Crisanta Knight: To Death & Back

CHAPTER 3 FISH-GUT SLUT-1

oly bananas, I can’t believe that just happened.” Blue put her hands on her hips and looked around in disbelief.

“I know,” I said. “How did we make it here without anything bad happening?”

We’d reached the spot where the wormhole was going to open with fifty minutes to spare. The proximity sensor on my Hole Tracker confirmed it. Amazingly, we’d arrived without running into any villains, monsters, or woodland obstacles on the way. That was certainly a first.

“It does not matter how it happened,” SJ responded, putting the Neverland map back into her magic potions sack and settling down beneath a tree. “I am simply grateful. We could use a break from evil.”

“Truer words have never been spoken,” Blue said as she plopped down beside SJ. Blue lay back on the grass, folded her hands behind her head, and closed her eyes.

I heard something in the distance and my ears trained on the sound.

“Well, since we have some time I’m going to see if there’s a river nearby. I think I hear running water.”

“Crisa, if you are thirsty, I could pull a canteen out of my potions sack. I have several filled in our room back at Lady Agnue’s that are easily accessible.”

“Thanks, but it’s not really about the water,” I admitted. “We’ve got a little time to kill before moving forward toward inevitable conflict, and you know how exploring relaxes me.”

SJ furrowed her brow in concern. “You do realize that while you sauntering off alone might relax you, it stresses everybody else out.”

I blinked, surprised, and pivoted toward Daniel.

“She’s not wrong,” he said. “People are always trying to kill or capture you.”

“All right, that’s fair,” I said, shrugging. “Anyone want to come with me?”

“I will,” Daniel offered.

“Me too,” Jason added. He turned back to the girls. “Blue, there’s still danger out there so don’t—”

A potent snore emitted from my friend. Jason shot SJ a look.

“Do not worry,” she said. “I will keep an eye out. Just mind the time.”

I handed SJ my backpack for her to hold onto before the boys and I made our way toward the sound of rushing water. Bright morning sunlight spilled through the branches. I inhaled the crisp air and broke into a yawn.

“Maybe you should have followed Blue’s lead,” Daniel commented. “We have a long journey ahead. If you’re tired, you might benefit from some sleep.”

“With my dreams, sleep can be just as exhausting as being awake,” I responded. “I’ll be fine.”

Daniel gave me a knowing look and dropped the subject. Like the rest of my friends, he knew better than to pry too deep where my dreams were concerned.

Seeing the future was both a gift and a curse of Pure Magic Disease. Sure, the power could come in handy. It gave me a heads up of what was to come. But it also showed me terrible things in my sleep that I would’ve preferred to stay innocent of. Like Jason’s death.

Daniel pushed a large branch out of the way and we found the source of the water.

Oh, wow.

It wasn’t a river. It was a cove. The crystal blue ocean was spilling into the small enclosure from the right. A wall of pale lavender rock rimmed the cove on the left. I’d seen this cove in a dream. Mermaids—five about our age, two a bit older—were presently perched on rocks poking out of the water. Two mermaids brushed their red locks with oddly shaped seashells. Three brunettes giggled near a flock of seagulls that stood beside them with the alertness of bodyguards. A mermaid with long black hair and a dark teal tail was floating lazily in the water and paddling backward strokes. And a blonde mermaid lay on one of the rocks, sunbathing. Her top was purple just like her tail.

I tilted my head.

No way.

“Lonna?” I called.

Lonna Langard, the mermaid princess of Book’s undersea kingdom of Mer, sat up and looked at me with her familiar, bright purple eyes that nearly popped out of her skull when she recognized me.

“Carly!” she said.

All the mermaids whipped their heads in our direction. Lonna dove off her rock and swam toward us. The rest of her tailed friends followed.

“She can never remember your name, can she?” Daniel said as they approached.

I shrugged. “I guess I’m not very memorable.”

“Must be your subtlety.”

I looked up at him and we exchanged a smirk. Lonna burst out of the water alongside the other mermaids. She propped her elbows on the rocks at our feet and gazed up at us.

“I can’t believe it’s you, Carly,” she said. “What’s it been, a few months?”

“I guess that depends on what Wonderland time zone you’ve been spending your time in,” I replied. “And it’s Crisa. You remember Jason and Daniel?” I gestured at my friends.

“Ooh,” one of the redheads cooed. “They’re cute.”

“Very cute,” agreed the black-haired mermaid. “Lonna, since when do you know so many cute guys in Neverland?”

“We’re from Book, actually,” Jason said.

“I’ll bet they’re heroes,” a brunette with a golden tail and off-the-shoulder top said. She batted her long eyelashes at my friends. “Either of you boys want to go for a swim?”

“Lay off, Stella,” Lonna said. “Jason’s with someone.”

“I am?” Jason replied.

“Duh,” Lonna said, tilting her chin. “What about Blue?”

“We’re just friends.”

“If I had a sea dollar for every time a boy said that …” Stella sighed. She pivoted toward Daniel. “How about you, handsome? You attached?”

“He’s spoken for,” I responded.

“Ooh, jealous much?”

“What? No, not by me,” I said, taking a surprised step back. “He has a girlfriend. Her name is Kai.”

“Whatever,” Stella responded, flipping her thick wet hair. “Do either of you want to see the reverse waterfall on the other side of the cliff? It’s just a short swim through an underwater cave. And it’s way more interesting than this conversation.”

