Secrets of Stone and Sea, page 22
He didn’t even notice falling into a dreamless sleep until he woke up at sunrise to find Peter standing beside him.
CHAPTER 29
THE BROKEN SEAL
PETER
Peter woke before his alarm. He’d had no dreams, but that was okay. It meant that for the first time in days, he was fully rested.
He would have liked to know more about the Sea’s plans, but they wouldn’t really change his mind. He knew what he had to do.
So he pulled the socks off and sneaked downstairs, passing his sleeping dad, sister, and grandmother. Kai wasn’t in bed when Peter woke up, so he expected to find his twin downstairs.
This wasn’t Dad’s, Grandma’s, or Sophie’s fight. But Peter and Kai had to see this through together.
So Peter found Kai in the dining room, sleeping on a pile of papers.
Peter touched Kai’s shoulder. “It’s time.”
Kai snorted and sat up, pen marks on his face. “Oh, good. So excited.”
Peter smiled as Kai shook himself awake.
“All right.” Kai scooped up his stacks of paper. “We started this thing together. Let’s end it the same way.”
Peter waited for Kai to grab a backpack for the papers, and then both boys crept out of the Widow’s Walk, making sure the door didn’t make a sound. They ran down to the beach.
The storm chasers and news crews hadn’t begun their day yet. Why would they? There was nothing obviously strange or exciting. Yet.
The morning was so similar to that first day when they raised the Sea. Except, of course, that instead of a bright, sunny afternoon, it was a cold, windy morning. The sky was mostly overcast, clouds lit with a bloodred sun.
“Red sun at morning, sailor take warning,” Peter murmured. He didn’t know where he’d heard that, but it seemed all too appropriate.
The waves clawed at the sand before roaring and trying again. Farther out, the sea leaped like wildfire, blazing copper with the red sun.
The water surged past the wrecked wharf, the ocean level unnaturally high. Peter recognized the early signs.
The Sea was beginning its attack.
“To the Spire,” Peter said. Kai’s face fell, but Peter shrugged. “That’s where it has to end.”
Peter aimed toward the forest, and the lighthouse, and ran.
Kai ran beside him.
They didn’t say a word until they’d reached the barren rock in front of the lighthouse.
“Ready?” Peter asked.
Kai hunched his shoulders. “If you are.”
Together, they faced the water.
The ocean frothed. It had become high enough to overwhelm the Spire with every tide. Huge waves washed over the Spire.
The wind bellowed in Peter’s ears. He searched the red-lit water and soon saw it: the Sea.
It rose out of the ocean just beyond the Spire. The waves circled it like a whirlpool, but the Sea was unmoved. It raised its hands toward the shore.
“The moon is with me,” it said, its voice carrying with the stormy gale. “And today, the Land falls to me. Finally, I can be at peace.”
Peter swallowed. He hoped he was making the right choice.
Leaving Kai behind, Peter stepped to the edge of the Point. “You!” he called. “Sea demon!”
The Sea turned to face Peter.
“Peter, what are you doing?” Kai hissed.
Peter turned around. “Get back. Get where it can’t see you.”
Kai’s jaw dropped. “What? No! We’re facing it together, remember?”
“We are.” Even in the storm, Peter felt calm. He’d made his choice. Even though he didn’t know what would happen next, he’d take the action he’d chosen.
He thought of that mural, the Sea and Land fighting, the little figure caught in the middle. Then he looked at his twin. “But if I’m right, I’ll need you later. Don’t risk yourself now when there’s no reason to. Please, Kai. Wait.”
Without looking to see if Kai did as he said, Peter turned to the Point to see the Sea right there, standing on a column of water right in front of him.
Oh, man! Peter resisted the urge to scream and fall backward. His hands shook, so he clenched them. “You will stop,” he told the Sea. “Now.”
The Sea laughed. It grew in size until each of its fingers was as tall as Peter. “You come here, little human,” it boomed, “and presume to give me orders?”
