Chapter 10
Maggie
“Anything a mermaid could ever wish for is in Atlantis,” Selina announced as they passed beneath the ancient city’s stone arches.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the city transformed into a bustling and active center for mermaids and mermen alike.
“From tail shiners to the famous SeaShell Mall – we’ve got it all! ”
Maggie frowned and spoke out the corner of her mouth to Peter, the bubbles rippling over the surface of her skin. “Are we stealing back a statue or getting a sales pitch about moving to Atlantis?”
Peter firmly pressed his lips together, until the fragile skin along his face began to turn a pearly shade of white. “We couldn’t survive here, anyways,” he murmured.
“Why not?” She stopped herself and laughed. “Well, besides the obvious.” Maggie kicked her legs out from behind her, earning a few pointed looks from nearby mermaids.
Selina whipped around before Peter could respond, her striking pink clothes somehow looking even brighter from within the city positioned on the sea floor.
With her hands firmly placed on her bony hips, Selina kept her voice to a low chatter, pulling them into a dark and murky alley between a pair of busy restaurants.
“You are showing one reason why you two would never make it in Atlantis,” Selina said.
Maggie raised a brow. “What did we do?”
“Asking questions, for one,” she snapped. “You can gawk over the city and mention how beautiful you think it is, Maggie Hart, but don’t for a second let your guard fall.”
“I know, I know,” Maggie disheartenedly murmured with a dismissive wave. “Like the poisonous frog you mentioned.”
Selina grabbed her wrist quickly. “Neither you nor the King of Neverland could even begin to try and survive in Atlantis. Did you forget how far beneath the surface we are? Only the anatomy of a mermaid keeps us from combusting from the pressure.”
Maggie’s eyes went wide. “Combusting?”
“My point exactly,” the mermaid said with a prideful smirk.
“There’s nothing to worry about now, of course.
My magical bubbles protect you from it. But it’s not like you can live in the bubbles.
” She pointed over her shoulder toward the alley’s exit, where streaks of color passed as the mermaids moved through Atlantis.
“Unfortunately for you two lovebirds, there won’t be a romantic vacation in Atlantis anytime soon. ”
Coralyn reached for Maggie’s hand next, pulling her free from her sister’s tight grip and back out into the racing city.
She hooked her arm around her and the mermaid’s midnight blue tail snapped and flexed out behind them.
Immediately Maggie felt as though the mermaid’s natural physical power spread between them, igniting her with a supernaturally powered adrenaline.
“But that doesn’t mean you can’t get a star-studded tour,” Coralyn exclaimed.
The mermaid excitedly exclaimed it all. It was impossible for light to break through the ocean’s surface and reach the darkest depths, where Atlantis stood, but there was no need to worry about it.
The city was in no need for the surface’s sun.
Barnacles that housed an unexplainable power naturally grew along the ancient buildings of Atlantis.
The sea-life lit up whenever it needed to, casting down rays of neon colored lights across the city.
The way forward was always illuminated, no matter the time of day.
The ancient stone towers looked to be from an entirely different time, perhaps even a different world, but the barnacles were what bound it to Neverland, to now.
Coralyn led them through the industrial district, where the roads were full of serious looking mermaids heading off to their serious looking business.
Some carried cases made from rotting wood, some were forged from sunken pirate ships.
All of them were on a mission, diving in and out of the buildings with rapid speed.
“These mermaids keep the city running,” Coralyn explained as they swam through the hectic district. “Our Father likes to run on the belief that every body of water lies under his jurisdiction. Do you know just how much water that is?”
Maggie opened her mouth but quickly let it fall shut. She shook her head.
“An indescribable amount,” she finished with a short nod of her chin. “These mermaids are the smartest of the colony, and they spend every waking hour keeping control over however many seas my Father would like to have under his belt that day.”
As they continued on, a striking castle beginning to appear in the distant city, Maggie began to realize the complications of getting the statue back.
The more and more she learned about the mermaids and their home, the easier it was to understand why Hook and his crew were in no hurry to get their good luck charm back.
There was nothing outrightly hostile about the mermaids and their city, but the natural power lying with and around them was enough to make Maggie second guess their plans.
Mermaids might’ve been simple before when all Maggie wanted to do was try to get rid of their dam.
Now, as she swam further into their territory, something told her that she didn’t quite know what she was talking about after all.
Sharp towers that punctured the expanding sea above stood at the very edge of Atlantis.
Surrounding the towers were a series of shorter buildings, the structures no longer being made from something as simple as stone.
It glinted from a distance, the barnacle’s light clashing against the jewel studded surface to make it almost an impossible feat to look at straight on.
They were still a mile or two away, but they’d arrive at the front of the Palace in no time.
Maggie reached for Peter’s hand once more, holding him close to her side.
“How sure are you two that your father has the statue we’re looking for?” Maggie asked.
Coralyn’s laugh was like the sound of shells clacking together beneath the waves. “If what Peter said was true,” she replied, “and Captain Hook lost his statue over our seas, I have no doubt that your prize has landed in our Father’s clutches.”
“But how can you be so sure if you haven’t seen the statue yourself?”
Selina drifted closer to her, resting one hand against Maggie’s magical bubble covered shoulder. “Let me guess? This is your first interaction with the King of the Seas.”
“You’ve got that right,” Maggie mumbled, only partly embarrassed, though she was sure that the feeling would surely grow.
“Anything that wades into our waters belongs to King Neptune,” Selina explained. “You and I and the entire world might not see it that way, but it’s how it is down here. We haven’t laid eyes on the prize you seek, but if there’s one place that it’s being kept, it's the Treasure Room.”
