Part 12 (1/2)

Mr. Beeston bowed low, holding the rings out in front of him as he flicked his tail to tread water. ”Your Majesty,” he said, his voice deep and intense, ”I humbly return to you what is rightfully yours. I swore my allegiance to you, and I have not failed you. Finally, the rings are back with you. Once again, they may be parted and buried, safely out of trouble. And, you have my word, I will never, ever, let anything like this happen again.” Mr. Beeston went on bowing so low his head was practically under water. No one else moved. No one spoke.

Then Neptune held out a hand. ”Give me the rings,” he said.

Mr. Beeston instantly swam forward to hand the rings over to Neptune. ”Your Majesty, I am humbled by your a””

”Silence!” Neptune barked, his face contorted a” with rage, with pain? I couldn't tell.

I stared at him. After everything we'd done, everything that had happened, how could it go wrong so quickly? Now that Neptune had the rings back, he could curse us all over again a” and this time there wouldn't be a single thing we could do about it.

I sank lower in the water, my tail hardly moving. Shona swam over to join me. She took hold of my hand. ”I'll always be your best friend,” she whispered. ”Whatever happens.”

But maybe she wouldn't have that choice. None of us had any choices anymore. All the choices were in Neptune's hands. Literally.

Neptune flicked his trident in the air. Instantly, three dolphins swam to the side of the chariot. He bent down to say something to them and they disappeared, returning moments later pulling something along. Another chariot, a sleigh of some kind. There were two people in it. A woman and . . . a merman, his tail slung over the side. No! It couldn't be! But it was. Mom and Dad. Of course! Neptune said he'd bring them tonight!

I swam as hard as I could to reach the boat. ”Mom! Dad!” I cried with every tiny bit of me. But the joy I felt disappeared as soon as I saw their faces.

Of course.

They had come to say good-bye.

Here a” under the full moon, on the spring equinox, a point in the year when day meets night a” earth and sea would finally be separated, and for good this time.

Mom reached out from the carriage to throw her arms around me. ”Oh, Emily.” She sobbed, grasping my hair, pulling me to her so tightly I couldn't breathe. I didn't care. All that mattered was that I was in my mother's arms again. ”I looked for you everywhere. Everyone on the island has been searching. We found every last jewel that Neptune had been after, but we couldn't find the most precious one of all. You.”

Dad had slipped into the water while she was talking. A second later, his arms were around me too. Hovering in the water next to me, he reached out to wrap me in his arms. ”My little 'un,” he said, his voice raw and broken.

”Windsnap!” Neptune bellowed. All three of us looked up at him. He was pointing at Dad. ”Come here,” he said firmly.

Dad let go of me.

”No!” I lurched toward him, gripping him around the neck with my arms. This was it. Neptune could undo everything, put an even stronger curse on me if he wanted. My dad was going to be taken away; I'd say good-bye to him for the last time. ”No! Please!” I begged.

Dad unpeeled my fingers from around his neck. ”It'll be OK,” he said, the quivering in his voice giving him away. He didn't believe that any more than I did. Then he looked at Mom. ”I always loved you,” he said. ”And I always will, right?”

Mom swallowed hard and nodded.

Dad glanced at Neptune, who glared back at him. ”I have to go,” he said. Kissing Mom's hand, ruffling my hair, he turned and swam away.

I darted through the water to follow him. Gripping his arm, I swam alongside him. Dad tried to shake me off. ”Please, little 'un, don't make this harder than it already is,” he said.

”Don't go,” I begged. I swam to Neptune's chariot with him. ”Please!” I begged Neptune, choking on sobs. ”Please don't make me have to lose my dad again. Please. Please don't make them have to part. I'll do anything. I'll be good. I'll never get into trouble again. Please.” I let go of Dad and wept openly. I had nothing left to say, nothing to ask, nothing to offer, nothing to look forward to.

”Stop your crying, child,” said Neptune. ”Listen to me.” He turned to Dad, looking him harshly in the eyes. ”Windsnap,” he said, ”do you love your wife?”

