Legend of the Three Moons (15 page)

`Swim,' Prince Torenshone shouted to Celeste and pushed her up ahead of him. `When he realises he cannot reach us, he will suck the water into his belly and us with it.'

The moment she felt the water sucking her back, Celeste grabbed hold of the seaweed that grew on the side of the well. Clinging to it like a limpet she kicked and kicked against the water that dragged at her body.

Suddenly the seaweed broke away and she was sliding backwards with horrible visions of being swallowed by Kydon...

Until Prince Torenshone caught her and, with his strong tail flipping back and forth, he fought their way upwards. Finally the dragging and sucking stopped. Celeste relaxed.

`Hang on! Now he will blow it all back,' warned the merman, just as the water whooshed them up the well at a terrifying speed.

`Safe!' he shouted, as they broke the water's surface in a spectacular fountain of seaweed and regurgitated serpent food.

Safe indeed, thought Celeste, as she took a huge breath of air and gazed with relief at the star-filled sky.

`Now you will give me the orange jewel,' said Prince Torenshone swimming towards her.

Celeste swam backwards. `Gladly. After you give me the pearl.'

His handsome face broke into a sharp-toothed smile. `Aaah! I had hoped you'd forgotten the pearl.'

She laughed as she back-paddled faster. `Not after what we went through. Those serpents were scarier than a herd of Goch.'

With a flick of his pink tail he was beside her. `I have only seen a Goch from a distance,' said Prince Torenshone.

He hung the gold chain and its pearl around Celeste's neck and stared deeply into her eyes. `Little human with the golden hair and sea-green eyes, you are truly brave. When you are grown, should you ever decide that you wish to live in the sea, you would make a fitting princess wife for a Mer prince such as myself.'

Celeste wanted to giggle at the very idea of being married, but she answered equally as solemnly, as she handed over the orange jewel. `Prince Torenshone, you are a brave and handsome prince, and should I ever decide to live in the sea you will be the only Mer prince I would consider marrying.'

The handsome merman smiled at her. `Alas, Princess, I fear that you do not take me seriously. Now swim to the shore and find your friends. I will see you next year and the year after that.'

Celeste was six strokes away when she called back, `What if I don't want to give you my hair next year?'

He held up the orange jewel so the silver-circled moon's light caught it and it flashed orange and green.

`You will keep your word because you are honourable. But if something happens to stop you, you will forfeit your magic gift and never swim again.'

Celeste waded beneath the jetty towards Whale Island village beach. Along the foreshore stood a row of whale statues with their human faces turned to the sky. She wondered if they were portraits of their sculptors or faces of the dead. This chilling thought, along with her dripping clothes, soggy sandals and the night wind blowing around her unprotected ears, made her shiver.

The houses of the village were similar in style to Wartstoe Inn with steep shingled roofs, diamond-glass attic windows and heavy doors. Through their bolted shutters she could see slithers of lantern light and hear voices and sometimes laughter, but the streets and alleys were silent and empty. There wasn't a stray cat, dog, owl or drinking inn in sight so she was surprised, as she reached the outskirts, to hear raised voices.

Rounding the corner she came upon a yard filled with wood, no doubt used by the Whale Islanders to mend the boats that their singing wrecked on the reef.

In the centre of the yard stood four silver-haired youths wearing silver shirts and knee-length trousers. The youths were teasing something that snarled back at them. Keeping to the shadows, Celeste moved around the yard until she could see what it was, whereon her expression turned grim.

`Make it roar, Dach,' cried the youngest boy.

Dach scraped his stick across the cage and poked at poor Snow's heaving chest, while the other boys taunted the snow leopard with mock growls.

Without caring that it was four against one, Celeste leapt out of the shadows and shoved Dach aside. `Leave him alone!'

The boys stared at her with identical silver grey eyes and then Dach pushed her back. `You're off the newest wreck, aren't you?'

`Yes. And the snow leopard is ours.'

`No he's not,' argued the smallest boy. `We caught him with our fishing nets. He is a High Enchanter's monster!'

`If that's true, I'd not be harming it,' warned Celeste.

`We are not afraid of the High Enchanter,' boasted Dach, leaning closer to her in a threatening manner.

