Secrets of the Deep (56 page)

“How should I know?” Nixie cried. “They’re trying to rescue Derek and the others from the Black Fortress! Do you have any idea what’s involved in that? How dangerous it is?”

No one dared answer.

Jake was flabbergasted. “Well, she’s going to be all right, won’t she?” he demanded.

“Of course,” Archie said quickly, too quickly. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. She just needs a rest, probably…”

His words trailed off, but, thankfully, Dani returned just then with the smelling salts in one hand and Teddy tucked under her other arm. She brushed past Nixie in the doorway and sped over to bring the requested item to Isabelle.

Once she had handed off the dainty little silver bottle, Dani retreated to lean against a post of the canopy bed, hugging Teddy the way she always did when she was upset. She and Jake exchanged a fraught glance.

Isabelle quickly twisted open the perforated silver top of the vinaigrette, then waved the smelling salts under Aunt Ramona’s nose.

They had no effect.

Isabelle persisted for another moment or two, then gave up and lowered the smelling salts to her lap in dismay.

Nothing was working.

Jake sat down dazedly on the edge of his aunt’s bed.
This can’t be happening.
Derek and Tex captured. Red off on what sounded like a suicide mission. The Dark Druids closing in on him with their spectral bounty hunters. And now this.

The Elder witch unconscious.

Feeling awful over how he had last spoken to her, Jake took her fragile, bony hand and winced to find it cold and clammy.

“How long will it be before she wakes up?” Izzy ventured, but no one had an answer.

“With magic, it’s impossible to tell.” Nixie sighed.

“Especially when we don’t know how this happened to her in the first place!” Archie said angrily. “Lud, I hate magic!”

Nixie looked at him in surprise as he spun away.

But Jake couldn’t stop staring at his aunt, at a loss. “What do we do now?”

Maddox glanced toward the doorway. “We need to get back out onto the beach and keep watch. Some of us do, anyway. I’ll go.”

“How can you leave at a time like this?” Isabelle exclaimed.

Hands on hips, the Guardian apprentice just looked at her.

“I think we’d better contact Merlin Hall,” Jake said slowly, barely able to believe his own words. But maybe he was finally learning. “She’d want us…to tell the adults. So, let’s send an Inkbug message to Sir Peter.”

“Yes, that’s it! Jake, you’re brilliant,” Dani said. “They could send somebody right away. A Lightrider, like Finnderool—with a healer to fix her!”

“That’s an excellent idea,” Archie said in relief, clapping Jake on the back as he passed him. “I’ll do it.”

“I brought the Inkbug and his box downstairs after Aunt Ramona told me to watch for any incoming messages,” Isabelle called after her brother.

“Where?”

“The blue parlor! By the bookshelf.”

Archie nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

But as he headed toward the door, a sound floated up from the beach that chilled them to the bone.

The Triton Trumpet sang out through the night—two long warning notes.

Jake gasped and shot to his feet, while the full moon peered in on them through the window.

“It’s Davy Jones,” he breathed. “They’ve found us.”

# # #

“Sapphira’s out there alone,” Maddox said, bristling. At once, he ran back out into the sitting room and grabbed his rifle from where he’d leaned it against the wall. “I’ve got to go and help her.”

“I’m coming with you.” Isabelle was right behind him, reaching for her white staff.

“You? Don’t be daft! Stay in the house!” he ordered.

“You can’t tell me what to do!” she bellowed back.

“Sweet Hecate, you two sound like you’re already married!” Nixie exclaimed.

“Both of you, get out there and try to hold them off!” Jake said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

“Me too,” Nixie said as they ran out, but Jake stopped her.

“Hold on. Arch, Nix, you two have to be in charge of the orb.”

“Don’t let them find the hatbox!” Dani added from behind him.

“Exactly,” Jake agreed. “But first, we have to do something to protect Aunt Ramona, since she’s defenseless right now. Nixie, can you create one of those invisibility spells to conceal this whole room somehow?”

She nodded quickly. “Any inanimate object. I could hide the doorway to the sitting room out there. Make it look exactly like the rest of the wall.”

“Perfect. That’ll give the girls two layers of protection. Dani, you’ll need to stay in here with Aunt Ramona and Lil. Here, take this.” He picked up Archie’s blunderbuss and handed it to her. “If anything gets through that door, shoot it.”

