Secrets of Stone and Sea, page 8
“Wait.” Kai grabbed his arm. “Say that again. That last part.”
Peter frowned, then his jaw dropped as he understood. “Curtis failed to save Charles.”
“It’s in that backward poetic speech!” Kai said. “We’re looking for a guy named Curtis who failed to save a guy named Charles.”
Dad stopped typing. “Not a guy named Charles. A boat.” He showed them what he’d found.
Grandma snapped her fingers. “Of course! The Charles Haskell. The next seal is in Gloucester Harbor.”
CHAPTER 10
A DANGEROUS SEA
KAI
Kai turned to Grandma. “Gloucester Harbor?”
Grandma nodded. “Gloucester Harbor isn’t far from Dogtown, and it also has some strange stories. One is about a sea serpent that lives in the harbor.”
Crest glitters with golden scale. Kai couldn’t help grinning as he imagined a huge, golden snake swimming through the dark waves. This adventure was just getting cooler by the minute!
Grandma went on, the history professor inside her taking over. “The Charles Haskell was a fishing boat. When it was built in 1869, a workman was killed during construction. The boat was captained by a man named Curtis, and only a few days into captaining the ship, a storm hit. Captain Curtis ordered anchor lines cut so they could escape the storm, but that resulted in the Haskell hitting the Andrew Johnson. The Johnson’s crew was doomed.”
Grandma fell silent. Kai piped up, “But it sounds like Curtis did save the Charles Haskell. Maybe the poem refers to something else?”
Grandma shook her head. “He didn’t know it, but he doomed the ship. The next year, when the crew went out, two dozen ghostly sailors climbed over the sides and began to work alongside the living crew. This frightened the crew so much that Curtis had to bring the ship back to port. The ghost crews kept coming, and sailors kept refusing to sail, until the Haskell was no good for work because she could keep no crew. She either sank in Gloucester Harbor or rotted at the wharf years later.”
“Oh. Great. Ghosts.” Peter looked down.
Kai read the poem again. Spectral boards. Sure sounded like a ghost ship to him.
Kai’s grin expanded. A sea serpent and ghosts? Even better! And ghosts weren’t dangerous. How could something without a body hurt anyone? The sea serpent seemed like the bigger threat. He’d have to pack one of Grandma’s weapons.
For a moment, Kai imagined himself as a knight in armor, carrying a sword. He battled a gold-scaled serpent for glory and to save the world. Actually, that was what he was doing.
“So we go to Gloucester Harbor tomorrow,” Kai said. “All of us.”
Grandma’s eyes gleamed. “Well, boys, you won’t find me hiding at home when there’s a ghost ship and sea serpent to find. We’ll leave bright and early tomorrow. That sea demon won’t know what hit him, not with us as a team. Now, where did I put my harpoon?”
Kai grinned. He had the best grandmother in the world.
“No, no, no!” Dad had set down the laptop and was waving his arms. “None of you is going anywhere. You,” he said to Grandma, “have a meeting with the Cleanup Committee tomorrow. Remember?”
Grandma shrugged. “They can manage without me.”
“But it’s better if you’re there, right?” Dad looked desperate. Kai saw him glance at Grandma’s cane.
Then Dad turned to the boys. “And you. Today was dangerous. We went in without a plan. Tomorrow, we’re going to stay inside and look at the poems. Maybe they’ll give us more information, so we can end this without getting attacked by any more forests.”
Kai stood. “Dad, come on! We have less than a week. We have to go.”
“No, you don’t. I won’t drive you anywhere tomorrow.”
Kai’s heart sank. They could try to take a bus, but buses didn’t run until late morning, and by then Dad would be awake to make sure neither he nor Peter left the house. Looked like they’d have to spend a day deciphering poems. As much as he enjoyed solving puzzles, it wasn’t fighting a sea serpent for the fate of the world.
Thunder boomed. The freak storm still raged.
“We have to go,” Kai said, trying again. “Come on, Peter. Back me up.”
But Peter didn’t say anything. He just looked at Grandma’s weapons closet like it was an exhibit at the zoo.
“Peter!”
