Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist by Liz Kessler Read Free Book Online Page B

it was that he was addressing. I mean, it couldn’t be me. It couldn’t be. What had I done this time? Surely this wasn’t about the ring!
    “Yes,” he growled in a quieter voice that was even more threatening than a shout. “You.” He pointed directly at me.
    I swam through the porthole that we used as the underwater door, my tail shaking so much I thought it would fall off.
    “Alone!” Neptune barked as Shona approached the porthole behind me.
    “I’ll wait here. You’ll be OK,” Shona whispered, sounding as if she believed it about as much as I did.
    I wobbled toward Neptune like a jellyfish and waited for him to speak.
    But he didn’t. He just stared. Stared and stared at me until I wondered if he was going to turn me to stone with his eyes. But he wasn’t even looking into my eyes. He was looking at my open hand, at the diamond.
    “For once, Beeston did well,” he said in a quiet voice. Quiet for Neptune, anyway. It still vibrated through the air, splashing water across the sides of his chariot with each word. “All those years and it was right here,” he murmured even more quietly, his eyes still fixed on the ring.
    My hand burned under his gaze. It felt as though it were on fire, flames scorching through my fingers, screaming along my arm, into my body, all through me. I clenched my teeth and waited.
    Eventually, Neptune raised his head to look mein the eyes. “Remove it,” he said simply, holding out his hand.
    “I —”
    “The ring. Give it to me. NOW!”
    As he waited for me to hand over the ring, the sea rocked and ebbed around us. I bobbed around, bouncing up and down in the water while I fumbled and pulled at my finger. My hands shook with terror. I couldn’t do it. The ring was completely stuck. My finger swelled and throbbed.
    “I — I can’t,” I stammered, my words jamming through the thudding in my mouth.
    At this, Neptune rose higher in his chariot. As he did, the waves grew sharper, splashing against me, slapping my face, pulling me under. “Come here,” he said. Swirling my tail around as hard as I could, I propelled myself back up and swam toward the chariot.
    Neptune held his trident in front of me. “Put your hand out,” he said. I did what he said. Then he reached toward me with the trident and touched the ring.
    The result was electric. Literally. I felt as if I’d been struck by lightning. My body zipped into life as though a thousand volts were buzzing through every nerve. Neptune must have been struck too. His beard seemed to have flames flying from it. His tail was shooting sparks out in every direction. Ajagged orange light danced and crackled between us, alive and on fire.
    Neptune finally pulled the trident away. Breathless, he paused to gather himself. Then he reached out with his hand. Grabbing my wrist, he pulled at the ring.
    “AAARRRGGH!” he screamed, leaping backward. He shook his hand, blew on it, plunged it into the water. As he did so, the sea raged around us, building into the worst storm I’d ever seen. Clouds darkened, blackening the sky, closing down on us. I was being tossed around everywhere. Even Fortuna shook so violently that it was starting to break free from the spot in the seabed where it had been deeply stuck for more than two hundred years. The boat heeled madly from side to side.
    “Damn those vows!” Neptune bellowed. “They were not meant to prevent me from touching the rings! I am the king of all the oceans!”
    What did he mean? What vows? Why couldn’t he touch the ring?
    As if he’d heard me, Neptune snapped his head around to face me. “That ring has been out of my sight for hundreds of years,” he said. “And that is exactly where it should have stayed. Never have I thought of it in all those years. Never. Not once did I question its whereabouts.” He laughed sardonically. He wasn’t smiling, though. “AlthoughI should have known the kraken would have found it and protected it. The kraken understands