Dragon's Breath Book 2 (Completed)

Chapter 10

Eadric was staring at the bowl with a skeptical look on his face.

"Are you sure you want to go with me?" I asked. "You don't have to, you know. You can stay here until Grassina gets back."

"I'm going," he said. "Although that bowl is awfully small."

"We'll just have to use the comb and see what happens. I'm sure Grassina knows what she's doing."

"Maybe, maybe not," said Eadric. "Look at the way she handled your grandmother, not to mention the flying carpet. Here—if you want to take the crab, you'll have to carry him. I can't stand his chattering." Eadric handed Shelton to me and wiped his fingers on his tunic.

I glanced at the little creature. "I didn't know you were royalty when I met you," the crab said. "It's too bad, too, because I'm sure my family would have wanted to come with us if they'd known. My sisters—"

I shook my head. "No more talking, please. We have important work to do, so you'll have to be quiet."

"If that's what you really want, Your Highness, but I know all sorts of—"

"Starting now!" I said. Waving his eyestalks, Shelton scampered into my loose sleeve, pulling the lace down behind him.

I took a deep breath to calm my nerves, then undid my hair from its plait and separated the sections with my fingers. Before I could change my mind, I pulled the comb through my hair three times, then did the same for Eadric. I tucked the comb into my pouch, reached for Eadric's hand, and dipped my free hand into the salt water. There was a sound in my head like a thousand bubbles popping, and the next thing I knew we were swimming in the salt water, fully clothed.

I could see the outline of the bowl and the room beyond it, but they were enormous and far away. The castle lay below us, bigger than I'd thought it would be, although in every other regard it looked the same. To my amazement, I could breathe underwater and it seemed perfectly natural. Since Eadric looked the way he always did, I assumed that I did as well, so I knew we hadn't grown gills or turned into merpeople.

Enjoying our new abliity, we smiled at each other and then turned toward the castle. It was obvious that Eadric had some experience swimming as a human, but I had not, and so I resorted to the strokes I'd used as a frog. It was awkward, as the fabric of my long gown hampered the movement of my legs.

The castle door had looked ordinary from a distance, but upon closer inspection, we found that it was made of a single slab of a smooth, white material, like a fragment of a giant seashell. We knocked, and after a few minutes a strange creature with a soft, sack-shaped body and eight ropelike arms answered the door. When it saw us, it blushed a fiery red and flung one of its arms across the doorway, blocking us from entering.

"What do you want?" said the creature, examining us with two bulging eyes that moved independently of each other.

Flustered by the way it was looking at us, I cleared my throat and said, "We've come to see Coral, the sea witch."

"Well, then, hurry and come inside before you let the cold water in."

The water seemed warm enough to me, but I followed the creature inside with Eadric bumping into me from behind. Once the door was closed, the creature looked us over again as if it wasn't sure it should have let us in.

"Wait here," it said, and floated through a nearby opening, leaving us standing in a narrow hallway.

I was tugging on my hair, gathering it into my hands, when I realized that someone had entered the hall. Turning my head, I saw Eadric's face first, his expression so foolish that I had a good idea who it was before I even saw her.