Emily Windsnap and the Siren's Secret - Liz Kessler [5]
Dad reached up and took her hand. “I agree,” he said. “This could be our first chance to start putting into practice the instructions that Neptune gave us.”
“Exactly. That’s what Neptune said, too.”
Dad looked at Archie. “What do you mean? What did he say?”
“That it was time you got on with your task. He said to tell you this was an opportunity to prove to him that he picked the right family for the job. He said it would be your first test.”
Dad puffed his chest out and nodded firmly. “That’s decided it, then,” he said. “We don’t have a choice.”
I felt a bubble of excitement rise through my body, tickling my insides and snaking up through my throat. “We’re going back to Brightport?” I asked, then held my breath while I waited for their answer.
Mom and Dad looked at each other and nodded. Then Mom turned to me. “Yes, darling,” she said with the first smile I’d seen on her face in days. “We’re going home.”
It was only once we’d decided to go back to Brightport that I realized just how much I’d been missing it. It was as if a part of me had known all along that I wanted to go home, but I’d tried to ignore it because I didn’t think it was a possibility. Now that I knew it was definitely happening, I couldn’t wait to get going.
I just had two problems: Shona and Aaron.
Shona was my best friend. I met her when I first discovered that I became a mermaid when I went in water. We’d been best friends ever since, and she and her parents had come to Allpoints Island at the same time as us. The idea of leaving her behind — well, it was unthinkable.
I’d only met Aaron recently. He was a semi-mer like me. Apart from Mr. Beeston, he was the only one I’d ever met — and Mr. Beeston didn’t count, as far as I was concerned. Aaron and his mom used to live in a spooky castle out in the middle of the ocean. It was after Aaron and I overturned Neptune’s curses by bringing his old wedding rings together that Neptune told us we had to try to bring the two worlds closer, which we hadn’t gotten around to doing yet.
But hopefully we were going to start once we got back to Brightport.
The only problem was, I couldn’t imagine doing anything if I didn’t have Shona with me, never mind passing an important test set by Neptune! She’d shared every adventure I’d had so far. And Aaron — well, I don’t know if it was because of us both being semi-mers or because of what we’d been through together, but I couldn’t imagine leaving him behind, either.
I swam around in the downstairs part of the boat, back and forth from bow to stern, trying to think. What was I going to do? Five minutes ago, I’d been giddy with excitement at the prospect of going home; now I felt I was being torn in two.
I was about to let the miserable half win when a familiar voice called from outside the boat. I swam over to the porthole. Shona! She’d cheer me up; she always did.
Except that the look on her face made me think this time might be different.
“Shona, what is it?” I asked as she swam into the boat, a couple of silver fish swimming in with her, their sides glinting in the sunlight like shiny new coins.
“Oh, Emily! We just had some news from Archie.”
“About Brightport?” I asked. So she’d already heard that we were leaving. That explained her miserable face.
Her eyes widened. “How do you know so soon?”
“He’s just been here. He told us all about what’s going on there and —”
“Oh, Emily, I’m going to miss you so much!”
“I know,” I said. “Me too. But we’ll be able to keep in touch, won’t we? We’ll find a way.”
Shona nodded as she gulped back a tear. “I hope so. I just hate the thought of being so far away from you.”
“I hate it, too.” I tried to think of something positive to say. I couldn’t bear seeing Shona so unhappy. “Maybe you’ll be able to visit us in Shiprock sometime.”
Shona frowned. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“Well, you know. Maybe you could come to visit. I mean, I know it’s thousands