Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [48]
“What was she saying?” I asked.
“She was begging it,” Morvena said. “It almost broke my heart to hear her. Begging it to help. Pleading with it.”
“What do you mean?” Aaron asked. “Pleading with a shell? What was she saying?”
“The same thing, over and over and over. ‘Please, please, get us out of here. Release the magic and help me find you.’ I’ve heard her do the same on many occasions since then. In fact, I believe she has done the same thing every single day and night since we’ve been here.”
“Does she know you’ve watched her?” Shona blurted out, clearly as shocked at the idea of spying on your best friend as she was at the idea of keeping secrets from her.
Morvena shook her head, and her long silver hair flickered behind her. “I know her well enough to know she would be devastated to think I’d seen her in such distress.” She smiled wryly. “I have my secrets from her, too. To protect her.”
This best friend thing was starting to seem more complicated than ever. “So she’s protecting you from being upset by not crying in front of you, and you’re protecting her from being upset by not telling her you’ve seen her crying?”
Morvena let out a soft laugh. “That’s about the long and short of it, yes.”
Aaron’s tail flashed as he flicked it sharply. He was getting impatient. “Where do we fit into all this?” he asked. “You said you’d tell us your story if we promised to help you. What do you want us to do?”
Morvena met his eyes with a firm stare. “All I know is, you can work some kind of magic. You can get out through the waterfall! No one has ever managed that before — not even the sea life that is down here with us. It gets in. But, like us, it doesn’t get out.”
“But it was only the two of us who could get out,” I said. “Just me and Aaron. We couldn’t get Shona through with us.”
“I know. I saw that, too.”
“Then I don’t see how we can help.”
“Listen. Here are the facts. You have powers. You can do things that none of us can do. Agreed?”
I looked at Aaron. “Agreed,” he said.
“And from what I’ve observed in here, I am now convinced of one thing. Melody’s shell is the key out of here. Whatever it is that Melody lost, whatever it is that she has begged the shell to help her find, I’m positive it is our only hope. Even though she has let us believe the way out of here was through singing, I’m sure this was always a diversion to keep the others calm, and to stop us from questioning her too much and finding out the truth that she’s fought so hard to keep secret. Even I have never gotten close to knowing this secret. All I do know is that the only thing she has put any faith in to get us out of here is the shell.”
“OK, I’ll go along with that, too,” I said. “But I still don’t see how —”
“Wait,” Morvena said. “Don’t go anywhere.” Then she swam to the opening and out through the seaweed curtain. She must have been gone for at least five minutes. When she came back, she was holding something.
She opened her hand out to reveal a glistening, beautiful, pearly shell. “She goes to it every morning and every night without fail, but never in between,” she said. “She won’t miss it now until this evening.”
“You’ve stolen it from her!” Shona exclaimed. Her idea of what it is to be a best friend was taking a hammering.
“I’ve borrowed it, to help us all,” Morvena insisted. “Melody will get it back before she knows it’s gone. Whatever magic the shell holds, maybe your magic can bring it out — especially if you take it away from here. The shell will never get the chance to share its secret bound and trapped down here with us.”
“What if you’re wrong about all this?” I asked.
“If I’m wrong, as long as it’s back in her room by tonight, we haven’t lost anything. If I’m right and you can reveal the shell’s secret, you could save us all.” She looked at Shona, and then back at me. “Including your best friend,” she added.
I turned to Aaron.