Secrets of the Deep (12 page)

Her father looked baffled. Sapphira glanced back and forth anxiously between the king and the Lord of the Locker.

“You are mistaken, Jones,” said His Majesty. “No such object has been found.”

“Atlantean orb? What’s that?” Lily murmured, glancing up at Sapphira, who was paralyzed with dread.

The pirate captain turned, noticing the two princesses there for the first time. Walking on those awkward human legs of his that always made the merfolk cringe, he crossed the throne room, his menacing smile fixed on the girls.

Sapphira pulled her little sister closer as he approached.

“Why, it’s a shiny silver ball of great power, my wee minnow,” he said. “Do ye know what it can do?”

Liliana shook her head.

“It can bring a great flood across the Earth, raise the sea up over all the land to the tops of the mountains! And you know what that means?”

Again, the younger princess shook her head.

“More territory for me!” He flashed a reckless grin while a murmur of astonishment ran amongst the courtiers cowering around the edges of the throne room.

Jones’s horrid crew grinned their wide, toothy smiles, nodding at each other as though they could hardly wait to take over the whole Earth.

“Like the poet said, tadpole, better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.”

“Jones, what you are suggesting…” Father said, frowning at the man like he was mad. “Millions of the landers could drown.”

“So?” The pirate king shrugged. “They’ve got no respect for the sea, Nereus. You know that as well as I, so I say, hang ’em.” His glance swept around the room, searching for those who agreed. “You ask me, it’d be a fine thing for the sea tribes to be rid of those meddling land folk for once and for all. They’re poisoning your waters.”

“Be that as it may, the matter is irrelevant,” Father replied. “You have been misled, Captain. We have no such object in our possession.”

“That’s a lie!” Dice box rattling restlessly, Jones left the princesses and marched back toward the king, who held his ground with a regal stare.

Before Jones reached the king, Tyndaris swept into the pirate’s path. “How dare you call His Majesty a liar? Apologize at once!”

“Ha,” Jones said.

“It’s all right, Commander. Do not test me, Captain,” her father warned the pirate king, his eyes narrowed.

“Beggin’ your pardon, Sire,” the pirate replied, “but you merfolk have a slippery reputation, so why should I believe you? It’s well known you’re all excellent liars. I have it on good information that an orb has been found, and mark my words:
I’ll blow this whole city to smithereens before I’ll let you keep it from me!
” he finished in a hurricane roar.

The Sea King and the Lord of the Locker glared coldly at each other, eye to eye.

Sapphira’s heart was pounding, but the thrumming tension in the room proved too much for Professor Pomodori.

“Ahem! Captain, if I…if I may…I-I believe there may have been a-a misunderstanding. But perhaps I can explain.”

Sapphira drew in her breath as her tutor swam forward.
What is he doing?

“
I
found the orb,” the old royal tutor said with a gulp. “I-I kept it for a while—but only to study it, for scientific purposes! F-for its historical significance!”

“How now?” the king uttered.

“What’s this?” Jones asked.

Sapphira wanted to cry.
He was taking the blame for her!

Both Father and the captain turned to face her tutor. Pro-Pom cringed as he humbly approached the pair, trembling.

“Pomodori, how could you not inform me of this?” King Nereus demanded while Davy Jones strode over to him with a greedy gleam in his eyes.

“Hand it over, old man.”

“I can’t,” her tutor said with a gulp. “That’s just it. You see, I got rid of it.”

“What?” they both demanded.

“You destroyed it?” Jones demanded.

“Don’t be absurd,” the king snapped. “This man is a scholar, our top historian and head of antiquities, as well as the royal tutor. He’s too conscientious to have destroyed a piece of ancient history. Explain yourself, Pomodori.”

Sapphira could see that her teacher was terrified, but he was standing up for her so bravely that her heart ached. Having already caused enough trouble, she didn’t trust herself to say a word.

“A-at first I wasn’t sure what I had found,” he said meekly. “But once I had confirmed it, I knew such a powerful artifact could not be allowed to stay here. It’s too dangerous! So I-I threw it into the Calypso Deep.” Pro-Pom shook his head. “I’m sorry, Captain, it’s gone. No one can go down there.”

