Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun (6 page)

Neptune leaped off his chaise longue and began to swim around us. He flicked his tail as he swam, and a line of bubbles followed him in a wavy trail. “I felt the ice. I saw it — saw where it had come from,” he said. “There is a lake — it has something to do with the memories — a lake where you must meet your own eyes and jump. And there is water — frozen at the top of a mountain. You must find this water. Only you can hold it. You must do that. You understand? And you must find the lake. Do this and you will also find the threat — and the traitor.”

He stopped swimming and, gripping his trident, stared into our eyes. “Above all, I finally know the most important thing. I know where it is. I know where I am sending you.”

Aaron swallowed. “Where?” he asked shakily.

Neptune lowered his voice and leaned in close. Almost in a whisper, he said, “To the Land of the Midnight Sun.”

T
he Land of the Midnight Sun? Where on earth was that? We stared at Neptune openmouthed, waiting for him to explain.

The only trouble was, he didn’t.

“We haven’t got long,” he went on hurriedly. “You’re leaving this weekend.”

“This weekend?” I gasped. “As in, four days’ time?”

“Well, technically, three days. You’ll leave on Friday.”

“Friday,” I said, just to confirm I’d heard right. Three days to get our parents to agree to let us go off on a dangerous mission that we couldn’t even tell them about. “And we’re going to the Land of the Midnight Sun,” I added. “Which is?”

“Which is in the very far north of the planet,” Neptune said. “A place where, for many weeks in the summer, the sun does not set.”

“At all?” Aaron asked.

“At all. It is constant daylight. Now, listen. I have told you about a mountain, and about a lake. They are linked. The lake is surrounded by the mountains. You must find this place. When you gaze into the lake, you will not be able to see the bottom — all you will see is the reflection of the mountains around it. But here is the thing — the reflection will not match the reality.”

“Huh?” I said.

“I can’t explain it better than that,” Neptune said. “All I know is that what you will see around you is not exactly what you will see in the lake. You must find this lake. One of the mountains surrounding it is covered in a glacier that looks like a giant’s tongue spreading down the mountain. This is where you will find my answers.”

I let out a breath. So basically we needed to find a place where what we saw wasn’t really there, and then climb up a tongue into a giant’s mouth. Excellent.

Neptune swam across the room and beckoned for us to follow. Batting away a brown-and-cream striped fish that looked as if it were dressed in pajamas, he reached into a drawer with handles like cobras and took out two shells. “Take these,” he said, passing us one each.

I turned the shell over in my hands. It was shiny purple, with a spiral winding tightly around the top, opening up into a fatter shape in the middle, with a big gap that went into the center of the shell. The kind of shell you’d hold to your ear so you could hear the ocean. Aaron’s was silver. Neptune held a third one; it was gold.

“You will use these to communicate with me. They are not ordinary shells. They are shell
phones.
They are infused with my magic, and with them you can contact me — no matter where you are, no matter what time of day or night.”

“How do we use them?” I asked, turning my shell over in my hands.

“You say out loud the color of the phone you want to speak to — purple, silver, or gold — and that person’s shell phone will light up. When they pick it up, speak into your shell. They will hear you. Are we clear?”

We nodded.

“I need you to keep me up-to-date with any important information.”

I opened my mouth to ask a question. He answered it before I had the chance.

“If you don’t know whether something is important or not, assume it is and contact me. Understand?”

“We understand,” we said together.

“Good. Now — take these as well.” He reached back into the drawer and pulled out two small bottles. He handed us one each.

“What are these?” I asked, studying my bottle. It looked like the kind of thing Millie kept her herbs and potions in — a tiny glass bottle with a cork in the top and a bright-orange liquid inside that shimmered and glowed like smoke from a flare.

“The sea where you are going is far, far colder than anything you have swum in before,” Neptune said. “Full merfolk can adapt to all waters, but you are semi-mers and do not have that power. The first time you enter the water, you must put this on your scales. It will protect you. Use the whole bottle and it will let you swim in these waters for a week. That should be plenty of time.”

Should
be? What if it
wasn’t
? What if the mission took longer than that? I didn’t ask out loud. If Neptune thought a week was long enough for this mission, I didn’t want to argue for us to take longer.

“Next,” Neptune said briskly, “I will arrange a cover for you.”

“A cover?” I asked.

“No one is to know where you are going, or why.”

I considered pointing out that seeing as, strictly speaking,
we
didn’t actually know where we were going, he was pretty safe on this one.

“Mr. Beeston will escort you,” Neptune went on. “He will be told that this is a special secret task for me — but he will not be told about the nightmares, or the extent of the threat.”

“Why Mr. Beeston?” I asked. “Why not our parents?”

“Beeston can live on land and in the sea,” Neptune explained. “Both may be needed. And for all his faults, he can be trusted.”

I swallowed any reply to
that.

“I will arrange all the details and send Beeston to see you when it is done,” Neptune continued. “Are we clear?”