Peter licked his dry lips. They tasted like salt. “You will stop,” he said again. “And you will leave us all alone.”
With a sudden movement that didn’t seem possible for something so big, the Sea snatched Peter up in its huge fist. Peter held perfectly still as the giant fingers closed around him and lifted him into the air.
The Sea raised Peter to its face.
“Arrogant human,” it said, its voice almost deafening. “Even blessed with gifts from Atlantis, you have failed. You have done nothing to stop me, all this time. You come to me with no weapons, no bargains, as the Atlanteans did. You simply come with demands, showing your greed.”
The fingers tightened, and Peter choked. He tugged a hand free and pointed at the Sea. Trying to keep his breathing steady, pretending to be Kai, he said, “It’s not greed. If you’re smart, you’ll forget your stupid grudge and go away.”
The Sea laughed. “Is that a threat, tiny human?”
“No,” Peter said. “But this is.”
And with that, Peter reached under his collar and broke the final seal.
* * *
Energy rocked Peter from the inside, bursts of light encircling him from head to toe. The seal hardened and spread, protecting him from the explosions erupting inside him like volcanoes generating continents from nothing. He was vaguely aware of the Sea’s grip releasing him, and of the Point’s edge giving way beneath his weight as he grew, and grew, and grew.
A small human figure, overlaid by the Land, hands raised as if in fear. Or in combat.
A host.
Peter’s arms lengthened, turning to knotted brown wood shot through with gray stone. His feet plunged into the ocean, which now only came up to his knees. Steam burst from the water. Peter was burning with lava, with the red-gold light of the fires of creation. His fingers changed as well, with stone claws emerging from each one. The better to attack the Sea with.
And oh, he wanted to attack the Sea. Memories of its cruelty flooded his mind: how it destroyed the edges of continents, eroding away the land until there was none left. How it struck without consideration, tearing land apart. How it was cold, and dark, and wet, and everything Peter hated.
No. Peter didn’t hate the Sea. But there was another mind in here, one ancient and brutal and blazing.
Peter pressed deeper into the being’s memories. The Land remembered. It remembered being part of a great island, once inhabited by people. These people discovered gold and silver and other metals and used them to build a grand city.
At first, the place was blessed. Both land and sea provided bountiful wealth, which was shared among the people. In honor of the island, the earth and the water, the people built a shrine in a sea cave. The Land remembered feeling their warmth, love, and unity until they became its own. They were its people, and it was their land.
But time passed. Something changed. The people became divided, the wealth no longer shared. Pride led to conflict and bloodshed, and the Atlanteans just wanted more, more, more.
And then they came to the shrine.
They took something vital, something precious. Sacred, even. His soul—
No, not his soul. But something just as important. And then, and then—
A rush of ocean and a glint of scales in the sunlight. An earthy presence possessing of the nearest Atlantean, the leader of the thieves. The hatred and division in the Atlanteans mirrored in the Land’s mind as it turned on the Sea. As it viewed the Sea, once other half, now hated enemy. What could it do, then, but follow the Atlanteans’ lead and attack?
Peter watched the memory of the Land tearing apart an island just to get at the Sea. He saw the Sea bow and vanish under the power of the Atlantean magicians, bound with a ritual intended to be lost to the ages. But things have a way of making themselves known.
He felt the Land likewise stripped from its host and locked away with seven seals, so it could never possess a human again, never attack those who once loved it. Land and Sea, an island divided, imprisoned separately when they were once totally united.
An ancient voice washed over Peter’s consciousness. We are not one, it said, images of the Sea filling his mind. It is unstable and cold and cruel, not steady and warm and life giving as I am. I am not that creature, and it will never be me!
The force of the creature’s mind was overwhelming. Peter rode a tide of its rage, trying to keep his mind free, to remain himself. A small human bathed in the light of the Land.