“Don’t be too sure of that,” Jones murmured, giving him a hard, searching stare. “You’d better not be lying to me, old man.”

“Leave him alone!” Sapphira suddenly burst out, unable to take it anymore, seeing her tutor risk himself and take the blame for her mistake. She swam forward with an air of desperation.

“Princess!” Tyndaris barked as she approached Davy Jones.

“Professor, I’m not going to stand by and watch you—”

“Princess, please! Her Highness had no knowledge of this!” the old merman insisted, sending her a sideward glance that ordered her to stay out of it.

Abruptly, Sapphira remembered her rank as crown princess. It wasn’t easy, but somehow she shut her mouth, glaring at the pirate king.

“Pomodori, I am seriously displeased,” said her father.

Her tutor bowed. “Your Majesty, I crave your forgiveness.”

“Calypso Deep, eh?” Jones mused aloud. “Very well, then. To the ship, boys! And you’re coming with me, old man.”

“
Don’t you dare.
Leave him alone!” Sapphira yelled, surging forward at him when Davy Jones grabbed her tutor by the arm.

The king bellowed, Tyndaris was shouting, and as Davy Jones tried to drag Pro-Pom away, Lil joined the fray with a brave bellow, both sisters holding on to their tutor’s hands to save him.

“You’re not taking him!” Lil shouted. “He’s ours!”

“Why, I have an even better idea!” Jones said, releasing Pro-Pom all of a sudden. Instead, he grabbed Liliana by her arm. “Why don’t
you
come with me instead, tadpole? That ought to help your father see the light.”

“Unhand my daughter!” the king roared.

Tyndaris aimed his spear at the Lord of the Locker, but was instantly surrounded by four shark men, snarling at him.

The whole throne room was in an uproar. Lil started crying as Davy Jones dragged her off; Sapphira stood frozen with horror.

“Now, now!” Jones chided, backing away toward the door. “The tadpole comes with me. That way, I have some insurance that you lot won’t try anything fishy. Don’t worry; you’ll have her back, safe and sound, just as soon as I get my hands on that orb.”

“Papa!” Lil cried.

The king raged, but the shark men stood in the way. “Liliana! Unhand her, you filth!”

“Mind your tone, King. You forget who you’re talking to!” Davy Jones bellowed. “One mere puddle of a lake you reign. I rule the Seven Seas!”

“Please,” Sapphira begged. “Let her go! Take me instead!”

“Oh, I think not, love.” Jones looked her up and down with an unnerving chuckle. “Can’t risk havin’ a beauty like you on board a ship full of sailors, Princess. You’ll cause a mutiny! The tadpole will do. We’ll be going now, and I don’t suggest you follow us, unless you want another taste of my cannons!”

Jones whooshed off with Lil as his hostage, his shark men covering his retreat in formation.

Pandemonium took over the palace. Father was howling vicious threats after the pirate, Tyndaris was barking orders at his soldiers, Pro-Pom was pleading for reason, and some of the courtiers and their ladies were crying.

Sapphira, however, turned tail and went tearing out of the throne room, unnoticed in the chaos. She rocketed through the nearest window hole and took off swimming at a breakneck pace over the city.

Oh,
this can’t be happening.

She could not believe the Lord of the Locker had just kidnapped Liliana! And it was all her fault. Only one thought pounded in her brain.
Let him have the orb.

Who cares
what happens to the landers?

In the distance behind her, the
Flying Dutchman
resumed its barrage to keep Tyndaris and his forces at bay. The booms rocked Coral City. Sapphira felt the reverberations from the broadsides in her ribs as she raced on, desperate to retrieve the orb from the sunken temple.

All that mattered was saving her sister.

So what if Davy Jones meant to use it to flood the dry world? Not her problem. She’d never really liked landers, anyway.

CHAPTER 6

The Sunken Temple

I
nside the sunken temple, the atmosphere was hushed, but the air was dank and stale and fishy, and the eerie glow from Nixie’s illumination balls barely drove back the gloom.

“I wonder what happened to this place,” Isabelle mused aloud as they advanced into the mysterious ancient site.

