Legend of the Three Moons (14 page)

They were all sizes and ages, from babies clinging to the fan-shaped fins of their mother's arms to silver-bearded mermen sedately waving their decorated tails. In between swam young Merpeople wearing crowns and jewellery made from shells, seaweed, fishing net and other flotsam and jetsam. The boys looked strong and handsome and the girls were beautiful with large blue-green eyes and long curling hair. It was only when they laughed that they revealed their sharp teeth.

Pushing in between the octopi, the Merpeople gossiped and laughed until a burst of bubbles overhead heralded the arrival of Prince Torenshone. He swam down in graceful spirals to join Sekcap and Celeste.

`So,' he announced loudly, `if I lose the game I forfeit twenty baskets of crimson anemones. If I win then Sekcap forfeits the human. Agreed?'

A wall of bubbles showed that the octopi and Merpeople agreed.

At first the game looked like one that she and Lem played with black and white stones on a black and white check board. But, as some moves and not others, were heralded by either bubbles blown in disgust or the angry waving of tendrils or tails, Celeste gave up trying to work out the rules and studied the Merpeople instead.

The graceful movement of their tails, their quick smiles and bubbling laughter fascinated her. As did their roly-poly babies who, while trying to escape from their mothers, rolled about waving their tiny tails and arm fins helplessly, until caught. If only she could escape like them. But how?

With a triumphant flourish Prince Torenshone placed four shells in a row with four starfish across them and the game was won. Their departure was swift. One minute her ankle was entwined by Sekcap the next she was being pushed out through a crack in the cave's ceiling.

`Best not to linger when an octopus has lost a game,' explained Prince Torenshone, lifting her onto the reef close to where Lyla had hidden the casket. The boat was no longer there.

`Where's our boat? Where is the girl I was swimming with when Sekcap grabbed me? Where is
everyone
?'

`The girl went over the hill with a Whale Islander. The singing Whale Island women captured the boys. A large white animal and a pup swam to the beach and the boat was towed around the headland to the village where it will be mended and sold to mainlanders.'

`But it doesn't belong to us. We promised to return it.' cried Celeste.

Prince Torenshone shrugged. `It's what the Whale Villagers call spoils of the sea.'

Celeste's eyes turned angry. `Are my brother and cousins spoils of the sea?'

He shrugged again. `Of course. But you are safe. You can stay with us.'

Celeste scuttled further onto the reef. `If you mean under the sea? No. I can't do that.'

Prince Torenshone looked annoyed, `Why not? I won you.'

Celeste backed away further. `And I am very grateful, thank you.'

Prince Torenshone looked unimpressed. `How grateful? If you will not live under the sea will you give me your hair? It's a fair price for your life.'

Celeste clasped her wet hair as if to protect it. He was right, it was a fair price for her life. But it was the part of her that she liked the most and she'd been growing it forever. She thought about it a bit more. Her hair would grow back and she did need Prince Torenshone's help.

`If I give you my hair will you help me rescue the merwoman?' she bargained.

`I have told you. Saving the merwoman is impossible. The serpents are too fierce and the High Enchanter's magic is too strong.'

`What if I give you my hair for three years?'

His handsome brow creased with thought. `I will have to ask my school.' With a flourish of his tail, he dived and was gone.

Sitting on the reef watching the tide fill the rock pools, Celeste wondered what she would do if he didn't return. Swim to shore and search for the others, or find Bengg's boat and look for Splash and then search for the others. But that would mean entering the lagoon and she didn't want to do that, not without the protection of Lord Torenshone.

Just as the sea reached her ankles and she'd made up her mind to walk along the reef to the beach, she saw him swimming towards her. Beside him swam three merwomen, one carrying a plate of oysters, one carrying fresh water in a conch shell, and one carrying a mirror and a pair of gold scissors. When they reached the reef, Torenshone told her that he would not help her save the merwoman as it was too dangerous. But, in exchange for three years of her hair, he would show her where the entrance to the merwoman's cave was.

It wasn't what she'd bargained for, but Celeste knew it would have to do. So, after drinking the water and eating the oysters she lowered herself into the sea and allowed the merwoman with the gold scissors to cut off her hair. When she finished cutting she held up the mirror.