“Er, don’t I need that?” Archie asked.

“No. You’re leaving,” Jake said.

“What?!”

“I’ll explain in a moment.”

“Jake?” Dani handed off Teddy to Lil in order to accept Archie’s big, odd gun. She looked like she was going to object as Jake herded her back into Aunt Ramona’s bedchamber, along with the little mermaid princess and the dog.

But Jake wasn’t taking any chances with their safety. If the pirates gained the house, he didn’t want anything happening to Dani or his aunt or Liliana.

“It’ll be all right,” he soothed. “Move the dresser to block the doorway once we’ve got you sealed in. Shut the window and pull the curtains, too, so they don’t see the light in here and come to investigate. If Aunt Ramona wakes up, just tell her what’s happening. She’s welcome to help if she’s able.”

“What about the Inkbug?”

“There’s no time. We’ll send the message later. Right now, we’ve got to go.”

Dani nodded, wide-eyed. “I understand. Be careful, Jake.”

“I will. Don’t worry about me. You’ll be safe in here,” he assured them.
She’d better be.
“Lil, are you ready to be brave?”

The younger girl nodded. “Please don’t let anything bad happen to my sister.”

“Ah, don’t you worry about Sapphira, Your Highness. Your sister is one tough mermaid. But of course we’ll look out for her. Do you think you can keep Teddy quiet?”

The dog was wriggling in protest again in Liliana’s arms and starting to make noise.

Dani sighed. “Nobody can keep Teddy quiet.”

“I can.” Nixie pulled out her wand. “It’s no use hiding you if they can hear him barking. They’ll keep looking till they find you.”

“What are you going to do to him?” Dani asked.

“Don’t worry, it’s only temporary, and it won’t hurt a bit. It’ll just…mute him for a few hours.” Nixie flicked her wand at Teddy before Dani could object.

Though the terrier kept barking, no sound came out anymore.

Lil giggled and carried the angry dog into the bedchamber. “That’s better, Teddy.”

Jake stepped toward Dani. “Well.” He swallowed hard. “Are you all set, then?”

She nodded, her green eyes wide with trust in him and fear of their situation. She looked so scared that Jake was tempted to chance giving her a kiss on the cheek to try to make her feel better—oh, but now was not the time for such nonsense. “Remember,” he instructed, “stay silent.”

She nodded, holding the blunderbuss. And as Jake pulled the door shut, he knew that the image of her freckled face in that moment would be permanently stamped upon his mind.

Outside the bedchamber, Nixie put a locking spell on the bedchamber door. Once it was shut, Jake could hear Dani sliding the dresser in front of the door as an added barrier.
Good.
Then he, Nixie, and Archie crossed Aunt Ramona’s sitting room and stepped out into the upstairs hallway.

There, Nixie cast another invisibility spell like the one she had put on the hatbox, concealing the doorway to Aunt Ramona’s sitting room. It was their only option at this point, since the door was too damaged to be shut or locked, thanks to Jake blasting it off its hinges.

Nixie spoke the short chant, just a line or two, and the whole doorway disappeared. In the blink of an eye, it looked like there was not a room there at all. The wallpaper and wainscoting just continued smoothly.

“Nicely done,” Jake said in relief.

“Right.” Archie pivoted. “Let’s get out there, please, and help my sister!”

“I will, Arch, I promise,” Jake said. “But that’s not the plan for you two.”

“What are you talking about? Frankly, I don’t understand why we all didn’t just hide in there behind Nixie’s invisible doorway. We could just wait until these rotten pirates go away!”

“They’re not
going
to go away, Archie!” Jake exclaimed. “That’s just it. They know the orb is here. I don’t know
how
they know, but they’ve found us. They obviously realize that we have it.”

“Then let’s get out there and fight the blackguards off! Only, I need a new weapon. Hold on, I think Maddox has an extra crossbow in our room—though, honestly, I don’t see how a few kids are supposed to beat a whole horde of undead pirates.”

“We can’t!” Jake said, grasping Archie’s arm to keep his cousin from leaving to go find a weapon. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you! Maddox and I, Sapphira and Izzy, we’ll hold them off for as long as we can. But you and Nixie have got to get the orb out of here.”

