A Prince among Frogs (13 page)

“Who are you calling a pest?” Shelton asked, peering out from Millie’s cupped hands.

“Thank you, Octavius,” Millie said before the crab and the octopus could start arguing again. “I’m sure we’ll find them.” She tried to swim over Octavius’s raised tentacle, but the octopus refused to budge.

“And as for you,” Octavius told Audun, “I’ve known this girl most of her life. I’m holding you responsible for her safety. You take good care of her, or you’ll have to answer to me.”

“She’ll be fine,” said Audun, and he tried to brush past the octopus, but the creature was strong and Audun couldn’t move him.

“Promise me you’ll take care of her,” said Octavius.

“On my honor as a dragon,” Audun told him, looking into the octopus’s two wandering eyes.

Apparently satisfied, Octavius slid out of the way, letting Millie and Audun pass. They waited until the octopus had shut the door before they turned back into dragons. Shelton was excited to watch the transformation and even more excited to ride on a dragon’s back. Millie let him sit between two of her ridge bumps, warning him to hold on tight, but he squirmed so much that she began to wonder if it was a good idea.

The door opened and Coral swam out wielding her narwhal tusk. She looked startled to see the two dragons, but quickly composed herself enough to say, “It is you, isn’t it?”

Millie smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way. “It’s us, Coral. We’re ready if you are.”

The mermaid eyed their linked talons and frowned. “Are you going to hold hands while you swim? I should think that would make it more difficult.”

“The only reason we can breathe underwater is because Audun is wearing an amulet that the ice dragon council gave him,” said Millie.

“I see. You have only one amulet, so you have to share,” Coral said with a knowing smile. “Very good. Now follow me.” She led the way toward the seaweed, stopping to part the long strands with the tusk. “There’s a trick to this. You don’t want to just barrel ahead, because you never know whom or what you’ll run into. Swim slowly and as quietly as you can; that way you won’t attract attention to yourself and you’ll hear if anything else is swimming through the seaweed.” The mermaid slipped between the swaying plants, gesturing for the two dragons to follow. “I’d avoid this area altogether if I could,” she continued, “but Nastia Nautica lives just on the other side and it would take too long to swim all the way around. This patch goes on forever. Well, not really, but if you get lost in it, it will certainly seem that way.”

The mermaid stopped to poke something with her narwhal tusk, continuing on a moment later. “I was swimming through here once when I ran into an electric eel. It was quite a shock, believe me!” She turned around to see their expressions and seemed disappointed when they weren’t laughing. “That was a joke,” she said, facing forward once again. “I’ve never actually run into an electric eel, although I do have a friend who did. Her hair was straight before the incident and curly afterward. Her tail has a bad twitch now, too. Tsk! Such a shame.”

Millie gritted her teeth, biting back a comment about people who talk after telling everyone else to be quiet. How were they supposed to hear something creeping up on them or even swimming in their direction if Coral wouldn’t stop talking?

Suddenly the sound of hissing seaweed grew louder, and the mermaid stopped. Millie caught a glimpse of a narrow fishy face and a mouth filled with sharp teeth. A moment later the creature was racing away, leaving Coral screaming, “Stop! No! Come back here!” She swam off a little way, then rushed back to say, “A barracuda stole my narwhal tusk! I’ll be back as soon as I can!” And then she was gone in a flurry of thrashing tail and tattered seaweed.

“I feel like we should go help her, but—,” said Millie.

“She’ll be fine,” Audun told her. “We have something more important to do now. I’ve visited Nastia Nautica’s shipwreck before, so I know the way.”

“So do I,” said Shelton. “It’s over there.”

Millie had forgotten that he was riding on her back ridge, and she curled her neck around to look at him. He was pointing straight ahead with one of his claws while holding on to her ridge with the other.

Audun looked annoyed. “I know. I told you I’ve been there before.”

