Voyage of the Owl (18 page)

But they had failed in what they had set out to achieve. Now it looked as though the Moon Pearl and the Star Diamonds had sunk to the bottom of the sea with the wreck of the
Sea Dragon
.

The prophecy Saira had revealed to them came back into his mind.

With a loud click, Ethan’s mind changed gears, and a thought came to him that seemed so obvious, he wondered why they all hadn’t already thought of it.

He raced back into the brightly lit saloon, where the others were dispiritedly sitting around the table.

‘The moon and stars under sea lost their power,’ burst out Ethan.

‘What?’ asked Saxon in surprise.

‘The pearl and diamonds are under the sea,’ said Ethan patiently.

‘Yes,’ replied Roana, her forehead furrowed in confusion. ‘Probably still somewhere hidden in the captain’s cabin.’

‘Well, the verse Saira gave us says we have to seek them under the sea,’ Ethan explained. ‘We were always supposed to look for them under the sea, so there must be some way of getting down to the wreck of the
Sea Dragon
and finding them.’

A look of understanding crossed everyone’s pinched faces.

‘We could ask our friend Serena, the Merrow maid,’ Lily suggested. ‘She might be able to help us. Ethan could call her on his pipe again.’

The four friends went up on deck, a new spring in their steps, with Aisha at their heels.

Ethan sat on the back of the boat and softly started to play his Merrow pipes. He played a merry, happy tune of thanksgiving. The tune wandered out into the night, mingling with the distant crash of surf and echoing from the high cliffs.

Lily, Saxon and Roana leant against the rails, their eyes heavy with tiredness. Lily gently rubbed the large Merrow pearl around her neck, thinking about the exquisite Merrow maid who had befriended them. The music washed and flowed over them, bringing a sense of wellbeing.

The music played on and on. After about half an hour, Ethan trailed off.

There was a gentle splash from the water
below. Everyone peered over the side to see a dark shadow.

The Merrow maid spoke in her soft, musical tongue. Lily felt her Merrow pearl at her throat and once more she found the words taking shape in her mind.

‘Ethan, brother of Lily, you play the Merrow pipe with great skill,’ Serena said.

‘Serena of the sea, we wish to thank you with all our hearts for saving our lives,’ murmured Lily in reply.

‘It was my honour and pleasure,’ Serena replied. ‘I promised Ethan, son of the earth, that I would come if you needed my help. Do you need my help once more?’

‘Yes,’ agreed Lily. ‘We seek the Moon Pearl and Star Diamonds, which were stolen by the Sedah from the sacred Sun Sword. We believe that they are still on board the
Sea Dragon
. Somehow we need to get down to the wreck and look for them. We hoped you could help us.’

Serena nodded thoughtfully, stroking the soft head of her baby, Hagen.

‘Pearls are very powerful talismans,’ Serena said. ‘Pearls bring the wearer wisdom and power, and increase the force of the mind. The Sedahs also
believe that pearls bring wealth and longevity to the owner.

‘The Moon Pearl is particularly powerful. It was given to your people by my people as a sign of friendship hundreds of years ago. It does not belong to the Sedah.

‘The Star Diamonds are also very important. Diamonds bring good luck and true love to the wearer. They are the most prized of gems. Their power is useless under the sea. It is truly a valuable treasure which you seek.’

Lily nodded thoughtfully. ‘We seek it not for ourselves,’ she replied. ‘We seek the gems to restore them to the Sun Sword, and thereby help defeat the Sedah who have invaded our land. Please help us!’

‘We will go at dawn, before low tide,’ Serena decided. ‘I will come for you then.’

With a quiet
plish
, she was gone.

Down in the dungeons Lord Mortimer was burning up with a fever. His throat felt as if it had been slashed with a razor blade, and he had a hacking cough that shook his wasting frame. Willem had
tried to tend to him, but he had no herbs, no medical supplies, no blankets.

Since Queen Ashana had been moved to the cottage, the gentlemen had not been allowed up into the herb garden. Willem called once more to the guards, pleading with them for help.

‘Tell Captain Malish that Lord Mortimer may not make it through the night, unless he has medical attention,’ begged Willem. ‘My wife Marnie could tend to him. If anyone could save his life, it would be Marnie.’

Finally Lieutenant Foulash bestirred himself to share this latest development with Captain Malish. Captain Malish feared the wrath of Governor Lazlac if anything else went wrong, and Lord Mortimer had at one stage been integral to the Sedah’s invasion plan.

‘All right then, get the herb woman to tend to Mortma,’ barked Captain Malish irritably.

So Lord Mortimer was carried up out of the dungeons, groaning and thrashing, and settled in a proper bed in a small cell. Marnie was ordered to take her herbs and tinctures, and tend to him.

‘Captain Malish wants the miserable rat’s life saved for some reason,’ ordered Lieutenant Foulash.
‘So you had better save him, or it’s more than your life is worth.’

‘Well, you had better get someone to build a fire in here and bring me some fresh water,’ replied Marnie smartly, undaunted by these dire threats. She set about making Lord Mortimer comfortable, sponging him down with cool water and trickling a soothing warm honey tea down his throat.

Lord Mortimer sipped eagerly. ‘Not so dismissive of my foul goops now, are you, Lord Mortimer?’ murmured Marnie to herself. ‘Perhaps if you had partaken of my goops before, you would not be so ill now.’

