Atticus Claw Goes Ashore (13 page)

21

Swimming, Atticus decided, was surprisingly easy once you got the hang of it. No wonder fish liked it so much. He thought he might try and teach Mimi when he got back to Littleton-on-Sea.

And the ocean was beautiful! They were swimming along the narrow channel between Volcano Island and its ring of rocks about two metres below the surface. The water was as clear as diamonds. The sea teemed with fish of every different colour and variety. Some had funky stripes. Others had glossy spots. Some shone like rainbows with delicate fins that trailed in pretty ribbons from their backs. Atticus had never seen anything like it. Even the rocks were coated with dazzling colours. Turquoise fronds and bright
yellow sponges nestled together with what looked like small trees made of broccoli, only they came in pink and orange and purple, instead of green.

As they swam towards the lava waterfall, the sea became warmer and warmer. Curiously it didn’t seem to affect the sealife. If anything it got more stunning the warmer it became. Atticus was glad they didn’t have to breathe the air. That close to the lava flow the smell must be unbearable.

Callie and Michael were up ahead of him with Inspector and Mrs Cheddar, Mr Tucker and Bones. They were making good progress. Inspector Cheddar was in the lead. He was swimming as if his life depended on it, Atticus thought. Then he remembered – his life did depend on it! Mrs Cheddar turned and beckoned, then swam off again. Atticus followed as quickly as he could. Managing flippers was tricky. He was glad Mrs Tucker was behind him. Whenever he got muddled up Mrs Tucker’s firm hand on his rear gave him a strong push forward.

They were close to the cave entrance now. Atticus could see the opening in the submerged cliff face. It was a lot bigger than he had imagined – a great
cavern which descended as far as he could see into the depths of the ocean. Atticus felt nervous. It was almost as if it didn’t have a bottom at all – as if it went all the way to the centre of the earth. Maybe, he thought anxiously, that was where all the magical sea creatures lived: where they went when they had devoured anyone who threatened the mermaid. He looked about for signs of the man-eating plankton. He tried not to think about them nipping at his fur with their huge teeth.

They swam into the cave and on towards the centre of the mountain. FLIP, FLAP, FLIP, FLAP. The sunlight above them faded. Everything was darker, colder, scarier. Atticus could hardly see. FLIP, FLAP, FLIP, FLAP. All Atticus could hear was the gentle swish of flippers and the strange echo of his breath in the mouth tube. He could barely make out the Cheddars. Mr Tucker and Bones had disappeared. He was sure something was lurking in the water, watching them. He kicked on. FLIP, FLAP, FLIP, FLAP, FLIP, FLAP.

Gradually the light became stronger again: the water became clearer. Atticus relaxed a little.

Mrs Cheddar pointed upwards.
It was weird being under water, Atticus reflected. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. Mrs Cheddar started swimming towards the surface. The rest of the group followed her.

POP! Atticus’s head emerged out of the water beside Callie’s and Michael’s and Bones’s. He looked about.

‘We did it, everyone!’ Mrs Tucker popped up beside him and removed her mouthpiece. ‘We made it to the lagoon!’ She helped Atticus out of his breathing apparatus and goggles. He took in a lungful of air. The air was pure. It smelt of flowers. He took in another lungful, glad to be free of the sour stink of the volcano.

‘Wow!’ Callie gasped.

‘It’s beautiful!’ Michael breathed.

Atticus looked around in astonishment. He had thought the sea was amazing but the lagoon was out of this world!

The lagoon was cut out of rock. Waterfalls (real ones, made of water not lava) tumbled into it from high above. The biggest white flowers Atticus had ever seen wound their way on dense creeping vines up the face of the rock towards the roof of the
volcano. Tiny birds hovered in the air collecting nectar. Delicate butterflies fluttered to and fro. Atticus listened, entranced. You could hear their wings beat!

‘Where’s the light coming from?’ Callie asked in awe.

‘There are light tunnels,’ Michael pointed upwards. ‘Look.’

Atticus gazed up. High above them the rock was studded with light, like a night full of bright stars.

‘The tunnels must lead to the outside,’ Michael said. ‘That’s how the light gets in.’

‘There!’ Inspector Cheddar exclaimed suddenly. ‘There she is! The mermaid!’

Atticus looked round.

A little way away, at the base of a waterfall, was the mermaid. She was lying on a rock, flapping her tail gently back and forth in the water, admiring herself in a mirror and brushing her long blonde hair.

Atticus blinked. He eyed the mermaid warily. This wasn’t at all what he had expected.
Where was the casket? And why wasn’t the mermaid asleep?

‘Isn’t she supposed to be in a casket?’ Callie whispered.

Atticus purred. That was exactly what he was thinking.

‘Casket, basket!’ Inspector Cheddar cried. ‘Who cares!! She must have woken up after her thousand-year nap and let herself out for a swim.’

He pulled himself out of the water in his neoprene suit and shot off, leaping and bounding athletically across the rocks, like Bones.

Atticus frowned. Something didn’t feel right. Fishhook Frank’s map didn’t say anything about the mermaid letting herself out for a swim. X marked the spot. It showed the casket in the middle of the lagoon under the volcano. With the mermaid presumably still in it, asleep. He squinted across the lagoon but he couldn’t see anything. The casket would be under the water, where the mermaid could breathe. She couldn’t survive for long out of the water. That’s how the old woman had managed to trick her in the first place.

‘I don’t like this,’ Atticus meowed to Bones.