“Probably an earthquake,” Archie said sagely. “This whole region is full of seismic activity—not to mention the volcanoes.”

Jake stared at the barnacles growing up the sides of the temple pillars, then joined the others as they wandered over to stare up at the giant goddess statue that loomed, impassive and blank-eyed, at the front of the temple. Huge, unlit torchieres of tarnished brass stood guard on either side of her.

“That’s Athena,” Archie said, hands clasped behind his back. “Goddess of wisdom. You can tell by her helmet and the hoop snake on her shield. As you can see there, her main symbol was the owl—”

“Let’s not use up all our oxygen on lessons, mate,” Jake interrupted with a friendly grin.

“We know who Athena was,” Dani muttered.

She and Jake exchanged a long-suffering glance.

“Oh—sorry.” Archie frowned.

He meant well, of course, but ever since Henry had appointed him as their substitute teacher in his absence, Archie had embraced his assignment, and blimey, school was never out with the boy genius.

Jake chuckled and gave his cousin an affectionate clap on the back, then he and Dani left him behind.

From there, the kids all began spreading out, following their own inclinations. Maddox climbed a pile of rubble to get a better view. Nixie studied the ancient symbols carved into the floor, and Isabelle pointed up at the frieze.

“Archie, can you read this?”

He tugged his waistcoat into place and went to assist someone who appreciated his knowledge.

Dani followed Jake, though trailing a few paces behind him as she looked around in all directions. In the dim half-light, he ventured deeper into the shadows, heading toward the right wall. He stepped over a fallen pillar and took care not to trip on the small piles of rubble everywhere that had crashed to the floor long ago. Actually…

Those crumbled rocks looked like bits of ceiling. He glanced up uneasily, well aware there was twenty-five feet of ocean above them. Perhaps visiting this ruin had not been the wisest idea, he reflected.

He shrugged off his halfhearted misgivings, though, for ahead, near the marble edge where the water sloshed, something caught his eye.

A shiny object of some sort was giving off a feeble, multicolored glow from behind a pile of rubble in the gloom.

Stepping into an ankle-deep puddle and wading through it, Jake crept closer, eager to investigate. When he reached the object, he crouched down beside it.

What’s
this?

“Did you find something?” Dani asked.

“Aye.” A smooth silver ball about the size of a grapefruit lay carefully placed in the basin of an old offerings bowl, as if to stop it from rolling away.

The wide, shallow bowl sat near the edge of the water and contained a collection of other odds and ends and shiny trinkets besides the mysterious metal orb. Girly things. A strand of pearls, a finely jeweled comb, some pretty bits of blue sea glass.

None of the objects in the bowl matched the look of anything else in the temple, but the strange metal sphere was something completely unknown, quite alien to him.

The colors were coming from little chips of glass or crystal that banded its equator. They glowed like tiny, watchful eyes.

What on earth?
Jake thought.
This might even stump Archie.

Confused, he reached for the object—then stopped himself. For once in his life, it wouldn’t kill him to show a little prudence.
That
lesson he’d learned all on his own, considering all the trouble he’d caused of late with his tendency to just rush in.
Look before you leap, idiot.

Besides, something about the shiny silver ball seemed treacherous; the very strangeness of it gave him a weird chill. He had never seen anything like it before. And he had seen a great many strange things.

As he reached for it, it dawned on him that it might not be entirely safe to touch it, so he used his telekinesis to levitate it off the bowl.

“Whoa, what’s that?” Dani asked, joining him.

“No idea.” But he lifted it easily with a steady stream of the telekinetic energy he had learned to project from his mind.

“It’s pretty.” Dani paused, bending down beside him, hands resting on her knees. “And…sort of creepy.”

“Aye.” To his surprise, the orb seemed to like having his undivided attention. The chips around the middle started to flicker and dance. Some of them glowed more brightly. It was almost as though the object somehow
realized
it was being exposed to an unusual form of energy in the grip of Jake’s telekinesis.

He twirled his fingers, causing the orb to rotate slowly in the air so he and Dani could inspect it. He could not begin to guess what metal it was made of, but its color was gunmetal gray, with a satiny finish.