The Tail of Emily Windsnap - Liz Kessler [27]
“Okay, well, there’ll be no swimming for either one of you this week,” he said. “You can sit in the corner for the rest of the lesson,” he said sternly to Mandy. Then he turned to me. “And you put that ankle up and rest it.”
He clapped his hands as he went back to the class. “That’s it, people, show’s over. Let’s do some swimming!”
It wasn’t the cold that made me shiver as I limped back to the changing room. It had more to do with Mandy’s words, hissed at me through clenched teeth so quietly no one else could hear.
“I’ll get you back for this, fish girl,” she said. “Just wait.”
I hung back while Shona swam ahead, my tail flapping as we drew closer to the shipwreck. The night was crunchy with a million stars, but no moon.
“We’re nearly there.” Shona dove under the water. I followed her, trailing a few yards behind.
Soon, the golden light was filtering through weeds and rocks, pulling us toward the ship.
“Shona, we can’t do it!” I blurted out. “There’s no point.”
Shona swam back to me. “But you agreed —”
“It’s no good. He’s not my father.”
She stared at me.
“My father left us. Just like I thought he had.” I told her what Mr. Beeston had said — and about his strange threat.
“Are you sure?” she asked when I’d finished.
Why would Mr. Beeston bother to lie? I’d asked myself that question so many times over the last three days. I still wasn’t sure I believed him — but it was better than building up false hopes.
“I was so certain. . . .” Shona looked over her shoulder at the ship. “Look — why don’t we go anyway? We’re nearly there.”
“What’s the use?”
“What have we got to lose? And there was something I wanted to show you. Something about the door in that passageway.”
What did it matter? If the ship didn’t have anything to do with me, there was nothing to fear. “Okay,” I said.
We slithered along the dark corridor, feeling our way back down those slimy walls. I tried hard not to make eye contact with the open-jawed fish that had followed us down.
“So what did you want to show me?” I asked as we swam.
“There was a symbol on the door. I completely forgot about it after everything that happened.”
“What symbol?”
“A trident.”
“What’s a trident?”
“Neptune’s symbol. He carries it everywhere with him. It’s what he uses to create thunderstorms — or islands.”
“Islands? He can create whole islands?”
“Well, that’s only when he’s in a good mood — so it doesn’t happen much. More often he makes the biggest storms out at sea!” Shona’s eyes had that wide shiny look they always did when she talked about Neptune.
“Some merfolk say he can turn you to stone with his trident. His palace is filled with stone animals. I heard that they were all animals who had disobeyed him at one time. And he can make ships disappear, just by waving it at them — or produce a feast for a hundred merpeople, or create volcanoes out of thin air.”
“Cool!”
We’d arrived at the door. “Look.” She pointed at the top corner of the door. A brass plate. An engraving. Quite faint — but there was no mistaking what I was looking at.
The picture from Mr. Beeston ’s key ring.
“But — but that’s —” I pulled at my pocket. “It’s impossible. It can’t be!”
“What?” Shona swam up to my side. I handed her the key ring. “Where did you get this?” she asked.
“It’s Mr. Beeston’s.”
“Sharks!” Shona breathed. “So do you think . . .” Her words trailed away into the watery darkness. What did I think? I didn’t think anything anymore.
“Shall we try it?” Shona took the key from me.
I watched in amazement as it turned smoothly in the lock.
The door slid open.
Silently, we slithered inside. We were in a small office. It had a desk stacked about a yard high with laminated folders and papers held down by rocks, and a stool nailed to the floor in front of it. Shona swam to the desk and pulled on something. A second later, an orange glow burst out above me. I blinked as I got used to the sudden glare, then looked up to see where the light had come from. A long slimy creature with a piece