By the time the lecture ended, we were near the top of the castle looking through an opening onto a giant courtyard. Our door was a hole on the side of a fairy light-filled dome that sealed off the garden below from the outside world.
There were lots of entrances from the castle into the garden, but as I watched, I saw each one fill up with a guard.
A perfect prison.
“I imagine this is what your father calls ‘properly supervised’,” I said to Edward. He shrugged.
Prison or not, I had to admit, it was pretty spectacular. The garden was designed to be viewed from above with an intricate patterning of different kinds of tall kelp.
Seaweeds were growing on and out from the walls surrounding pillow covered ledges where people could relax and admire the view. Some of the ledges had statues that looked like they had been shaped from flowing lava and based on the lecture I just heard, they probably were.
Sea grass paths curved through the shiny kelp creating the patterns, but also so that you could swim among these soft trees instead of just looking down on them.
Edward seemed to know where he was going, so I followed him down to the seabed and along the sea grass paths toward the center of the garden. We were almost but never completely invisible from the watching guards as we passed even less private rock gardens and sea grass lawns.
The edges of the sea grass lawns and the seabed around the rock gardens were filled with graceful ferny algae from palest pink to bright violet red, browns shading into yellow, occasional deep blues and lots of different greens. This garden didn’t need any outsea flowers.
But private was what I wanted, and I sensed that private was where Edward was taking us.
Some of the sculptures we passed were fairies, bubble people or fish but most of the were just graceful shapes that seemed to change and flow into each other as you swam around and over them. You could almost see them drifting with the plants that moved as we swam by, disturbing the water.
I nearly said hello to a carved rock sprite with a basket of carved sea anemone that looked like he was swimming out from between two groups of coral covered with the real thing.
The sculptures were very cool. Verona needs to see this, I thought. I wanted to take pictures for her but, no sampo, no camera. Oh, well.
Finally, we swam underneath a wide ledge in a rock garden covered with red and yellow rockweeds to a well-lit grassy spot that was completely hidden from above. I craned my neck to see where the fairy lights were hidden, but as soon as we were alone, Edward turned to me, raised his chin, squared his shoulders and began to speak.
“Look out Miriam,” whispered Reddragon, “here comes another royal decree.”
“I’m sure,” Edward began, using his father’s formal speaking voice, “that when I am older…much older,” he added, “you are exactly the kind of person I would like to marry. Furthermore, I would never willingly do anything to offend you or your grandparents, however–”
“–Edward, I don’t want to marry you either,” I interrupted. “It’s a ridiculous idea.”
Recognizing a fellow conspirator, he immediately relaxed out of father style and back into kid mode.
“Why would your grandparents do such a thing. We’re way too young to get married, and besides, I never heard of parents choosing someone for you. I don’t know what it’s like at Casalot, but in Metsoola, we choose our own partners,” he said with a distinct edge to his voice.
“This was not my grandparents’ idea. And marriage has nothing to do with my trip to Metsoola, at least it didn’t until after I got here.” Edward was looking puzzled.
“Don’t you get it? This is your father’s way of controlling my sampo.”
“My father would never do a thing like that! What’s a sampo?”
“It’s a magic bag.”
“The magical knowledge of Metsoola is very advanced. I doubt your so-called magic bag can perform any feats that our senior magic users cannot duplicate.
“This bag, I said, gritting my teeth, “will produce anything that will fit through the opening. including power nuts. As far as your father is concerned, my sampo equals an endless supply of power nuts.”
Edward finally got it. His eyes widened with understanding.
“Oh, wow, that is some serious magic. Where can I get one?”
“It’s a fairy gift and it only works for me.”
“I have to admit,” Edward said, “this is starting to sound like something my father would do…‘for the good of the community’…he would say.”
“Oh, he did it all right,” I said. “The question is does he really mean it, and can he make us do it?”
