2 Deja Blue (24 page)

The King spoke, “Challengers, take your marks. At the dro
p of my hand, you will begin.” He held up his right hand
high in the air
,
gave us the countdown, “3….2….1
and
he dropped his arm in one strong fluid motion
.
W
e took off running, kicking up sand in our wake.
I splashed into the water, and
…
holy mother of all that is cold
!
It was frigid! I instantly felt my toes go numb as the icy chill worked its way up my feet, through my ankles
and sett
led
into my calves, freezing them almost to the point of pain. I tried to i
gnore it,
moving
on pure adrenalin
and taking huge
,
running leaps through the water. I saw out of the corner of my eye that I was just a couple of steps in front of Freya. I dove down (thanks for making me practi
ce all those surface dives, Anya
) and cut through the icy water. It shocked my skin
,
seemingly freezing icicles on my eyeballs,
and I felt the cold run through my
entire
body
.
Because I wa
s faster alternating my strokes
between swimming underwater
and above
the water
,
I used that method to propel myself through the
frigid lake
.
Freya disappeared under the dark waters. She was gone from my sight. I tried to catch glimpses of
her
while I was under
water
, and
soon
realized
that
we were keeping pace with each other.
She wasn’t as far ahead as I thought
she might be
!
If I could just pull
ahead on the loop
around the buoy, I know I had a chance
of
at
least
staying with her on the way
back to
the
shore…
perhaps then
I wouldn’t look and feel like such a
n
‘unworthy’ ass. After all, I was just a
human
.
All of the drills that Anya and Brennan had pounded into my b
rain were surging through me as
I rotat
ed and used my arms to propel myself
even faster through the water. That was one thing I noticed ab
out the
Mermaid
…
She almost never used her arms to move through the water…large swishing movements of her tail, but little or no help from her upper appendages. I seemed to have the advantage there. By using both my newfound dragon propulsion of swimming, and the
swimming
techniques enhanced by Anya and Brennan, I found that moving through the water with my arms seemed to be giving me a slight edge. We circled the buoy
,
and I seemed to be pulling ahead. Could it be
? Do I actually have a chance at
beating this
Mermaid
in a
swimming
competition? My heart was racing, pumping hard
.
T
he clenched knot in my stomach was now a ball of energy that
was
radiating out into every limb. I did
n’t feel the cold water anymore;
I only felt my limbs tingling as I pushed them
as fast and as hard as I could.
W
ith a feeling of
weightlessness, I
felt as if I
was flying.
It was as if some deep-rooted, dragon-magic, animal instinct had kicked in. I actually glanced down
the length of my body to see if I had suddenly sprouted scales because it felt as if I was
sheathed i
n
a warm wet-suit, protecting me from the cold water. Thankfully, there were no scales. It was as if the
adrenalin
had triggered the fight or flight response in me. All of my senses were heightened, and my skin burned with heat as I swam faster than I ever had before. I was
h
ydroplaning across the
top of the water
,
gulping air when I needed,
and then
diving underneath
,
extending my glide as far as I
could before resurfacing again.
I knew I was pulling ahead of the armless-swimming
Mermaid
.

As I got into shallower waters and found I had to run again,
my body was suddenly warmed as the heat from
the summer night sa
nk into my skin. Out of the splashing water, my ears opened up and I heard the cheering from the beach.
E
veryone standing th
ere, except the King and Queen
,
were whooping it up, c
lapping, jumping,
cheering
…especially Celestine and
Bexin
, who couldn’t seem to contain their excitement at the prospect of a potential win. Jeremy was the loudest though
.
H
e was screaming
in a sing-
songy
chant
at the top of his lungs,
“
RUBY B
LUE! COMIN’ ON THROUGH! WOOHOO
!
!
Ma’LADY
BLUE
!
CHUGGA-CHUGGA-WOO
W
OO!
”
It was almost distracting actually, and I tried not to lose my footing while running through the surf towards
the sand. Thank God
I practically lived bare-footed.
A smile escaped
,
and I couldn’t help but start to feel a little giddy when I realized that I was a full five or six strides ahead of Freya. I plowed across the sand like a locomotive,
scrambling
over the marked finish line and collapsing in a heap on the sand. I had won!
I had won!

My friends came leaping and jumping around me in a celebratory dance, and if they could have, I think they would have hoisted me on their shoulders.
With a huge smile plastered on his face, Jeremy whisper
ed into my ear, “See?
Fish.
Fill
et.”
I giggled and saw
Freya co
me
running into the heap of people;
her sister rushed to her side to hug her. Defeated, but not a poor sport, Freya walked over to me, “Excellent swim,
dolphin
girl. You were keeping secrets,” she smiled knowingly at me and raised her eyebrows.
I never thought about it before, but I suppose I did probably look a little like a dol
phin, swimming above the water.
I wondered what my brother
, Leo, would think about my new
found swimming abilities… For a moment I debated
which
was a worse nick-name, Scooby
or Flipper
. I shuddered. They were both horrible.

