The Dragon in the Sea (9 page)

Jesse, having broken away from the others, had swum back to the captain’s cabin. Once there, he went right over to the crystal ball. Maybe he could communicate with the Driftwoods through the
crystal ball and get some answers to his questions, like, who are Fluke and Yar? What are they up to? Where is the egg?

The Driftwoods were still standing there, smiling and waving. Then Mitzi mimed a twisting motion with both hands. Jesse took hold of the crystal ball and twisted it on its coral base. One moment he was hovering before the crystal ball and the next he was lying on the sand in front of the Driftwoods, his tail flapping in the sand. He felt a heavy, choking sensation in his lungs. He couldn’t breathe!

Mitzi Driftwood bent down and said to him, in her soft, distinct voice, “See here now, Jesse Tiger. Let this be a lesson to you.” She lifted her marshmallow stick and waved it over him. Sparks and molten marshmallow rained down on him, sizzling on his skin and scales.

The next thing Jesse knew, he was back in the captain’s cabin. His heart was beating as if he had just sprinted a mile. When he looked in the crystal ball now, all he saw was his own pale and terrified face, staring back at him.

Jesse scooted out of Belleweather’s cabin. The corridor was teeming with sea creatures, both magical and natural. There were water sprites and
merpeople and selkies and kelpies, as well as all manner of fish, eels, rays, jellyfish, and dolphins, all heading toward the amidships hatch.

Jesse worked his way toward Yar and Fluke, whose heads bobbed above the crowd. When he got to them, he saw Daisy, who turned and gave him a
where have you been?
look, which Jesse met with a
wait till I tell you
look of his own.

Emmy swam up to Fluke, who said to her, “We think you’ll be quite pleased with what we have to show you.”

The water around Emmy turned bright green as, before everyone’s eyes, the dragon fish transformed into a dragon. The walls and ceiling of the passageway zoomed outward and upward, magic expanding the space to accommodate Emmy’s majestic dimensions. Sea creatures all around, including Yar and Fluke, dropped to the deck in awe.

“Thank you for revealing yourself to us,” Fluke said in a humble voice.

“We were wondering when you’d see fit to do so. We are at your service, O Noble Dragon,” said Yar, on one knee.

“You may rise. And, please, call me Emerald of Leandra,” said Emmy in a regal tone that made Jesse and Daisy smile fondly.

The crowd rose from the deck.

“May I say on behalf of all hands that it is a supreme honor to have a genuine dragon aboard
The Dragon
,” Fluke said.

“We suspected you were a dragon from the very first moment we laid eyes on you,” Yar said.

“I guess we weren’t the only ones who were suspicious,” Jesse whispered to Daisy.

Fluke said, “But we had to make sure it wasn’t another of Maldew’s tricks. For over a hundred years, we have battled over the egg. No sooner does one side get ahold of it than the other side snatches it back.”

“You
are
the one,” Daisy said, pointing at Fluke. “You battled the water zombie for my backpack.”

“I am the one, indeed,” said Fluke. “I’m sorry that you got caught in the middle of the fray. I must say, I didn’t recognize you with a fish tail.”

“You see, Maldew sends all sorts of dastardly spies our way,” said Yar.

“I get that,” Jesse spoke up, “but if you thought we might be dastardly spies, why did you give us a deluxe tour of your ship?”

“The tour is our standard method of operating,” said Fluke. “You see, the tour always winds up in the cabin of Captain Belleweather.”

“Specifically,” said Yar, “in Captain Belleweather’s trusty, fail-safe Chair of Truth.”

“You mean that captain’s chair …?” said Jesse.

“The swiveling one you made such a big deal out of getting everyone to try?” added Daisy.

“The very same. The Chair, you see, revealed to us your true identities,” said Fluke.

“We saw that, outward appearances to the contrary, you are, in fact, a couple of young lubbers,” Yar said.

“Which is to say,” Fluke put in gently, “a human boy and girl from the Earthly Realm.”

“And, most importantly, it revealed Emmy as a dragon of most capacious dimensions,” said Yar. “Which, I might add, Fluke had suspected from the very first—but did I believe her? A dragon masking as a dragon fish? A bit obvious, in my book. Meaning no offense, Emerald of Leandra,” he said to Emmy.

“None taken,” said Emmy. “And you can call me Emmy.”

“It was your eyes that gave you away, Emmy,” Fluke said. “Dragon fish don’t have emerald-green eyes.”

“Dragon fish generally don’t use words, either, Cap’n,” Yar pointed out.

“Yes, well, there was that, too,” Fluke said.

“I must say, I much prefer you as you are now,” said Yar. “Nasty pieces of work, dragon fish. Face
full of needles and no moral compass whatsoever.”

“Well,” said Fluke, “now that we all know we’re on the same side, shall we take our guests to see the Thunder Egg?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” said Emmy. She turned to Jesse and Daisy. “Hug?”

Jesse and Daisy gave themselves over to a warm squeeze from Emmy. “I’m so excited, Keepers!” she whispered.

“We are, too,” said Jesse.

“I’m just glad we came here to look for the egg instead of that icky Coral Jungle,” said Daisy.

Most of the other sea creatures dispersed as Fluke and Yar led the way up to the poop deck, to the mysterious canopy shrouded in seaweed and shells.

Emmy lifted the curtain and the five hammerheads sullenly slid out. “Take a break, boys,” Emmy told them.

“Do as the lady says,” Yar said to the shiver.

They dealt Emmy sidelong looks as only hammerheads can; then they glided off into the deep.

Quietly but firmly, Emmy said, “I knew the egg was here all along, didn’t I, Keepers?”

Jesse and Daisy nodded.