“Look, maybe Dad has a point. If we just take a day to prepare, we could make better progress when we get back to the hunt.”
Dad beamed. “Great minds think alike, Rocky.”
Kai turned away, disgusted. Leave Peter to back Dad up when Dad was being unreasonable. Good thing he had another adult to appeal to. Kai turned to Grandma.
But Grandma just smiled. “Listen to your father.” Before Kai could protest, she stood. “It’s getting late, and I’m sure you’re hungry. Kai, Peter, come help me make stir-fry.”
Fine. Kai went to the kitchen, where he helped chop vegetables but did not say another word to Passive Peter, even during the meal. He meant to hold a grudge against Grandma, too, but then she started telling stories about Roman legionnaires and Kai couldn’t resist forgiving her.
After dinner, while Dad and Sophie did the dishes, Kai printed out the poems to study. It was the only thing he was allowed to do to fight the sea creature. And hey, if he solved them tonight, Dad had no reason to keep them back from Gloucester Harbor the next morning.
Sifting through the old verses, he found them fascinating. The changing rhyme scheme, and the subtle clues woven through them. Had Roger MacHale really written these while asleep? And the haunting of the Charles Haskell hadn’t happened before MacHale wrote these. How had he known it would?
What if these riddles had gone unsolved for so long because things mentioned in them were in MacHale’s future? What if they needed to be read now, at this time, to understand them? Like, by a special, chosen hero? Like Kai and Peter.
That unique rhyme scheme … how clever, though Kai didn’t know why. There was a pattern to it he couldn’t see. Something MacHale had done on purpose, if he could have done anything on purpose while asleep. Even if it meant nothing to their quest, Kai wanted to know what it was.
Before he could figure it out, he found himself yawning deeply. It was late. So Kai and Peter trudged upstairs and went to bed.
In the dark, as the storm raged outside, Kai whispered, “Isn’t this exciting?”
A grunt. “I’m not sure ‘exciting’ is the word I’d use. We could have died today.” Silence for a moment. “Dad’s right. This is dangerous,” Peter said.
“But we didn’t. Die, I mean.” Kai stared at the ceiling. “I think we’re part of something bigger than we know. We’re … heroes.”
Peter laughed. “You would think of yourself as a hero. Just don’t think of how many so-called heroes don’t survive their quests.”
“Nah.” Kai rolled over. He wouldn’t let Peter’s pessimism get to him. There was a pattern here, too. Heroes were chosen. They fought. They won, and came home shining with glory. And so would he and Peter.
With that determined thought, Kai drifted off to sleep.
He found himself standing on a windswept beach. Flying sand burned his legs, and cold water sprayed from dark, crashing waves. Kai touched the drops where they struck his face. Wet, and cold. Like real water.
But I’m dreaming. I know this is a dream, but I can’t wake up.
The beach was not Seaspire’s shore. The sand was dark and reddish, like dried blood. A blue crab huddled beside a rock. When Kai turned around, he saw stone buildings nestled in a lush forest. Even under the cloudy sky, the buildings gleamed with gold and copper.
But there were no people. At least, none that Kai could see.
Maybe it’s because of the storm. They’re taking shelter.
Kai closed his eyes and tried, one more time, to wake up. It didn’t work.
“You shut out what you came to see, little human?”
Kai’s eyes opened with a snap. Spinning around, facing the ocean again, he saw the sea monster. Its slitted eyes stared into his.
This was only a dream. Kai was in no danger. But then again, two days ago he would have thought he was in no danger from violent forests and ancient sea gods, so what did he know?
Time to hero up. “Did I come to see this? Or did you bring me here?” He could afford a small risk. “What name should I call you?”
The creature grinned, baring its needle teeth. It snaked closer to Kai through the water. “I have had many. Each people that knew me chose their favorite aspects of me and gave them a name. Aegir, Lir, Sobek, all fragments of a whole. This people called me Oceanus, when they lived and breathed above the waves.” He gestured at the city behind Kai. “Now they live and breathe no more.”
Kai looked over his shoulder. “So this is Atlantis.”
