The Dragon in the Sea (12 page)

“Venerable?” Daisy muttered to Jesse. “Is that good?”

“I hope so,” Jesse muttered back.

“Without further ado, let the coddling commence!” Fluke shouted. Fluke swam over to hover next to Yar, who stood, fins planted in the sand on
one side of the abalone shell while Emmy stood on the other. Jesse and Daisy settled in next to Yar.

A long line of blue crabs ran their claws across fish line stretched taut over clamshells.

“Sounds sort of like the Peking Opera,” Jesse said to Daisy.

Daisy had never heard Chinese opera before but she liked this music. It sounded like Munchkins humming. As the music played, a procession of guests came before the shell and laid their gifts in the soft white sand before the guest of honor: the Thunder Egg.

Daisy clamped her hand around Jesse’s arm. “But, Jesse, this is terrible!”

“What’s terrible, Daise?” he asked.

“We don’t have a present!” she said.

“I’m sure our presence is all the present the little guy needs,” said Jesse. “Besides, we’ve brought the best present of all: Emmy!”

“That’s true,” said Daisy thoughtfully.

An ebony-skinned mermaid with long braids swam up carrying a basket overflowing with starfish.

“Starfish?” Jesse said. “Weird gift.”

“Ah, but watch and see, my boy,” said Yar.

The mermaid dumped the starfish out in the sand before the shell bassinet and the starfish leapt
up and formed themselves into a big ball. Then the ball collapsed and the starfish piled into an elaborate tower. The tower toppled and rematerialized into an elegant sailing ship.

“I get it!” said Jesse. “They’re kind of like rubbery, self-assembling LEGOs.”

“The baby will like it, don’t you think?” Yar said.

“I don’t know about the baby,” Jesse said, “but
I
sure do.”

A gray selkie with brown spots stepped up next and bowed low before the bassinet, then held up a large sea anemone. The anemone glowed like a blue pumpkin.

At the selkie’s invitation, Fluke peered down into the hole in the top of the anemone. “Oh, how lovely!” she said, then beckoned to Jesse and Daisy. The cousins swam over and looked down into the center of the anemone. Inside, blue and orange and golden lights rippled and danced.

“A fragment of the aurora borealis,” Fluke explained, “captured from far up north. It will make a soothing light for the babe.”

“A northern lights night-light! Wow!” Jesse said to Daisy. “This kid’s getting a lot of neat presents.”

Daisy nodded.

Jesse thought back to Emmy’s birth. Emmy hadn’t received a single present. All she had gotten
was a purple kneesock that doubled as a blanket and a scarf.

A small kelpie followed the selkie, holding what looked like a big clear plastic ball.

“It’s a beach ball, don’t you know?” said Yar, taking it from the kelpie and showing it to Jesse and Daisy.

“How nice,” Daisy said politely.

Yar shook the beach ball, and water sloshed and foamed inside. Suddenly, a lifelike picture formed inside the ball of waves crashing against a jagged coastline. “This would be Big Sur,” Yar said. “Go ahead, shake it and see what you get.” He handed the ball to Jesse.

Jesse shook the ball and the miniature Big Sur scene gave way to swaying palm trees on a white sandy beach and minute surfers riding a giant curl. “That’s the pipeline at Oahu,” he said. Then Jesse shook the ball again and saw high stone walls reflected in still green waters. “That’s either Norwegian fjords or the coast of Chile. Get it, Daise? It’s not a beach ball, it’s a
beach
ball: the ball shows you all different beaches and shorelines from around the world.”

“Cool,” said Daisy, taking the ball and shaking up more beaches.

As the presents kept coming, Jesse began to
think,
This baby hasn’t even been born yet and already it’s spoiled rotten
.

“I still feel bad we don’t have a baby shower gift,” said Daisy. She placed the beach ball with the rest of the presents.

“I kind of think it already has enough stuff,” said Jesse. “Hey, wait! I have a great idea. Let’s sing it a song. We’ll sing it ‘The Sail Song.’ ”

“Brilliant!” said Daisy.

And so, when Jesse and Daisy saw a gap in the parade of gift-givers, they swam up before the abalone shell and, on the count of three, started singing “The Sail Song.” Yar, catching on quickly, joined in. Soon, others were singing along, too. And when the song was over, the water fizzed and bubbled with cheering.

Jesse leaned into the abalone shell and gently pushed aside the seaweed quilt someone had just brought. He wanted to see if the egg was vibrating to show its appreciation of their gift.