Yar twisted his whiskers. “Did you now? I’ll be keelhauled if we weren’t being a bit obvious ourselves,” he said to Fluke.

“It was the hammerheads that gave you away,” said Emmy.

“We have guards posted on it at all times,” said Fluke. “The dolphin doula says hatching is imminent.”

“What’s a doula?” Daisy asked.

“Someone who assists in birthing,” Fluke explained.

Emmy peered beneath the canopy. “I can’t believe I’m finally seeing it,” she whispered.

There, in the center of the enormous, seaweed-tufted bed beneath the canopy, nestled in the folds of Jesse and Daisy’s missing backpack, was the Thunder Egg.

Ever so gently, Emmy climbed onto the bed and picked up the Thunder Egg. She turned it slowly in her talons. “Did my egg look like this?” she asked softly.

Jesse said, “Identical, except that this one has golden flecks and yours had purple and green ones.”

Emmy sighed. “Yes, they
are
golden. Just like my mom said. Better get comfy, cousins. Do I have a story to tell you!”

“What kind of story?” Jesse asked.

“The story of this egg,” said Emmy. “My mother told it to me the night we came back from our adventure in the scriptorium and found her waiting for me on the roof of the barn. She said if I ever found a geode that was speckled with gold, I must hold on to it and protect it at all costs, because it is the Thunder Egg that holds my brother or sister.”

“Whoa!” said Jesse. “For real?”

“How come you didn’t tell us this before?” Daisy said.

“There’s a right time to tell every story. Until this moment, it hasn’t been the right time,” said Emmy.

“May we please listen, too?” Fluke asked shyly.

“Be my guests,” said Emmy.

They all settled down on the giant seaweed bed, surrounding Emmy and the egg.

Emmy began. “Far up in the northwestern territories, two dragons lived in a cave halfway up the side of a mountain known to the locals as the Old Woman
.”

“That’s in our backyard,” Jesse explained proudly to Fluke and Yar.

Emmy went on. “Their names were Leandra and Obsidian—my mom and dad. This was during the period the humans called the Gold Rush, when
the earth shook every time some prospector looking to strike it rich blasted away another chunk of hillside.

“My parents had lived a peaceful life because their mountain was protected by the local tribes who worshiped it. They believed the mountain was the home of two fierce spirits, and of course, they were right. To keep the spirits happy, on the third night following every full moon, the people left the bodies of two freshly killed deer in a clearing near the foot of the mountain.”

“Oh, yuck!” Daisy cried out.

“Sorry, Daise,” Emmy said, “but it happens to be an important part of the story and I can’t leave it out. What the people probably didn’t know was that this was one of the few areas on Earth where the wall between the four realms—Airy, Fiery, Earthly, and Watery—was very thin. Only a powerful magic held it together, kind of like a bandage. But a totally bad man was about to come along and rip away that bandage.”

“Ouch,” said Daisy.

“I know who! St. George the Dragon Slayer
!” Jesse said.

“You said it, Keeper!” Emmy went on. “So, anyway, one night, there was a full moon and my mom and dad were hanging out on the ledge outside
their den, when some tree spirits dropped by to visit.”

“Otherwise known as
dryads
,” Daisy explained to the selkie and the kelpie.

“The dryads warned my parents that they were in grave danger. A golden-haired stranger had recently visited the village. He claimed to be a scholar who wanted to learn the local lore. In exchange, he offered warm blankets and seashells.

“So the tribal elders told all their stories, but only two of the stories seemed to interest the scholar. The one about how every hundred years, the heavens rain down stones said to contain the bodies of magical serpents.”

“Thunder Eggs,” Daisy whispered.

“That’s right. And the other one was about the two fierce fire-breathing spirits who guard the treasure in the heart of the mountain. The so-called scholar had heard all he needed to hear. He said thanks,
sayonara
, have a nice life, and went away. But a little while later, a man looking an awful lot like him returned to Goldmine City, the city of the pale people. This time, he said he was president of the Great Pacific Mining Company. He laid a claim to the land, including—you guessed it—the mountain where my mom and dad lived. The dryads told my parents to beware.

“My parents thanked the trees for warning them, but they decided that, when the miners showed up to blast their mountain, my parents would just burrow deep inside and hide.

“The next day, Dad wanted to collect the monthly sacrifice. But Mom wasn’t hungry. She told Dad to go ahead without her. He flew down to the clearing, picked up the two deer carcasses, and flew with them back to the cave. My mom was glad my dad was back safe and sound but she still wasn’t very hungry. So my father ate both deer himself.”

“Double yuck,” said Daisy.

“Hey, you eat hamburgers.… Anyway, my dad scarfed down the deer meat, washed off the blood in the brook just outside their cave, and then went into the den to sleep next to my mom.

“ ‘I have something to tell you, Obsidian,’ my mother said. ‘I have been keeping it a secret from you. I didn’t want to tell you until I was sure. Obsidian, I am carrying new life inside of me. You are going to be a father.’

“But my father didn’t hear a word my mother said. He was fast asleep and sawing serious trees.”

“Logs,” said Jesse.

“Whatever. Needless to say, my mother wasn’t too happy, but she let it go. The next morning, she
reached over to wake my dad. Dad didn’t budge. She tried everything—jostling him, shaking him, even roaring in his ear—but he went on sleeping. It wasn’t like Obsidian to sleep so late. And then, with a sinking feeling, my mother understood what was going on.”

“What?” said Daisy.

“I know!” Jesse said, raising his hand.

“Shhh!” went Yar and Fluke, both caught up in Emmy’s story.

Jesse said, “Someone—and we know who—slipped a sleeping potion into the deer meat!”