The Magic Mirror of the Mermaid Queen - Delia Sherman [39]
The yellow eyes fixed on me, their expression far from godfatherly. “I do not so. Your friend is no concern of mine. Why does he not call on his own godparent, for all love?”
“He can’t,” I wailed. “He’s from New York Harbor. And if anything happens to him, it’s going to make this whole thing with the Mermaid Queen so much worse I can’t even imagine. Plus, I’ll get in trouble at school.”
“Trouble, is it?” the Pooka’s voice was dangerously mild. “I’ll show you trouble, my girl. Just as soon as I’ve fetched your friend out of the Reservoir—presuming there’s anything left to fetch.”
The Pooka leapt into the water. I stuck a big hank of hair into my mouth at once and bit down. It didn’t help.
A wave surged up over my feet, closely followed by the Pooka. Airboy was on his back, clutching the Pooka’s mane. He was gasping and coughing and retching water down the Pooka’s neck, but he was alive and he wasn’t bleeding, and he still had his cap and his Harness.
I felt awful.
I can’t remember what I babbled at him: how sorry I was, mostly, and was he feeling okay and had I said yet how very, very sorry I was about the vodyanoi, and why hadn’t he used the Words of Protection?
“Be silent,” the Pooka snapped. “If there’s anything to be salvaged from this sorry mess, you must provide the plan. It’s far too disgusted with you I am, my girl, to be putting myself to the trouble.”
The Pooka is always more Irish when he’s angry. I reminded myself crying wouldn’t help and took a couple of deep breaths.
“The Historian doesn’t expect us until right before sunset,” I said. “We’ll go back to the Museum, find the Old Market Woman, and let her take Airboy somewhere he can dry out until it’s time for the class to leave.”
I looked at the Pooka, who blew a gusty sigh. “Very well. I shall deliver this soggy morsel to the Museum, after which he may shift for himself. You, my girl, will wait here until I return.”
“But I’ll get in trouble,” I protested feebly.
“You are in trouble,” the Pooka said.
“The cat—” Airboy coughed and tried again. “The cat can tell the Historian you went home early.”
I’d almost forgotten the actual boy in the process of making plans for him. “That’ll work,” I said gratefully. “Airboy? They liked you—Algae and Pondscum and that crew. And you were having a good time, right? Until the vodyanoi showed up?”
Airboy coughed again, wetly, and turned his face from me.
Chapter 12
RULE 600: STUDENTS MUST NOT SPREAD RUMORS.
Miss Van Loon’s Big Book of Rules
The rest of the afternoon and evening were the absolute pits. I tried to explain what I’d been doing, but nobody would listen. The Pooka scolded me in Gaelic and Astris’s whiskers drooped in mute disappointment. Satchel gave me dry bread and warm water for dinner. It rained.
Astris even took my silver dress away.
By morning, the rain had stopped, but the sky was gray and the air heavy and chill. My hair was an explosion of frizz and so was my brain. I slipped into Assembly still half awake and definitely grumpy. We were on the second chorus of “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” when I felt someone tugging at my Inside Sweater.
Looking down, I saw a tightly folded note sticking out of my pocket. The kid standing beside me glanced at it significantly, then went back to telling the world he wanted to be its neighbor.
I unfolded the note. Ding-dong, the witch is gone!it said. Pass it on.
Shrugging, I refolded the note and stuck it in the next kid’s pocket. She smiled when she read it. I would have asked her what it meant, but Rule 14 (No talking in Assembly) is one of the harder ones to get away with breaking.
After a reading of Rules 160 (Students must not bully, intimidate, tease, or otherwise provoke other students) through 165 (Students must never curse, ill-wish, or use strong language in the presence of another mortal), Assembly finally came to an end. As we filed out the doors, I heard a clinking noise, like someone rolling in a leprechaun’s hoard. It was Mukuti, draped in olive green silk and about a million protective charms.