“If that is what your people call it. They, too, had their own name.” The sea creature was almost at the shore, but it stopped. It dipped a hand into the water beside it, calming the churning waves, and then sending them higher and stronger than before. “I have many names,” it repeated. “But they all mean the same thing. I am the Sea, and the Sea is mine.”
“Well, good,” Kai said. “You keep it, and we’ll keep the land.”
The water swirled in a tight cyclone. The Sea’s eyes narrowed, and its fist clenched. “You dare insult me? I am the Sea!” it bellowed with the roar of a hurricane. Kai covered his ears as the wind pushed him back, sliding through the sand.
“Land is nothing compared to me, and it will feel my wrath!” With that, the Sea sent the water at Kai’s chest.
It struck Kai like a pro boxer’s fist, driving him back. The water swelled around him, flooding the city. Muffled screaming wavered from the gold-and-copper-decorated buildings, and the island itself seemed to buck and sway as the water drowned it, dragging tree and city and Kai down, down, down—
Kai woke up in his own bed, soaking wet and gasping. The roof had sprung a leak over his pillow. Rainwater from the storm violently raging outside trickled down over his chest and face.
And that wasn’t all. Rubbing his chest, Kai felt the grit of sand. A tiny turquoise crab skittered across his shirt. Kai seized it and threw it across the room.
Still choking on water, Kai rolled out of bed. He knelt beside his soaking pillow and breathed, deep and heavy. Whatever had happened was over. The important thing was to see to the leak.
The bed was now too wet to sleep in, so Kai wandered through the dark house to the living room and kitchen area. He grabbed a helmet that doubled as a bucket and a spare blanket. Once back in his room, he put the helmet under the leak and looked for a dry area on the floor to sleep for the rest of the night.
After he lay down in a space by the closet, Peter started thrashing.
Kai scrambled to his feet and ran over. Peter’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he gasped and kicked and fought.
Like he was drowning.
Kai reached out to Peter. As soon as he touched him, the window burst open. Wind howled and rain spit at both boys. Once again, Kai felt sand in the water that blasted against his skin. But Kai didn’t let go. “Wake up!” he yelled.
With a deep, shuddering breath, Peter sat up. His eyes darted around the room, before landing first on Kai and then on the open window. “Come on,” he said, sliding out of bed.
Together they forced the window closed. Kai latched it, and Peter placed Grandma’s Viking hammer against it so it couldn’t open again.
Breathing heavily, the brothers looked at each other. Kai searched Peter for any damage. If anything happened to his brother, he was going to take Grandma’s sharpest sword down to the beach and issue a challenge to that creature.
The Sea.
Peter’s breath slowed. He looked past Kai to the leak pattering into the helmet.
“Just a storm,” he said, though Kai noticed his twin brushing sand off his arm. “Just some rain.”
He lay back and rolled over. Kai muttered, “Good night,” and went back to his patch of dry floor.
The little crab sidled past Kai, and Kai smashed at it with a book so it couldn’t go back to its master to report. He was pretty sure he got it.
Had Peter had the same dream as Kai? It was possible; they were twins. They shared things all the time. It was easy to believe they shared this, too.
Now, Peter had to take this more seriously. No more of this passive waiting. Peter would have to take action to fight back.
Or at least, that’s what Kai told himself.
CHAPTER 11
WHAT SWIMS BELOW
PETER
The next morning, Peter woke, damp and groggy, to Grandma shaking him at the crack of dawn. “Shh,” she said. “Hurry and get dressed. We’ll have breakfast on the way.”
“The way?” Peter asked. He yawned, but rolled out of bed. Kai was already up and getting dressed.
“To Gloucester Harbor,” Grandma said.
“But Dad said we couldn’t go.”
“He said he wouldn’t drive you. But I will.” Grandma turned her head, looking down the hall toward where Dad was still sleeping. “This needs to be done, and you two need to do it. Alex must learn to understand that, or…” She patted Peter’s knee. “I’ll be waiting at the car.”
Kai beamed at Peter. “Best Grandma ever.”
But Peter couldn’t summon the excitement. He got dressed and ready, since that was expected, but he couldn’t help but startle when he saw sand on the ground. When he closed his eyes, he saw the Sea.
