Krakens and Lies (22 page)

T
here was an electric pause.

“Jasmin's dad?” Zoe whispered.

“That's right,” said Miss Sameera. “He's very charming, isn't he?”

Before Logan could regain control of his breathing, his father stood up, knocking his chair over, and headed for the door.

“Wait,” Mr. Kahn said, scrambling after him. “Jackson, wait. Storming over there isn't going to do any good. They'll just lie. You won't get her back that way. Stop and think about this.”

“The Sterlings kidnapped my wife,” Logan's dad shouted.
“What is there to think about? I'm going to get her back.”

“We need a plan,” Mrs. Kahn said. “If you go charging in there shouting accusations, they'll probably have you arrested. Mr. Sterling is close friends with the sheriff. Without proof—”

“We've got her,” he said, pointing at Miss Sameera. “She can tell them what she saw.”

They all looked at Miss Sameera again, and Logan had to admit to himself that she didn't seem like the
most
reliable witness. He believed her, but he doubted the police would.

“Uh, guys? There's a girl in the Menagerie,” Marco said suddenly. He pointed out the glass doors.

A teenage girl, about fifteen years old, with skin as dark as Logan's, tight coppery-brown curls, and a small snub nose was wandering across the grass with her hands in her jeans pockets, studying the mermaids in the lake below. She had a large beaded bag the color of lava slung over one shoulder. Shambling along at her heels was some kind of perfectly ginormous wombat.

“Elsie!” Matthew cried.

“All of you go, please,” said Mrs. Kahn. “We need to talk to Mr. Wilde. Except you, Sameera, we might have more questions for you.”

Logan had a feeling they'd let him stay if he asked, but he needed to escape that room. He needed to wrap his spinning brain around the image of his mother getting into Mr.
Sterling's car and disappearing into the sunset.

Had she gone with him willingly? Why would she do that?

“Elsie!” Matthew called as he slid open the doors. “Up here!”

The girl turned and waved, grinning. “Hiya,” she called. “I hear you've got something of a mermaid problem.” She had some kind of accent—Australian, Logan guessed—and a dazzling smile. The wombat looked over its shoulder at them, too, blinking sleepy eyes, and Logan realized that its front two feet were actually giant flippers. Its fur was short and gray but sort of lavender when the sun hit it. It was as tall as the girl's waist and probably big enough for her to ride if she wanted to.

“Why didn't you come to the front door?” Matthew asked as they met on the hill.

“Don't care for doors,” Elsie said with a shrug. “And I wanted to check out the famous Kahn Menagerie. It's quite wild, really. I'd love to meet your yeti; our sasquatch is such a bore, always going on about how things were better before the end of the last ice age, like anyone believes he's that old or cares.”

“Thank you for coming to help,” Matthew said. He waved one hand at the picketing merfolk and several of them made rude noises at him.

“Mermaids are such nimrods, aren't they?” Elsie said, rolling her eyes.

“Ahem,” Blue said. “Not
all
of them.”

“Nah, all of them, sorry, mate,” Elsie said. “Matthew, I heard about your epic Tracking of the qilin. You're, like, such a legend now.”

“Oh,” he said, blushing furiously. “Well, I had help.”

Elsie raised her eyebrows at the others. “From a wererooster, a half merman, your little sister, and a regular human?” She stopped and shook her head, blinking. “Wait. No way. You're not—who are you?” she asked Logan.

“GWORP,” said the creature at her feet. It had a deep, flat voice that was startlingly loud.

“That's what I thought!” she said to it. “But what are the chances of that?”

“GORNORG,” it said, and started munching grass as if no further discussion was necessary.

“That's Logan,” said Matthew. “And these are Zoe, Marco, and Blue.”

“That was crazy. How did you know I'm a wererooster?” Marco asked.

“Are you any relation to Abigail Hardy?” Elsie asked Logan, ignoring Marco.

