Kid vs. Squid by Greg van Eekhout Read Free Book Online

friends.”
    â€œWe’re not,” I snapped, and instantly felt sorry. I knew I should apologize, but before I could, Shoal continued.
    â€œIt does not matter if we are friends or not. Skalla
thinks
we’re friends. And that makes you her enemies, which is why she was willing to spend power to keep you from thwarting her plans. She must sleep awhile to regain her magical strength, but I do not know how long.”
    â€œBut with her mouth taped up, what more can she do?” Trudy asked.
    â€œSome of her spells are already in place, brewing in the sea and gaining potency. I do not know what their purpose is, but it is very bad. And do not presume a strip of sticky fabric can stop her for long. She lost her body and still managed to sink our city. She may just be a severed head, but she is the most powerful severed head my people have ever faced.”
    Trudy carved her pancakes into geometrically perfect squares. “It looks like we’ve got our work cut out for us. First we’ll have to stretch the taffy until it achieves optimum pliability and—”
    Oh, no, not again. “Trudy, you’re losing it,” I said. “Try to stay on topic. The key is placing the bottles so close together that the ring bounces off, which makes it hard for the mark ever to win the big teddy bear and I’m talking about ring toss again, aren’t I?”
    Trudy confirmed it with a grim nod.
    â€œI am sufficiently refreshed,” Shoal said, putting down her fork. “It is time to perform some magic of my own. Come with me.”
    We found privacy behind a closed-down seafood restaurant that still smelled like fish.
    â€œThis is good,” Shoal declared. “Skalla’s creatures do not like places where fish is eaten.”
    That made sense to me. If there was a place called Suburban Boy Burgers, I don’t think I’d choose to hang out there much.
    Shoal asked Trudy if she had something sharp, like a pin. Trudy had sewing needles, thumbtacks, safety pins, a hat pin, an “ILos Huesos” pin, and those pins with the little plastic colored balls on the end that you stick in a map.
    â€œYes,” Trudy said. “I have a pin.”
    Shoal took a few of the map pins.
    â€œAre we going to be sticking ourselves with those?” Trudy asked.
    Shoal told her we were, so Trudy dug in her backpack again and produced some alcohol swabs and Band-Aids. “Infection is a dangerous foe, as surely as any jelly creature.”
    Shoal swirled the bottle of seawater. Little plankton particles danced like glitter in a snow globe.
    â€œWe are all made of the ocean,” she said. “We began as fish who learned to crawl onto land, who learned to breathe air and eventually became us. And the ocean remains inside us still. Our blood is seawater. Our hearts govern the currents within. We are allpart of the Great Soup, and the sea is the broth. After many years of trial and investigation, my father’s sorcerer recovered oil from an extinct fish that contained the ingredients to combat Skalla’s magic. But all we had were a few precious drops. Not enough to rid us of the curse, just enough to help one of us resist the pull of the boardwalk, for a little while. My father gave it to me and charged me with the task of locating Skalla and bringing her to our summer palace. There, perhaps she could be… persuaded… to undo her evil magic.”
    Summer palace? Magic fish oil? Soup? The more Shoal talked, the less I understood.
    â€œThe fish oil magic is in my blood. Now I will share it with you. I only hope it is enough to help all three of us resist the call of the boardwalk until we find a more permanent solution.”
    Using Trudy’s pin, she pricked her finger and let three drops of blood fall into the water. Spidery threads dissolved and turned the water pink.
    â€œWe’re not supposed to drink that, are we?” This summer had been unpleasant enough