He remembered standing on that dark beach, that gleaming city behind him. The creature appearing in front of him in the waves. The way it felt so real.
That’s because of the storm. The water, hitting my sleeping face. But that didn’t explain why the dream was so clear, especially in the strange way the creature that called itself the Sea ignored everything Peter said and answered different questions.
When Peter told the creature to back off, it made a comment about its name. When, curious, Peter asked about the name, it started talking about the island. And, finally, when Peter asked where everyone was, it named itself as the Sea (convenient, since that’s what the Syracuses were calling it already) and threw some kind of tantrum. That’s when he woke up, gasping for air.
It was like the dream was prerecorded, meant for someone else. And since Kai had been awake when Peter’s dream ended, Peter had a suspicion that it was really Kai’s dream, not his.
Not that that was a bad thing. It gave Peter a chance to watch and learn without having to actually interact with this sea creature. Let Kai handle the confrontations; Peter didn’t want any part of it.
He wondered what stupid thing Kai said to make the creature so angry.
Peter wanted to suggest they wait at home and figure out what was really going on, like Dad wanted, but he couldn’t. Not when Grandma was downstairs, car packed with the harpoon she’d been looking for, along with a couple of bronze daggers and her cane sword. Not when Kai acted like they were going to Disney World.
So Peter climbed into the car and placed his breakfast order when they went through a drive-through. He spent the ride wondering why it was so important to Kai that they take action now instead of waiting to make a plan.
A tiny blue crab had gotten into Grandma’s car. Peter tossed pieces of ham at it to distract himself from thinking of all the ways they could fail and get hurt today.
Before too long, the car arrived at its destination. The large harbor was full of sailboats and fishing boats. Grandma hid the daggers inside an embroidered bag and, with a smile, said, “We’ll come back for the harpoon if we need it. Let’s get searching.”
Peter scooped up the little crab and released it in the parking lot. It scrabbled sideways toward the sea. At least someone was where he wanted to be.
The day was overcast but pleasant. Peter and Kai followed Grandma to a busier area of the harbor, near a pier and a sandy beach to the left. A statue of a sailor, green with age, looked out over the harbor as he turned a ship’s wheel.
Grandma noticed Peter looking at it. “The Fisherman’s Memorial.”
The Charles Haskell was a fishing ship. Peter followed the man’s gaze over the water, but all he saw were boats and small islands decorated with lighthouses.
“I don’t see anything,” Peter said. “Kai?”
Kai shook his head. “There’s no binding word in the ocean, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Grandma shrugged. She pulled a camera out of her bag and snapped a picture of the statue. “In case we need it,” she said, grinning. “Always bring a camera on an adventure.” Then she tucked the camera away and said, “The harbor is big, and this is just one area. Let’s get searching!”
As Grandma hitched her bag full of weapons higher on her shoulder and marched away with her sword cane clicking against the stone, Peter turned to Kai. “Do you think we’ll get in trouble for coming here instead of staying home and making a plan to stop the Sea?”
“Grandma is Dad’s mom. If anyone can tell him what to do, it’s her,” Kai said, then stopped. “Wait, did you just call it the Sea?”
“Yeah. I saw your dream last night.”
“Why?”
“How should I know?”
Kai fell silent, thinking, and Peter ran ahead to where Grandma was singing a bouncy ditty to herself: “It was Friday morn when we set sail. We were not far from the land. The captain he spied a mermaid so fair with a comb and a glass in her hand.”
“That’s a fun song, Grandma,” Peter said. “What is it?”
“Hmm? Oh, just a sea chantey,” Grandma said. “It’s called ‘The Mermaid,’ and it’s actually about a ship of sailors seeing a mermaid and knowing they were doomed. A mermaid was an omen of shipwreck, you see.”
Huh. The Sea had a fishy, or snaky, tail. Maybe that was where the legend came from.
“Weren’t chanteys sung by sailors?” Kai, just catching up, asked.
Grandma nodded. “They had strong beats to help synchronize work. Lots of sailing involved rope handling and rowing and other jobs that needed to be perfectly timed. Singing a song helped that timing. Then, like now, a team had to be perfectly united or they wouldn’t succeed.”