“What?”

“Take it someplace—don’t even tell me where you’re going, in case they try to get it out of me. I don’t want to know. Just go, and do whatever you have to do to hide it.”

Archie stared at him. “You want us to leave? But that’s absurd. We could simply hide it in the room with Dani and Aunt Ramona.”

“Arch!” Jake said, hating every word of the hard truth. “The stakes are too high to risk it being found. It’s too dangerous to keep it here. You have to go. Now.”

“But I can’t just leave you all behind–”

“You have no choice!” he interrupted. “Archie, this is bigger than just us. If Davy Jones gets his hands on that artifact, he’ll flood the whole Earth. Millions of people will die. You can’t let that happen,” he said in a hard tone. “Get it far away from here and don’t come back until the full moon is over. I’m counting on you two.”

Leaving no room for further discussion, Jake clapped his cousin on the shoulder and ran out to join the battle on the beach.

# # #

Archie and Nixie looked at each other.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” he asked.

She narrowed her eyes. “What? That I shouldn’t have let you take the blasted orb apart today? Yes, probably!” she retorted, glaring at him, and annoyed at herself over the soft spot she had for the lovable egghead. “C’mon.”

“That wasn’t what I was thinking at all! Though it is true,” Archie confessed while she pulled him up the stairs by the wrist and strode toward the classroom, where the orb presently lay in pieces on the table. “What I was actually going to say is: how can Jake order us to leave at a time like this? Not even a Dark Druid would simply run away and leave his friends behind, let alone his own flesh and blood! I certainly can’t.”

“Yes, you can. You have to.”

Upon reaching the classroom, Nixie ran over to the closet and whisked out a sturdy canvas knapsack—Jake’s little-used book bag. He was no scholar, that one.

“It is rather unfortunate timing,” Archie admitted as they swept the carefully labeled pieces of the orb into the knapsack.

Nixie closed it, fastened the buckle, then shoved it at Archie. “Go. You’ve got to get the orb out of here. Saddle a horse and ride. When it can’t run anymore, buy another and do the same. Then take a train north, but don’t buy the ticket under your real name.”

“Wait—you mean
we
,” he corrected her as she hurried him out of the room and back toward the stairs. “Jake said we’re both to go.”

“I know that’s what he said,” Nixie said firmly. “But I’m staying here. They don’t stand a chance without me, and you know it.”

Archie stopped short midway down the staircase. “Then I’m not leaving either! Out of the question—”

“Archie, you have to!” She took him by the elbow and started pulling him the rest of the way down the steps. “Come on; you’ve got to get out of here. I don’t expect it will be long before the pirates get past Jake and the others. Are you sure you have all the pieces?”

“Yes, but—”

“You can ride a horse, can’t you?”

“How now?” he retorted, looking slightly offended at the question. “I admit, I’m not overly fond of the creatures, but every gentleman’s son learns to ride. If only Red were here. We could fly away and those horrid fellows could never reach us. We shouldn’t have let him go,” he added.

“Yes,” she murmured, “I have a bad feeling about that, actually. But Red’s not an option right now. Horse it is.” She hurried him to the kitchen door off the back of the villa, across the cobbled courtyard from the stable.

When she opened the door, they could hear distant shouts and the sound of fighting coming from the direction of the beach.

“Hurry, Arch. You don’t have much time.”

“But where shall I go?” he asked, looking lost. Behind his spectacles, the disbelief in his big, brown, puppy-dog eyes at what was being asked of him, this most loyal soul, tugged at her heart.

She struggled not to waver the way she had with him this afternoon, when she had let him have the orb. “Head inland. Stay away from the coasts. And don’t come back for three days.”

“But…how am I supposed to abandon everybody?” Archie asked. “Especially you, Nix!”

She scowled at the pang in her heart. “Just go!” She shoved him out into the courtyard. “You have no choice. Go on, now! Grab a horse and get out of here! Go and save the world, Arch.”

“Me!” he exclaimed. “I’m not the hero here.”

Nixie stared at him. “You are to me.”

Then she took an abrupt step toward him, seized the shoulder straps of his knapsack to yank him closer, and planted a quick kiss—right on his lips.

Since we’re all probably gonna die anyway,
she thought. Archie puckered up belatedly, only just recovering from his shock.