Emily Windsnap and the Land of the Midnight Sun (25 page)

What was
that
?

The inside of my drawer was glowing. It looked like a light flowing through a kaleidoscope. White smoke, swirling and curling, filling the whole drawer with a flickering, dancing light. It seemed to be coming from something at the back of the drawer. I reached inside and felt around. My fingers closed around something hard: a crystal. I vaguely remembered putting it in my drawer last night, but I had no idea where I’d gotten it from.

As I held it in my palm, I got a really weird feeling. I couldn’t put my finger on it — what was it? It felt like sadness, but there was more than that, too. A strong feeling of — of what? I know it sounds stupid, but it felt like family — like someone I loved was saying my name. I turned the crystal over and over in my hand.

The longer I held it, the more it pulled at me.

Follow me.

I spun around. Where had that voice come from?

I looked back at my outstretched palm. I knew I was probably going crazy for even thinking it, but the voice seemed to have come from the crystal! “Was that you?” I whispered, feeling a tiny bit stupid and glad that there was no one around to hear me talking to my hand!

Follow me.
It sounded like an echo.

I closed my cabin door behind me, and, clutching the crystal tightly inside my pocket, I went to find Aaron and Shona.

I found Aaron in the lounge, playing cards with Mr. Beeston and Millie.

“Come with me,” I whispered in his ear.

Mr. Beeston waved his hands. “It’s fine. You kids go and play,” he said with a smile.

“What is it?” Aaron asked as he followed me down the corridor and off the boat.

“Just come,” I said.

We sneaked back into the sea and swam around to the little bay where Shona was staying.

Once we were all together and definitely out of sight of the ship, I showed them the crystal. It glowed and sparkled in my hand, exploding with light like a firework. The lights seemed to form an arrow, pointing out toward the open sea.

“Wow!” Aaron said. “It looks like it’s drawing a path in the sea.”

“I know. Let’s follow it and see where it takes us!” I suggested.

“Swishy!” Shona said, grinning. “An adventure!”

We set off together, me in front, holding the crystal out in my hand and letting it draw its bright lines in the water. We followed as it glowed and shone, leading us through the blue, blue fjord, across the open sea, and toward a beautiful range of snowcapped mountains.

This was going to be a fun day!

The crystal brought us closer to the mountains and took us down dark tunnels that twisted and snaked, deeper and deeper with every swish of our tails. It felt as if we were swimming right through the middle of a mountain!

“This is spooky,” Shona said.

“Yeah, but fun,” Aaron added.

We kept on swimming through the darkness, the only light coming from the crystal — leading us on. Finally, we came back out into the light.

“Wow! How beautiful is this?” Shona gasped.

Our tunnel had become a river, winding into a shimmering, sparkling lake surrounded by a circle of mountains. Everything was totally still. The sun’s rays filtered down through the surface of the lake, spreading out like a fan under the water.

“What are
they
?” Shona asked, pointing ahead of us.

“They look like bubbles,” Aaron said.

Bubbles?
Bubbles inside a lake? There was something familiar about this, but I couldn’t think what. I couldn’t have been here before or I would’ve remembered. Maybe I’d dreamed about it.

“Let’s check them out,” Aaron suggested.

He and I approached one of the bubbles. Instinctively, Aaron reached out for my hand, and I took it. With my other hand, I reached out to touch the bubble. It felt weird.

“It’s like jelly!” I said.

Aaron reached out and touched the bubble. As he did, it melted away and disappeared; in its place was an image. It was Aaron and Archie! They were talking. I felt as if I were watching them on an old movie screen. I leaned in closer to hear what they were saying.

“Go on, I dare you. You know you want to,” Archie was saying.

“Stop it,” Aaron replied. “Leave me alone.”

Archie grinned and nudged Aaron in the ribs. “I bet you ten bucks you’re too chicken.”

“I’m not chicken at all.”

“Then do it. Kiss her tonight! Ten dollars says you won’t do it.”

Aaron’s face was bright red as he met Archie’s eyes. With anger or embarrassment? I couldn’t tell. “I was planning to kiss her, anyway,” he said. “And it’s not because of you or your bet. It’s because I
want
to. You can keep your money. I don’t want it. All I want is for Emily to be my girlfriend.”

The image faded.

I looked at Aaron. I suddenly remembered a huge argument. How could I have forgotten?

He was looking back at me with shock in his eyes. “Emily, I-I’d completely forgotten about this,” he said. “How
could
I have forgotten? We fought about it, didn’t we? But, Em, I didn’t kiss you for a bet, I promise. I —”

“Shh,” I said. “It’s OK, I believe you. I know you would never have done something like that for a bet. And anyway, the argument was partly my fault, too.”

“How do you figure that?”

“I was only angry because of how much I care about you,” I told him. “I just couldn’t bear it if you didn’t feel the same way.”