Peter frowned, then his jaw dropped as he understood. “Curtis failed to save Charles.”
“It’s in that backward poetic speech!” Kai said. “We’re looking for a guy named Curtis who failed to save a guy named Charles.”
Dad stopped typing. “Not a guy named Charles. A boat.” He showed them what he’d found.
Grandma snapped her fingers. “Of course! The Charles Haskell. The next seal is in Gloucester Harbor.”
CHAPTER 10
A DANGEROUS SEA
KAI
Kai turned to Grandma. “Gloucester Harbor?”
Grandma nodded. “Gloucester Harbor isn’t far from Dogtown, and it also has some strange stories. One is about a sea serpent that lives in the harbor.”
Crest glitters with golden scale. Kai couldn’t help grinning as he imagined a huge, golden snake swimming through the dark waves. This adventure was just getting cooler by the minute!
Grandma went on, the history professor inside her taking over. “The Charles Haskell was a fishing boat. When it was built in 1869, a workman was killed during construction. The boat was captained by a man named Curtis, and only a few days into captaining the ship, a storm hit. Captain Curtis ordered anchor lines cut so they could escape the storm, but that resulted in the Haskell hitting the Andrew Johnson. The Johnson’s crew was doomed.”
Grandma fell silent. Kai piped up, “But it sounds like Curtis did save the Charles Haskell. Maybe the poem refers to something else?”
Grandma shook her head. “He didn’t know it, but he doomed the ship. The next year, when the crew went out, two dozen ghostly sailors climbed over the sides and began to work alongside the living crew. This frightened the crew so much that Curtis had to bring the ship back to port. The ghost crews kept coming, and sailors kept refusing to sail, until the Haskell was no good for work because she could keep no crew. She either sank in Gloucester Harbor or rotted at the wharf years later.”
“Oh. Great. Ghosts.” Peter looked down.
Kai read the poem again. Spectral boards. Sure sounded like a ghost ship to him.
Kai’s grin expanded. A sea serpent and ghosts? Even better! And ghosts weren’t dangerous. How could something without a body hurt anyone? The sea serpent seemed like the bigger threat. He’d have to pack one of Grandma’s weapons.
For a moment, Kai imagined himself as a knight in armor, carrying a sword. He battled a gold-scaled serpent for glory and to save the world. Actually, that was what he was doing.
“So we go to Gloucester Harbor tomorrow,” Kai said. “All of us.”
Grandma’s eyes gleamed. “Well, boys, you won’t find me hiding at home when there’s a ghost ship and sea serpent to find. We’ll leave bright and early tomorrow. That sea demon won’t know what hit him, not with us as a team. Now, where did I put my harpoon?”
Kai grinned. He had the best grandmother in the world.
“No, no, no!” Dad had set down the laptop and was waving his arms. “None of you is going anywhere. You,” he said to Grandma, “have a meeting with the Cleanup Committee tomorrow. Remember?”
Grandma shrugged. “They can manage without me.”
“But it’s better if you’re there, right?” Dad looked desperate. Kai saw him glance at Grandma’s cane.
Then Dad turned to the boys. “And you. Today was dangerous. We went in without a plan. Tomorrow, we’re going to stay inside and look at the poems. Maybe they’ll give us more information, so we can end this without getting attacked by any more forests.”
Kai stood. “Dad, come on! We have less than a week. We have to go.”
“No, you don’t. I won’t drive you anywhere tomorrow.”
Kai’s heart sank. They could try to take a bus, but buses didn’t run until late morning, and by then Dad would be awake to make sure neither he nor Peter left the house. Looked like they’d have to spend a day deciphering poems. As much as he enjoyed solving puzzles, it wasn’t fighting a sea serpent for the fate of the world.
Thunder boomed. The freak storm still raged.
“We have to go,” Kai said, trying again. “Come on, Peter. Back me up.”
But Peter didn’t say anything. He just looked at Grandma’s weapons closet like it was an exhibit at the zoo.
“Peter!”
“Look, maybe Dad has a point. If we just take a day to prepare, we could make better progress when we get back to the hunt.”