Lord Mortimer groaned and coughed, feeling immensely sorry for himself. His feverish nightmares were filled with the face of his bride, Princess Roana, dressed all in white, with clouds of veil floating around her beautiful face. Princess Roana smiled sweetly and meekly at him. Her smile turned to laughter, to a sneer, then she was running away, dressed like a grubby village urchin, waving the Sun Sword victoriously above her head.

Lord Mortimer’s fever flared again, raging through his body.

‘Princess … Roana,’ murmured Lord Mortimer
deliriously. ‘Must … find brat … marry her … I’ll be king.’

Marnie stiffened by the fire, her mind whirring.

As the eastern horizon glimmered a soft rose-pink the next morning, the four friends gathered on the deck. Each one was armed with weapons – bows and arrows, daggers and dirks. Each one wore a warm cloak against the early morning chill.

Lily had her pack with medical supplies. Roana had made hot tea, which they sipped from their mugs. Saxon had packed a bag of supplies – dried fruit, bread and butter, boiled eggs and water. They had explained to Carl that they would be gone for a few hours, but would return as soon as possible.

Aisha hated the rowboat but she was not going to be left behind this time. Even Charcoal seemed prepared for the journey, carefully licking her white paws and grooming her whiskers.

‘You are not going to take Charcoal, are you, Lily?’ asked Ethan impatiently. ‘Why don’t you leave her here with Carl and Jack?’

‘Of course I’m taking her,’ Lily replied patiently. ‘We are all in this together.’

All six were safely in the rowboat with their gear stowed when Serena arrived, with baby Hagen and her long spear tipped with razor-sharp coral.

Lily and Ethan took first turn at rowing, following Serena’s wake. They were all quite adept with the oars now. The wreck of the
Sea Dragon
was about a half hour’s row away, on the next island.

There was still some flotsam from the wreck floating on the gentle sea. The water was clear and pale green. As the sun slowly rose they could see down to the sandy white seabed and the dark shadows of the shipwreck. Small bubbles of palest blue floated on the top of the water, gleaming like large sapphires.

Serena gestured for them to anchor the boat over the wreck. She fetched two large rocks from the island and dumped them in the bottom of the rowboat.

‘The tide is nearly at its lowest ebb,’ Serena explained to Lily. ‘The rocks will help you sink quickly. Two of you can dive down with me to the wreck, while the other two keep watch and guard the tubes.’

Serena pulled two long coiled tubes from the bag around her neck, while Lily quickly translated Serena’s instructions.

‘The Merrow people use these for extended dives,’ Serena explained. ‘Like humans, whales and dolphins, Merrow need to breathe the air above the sea. While we can hold our breath for many long minutes underwater, sometimes it is easier to breathe with a tube. Luckily the wreck is not very deep down, so you should manage it fairly easily with the tubes.’

Serena uncoiled one of the long, narrow tubes to demonstrate how it worked. The tubes seemed to be made of a narrow, hollow yellowy-orange sea plant. Roana and Saxon would stay up in the rowboat, on guard for Sedahs, and to ensure that the top of the tubes stayed above the water, sucking in air.

Lily and Ethan would swim down with the tubes to the wreck to search for the gems with Serena and Hagen. Lily and Ethan shivered in the cold morning air, as they dropped their warm cloaks and stripped down to their black silk shirts and underwear.

Both of them buckled on their belts, with their daggers carefully sheathed. Aisha whined nervously as she watched them preparing to dive.

‘Lastly, smear your bodies with this,’ Serena ordered, passing up a jar from her bag. The glass jar was filled with a clear, thick ointment that smelt of minerals and grease.

‘It will help to keep your bodies warmer and protect you from the bluebubbles,’ Serena explained. ‘Place it thickly around your neck and throat, and all over your body. If the bluebubbles sting you around your neck, you could stop breathing and die.’

Lily quickly translated.

The children all glanced at each other in trepidation, then stared out at the sea. There were more of the bluebubbles now, being pushed across the water towards them by the breeze. Now they could see that each one had a long blue tail, some two or three metres long, that rippled below them.

‘The long tails are the stingers,’ Serena continued. ‘The stingers wrap themselves around your body and burn like fire. The ointment forms a barrier so it won’t hurt quite as much. If one wraps around you, you will need to pull it off – but protect your fingertips with your shirt.’

Obediently, Ethan and Lily smeared the ointment thickly over their whole bodies, but especially on their faces and necks.

Roana sat pale and worried in the bow, tightly holding onto one end of the tubing.

Saxon fiddled with the oars, clearing away some of the bluebubbles around the boat, pretending to
be busy to take his mind off the danger Lily and Ethan faced. They had all been at sea long enough to know about sharks, Octomon, Barramon and deadly Sedah warships. But now there was another danger bobbing all around their flimsy rowboat.

Ethan grinned weakly at Lily, giving her a thumbs-up signal.

‘We are ready,’ Lily muttered to Serena in Merrow.

At a filthy inn called Davy Jones’ Locker, down near the port, Sniffer finally found the person he had been searching for – Stumpy, the former cook of the
Owl
, left ashore some weeks before after a drunken brawl.

Stumpy, who was missing a couple of fingers on his left hand, was sitting by himself at a deeply pitted table, sipping on a mug of rotgut and drawing pictures on the table with spilled liquor.