Were we clear? I held back a nervous laugh.

“Listen,” Neptune said. “This is all you need to know: there is a threat; it is big; it will come from the Land of the Midnight Sun; you are to stop it and find out who stole my memory. It’s as simple as that.”

The nervous laugh I was holding back froze in my stomach as the extent of our task really began to sink in.

“I will always be grateful to you,” he added. “When this is over, there will be rewards.”

“We understand,” Aaron said.

Finally finding my voice, I added, “We’ll do everything we can. We won’t let you down.”

Neptune looked at us both and smiled. “I know you won’t,” he said. “That is why I chose you.”

Neptune was true to his word in getting things organized.

The next morning, Aaron was over at my place. Aaron’s mom and Millie were around, too. Millie was reading Mom’s tarot while Aaron and I looked on and tried not to burst out laughing every time she said things like “The empress next to the four of cups — very auspicious,” in a deep, meaningful voice.

Dad turned up halfway through the reading, poking his face through the trapdoor in the floor and leaning his arms over the side as he blew a kiss to Mom.

“Shhhhh!” Millie hissed. “I’m fully attuned and I don’t want you disturbing the spiritual essence of the tarot.”

Which made me want to laugh even more.

Just as Millie was finishing the reading and had begun to shuffle her cards, there was a sharp rap on the door.

“Only me,” Mr. Beeston called as he stepped onto the boat and looked around. “Ah, good. I’m glad you’re all here. I have some important news.”

“Sounds ominous,” Millie said.

“Not at all,” Mr. Beeston said. “In fact, it’s very exciting news.” He turned to Aaron and me, then looked back at the others and smiled his wonky smile. “It concerns Emily and Aaron.”

“Uh-oh,” Dad said with a wink. “What have they been up to now?”

Mr. Beeston gave Dad one of his
I’m-very-important-and-I-know-a-lot-more-than-you
looks. “What they have ‘been up to’ is impressing Neptune so much with all their recent actions that he has decided to reward them,” he said.

“What kind of reward?” asked Mom.

Mr. Beeston cleared his throat. “He’s sending them on a vacation.”

“A vacation? Oh, how wonderful!” Mom said, almost bouncing in her seat. “Where are we going? When are we off?” She jumped off the sofa. “Ooh, what do I need to pack?”

“Ah, well, that’s the thing.” Mr. Beeston reddened.

Mom stopped bouncing. “What’s the thing?”

“You . . . er . . . well, you don’t need to pack anything, actually. At least, not for yourselves.”

Mom stared at him for a moment, and then she brightened again. “You mean Neptune is providing us with everything we need?”

“Neptune is not providing
you
with anything!” He fiddled with the bottom of his jacket as he added, “I’m afraid you won’t be going.”

Mom and Dad exchanged a glance. “They’re going
alone
?” Dad asked.

Mr. Beeston flushed even deeper. “No, not alone,” he said. “They will, of course, have a chaper one to escort them. Neptune has thought carefully about this important decision, and he has come to the conclusion that he must send one of his most highly trusted, elite, superior —”

“YOU?” Mom burst out. “He’s sending
you
?”

“Er, yes,” Mr. Beeston said, suddenly noticing something very important to look at on the deck.

“Why not us?” Dad asked.

“He . . . er . . . well, I mean, apart from the fact that I have been a highly trusted member of his staff for many years, I suppose he —”

“He wanted someone with a tail
and
legs,” Aaron cut in.

“At least, that’s what we would guess,” I added quickly, glaring at Aaron. We weren’t supposed to know anything about this yet!

“Yes, that’s what I meant,” Aaron blustered. “I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it?”

Mr. Beeston gave us one of his funny sideways looks. Did he know we already knew about this? That we knew more than
he
did?

“The children are probably right,” he said. “Neptune would have wanted a semi-mer to go with them.
And,
of course, someone he trusted. Someone of a high rank. We leave on Friday.”

Mom tried to look pleased for us, but failed. “You will look after them, won’t you?” she said eventually.

“Of course I shall look after them,” Mr. Beeston said. “That is precisely my job.”

Dad smiled at us. “Well, I think it’s great,” he said. “I’m proud of you both.”

“Me too,” Aaron’s mom added, coming over to give Aaron a hug.

It was only when Dad said, “Hey, kids, you could look a bit happier about it, you know,” that I realized we were supposed to be acting as though we really
had
just found out we were going on a wonderful, all-expenses-paid holiday.

“We were just in shock,” Aaron said woodenly. “It’s great news, isn’t it, Em?”

“It’s fantastic,” I said, pinning a smile on my face. “Yay,” I added for good measure, trying very hard not to let anyone see how much I was shaking.

Just then, there was a noise from the lower deck. Dad looked down. “It’s Archie,” he said. “Come on up,” he called to Archie. “You’re just in time to hear the news.”

Archie swam up and joined Dad, leaning on the trapdoor. Millie went over and bent down to kiss him.