Chapter Twenty-Three
As they followed the two silvery villagers to the end of the dock, Calisa shot another glance at Jack. She couldn’t imagine everything he must be feeling right now—so close to a reunion with his father. She wondered if she should step back, let him have the moment to himself.
“Are you okay?” Calisa asked. “Do you want to be alone? I could return to the portal. I’ll wait for you there, if you want this moment with your dad.”
He was staring straight out at the water.
He took her hand.
On her shoulder, Steve let out a tiny chirp, as if he wanted to say he was here too.
Vela and Enkle halted at the end of the dock beside a curled horn.
It was taller than Enkle, and it curved out over the water.
The mouthpiece was framed in gold, and the horn itself looked like mother-of-pearl.
Calisa wondered what sort of creature it had come from.
She didn’t ask, just filed it away to ask later.
It occurred to her that she was collecting far more than a summer’s worth of questions. Every person she met, every realm she visited, led to a dozen more.
“This horn summons all the fishers to the dock. It’s used for storm warnings, as well as the start of festivals,” Vela explained. “If we blow it, your father and the others will know to return to dock.”
“Then blow it,” Calisa said. “Please. Jack and his father have waited long enough.”
Jack seemed unable to speak. He was clutching her hand hard.
Vela and Enkle exchanged glances, and she wondered why they were hesitating. She had no way of knowing how long the portal would stay open. Didn’t they understand that?
“He won’t be the only one to return to dock,” Enkle explained.
“We’ll apologize to the other fishers,” Calisa said.
She’d blow the horn herself if she had to.
Jack deserved to see his father, and his father needed to know they were here—and then they all needed to get back before the portal closed again.
Surely that was worth missing some fishing time.
She could pay them all back for the lost fish in chocolate cake. Or whatever.
Vela shook her head. “You don’t understand. It won’t be just the fishers who come.” She exchanged another glance with Enkle. “Thomas wasn’t afraid at the first horn blow. Perhaps these two won’t be afraid either. Look what she carries on her shoulder as if it were a tame pet.”
“His name is Steve,” Calisa told them again.
“See, she’s even named it,” Vela said. “She’s brave enough, and he only wishes to be reunited with his father. All will be well.”
Enkle said to Calisa and Jack, “If you are calm, it can be beautiful.”
Okay, this was sounding ominous. Maybe they weren’t worried about lost fishing time. Calisa began to feel a tickle of nervousness. She noticed her hand was sweaty, squeezed by Jack. “What can? What’s going to happen? Who’s coming?”
But Vela had already placed her lips on the mouthpiece. She blew, and a low note unrolled across the waves. The water rippled as the sound spread.
The note seemed to grow louder, echoing like thunder in the belly of a storm—it echoed off the cliff faces, and it was reflected back by the sea.
Vela stepped away from the horn.
“Now what?” Calisa asked.
Steve let out a nervous chirp.
“Now? We wait,” Enkle said. He crossed his hands in front of him. Vela stood beside him, her hands also crossed. They both looked out at the waves.
Calisa scanned the ocean, looking for ships.
She wondered how far out the fishers sailed, as well as what kind of fish they caught.
What was in these waters? They’d mentioned a lobster trap, which indicated they at least had crustaceans in common.
Unless their word for lobster actually meant an entirely different creature, and the portal magic was just doing its best to translate. She didn’t know if…
The sea began to churn.
A tentacle flailed out of the waves, followed by a second tentacle. “Whoa,” she breathed.
“Uh, Calisa…” Jack said, strained. “Is that a…”
She was fairly certain the word was kraken, no translation needed.
Beyond the kraken, she saw a silvery sea snake, perhaps the same one they’d seen from the cliffs, swim closer to shore, winding through the waves.
It was at least twice the length of a bus.
A second sea snake, golden in color, followed.
It was even larger, and when it raised its head out of the water, Calisa saw rows of swordlike teeth.
Soon, the sea around the dock was filled with massive creatures.
Vela and Enkle continued to stand side by side, motionless, with their hands crossed, looking out across the water. Steve buried his face into Calisa’s hair.
Calisa tried to convince her heart to stop galloping as the sea around the dock continued to fill with sea monsters.
The waves battered at the pilings, and water sloshed onto the boards.
What if one of the tentacles smacked down on the dock?
