Chapter 12 #2
Cressida suddenly paused and looked around, as if scared someone might find her here. I ducked, knowing she couldn’t see me, but hoping she wouldn’t detect my presence.
Something rustled in the bushes nearby and the princess jumped up, covering the ball with her dark cloak. “Who’s there?” Her voice trembled, and her fingers shook.
A mongoose scurried across the opening, and she pressed a hand against her heart, her face pale with fear. Then she let out a breath and knelt down, the ball no longer glowing.
Cressida whispered some words.
A spell? Aunty Lorelei had said a spell to activate my potion. How was this any different?
The golden ball takes magic from the natural inhabitants of the island. The coquis are not from here, so it doesn’t take from them… I gaped. But this ball… it turns people to frogs!
And that was all I needed to know. I had my evidence. I had seen everything I needed to see. Part of me wanted to dash into the clearing, grab the ball, and run away so I could destroy it, but I hesitated.
What if she turns me into a frog? I couldn’t risk that. I’d tell Ezra. Now.
I tiptoed back, my heart racing, hoping she would not see or hear me. But, of course, I tripped on a root. The leaves and twigs cracked and rustled beneath me. I internally cursed.
Oh, squid ink!
“Who’s there?” Cressida’s voice sounded again, and this time, she was moving. So I was moving. I bolted away into the darkness, hearing her call after me. “Stop!”
She didn’t see me, right? She didn’t recognize me, right?
I didn’t stop running, tripping, and getting back up until I reached the palace.
I was still ridiculously clumsy with these legs.
When I reached the terrace garden, I slipped behind a pile of barrels, close to the palace walls, to catch my breath.
After a moment, I dared to look in the direction I came, but there was nobody.
Perhaps Cressida gave up trying to catch me.
Slipping out of the shadows, I moved towards the palace, nodding to the guards who eyed my sweaty face with raised eyebrows.
Ezra. I had to tell him. Now.
I was right.
Cressida turned him into a frog! She had to be arrested. As I turned the corner, my stomach sank like an anchor dropping quickly into the water.
Tavo stood at the end of the covered walkway, his back turned towards me. I darted behind the nearest pillar, silently disappearing behind a bush of large monstera leaves.
Tavo didn’t even notice. Didn’t even look.
As far as I knew, he wasn’t aware of my presence.
In fact, he looked like he was waiting for someone. Footsteps sounded through the covered walkway and a man appeared.
Fair skin. Fair hair. Blue eyes.
The man was a fish out of water amongst the brown-skinned natives.
“Well?” Tavo folded his arms, his back still towards me. “Who is she?”
“It’s true,” the man said, and Tavo shook his head, turning around and rubbing his chin.
I crouched lower in the bush, listening.
“So she’s not from here… then what is she hiding? Does she have Ezra under a spell?”
“She can’t talk… so how could her song put the king under a trance?” asked the man, and I realized he and Tavo were talking about, well, me!
“Mermaids…” Tavo shook his head. “How did Ezra catch a mermaid?”
My eyes widened. How did he know? We hadn’t told anyone… except Kalei and Ho‘ohuli…
Did they betray us? The sting was worse than a jellyfish burn and I shuddered.
“I can take her back to her world,” said Tavo, thinking aloud. “Make her trust me. Ezra is probably lying to her about taking her to the sea.”
“Why would he do that?” asked the man, confused.
“Same reason father tried to trap Ezra’s mother.”
Ezra’s mother? What is he talking about? I shook my head and Tavo ran his fingers through his hair. “Ezra doesn’t have what it takes to be king. He never did. I’ll get that mermaid to side with me, and we’ll take the kingdom back.”
What? I kept shaking my head, even though nobody could see me.
“Wait, so let me get this straight,” the man said. “The mermaid is helping the island? If her time is running out, though, what use will she be?”
“I’ll follow the same plan as Ezra,” Tavo said, nodding.
What plan?
I was the glad the foreigner was confused as myself, because Tavo explained.
“Ezra never planned on taking the mermaid to the sea because he wants to use her power to strengthen the land and heal the birds. He knows if he takes her to the sea, she’ll swim away.
She’ll go back to her world. So he’s determined to keep her here.
Not because he loves her, but because he needs her gift. ”
My resilience faltered as Tavo continued. “Just her presence is healing the land. There are other forces at work that are killing it, like the frogs–”
And Cressida, I thought.
“… but that mermaid…” Tavo rubbed his chin thoughtfully again. “By the time she turns to sea foam, she would have brought the songbirds back to life, brought the trees back… It’s a temporary fix, of course, but enough that the people will trust Ezra is doing good for them.”
At this point, I should have called for Ezra in my mind, to tell him the lies his brother shared with this foreigner. But doubt crept in, like an eel sliding into a reef crevice.
What if? I swallowed hard. Ezra had not taken me to the ocean. He kept bringing it up, kept saying he wanted to… but what if Tavo was right? I had just… trusted Ezra. Had never questioned him.
But now I began to wonder.
Tavo and the man began walking away, speaking in quiet tones and leaving me in the bushes alone. I swatted at a bug biting my leg. Couldn’t stand the itchy bug bites I was getting from standing here, but what choice did I have?
A shiver ran down my spine. I didn’t believe Tavo… or, at least, I didn’t want to. But I did begin to question… why hadn’t Ezra taken me? He had a million reasons, and I excused him several times as well… but should I have done that?
And, suddenly, the world felt incredibly heavy. The weight of everything fell on my shoulders, as if a whale was sinking on me. What if I can’t trust Ezra? Was he really just going to let me die?
He hasn’t taken me to the sea… So… maybe? Tears welled up in my eyes and I ran to my room before they fell. I felt so lost… so terrified. In a world I didn’t know, surrounded by people I thought I could trust and yet… I could not.
And, for the first time since leaving, I desperately wished I could be home: safe, in the underwater world, hidden from view of the outside, political, torrential world of the humans.