Dad beamed. “Great minds think alike, Rocky.”
Kai turned away, disgusted. Leave Peter to back Dad up when Dad was being unreasonable. Good thing he had another adult to appeal to. Kai turned to Grandma.
But Grandma just smiled. “Listen to your father.” Before Kai could protest, she stood. “It’s getting late, and I’m sure you’re hungry. Kai, Peter, come help me make stir-fry.”
Fine. Kai went to the kitchen, where he helped chop vegetables but did not say another word to Passive Peter, even during the meal. He meant to hold a grudge against Grandma, too, but then she started telling stories about Roman legionnaires and Kai couldn’t resist forgiving her.
After dinner, while Dad and Sophie did the dishes, Kai printed out the poems to study. It was the only thing he was allowed to do to fight the sea creature. And hey, if he solved them tonight, Dad had no reason to keep them back from Gloucester Harbor the next morning.
Sifting through the old verses, he found them fascinating. The changing rhyme scheme, and the subtle clues woven through them. Had Roger MacHale really written these while asleep? And the haunting of the Charles Haskell hadn’t happened before MacHale wrote these. How had he known it would?
What if these riddles had gone unsolved for so long because things mentioned in them were in MacHale’s future? What if they needed to be read now, at this time, to understand them? Like, by a special, chosen hero? Like Kai and Peter.
That unique rhyme scheme … how clever, though Kai didn’t know why. There was a pattern to it he couldn’t see. Something MacHale had done on purpose, if he could have done anything on purpose while asleep. Even if it meant nothing to their quest, Kai wanted to know what it was.
Before he could figure it out, he found himself yawning deeply. It was late. So Kai and Peter trudged upstairs and went to bed.
In the dark, as the storm raged outside, Kai whispered, “Isn’t this exciting?”
A grunt. “I’m not sure ‘exciting’ is the word I’d use. We could have died today.” Silence for a moment. “Dad’s right. This is dangerous,” Peter said.
“But we didn’t. Die, I mean.” Kai stared at the ceiling. “I think we’re part of something bigger than we know. We’re … heroes.”
Peter laughed. “You would think of yourself as a hero. Just don’t think of how many so-called heroes don’t survive their quests.”
“Nah.” Kai rolled over. He wouldn’t let Peter’s pessimism get to him. There was a pattern here, too. Heroes were chosen. They fought. They won, and came home shining with glory. And so would he and Peter.
With that determined thought, Kai drifted off to sleep.
He found himself standing on a windswept beach. Flying sand burned his legs, and cold water sprayed from dark, crashing waves. Kai touched the drops where they struck his face. Wet, and cold. Like real water.
But I’m dreaming. I know this is a dream, but I can’t wake up.
The beach was not Seaspire’s shore. The sand was dark and reddish, like dried blood. A blue crab huddled beside a rock. When Kai turned around, he saw stone buildings nestled in a lush forest. Even under the cloudy sky, the buildings gleamed with gold and copper.
But there were no people. At least, none that Kai could see.
Maybe it’s because of the storm. They’re taking shelter.
Kai closed his eyes and tried, one more time, to wake up. It didn’t work.
“You shut out what you came to see, little human?”
Kai’s eyes opened with a snap. Spinning around, facing the ocean again, he saw the sea monster. Its slitted eyes stared into his.
This was only a dream. Kai was in no danger. But then again, two days ago he would have thought he was in no danger from violent forests and ancient sea gods, so what did he know?
Time to hero up. “Did I come to see this? Or did you bring me here?” He could afford a small risk. “What name should I call you?”
The creature grinned, baring its needle teeth. It snaked closer to Kai through the water. “I have had many. Each people that knew me chose their favorite aspects of me and gave them a name. Aegir, Lir, Sobek, all fragments of a whole. This people called me Oceanus, when they lived and breathed above the waves.” He gestured at the city behind Kai. “Now they live and breathe no more.”
Kai looked over his shoulder. “So this is Atlantis.”
“If that is what your people call it. They, too, had their own name.” The sea creature was almost at the shore, but it stopped. It dipped a hand into the water beside it, calming the churning waves, and then sending them higher and stronger than before. “I have many names,” it repeated. “But they all mean the same thing. I am the Sea, and the Sea is mine.”