”More than anything,” Dad said. He looked around for inspiration a” and found it in the sky. ”More than the moon itself.”

Nodding briskly, Neptune asked, ”And she feels the same way?”

Dad glanced across at Mom. ”I hope so.”

Mom held her hands to her chest. Wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand, she nodded vigorously. In that moment, I knew what I'd known all along, really. Of course they loved each other! Everyone argues, even Shona and I. Mom and Dad were never going to split up. I'd gotten it all out of proportion. My overactive imagination, and my silly worries a” that's all it had ever been. I hugged myself, grinning with pleasure and relief.

Neptune was silent for a long time. He put his trident down on the seat in his chariot and held the rings in both hands. Juggling them in his palms, he looked back and forth between Mom and Dad. His powerful face looked different. The lines of anger streaking down each cheek seemed to have gone. His eyes looked rounder, softer. For the first time ever, I noticed how green they were.

In the darkness, rain began to fall, tiny, sharp droplets plopping onto the sea all around us. Neptune opened his mouth to speak again.

”No one has to say good-bye tonight,” he said quietly. He turned to Mr. Beeston. ”Beeston,” he said, ”you were wrong.”

Mr. Beeston swam forward. Bowing so low his hair fell right into the water, he babbled, ”Your Majesty, if I have failed you in any way, I a””

Neptune raised a hand to silence him. ”You acted out of loyalty. But you are mistaken when you say I know what is important in life, what really matters. I don't at all. Or if I do, I have only just found out.” He looked up at the mist, still swirling around the castle. The rain fell harder, bouncing off the sea all around us. ”I have only just remembered.”

Then he held the rings out in front of him. ”Come here, Windsnap,” he said. Picking up his trident, he nodded to the dolphins, who instantly swam forward, bringing the chariot and Mom to Neptune.

What was he doing? ”I will no longer hide from the truth. I will no longer attempt to bury my feelings,” he said.

Neptune called Aaron to him. ”You are the man of the family now,” he said to Aaron. ”I cannot undo what has been done. But I can make amends. You are free to travel, to live where you please, mix with whomever you like. I will not hide you from the world any longer. You are my fin and blood, and I am proud of you.”

Aaron smiled hesitantly at Neptune. His eyes, his deep green eyes. Neptune's eyes.

”Your Majesty, sir,” he said, ”What about my mother?”

”She will be waiting for you at the castle.”

”Is she . . . ?”

Neptune nodded. ”She will be fine,” he said. ”Like you, she has a long life ahead of her. I want you both to enjoy it.”

”You mean she's better? We're no longer cursed?” Aaron burst out.

Smiling, Neptune replied, ”I will no longer allow curses. They are forbidden a” by law!”

Aaron punched the air. Then he turned and smiled the widest smile at me.

Neptune turned back to my parents. ”I am a firm ruler,” he said, ”and I always will be. No one can ever try to deny this.” Mom and Dad both nodded, waiting for him to continue.

”But,” Neptune went on, beckoning me to come to him, ”this daughter of yours has brought something back to me that I lost many hundreds of years ago.” He fell silent.

”The rings?” I asked, hoping to prompt him, even though I should have known better than to interrupt Neptune.

”No,” he said gently, ”not the rings. You and your family may never fully understand what you have given me, but, let me tell you, it is the most valuable thing. In return, I give it back to you.” Then he reached out to Mom and Dad a” and handed them the rings. The diamond one to Dad, the pearl to Mom.

Silently receiving the rings, Mom and Dad gazed at each other, at me, at Neptune.

”You represent what I have lost, and you will represent its revival too.” He spread his arms upward to the sky. ”It is the spring equinox,” he said, ”the day of my wedding anniversary, the day of new beginnings. Merfolk and humans will from now on live in peace together. I order it!”

I gasped and looked at Shona. Really? Did he really say that?

”Not just on one small island. It's time for the whole world to start again. We will start a new world. A new world that is not a new world at all. The world that was there all along, to anyone who was not too blind to see it.”