But the egg wasn’t vibrating. The egg, in fact, wasn’t an egg at all. It was a soggy softball, the same one that had been swiped from Jesse’s bunk-side table in the middle of the night. Jesse felt himself heat up with anger.

“What’s wrong, Jess?” Daisy asked.

“The egg is gone!” he said in a choked whisper.

“What’s that you say?” said Yar in a loud voice. “The egg is gone, you say?” He swam up to the shell and picked up the softball, crushing it in his fins. He held it on high, his arm trembling. “THE EGG IS GONE!” Yar’s booming voice rang out and was immediately followed by a hundred echoes of “The egg is gone!”

What came next was what could only be described as underwater pandemonium. Mermothers clutched their babies to their breasts, selkies howled and kelpies whinnied, and everyone milled about, churning up the sand and clouding the waters.

Yar cleared his throat loudly and shouted over the din, “No one is to exit this portal without undergoing a thorough search from head to fins, from claw to swimmeret! Everyone, line up and present yourselves to the bull sharks at the door!”

The other shark shivers joined together to form a ring around the guests.

Through all the chaos, Emmy hovered over the abalone shell, staring down into it. “It’s no use, Yar!” she called out at length.

“You too, miss!” said Yar. “There can be no exceptions to the rule.”

“I mean
it’s too late
,” Emmy explained. “The eagle has left the barn.”

“The saying is either the horse has left the barn or the eagle has landed,” Jesse said.

“What I’m trying to tell all of you is that it’s TOO LATE! The slippery scoundrels have already made off with the egg!” Emmy said.

“What slippery scoundrels?” Daisy asked.

“I thought there was something a little fishy about those two,” Emmy went on.

“What two?” said Jesse.

“The two mermen who brought the baby quilt. But I was too impressed by their jeweled masks and their gold mesh capes to act on my hunch,” Emmy said, wagging her head. “And now look at it.” She pointed into the shell. Where the brightly colored quilt had lain there was now a tattered rag and a puddle of goop that looked like an oil spill.

“You mean those two mermen in jeweled masks and golden cloaks who brought it …?” Fluke asked.

Yar swam up and inspected the mess. “Dash it all! Red Eyes! Those masks and cloaks concealed their red-rimmed eyes and their sickly green pallor from us,” he said with a sorry shake of his head. “I should have known!”

“After all this time, you’d think we’d be wise to their tricks,” said Fluke. She called out to the sharks, “Release the guests!” Then she turned to
Emmy and the Keepers. “Shall we go and discuss a game plan?”

The five of them shucked off their jewelry and slipped into the stream of guests exiting the mollycoddle.

Jesse and Daisy swam on either side of Emmy. They both tried to gauge Emmy’s state of mind, but her green eyes were unreadable. When they arrived up on deck, they hovered around the table. Fluke’s noble head drooped so low her nose grazed the surface of the table.

“Buck up, Cap’n,” said Yar. “No need for self-recrimination. I’ll grant you, this is a most unfortunate turn of events, but it could have happened on anyone’s watch.”

“But it happened on
mine
, Chief,” said Fluke despondently. “I’ll go down in the books as the captain on whose watch the dragon egg was lost.”

Yar nodded sagely. “I fear we made the mistake of counting our dragon before it hatched, as it were. And now it looks as if Maldew has scored the ultimate win.”

“This is Maldew’s doing?” Jesse asked.

“Oh, yes. It’s most definitely the Mermage’s point,” said Fluke.

“You keep talking like this is some kind of a game,” Jesse said.

“Ra
ther
,” Yar agreed. “And a thumping good one it has been, too, kicked off by our ancestors that fateful day when they first came upon the egg lying on that sandbar in aught-nine. Since then, the egg has been passed back and forth between our teams, what? Hundreds of times, it must be. But it appears that, given the imminent advent of the dragon’s hatching, the ultimate victory is to fall to Maldew. Double drat!”

Emmy, who had been listening to this exchange in moody silence, spoke up in a low, determined voice. “Jesse Tiger’s right. This is
not
a game!”

Fluke and Yar stared at her in perplexity. “It’s not?” they chimed.

“This is my own dragon flesh and blood we’re talking about here. Not a soccer ball or a football or a hockey puck. And it’s a fact that if that dragon hatches in the possession of the Mermage, he or she will be bound to serve the Mermage for all of its days.”

