Rosaliy

Panic reigned for an instant of sheer pandemonium. While Drake tried to force open the monkey’s mouth and dig out the stone, and Quita tried to bite his hand off, Rosaliy channeled calm. She lived some version of this on a daily basis, after all. After all the bad options had been whittled away, all that was left was forging success out of chaos.

“It’s ok,” she said in her head. She cleared her throat and tried again. “It’s ok.”

“Senira’s monkey just ate the stone,” Drake snapped back.

In that moment of distraction, Quita landed a solid bite on his finger and scrambled away like a miniature monkey whirlwind.

“I know. I was there.”

Rosaliy reached for Quita. Quita readily leaped into Rosaliy’s lap, glaring out at Drake and chattering her displeasure with him. “Granpulpo is still coming to take Quita to Flifary Island. It’s the same as before.”

Drake shot her a deserved look, something in the derision and incredulity family of looks.

“We just have to figure out how to ride an octopus,” she insisted, stroking Quita’s tiny back. “It’s still going to the right place, even if it’s not taking us there.”

“There is no chance it will be kindly disposed to you without magic,” Drake grumbled. “You’re asking to be eaten.”

“What’s our other option? Rip the stone out of her.” He crossed his arms and shot her a look that said he would consider that option. Quita hunkered down further in Rosaliy’s bedraggled skirts. “Wait, what did you say?”

“I said there’s no chance—”

“No, no,” Rosaliy interrupted. “After that.”

“You’re asking to be eaten?”

“Yes!” she exclaimed. “Eaten! We should be protected by the dome.”

He stared back at her.

“In some ways, this is a better plan,” she tried next. “If we can travel the whole way inside the dome, the Flifary will never see us coming.”

“Inside an octopus.”

“An octopus going to Flifary Island.”

Quita scrambled onto Rosaliy’s back, her head just peeking out over Rosaliy’s shoulder, keeping an eye on Drake.

He took a deep breath. It was comforting to know a certain level of insanity could, in fact, rattle him. “How long do we have before it arrives?”

She had no way to know, but now that he asked, she had a suspicion. She reached out to touch the solid, glossy surface of the dome.

“It can’t sense us in here.” Rosaliy spoke with more confidence than she meant to convey. She was just guessing.

“So we have to drop the dome for Granpulpo to pick us up, and by ‘us,’ I mean Quita.”

That sounded very likely. As long as they were making wild guesses, anyway.

Drake went on. “The dome that’s protecting us from the legendary sea beast that crushes ships and consumes entire crews on a whim.”

“Oh no,” Rosaliy moaned, carrying his thinking a different direction. “That means we can’t be in the dome until after the octopus spots us and takes Quita.”

Drake stared, the meaning of her words slowly washing over him.

“On the plus side,” she said weakly, “there is absolutely no way the Flifary would expect any of this.”

“As long as there’s a plus side,” Drake sighed. His own panic had subsided, or at least he was successfully pretending not to panic. “Can you swim?”

She could swim better than she could dive. “I can tread water for a little while.”

“Not in those boots,” he objected.

He was right. She unlaced the soggy boots and set them next to her. Her toes were chilly, but grateful. While she was at it, she yanked off a few layers of her wrapped skirts. “Sorry, Elle,” she apologized as she destroyed the once-lovely dress.

Drake picked up a length of discarded fabric. “Getting separated is a bad idea,” he said, looping the fabric to make a rope. Rosaliy found herself tied to Drake shortly thereafter, ankle to ankle. There was enough makeshift rope to allow their legs to move freely, but not so much they would drift too far apart in the water.

“Smart,” she approved.

He snorted.

“You have a point,” she chuckled. Nothing about this situation was smart.

Next, she almost asked if he was ready, but she imagined she would be teased for a question that ridiculous. She called the firefly stone back to her and snuffed out the light before she tucked it securely under her belt, plunging them into that eerie shifting ocean darkness.

“Here goes,” she said instead, gathering Quita under one arm, taking a deep breath, and dropping the metal ball from her palm.

Water rushed in, and after a stunned moment, Quita clawed her way free and Rosaliy felt a tug on her leg; Drake was trying to swim upward. She followed, sweeping her way up through the dark water for what felt like years. She wanted nothing more than to breathe, and there was nothing but inky water forever. Lungs burning, she grabbed for the metal ball at her waist just as she shot above the surface of the water. She inhaled instinctively, swallowing water as she shot back down. She bobbed up again, choking and coughing. She flailed her arms and legs a bit to stay above water while she coughed up more burning salt water. The darkness of the sky blended into the darkness of the water, and she could see nothing for a tense moment as she bobbed up and down. The water rose once more, and the swell nearly took her under.

