The Rescue Princesses #2: Wishing Pearl (4 page)

It was almost dark by the time the princesses had any time to themselves again.

The empress had caught them on the way to the kitchens and insisted on seeing Clarabel’s seashells and the completed flower garlands.

“There’s so much to do!” she’d said. “It’s such a relief that you princesses are willing to help.”

Then she’d shown them how to fold napkins into swan shapes to go on the dinner table that evening.

Clarabel didn’t mind helping, but she wished the empress hadn’t chosen that moment to ask them. The minutes ticked by, one after another, and then it was time to get ready for dinner.

Clarabel put on a long, flowing dress made from light-blue silk that shimmered in the evening light.

She hung her sapphire necklace around her neck and slipped her feet into gold shoes studded with tiny diamonds.

She thought longingly about the dolphin. Why did everything have to take so long? She was sure he would be waiting for her.

At least she’d managed to hide some fish at the far end of the palace garden. They were there, ready, as soon as the princesses had the chance to slip away.

The princesses walked together to the dinner tables set up on the palace lawn.

Jaminta wore green silk pants and a top with a necklace of sparkling emeralds. Emily had chosen a short pink dress, and a black velvet hairband to pull back her red curls. Lulu, who wanted to stand out, wore a dress of yellow and purple swirls, and a necklace made from dozens of tiny shells.

“Stay away from the wildlife zone,” Lulu muttered to Samuel as they passed him on the lawn.

“Please don’t dig up any more eggs,” added Clarabel.

But Prince Samuel just curled his lip and looked away.

They ate a delicious dinner of roast chicken followed by tall ice-cream sundaes covered with strawberry sauce.

The kings and queens talked endlessly. They discussed the boats entering the Royal Regatta and how well the sailing practice was going. They talked so much that Lulu started drumming her fingers impatiently on the table.

By the time all twenty royal families had finished, the sky had turned a dark blue sprinkled with little stars. Lanterns were lit and a band began to play a jazzy song.

The kings and queens got up to dance and Clarabel smiled to see the younger princes and princesses jumping around with the adults.

Prince Dinesh and Prince George had settled in a corner with a pack of cards. Prince Samuel was nowhere to be seen.

“Where’s Samuel?” hissed Lulu. “I don’t like not knowing where he is.”

“We should go to the lagoon now,” murmured Emily. “While they’re all too busy to notice we’re gone.”

Clarabel looked around. She really wanted this to work. If they were caught leaving, she’d never get the dolphin the fish she’d promised him.

Rising from their seats, the girls walked across the lawn chatting, as if they were just going for a stroll. But as soon as they reached the row of palm trees, out of sight of the dancers, they burst into a run.

Clarabel stopped by a yellow hibiscus plant and felt around in the shadows until she found a flat parcel wrapped in brown paper. Even through the paper it had the unmistakable smell of fish.

Prince Olaf passed her carrying a tray of extra napkins. Clarabel put a finger to her lips to show that he should pretend she wasn’t there. The prince grinned and walked on.

Smothering their laughter, the princesses left their party shoes under a bush near the gate and leapt over the sand dunes.

A bright full moon rose up out of the ocean just as they reached the water’s edge. To the left, they could see the dark outlines of the boats in the harbor.

They ran on, the sand soft under their bare feet. Clarabel led the way, looking for the place where she had crossed the dunes to find the lagoon earlier that day.

Up on the hillside, hundreds of smudges of orange light came from the palace lanterns and the music drifted down toward the ocean.

“It’s this way,” called Clarabel, speeding up in her excitement. For once, she felt as if she was running pretty fast.

At the crest of the dune, she stopped. The deep-blue lagoon lay before her and the bright moon made a path of light all the way across it.

“How beautiful!” said Emily.

The surface of the water stirred, and a squeaking and clicking noise started.

“That’s my dolphin!” cried Clarabel.

The princesses quickly pulled off their dresses. Underneath they had on the bathing suits that they’d secretly been wearing the whole evening.

They ran down to the edge and dived into the warm lagoon. Swimming back up to the surface, they laughed and splashed one another with drops of water turned silver by the moonlight.

Clarabel was the last to get in. She unwrapped the fish from the brown paper and waded over to the dolphin.

The creature squeaked at her, but he moved slowly and his tail drooped in the water.

She pulled off some fish and gave it to him, but he hardly took a bite. Behind the smiling mouth, his eyes looked sad.

“You poor thing!” said Clarabel, stroking his silky gray skin.

The dolphin clicked his reply, staying close to her side.

Jaminta joined them. “That’s quite a nasty gash,” she said, looking at his side. “Usually dolphins stay together, but this one must have been separated from his friends when the accident happened.”

Clarabel’s eyes filled with tears. “I thought the fish would help. But he seems too weak even to eat it.”

She tried to offer him the fish again. He flapped a flipper limply but didn’t seem interested in the food.

Clarabel watched him sadly. “You’ll never get better if you can’t even eat. What should we do?”

Emily swam over to them. “I asked Ally to find out if there are any vets here. But she said the island is too small to have one.”

“It’s up to us, then,” said Clarabel, her pale face determined. “We’ll find a way to cure him.”

“I don’t know if that’s even possible,” said Jaminta.

“It has to be!” Clarabel stroked the dolphin’s nose. “Look at all the things you can do with the jewels, Jaminta. There has to be a way!”

Suddenly, they noticed Lulu waving her arms frantically at them from the shore.

“What is it?” called Emily.

But Lulu put her finger to her lips and beckoned to them. So Jaminta and Emily swam swiftly to the water’s edge.