`Is that so?' said Celeste, feeling behind her back for the cage's latch. `I heard that when the Raiders come to Whale Island, the villagers hide in the caves of the Merpeople.'

Dach's silver grey eyes narrowed angrily. `Only fools face the Raiders.'

Celeste lifted the cage's latch. `And only fools tease a snow leopard.'

`Are you calling me a fool?' he shouted, raising his stick to hit her.

`Yes,' Celeste said, and swung open the cage door.

Snow leapt and caught the boy's raised arm in his jaws. Dach's stick fell to the ground and the younger boys ran away, leaving the chief bully alone in the yard.

Dach kicked out at Snow. `Make it let me go!'

`Or what? You'll hit me with your stick?' jeered Celeste. `And stop kicking him, before he bites your arm off.'

Wishing she had Lem's gift of speaking to animals, Celeste placed her hand on the leopard's head. `Let him go, Snow.'

The snow leopard shook his head and Dach's arm with it, as he recognised her voice and gentle tone, if not her words, and opened his mouth.

Dach backed away and glared at them. `Only witches travel with night monsters. Wait until I tell everyone, they'll hunt you and your monster down.' Then, fearing that Snow might attack again, he sprinted for the gate.

 

Swift lay on the long grass staring up at the gold-rimmed moon. Since being caught by the singing women he'd spent the whole day carrying water and food to the villagers and the statue pullers. Now he was so tired he could hardly keep awake, but he knew he must. The villagers had returned to their homes, the sculptors to their cliff huts, and the statue pullers and the water boys were bedded down beside him on the west side of the crater. Soon they would be asleep and he could escape. If only he wasn't so tired. His eyes had just drooped shut when he felt something wet slide across his cheek.

It was Nutty's tongue. Swift stood up slowly so as not to alert the water boys, and followed the pup up the crater's side to where Lem and Chad were hiding. Lem pulled him down into the grass and then told Nutty to go and find Lyla and Celeste.

Swift wriggled in between his brother and Chad. `How did Nutty get here?'

`He swam ashore with Snow,' whispered Chad.

Swift's eyes lit up. `Snow's on the island? Where is he? Where's Lyla, Celeste and Splash?'

`Calm down. Someone will hear you,' warned Lem. `We think Splash is still on the boat and we don't know where Snow is now.'

Ten minutes later Nutty, followed by a familiar figure with flyaway black hair and someone else, who didn't look like Celeste, crept up the crater's side.

`Who's with you?' hissed Lem.

`Chii,' said Lyla.

`Chii who? And where's Celeste?'

Lyla bit her lip to control her irritation at Lem's bossy tone, and to give herself time to think of how to tell them about Celeste. `Let's move away so we won't be heard,' she whispered.

When they were far enough away to speak safely she told them about Celeste's disappearance, how she'd searched for her, and how she'd seen the women capturing them off the boat.

`So I came looking for you and found Chii. He thinks the Merpeople have Celeste and he can talk to them and help get her back. He also thinks something odd is happening under the ground.'

Four pairs of eyes turned to Chii.

`What do you mean, odd?' demanded Lem, who after being dragged off their boat and forced to haul a statue across a crater, wasn't too keen on Whale Islanders.

`The last time the Syrene Volcano vomited up stones and fire, the island's stomach rumbled first. Tonight, I heard it rumble again.'

`I haven't heard anything,' snapped Lem. But as he spoke they all felt the ground tremble.

`Like that!' whispered Chii. `You must leave the island now.'

`We can't go without my sister,' argued Chad.

`And our boat is wrecked,' added Swift.

Chii shook his silver head. `It is mended now and moored on the far side of the jetty. Only…'

`Only what?' demanded Lem.

Chii's silver eyes grew large with fear. `The island is safe during the day while the statues are awake, but at night when they sleep, night monsters roam the hills. This is why we never leave our homes, or the crater, after dark.'

`Sleeping statues and night monsters? You must be joking,' scoffed Lem.

Lyla jabbed him in the ribs, then asked Chii what a night monster looked like.

`I have never seen one. I have only heard their screeches and the flapping of their wings, and the noise they make when they land on our houses and make the roofs collapse.'

`Sounds real to me,' she told the others.