“Well, good,” Kai said. “You keep it, and we’ll keep the land.”
The water swirled in a tight cyclone. The Sea’s eyes narrowed, and its fist clenched. “You dare insult me? I am the Sea!” it bellowed with the roar of a hurricane. Kai covered his ears as the wind pushed him back, sliding through the sand.
“Land is nothing compared to me, and it will feel my wrath!” With that, the Sea sent the water at Kai’s chest.
It struck Kai like a pro boxer’s fist, driving him back. The water swelled around him, flooding the city. Muffled screaming wavered from the gold-and-copper-decorated buildings, and the island itself seemed to buck and sway as the water drowned it, dragging tree and city and Kai down, down, down—
Kai woke up in his own bed, soaking wet and gasping. The roof had sprung a leak over his pillow. Rainwater from the storm violently raging outside trickled down over his chest and face.
And that wasn’t all. Rubbing his chest, Kai felt the grit of sand. A tiny turquoise crab skittered across his shirt. Kai seized it and threw it across the room.
Still choking on water, Kai rolled out of bed. He knelt beside his soaking pillow and breathed, deep and heavy. Whatever had happened was over. The important thing was to see to the leak.
The bed was now too wet to sleep in, so Kai wandered through the dark house to the living room and kitchen area. He grabbed a helmet that doubled as a bucket and a spare blanket. Once back in his room, he put the helmet under the leak and looked for a dry area on the floor to sleep for the rest of the night.
After he lay down in a space by the closet, Peter started thrashing.
Kai scrambled to his feet and ran over. Peter’s eyes rolled back in his head, and he gasped and kicked and fought.
Like he was drowning.
Kai reached out to Peter. As soon as he touched him, the window burst open. Wind howled and rain spit at both boys. Once again, Kai felt sand in the water that blasted against his skin. But Kai didn’t let go. “Wake up!” he yelled.
With a deep, shuddering breath, Peter sat up. His eyes darted around the room, before landing first on Kai and then on the open window. “Come on,” he said, sliding out of bed.
Together they forced the window closed. Kai latched it, and Peter placed Grandma’s Viking hammer against it so it couldn’t open again.
Breathing heavily, the brothers looked at each other. Kai searched Peter for any damage. If anything happened to his brother, he was going to take Grandma’s sharpest sword down to the beach and issue a challenge to that creature.
The Sea.
Peter’s breath slowed. He looked past Kai to the leak pattering into the helmet.
“Just a storm,” he said, though Kai noticed his twin brushing sand off his arm. “Just some rain.”
He lay back and rolled over. Kai muttered, “Good night,” and went back to his patch of dry floor.
The little crab sidled past Kai, and Kai smashed at it with a book so it couldn’t go back to its master to report. He was pretty sure he got it.
Had Peter had the same dream as Kai? It was possible; they were twins. They shared things all the time. It was easy to believe they shared this, too.
Now, Peter had to take this more seriously. No more of this passive waiting. Peter would have to take action to fight back.
Or at least, that’s what Kai told himself.
CHAPTER 11
WHAT SWIMS BELOW
PETER
The next morning, Peter woke, damp and groggy, to Grandma shaking him at the crack of dawn. “Shh,” she said. “Hurry and get dressed. We’ll have breakfast on the way.”
“The way?” Peter asked. He yawned, but rolled out of bed. Kai was already up and getting dressed.
“To Gloucester Harbor,” Grandma said.
“But Dad said we couldn’t go.”
“He said he wouldn’t drive you. But I will.” Grandma turned her head, looking down the hall toward where Dad was still sleeping. “This needs to be done, and you two need to do it. Alex must learn to understand that, or…” She patted Peter’s knee. “I’ll be waiting at the car.”
Kai beamed at Peter. “Best Grandma ever.”
But Peter couldn’t summon the excitement. He got dressed and ready, since that was expected, but he couldn’t help but startle when he saw sand on the ground. When he closed his eyes, he saw the Sea.
