Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [11]
“I know,” Shona said again. “But I bet I know what they’ve done. Mrs. Sharktail’s always wanted to do it, but the school council has never agreed to it. They said it was unnecessary. But the latest events will have been just what she needed to get her way.”
“Get her way with what?” Aaron asked.
“With her plans to make the school stricter,” she said darkly. “If I’m right, I bet you anything the school’s just gotten a new rule.”
“What rule?” I asked, although a part of me knew what she was going to say. I just couldn’t help hoping I was wrong.
Shona looked at me almost guiltily before confirming my suspicion. “No semi-mers.”
“Now, children, I would like you all to listen very carefully, and watch closely.” Mrs. Sharktail had canceled afternoon classes and gathered the whole school together in the main chamber for a special afternoon assembly.
I was guessing we were the “special” bit.
I looked around. A hundred mergirls and boys looked back at me. I tried not to meet anyone’s eyes, focusing instead on the pillars all around us, the light glinting in shiny purples and greens on the water, the rocks and boulders lining the sides of the chamber.
“As you know, this is a traditional mer-school,” Mrs. Sharktail went on. “We have traditional rules and we teach you, to the best of our ability, in all things mer, so that you may all grow up to be wonderfully gifted, competent, and happy merpeople. Is that not true, staff?”
She looked across to the teachers lined up along one side of the chamber. They all nodded fervently back at her.
“I’m sure all of you are aware that our community here at Shiprock has recently been under threat from humans.”
I don’t know if it was just me, but I was sure that she said the word humans as though something disgusting had gotten stuck in her throat.
“They are hovering around the edges of Shiprock, barging into areas that don’t belong to them, and are one step away from breaking into our town like burglars. At a time like this, it is more important than ever to protect our community. Would anyone like to disagree with me?”
When she put it like that, it was pretty hard for anyone to disagree. But she was making it sound as though humans were purposely trying to destroy Shiprock. As though they knew what they were doing. Mr. Beeston had already done some research, and the one thing he was categorically sure of was that the builders didn’t have the slightest inkling that there was a town of merpeople not far from where they were building.
He’d shown us what he called his “interim findings” the night before. Apparently, the council was planning to build new houses, but they’d discovered weaknesses below ground level. They’d investigated further and discovered that the land they’d been working on formed the roof of some impressive caves and tunnels.
What they didn’t know was that the tunnels stretched out for miles and that one of them led all the way to Shiprock.
The building work had been halted while the council decided what to do next. They were going to do one of two things: either fill in the caves completely, to make the ground stable enough for them to stick with the original plan to build houses, or change tack altogether and dig the caves out as far as they could and open them up as a tourist attraction.
Either option spelled utter disaster for Shiprock.
The first could result in massive underwater landslides that would probably destroy the whole town. The second would almost certainly lead to Shiprock’s discovery — meaning the inhabitants would have two choices: become a freak show to entertain humans or leave their homes forever.
The interim findings had not been good.
So Mrs. Sharktail had even more reason to hate humans than she realized. She didn’t know Brightport’s exact plans, but she could feel the effect of them — like everyone else in Shiprock.
“Good,” Mrs. Sharktail continued, looking around at the school with her version of a smile. It was like a jagged little line across her face with the tiniest upward curl in each corner. “In that case, you will understand why