Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist (6 page)

His eyes leaving the jewels for only seconds at a time, Neptune looked around at us all. I’m sure he stared directly at me when he spoke again. “It will all be returned. Every last item. Do you hear me?”

With one final, terrible stare at all of us, Neptune banged his trident loudly on the floor of his chariot. The row of dolphins returned in a flash, picking up the reins in their mouths. Now that he had a chariot full of jewels, he wasn’t interested in us.

“Beeston, wrap it up,” he called over his shoulder. “Return to me if you have any more news on my lost treasure. And not before.”

With that, the dolphins swam into action, whisking Neptune out of the cave.

Once Neptune had left, Mr. Beeston seemed to swim higher in the water. When he spoke to us again, his voice contained the old creepy snarl I
knew so well rather than the simpering tone that he adopted whenever Neptune was around.

“You have heard your king,” he said, looking slowly around at us all. “I do not need to tell you how powerful he is. When he says he wants something to happen, it will happen. It will indeed. And I, my friends”— he raised a hand to smooth down his hair —“I shall make sure of that. Now that this mission is no longer secret, every single inhabitant of this island will take part in this project until our king is satisfied. Do you hear me?”

We all nodded. Most of the others looked too nervous to speak. I wasn’t nervous, just annoyed. Who did he think he was, telling us what to do like that? He didn’t frighten
me
!

Just then, Mr. Beeston’s gaze fell on me. He looked into my eyes, then glanced toward the pocket at the side of my tail. Did he know? Should I tell him now? I tried to pull my hand out. Again it felt chained down. I couldn’t even move it! What if I could never move my hand again? The panic must have shown in my eyes as Mr. Beeston swam closer to me. “Got something to share, Emily?” he asked, his voice as slimy and ugly as a conger eel.

“No!” I said quickly. What else could I say?
Well, yes, possibly, but it appears to be a magic ring that is digging into my palm, holding my hand down so I can’t actually show it to you just at this moment?
I don’t think so.

He swam closer. “Are you sure? I hope you know how seriously Neptune would view it if anyone tried to trick him out of anything, even the smallest jewel. . . .”

That was when I lost my nerve. Why? Why did I let him get to me? Why couldn’t I just brush away his words and his sneering manner and threatening tone? Or perhaps it had more to do with the reminder of what it was like to be on the receiving end of Neptune’s anger.

“I — I found something,” I said.

He moved closer. “Found something?”

“A — a ring.” I could sense Shona next to me, almost feel her eyes staring at me — almost hear the question in her mind. I didn’t look at her.

“What kind of ring?” he asked.

I would have shown it to him. I
would
have. I’d have handed it over on the spot if I could. But I couldn’t. The ring felt like a claw, gripping my palm, pinning my hand to my pocket. “A diamond,” I said, feeling warmth flood through me as I thought about the ring. “A huge diamond. All shiny and sparkly — the most beautiful diamond ring you’ve ever seen.”

Mr. Beeston sniffed. “There was no such ring in the collection,” he said, starting to swim away from me.

“And it had a thick gold band that was battered and twisted out of shape,” I called to his retreating
back. Now that I’d started talking about the ring, I couldn’t stop myself from saying more. A second later I wished I had, as Mr. Beeston stopped and turned. “Wait a minute!” His face had gone gray. “Diamond, you say?” he sputtered.

I nodded.

“A huge diamond, a battered gold band?”

I nodded again.

“Battered as though it had been thrown away, discarded?”

“As though it had been through a war!” I said.

Mr. Beeston swallowed and wiped a strand of hair from his face. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “That must be the —” Then he stopped. “Where is it?” he hissed quietly, close to my ear.

One last time, I tried to lift my hand. I couldn’t do it. What was I going to do? I couldn’t say that the ring wouldn’t let me take my hand out of my pocket! How utterly ridiculous would that sound? No one would believe me, let alone Mr. Beeston. And, anyway, I could sense it, feel it, trying to pull me back, shut me up.

“I lost it,” I said eventually.

“Lost it?” Mr. Beeston spluttered. “
Lost
it? You can’t have lost it!”

“I dropped it in the sand. Sorry,” I said, turning my face away and praying he wouldn’t notice my reddening cheeks. They felt almost as hot as the ring, still burning a hole in my hand.

He swam closer. “Let me see your —”

At that moment, Miss Finwave swam in between us. “Mr. Beeston, in case you hadn’t noticed, the children gathered plenty of jewels for Neptune. And he seemed perfectly happy with our work. So I would be very grateful if you could please acknowledge our efforts just a little bit and leave us to get on with our school day. We have a lot to do.”

“Very well,” Mr. Beeston said. With a curt bow to the teacher, he swam to the edge of the pool, toward the tunnel that led out of the cave. Turning back toward us when he reached the tunnel’s entrance, he added, “Thank you, children,” and smiled.

Then Miss Finwave flicked the end of her tail in a loud snap to get our attention, and everyone turned back to face her. Everyone except me. I was still looking at Mr. Beeston. He was still looking at me. “We’re not done yet,” he mouthed. “You’ll see.”