But he was unable to stop himself from giving over to the Land as it swung those slate claws at the Sea, striking it in the face. After all, he was here to stop the Sea. If nothing else, this would keep it from attacking Seaspire.
It may have been the Land’s choice, but it was Peter’s, too.
CHAPTER 30
THE PATTERN OF LAND
KAI
Holy mother of salt water and salt water taffy, my brother just turned into Groot!
Kai, hidden behind the lighthouse, pressed against the wall for strength. Had he just seen—
Was Peter—
Had Peter just—
What was Kai supposed to do now?
As the Land creature that was once his brother roared and clawed at the Sea, Kai forced himself to look away. Gaping at the monster fight happening in front of him wouldn’t save Peter.
But what could he do? It was excruciating, being unable to act, to protect his brother. He wished he could have been the one with the seal. It would have been easier than this.
There had to be something he could do to save Peter.
And if he had any chance of finding it, it would have to be in the notes and codes. Kai gathered rocks and used them to hold down the pages, so he could look over them all.
The ocean crashed as Land and Sea clashed. It should be him out there, not Peter. Peter never wanted to be part of this quest, and Kai had enjoyed it from the beginning. Now he was stuck on the sidelines.
That old woman in Salem had asked Kai what he was willing to pay. He wished he’d told her “himself,” because that’s all he wanted to do now. Pay for his own mistakes and leave Peter out of this. But it was too late for that.
Focus. Kai searched the papers, looking for some pattern, some clue he might have missed.
Sea.
Twin.
Land.
Sacred.
Sunlight.
Kai looked up, wind whipping his hair against his face. Red sunlight set the paper on fire.
As much as he tried to focus on the poems, Kai’s eyes were drawn back to the huge monster battle in front of him. The Sea and Land, clashing and fighting. And his brother caught in the middle of it all.
Sea and Land. Kai watched for a moment, feeling a little perplexed. But why? Why was it strange that two beings that were so different would fight? The Land was warm and dry, and the Sea cold and wet. One was sunlight, and the other darkness.
A paper fluttered, and Kai grabbed it. The Atlantean word for “sea” stuck out. It had so many meanings. Including “twin.”
Twin. Peter and Kai, alike but different. Land and Sea, so different, and yet …
Kai looked at the Point. The gate here, on stony land, right on the edge of the Sea. The shore. And there, out in the water, even below the waves there was more land. And on the land, rivers and lakes and rain kept the ground alive. Sea and shore, land and water, they were two halves of a whole.
Two halves of a whole. Kai frantically searched for MacHale’s poems.
There! He read the first line of the first poem: “If land in common meets the sea.”
Land.
Both land and sea had been referenced in this first line. And when Kai looked at the second poem, he saw the same in the second line: “To sun’s shore from sacred wave.”
Shore! Wave! Land and sea! Two things, together, as a whole.
Was that also true for the riddle? So far, each line with one clue held another. Kai searched for the words that came before the land-related clues in each line that held the water-related clues he had already found.
“If, sun’s, metal, returned, island, become, once.”
Then, as the world roared around him, Kai put them together with the sea’s clues:
“If the sun’s sacred metal is returned, the island may become whole once more.”
There.
That was it.
Kai sat back. The island? Atlantis? Was this a way to bring Atlantis back?
That wasn’t what he wanted!
Or was it? Why would the gate gift the boys with powers meant to help them raise the Land if the Atlanteans wanted it locked away? Why would MacHale dream-write the instructions to reunite Land and Sea? What if this was always the goal?
Then why did the Atlanteans lock the creatures away and leave the job undone until Kai and Peter arrived?
The Sea channeled water at the Land, throwing it backward. Kai yelled and was relieved when the stone-tree creature withstood the blow.
Land and Sea. Two halves of a whole. The island could come back together, Land and Sea reuniting. Then they would be at peace, right?
This was the only clue he had, the only lead. He had to take it. So, what was it telling him to do? Find the sun’s sacred metal, return it, and maybe restore a lost continent?