`Well I'm not afraid of night monsters,' argued Chad. `I just want to find Celeste.'

`We all do,' said Lyla. `So if we hear any night monsters coming, we'll hide.'

Chii looked even more scared. `There is nowhere to hide.'

The hills between the crater and the village were not difficult to climb, except for the need to avoid stepping on sleeping rainbow parrots in their nests hidden in the grass. But Chii was right, there was nowhere to hide; so when Chad, who was in the lead, dropped to the ground, the others dropped too.

Coming towards them, silhouetted black against a lilac-coloured sky slunk a six-legged creature with a low-slung body, two arms and two heads.

`Night monster,' breathed Chii.

As the monster climbed the hill towards them, they all held their breath until... Lyla began to giggle.

`It's Snow and Celeste!'

Chad was first to his feet followed by Swift and Lem. Lyla hung back and waited for Chii, using him as her excuse not to rush down the hill and throw her arms around her cousin. She was so relieved to see her, but also felt guilty about leaving her in the sea; about abandoning her, the way she knew Celeste would never abandon anyone.

Chad was still hanging off Celeste and Swift was hugging a patient Snow, while Lem asked the snow leopard what had happened, when Lyla and Chii reached them.

`Lyla!' Celeste threw her arms around her taller cousin's neck.

Lyla burst into tears. `What happened to your hair?' she wailed.

Celeste ran her hand over her short spiky hair. `It's okay. I had to swap three-years' growth to get your mother's talisman.' She took the merwoman's pearl and chain off and put it around Lyla's neck.

On their way back to the village, Celeste told them about Sekcap the king of the octopi, Prince Torenshone of the Merpeople, the merwoman, and the serpents that guarded her. She ended her story with how Queen Hail had told her that she thought about Lyla, Lem, Swift and their father every day.

`Does our mother really have barnacles on her eyes?' whispered Lyla, while trying to imagine how horrible such a thing would feel. `Do they hurt her?'

`She didn't say so,' whispered Celeste.

Lem bit his lip and wished he could remember something, anything at all, about his mother. `Do the serpents hurt her the way the Enkidu hurt Prince Atric?'

Celeste shook her head. `They can't get through the bars to reach her.'

`But she remembers us?' said Swift. `She remembers what we look like?'

`Definitely!'

`I think I remember her.'

Lem was about to say that was impossible, that Swift had been way too young, when Lyla nudged him hard in the ribs and he bit back his words.

`She was very beautiful,' Swift added.

 

The re-stealing of Bengg's boat was easy. All they had to do was creep through the sleeping village, climb aboard, untie the mooring rope, trim their new sail and turn the boat's freshly-painted prow towards the headland.

Chii retrieved the casket for them, because no one else wanted to go into the lagoon for fear of the octopi. He also presented Lyla with his whale-tooth necklace, said farewell and swam back to the beach.

It was only then that Lem voiced his fears.`Something bad is going to happen.'

`Why do you always worry when things are going well?' Celeste demanded. After finding Splash under the boat's middle bench, she was feeling happier than she'd felt for days.

`Because things aren't going well! The sky is purple. The island is shaking and the sea is too calm. I think the High Enchanter knows we have the second talisman.'

Lyla took the tiller from a sleepy Swift. `Lem's right. The High Enchanter sent an avalanche to sink us after Lem cut out the dragon's scale. And Chii said the Whale Islanders never leave their home at night, yet I can hear the women singing.'

`So can I,' yawned Swift.

Chad pointed to the cliffs. `And I can see them.'

As they watched, more and more Whale Islanders appeared on the headland. Then, as the island began to rumble and groan and tear itself apart, the Islanders dived or jumped into the sea to save themselves.

A cloud of burning coals and ash showered Bengg's boat, pumice and dead parrots rained into the sea, and streams of lava poured over the headland spilling into the water.

`Trim the sails. Volcanic eruptions cause tidal waves!' Lem commanded.

But, instead of being engulfed in a giant wave, the heat from the lava and steam sucked up the sea and began dragging their boat back to the island.

`Tack against the wind,' yelled Lyla.

Lem forced the tiller to the right but the boat continued to slide sideways towards the now completely-exposed reef.

`We're going to smash up on the coral,' wailed Swift.