Secrets of the Deep (23 page)

Maddox and Nixie exchange a worried glance, and for a moment, Sapphira was sure they meant to abandon her.

But then Maddox looked at her. “Well?” he asked. “Shall we?”

She sent him a deeply grateful glance. “Do you feel like you can use that thing now?” she asked, nodding at his weapon.

The large, black-haired boy gave a businesslike nod, gripping the harpoon in one hand and drawing his knife in the other.

“And you, Nixie? You’re confident your wand will work underwater?”

“It will,” the pale, skinny girl replied. “If you can draw those stingrays away from her, I could swim up to the cage, unlock it with a spell, and get your sister out. Just make sure you keep those creatures busy until I’ve got her clear.”

They all agreed that this was the simplest plan.

“First let me tell you a little about stingrays,” Sapphira said. “They can be very nasty. They’re fast, and the barb on their tails delivers a serious poison. If you’re in front of them or to the side, it’s easiest to get struck. But they can whip around just as quickly if you try coming up behind them. They have good eyesight, too. In fact, the only real advantage that we have is that they aren’t very bright. And, unlike dolphins, they don’t really understand how to work together.”

Maddox nodded. “Got it. We’re going to have to do this quickly and quietly so we don’t alert whoever else may be up there on the ship.”

“I’m ready,” Nixie said.

But Sapphira shook her head in disgust as she stared once more across the distance at her sister in a cage. “How dare they subject a member of the royal family to such treatment? She is the daughter of a sea king!”

“Uh-oh, looks like the rays just noticed us,” Nixie said, gazing past the two of them.

“Hold your position, Maddox,” Sapphira ordered as she watched the first stingray heading toward them, its pectoral fins pumping, its long, sinuous tail swishing out behind it. “I doubt they’ll attack straightaway. They’ll likely want to investigate first, and my rank as a royal may help to keep them in check once I tell them who I am.”

“Ah, so they’ll just kill
us
, then, not you?” Maddox joked in his quiet, steady way, and sent her a little smile askance while Nixie let out a wry snort.

Sapphira’s heart fluttered a bit at his modest charm, but she scoffed.

He took hold of the little witch’s shoulder and gently pushed her back. “Get behind me, Nixie.”

“Are you sure I shouldn’t just make myself invisible?” she asked.

“You can if you like,” said Sapphira with a shrug, “but it won’t protect you from these fellows in the least. Like I said, bad vision. Stingrays can sense prey by temperature and feel vibrations in the water.”

“Charming,” Nixie muttered, swimming back behind the older two.

“Wallace, clear out of here, boy. Wait for us back there.” Sapphira gestured at the craggy rocks higher up the slope. “Be ready to carry a rider in case anyone gets hurt. Otherwise, stay out of the fight. Seahorses are quite helpless,” she told her allies as Wallace dashed away to hunker down beside the sea-cliffs at their backs.

“Here they come.” Maddox raised his harpoon, and Nixie gripped her wand.

“Let me take the first one.” Sapphira swam a few feet ahead of him. “I’ll show you how it’s done.”

The startled look Maddox gave her as she passed him told Sapphira he was not at all used to taking orders from a female.

But, sensible lad, he hung back, as ordered, to watch her demonstration.

Commander Tyndaris had schooled her over the years, after all, in how to combat every sort of sea creature prone to attack.

As the first ray came flying over, Sapphira held up her hand, palm out. “Halt, in the name of the King! I am Crown Princess—Ahh!” She ducked with a shriek as it gave
her
a warning, in kind, buzzing low over her head, but not yet attacking. Her jaw dropped at such insubordination. “That thing completely ignored me!”

“I noticed,” Maddox said in amusement.

“I think they were expecting us,” said Nixie.

“Figures!” Sapphira muttered.

Either Jones had ordered the rays to give no quarter even to a royal, or the tiny-brained creature simply had not comprehended her words.

Sapphira whirled around as the ray swept off, wide fins flapping, and looped about to come at her again, this time in earnest.

“Go on, Highness, show me how it’s done,” Maddox teased softly.

“Humph.”

But this time Sapphira was ready for the creature and parried the attack with her spear. The ray pressed its assault, gleefully slashing and stabbing at her with the long, wicked barb on the end of its tail.

