Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun (23 page)

We leaned over the railings on the lowest deck and listened to what Archie had to say.

“I haven’t got long,” he began. “I don’t want Neptune to know I’m here.”

“I bet you don’t,” I said before I could stop myself.

He looked at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

I bit my lip.

“She means we don’t trust you,” Aaron said. “We’ve been talking about some of the things that you’ve done — and they don’t add up.”

“What things?”

“That time I saw you at Millie’s behaving oddly, and the way you reacted when you heard about us going on this trip,” I told him.

“And when you told me to kiss Emily,” Aaron said, blushing furiously. “We don’t know exactly what your game is, but we think you’re up to something.”

For a moment, Archie didn’t say anything. Then he held up both hands. “OK, you’ve got me,” he said. “I’m going to tell you the truth.”

Whatever I might have been expecting him to say, that hadn’t been it. I thought he’d at least try to deny it. And if I’m honest, I’d hoped we’d been wrong. I wanted there to be a perfectly reasonable explanation for his odd behavior, but it seemed we’d been right all along: Archie wasn’t to be trusted, and he was about to confess all.

“I knew about Neptune’s story before he did,” Archie began.

“How come?” I asked.

“There is a line of merfolk: a very secret, very select group. I come from this line.”

“Who are they? What makes them so special?” Aaron asked.

“We are the ones who know the full truth. We are the ones who keep the peace.”

“You’re a peacekeeper?” I asked. “What if we find that hard to believe?”

Archie raised his shoulders in a slow shrug. “Then I wouldn’t blame you. All I ask is that you hear me out.”

Aaron and I exchanged a look. Aaron nodded. “Go on, then,” I said.

“I first saw you when you stood up to Neptune in his own court. You impressed us all. My superiors told me we had to watch you.”

“Watch me?” I burst out. “As in, spy on me, like Mr. Beeston did for almost all my life?”

“Not spy on you, no,” Archie said quickly. “We just wanted to keep someone near you, see how things progressed. We had the feeling you might be special. It turned out we were right.”

“You mean, when you came into our lives, it wasn’t a coincidence?”

“No, not exactly.”

“And when you started going out with Millie, that was . . .”

Archie at least had the decency to look embarrassed. “I care very much about Millie,” he said. “But —”

“But the whole thing was a big, fat pack of lies!” The voice came from behind me. I spun around.

“Millie!” Archie probably should have tried a bit harder to hide the horror on his face. As it was the first time he’d seen his so-called girlfriend in days, his usual look of sappy adoration would probably have gone down better.

“I heard Emily leave — I assumed to meet up with someone,” Millie said, her voice lifeless and dull. “It crossed my mind that it might be you, since I had heard you were in the area. I still couldn’t believe you would come all this way and make no attempt to see me — your beloved!”

“Millie, I —”

Millie went on, ignoring him. “So, I followed her, and this is what I found — that my whole relationship has been nothing but make-believe.”

I couldn’t help glancing at Aaron. I knew how she felt! He turned away and wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Millie, I might have met you in somewhat unusual circumstances, but that doesn’t make our relationship any less real,” Archie said.

“Our
relationship
no longer exists!” Millie spat. She turned to me. “Emily, I’m sorry. I should have believed you.”

“Millie, please!” Archie begged.

Millie swung around to face him again. “That’s a thought,” she said. “What exactly
were
you doing in my home that day? The truth, this time.”

“All right, then,” Archie said. “I’ll tell you. I was looking at your diaries.”

Millie gasped. “You were
what
?”

“You know how sometimes we would tell each other about our dreams?”

Millie folded her arms and pursed her lips together in reply.

“Sometimes you said things that were familiar to me,” Archie went on. “You described scenes I had heard of, scenes my family had told me about in stories passed from generation to generation. We treasured those stories more than our lives. You described places that to us were sacred. Places you had never even been to.”

“This still doesn’t explain why you were sneaking around in my home,” Millie said firmly.

“You told me you always wrote your dreams down in a book. I needed that book. We knew that time was running out. Neptune was troubled, and I suspected what was happening.”

“I suppose you’d been spying on him, too,” Millie said sharply.

Archie ignored her and continued. “I need you to understand where I’m coming from. I am not the enemy. I’m possibly the only one who can save Neptune from certain death. And you have to help me.”

“Are you saying you think Neptune is going to lose the fight with his brother?” Aaron asked.

Archie shook his head. “I’m saying I
know
Neptune will lose the fight. If we don’t stop this from happening, Neptune will die at midnight tonight.”

“What makes you so sure?” I demanded.

“I know Njord’s methods. Before he was turned to ice, my folk followed his movements for many generations. He doesn’t play by the rules; he makes up his own as he goes along — and believe me, they are dirty. Neptune doesn’t stand a chance.”

Millie edged closer to the railing and knelt down. “So . . . so you mean, all this time, all the secrets . . . it’s all been to support Neptune?”

Archie edged closer and looked up into her eyes. “Totally. I just couldn’t tell you any of this before, as our operation is the most secret one there is. Even Neptune doesn’t know about it.”

“Why not?” I asked. I wasn’t completely ready to let go of my suspicions yet.