Logan shivered as though ice water was running down his back. “She's my mom,” he said.

“Ah, right, you so look alike,” she said, nodding. “She came to Tracker camp one year to do a presentation on barangs. I am going to
be
her when I grow up. Do you know where she
is? My theory is she's on some really extra-top-secret Tracking mission, like, some animal we've never even heard of, right? And maybe nobody even knows about it, but when she comes back riding the world's only winged bandicoot-panda, everyone will just shut up and feel stupid for all the completely stupid things they've said about her. Because she is amazing, right? Like, my own personal hero, no joke.”

Logan glanced back at the house. Maybe he shouldn't have left his dad in there. Maybe he should go back and join the argument. He kind of wanted to march over and accuse the Sterlings right now, too. But were the Kahns right? Was there a smarter way to get his mom back?

If so . . . what was it?

Marco pointed at the flippered wombat. “What is that?” he asked.

“This is Uluru,” Elsie said. “He's a bunyip, obviously.”

“Whoa,” said Blue. “I've never met anyone with a pet bunyip before.”

Uluru stopped munching and looked up at Blue with steely distaste.

“He is
not
a pet,” Elsie said scornfully. “He is my friend, or you might say, my sidekick.”

“SORGBORG,” the bunyip rumbled.

“Yeah, all right, it's possible I'm
his
sidekick,” she said. “Although Mum originally wanted him to be my bodyguard. She's a bit overprotective.” Her hand tightened on the strap
of her shoulder bag, and Logan glimpsed something brown, sleek, and furry inside.

“It's almost noon,” Zoe said to Matthew.

“Are you up for kraken feeding?” Matthew said to Elsie. “How do you feel about kelpies?”

“I wrestle them every day,” she said. “I was born to tame kelpies! They're really just misunderstood hell-horses of death who want to eat you, you know.”

“There's a zaratan, too,” Zoe said. “Once you feed the three of them, that's it.”

“Wait—by herself?” Logan asked. He had kind of expected “Matthew's friend” to (a) be older and bigger and (b) bring along a gang of helpers.

“Uluru and I can handle it, no worries,” Elsie said, giving Logan a crinkly-eyed smile. Her wide brown eyes were just a tiny bit too close together, but still, she was really pretty. He could see why Matthew was trying and failing to stop beaming like a dork at her.

“Where should I change?” she asked Matthew.

“Up at the house?” he suggested. “Or the unicorn stable is closer to the water, if you'd prefer that.”

“Yeah, that should work,” she said, eyeing the stable. “Come on, Uluru.”

“Oh, no no
no
,” yelled a voice from the lake. Blue's cousin Sapphire pushed the other mermaids aside and came storming out onto the shore, wearing a bright yellow bikini top and
matching shorts. Her long blond hair streamed wetly down her back. She threw herself in Elsie's path. “What do you think you're doing?” she demanded.

“Something you're apparently too lazy to do,” Elsie said. “But then, that's typical mermaid, isn't it? Oooh, no, we can't do our jobs, we might accidentally be useful for once.”

“You can't help these humans,” Sapphire said. “You'd be betraying water folk everywhere!”

“BURGS,” said the bunyip placidly.

“There's no need to be rude!” Sapphire shrieked. “You should stand with us in solidarity! All we want is basic rights!”

“Living in Hawaii is not a basic right,” Zoe said, crossing her arms. “Your king made an agreement for you all to live here, but if you want to go back to the ocean and fend for yourselves, you can take it up with SNAMHP.”

Elsie smirked. “If you do, say hi to the sharks for me. And by the way, I'm not helping humans; I'm helping a few perfectly nice sea creatures who deserve to have their lunch without a bunch of flipperbutts shrieking up and down all over their habitat and neglecting them. So get out of my way, mermaid.”