“Yes and yes,” Edward answered rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “There must be a better way to make you part of the family. Wouldn’t you rather be my sister?”
“I’m perfectly happy with the family I already have, if you don’t mind.” I was starting to feel testy and I didn’t try to hide it. “Far be it for me to criticize, but if you and your father think that incorporating me as part of your family is going to solve all his problems, you are both mistaken.”
“It seems to me,” he bristled back, “that we should let the adults solve the adult problems, and that we should concentrate on the one thing that we both agree on.”
“No marriage,” we shouted in unison. We were ready to start again.
“I sense a definite unanimity of purpose,” Edward said.
“Definitely,” I agreed, nodding vigorously. “I assume we have absolutely no chance of convincing your father of anything he doesn’t want, or in this case, unconvincing him.”
“Agreed.”
“Since we don’t have time to wait for my grandparents to get here, I think that the best plan is for me to escape, but unless you’re planning on running away from home, you’ll be left behind, holding the bag, so we need to make it look like I got away without your help.”
“Half-agreed,” Edward said. “You’re right. But I don’t mind holding the bag. In fact, I look forward to handing it personally to him.”
“I gather that this is not the first time you and your dad have not been in complete agreement,” I said.
“I usually end up doing what he wants whether I want to or not,” Edward said, bitterly. “If we succeed, then this time I’m the one who gets to present him with a fait accompli.
“We need something like a new building. All the excitement would make great cover for our escape.”
“Us? What us? I thought you wanted to be left holding the bag,” I said.
“Right. But I could come part way with you, couldn’t I, and then come back to announce your exit?”
“Let’s figure out the best way to get out first, and then decide who is going and how far,” I said twisting my neck again to get a better look at the lights in the cave.
Edward smiled a ‘cat-that-just-swallowed-the-canary’ secret smile and said, “You’re looking for the fairy lights, right?”
“What? Oh, I guess I am,” I said, not realizing what I was doing until he pointed it out.
“Where are they, anyway?” I expected him to point out the places where they were hidden away in crevices in the stone.
His grin widened, “There aren’t any”.
CHAPTER 21
THE SALT LAKE
Edward paused for dramatic effect, taking satisfied note of my skeptical expression and said slowly with feeling. “It’s sunlight … real sunshine.”
There was a bit of a silent stand-off as Edward waited for my inevitable protest before he continued. I wouldn’t bite. Instead, I crossed my arms and maintained a skeptical silence. Eventually, he gave in.
“It’s a secret entrance into the outsea fairylands,” he said slowly. My arms stayed crossed.
“Outsea,” Edward said, “ordinary land people and land-dwelling fairies live separately, not like here. I don’t know how they manage it,” he added. “But I always thought that because only fairies can live this deep …”
r />
There was a loud snorting sound from the octopus on his shoulder.
“Sorry, Spec,” he said. “You know what I mean. Anyway, it’s only a theory.”
I knew from personal experience that there were gateways between outsea fairylands and human lands, so why not here, I thought.
“Why is it a secret?” was my first question. “It doesn’t seem that hard to find.”
“It’s not officially a secret. I know my father knows about it and, of course, Glori knows all about it–”
“–Ha! If Glori knows, then everybody knows,” I said.
“You know Glori! When did you meet her?”
“We met Glori when we first came to Metsoola,” I answered. “She was awfully nice, but she didn’t impress me as someone who would enjoy keeping a secret for very long.”
“It’s true, she likes to know everything that’s going on,” he said, “but I don’t think she’s indiscreet. Anyway,” he said, reddening slightly, “she’s never repeated to my father any of the things I asked her not to.”
“But the outsea-gate isn’t actually a real secret. It’s just that most people don’t know about it and those that do never bother with it or talk much about it. If I mention it to my father, he treats it very casually, as if it were no big deal and there wasn’t much to say on the subject.”
“On the other hand,” I pointed out, “if we tried to hide here, I bet this is one of the first places he would send people to look for us.”
