said.

“It was too much for her,” Daisy said sadly.

The Red Eyes lifted their tridents out of the sand and swam forth. One of them pried the ancient diving helmet off of Maldew’s body and clapped it down on the seafloor over Emmy, trapping her. She peered out miserably from the round glass window, her fins barely moving.

Maldew exhaled a long, malodorous breath and sent all the metal drifting away from him to settle around the diving helmet, thus trapping Emmy even more surely.

“Now, where was I?” said Maldew. “Oh, yes. I was ordering the White Eyes to be made
Red
.”

The Red Eyes pressed in upon the three captives.

“Dive between them and swim for it!” Star whispered frantically.

“It’s no use,” said Jesse. “We’d never make it. And we can’t leave Emmy.”

“Wait a minute!” Daisy cried out to Maldew. “It would be a big mistake to turn us into Red Eyes. You can use us. We happen to be fully qualified dragon doulas!”

Maldew called off the Red Eyes, who obediently pulled back.

“Speak, White Eyes!” Maldew bellowed. “And I caution you not to make me more angry than I already am.”

Daisy swallowed hard. “You need us, Maldew, to assist in the hatching of this dragon,” she said. “We’re experts. Dragon hatchings are very complicated. If something goes wrong, your dragon may be less than healthy. A less-than-healthy dragon has very little chance of surviving, and if it does, it will possess very weak magic. I’m surprised you don’t know that, a wise and powerful Mermage like yourself.”

Jesse worked to keep a straight face. No one told a whopper better than his cousin.

“Why should I believe a White Eyes?” Maldew said.

“Because it’s the truth,” Daisy said. “Show us where the egg is, Maldew, before something truly terrible happens.”

“I’d listen to her if I were you,” said Jesse.

The water around the sea cucumber went black and foul with tiny little bubbles as he mulled this over. Finally, words came out. “Very well. Take the White Eyes to the tugboat,” Maldew said to the Red Eyes.

To Jesse, Daisy, and Star he added, “But know this, White Eyes. If anything happens to the dragon during the hatching, I will hold you personally responsible. And the consequences will be unspeakable.”

The heft of Red Eyes surrounded them and began to prod them away from the clearing and back into the jungle.

Jesse cast one last backward glance at the diving helmet holding Emmy. Then he swam up even with Star and whispered in her ear, “Try and escape. Swim to the beach and tell Reef and Coral we need help.”

Star nodded. After they had been swimming through the jungle for some time, she whispered to Jesse and Daisy, “Cover your eyes.”

Jesse and Daisy did as bidden. No sooner had they done so than there was a huge explosion of bright green light. The Red Eyes pulled back, shielding their eyes.

When the explosion of light subsided, an empty conch shell lay where Star had been.

“Go, Star, go!” Daisy chanted under her breath.

Star had released the phosphairies from her conch shell. The sudden surge of green light had temporarily blinded the Red Eyes and enabled Star to make her getaway.

While the Red Eyes rubbed their red eyes, Jesse shooed the loose phosphairies into his and Daisy’s conch shells.

As soon as the Red Eyes had regained their sight, they began to argue amongst themselves as Jesse and Daisy looked on, hoping they quibbled long enough to give Star time to swim away.

“Two of us can chase down the runaway,” one of the Red Eyes said.

“I’ll go with Rock,” said another, “and we’ll get her.”

“No, let her go. We must follow the master’s orders,” said the burliest Red Eye. “The egg needs tending first. Whoever doesn’t agree with me, raise a hand.”

“I’m with Marino,” a Red Eyes said, raising his hand.

Marino’s burning eyes swept over the other four and, one by one, much to Jesse’s and Daisy’s
relief, they raised their hands, voting not to chase after Star.

Marino nodded, then turned to Jesse and Daisy and brandished his trident. “You two. Get moving.”

They continued their swim through the Coral Jungle. At length they came upon the sunken carcass of an old tugboat. Four more beefy Red Eyes armed with tridents guarded the pilot’s cabin, whose windows were crusted over with blackened barnacles.

“Open up,” Marino said to the nearest guard.

