Coquina's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

The boots came closer above the grate. Coquina pressed her back to the stone wall. The cub clung to her hair and shook. She scanned the garden room for a door, a shadow, anything. There was only the grand bench, the water at her tail, and no place to hide. In minutes the guards would climb down and find her. "We can't fight them," Cove whispered. He gripped the bench edge and looked at the water. "And we can't outrun the whole castle." Coquina's chest tightened. Her gills burned under the drying mud. She had crossed a river and a net trap to get here, and now a stone room would end it. Then the dark water rippled. A pale head rose, silver, dotted with tiny shells, pearls ringed around its tail. The dolphin had followed them in. It chirped and dove, then rose again by the far wall. Coquina swam to it. Below the surface, a low arch opened into shadow. Another flooded passage, hidden under the water line, leading deeper into the castle. "It's showing us a way out," Coquina said. "Away from the grate." Cove hesitated. "We don't know where it goes." "We know where staying goes." She pulled the cub tight and slid under. Cove followed. The dolphin swam ahead, sure and quick through the black. The passage bent twice, then brightened. Coquina came up in a wide pool. Soft pastel light fell over pale flowers and arching shells. Pearl-white blooms glowed along the walls. It was a garden built inside the castle, quiet and empty, far from the search. She had swum past the fisherman's men, not through them. But the light was not the only glow. On the pool's far edge floated a small figure with curling clear wings and a shell-scale dress. A fairy. She sat on a lily pad, arms crossed, foot tapping. "There you are," the fairy said. Her voice was bright but sharp. "I have been searching this whole castle. Do you know how many guards I flew past?" Coquina's throat closed. "Pearl." Pearl Shellwater flew to her and gripped her face in tiny hands. Her wings blurred. "You left without me. Again. I follow a bear cub and a dolphin halfway upriver, and I find you half dry and hiding." Her eyes filled. "Never do that again." "I didn't want you hurt," Coquina said. "You need me." Pearl wiped her eyes and pointed past the flowers. "There's a room through that arch. Locked. Two guards outside it. And I heard the old man's voice inside." Coquina's breath caught. The fisherman. The pearl. Both close, behind a locked door and two guards. The dolphin circled the pool. The cub chirped. Coquina was no longer trapped. She was one door away. "Then we get through that door," she said.