Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun (20 page)

“Him, not it,” I said automatically — surprising myself with a feeling of affection as I thought about the narwhal.

“Him, then,” Aaron corrected himself. He thought for a moment. “And what about the rest of it? The things that Njord told you, and what the guard said, too? If that’s all true, we’re no nearer to figuring out what’s going on here than we were before.”

“I know. I mean, if Njord’s telling the truth, and it was Neptune who turned him to ice, the
last
thing Neptune’s going to want is for Njord to be brought back to life!”

“And we still don’t know why Neptune has no memory of any of it,” Aaron said.

We fell silent. Neither of us had any answers to the hundreds of questions floating around.

“There you are!” Millie’s voice boomed across the lounge. She marched toward us, Mr. Beeston following behind her. “We’ve been looking for you all day.”

“Well, not exactly all day,” Mr. Beeston corrected her. “Remember, I did tell you that Emily and Aaron had been invited to play with a friend’s family today.”

Millie smiled. “Yes, of course, how silly of me to forget,” she said, pointedly folding her arms. “Now, just remind me, what was the friend’s name again?”

I froze for a second. Then quickly blurted, “Sharon!”

At the exact same moment, Aaron said, “Andrew!”

And just to top it off, Mr. Beeston announced, “Lorraine.”

Millie tightened her folded arms and frowned as she looked around at the three of us. “Just as I thought,” she said. “You’re
all
lying. So, which one of you would like to begin the explanations?”

I looked at Mr. Beeston, and then at Aaron. They both looked back at me, their faces saying the same thing that I was thinking:
how the heck do we get out of this?

And then I decided how we’d get out of it. We’d tell the truth. It wasn’t as if we had a lot to lose.

“Millie, I think you should sit down,” I said, pulling out a couple of chairs for her and Mr. Beeston. “I’m going to tell you everything.”

“You’re serious?” Millie stared at me.

“Deadly serious,” I said.

She looked at the others. “And you both knew about it?”

Aaron and Mr. Beeston both nodded sheepishly.

She sucked on her teeth. “I don’t know what to say. I feel like such a fool for being taken in like this. I bet you’ve had a big laugh behind my back, haven’t you?”

“Millie, do we look like we’re laughing?” I asked. “We were given a task by Neptune, and we were told not to tell a single soul. Even Mr. Beeston didn’t know half of what we’ve just told you.”

“It’s true,” Mr. Beeston said. “I was told I was to chaperone them; it’s only now that I have been told the full extent of their mission.”

Millie stared at me for ages. Eventually, her face softened. “All right,” she said. “I understand. You poor things, carrying such a huge responsibility on your young shoulders.” Then she pushed her chair back and stood up.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

“I’m going to call Archie,” she said. “He’ll know what we should do.”

Aaron and I exchanged a quick look. Should we say something? Aaron gave me a quick nod.

“I don’t think you should call Archie,” I said.

“Why ever not?”

“We don’t think he can be trusted,” Aaron said.

I held my breath while Millie stared, openmouthed, at Aaron.

“What in the name of the goddess makes you thin —”

“He was sneaking around on your boat,” I said.

“And remember how he reacted when he heard about our trip?” Aaron added.

Millie glared at us both. “Is that it?” she said. “Two tiny misunderstandings and you want to write him off?”

She had a point. It didn’t really sound like much to go on.

So why was I so sure we were right?

Aaron was chewing his lip. “There’s something else,” he said. A line of blotchy red had spread up both of his cheeks. “I don’t know what you’ll think when I tell you. You might turn against me as much as Emily did when I told her. But I’ve been thinking about it the whole time we’ve been here, and there’s something about it that’s not right.”

He glanced at me, raising his eyebrows as if to ask my permission. I nodded.

“He told me to kiss Emily,” Aaron said in a quiet voice, looking down at the table.

“What has that got to do with —”

“It was when we kissed that we got our powers back,” I added, only now realizing the full extent of what had happened. Maybe it hadn’t just been about a bet.

“I don’t know why he wanted it to happen,” Aaron went on. “But he was really insistent that I should do it. I can’t help thinking that as Neptune’s closest adviser, he must surely have known that this would give us some power over Neptune. I can’t figure out why he would have wanted that — but something about it doesn’t feel right.”

“Millie,” I said softly. “I really don’t think we can trust him.”

Millie was quiet for a long time. Finally, she nodded slowly, as if making a deal with herself. “I’m sorry, but I think you’re mistaken,” she said. “I know Archie. He is the most decent, loving, kind, generous soul I know. I mean, look what he did for
me
— he managed to get me a place on this cruise!”

“But maybe even that is part of it,” I said. “He gave you a shell phone so you could keep in touch with him. Maybe the reason you’re here is to spy on us!”

“Nonsense!” Millie snapped. “No, I’ve had enough of this. You’re wrong. I’m sure of it, and I won’t listen to any more of your silliness. Archie is totally trustworthy, and I’m going to call him now.”

With that, she flung her scarf over her shoulder and flounced out of the lounge. No one spoke for a few minutes.

Finally, Mr. Beeston tried a smile. “Well, that could have gone a lot worse,” he said feebly.

“Could it?” I asked. “Really?”

In reply, he turned away and stared blankly out of the window. Aaron and I stared with him. Right then, it felt about the most useful thing we could do.

The next morning, it wasn’t only the scenery that was frosty.

“Could you pass the salt, if you don’t mind?” Millie asked with the coolness of an ice queen.