“True enough,” he agreed. “Would you like to go out to the surface? There’s not much to see, but it’s amazing having your head right out in the sky looking at the sun.”
The cave under the overhang went back only a few yards before it began to open up at the top. The sea grass floor changed to smooth rock slope leading up to the sky.
We were in the middle of a little lake with a rocky shoreline and not much else. I waited until all the seahorses were holding onto my hair before I put my head out. “Is everybody okay out here?” I asked, poking my head out of the water.
“Well, it’s an interesting perspective,” Tidalwave said. Her comment was followed by a series of small giggles. I ducked back under.
“You have to wrap yourself a lot tighter,” Leviathan said to Tidalwave. “She was hanging upside down,” he explained to me.
“What about breathing?” I asked.
“No problem,” said Darkflower. “We can be anywhere you can.”
Spec had moved from Edward’s shoulder to his arm so that only the top of his head and his eyes were out of the water. He was twisting his head all around taking everything in.
“Come on, Spec,” Edward said. You’ve seen this before.”
“But there’s always something new. Look! Look at that outsea creature.” A green lizard was sunning itself on a rock near the water.
“It’s just a fish with feet,” Edward said. “No big deal.”
“Nobody actually lives here,” Edward said to me. “It’s too salty for freshwater fairies.”
“What about outsea fairies?” I asked, looking around. I was still digesting the fact that Spec was something more than a cute white blob with big round eyes.
The landscape was pleasant, but not exactly verdant. It was mostly bare rocky ground, with scattered clumps of tall grass and dandelions. There were woods in the distance, but nothing nearby. “Doesn’t anybody ever come here?” I asked Edward.
“Not really,” he answered. “Apparently this lake isn’t on the way from somewhere to somewhere, no one lives nearby, and no one here has any use for salt water, so no one bothers to come.”
“I wonder how far we are from the Kingdom of the Cats?” I asked.
“A long way, I would guess. The Kingdom of the Cats is on a river that goes out to the sea, and from what my father tells me, this lake is about as far away from the ocean as you can get and still be in fairyland.”
“Has anyone ever explored the area?” I asked next.
“Why would anyone ever want to do that?” he said with distaste.
“So if fairyland does not want to come to the shores of your pond to be examined, then that’s that.”
“Pretty much.”
I had a strong urge to simply put on my legs wave goodbye to Edward and walk off into the sunset. Aside from the fact that Grandma and Grandpa would be worried sick, who knows how long it would take to find my way back to Casalot.
So with a sigh and a promise to try and come back some day, I turned away from the sunshine and swam back down.
“Come on, Edward,” I said. “We’ve got some serious planning and plotting to do.”
CHAPTER 22
GLORI THE SECRET-KEEPER
As soon as we came out from under the rock ledge we were spotted by Glori.
“Hi,” she called out. “I thought I would find you two in there.
“Congratulations. I’ve got your supper here,” she said, holding out a basket.
I looked at Edward. We were being congratulated on getting supper?
“I mean congratulations on getting married tomorrow, which by the way, Edward, is the dumbest thing I ever heard. You’re not actually doing this, are you?”
By the time we finished explaining, Glori was no longer smiling. The three of us settled down on some nearby cushions, eating and talking quietly.
“I don’t think it will be that hard to escape,” I said, “I have a way of being…well…of not being easy to see.”
Glori and Edward waited for an explanation, but I was not talking.
“I’m kind of nervous of having your father find out about this, uh, trick,” I finally said. “He seems to be awfully good at finding out things that people don’t want to tell him.”
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” said Glori. “Edward says one word about your secret to his father, and I will turn him into a fish.”
“Glori, you don’t know how to do that,” he said.
“So I’ll learn,” she answered, “…and then I’ll turn you into a fish. Do it, Edward.”
“All right, all right.” He put his left hand on his head and his right hand on his left elbow. He looked ridiculous, and he knew it. “Ash-a-ta-thow-ra,” he said.
