Chapter Twenty-Three
Royal Power Play
Finn, my half-brother, must’ve kidnapped Princess Cordelia. My instincts might’ve been right about Chase but they were wrong about Finn. But I wasn’t ready to fink him out yet. Not until I knew for sure. I’d jumped to a wrong conclusion with Chase, I refused to make the same mistake now.
“We’re not Separatists. And we didn’t kidnap Princess Cordelia.” Chase rushed to our defense.
“Maybe she ran away again,” I added.
“How do you know about that?” Goatee-Guard leaned against the bars, his accusation sharp.
I stiffened and glanced upwards. Unwilling to tell him about the tunnels because we might need them to escape later, my mind sought an excuse or a reason. “Um, um—”
A scuffle at the end of the hall caught all of our attentions. Two guards pushed a guy with curly blonde hair forward. The guy didn’t appear to be in custody but he wasn’t on friendly terms either. “Let me see. I know people from Mermaid Beach.”
Chase dropped his arm from around me and grabbed onto the bars. He squished his face against them. “Cuda?”
The guy broke away from the guards and swam over to our cell. Chase’s lifeguard friend, Cuda stood before us.
And he was breathing underwater.
First Plankson and now Cuda. Was anyone living in Mermaid Beach truly an air-breather? No wonder I felt so at home there.
Cuda’s mouth dropped open. “Chase? Pearl? What the heck? What are you doing here? I didn’t know you were a—”
“I’m not.” Chase shot a glance toward Goatee-guard. “But Pearl is.”
Cuda examined me with renewed interest. “I wondered about her, after the whirlpool incident.”
“What about you?” Chase’s amazed tone matched the expression of wonder on his face. “You never told me. I mean, I knew you were totally into the ocean but I didn’t realize how totally.”
“I’m on a mission. One of my duties is to patrol the coast for signs of war.” Cuda motioned to the guards. “Give us some space.”
The guards moved back to the doorway.
“You need to explain to these guards that we’re not their enemy.” Chase must’ve been on the same wave length. “Pearl wanted to warn all of you—swimmers because she thought air-breathers, besides me, knew about your underwater world and were going to expose it.”
“Which side are you on?” The expression on his face was one of anticipation expecting a certain answer.
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Atlantis Riptide
FantasySixteen-year-old Pearl Poseidon ran away from the circus tired of her adoptive parents' abuse of her special skills. As a runaway, she craves anonymity but when she saves a small boy from drowning she draws attention to herself and her special abili...
