Crystal Doors #2: Ocean Realm (No. 2) (7 page)

Vic greeted them with elation. “See? No problem. Works like a charm.” Water gushed from the end of the sap-stalk at a satisfying rate. The hose squirmed in his hands, so he held it in place with a precariously balanced chunk of rock. When he had secured the tube, he let go and climbed back down the copper wall ladder to the floor. “Easy enough. How long do you think it’ll take?”

“Many hours,” Sharif concluded.

“Even so, we should remain close by,” Lyssandra said.

“Or we could go visit my dad, see if he’s all right,” Vic said anxiously. “What could possibly go wrong here? It’s just a water hose and a tank —”

As if in response to his words, the floor beneath their feet rumbled and trembled and the water in the tanks sloshed wildly. “Earthquake!” Gwen said at the same time Vic cried out, “Stand in the doorway!”

Before they could head for the safety of the door arch, the rough stone chunk weighing down the doolya hose tumbled to the floor. The sap-stem slipped out of the aquarium and, writhing like a snake, sprayed water every which way around the laboratory. The floor still shook from the quake, and now the stone tiles were slippery.

At his worktable, Rubicas did not look up from his scrolls.

Vic and Sharif dove for the wild hose, but both missed as it squirmed away from them. Vic landed on the floor and slid like a penguin on ice.

Gwen ran to salvage the scrolls beneath Rubicas’s desk, but she slipped and landed squarely on her rear end. Lyssandra too landed on the floor with a delicate yelp. Tiaret, proving her agility, darted back and forth in pursuit of the snaking water tube; though she did not catch it, neither did she land ignominiously on the floor as the others had.

As suddenly as it had started, the earthquake stopped. Water continued to spurt from the hose. Sharif got to his feet, wringing water from his dripping, billowy sleeves. “What was that shaking and rumbling?” Of course, a boy from a flying city would never have encountered seismic shocks.

“It was just an earthquake,” Gwen said a split second before the serpentine stream of water hit Sharif in the face, completely drenching him and Piri, who flickered alternately pink and orange, obviously vacillating between amusement and alarm.

Gwen and Vic and even Tiaret laughed. The friends ganged up on the rogue hose and, after a merry chase with a good deal more sliding and laughter, tackled it. Vic trapped part of the hose with his foot, and Tiaret grabbed the end. Sharif took the end of the tube, climbed quickly to the top of the aquariums, and fed the hose back into the partly filled reservoir, where he anchored it much more securely this time.

Gwen groaned and sat down on the wet floor with a plop. “It’s going to take forever to clean up this mess.” She nudged Lyssandra, who sat in silence beside her, then realized with concern that her friend had not moved since falling there. The ethereal girl sat stiff and still, her face as pale as milk. Her eyes did not blink. Was she in shock? “Hey, Lyssandra, it’s okay.” She put an arm around the girl’s shoulder, hoping to comfort her. “It was just a short earthquake.”

“No. I — I saw that in my dream. The whole island shaking. And in the next part, I kept seeing myself drowning, being pulled under the water, unable to breathe.”

Vic sloshed over to them, also concerned. “Well, this water’s not very deep, and you’re not going to drown here. The quake is over now, just a little one. Nothing like the temblors we had in California.”

Lyssandra’s voice was barely above a whisper. “But Elantya was formed by magic, anchored to the foundation of the world itself. We have never experienced this shaking of the ground. Never.”

Rubicas finally got down from his stool and joined the conversation. “She is correct. In the history of this island, an earthquake has never been recorded. It is somewhat disturbing.” As he talked, he climbed a ladder to reach some high shelves, rummaged briefly among the paraphernalia there, then retrieved the scroll he’d been looking for. Still high on the ladder, Rubicas opened the scroll, murmured a few words, and said “S’ibah.” Magically, a drain opened in the marble floor, and the water began to gurgle away. “Mmm. That should do nicely.”

LATE THAT AFTERNOON, WHEN Dr. Pierce was thoroughly rested, fed, cleaned, and bandaged, he came to join the companions down at the partially rebuilt Elantyan harbor, where his purple speedboat was tied up to a half-restored dock. The crew that had rescued him out in the middle of the ocean had taken care of the boat, which sparkled in the slanted sunlight.

