Krakens and Lies (13 page)

Zoe rubbed her forehead. “What is up with her? She's always asleep by November.” She gave him a rueful smile. “Too bad you don't magically speak kraken, too. BLUE, GET BACK HERE.”

Blue had darted inside; he poked his head back out, leaning on the glass door. “And keeping the lake clean and checking the river grates and harvesting kraken ink and then regular castle duties. That's all. Can I go?”

He really doesn't like watching his parents fight
, Logan guessed. Cobalt and Melissa were now screaming at each other loud enough to drown out the protesting merfolk. Fighting with each other was just about the only thing Logan had ever seen them do. His own parents never fought, or at least, they'd never done it in front of him.

“There are CONTRACTS!” Melissa was yelling. “There are LAWS!”

“I am the king!” Cobalt bellowed. “I MAKE the laws! I'm making a law RIGHT NOW! Oh look, it says that my subjects and I should live in Hawaii! SO IT IS DECREED!”

“You signed a contract with SNAMHP!” Melissa shouted. “And with this Menagerie! And with ME!”

“Contracts are for landwalkers!”

“Blue, come back,” Zoe said. “When do all these things usually happen? Like, how soon will the animals be hungry?”

“I don't really pay attention,” Blue said. “I'm not allowed to help, remember? Royalty and stuff?”

“Don't even try that with me,” Zoe said.

He sighed. “Noon for the zaratan,” he said. “And then when he's finished, the kelpie, and after her, the kraken, if it's awake. You'll need the shaker for the zaratan and the sticks for all three of them. The food is usually prepared in the castle kitchens early in the morning, so it's probably ready for today, at least.”

“That means they're hungry now! It's after noon!” Zoe said. “Blue—”

“No, no, no,” he said, shaking his head vigorously. “I cannot help you. Dad will kill me. I refuse to pick sides. Uh-oh, here she comes.” He fled into the house without even closing the door behind him.

Logan turned and saw Melissa Merevy coming up the
hill. It looked like the merfolk had gotten angry and splashed her; her dark-blue wool coat, pearl-gray skirt, and gray tights all had wet patches on them, and her usually perfect blond bun was a tiny bit disheveled.

“Hi, Melissa,” Zoe said. “Any chance they're going to feed the lake creatures today?”

“It certainly doesn't seem like it,” Melissa said grimly. “I have never seen him behave so childishly, not even when we were married. Someone has filled his head with nonsense.” She stalked past and into the house.

Logan glanced at Zoe, wondering if she was thinking what he was thinking. Had the saboteur somehow been talking to the mermaids? Did they get their ideas about the Hawaii menagerie from someone who was trying to cause trouble?

That couldn't be my dad
, he thought again.
He wouldn't do anything like that
.

“I guess we're suiting up,” Zoe said to Logan. “You can swim, right?”

“Um,” he said. “If I have to.” His two experiences with the Menagerie lake had not exactly made it his favorite place in the Menagerie. Mythical creatures were still exciting, yes, but he was definitely less excited about the kinds that tried to kill him. What if the kelpie or the kraken grabbed him again? But he didn't want to look scared in front of Zoe, and he did want to help. If this was part of being involved with the Menagerie, he'd do it, whatever it was.

“In November in Wyoming?” Marco said. “Sounds AWESOME. I will stand right here and cheer very loudly. That is my plan. Unless—do you think Keiko would be impressed if I went in with you? Would she think I'm EVEN MORE amazing?”

“I highly doubt she'd notice,” Logan admitted.

“Then I will be useful from here,” said Marco. “With my coat on. Hey, I can hold towels for you! I am excellent at holding towels.”

Logan trailed Zoe into the garage, where they found Matthew going through a large trunk of what looked like snorkel gear.

“Uh-oh,” Logan said.

“This one might fit you,” Matthew said, holding up a wet suit and eyeing it critically.