She compensated by paddling harder, and her eyes were able to pick out Drake’s head and the glint of the water contrasting against the cloudy sky. She swished her body around in a circle, but the castle and the pirate ship were too far to see in the dark, if they were anywhere nearby to begin with. She and Drake were completely alone in the middle of the ocean. Another swell tried to carry her away, but the fabric rope on her ankle anchored her into place. The motion pulled her underwater, but she was doing well enough to hold her breath until she could scramble back into the air this time.

“This is harder than I was expecting,” she said breathlessly, noticing Drake was having no trouble staying above water.

Quita had reached the surface, and she paddled between the two of them, terrified eyes darting from one to the other. She would have loved to abandon them, but they were the only floating surfaces right now. Quita eyed Rosaliy one more time and chose to hop on Drake, despite their differences. She was a smart monkey.

“You’re using too much energy,” he warned, like that was helpful. “Take slower, longer strokes with your arms and legs. The swells can push you up if you time it right.” That was helpful, but if the octopus did not show up soon, she was going to be exhausted.

“You’re so good at this,” she complained, breathing hard while he looked like he was relaxing in a giant bathtub.

“Not by choice,” he replied. “Besides, I’ve never met anybody as good at as many things as you are.”

“Me?” she squeaked out, almost being buried by another swell. She let it bob her, and she realized it did push her back up with a little patience.

“You,” he agreed. “Everybody around you depends on you for everything. All those powerful people you mentioned down there—they all come to you for help.”

“They’d get by without me,” she disagreed.

“Says the woman trying to save the world,” he scoffed.

She had no energy to argue, but, honestly, he must not understand the spectacular people she lived with. Where was that stupid octopus? Her arms were going to fall off.

And then the swells picked up, and she realized she may have been wishing for the wrong thing. Drake swished closer.

“Did you try to tell me what a bad idea this was?” she panted.

He was close enough she could see him grin in the dark. “I’ll try harder to talk you out of being eaten by an octopus next time.”

She appreciated the idea of next time, but she was mostly focused on how choppy the ocean was becoming.

“Is that it?” she asked.

He inhaled a deep breath and swooped underwater. Quita vaulted off him just in time and onto Rosaliy’s head. The imbalance nearly sent Rosaliy under, but she redoubled her arm-swishing efforts to keep her head above water.

They were tied together, so Drake could not go far. He broke the surface of the water a few seconds later, inches in front of her. “Bubble, fast,” he ordered, and since she was desperately wanting out of the water anyway, she clamped her hand around the dome without question. The top of the dome was poking up from the surface of the water, but most of it was underwater. She had never been so happy to feel something solid beneath her feet.

“But we need to lure the Granpulpo,” she objected, leaning her exhausted body against the curved side of the dome. Just then, she heard and felt a loud smack. The whole dome jolted sideways with the impact. “What was—?”

“Tiburon,” Drake answered.

“No,” she shot back with a vehemence Drake did not deserve. He was not the one dragging her along to be eaten by an octopus or summoning giant, predatory fish. “I do not have time for tiburon. I thought they were a myth invented to scare foreigners!”

“They’re deep sea creatures that won’t come on shore to carry hapless livestock into the sea, but, no, their existence is not a myth,” Drake answered, sweeping water back from his face.

Another shadow whooshed by next to the dome.

“After this, I am not going anywhere near more water than will fit in a bathtub,” Rosaliy promised.

On her back, Quita agreed. Rosaliy could feel anxious monkey claws trying to dig into her neck, little pinpricks on her skin. That was not good. She scooped her wet hair aside.

“Drake,” she asked, “are there marks on my neck?”

He plucked off Quita to examine. Rosaliy could feel the light touch of fingers on her skin. “Not what I’d expect to see from a panicked monkey with razor claws, but there are scratches. You’ll be fine.”

Scratches meant the belt was wearing out. Considering what she had put it through the last few days, that was no surprise. Before she could say anything else, another impact shook the dome. A shadowy creature hovered just outside, dazed. Jaws filled with sharp rows of teeth snapped before it flicked its massive tail and sped onward, disappearing into the black water. Not being able to see was infuriating. The firefly stone was still under her belt. If she could get it outside the dome…

“I’m going to drop the dome for a moment,” she warned Drake. Without the accompanying thoughts in her head, that sounded like an alarming and terrible idea. Actually, even with the accompanying thoughts in her head, dropping their only source of protection sounded like an alarming and terrible idea. Rosaliy was certain she would have argued with her, but Drake did not bother. He just drew a knife and took a deep breath.

She dropped the ball from her hand, threw the firefly stone, and gripped the ball immediately. They barely had time to register the shock of being doused with water once more. A giant thud shook the dome as they were rammed. Jadelynn’s stone was not the best enchanting work, but the dull green glow hovered nearby, searching for its mysteriously vanished source of magic.