“Millie, please don’t be like —”

“And the pepper, please.” She sliced into her bacon with such ferocity I wondered if she was imagining it to be one of us.

Mr. Beeston put down his knife and fork. “I suggest we all put yesterday behind us and try to be civil,” he said.

“Sounds good to me,” I agreed.

“Me too,” Aaron added.

We waited for Millie to finish chewing. Finally, she wiped her mouth with her napkin, pursed her lips — and then, eventually, threw her hands in the air. “Oh, all right, then,” she said, with exasperation. “You know I’ve never been one to cause drama.”

Mr. Beeston smiled. “Good. That’s that sorted out.”

We ate in silence for a few minutes. I tried to think of something to say, but, to be honest, what with everything that was swimming around in my brain, I didn’t have it in me to think up small talk.

“Anyone have any good dreams last night?” Aaron asked brightly.

I smiled gratefully at him.

Millie took a sip of her tea. “Well, it’s funny you should ask,” she said. “Even by my own standards, my dreams have been rather interesting since we left on vacation. I mean, on . . . whatever this is.”

Ignoring her dig about the trip, I tried to show interest, for the sake of keeping her happy. “Tell us,” I said, bracing myself for a lengthy, in-depth report of some crazy dream.

She shrugged. “Nothing much to tell,” she said sniffily.

“Please, Millie. Tell us about your dream,” Mr. Beeston said gently.

She let out a loud, dramatic sigh. “Oh, very well, then. If you insist.” Her eyes went all glassy and dreamy. “It was a place, more than anything. Not a lot happened — but I had such a strong sense of the place.”

“What kind of place?” Aaron asked.

Millie looked out of the window. “Icy cold, with snowcapped mountains, and in the middle of the mountains was a lake.”

I felt a sheet of ice go through me. A lake in the middle of mountains? Was Millie describing the place we’d been to? The lake of lost memories?

“You could see the reflections of all the mountains in the lake,” she went on. “It was very beautiful.”

“Sounds like a lovely dream,” Mr. Beeston said.

“It was. And the strange thing is, I’ve seen it before,” Millie said. “It’s a recurring dream that I’ve had about three or four times recently. But there was another thing this time — one of the mountains, the tallest of them all, which towered over the others . . .” Her voice trailed away.

“What about it?” Aaron asked.

“It . . .” Millie’s eyes had gone all misty and glassy. “It was crying,” she said.

Aaron burst out laughing. I think it might have been nerves, but either way, it didn’t help matters. “A crying mountain?” he said. “Oh, that’s great!”

He kept laughing for a few more moments, till he saw Millie’s face. I knew it was nervous laughter — and it did sound a bit hysterical — but either way, Millie wasn’t amused.

“I’m so glad you have decided to make fun of me,” she said. “That makes me feel
much
better about everything.”

“Millie, he’s not making fun of you,” I said. “He thought it was
supposed
to be funny, didn’t you, Aaron?”

Aaron gulped down some orange juice and nodded. “I’m sorry,” he said.

“Any more dreams?” Mr. Beeston asked brightly, trying hard to stop an all-out war.

“Well, yes, as it happens, I had another,” Millie said. “I wonder if you’ll find this one equally funny.”

“Go on,” Mr. Beeston said.

“I saw a threat from the sky,” she told us. She turned to me, and for the first time since she’d flounced off yesterday, she looked at me with the love and care I was used to getting from Millie. “It was coming for you,” she said.

I was glad I was sitting down, as my legs started shaking. The truth of it was, most of what Millie said turned out to be silly nonsense, but every now and then, she hit the nail on the head — as she had just done with her dream about the lake. I only hoped that she wasn’t right about
this
one.

“Well, anyway. As I say, I’m sure it’s just silly dreams,” Millie said quickly. Then she wiped her mouth and got up. “I’m off to the buffet. Anyone else for seconds?”

“No, thanks,” I said, getting up from the table. “I need some air.” I pushed my chair in and excused myself.

“I’ll come with you,” Aaron said.

We went up to the roof deck.

“What did you make of that, then?” Aaron asked as we leaned on the railings, looking out at the sea still crashing in massive white explosions against the pier at the far end of the harbor.

“The description of the mountains and lake was very close to the truth,” I said.

“I know. Coincidence?”

I shrugged. “I have no idea, but I think we really need to contact Neptune from Mr. Beeston’s shell phone — even if it means admitting what we’ve done with ours. There’s too much at stake.”

“I agree,” Aaron said. “Let’s call him now.” He turned to go.

“In a minute,” I said. I wanted another moment alone with Aaron before facing Neptune’s wrath.

We watched the spray of the swells and listened to the rumble from the sea farther out. I had my hands in my coat pockets, keeping them out of the cold. My fingers closed around my last remaining crystal. I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at it.

“What am I going to do with this?” I asked. “Do you think I should get rid of it, make sure it can’t come to any harm?”

“I don’t know, maybe we —”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence. Out of nowhere, an enormous bird came swooping toward us. It looked familiar. The eagle again!

“What the —” Aaron jumped backward, his hands over his head as the eagle brushed against his hair with the ends of its long wings.

It was heading straight for me.
A threat from the sky.

Stumbling backward, I tripped over a chair and lost my balance. As I landed awkwardly on my side, the crystal fell from my hand and rolled away from me.

Swooping so fast it was over in seconds, the eagle brushed down to the deck, picked up the crystal in its talons, and flew off.