Thankfully Maddox was a quick study, for the next ray was there in an instant, its big, gold, angry eyes glaring at him from out of the top of its flat head.

He warded it off with the harpoon, blocking the first exploratory stab the creature aimed at him as it arced away over his head.

“I see. They’re not so bad,” he mumbled, never taking his eyes off the creature.

“Here come some more,” Nixie reported, her wand at the ready.

“Your harpoon was a good choice,” Sapphira remarked tautly as they braced themselves for the next attack. “Most sea creatures have seen harpoons before and are scared of them merely by reputation. That should help you.”

“Do I look like I need help?” Maddox drawled, glancing at her.

She flashed a smile at him—and then they were surrounded. The fight was on, churning the water into a foaming white vortex around them. The fight slowly moved beyond the rim of the canyon as they pressed on toward her sister.

Sapphira pierced the wing of the ray trying to stab her; it became impaled on her blade so that she had to fling her spear to get rid of it. The ray went flying off, wounded, and slid down, out of the fight. Maddox jabbed the one coming at him in the belly. It let out a screech and went careening down, spiraling into the pitch-black.

“Advance!” Sapphira surged forward, gaining ground with Maddox beside her and Nixie ducking her head, a little behind and between them.

“They’re kind of cute, aren’t they?” Maddox said through gritted teeth as he fended off another one.

“I always thought so,” Sapphira replied, ducking to avoid being stabbed in the head, then striking back viciously and killing the thing. “Little grumpy, though.”

“I daresay.” Nixie zapped one that surged toward her from behind, and the creature clearly didn’t know what to make of that.

But both Sapphira and Maddox flinched when the sizzle of blue electrical energy from her wand conducted through the water to give each of them a small shock, too.

“Ow!” said Sapphira.

“Careful, girl!” Maddox scolded.

“Sorry,” Nixie said.

Sapphira ignored her instinctual fear of the bottomless gorge as they continued to advance toward her sister, keeping the young witch between them. All the while, they battled more stingrays circling and flying around them in every direction.

Sapphira suddenly noticed that the cage was now left undefended. “Nixie!”

“Ciao!” Nixie vanished, and Sapphira supposed a bit of invisibility couldn’t hurt, as long as she and Maddox kept the rays distracted.

Between thrusts of her spear, she stole just enough of a glance to see that her sister was gripping the bars of the cage, watching anxiously.

“Sapphira, behind you!” Lil yelled, pointing.

She whirled around and stuck the ray behind her in the gut, but was more annoyed than grateful. “Keep her quiet!” she said, hoping Nixie was still close enough to hear. “She’s going to bring the rest of the crew running!”

Whirling and darting in the battle against the stingrays, Sapphira kept watch on her sister all the while from the corner of her eye. She saw Nixie reappear right beside the cage a couple of minutes later, and for a moment, her conscience needled her for sending the land girl into even more danger than she realized.

In any case, Nixie was obviously not used to practicing her art underwater, for it took her a few tries of zapping the lock with her wand before she got the cage door open.

Sapphira’s heart lifted as Nixie reached in and—although she was not quite the warm and fuzzy type—hopefully offered the frightened younger princess a reassuring word before pulling her out of the cage by her wrist.

“They’re clear!” Sapphira told Maddox as he hefted his knife and chopped the barb off the tail of the stingray trying to gut him. It let out a squeal and vanished, spiraling down into the depths; she looked around, but all the rays were gone.

Still, she knew they didn’t have long.

Maddox and she both rushed toward Nixie and Liliana as they made their escape, then they all swam at top speed back over the edge of the canyon to the sandy plateau.

There, Sapphira stole the briefest of moments to wrap her arms around her terrified little sister. “Barnacle!”

“Calypso Deep—!” Lil choked out.

“I know. Father will hear of this,” Sapphira vowed. “Let’s get you out of here.”

Lil was trembling but gazed up at her gratefully. “I knew you’d come.”

“Not just me. Wallace is waiting, too.” Sapphira let out a sharp whistle. “Time to go, boy!”

Liliana let out a small cry of joy as the seahorse came speeding out of his hiding place to join them. His presence helped calm her down at once.