“Dragons have a fantastic sense of direction,” Millie said, glancing back at Shelton. “For instance, Greater Greensward is that way.” She pointed over her shoulder, then turned and pointed off to the right. “And the island where you grew up is that way.”

The little crab climbed to the top of her ridge for a better look. “How do you know?” he asked. “Can you see that far?”

Millie shook her head. “We just know. Isn’t there anything you know without seeing it?”

“Lots of things,” said the little crab. “Like I know when Octavius is pretending he’s mad and when he really is mad. And I know when I’m about to start molting. I should start in a few days. That’s when I’ll have to hide from that lousy butler.”

The dragons swam with confidence, even when they had to change direction to get around a large rocky outcropping. When they finally emerged from the seaweed, they could see the shipwreck only a dozen yards away.

They approached the shipwreck slowly and without speaking. Eels slipped through gaping holes in the wooden walls. A large, flat, diamond-shaped creature swam past, dragging a whiplike tail behind it. Two small sharks circled overhead, leaving when they spotted the dragons.

“The last time I was here, Nastia Nautica was in a room at the back of the ship,” said Audun.

Millie swam with him to the flattened stern and peered in the hole that had once been a window. Old sea chests sat against the walls alongside a wooden desk covered in barnacles. Tiny fish swam around and around in a tall, narrow glass jar that rested on the desk. A crooked bed occupied the corner, the bedding long gone. In the center of the room a high-backed chair faced the window, the perfect spot for someone to sit and watch the creatures of the sea swim by.

“She isn’t here,” said Millie.

“Maybe she’s in another part of the ship,” Audun said. “There was a big hole in the side. We can look in there.”

They swam around the ship and peeked into the biggest hole, but there was nothing there except barnacles and a few fish that darted away. Peering into the other holes proved no more productive, and they wound up going to the far side of the hulk, where it rested at an angle on the ocean floor. When they peered through a small hole, they saw a big space with rotting barrels and crates jumbled on one side of the slanted floor.

“This wood is really decayed,” said Audun when the piece next to the opening crumbled at his touch. “We could bash our way through if we really wanted to get inside.”

“And let everyone for miles around know we’re here?” Millie said. “What we need is someone small who can be discreet when he sneaks in and looks around.”

When the two dragons turned to look at Shelton, the little crab jerked his eyestalks back and said, “You don’t mean me, do you?”

“We wouldn’t dream of asking … ,” said Millie.

“He would,” Shelton said, waving his claw at Audun.

“You
did
come along to help,” Audun said.

Shelton grumbled as he released his hold on Millie’s ridge. He swam toward the hole, gripping the edge with his claw, then turned to look back at the dragons. “I’m going, but if anything happens to me, it’s your fault. Tell me, what exactly am I supposed to look for? You don’t really expect me to find Nastia Nautica lurking in the hold of the ship, do you?”

Millie shook her head. “No, but since she doesn’t seem to be here, now is a good time to look around. See if you can find something that will tell us what happened to my parents and my great-aunt and great-uncle.”

“They might even be in there,” Audun said, poking his head in partway. “If they are, I’ll bash in the side and we’ll get them out before the old sea witch gets back.”

“You don’t think she’s kept them prisoner in there, do you?” Millie asked. “Hurry, Shelton! Go see if you can find them!”

Shelton disappeared from sight, reappearing now and then as he investigated the nooks and crannies in the hold. He swam back a few minutes later and said, “There’s nothing here, but I saw another section up front. I’ll go see what’s up there.”

“Hurry!” Millie urged the little crab as he swam off. “Nastia Nautica could be back any minute.”

The ship creaked, making Millie back away in surprise. “Is it about to fall apart?” she asked Audun.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “Wrecks always make noises like that.”

“But this one looks like it’s in awfully bad shape.”