“Can you imagine how he’d feel if he knew there was an elite group whose sole aim was to keep him from harm? How would his ego cope with that?” Archie replied. “Besides, Neptune deliberately took away his own memories. How could I reveal the truth without reminding him of everything he had chosen to forget? It would have destroyed him.”

“But now you’re saying Njord will
kill
him?” I said.

“Not if we can help it.” Archie turned back to Millie. “Darling, I’m sorry about the way this has all come out. I know that the manner of our getting together might have had more to do with my work than anything else — but everyone knows that you became more than work to me. You are my sunrise, my full moon, my —”

“I forgive you!” Millie exclaimed, blowing a kiss down to him. “I understand. Oh, darling, you are still my hero.”

Archie beamed and blew a kiss back to Millie.

I had to confess, his story did sound plausible. There was just one thing still troubling me. “Why did you need to keep an eye on me in the first place?” I asked.

“From your first speech in Neptune’s court, we knew that you were someone with the potential to help,” Archie said. “Someone we might need if Neptune ever came to be in real danger. And you turned out to be more valuable than we had ever dreamed.”

“You mean because Aaron and I found the rings and got Neptune’s power?”

“Exactly. After that, we knew that if Neptune’s power was ever taken away, we still had you to save him from whatever threat he was facing.”

“Which was why you were so keen to help us get our power back, once we’d lost it,” Aaron put in.

Archie met his eyes, and then mine. “Exactly,” he said. “I didn’t know if it would work, but I knew it was worth a try.”

My head was spinning. I didn’t know what to think anymore.

“My whole life has been leading up to this moment,” Archie said. “You have to help Neptune, your king. And you
have
to believe me.”

Aaron looked at me, and I nodded. Archie was telling the truth — I could see that now. He was desperate to keep Neptune out of trouble. I couldn’t doubt him anymore. And he was right about something else — we had to help.

“We believe you,” Aaron said.

“Oh, my Archie, my brave, clever darling,” Millie squealed. “I’m so proud of you!”

Archie smiled broadly at all of us, the relief plain on his face. “Thank goodness,” he said. “OK, listen. There’s no time to waste. Millie, wait for me. I will come back for you. Emily and Aaron, come and join me down here and let me tell you my plan.”

“I’ve been thinking hard about this, and there’s only one way to do it,” Archie said, once Aaron and I had gotten off the ship and joined him in the water. “We have to get the narwhal to take away both Neptune’s and Njord’s memories. If neither of them can remember ever falling out, they can rule the seas between them — and no one needs to die.”

“That sounds like a good plan. How do we do it?” asked Aaron.

Archie turned to me. “You can hear the narwhal’s thoughts, can’t you?”

“How did you know?”

“I saw you. When it came back. You spoke to it, didn’t you?”

I nodded. “I spoke to
him.
”

“As I thought. It will be up to you, then.”

“What do you want her to do? I’m not letting you put her in any danger,” Aaron warned — which was kind of sweet, but also kind of not really his decision.

“Just tell me what I have to do,” I said.

“Take the narwhal to Neptune while he’s sleeping. Tell him to pierce the king’s thoughts as he did before; tell him to take away all the memories of his argument with his brother. After that, we must take away our memories of all these events as well.”

“What about Millie?” I asked.

“Hers too. We shall bring the narwhal to meet her at the shoreline and do it there.”

“And Njord?” I asked. “Do I have to take the narwhal to him, too?” I couldn’t help a shiver running through me as I thought about that. How was I going to face him? Did Archie expect me to creep up on him and double-cross him while he slept? I didn’t think I could do it.

“Just tell the narwhal to listen to my instructions on that. I will take him to Njord. It’s far too dangerous for you to attempt it.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“OK, let’s get on with it,” Aaron said. “The sooner we get started, the sooner we —”

“There’s one more thing.” Archie looked uncomfortable.

“What?” I asked.

“I haven’t told you what you have to do next.” He looked awkward now, turning away and refusing to meet my eyes.

I was worried now. “What?”

“You have to take the narwhal away,” he said.

Why had he found that so difficult to say? “Fine, just let me know where I need to take him and I’ll do that.”

Archie finally met my eyes. “Emily, you have to lead him to his death.”

No one spoke for a moment. I think we all assumed we’d heard wrong. “Say that again?” I murmured at last.

“You heard right,” Archie said. “We have to take away all of our memories and make sure that they
never
come back. And that’s the only way.”

“I won’t do it.”

“Emily, you have to. Otherwise, this battle between the brothers will go on forever. And I promise you, it won’t end well for Neptune.”

I was about to argue, but then I heard a voice.

Do it.

I looked around. A familiar shape was coming closer: the narwhal.

Do what he says. He is right — it is the only way.

“No! I can’t do it; you’ve done nothing wrong. It’s not fair!”

Please, do not worry about me. I am prepared to lay down my life for Neptune. It would be an honor. Please. We have no choice.

I turned to Archie and, eventually, I nodded. Let him think I would do it, but I knew in my heart that I wouldn’t let the narwhal die — I
couldn’t.
I had no idea how I would stop it — but I’d think of something. I had to.