“O.K., Miriam your secret is safe. Edward will never say a word. Guaranteed.”
“I gather you’ve done this before,” I said.
“Glori’s never told anybody anything she promised not to,” Edward said, “and neither have I.”
“You say it too, Glori,” I said. “and then I’ll know my secret is safe.”
“Ashatathowra!” said Glori, with a solemn expression that made the arrangement of her hands look even sillier.
I reached into my wing pocket—the wings that everyone in the ocean naturally assumed to be fins—and took out my fern seed coat. “Now you see me,” I said with a flourish, “and now you don’t,” I threw open he coat and let it float down onto my shoulders.
They were not impressed. Glori had her hand over her mouth to stifle the cackles.
“Miriam,” she said through her fingers. “Your tail is sticking out–”
“–and your head,” Edward guffawed. “it’s floating around like a lost fish.”
I pulled the fern coat off my shoulders and started to carefully fold it up.
“It tends to do that if I don’t put it on properly, but you get the general idea.”
“You have pockets in your fins?” Specter said. “I’ve never met a Sky with pockets. May I taste you?”
“You’re kidding?” I was flabbergasted.
“He doesn’t want to eat you, Miriam,” Sharktooth whispered in my ear. “His suckers are like your tongues, only a thousand times more sensitive. It’s one of the ways sucker people learn about the world. He just wants to understand your flavor.
“He also doesn’t know that you’ve never met an octopus before, so be careful. You’re supposed to know this.”
“Haven’t you ever met an octopus before?” Edward
asked me, more surprised than suspicious.
“Uh…the ones where I live are pretty shy.” Good save, me.
“Yeah, Spec is pretty shy, too, but in his case, curious always beats shy. Right Spec?”
“Hmmpft! I’m just polite.”
“Whatever.”
“I would love to meet some of the sucker people in the Upper Kingdom.” Spec said. “Maybe you could use your seahorse magic to bring me?”
“I wish. But it doesn’t work that way,” I said sadly.
Specter was seriously adorable. I would have loved to spend time with him without nerdy Edward. I swam a little closer to Edward and Specter and held out my hand.
“Tasting. No biting. Right?”
Specter didn’t answer. Instead he quickly slid down Edward’s arm and onto my hand. It felt okay, not the slimy I sort of expected, very soft, and not suckery at all.
“Oh! Oh…Oh my goodness!” Specter said. You’re so…so…
“Come up here,” said Leviathan, “We want to meet you too.”
“Yes! Real seahorses. Here I come.” Specter forgot about me except as a path to the seahorses and headed up my arm. Apparently, octopuses can move pretty fast when they want to.
When he got to my head, he stopped and wrapped himself around my ear, moving his legs like a cat kneading a pillow. This time I could feel the suckers and I totally understood what he meant about tasting me.
Okay. This is weird. There’s an octopus on my ear and…
“Whoa!” Spec said. “Who are you? …Oh, I see…and…ohhh. Wow.”
“We really need to talk,” Sharktooth said, interrupting Spector’s research into the wonderful world of me. “You should come up here first.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that the seahorses were no longer waiting for Spec to come to them. They had him surrounded, ribbons and all. Spec had my ear so well covered that all I could hear were muted whisperings. Very intense muted whisperings.
“I understand,” Specter said, finally saying something I could hear. “Don’t worry, Miriam,” he said quietly into my ear. “I won’t tell anyone what you really are. Are you sure you don’t want to stay with us?”
“Uh, Spec?” Edward said. “Miriam has to go, remember? Unless of course you were thinking of leaving with her.” His voice had reverted back to stern father-speak.
“Ooo. Edward is jealous,” Reddragon whispered.
Specter got the hint and jetted quickly back to Edward, the stream of water he squirted was so strong it knocked me sideways, leaving the seahorses hanging onto their ribbons for dear life and floating all over the place.