“Well …”

“Oh come on, Crisa,” Lonna interceded. “It’s actually really cool. You’ll love it.”

Stella glared at Lonna. “I was talking to the boys.”

“Story of your life.” Lonna rolled her eyes then turned back to us. “Well, what do you say?”

Jason glanced at me. I checked my Hole Tracker and nodded. “Sure, we’ve got time.”

Daniel, Jason, and I lowered ourselves off the rocky ledge and splashed into the glistening water. It was colder than I’d expected.

That’ll wake you up.

I plunged beneath the surface to fully embrace the cold, opening my eyes to look around at the surreal blue seascape. Surprisingly, the salt water did not sting my eyes. Maybe it was magic water?

Jason, Daniel, and several of the mermaids were already making their way to the other side of the cove. I popped back up to get a swig of air before joining them. As I resurfaced, I heard Lonna curtly talking to Stella.

“Stella, that girl is my friend. You try and drown her and I swear I’ll kill you myself.”

“Ugh, you’re no fun,” Stella huffed. When she noticed me eavesdropping, she gave me a wicked grin and a wink before diving beneath the surface. Her golden tail slapped water in my direction.

“Don’t mind her,” Lonna said, paddling over. “She’s a bit of a fish-gut slut.”

“Pardon?”

“She goes through boys and leaves nothing behind but disheveled remains.”

My eyes widened. “You don’t mean she’s going to eat them, do you?”

“What? Ew, no!” Lonna said. “Geez, Crisa. You shouldn’t take things so literally.”

“Sorry, I don’t know a lot about mermaids,” I replied. “I almost killed you with a bracelet once, remember?”

“I do.” Lonna smiled. “The day we met. A lot has happened since then. Come on, I’ll tell you all about it. But first, follow me. Stella may be a piece of work, but she isn’t wrong. The reverse waterfall is awesome.”

After swimming through an underwater tunnel lined with the most wonderful assortment of undersea plants, Lonna and I emerged in a secret pocket of Neverland beauty. What I saw was, in fact, awesome.

The reverse waterfall was exactly what it sounded like—a waterfall with waters that defied gravity by flowing upward instead of downward. It was incredible. And the bubbles in the stream sparkled as if made of magic dust.

While Jason and Daniel listened to Stella and the other mermaids explain the legend of the waterfall’s origins, I sat off to the side with Lonna. I wanted to find out what she had been up to and how she had ended up in Neverland. Lonna insisted on my recap first though. She was super surprised to see us here. As I told her our reasons for ending up on the island, I felt somewhat surprised too. If I hadn’t lived through the experiences, I would’ve had trouble believing them.

Our search of the Wonderlands had begun because of Paige Tomkins, the lost Fairy Godmother. She’d run away ten years ago because she was the sole guardian of the whereabouts of Book’s trapped genies. We found her in Oz where, in order to best protect her secret, she’d gotten herself turned into a brainless scarecrow—a type of pathetic monster that had most of its brainpower and memories removed. The brainless scarecrows were victims of Glinda the Wicked Witch of the North, formerly Glinda the Good Witch. She and her sisters were carriers of Pure Magic and had all eventually succumbed to the evil, corruptible nature of the disease.

Paige had willingly let Glinda turn her into a brainless scarecrow to protect the location of Book’s genies. That information was now trapped within her removed memories, which were contained in a nearly impenetrable stone in Glinda’s lair. The stone was immune to pretty much everything—magic and brute force included. The only thing that could cut through it was Excalibur, the most powerful blade in existence. Hence the reason my friends and I had gone after the sword in the first place. We hadn’t learned about the Great Lights Prophecy until later on.

Our team had a lot working against us on this quest, especially given that the antagonists wanted Excalibur and Paige’s memories as badly as we did. However, our greatest obstacle was time. We had to successfully claim the sword and get to Glinda’s memory stone within the next three days, because three days from now at 7:30 p.m. the Vicennalia Aurora would occur.

The Vicennalia Aurora was this great magic fluctuation event that took place across all Wonderlands simultaneously, despite the time differences. For us in Book, it happened every twenty-five years. Other lands like Oz, Neverland, and Camelot experienced it every five and a half years. When the Aurora occurred, beautiful lights streaked the sky and magic became very unstable.

“Great Lights” was the nickname people from Camelot gave to the Vicennalia Aurora. And the Great Lights Prophecy about Excalibur indicated that the sword would be retrieved on the day of the event. If we didn’t get the sword in time for this one, we’d have to wait another five and a half years.

Past that, the Aurora was also our only chance to get into Glinda’s lair and avoid being trapped forever. The witch’s domain in Oz’s North Mountains was protected under an In and Out Spell, which was a type of magical force field. Such spells came in different forms—for example, the antagonist kingdom of Alderon had a very strong half version that allowed people to be thrown in, but kept them from getting out. Glinda’s version worked the same way, except on the day of the Vicennalia Aurora.

As mentioned, when the Vicennalia Aurora occurred magic was famously unstable. During our time in Oz we learned that this time around, ordinary magic specifically was going to become weaker. Meaning that In and Out Spells were going to become penetrable.

My friends and I were immune to certain types of In and Out Spells, but not this one. Thus, we had to go after the memory stone during the Aurora because it might be our only shot of escaping the In and Out Spell once we got what we came for.