“Grim business, what?” said Yar, tugging at his whiskers anxiously.

“How do you know that?” Jesse asked Emmy.

“Because my mother told me that’s the way it works,” said Emmy. “I hatched in your possession and I serve you, don’t I?”

Jesse and Daisy swapped skeptical looks. Daisy
said, “We kind of thought it was the other way around, Em: that we served you.”

“I scratch your head. You scratch mine,” Emmy said.

“I think it’s back,” said Jesse.

“Head, back, butt, what difference does it make? If my baby sib winds up serving the Mermage, the Mermage’s power will be magnified to the nth power.”

“What’s the nth power?” Jesse asked.

“About a bazillion times,” Emmy said. “Dragons are only as good as the master they serve. Maldew is bad, so he will use this dragon to make himself even more powerful and more evil. Not only will he rule the Eighth Sea, but he’ll take over the other seven as well.

“And as Scuppers the Sage, the wisest selkie who ever swam the Eight, once said, ‘Whosoever rules the Eight Seas, rules all four realms.’ ”

“
That
would be very bad,” said Jesse.

“So where do we find Mildew?” Emmy asked.

“That’s
Maldew
, old girl,” said Yar.

“Mildew, Maldew, moldy old honeydew,” said Emmy. “Where does this Mermage hang out?”

“Why, in the Coral Jungle, of course,” said Fluke.

The cousins and Emmy looked at one another.

“I knew that, sooner or later, we’d have to go back to that malankey place,” said Daisy, heaving a heavy sigh.

“Well, then, what are we waiting for?” Emmy said. “The ball—I mean, the egg—is in play until the dragon hatches, and I, for one, intend to play until the last. If this is a game, it’s a game we’re playing for keeps, a game we are going to win. The best defense is a strong offense, I always say. So what do you say, Team Emerald?” Emmy held out her right arm.

Jesse and Daisy piled their hands on top of her giant claw. “We’re in,” said Daisy.

“Big-time,” said Jesse. “Coral Jungle or bust.”

Fluke sputtered, “B-but you can’t just swim in there. As far as we know, no one who’s ever gone in there has ever come out as anything but a Red Eyes.”

“We’ll go in,” Emmy said firmly, “and we’ll come out just fine.”

“I have no doubt you’ll fit right in as a dragon fish,” said Fluke. “But what about Jesse and Daisy? They’re White Eyes.”

Jesse and Daisy turned to Emmy.

Emmy said, “Yes, but they’ll look like Red Eyes after I’ve rubbed them down with dragon ichor.”

“What’s that?” Jesse asked.

“Isn’t that the slimy vegetable they put in gumbo?” Daisy said.

“I think that’s okra,” said Jesse.

“
Ichor
is a magical substance I secrete through the ends of my talons,” Emmy said. “It has many uses.”

Jesse looked at Daisy and shrugged. They had known Emmy her whole life, but she was still full of surprises.

“Since when?” Jesse asked.

“Since the salt water drew it out,” Emmy said. “You got tails and gills. I got ichor. Come here, Keepers, and get your ichor.” As if she were extracting lotion from a tube, Emmy retracted her claws and then pushed them out again. Something that looked like bright green ink shot out the ends of her talons and covered her paws. Pulling in her talons again, Emmy rubbed Jesse’s and Daisy’s human halves. When she was finished, they glowed as green as the Incredible Hulk.

“Remarkable!” said Fluke.

“Uncanny,” said Yar.

“Except we don’t have red eyes,” Daisy pointed out.

“True,” said Emmy. “I could give you red-rimmed, bloodshot eyes but it might blind you for life.”

“That’s okay. We’re good,” said Jesse with an uneasy laugh.

“Maybe you could borrow some sunglasses from the big pile in the Lost and Found cabin?” Emmy suggested.

“Brilliant!” said Daisy.

“Jolly good thinking, that,” said Yar. She reached out for a passing eel and brought Star forth with a loud
zzzzt
.

Yar and Fluke explained the plan to her. She bustled off belowdecks and returned with some white-framed Foster Grants for Jesse and a snazzy pair with blue rhinestone frames for Daisy. Star had chosen a pair of glamorous black wraparounds for herself.

“Why the dark glasses, Star, old gal?” Yar asked.

Star pulled herself up boldly. “Because I’m going with them. Request permission to leave the ship.”

C
HAPTER
N
INE
A STAR TO GUIDE THEM