Vic stood by his father, admiring the design of the speedboat. Gwen stepped down into it and took a seat. “This would have been fun to have back home,” she said.

“It starts to feel a little cramped after you’ve sat in it for several days in a row,” Dr. Pierce said.

Tiaret, Sharif, and Lyssandra marveled at the sparkling amethyst color, the sleek lines. “A beautiful vessel, Sage Pierce,” said old Rubicas, nodding to himself. He and Sage Polup in his mechanical body had walked together to the end of the half-pier.

“She may be pretty, but she’s not going anywhere,” Vic’s father said. “No fuel left, and I don’t think Elantya has any filling stations.”

The anemonite swimming in the water-filled tank that formed his “head” turned his ring of eyes, and words came out of the speakers. “There are other ways to propel a boat, Sage Pierce. Elantyan engineers and I might come up with some suggestions.” Sage Polup raised one of his heavy, artificial arms. “If they created this body, they can power a small boat.”

Vic climbed in beside Gwen and opened up the storage cases, revealing Uncle Cap’s flopping wetsuit, a full face mask, and air tanks for his scuba rig. “This could be useful,” Vic said. “I’ve always wanted to go diving.”

“It’s not as easy as it looks, Vic,” Dr. Pierce said. “There’s a lot to learn first, but I’ll teach you if you like.”

Rubicas scratched his beard. “Sage Pierce, I remain highly intrigued by how you managed to open a crystal door without training. Were you aware that you yourself must be a Key?”

“I never thought so and was never trained. I always figured that science could solve any problem that magic could. I certainly did a lot of trial and error.” He looked at Gwen and Vic. “Besides, I had a great deal of incentive. Since these kids made it through by accident, I was sure I could do it on purpose — if I just tried hard enough and got myself to the right place. I applied science to what little my wife had told me about the way your magic works.”

Polup turned his bulky body toward the Ven Sage. “I suspect that Sage Pierce could be of great assistance to us in our preparations against the merlons.”

Dr. Pierce looked down at the cousins. “I’m not sure I can match what these two have already done for you. But I’ll certainly do my best.”

“I look forward to hearing your ideas,” the Ven Sage said.

Lyssandra hung back, gazing at the water with a troubled expression.

Tiaret, watching Lyssandra, tapped her teaching staff on the dock and nodded to herself. “A good warrior also learns new skills when necessary.” She looked to her friends. “The time has come. I would like you to teach me to swim.”

7

UNLIKE THE NORTH END of Elantya, with its sheer cliffs and crashing waves, the cove on the lee side of the island was sheltered. Inside a protective breakwater wall of neatly stacked boulders, past which the sea bottom dropped off to much greater depths, the water was calm to the point of being glassy.

Vic and Gwen decided the isolated cove was the perfect spot for Tiaret to learn how to swim.

When the five apprentices walked to the empty beach, gray clouds began to gather, promising an afternoon thunderstorm, and the sea beyond the breakwater looked stirred and choppy. Lyssandra was uneasy to be in such a quiet and deserted area of Elantya. “What if it should rain?” Apparently she was still troubled by ominous dreams she couldn’t understand.

Vic chuckled. “Rain? If we’re swimming, it doesn’t matter how wet we get. As long as there’s no lightning.” He thought about the time his parents had taken him for a day at the beach in San Diego. It had rained briefly that morning, but the day had been perfect anyway. His father had read on the beach for most of the day, while Vic and his mother swam together. She loved the sea and seemed to shine with happiness when she was in the warm waves. She belonged in the water. Not only were the fish not afraid of her, they seemed drawn to his mother, letting her touch them as they swirled around her.

Gwen hurried down to the edge of the calm water, delighted. “Remember a few years ago when our parents took us to Disney World, and then afterwards we stayed on the Florida coast? The water in Tampa was so warm and calm we just floated and splashed around all day.”