“I think Ruby should have to help with this,” Zoe said. “As part of her punishment.” She dragged out a wet suit and flippers with her name on them.

“Maybe tomorrow, if the strike is still going on then,” Matthew said. “Right now we don't have time for a snotty temper tantrum.”

Logan took the wet suit and went to change. It was as uncomfortable and weird looking as he'd feared, but he managed to struggle into it by thinking about his mom, and how she had traveled the world and done a million braver and crazier things than this. One day he might be a Tracker like her.
A Tracker who didn't care how cold the lake was going to be, or how close he'd have to get to a murderous water horse, or how much Marco was going to laugh at him.

On the plus side, Zoe and Matthew looked extremely silly as well. Zoe had a snorkel mask perched on her head, and she handed one to him as he stepped out of the warm living room into the chilly afternoon. Matthew was carrying a big metal box shaped kind of like a saxophone case, but lime green.

“We have to go to the merfolk castle first,” Zoe said. “To get the food. That'll probably be the hardest part, because certain fishbrains aren't going to be too pleased about it.”

“A real underwater castle?” Logan said with a grin. He had actually been wondering how and where all those mermaids lived and what Blue did when he was underwater with his dad. He had not expected to ever find out, though. “Okay, now I'm excited.”

“That's the attitude we're looking for,” Matthew said, grinning back.

“We'll try sneaking around them, but it's unlikely to work,” Zoe said. She led the way to the golf cart, where Marco was already sitting with a pile of towels, trying hard not to laugh at the sight of them. Matthew climbed into the driver's seat and they zipped down the path and turned left to go around the lake.

“BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” several of the mermaids shouted at them.

“Scabs!” one of them shouted. “FINLESS SCABS!”

By the time they pulled up to the shore not far from the griffin enclosure and the river, most of the merfolk had swarmed over to that side of the lake and started vigorously beating their tails. Waves splashed across the sand, immediately soaking Zoe and Logan when they sat down to put their flippers on.

“Ignore them,” Zoe said to Logan. “They know if they touch us they'll end up manning the Antarctic outpost. All they can do is splash and yell.” She turned to Matthew, who was snapping open the shiny green case. Nestled inside were four odd-looking devices.

“Have you ever seen any James Bond movies?” Matthew asked Logan. Logan shook his head. “Well, this is kind of like a gadget he had called a rebreather, which made it possible for him to breathe underwater—sort of like portable gills. Easier than scuba equipment; you just put your mouth over this bit and breathe normally.” He passed one to Logan, who inspected it curiously.

“What's this sparkly part?” he asked, pointing at a small disk on either side of the mouthpiece. They were shaped like guitar picks and glimmered like rainbows trapped in silver.

“Those are hippocamp scales,” Matthew said. “Half-horse, half-fish, if you haven't gotten that far in the guide. They filter the oxygen in the water so you can breathe it.”

Something moved out on the lake, and Logan turned to
look. Beyond the mermaids, on the one actual island, something was clambering up the rocks where the merfolk often sunned themselves. As the water poured off its mane, Logan recognized the kelpie.

The dark gray horse gazed menacingly at all of them—Logan, Zoe, Matthew, and the merfolk. Logan couldn't believe he'd once found it beautiful, although he knew that was its magic. But now he could see the sinister depths in its black eyes, and the way it ground its teeth together made him remember all too clearly that it had once planned to eat him—and gotten very close to succeeding.

“Are you all right?” Zoe asked him, following his gaze to the kelpie. “You don't have to do this.”

“Totally fine,” he said. “Mermaid castle, here we come.” He stuck the hippocamp rebreather in his mouth and started toward the water, his flippered feet sticking out so far he had to lift them extra high to avoid tripping.

The water along the shoreline continued to surge in waves as the merfolk swarmed close by. Logan waded in, trying to look confident. His mom had joked around with these same people, he reminded himself. Blue's dad ruled them. Still, it was unnerving being glared at by an angry crowd.