Celeste's mouth dropped open with shock and her green eyes filled with big salty tears. Her hair was so short that she looked like a Wartstoe Village urchin. It would take forever to grow again.

The sun was setting when Lord Torenshone and Celeste swam into Whale Island village harbour.

`The entrance to the cavern is below us,' said Prince Torenshone. `It was formed by the last eruption of the Syrene Volcano. It was from the Syrene's crater that the Whale Islanders carved their most beautiful statues. But after they refused to pay a statue tax to the High Enchanter, the Syrene Volcano erupted and all the statues fell down and smashed. Now they pay their tax and carve their statues from other craters.'

Celeste stared down into the deep water and a forest of waving seaweed. `I can't see a cave entrance.'

`It is a hidden sea well that is too narrow for the serpents to swim out of,' he explained, and with a flick of his tail and a goodbye smile, he began swimming out to sea.

Celeste swam after him. `Wait, please wait. If you help me, I will pay you with a beautiful jewel that will make your tail look even more spectacular.'

Prince Torenshone stopped swimming and eyed her with amusement. `Better you save your imaginary jewel to bribe the serpents with. They have a great greed for jewels.'

`It's not imaginary!' She held up her bag. `In here I have three jewels, two for the serpents and one for you if you help me.'

He swam around her, staring at the bag. `What colour are they?'

`Orange with a flash of green, a blue diamond and an opal that is every colour in the rainbow.'

`Show me the orange one.'

Celeste moved out of the prince's reach so he could not snatch the jewel before she took it out of her bag. It flashed orange in the sunlight and she saw desire grow in his big green eyes.

He swam round her once more while he made up his mind. `I will help you for the orange jewel. But if we are unable to rescue the merwoman you still must give it to me. Promise?'

`Promise.'

`Then dive,' Prince Torenshone commanded.

Celeste followed the merman and dived to the bottom of the harbour where he waited, pointing to an extra dark area blocked by huge clumps of oily, wide-leafed seaweed.

When she nodded, he pushed aside the seaweed and entered the well head first. Celeste followed.

The well's slimy walls gave no hint as to how deep it went. Only the buzzing in her ears and the thumping in her chest told her that she had never gone so deep.

After what seemed like forever, Prince Torenshone indicated they should take cover behind a giant clump of fernweed. He pointed to the seaweed-draped entrance to the cavern and the two luminous and terrifying serpents floating effortlessly in the ink black water inside.

Celeste realised why the prince had so been reluctant to help her. Even as she felt the fear take hold, she couldn't take her eyes off the serpents. With long side-fins, body length fan fins, large hammer-shaped heads, lidless yellow eyes and gaping mouths full of needle-sharp teeth, they were even more frightening than the Goch.

`The green one is Kydon the male,' whispered Prince Torenshone's voice in Celeste's head. `He must rock the cradle otherwise the red eggs inside will die. The red one is the female, Hera. She is carrying her favourite green egg wrapped in her tail. When the eggs hatch, the serplings escape up the well before they grow too big. This is when we catch them in our nets. They make good steeds for wave racing until they become too aggressive. Then we release them to roam the seas and hunt for treasure.'

Celeste peered into the dark. `Where is the merwoman?'

`Behind the cradle. Listen carefully. This is what we will do. You will tie your bag to the weed here so that you can find the well's entrance again. I will make a disturbance to draw the serpents away from the cradle. Kydon won't leave it for long but it will give you time to reach the merwoman.'

Celeste smiled at him sweetly and changed the part of his plan that she didn't like. `I have a ball of string to tie to the seaweed and I will take my bag with me.'

He looked insulted. `You don't trust me?'

`Of course I do,' she lied. `But I need the jewels with me in case the serpents challenge me.'

She knotted the red string around the seaweed, and unwinding it as she swam, she moved across the cavern's high ceiling. Behind her, Prince Torenshone threw a lump of coral at Kydon. With a roar Kydon swam straight at the sea well's entrance striking it with his hammer-like head.

Celeste pushed all of Edith's honeysuckle seeds into her mouth and swallowed them. As a burst of flower-honey filled her mouth she dived and swam quickly between the two serpents. She reached the cradle, tied the end of the string to it and then swam behind it.