Mrs Tucker didn’t either. She was staring intently
at the mermaid. ‘Hmmmm,’ she said. ‘I wonder …’ She didn’t say what she wondered. She started after the Inspector. ‘Let’s take a closer look. Come on.’

The rest of the party followed, picking their way carefully over the rocks, except Bones who bounded across like a gazelle.

Up ahead, Inspector Cheddar had already reached the mermaid.

‘Magic mermaid on the shore, please grant me what I’m wishing wish for!’ he yelled ecstatically. Finally he would be free of the curse! His eyeballs wouldn’t explode after all! He wouldn’t get the squirts or the shakes, the lumps, the bumps or the camel humps. Inspector Cheddar felt so happy at that moment, he was even prepared to forgive Atticus.

The mermaid didn’t appear to have heard him. She carried on brushing her hair.

‘Magic mermaid on the shore, please grant me what I’m wishing for!’ Inspector Cheddar repeated.

The mermaid turned round and glared at him.

Inspector Cheddar started. The mermaid was as ugly as a troll! Her face was all wrinkly and the skin round her neck and elbows sagged like a plucked chicken. He wished she was wearing something more than a shell bra and a tail. He wondered if it would be rude to offer her his neoprene suit.

‘Vot do you vant?’ the mermaid demanded.

Inspector Cheddar grimaced. The mermaid didn’t just have an ugly face, she had a horrible voice as well: like a frog with tonsillitis.

‘I’ve come to ask for a wish,’ he said impatiently.

‘Vell I vish you hadn’t,’ the mermaid said. ‘I’m all out of vishes today.’

‘You mean someone got here before I did?’ Inspector Cheddar said aghast.

‘Yeah, big bloke vith boots, an eye patch and a long beard.’ The mermaid scratched her armpit. ‘Or it might have been a jumper.’

‘Captain Black Beard-Jumper!’ Inspector Cheddar groaned. ‘I’m doomed! Any minute now I’m going to get the curse of the black spot!’

‘Vell don’t give it to me,’ the mermaid said. ‘Or Biscuit,’ she added softly.

‘Biscuit?’ Inspector Cheddar repeated. ‘Who’s Biscuit?’

The mermaid grinned. Her teeth were black. ‘You remember Biscuit,’ she said. ‘He’s furry, vith big teeth. Likes rats. Come here, my orange angel of darkness.’

A large ginger cat stepped out of the shadows and joined the mermaid on the rock.

‘Wait a minute!’ Inspector Cheddar said. There was something familiar about the mermaid. And he’d definitely seen the cat somewhere before. ‘Have you been to Egypt recently?’ he asked suspiciously.

The mermaid didn’t reply. Instead she reached up with one bony hand and pulled off her long blonde wig. Beneath it was a grizzled mat of grey hair, bristling with sharp-looking hairpins.

Inspector Cheddar recognised the mermaid now. He’d already been on the receiving end of those hairpins on more than one occasion. ‘Klob!’ he gasped. ‘It’s you!’

‘Surprise!’ The mermaid said.

ZIP! A hairpin flew through the air towards Inspector Cheddar and hit him in the leg. He toppled to the rock, snoring.

Bones was the first to reach the scene. She looked at the mermaid in confusion.

‘Bones!’ Atticus meowed desperately.
Klob and Biscuit!
What were they doing here?! ‘Be careful! It’s a trap!’ But Bones was too far ahead. She couldn’t hear him.

ZIP! A second hairpin flew towards Bones. She collapsed beside the Inspector, fast asleep.

‘Dad!’ Callie screamed.

‘Bones!’ Mr Tucker howled.

‘I knew it!’ Mrs Tucker muttered. ‘I had a feeling Klob might turn up.’

‘Biscuit,’ Klob shouted. ‘Ve’ve got company.’

Ginger Biscuit growled. POP. POP. POP. POP. He popped out his claws one by one as the rescuers approached.

Atticus ducked down out of sight. If Klob and Biscuit got control of the mermaid it was almost worse than if the pirates did! Without thinking, he crept behind a vine and hid amongst the flowers.

Mrs Cheddar ran to her husband. ‘You witch!’ she screamed at Klob. ‘How could you?’

‘Dad, wake up!’ Michael started shaking him.

‘He von’t vake up,’ Zenia Klob said in a bored voice. ‘I put extra super concentrated sleeping potion on my hairpins today.’

‘How did you get here, Klob?’ Mrs Tucker demanded.

‘Easy,’ Klob answered. ‘I took a submarine. Much qvicker than sailing.’

Atticus listened from behind the flowers. A submarine! That was what he had seen from the ship yesterday. A periscope from a submarine! Klob must have followed the pirates when they bought the magpies. And sailed after them in the submarine to the Ocean of Terror. But how had she beaten the
Destiny
to the lagoon? Atticus scratched his ear, puzzled.
How did Zenia Klob even know there was a lagoon?!! Or a mermaid?!!! Let alone how to find it?!!!! Apart from themselves, only Fishhook Frank and Captain Black Beard-Jumper knew that
… Atticus felt his fur stiffen with fear.
Oh no!
He wanted to cry out: to warn Mrs Tucker and the Cheddars, but if he did, then he would be discovered and he wouldn’t be able to help them escape from what he sensed was about to happen.

‘Vere’s Atticus?’ Zenia Klob asked suddenly.

‘Only, Biscuit vants to chew him.’

Atticus froze. They mustn’t give him away!

The children glanced at one another.