Of course he remembered. The thoughts were bittersweet for Vic. Since the day she left, every minute he remembered spending with his mother seemed precious. He tried to divert his mind from the pain of not knowing where she was or if she was still alive. “Yup. I remember you got sunburned as red as ketchup, too,” Vic said, coming up beside her and dipping his foot into the water.

“Ketchup? Eww.” Gwen punched him in the shoulder. “Anyway, my point is, it was fun.” Together they walked back onto the dry sand.

“Point taken. I’d rather swim for pleasure than try to dodge merlons, clean up messes from battles, or worry about a ship sinking beneath me.” Vic removed his outer clothes and sandals, tightened the brevi he wore for swimming, and dashed down the sandy beach. Giving his medallion a tug to make sure its cord was secure, he said, “Come on! Last one in is a kraken egg.”

Gwen shed her tunic, so that she wore only her medallion on its leather thong, and a white brevi that consisted of a cropped tank and briefs. She raced him to the water.

Tiaret showed no trepidation. Dressed in her tight animal skins, the girl from Afirik thrust her teaching staff into the sand so that it stuck up next to Vic and Gwen’s clothes. With lithe movements, she bounded into the water.

Since he would not need it while swimming, Sharif had left his flying carpet rolled up and stashed beneath the sleeping pallet in his quarters. He stripped down to his loincloth while considering whether or not to leave Piri behind on the beach. The nymph djinni could survive perfectly well under water in her eggsphere, and she enjoyed teasing the fish by blinking in tempting colors to lure them closer. He put the mesh bag that held Piri back around his neck.

Lyssandra, wearing a short, snug-fitting chamois brevi that tied over one shoulder, pulled her long coppery hair back in a ponytail so the strands wouldn’t get in her eyes, and joined the others. She waded in up to her knees, then her waist, turning around to look at the empty beach.

Vic wanted to start by teaching Tiaret his favorite stroke, the butterfly, but Gwen argued that they should begin with floating and kicking. Vic splashed his cousin.

“Treading water is also a useful skill, especially for a beginner,” Lyssandra pointed out. Gwen surprised her with an impulsive splash.

Sharif, getting into the spirit of the occasion, said, “Perhaps we should work on holding your breath first.” While he was looking at Tiaret, Lyssandra’s hand skimmed the surface of the water, sending a spray into Sharif’s face.

“Teach me everything,” Tiaret said. “I will master the skills quickly.”

Since she sounded so serious, everyone responded by splashing her. Soon they were all laughing and shouting in a friendly water fight. Sharif took Piri out of her pouch so that she could join in the fun, and they all played catch with the twinkling pink eggsphere for quite a while before Sharif tucked her back into the mesh pouch around his neck.

Tiaret looked up at the darkening skies and grew serious again. “Although this is most entertaining, should we not begin my actual lessons?”

When it came to athletic endeavors, the girl from Afirik was a quick study. From Gwen, she learned floating and three types of kicks. Sharif added breathing techniques, and Lyssandra showed her how to tread water. Vic demonstrated several types of arm strokes. Trying the dog paddle first, Tiaret thrashed awkwardly halfway across the cove before pausing to tread water and wave at her friends.

The first shark fin pierced the calm water of the cove like a sacrificial dagger. The sharp, triangular fin cut through the water with barely a ripple. Vic cried out, “Shark!”

“Not funny, Taz,” Gwen said. “Anyway, we’re in a protected cove.”

A second shark fin surfaced closer to Gwen, out of her view. An intricate design was branded onto the side of the fin, some sort of magical symbol. Somehow the sharks had gotten inside the rocky breakwater barrier.

“Escape now, argue later,” Vic yelled.

Seeing the danger, Tiaret immediately thrashed toward the shallows.

Within a few moments six large aquatic predators circled the other four friends, who were too far from the beach. One shark streaked after Tiaret as she sloshed toward the beach where her teaching staff stood in the sand.

Gwen splashed furiously at the circling sharks, trying to get rid of them.

Sharif tried to break through the menacing circle. Two of the sharks shot toward him like underwater torpedoes, churning the water to a froth as they bumped him with their rounded snouts. Kicking out, he struck one, but as the shark spun away in pain, another one came to take its place.