Audun stepped back to take a long look at the hull. “It’s been here for years and will probably be here for many more to come. Unless there’s an earthquake or something, I don’t think—”

“Come quick,” Shelton said, so excited that his voice was little more than a squeak. “I found the sea monster in the front part of the hold. We’ll find a way for you to get in and … Oh yeah. That’ll work, too,” Shelton added as Audun turned and pulled his tail to the side.

There was a loud boom as the dragon hit the hull with his tail, rocking the ship and creating a hole big enough for an enormous shark or a medium-sized dragon to pass through. Some of the debris rained down around Millie and some flew back into the hold, covering the tops of the barrels and crates. There wasn’t room for them to swim side by side, so Millie held on to Audun’s tail ridge as he swam the length of the hold. He knocked aside everything that got in his way, shattering crates and barrels that had stayed intact over all the years that the ship had sat at the bottom of the ocean. Millie swam through clouds of sour-tasting pickle juice and long-fermented wine, around broken pottery and maggoty bread. When they reached the far end, Audun turned to face her in the cramped space and swung his tail as best he could, bashing another hole in the wall.

At first Audun’s body blocked her view, but when he moved farther into the next room she could see the sea monster as well. It was just as Cadmilla had described it, with its warty body, three flippers, and tentacles with leaf-shaped tips. What the witch hadn’t mentioned was that it was bigger than four dragons Audun’s size put together and that it had two soulful-looking eyes like a puppy. Despite its size, the monster didn’t look the least bit threatening as it lay cowering under Audun’s fearsome glare.

“What did you do with the Green Witch and her family?” Audun roared.

The sea monster shrank back as if it had been struck. Its sacklike body quivered, sending ripples from one end to the other. “Urp!” belched the monster.

“Don’t play innocent with me!” said Audun. “I know you’ve been terrorizing an island of witches. What did you do with the Green Witch?”

When Audun took a step closer, the sea monster fled to the wall, its flippers carrying it in an uneven rush to a hole no bigger than an ordinary loaf of bread. Squeezing one flipper through the hole, it oozed out, dragging its weight until it plopped through on the other side. Audun rushed to the wall with Millie close behind, but the monster was already swimming like a sea slug as it undulated out of sight.

“Should I go after it?” Audun asked.

“I don’t think there’s much point,” said Millie. “I don’t think it’s fearsome enough to have attacked the witches on its own. Nastia Nautica must have been controlling it. She’s the one we have to find.”

Shelton had climbed back onto Millie’s ridge. “Maybe Coral knows where else you could look,” he said.

“We can go ask,” Audun said with a sigh.

They were leaving the gloom of the wreck when Millie had the strongest feeling that something was watching them. She glanced back at the ship but didn’t see anything peering out. The seaweed could have held an army of sea creatures, but nothing was making itself obvious. “I think something is here with us, but I don’t see anything,” she told Audun in a whisper.

“I do,” he said, looking at the ground beside the ship.

Millie’s eyes opened wide. Black lines that she had thought were cracks in the ground seemed to be wiggling. She rubbed her eyes with her front foot and looked again. The lines were coming closer, and as they drew nearer, they seemed to widen and take on features that … Millie realized with a start that they were sea snakes—hundreds and hundreds of sea snakes. She watched as they rose up from the ground and swam toward them.

Millie backed away, ready to flee, but when Audun didn’t move, she turned to him and stopped, her mouth hanging open. The snakes were swarming around him, making happy little sounds.

Audun looked just as happy to see them. “Hello, my friends! It’s good to see you again, but why are there so many of you?”

“We stayed here waiting for your return,” said one of the sea snakes. “Our friends and relatives came to join us once they learned that you had set us free. We are here to serve you, Great One.”

“I don’t have the flute anymore. I thought you helped me before only because I had the flute.”

“When the flute left the ocean, we could no longer protect it and the spell was broken forever,” said another sea snake. “We do not wish to serve you because we have to, Great One, but because we want to. Tell us, what can we do to help you?”

“I’m looking for some humans—two men and two women,” he told the sea snakes.