Clarabel kissed her dolphin on the nose before she followed the others. “I’ll come back soon,” she promised. “I’ll find a way to make you feel better.”

Lulu made them all duck down behind a sand dune. Clarabel froze as she saw why they were hiding. There, on top of the dunes and clearly outlined in the moonlight, was the figure of Prince Samuel.

“He’s got his shovel,” whispered Lulu.

“He’s going to dig for the treasure again,” said Jaminta.

They watched Samuel trudge around the edge of the lagoon and disappear over the other side.

“Let’s go!” said Lulu, straightening up. “We have to follow him without him seeing us. We have to find out where he’s going next.”

“But the dolphin —” started Clarabel.

“If Samuel’s doing something sneaky, we have to go and see what it is,” Lulu insisted, her hands on her hips. “I’ll go first. I can stay unseen by keeping low.”

Clarabel’s shoulders tightened. “But it’s just —”

“We have to hurry!” interrupted Lulu.

Clarabel’s heart began to race. It felt wrong to be bossy, but she had to make herself do it.

“No!” she said quietly. “We spent all afternoon finding out what Samuel’s up to and now that we’ve finally got here, the dolphin’s much worse than before. We have to put him first. He needs us. That was what our Rescue Princesses promise was all about.”

Clarabel stopped and took a deep breath. Emily patted her arm sympathetically.

Lulu looked surprised for a moment, but then she smiled. “You’re right, Clarabel! This little dolphin is much more important than any prince.”

“And Rescue Princesses should stick together,” added Emily.

“All right, then, let’s get started,” said Jaminta.

The princesses picked up their clothes and raced away toward the beach.

Clarabel, the slowest, ran behind, her head filled with the picture of a little dolphin lying still in the deep-blue water.

They sneaked into Jaminta’s room half an hour before midnight.

Jaminta took out a polished wooden box, opened it up, and laid out all her jewel-sculpting tools on the table.

Clarabel held the sapphire bracelet she’d collected from her bedroom.

“Have you ever made a jewel that can heal something before?” Clarabel asked her.

Jaminta frowned. “No. I’ve made emeralds that light up, diamonds that can detect metal, and the rings that we use to call each other. But none of the jewelry I’ve made changes a living thing. This is something new.”

“If anyone can do it, it’s you, Jaminta,” said Emily.

“I’m going to try using Clarabel’s sapphires because she’s the one who knows the dolphin the best.” Jaminta took Clarabel’s bracelet and gently tapped each jewel in turn with her tiny chisel, chipping them into a circular shape.

“Here’s something we can test it on,” said Lulu, holding up a wilting potted plant. “I found it by a window in the hallway. It could use some healing.”

“If the plant recovers, then so will the dolphin.” Clarabel clasped her hands together.

“I hope so,” said Jaminta seriously.

Clarabel could feel the seconds ticking by while Jaminta gave each gem a little polish. Finally, after turning the bracelet this way and that to look at all the jewels, she placed the bracelet around the plant’s stem.

“Now we wait and see, I guess,” said Emily.

So they waited, watching the plant closely. But nothing happened. The leaves remained wilted and slightly brown.

Clarabel’s hopeful face fell.

The clock chimed midnight.

“Let’s try again in the morning,” said Jaminta. “Right now, we need some sleep.”

The morning dawned with a gray sky and a blustery wind.

The princesses were up early, before most of their parents had woken up. Ally brought them a breakfast of cherry muffins and pancakes in the enormous dining room.

The empress walked past with Queen Trudy, who was talking very loudly about Samuel. “He’s such a sweet boy, and so smart! He’s learning to fish now and has borrowed a net from the harbor fishermen.”

Clarabel frowned. Something seemed wrong about what Queen Trudy had just said. But she and the empress left the dining room before Clarabel could hear any more of their conversation.

Ally handed out pancakes and syrup. “Be careful around the island today because there’s a tropical storm coming. It was a storm like this that sunk that old ship, the
Rising Gull
.”

“Do you think the treasure from that ship is still somewhere on the island?” asked Lulu excitedly.

Ally nodded. “I think so. Jewel thieves have been searching for it for years. But no one ever had the map, so no one could find it.”

“But we know who has the map! It’s Prince Samuel!” whispered Emily, nearly knocking over the syrup.

Ally shook her head. “I think that the treasure really belongs to Ampali Island now, and that’s how it should stay.” She filled their glasses with strawberry milk. “What were you girls doing up so late last night, anyway?”

“We were trying to craft a jewel that could make the dolphin better,” explained Jaminta. “But it didn’t work.”

“Maybe you need an ocean gem for an ocean creature,” said Ally, heading back toward the kitchens.

Clarabel took a sip of strawberry milk, then she put her glass down with a snap. “An ocean gem!” she exclaimed, her face lighting up like the sun. Leaving her cherry muffin behind, she ran to her bedroom, nearly bumping into a bad-tempered Queen Trudy on the way.

Opening her jewelry box, she gently picked up her pearl. Could this be the ocean gem that would heal the dolphin? After all, pearls were made in the sea, inside little shells.

Clarabel put the pearl into her pocket and smiled. Maybe this was the answer. The thought of her dolphin being healthy again made her so happy she felt as if she was glowing.

She hurried down the grand staircase, but something stopped her halfway. A faint noise echoed around her. It made her skin prickle.

It was a high, unhappy sound. Without knowing why, she reached for her pocket and drew out the pearl, which was slightly warm.

The noise came again, and this time she recognized the dolphin’s calls coming from the pearl.

The sound wrenched at her heart.

The dolphin was in trouble and he was calling her.