`Who's there?' whispered a voice.

`You can't see me but I am Princess Celeste. Are you Queen Hail?'

In the faint light from the serpents' two red eggs Celeste saw a row of bars and behind them a merwoman with waist-length black hair, transparent fins growing from her arms and ankles, and barnacles growing over her eyes. The merwoman's long fingers stretched through the bars to touch the face she could not see.

`Little Celeste with the golden curls. How come you here? How are my lovely children? Are they here too?'

`They're on Whale Island. And I have to hurry before the honeysuckle seeds spell wears off. Do you have the talisman that will break the High Enchanter's spell?'

Queen Hail shook her head. `If you mean my pink pearl necklace that was given to me at my birth. No. Hera stole it long ago and-'

A furious roar interrupted her.

Celeste spun around to see a furious Hera swimming straight at her. With barely enough time to realise that the honeysuckle seeds weren't working any more, she dodged a bubble of fire. The bubble exploded against the bars, burning up and down them with a strange blue flame that lit up the frightened face of the merwoman.

As another bubble sped towards her, Celeste dived for the cradle and scooped up one of the red eggs.

`If you hurt me or the merwoman I will break your egg!' she shouted in her head.

Hera's fearful screech brought Kydon, with his spiked back-fin fully extended, speeding to her side. Stopping a bubble-spitting distance from Celeste and the red egg, he expelled a warning stream of tiny fire bubbles.

Celeste dodged the bubbles as they exploded into blue flames around her. `I mean it!' she mind-yelled again. `And I'll break the other one too, unless you give me the pink pearl you stole from the merwoman.'

Hera, still holding her favourite green egg in her tail, writhed in frustration at not being able to rescue her red eggs. With one roar after another she began circling the cave. Kydon followed. Faster and faster they swam until the spinning water formed a whirlpool. It dragged at Celeste who clung desperately to the egg and the cradle as the red string was whipped away from her.

`Stop!' ordered Prince Torenshone, appearing beside the cradle holding a large piece of coral above the second red egg.

`Kydon! Hera! Let us bargain. The human does not really wish to hurt your eggs. What's more, she has jewels far more beautiful than the pearl.'

Celeste rocked the cradle with her knee to show the parents she didn't want to hurt their unborn serplings.

Hera and Kydon stopped swimming. When the whirlpool subsided Celeste dug in her bag and took out the blue diamond and the opal.

The jewels sparkled so beautifully in the glow of their red and green bodies that the look in the serpents' yellow eyes soon changed from anger to greed. They floated closer.

`In return for the pearl you can have these wonderful jewels,' continued Prince Torenshone. `But, so that you keep your word, we will keep the egg until we are inside the sea well. Once we are safe we will let it float down. Do you agree?'

`Why do you want the pearl?' hissed Kydon. A string of small fire bubbles burst from his dilated nostrils and lit up the merman in a ring of blue fire.

`It's a keepsake for the merwoman's children,' Celeste answered in her head.

Kydon's head swung back and forth. `Would the High Enchanter want you to have it?'

`The High Enchanter would not be happy to know that you stole it from her.'

`Good answer,' breathed Prince Torenshone. Then he shouted at the serpents. `What is it to be? The jewels or your eggs? Do not dally. Your cradle needs rocking.'

His words forced a loud bubbly moan from Hera followed by a burst of fiery bubbles from Kydon. Then, with his long body fin fully extended, he swam off into the depths of the cave.

He returned with the pearl and gold chain clamped between his teeth. He dropped it into the cradle and watched greedily as Celeste placed the opal and diamond beside it. In the blink of a yellow eye Hera snapped up the jewels, and Prince Torenshone scooped up the pearl.

`Now we swim,' he yelled, catching hold of Celeste's bag. He towed her, still holding the red egg, towards the cave's ceiling.

They found and followed the floating string which led them back to the sea well's entrance. Once inside Celeste let go of the egg, which Hera caught in her mouth and returned quickly to its cradle.

Kydon however was still angry at losing the pearl and, speeding after them, he slammed the sea well with his head.