It would break it. A single sea snake could swallow it, if it wanted to.
But it didn’t seem to want to.
The monsters swarmed, but they didn’t attack.
It occurred to her after a few more moments of not being eaten that the sea monsters looked as if they were dancing.
Not to music, but within the waves. They wove between each other, the snakes winding into elaborate braids that then unraveled.
The tentacles undulated, causing the waves to pulse against the current.
“They come,” Enkle said.
“Steady. You may find this startling,” Vela warned them.
More startling than dancing sea monsters?
The fishers looked, at first, like figures standing on an island—an island that was moving toward the dock at high speed.
But what was propelling them? They were scurrying over a rounded surface that looked like an inverted boat.
As it drew closer, Calisa saw the “boat” lift its head out of the water.
“That,” Jack said in a strangled voice, “is a very large turtle.”
It was. A turtle. And extremely large. It carried at least a dozen figures on its back as it swam toward the dock. When it was closer, Calisa saw its face, as gray as granite and as wrinkled as Auntie Zee’s. Its eyes were a swirl of black and gray, reminding Calisa of the portals.
The sea snakes and krakens parted to allow the vast turtle to approach the dock. Calisa noticed that near the tail a contraption was lashed to the enormous shell—it had pulleys and netting like on a fishing boat back home. Beside it was a man without scales.
Jack lurched forward. “Dad!”
Vela and Enkle caught him on the edge of the dock as one of the kraken snapped a tentacle up. “Calm,” Vela cautioned in a soft, steady voice. “You don’t want to flail like a fish. Accidents have happened.”
Jack froze and just stared.
Behind them, Calisa watched as the island-like turtle swam close to the dock, and the fisherfolk clambered off the shell. “What’s the emergency?” one of them asked.
“Who’s this? Another scaleless one? Hey, Thomas, this one of yours?” a woman called.
The man by the netting held his hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun. “What did you say? Is it an emergency or a festival?”
Jack seemed frozen. So Calisa waved. “Hello!” she called. “Hi, Jack’s dad!”
“He’s lost his glasses,” Jack said in a strained voice.
But it didn’t matter. Thomas was climbing over the shell, and the other fishers—who had seen Jack, recognized the resemblance, and put two and two together—were all helping him along, offering him a hand, half shoving him over the shell, until Jack’s father reached the dock and slid the final bit of distance to dismount from the shell.
Now he could see his son.
The two of them stared at each other.
And then they were crying and hugging and talking so fast that the words spilled over each other, churning like the waves in the monster-filled sea.
—
Soon, the shoreline was filled with celebrants.
Someone called for a feast, and within half an hour, tables were set up and piled high with breads, jams, fruits, and other treats that Calisa didn’t recognize.
Musicians hauled instruments out of their houses, while others knocked on doors, calling everyone outside for a celebration: a father and son reunited!
“Shouldn’t we be getting back to the portal?” Calisa whispered to Jack.
“If my dad’s not worried…”
His dad had been the one trapped here for three years. She supposed he knew far more about how the portals worked than she did. She told herself to relax and celebrate. This was an unexpected victory.
Off the shore, the sea monsters careened through the waves, while the villagers tossed them fish heads and fish tails and other bits of leftover food, as if they were feeding sea gulls at the beach.
In front of the lodging house, one villager played a three-pronged flute, while another beat the rhythm on a drum set made of barrels and shells.
A third played an instrument that resembled a cello but only had three strings.
Others took turns singing—some well and some not so well.
Sitting on a bench with Jack and Calisa, Jack’s dad joined in on one of the songs, and the tune was so catchy that Calisa hummed along until she’d heard enough that she was able to jump in on the chorus.
When the song ended, Thomas leaned toward them. “I’m sorry. I know you’re Jack’s friend, but who are you? And is that a dragon on your shoulder? I’ve never seen one that small.”
Calisa noted he had the same eyes as his son, though his were red-rimmed and had wrinkles that curled around them. “I’m Auntie Zee’s grandniece, Calisa. And this is Steve. He’s…a guest at the inn, sort of. Or he came with a guest. He seems to like me.”
He squinted at her. “I remember you. You were”—he gestured to about half her height—“smaller the last time I saw you. Little Cali. Jack, you remember, don’t you?”
“Hmm?” Jack was distracted by a plate of shrimp speckled with spices.