Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [41]
But the sound was coming from above me.
I jumped up and craned my neck to look up into the well.
“Emily!”
My heart leaped. It sounded like . . . but it couldn’t be — could it? I didn’t dare hope. Surely I’d imagined it. That was what happened when you were confined in a dark cell like this. My spirits sank again, as though they too had been hurled into a dark, hopeless, underwater cell.
“Emily, can you hear me? Are you there?”
I looked up again. This time I saw something, too. I wasn’t imagining it! There was a figure at the top of the well. A face. I couldn’t see him clearly, but I knew who it was. It was really him!
“Aaron?” I called, the word echoing around the walls, spiraling up toward him.
“Emily! Where are you? Are you down the well?”
“Yes, I’m here — can you see me? I can see you!”
Aaron shook his head. “All I can see is water!” he yelled. “I’ve been swimming all over. This was my last hope.”
“How did you know I was around here at all?” I called back.
Aaron paused for a long time. I could still see him there above me, leaning into the well. He didn’t reply.
“Aaron?”
“Don’t be mad, but I followed you,” he said eventually. “Mandy told me what happened. I know you wanted to be with Shona, but I was worried. I just wanted to keep an eye on you. But then you both disappeared, and I’ve been trying to find you ever since. I just had this awful feeling that something bad had happened to you.”
He wasn’t wrong there.
“Can you get out?” he called.
I shook my head. “It’s too strong.”
“Right, I’m coming down, then,” he yelled. “Hold on.”
For a fraction of a second, I held my breath and allowed myself to smile for the first time all day. Aaron was here! He had come to find me, to save me!
Then I remembered.
“No!” I screamed. “Don’t come down!”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Aaron sounded hurt. “Do you just want to be with Shona? I’ll go away if you want, now that I know you’re safe.”
“No! Don’t go away!” I screamed even more urgently. “But don’t come down.”
“Don’t come down but don’t go away? What do you want me to do, then?”
“You can’t come down,” I said. “You’ll never be able to get out again. They said earlier: you can get in but you can’t get out. No one can! I don’t want you trapped in here, too.”
“Who was talking earlier?” Aaron asked. “Who’s in there with you? Em, I’m coming down!”
“No!” I pleaded. “It’s the lost sirens — they’re all trapped in here by the waterfall. It’s magic.”
“Magic? Em, don’t be —” He stopped.
“Aaron?”
He paused for ages. “Magic, you say?” he called eventually.
“Yeah, it’s like they’ve had a curse put on them or some —” I stopped abruptly.
“Emily?” Aaron said breathlessly.
“A curse,” I repeated.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.
“If the sirens are trapped in here because of a curse, perhaps we could undo it?”
“Exactly!”
But then, just as quickly as my hopes had risen, they shot back down again. “Except for the magic to work, our hands have to touch,” I said. “And how can they do that through this thing?”
“Maybe I should just come down after all, and we’ll figure it out from there.”
“No!” I shouted. “It’s not worth the risk. If you come down and we can’t stop it, we’ll both be stuck here.”
“OK, listen,” Aaron called, all the hesitancy gone now. “Edge as high up as you can get, and stretch your hand as far as you can reach.” This sounded hopeful, and my spirits lifted again.
I tried to swim up through the invisible waterfall. The weight above me was so huge, I had to look down. Come on, fight it, get through it.
I swished and splashed my tail as hard as I could, trying desperately to gain some ground. I clung to the rocky sides, gripping tightly as I tried to heave myself upward — but it was useless. I wasn’t getting anywhere. The sirens knew what they were talking about; there was no getting out of here.
“It’s impossible,” I called.
“No — it’s not. Don’t say that.”
“I can’t do it. I can just about drag myself up into the current, but only for about a second before