The King and Queen stepped up as well, and the King announced loudly and officially, “I declare the winner of this
Challenge
to be the Earthen Court.” Then, in a softer tone, he
looked at Brennan and said, “You, Prince of the Earthen Court, held your tongue wisely I see. All is not as it seems.”

Brennan nodded, “I told no lies Majesty. But yes,
the
Lady Ruby Blue is also an extraordinary swimmer,” Brennan cleared his throat and cracked a small, cocky smile.

“Indeed, indeed.” The King nodded, sizing me up and down and looking at me
as if seeing me for the first
time, “I wonder, Prince Brennan,
exactly
how she was
gifted with such abilities, hmm
m?
Why would
Grobel
choose
such a human to compete in the
Challenge
?
There were no spells cast upon her from the Earthen Court, no
coercion
from the Earthen Court to force
some kind of
allegiance
from her
?
”

I was
just about
recover
ed from my swim
now
,
and my
breathing
was almost
back to normal
. I looked
at Brennan with
nervous
anticipation, and felt my breath quicken again.
Would he tell the King that I had dragon magic in me?
Would he tell the King of my debt to the
Mermaid
and the blackmail used to urge
Grobel
to choose me?

Brennan tilted his head and answered carefully, “Through a dragon bite,
she developed her gift in the water. T
hrough her
connection to F
airies, the earth
,
and
a
pledge to
myself
and my Court, she has
agreed to represent the Earthe
n Court so that we would have the best chance of winning.
Grobel
chose her. I did not. After all, it is a rare occurrence that someone outside of the Water
Court prevails in the
Grá
mo
Chroí
Dúshlán
…It was about time we had a shot at winning, don’t you think?” Brennan’s face
per
ked up in a sly, cocky grin and
he raised his eyebrows at the
King, tipping his chin.
I noticed he didn’t mention my debt to the
Mermaid
, nor the specifics of how I got the dragon bite
.
Brennan didn’t specifically address any spells or magic that bonded
(forced)
Grobel
to
choose
me.
He
also left out the fact that he
pretty much ordered and threatened
Grobel
to
do so
. Boy, those F
airies are good at answering questions without giving away too much information.

The
King and Queen
nodded, smiling
politely
, but obviously not entirely buying Brennan’s answer.
In fact
, the Queen’s smile was so sour
that
it almost looked like she was sucking on a lemon.
I don’t think she likes losing.
“So,” the Queen said, “
if
a dragon bite gave her such power in the water, it is conceivable that she could have chosen to pledge to our Court.”

Anya spoke now, “
Could
have.
But did not.
No coercion or magic was used to deter her.” The Queen
directed
a squinty-eyed, searing gaze at Anya
and
,
even though she remained
silent
, you could see that
she was thinking
, “
Touché…for now
.
” The Queen knew Anya was being truthful in what she said. I shifted nervously around, not wanting to make eye-contact with either Royal Water Court regent.
I huddled closer to Jeremy
,
and he protectively wrapped
a towel and
his arm around my shoulder as we waited for the next
Challenge
to be announced.

The King spoke again, in a louder, more authoritative voice, as if he was dismissing the issue he and Brennan just discussed
.
H
e said, “Moving on
to
the next
Challenge
! Come. It is arranged out there,” and he pointed out towards another section
of
the lake.
I couldn’t really see anything out there
,
and
I looked at Anya and Brennan
with slight confusion. How the hell were we supposed to get there?
(Where
ever
there
was.)
Anya nodded her head
down the shore
, and I turned to see where she was gesturing.
Ohh
hh
…they had a boat tied up
just
a little ways
down the beach. I hadn’t noticed it
before. It was so dark outside
that I could barely see ten feet in front of me, let alone twenty yards down the beach.

Looks like we were going on a little cruise.
Too bad I was
going to
end
up overboard out there. I let out a big sigh. I felt the familiar clenching of my stomach as fear and anxiety swept through my body again
while
I stepped into the boat along with the others.
There was no lasting victory celebration. It was on to the next order of business.
We all climbed into
,
what appeared to be
,
a superfast speed boat.
It was bright white with an
obnoxious splash of color streaking the sides
,
and
it
featured luxurious
white leather seats. Tha
nk goodness it was a white boat
and I was with a group of nine other people, otherwise
I would have never
found my way to it in the
pitch-black
dark.
Brennan informed me that it was the Baja Islander
277
. Well
,
whoop-
dee
-doo. Like I cared…
or even knew what that was. T
he only thing that was on my mind right no
w was
getting through the next
Challenge
. I tried to look interested when he told me this fact, but I probably just appeared indifferent. I couldn’t help it though.
My nerves were on
high alert and that dry, cotton-
mouth feeling came back. My stomach
felt shaken and twisted
as the
boat
kicked into high gear and started off towards the unknown location in the Great Lake Superior.
With all of us silently riding towards our destination to the middle of nowhere, the tension in the air increased.
With each bounce of the boat against the hard waves
,
my insides madly churned. Bam! Bam! Bam! The boat slammed against the waves as we sped
across the lake.
 
Oh
G
od. I feel like I’m
going to
throw up
again.