Would that save Peter?
He didn’t know. And he didn’t know what the “sun’s sacred metal” was. But, fortunately, he knew who might.
Kai gathered his papers and ran past the growing crowd of storm chasers back toward the Widow’s Walk.
He’d only reached the park by the church when he saw his family hurrying toward him. Grandma’s car was parked on the curb.
“I told you they’d be here,” Sophie said. On her phone, in her hand, was Mom’s face, frowning with worry. They must be burning data to stream a call to Mom.
“Where’s Peter?” Dad asked. He’d wrapped the cast on his arm in plastic, preparing for a water showdown.
“Fighting the Sea,” Kai said. “I’m glad you’re here.”
He walked to a picnic table, the same one his family had eaten lunch at a week ago, and put his papers on the table.
“Peter?” Sophie asked. “Our Peter?”
“And you left him there?” Mom asked.
“Yes! Please, don’t ask. There’s no time.” Kai found MacHale’s poems and read out the secret message. “If the sun’s sacred metal is returned, the island may become whole once more.”
He looked at Dad, Mom, Grandma, and Sophie. “I found this hidden in the riddles. It references the ‘sacred metal’ the Atlantean relics talk about. We need to find this metal and return it to … I don’t know. But we need to do it!”
Dad reached for him. “Slow down, Kai.”
“No!” Kai knew he should have slowed down, before, and thought about the clues more. He might have seen the truth. But now, Peter was in danger, the world was in danger, and this was as slow as he could stand. Sometimes, waiting was better. But he knew this wasn’t one of those times.
“Peter needs us now,” he said. “I’m not going to sit here wasting time arguing when I could be out there helping him, so does anyone here know what are they talking about when they refer to the ‘sun’s sacred metal’?”
His family looked at him, and then looked at one another. Kai was ready to explode with impatience when his mom and dad, at the same time, said, “Orichalcum.”
Sophie and Kai frowned. “What?”
Mom sighed, her voice cracking through the phone’s speaker. “Orichalcum. According to legend, the Atlanteans had some kind of precious metal, like gold, that they used and traded with. They called it ‘orichalcum.’”
“Some stories about it call it a precious metal,” Dad said, playing with the plastic wrap on his bad arm, “but others describe it as magical, or powerful, somehow. Either way, though, what it really was is unknown.”
Kai’s heart sank. Unknown? Peter was out there, trapped in the middle of a giant monster fight, and he didn’t have time to go hunting for some unknown metal.
Besides, what if Land or Sea actually won the fight? Right now they were stuck fighting in the ocean, away from any people. But once the battle was over, what would the victor destroy next?
“Well,” Mom said, “actually, that’s not entirely true.”
Kai looked at the screen. Mom’s eyes were red with exhaustion, but she smiled. “We have a pretty good idea of what kind of metal orichalcum is. It’s an alloy of copper and gold.”
“Copper and gold?” An alloy? Two different metals, melded together into one? That made sense to Kai. And the writings always referred to the metal as related to sunlight. Gold and red, like fire, like sunrise. “That’s it!”
“That’s rose gold,” Sophie said. “Or red gold, depending on the alloy composition. I just learned about it in my chemistry tutoring. It’s gold, so it doesn’t corrode, and apparently it gets redder with time.” She looked up at her family. “They sell it in any jewelry store.”
“Great!” Kai said. “So we need to get some red gold. We’ll just go to the nearest jewelry store, and—”
“It’s six in the morning,” Sophie said. “They’re all closed. Unless you’re suggesting we rob the place?”
“No. Well…” As Kai pondered the value of committing a crime to save Peter and Seaspire, Grandma gasped.
“My shield,” she said.
“Which one?” everyone else asked in unison.
“Oh, you know the one! It’s the one I use as a platter. The reddish one. It’s very old,” she said. “I thought Greek, maybe older. But I’ve never had to clean corrosion off it, not once. And you’ve seen how bright it is.”