Using the feeble light, Drake was busy counting the dark shapes slithering past them in the water. “Five,” he decided.

“Might as well be five hundred,” she complained. “What happens when the octopus comes?”

“If it gobbles up these tiburon, I’ll be more kindly disposed to it,” Drake pointed out.

“Maybe we weren’t out long enough to get Granpulpo’s attention,” worried Rosaliy, not entirely sure whether that was a fear or a hope.

“Well, we’re getting everything else’s attention,” Drake pointed out. He froze then, lifting up on the balls of his bare feet to peer out of the top of the dome poking above the water. The firefly stone was equally interested in what he was seeing. It spiraled in the direction of his gaze.

“I don’t see anything,” Rosaliy admitted.

“You will,” Drake murmured.

And then the light went black as a massive shadow flipped in front of it. Instinctively, Rosaliy gave a strangled cry and stepped back, nearly falling over herself as she was still tethered to Drake.

“Next time I have an idea this terrible,” she insisted, “please talk me out of it.”

There was no time to answer her, because a fleshy, hulking form burst from the water, its massive eyes trained on the glow of the firefly stone. Huge, dark arms reached for the green glow, swatting the tiny stone from the air and into the water. They were plunged once more into darkness and shifting shadows.

The water churned around them as the tiburon abandoned their attack and tried to speed away. Whatever direction the fish tried to go, dark roadblocks swept through the water and sent the tiburon reeling like tiny fish battling a current. Occasionally, Granpulpo’s grasping tentacles buffeted the dome, pulling Rosaliy, Drake, and Quita directly into the battle going on underwater. Granpulpo’s fleshy body swiveled, a tornado of long, undulating arms, half of those arms grabbing tiburon and pulling the fish toward its dark center while the fish used their sharp teeth and massive tails to fight their way out. The other half of the arms lunged out at the distant tiburon like striking snakes. When the tips of Granpulpo’s tentacles connected with a tiburon, the oversized fish went slack, instantly paralyzed. Those poisonous barbs worked fast, and grasping tentacles swept up the paralyzed fish just after they were stung. They never had a chance to flee Granpulpo’s destructive radius.

“Rose,” Drake warned. “Grandpulpo’s not going to eat us accidentally, and it’s going to take off to chase any tiburon that manage to get away. You need to act fast.”

She was so consumed with not dying, she had forgotten she had a goal at all.

“But if it needs to be able to get to Quita to take her to Flifary Island,” Rosaliy thought out loud, “I need to—” She could not finish that sentence. It was too awful. Dropping the dome for a moment had been terrifying enough. Dropping it long enough for Granpulpo to identify and grab Quita in tiburon-infested waters was suicide, for Drake at least. Frankly, with the belt wearing out, she was not eager to test her level of safety against a mouthful of teeth or poisonous barbs.

Her teeth were chattering. Was she cold or petrified? Probably, yes. “R—ready?” She could not stop the dumb question this time.

Drake still had a knife in one hand. He grabbed her free hand in the other. She sucked in a breath, dropped the ball, and plunged into the dark water once more. Outside the safety of the dome, Grandpulpo seemed even more massive, a towering blob with giant tentacles unfurling to slap the water above and grab for its prey.

Drake tugged at her hand, interested in swimming toward Granpulpo. She was going to trust that made sense for some reason, because it was taking all her will not to grab for the bubble enchantment right now, especially as one of those tentacles swooped down on them. Her heart nearly burst when it shot past them in search of other prey.

Drake swam up, and Rosaliy was attached, so she swam up, too. Above the water, she could make out a dark tentacle gently depositing a tiny, squirming object onto a fleshy mass of a head. There was the slightest moment of relief. Granpulpo had Quita and should be heading toward Flifary Island now.

Rosaliy barely had time to gasp in half a breath before a tentacle wrapped around both of them and yanked them underwater, shoving them toward a dark, snapping maw. For such a fleshy creature, its mouth seemed treacherous and sharp, just as likely to snap them in half as to gulp them down. Despite the terror of being eaten or snapped in two by this crushing embrace, the location was perfect. She and Drake were both headed toward Granpulpo’s mouth, right where they needed to be. The creature had not even been concerned enough to sting them first.

She tried to reach for the ball at her waist, but one of her arms was pinned by a surprisingly hard tentacle and the other was pinned by Drake. She struggled against the monster’s grip, blowing out air in a thoughtless underwater scream. The tentacle responded by squeezing tighter. Lightheaded, she watched with fuzzy eyes as Granpulpo shoved one of the flopping tiburon into its mouth. Even through the echoes of the water, she could have sworn she heard the crunch and ripping of a giant fish body being snapped up by a clamping, hard beak. Not perfect. She was about to be ripped apart, unless she drowned first.