Coralyn waded even closer, her voice quieter than her sister’s. “King Neptune’s Treasure Room is the most sought after prize by every thief across Neverland. Many have come to see what lies inside, and all have failed. This area is strictly forbidden, even to Selina and I.”
“B-But you are his daughters,” Maggie murmured, fear beginning to grab at the back of her throat when she tried to speak. “Why wouldn’t the Princesses of Atlantis be allowed in the Treasure Room?”
Selina rolled her eyes and glanced at her more patient sister. “Can you believe this? It’s like she hasn’t been listening at all!”
“He’s a greedy King,” Coralyn clarified in a slow voice, though she was beginning to smirk at her sister’s words.
“Flesh and blood stops counting for much when there’s enough riches in those halls to rightfully take over Neverland.
” She shrugged and started to drift back down the stone streets.
“So we’ll just have to sneak you in. No worries – Peter said you were prepared and ready for anything! ”
As the pair of mermaids began to wade closer to the castle, almost leaving their followers in the dust, Maggie eyed Peter over her shoulder. He was grinning, his cheeks beginning to take on an embarrassed shade of scarlet.
The ancient stone city of Atlantis began to thin out and stretch when they came to the palace.
Multiple series of arches came first, each with a different pair of intricately carved statues guarding the entrance.
Maggie was stunned. The statues must’ve been ancient, carved and molded and shined far before any of their time.
But they remained there still, guarding the city no matter what changed from with it.
The closer they came to the palace, the more overwhelmed Maggie became with its otherworldly beauty.
There was something odd about it, as though she wasn’t at all meant to be casting her eyes over something as alien and different and startling and stunning.
The words piled up behind her teeth but she kept them locked inside.
The mermaid Princesses were on a mission, their attention remained straight forward as they plunged themselves towards the Palace’s guarded front gates.
They'd simply returned home with a few land dwelling stragglers hitchhiking a ride along with them. Maggie could only imagine all the ways she could annoy them even further by mentioning how stunned she was by the palace’s unmistakable beauty.
They slowed as the palace stretched high into the waves above them.
A few mermen guarded the front entrance, the tall silver doors studded with plucked rubies and emeralds.
Matching armor covered their breasts and extended down their muted tails as they lingered in front of the doors in a slight flanking formation.
Maggie’s heart almost stopped at the idea of guards. Armored guards.
“Leave them to me,” Coralyn suddenly said. She reached for her braids, pulling at the blue hair until it pooled out into a luxurious mess behind her back. Gorgeous even when she wasn’t trying to be.
Coralyn shut forward in a streak of blue.
She had her long fingers caught in her hair, her head tilted almost horizontally as she spoke with a dazed voice to the unsuspecting guards.
“Tell my father,” she droned on, “To get me another set of Shelly Hair Curlers and Moss Covered Chocolates from Barnie’s shop and –”
Selina snatched onto Peter and Maggie’s hands. “Let’s go!”
The Princess parried and weaved around the pillars, slipping into a side door that was a few feet away from the main entrance. The guards looked as though they were seconds away from ripping their ears out as Coralyn continued to list all the new things she wanted King Neptune to get for her.
Inside the palace, the walls were as bright as Maggie imagined them to be.
Everything was a pearly shade of white, delicately muted by the murky water.
Rubies and emeralds and sapphires decorated the walls, the jewels making distinct images and constellations in the surfaces.
Maggie was beginning to reach out to them, her fingers just barely grazing the darling red rubies when –
“Hide!” Selina jerked them around a corner as a small school of mermaids came rushing down the hall. “Touring kids. Cute, aren’t they?”
Maggie’s heart ached as she watched the mermaid children swim by as their teacher explained the history behind each jewel on the walls.
She almost wanted to stay with them, but Selina was quick to continue on their winding path.
The Palace halls almost felt neverending as they swam through them, never once coming to their destination.
The further they went, the more luxurious the halls became.
Stone was long gone, the structures becoming carved out of molten gold itself.
Maggie only assumed that they were getting closer to the King as things became more beautiful, though Selina wasn’t entirely quick to explain their path.
“Selina –” Maggie began.
The pink Princess jerked her finger out. “The Treasure Room is just up ahead.”
There was a pair of double doors at the end of the long winding hall.
The archaic mermaid language was carved above the doors, possibly signifying the importance of the room but remaining obsolete to Maggie in spite of it.
It was only a yard away from them, the golden halls glistening with importance.
Maggie almost shot toward it without waiting, her determination and adrenaline pooling together until she could hardly remember her own cohesive thoughts.
Selina nodded her chin. “Let’s go – quick!”
The Princess’s tail snapped out as she swam forward, pulling Maggie and Peter along with her.
They rushed down the hallway as the bright shimmering colors of the walls flashed brilliantly by them.
The guards must’ve been at another point in the hall when they reached the doors, Selina’s hands gripping it and yanking with all of her small body’s might.
Peter slammed against the doors beside her, his shoulder barely letting them budge.
“Stop right there!”
Selina’s hands loosened around the handles before falling down entirely.
The pinkish color she normally held on her cheeks quickly drained, her eyes wide as she slowly turned around.
Maggie hadn’t seen who had shouted at them, but something told her that they weren’t having a run-in with an old friend.
Maggie slowly turned to see a row of neatly armored mermaidian guards staring them down.
They were armed with steel spears, the tips aimed directly at the three of them.
Selina lifted her shoulders. “Oops?”