Matthew and Zoe fell into step next to him. As they approached, the merfolk grudgingly retreated. Matthew gave them a cocky salute before diving under. Zoe raised her eyebrows at Logan.

He nodded back, adjusting his mask. Rebreather or not, he couldn't help taking in a big breath before plunging his head under the water.

Brrrrrr!!!
The lake had decidedly
not
warmed up in the last few hours and his face immediately started stinging from the cold. He glanced down, suddenly grateful for the goofy-looking wet suit. Before he got too far away from the shore, he cautiously drew in an experimental breath. A clean burst of oxygen met his lungs. It was very cool.

“BBLLLOOOORRRRRBBBB!!!!!!”

Logan blinked to clear his eyes as a volley of bubbles surrounded him. A disgruntled-looking mermaid with pale hair was shaking her fist at him and screaming what he could only assume were merfolk obscenities.

“GRRROOOOOOUPER MELLLOOOON!!!”

Logan raised his shoulders in an apologetic shrug, trying to convey
I can't understand mer-language
as well as
I know you don't want me down here doing your job, but if you're not going to do it, someone has to, because we wouldn't want the kelpie wandering off to find her own food, now, would we?
He kicked off the sandy bottom to follow Matthew and Zoe, who had several mermaids circling them as well. The pale-haired mermaid kept up, shouting furiously.

“MMMANNOOOOO WARRT!”

Logan tried to ignore her, pointedly peering beyond her shoulder, but all he could see was darkness. Anything could
be hiding out there in the murky water. Including a very hungry kelpie and a misbehaving kraken. Not to mention a zaratan Logan knew nothing about. He sped up a little so he wouldn't lose Matthew and Zoe.

The weak November sun did not reach down very far, barely lighting the swathe of water above him. But as they swam farther, Logan realized that there was a faint glow coming from up ahead.

The merfolk who had been hassling them suddenly broke off, but instead of returning to the picket line, they zoomed toward the blue light and then . . . disappeared.

Logan swam closer and discovered that the floor of the lake dropped off dramatically. Suddenly he was swimming above what looked like a giant coral reef.

Greenish-blue light shone up from the edges of paths that wound between house-sized spiral shapes. The doorways were round, like on hobbit homes in
The Lord of the Rings
, but there were no actual doors, just open tunnels with curving pearlescent walls. Some of the circular windows had lovely, dangling planters of purple and red sea anemones or curtains of dark green seaweed.

The lights grew brighter and the spiral shapes larger as they swam toward a massive bluish-white castle-like shape sticking out of the reef. Five wicked-looking spires towered around a central dome with several entrance holes. The rows of lights ran up the castle in parallel lines just a few feet apart,
so it looked like the whole thing had strings of Christmas lights along it.

Matthew and Zoe curved around to the right. As Logan followed, he reached down to trail a hand along the lights. Ripples of more light blossomed from the contact, spreading in either direction, and as Logan lifted his hand back, he saw his fingers seemed to be coated in light, although he couldn't feel anything.

Whoa!

Zoe must have sensed Logan slowing down because she turned and gave him a thumbs-up, like,
I know, so cool, right?

Just then, a dark shape rocketed out of the murk behind her. Logan caught a glimpse of gleaming teeth and glowering eyes.

The kelpie had found them.

L
ogan waved frantically at Zoe as he kicked toward them. But he would never get there in time. The kelpie bared her teeth and lowered her head toward Zoe's shoulder.

Zoe spun around, pulled out her rebreather, and clocked the kelpie on the nose with it. The kelpie let out a neighing scream and backed up, glaring malevolently. She stamped one of her hooves as if to say
Where's my food?

Zoe pointed toward the nearest castle entrance, where Matthew hovered in the doorway.

The kelpie shook out her mane, snapping her teeth at the same time.
Well, either hurry up or let me eat you
, her dark eyes implied.