He remembered standing on that dark beach, that gleaming city behind him. The creature appearing in front of him in the waves. The way it felt so real.
That’s because of the storm. The water, hitting my sleeping face. But that didn’t explain why the dream was so clear, especially in the strange way the creature that called itself the Sea ignored everything Peter said and answered different questions.
When Peter told the creature to back off, it made a comment about its name. When, curious, Peter asked about the name, it started talking about the island. And, finally, when Peter asked where everyone was, it named itself as the Sea (convenient, since that’s what the Syracuses were calling it already) and threw some kind of tantrum. That’s when he woke up, gasping for air.
It was like the dream was prerecorded, meant for someone else. And since Kai had been awake when Peter’s dream ended, Peter had a suspicion that it was really Kai’s dream, not his.
Not that that was a bad thing. It gave Peter a chance to watch and learn without having to actually interact with this sea creature. Let Kai handle the confrontations; Peter didn’t want any part of it.
He wondered what stupid thing Kai said to make the creature so angry.
Peter wanted to suggest they wait at home and figure out what was really going on, like Dad wanted, but he couldn’t. Not when Grandma was downstairs, car packed with the harpoon she’d been looking for, along with a couple of bronze daggers and her cane sword. Not when Kai acted like they were going to Disney World.
So Peter climbed into the car and placed his breakfast order when they went through a drive-through. He spent the ride wondering why it was so important to Kai that they take action now instead of waiting to make a plan.
A tiny blue crab had gotten into Grandma’s car. Peter tossed pieces of ham at it to distract himself from thinking of all the ways they could fail and get hurt today.
Before too long, the car arrived at its destination. The large harbor was full of sailboats and fishing boats. Grandma hid the daggers inside an embroidered bag and, with a smile, said, “We’ll come back for the harpoon if we need it. Let’s get searching.”
Peter scooped up the little crab and released it in the parking lot. It scrabbled sideways toward the sea. At least someone was where he wanted to be.
The day was overcast but pleasant. Peter and Kai followed Grandma to a busier area of the harbor, near a pier and a sandy beach to the left. A statue of a sailor, green with age, looked out over the harbor as he turned a ship’s wheel.
Grandma noticed Peter looking at it. “The Fisherman’s Memorial.”
The Charles Haskell was a fishing ship. Peter followed the man’s gaze over the water, but all he saw were boats and small islands decorated with lighthouses.
“I don’t see anything,” Peter said. “Kai?”
Kai shook his head. “There’s no binding word in the ocean, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Grandma shrugged. She pulled a camera out of her bag and snapped a picture of the statue. “In case we need it,” she said, grinning. “Always bring a camera on an adventure.” Then she tucked the camera away and said, “The harbor is big, and this is just one area. Let’s get searching!”
As Grandma hitched her bag full of weapons higher on her shoulder and marched away with her sword cane clicking against the stone, Peter turned to Kai. “Do you think we’ll get in trouble for coming here instead of staying home and making a plan to stop the Sea?”
“Grandma is Dad’s mom. If anyone can tell him what to do, it’s her,” Kai said, then stopped. “Wait, did you just call it the Sea?”
“Yeah. I saw your dream last night.”
“Why?”
“How should I know?”
Kai fell silent, thinking, and Peter ran ahead to where Grandma was singing a bouncy ditty to herself: “It was Friday morn when we set sail. We were not far from the land. The captain he spied a mermaid so fair with a comb and a glass in her hand.”
“That’s a fun song, Grandma,” Peter said. “What is it?”
“Hmm? Oh, just a sea chantey,” Grandma said. “It’s called ‘The Mermaid,’ and it’s actually about a ship of sailors seeing a mermaid and knowing they were doomed. A mermaid was an omen of shipwreck, you see.”
Huh. The Sea had a fishy, or snaky, tail. Maybe that was where the legend came from.
“Weren’t chanteys sung by sailors?” Kai, just catching up, asked.
Grandma nodded. “They had strong beats to help synchronize work. Lots of sailing involved rope handling and rowing and other jobs that needed to be perfectly timed. Singing a song helped that timing. Then, like now, a team had to be perfectly united or they wouldn’t succeed.”