Aaron smiled and squeezed my hand a little tighter. “Of
course
I feel the same way,” he said. “I would
never
kiss you for a bet. I would only ever do it because I wanted to.” He swam closer still. “In fact, I’ve thought quite a lot about whether I might get the chance to do it again.”

He leaned toward me. His face was so close we were almost touching. I closed my eyes. This was it. At last, he was going to kiss me again. The moment I’d been looking forward to for days was finally —

“Emily! Aaron!”

I broke away from our near-kiss and turned to see what was going on. Shona was hovering in front of a bubble and beckoning us over. We swam across to join her.

“I saw something inside the bubble!” she said. “It was really hazy, but it looked like me! I’m sure it was! It disappeared as soon as I’d seen it. Now it’s just a misty, mushy bubble.”

“Take my hand,” Aaron said. We joined hands and the three of us surrounded the bubble. Shona placed her palms against it. Gradually, the mist vanished and an image came to life in front of us. Shona was right — it was her! She was talking to someone, a merman. I didn’t recognize him. He looked a bit older than us, quite tall, very thin, with deep-blue eyes, white-blond hair, and a shiny green tail.

“Follow the tunnel,” the merman was saying to her. “It’ll lead you out.”

“What about you? Will you be OK?” Shona asked.

The merman smiled. “I’ll be fine.” He touched her arm and Shona blushed and flicked back her hair.

She started to swim away, stopping for a second to look back at him. He was still watching her. They smiled at each other again before Shona turned and swam away.

The image faded, just as the one of Aaron and Archie had done.

Shona’s cheeks were pink.

“Who was
that
?” I asked.

“I have no idea! Surely he wasn’t real? I can’t believe I would’ve forgotten him!”

She looked around at all the bubbles. “What
is
this place?” she whispered.

I still didn’t know for sure, but I was beginning to remember. We’d been here before.

I reached for the crystal and watched as the colors flowed around it. The shimmering light was whiter than before — and stronger,
fiercer.
I could almost feel it humming in my hand.

Follow me.

“Come on,” I said. “It’s telling us to keep going.”

Holding the crystal out in front of me, I led the way. We swam down toward the very bottom of the lake, brushing the sand with our tails as we followed the crystal, lower and lower, deeper and deeper. It felt as if we were swimming toward a secret place, way below anywhere that anyone had ever been before.

As we swam, we passed more bubbles in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Then, suddenly, the crystal stopped humming. The light calmed to a soft-white glow. We couldn’t swim any farther; a bubble was in our way.

We approached it and placed our hands on it. Immediately, the bubble fizzled away to reveal a Technicolor scene. It was me — with some sort of sea creature.

“The narwhal,” I breathed.

Aaron turned to me. “The what?”

“I-I don’t know where that came from,” I said. I didn’t know where the lump in my throat came from either, or the tears that were suddenly threatening to burst out of my eyes.

We waited for the scene to unfold, like the others had done, but nothing happened. Nothing much, anyway. There was just me and the sea creature. I had my arms around its neck. We were both crying.

And then, I don’t know why I did it, but something made me let go of Aaron’s hand and swim toward the scene, into the image itself. Still holding on to the crystal, I swam toward myself.

I held the crystal out in front of me. One of the sea creature’s tears fell on it. So did one of mine. As they mingled together, the crystal burst into light in my hand. It was as if someone had poured gasoline onto it and set it ablaze.

The three of us watched as the lights exploded like a box of fireworks.

“I remember,” Aaron whispered when the lights finally calmed.

Shona looked at me, an expression of horror and recognition on her face. “Neptune,” she said.

“He’s in trouble,” I added. “Or he was. Is he safe now?”

All three of us were suddenly armed with fresh memories — but I still didn’t know what we should do with them. Luckily, it seemed as if the crystal did. It was glowing and bouncing in the water, spreading light ahead of us and straining to get away. It was like a dog on its leash, begging us to hurry.

Follow me.

The crystal led us to the tiniest crack in a rock, way down at the lowest point of the lake. We’d never have seen it on our own. It was only because of the crystal’s light that we spotted it.

“Will we fit through there?” Aaron asked.

“Only one way to find out,” I said as I slipped inside the crack and slithered along, into the darkness.

“Where on earth are we?” Shona breathed. The crystal had led us to a clearing full of shining, glistening bubbles. They were different from the others. They didn’t bounce and float. They just hovered, gently humming in tune with the crystal’s own vibrations.

You have found my own memories. I left them for you in my tears. I hope they help.

The voice seemed to be coming from the crystal. It was a voice I’d heard before.

“It’s the narwhal’s memories!” I said.

Aaron held out his hand. “Ready?”

I nodded. We chose the biggest bubble of them all. It was bigger than any of us. As I held Aaron’s hand, all three of us placed a palm on the bubble. Within moments, the shiny surface dissolved against our skin.

I held my breath, gripped tightly on to Aaron’s hand, and waited nervously to see what kind of scene was about to unfold.