The guard opened the door, and the Red Eye escort crowded in on Jesse and Daisy and forced them into the cabin, shutting the door behind them.

It was a good thing Jesse and Daisy still had their phosphairy lanterns, for they lit up the small, dark space. The water inside the tugboat cabin was as intensely warm as bathwater right out of the hot water tap. There was black kelp strewn everywhere. On the chart table, nestled in Jesse and Daisy’s backpack, lay the Thunder Egg.

At first, it looked like the egg was swaying with the current of the sea. But when they swam closer, Jesse and Daisy saw that it was rocking steadily back and forth under its own power.

Slowly, they set their conch shells on either side of the backpack. The phosphairies swarmed
out of the shells, as if they, too, wanted to get a better look.

“Look, Jess,” Daisy whispered, pointing.

In the green light of the hovering phosphairies, they saw that a small crack had formed in one side of the egg.

Gingerly, Jesse touched the egg. “Hot!” he said, pulling back. It reminded him of the red-hot doorknob of his bedroom, right before Emmy’s egg had gone
kablam
in the sock drawer.

“Oh, boy,” he said. “What happens if it explodes the way Emmy’s egg did and we’re here in the cabin with it? We could get blown to bits.”

Daisy nibbled at her cuticle. “Maybe that won’t happen underwater. Maybe water will soften the impact.”

“And maybe not,” said Jesse.

“Maybe not,” Daisy agreed glumly.

Now that Daisy’s plan had gotten them this far, they were both at a loss as to what to do next. Besides, it was almost too hot in the cabin to think.

“This hot water is making me drowsy,” said Daisy. “What about you?”

“Yeah, it’s like being in a hot tub,” Jesse said.

“It’s probably past bedtime now, don’t you think?” Daisy said.

“It’s hard to tell down here,” Jesse said.

“But it
feels
late, doesn’t it?” Daisy said.

Jesse nodded. It felt late and he was hungry and homesick. The phrase popped into his mind:
seasick
. So he said it out loud. “I think I’m seasick.”

“You mean dizzy and sick to your stomach?” Daisy asked.

“No, sick of the sea,” said Jesse. “And really, really tired.”

“It would be bad for us to fall asleep,” Daisy said.

There was a pile of razor clams on the floor of the cabin. Jesse got one for himself and handed one to Daisy. “Try sticking yourself with the sharp edge to stay alert.”

“Good idea,” said Daisy.

Whenever they felt themselves start to drop off, they would squeeze their shells and snap awake. But soon, the urge to sleep was too powerful to resist any longer. They were each vaguely aware of their hands opening, of the razor clamshells floating away, of their bodies going limp as they drifted off to sleep, floating, like astronauts in a capsule that was lost in space.

Daisy woke up first with a sudden snort. Bubbles streamed out of her nose. She looked around for Jesse and found him floating up by the ceiling, snoring away in his own cloud of bubbles.
Then she heard a steady thumping noise.

At first, she thought it was the egg, getting ever nearer to hatching. She swam over and examined it carefully. The crack wasn’t any bigger. It was still rocking slowly back and forth, but not vigorously enough to be making such a loud knocking sound.

Daisy reached up and tugged Jesse’s tail, dragging him back down toward the floor.

“What? What?” he said, opening his eyes wide and shaking his head. “I was just resting.”

“Hear that?” Daisy said, holding up a finger.

Jesse listened, nodding. The thumping sound was even louder now.

“Don’t worry. It’s not the Thunder Egg,” she said.

“But what is it?” Jesse said. He swam over to the window and peered through a small clearing in the encrusted barnacles. A Red Eyes cruised past, followed by another and another. They were patrolling the pilot’s cabin, ceaselessly swimming, like a shiver of sharks, but none of them was touching the cabin. “Nothing much happening out there,” he said.

The noise seemed to be coming from the floor of the pilothouse. Daisy swam down and pulled aside a mass of black kelp, revealing a square trapdoor.

“What’s under there, I wonder?” Daisy asked.

“Beats me,” Jesse said. “Maybe the motor?”

“I think the knocking’s coming from in there,” she said. “Could the motor be switched on?”