“Nicely done,” Maddox mumbled to Nixie while Lil hugged her pony.

“You too,” the witch said. “Are we done here?”

Sapphira nodded. “Time to get to the Keyhole. Come on!”

Fortunately, they hadn’t gone too far from Driftwood. They raced toward its distant lights at top speed, but gave the town a wide berth, veering around it in Isabelle’s direction.

“Let’s hope your friend is paying attention,” Sapphira said, her heart pounding as they made their escape. “After all, I did give her the easiest job.”

Maddox frowned at her disparaging tone regarding Isabelle.

Nixie didn’t seem to like her comment, either.

“Don’t worry about Izzy,” she said in a prickly tone. “She’ll sense us if she doesn’t see us.”

“Won’t sense
me
,” Maddox said dryly.

Sapphira wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but Nixie seemed to understand exactly.

“You cause her too much interference,” she said with a sigh.

“Not my fault,” he mumbled.

Just then, a long, mellow note sounded through the water, and Sapphira could not help but notice the glow that came into Maddox’s eyes when he heard it.

He looked askance at Sapphira. “Told you. Isabelle never lets anybody down.”

Unfortunately, that was not the only sound that reached them.

For at that moment, the faint, frantic clanging of a ship’s bell started ringing out behind them—coming from the direction of the
Dutchman
.

The signal sent a chill down Sapphira’s spine; Jones’s crew must’ve noticed that their hostage had escaped.

“Swim!” Maddox urged. “They’ll be here any minute.”

“Lil, take hold of Nixie,” Sapphira ordered her sister while she, in turn, grabbed hold of Maddox’s hand. “Let us help you two. We’re faster swimmers than you. You carried me on land; we’ll help you in the water.”

“There they are!”
gruff voices shouted from behind them.

“Let’s go! Head for the Keyhole, Lil! Wallace—run!” She and her sister bolted forward, dragging their respective landers with them, the seahorse racing alongside.

Neither Maddox nor Nixie had time to protest as they went tearing past Driftwood at top mermaid speed—nearly twenty knots.

With her little sister keeping up their fear-fueled pace, Sapphira didn’t slow down for a heartbeat, but she did steal a peek over her shoulder—and gulped.

In the darkness behind them, she could just make out a large number of Davy Jones’s horrible shark-shifter crewmen coming after them, though still half a league behind.

Dread filled her as logic warned they’d probably stop at Driftwood to look for Lil and report to their captain.
Oh, Jake, you three had better get out of there now,
she thought, but she said nothing.

What mattered was that she had got her sister back; Jake and the other two landers would just have to fend for themselves.

Her
team barreled on.

CHAPTER 12

Puppetmaster

W
hen Jake saw Davy Jones swaggering off down the wooden boardwalk of Driftwood, leaving the Briny Bottom, he thought fast and decided on the brazen approach. No one was immune to flattery, after all, not even the infamous Lord of the Locker…probably.

“Hurry!” he whispered to Dani and Archie, then rushed over to the rickety puppet theater and commandeered it with a bribe.

He had no idea how much his sand dollar was actually worth in land money, but it must’ve been a lot, for the odd-looking octopus man quickly took the puppets off his many hands and let Jake have a go.

Dani slipped into the close wooden confines of the puppet theater with him. Jake tossed her a puppet of a lady whale with a wig and big red lips. “Here. Welcome to show business.”

“What should I do?” Archie whispered.

“Carnival barker! You know how to talk to a crowd, after all your speeches. Get Jones’s attention while I think of a plot!”

“Done,” Archie said, then disappeared out front.

Quickly pulling two puppets onto his hands, Jake glanced at them each with a frown as he racked his brain for what he could make them say that might keep Davy Jones from leaving.

One puppet was a clam with a big, wide, sarcastic grin; the other was a serious-looking lobster in a bowtie. “What the blazes do I do with this?” he cried in exasperation.

Meanwhile, Dani had discovered a peephole in the wooden front of the puppet theater. “Ohh, I can see everything from here!”

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Archie cried in a loud voice up front. “Step right up—I mean, swim right up and see! You are about to witness the most amazing performance in the ocean. Starring…Sam the Clam! And, er, Robert the Lobster!”