And with that, he swam off and disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel.

I pretended to listen like the rest of the class as Miss Finwave started to talk about the afternoon’s test. I pretended I didn’t care about Mr. Beeston’s silly threats or Neptune’s anger or any of it. Neptune had been here to see us all, not just me. And Mr. Beeston hadn’t really whispered a threat to me as he left. Not really. I must have misread his lips, or
he was talking to someone else. It was just me imagining things again.

I gripped the ring for comfort. At least I had that.

And if it felt as though it glowed and burned on my finger, reaching out for me with a sharpness that almost cut through me — well, surely I was imagining that too.

It was hours before I got the chance to speak to Shona. We didn’t manage to catch a moment on our own, with everyone crowding around in groups to talk about Neptune’s visit all throughout lunch and then having to sit in silence for the ocean studies test.

At the end of the day, we swam out through the tunnels with Althea and Marina.

“That was easy!” Marina said as soon as we were out of earshot of the classroom.

“What did you put for number four?” Althea asked.

“Angelfish,” Marina replied quickly.

“Yeah, me too.”

Shona was busy stroking the glittery gold starfish she’d won for best outfit.

“So swish, Neptune coming to
our
school,” Althea murmured.

“I know,” Shona replied dreamily.

“I wonder if he’ll get all his treasure back,” Marina added, and the three of them talked about his visit all the way to the end of the tunnel, where Shona and I said good-bye to the others.

As soon as they were out of sight, Shona turned to me, her eyes almost popping out with excitement. “So? What were you trying to tell me this morning?” she asked. “Was it about the ring? Did you really lose it?”

I glanced around before replying. Some younger merchildren were laughing and playing in the sea on their way home from school. A couple of them had caught a ride home on a dolphin. Others were chasing one another or jumping over waves. The sun beat down on us.

I pulled Shona into a rocky crevice. We swam between the rocks, taking a long route home. Once I was sure there was no one around, I pulled my hand out of my pocket. It slid out easily this time. Twisting the ring around so she could see the diamond, I held my hand out.

“Swirling sea horses!” Shona said, swimming up
to look more closely. “You had it all along! But why did you say you’d lost it?”

I wondered whether to tell her the truth about the weird feeling I’d been getting from it all day. How crazy would it sound, though? And was it a good idea to involve her at all? Last time I’d dragged her into one of my adventures, it had nearly wrecked things between us. But could I really go through this on my own?

“You promise not to tell anyone about this?” I asked, deciding our friendship was strong enough.

Shona looked at me blankly. “Why? Why the big secret? How come you didn’t turn it in, Emily?”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t.”

“‘Didn’t want to,’ you mean?” Shona said. “Emily, you heard what Mr. Beeston said. Neptune will be furious if anyone —”

“I
couldn’t,
Shona,” I said more firmly.

She stopped and stared at me. “Why not? What do you mean?”

I looked up at her from under my eyelids. I could feel my tail quiver as I blushed. “You’ll think I’m crazy,” I said.

“Of course I won’t,” Shona said, laughing. “I
know
you’re crazy. Come on, it’s me, your best friend. Tell me!”

I smiled, despite my weird feelings about it all. “OK.” And before I could talk myself out of it, I
found myself telling Shona all the things I’d been feeling since I’d been wearing the ring and about my hand getting stuck in my pocket while Neptune was at school.

“It was so strange, when I was looking for it. I had such a strong feeling, as if it
wanted
me to find it,” I said.

I stopped talking and waited for Shona to speak. This was where she would tell me I’d completely lost it and she didn’t want to be my friend anymore. Why had I risked her friendship again? Was it too late to take it all back, say I was joking?

I stared down at a skinny sea horse bobbing along the seabed, its bright orange color standing out against the white sand. A shoal of butter hamlets drifted by, taking no notice of the sea horse or of us.

Finally I looked up at Shona. She was staring into my face. “You promise you’re not making this up?” she asked.

“Of course I’m not making it up! Why would I want you to think I’m even nuttier than you already do?”

“It must be magic, then,” she said, her eyes shining with delight. “It’s so beautiful,” she added with a touch of envy. “Can I try it on?”

I laughed. I might have known Shona would want to try it for herself.

I tried to pull it off my finger, but it was stuck. I pulled harder — and a rushing noise flooded into my head. Thundering and rolling. What was it? There was a storm raging out at sea. I could feel it. Waves crashing everywhere, thunder booming into every corner of the sky, lightning cracking the world open. And grief. I wanted to cry. Wanted to break down in floods of tears and cry till I’d filled an ocean. I squeezed my eyes shut, stopped trying to pull the ring off, and clasped my hands over my ears.

Instantly the storm stopped.

“What was
that
?” I asked.

“What?” Shona looked bemused.

“The storms, the sea crashing.”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Shona said. “I didn’t feel anything.” She looked at me sideways for a second, then shook her head and examined the ring again. I flicked my tail to stay upright and still as she stared at it. Was she joking with me? How could she not have noticed the storms? “It’s really the swishiest thing I’ve ever seen,” Shona breathed, staring at the ring as though it were the only thing in the world.