“We're not letting you past,” Sapphire said, putting her hands on her hips. “We'll stop you! We're not afraid of any—”

The bunyip suddenly opened its mouth and let out the most bloodcurdling scream Logan had ever heard. It echoed and echoed around the Menagerie, louder even than the dragons' intruder alert. And it didn't end; Uluru seemed calmly
prepared to make that awful noise for as long as necessary.

Elsie regarded Sapphire with a face like,
Well, you asked for it. Your move
.

Sapphire clapped her hands over her ears. “All RIGHT!” she yelled. “FINE! MAKE IT STOP!”

Elsie touched the top of Uluru's head gently with her fingertips. He snapped his mouth shut and the scream abruptly cut off.

“I'm complaining to—to—to someone about this!” Sapphire yelped. “It's not fair!” She whirled around and stomped back to the lake, where the other merfolk were booing and hissing and throwing small fish in Elsie's general direction.

“NORGBLOG,” Uluru observed.

“I
completely
agree,” said Elsie. They headed off to the unicorn stable.

“So,” Matthew said, smiling from ear to ear. “That's Elsie.”

“She's
way
out of your league,” Zoe said sympathetically.

“I know!” he said. “But she's here! And she knows about the qilin. You heard her. I'm a
legend
now.”

“Wow, I can't wait to hear about that forever,” Zoe teased. “Logan, how are you doing? Are you okay? I mean, about all that stuff about your mom?”

He shrugged, hoping he looked more okay than he felt. “We sort of guessed the Sterlings might have her. But is she still in Xanadu? If Dad's PI never saw them visit her, who's helping them take care of her?”

“Maybe whoever is helping them sabotage the Menagerie,” Zoe said.

“Still not me,” Matthew said. “Just so we're clear.”

The door of the unicorn stable opened and the bunyip ambled out, followed immediately by a sleek, beautiful brown seal.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,” said Marco knowingly. “A wereseal. I get it now.”

“She's not a wereseal, doofus,” Matthew said. “She's a selkie.”

“Right,” he said, nodding. “That's what I meant. A selkie.” Behind Matthew's back, Marco made a face at Logan like,
What? No idea! Never heard of it! You?

“They're seals who can take human form,” Zoe explained. “They come out of the water and shed their sealskin, then keep it somewhere safe until they want to put it back on and go back in the water. Usually not the hugest fans of people, so maybe she does really like you, Matthew.”

“Maybe,” he said dreamily.

The seal and the bunyip slipped into the water and vanished into the depths, past the protesting merfolk. On the other side of the lake, the zaratan lifted its head hopefully, as if sensing the selkie's arrival. A swirl of ripples near the kraken's enclosure indicated that she'd noticed her as well.

If it weren't for the Sterlings, the Chinese dragon would be out in that lake right now, swimming and playing peacefully
.

And if it weren't for the Sterlings, Logan could be standing here with his mom.

“Logan,” Zoe said, pulling his attention back to reality. “Listen. Here's what I know about Chinese dragons. They get really attached to people they like. I bet this one refused to leave your mother, and she wouldn't abandon it, either. She'd insist on staying with it to make sure it was all right, even if the Sterlings offered her a boatload of money to vanish.”

She took Logan's hand. “And here is what I know about Abigail Hardy. The only thing in the world that could keep her from going home to you would be protecting a mythical creature. It's not just a job to her.”

Logan understood. He more than understood. He knew what he was willing to do for Squorp or any of the griffin cubs.

“We're going to find her,” he said, trying to convince himself.

Before Tuesday
, he thought.
Or they'll put the dragon on TV, expose the Menagerie, and endanger the lives of every mythical creature here
.

I
t was agony to do all the other regular Sunday chores, but as Zoe's parents said, they still had to be done. Griffins needed feeding, hellhounds needed exercising, unicorns needed to be brushed and told they were magnificent. Just the essentials, though; Zoe managed to get out of doing the mapinguari's bath, thankfully. And Ruby was sent off to do all the worst chores, with Mooncrusher looming grimly over her to make sure they were done right.