Ellie and the Prince (Faraway Castle #1)(26)

“Omar?” she called again.

This time a male voice answered, muffled in the mist.

“Omar!” Slowly she followed the monster’s spiky head. Every rock made her heart leap; every dark wave looked like Omar’s hair. “Omar, where are you?”

“Here! Ellie?”

“Yes, I’m Ellie. Keep talking so we can find you.”

“Glad to. You have no idea how good your voice sounds to me.”

A moment later the lake serpent submerged, and Ellie saw the prince bobbing in the water, the orange of his lifejacket muted in the fog. “There he is! Oh, thank you for your help, dear serpent!” she called, even though she could no longer see the monster.

Its tail tip flickered above the surface a few feet away.

“Omar, are you all right?” Would he recognize her? Or would he steal her scooter and desperately try to reach the sirens?

He spun about to face her, and his brilliant smile flashed for an instant. “Ellie!” Then he was swimming to meet her. She was so happy that she almost forgot to offer him her hand, but he climbed up easily anyway. He wore running gear, complete with sodden shoes. The seat of her coverall soaked up the streams of water running off him, but she, at least, had had sense enough to change into water shoes.

“Are you all right? What happened?” She half-turned, trying to face him, and the idling scooter bobbed in the water and scraped against a rock. Then something pushed it from below, and they began to slowly move through the water, weaving between rocks. Trusting the serpent, Ellie sat sidesaddle on her scooter and focused on Omar.

His hands gripped her shoulders, and he studied her face as if his life depended on memorizing it. “I’m all right,” he said slowly, “though my head feels weird, as if something is buzzing inside. I think there must be magic in this fog.”

“There is magic, but I don’t think it’s evil. I suspect the siren queen is angry about a human walking on her island.” But Omar was acting . . . strange.

He slowly lowered his forehead to rest on her shoulder and heaved a deep, shaky sigh. “Ellie. Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t, Omar.” She allowed a tiny amount of magic into her soothing voice. ”You’ll be fine now.”

She felt the tension leave his body. “Thank you,” he said hesitantly. “I feel better already.”

“I’m glad.” She should probably have asked him to sit upright, but she didn’t.

A few loops of serpent body appeared behind the scooter. Rocks slid past in the fog; waves from the scooter’s passing lapped against them.

“Did you ever find Tor?” she asked.

“I did. He wouldn’t stop, so I chased after him into the fog. He told me to go away. Said the sirens weren’t calling him; he came to find a friend. But his eyes were dilated . . . He looked seriously crazed.” Omar shook his head. “I couldn’t make him hear sense. When I wouldn’t leave, he tipped me out of my kayak and smashed it over a rock.”

“What?” Ellie gasped. “You mean, he picked it up and—”

“Yes, he did. Dumped me out, hoisted it over his head, and smashed it against a rock until it was in pieces.”

Ellie’s heart raced. “Is he nearby? Did you hear the sirens call?” She kept almost seeing things in the fog. Her eyes flitted from rock to rock.

“I never did hear a siren this time, but the fog makes my head feel thick, like it’s stuffed with cotton. Maybe it affected Tor too. I don’t know what to think. I didn’t see him all day yesterday, and now . . . He looked drugged, but maybe that’s what siren-enchantment does. What man could be friends with a siren?”

If Tor had been enchanted, then why wasn’t Omar? Ellie pulled slightly away from him, and when he lifted his head, she peered directly into his eyes and reached up to touch his cheek, feeling the morning stubble. “You know who I am?”

He blinked in surprise. “You think I’m siren addled? I’m not.” His smile was weak but genuine. “Ellie Calmer, magic-creature wrangler.”

“We must get Tor back, but I can’t fit both of you on this scooter with me.”

She had just decided to take Omar back to the dock and return for Tor, when the quick glub-glub-glub of a ski-boat engine reached her ears. Relief nearly melted her limbs. “Somebody’s here.” She faced front, and Omar rested his head on her shoulder from behind.

The lake monster’s tail touched Ellie’s leg in a clammy caress. It gave the scooter one last push then vanished beneath the surface. “Thank you,” Ellie said quietly.

Moments later, the scooter slid ahead into blinding sunlight. Ellie shaded her eyes with one hand and looked around. Not twenty feet away, a ski boat idled in the water with Madame Genevieve at the wheel.

“Miss Calmer, is that Prince Omar with you?” she called across the water. “Is he enchanted?”

Omar lifted his head and shaded his eyes. “I’m not enchanted,” he called back, “but I don’t feel so well. I think Tor is on the island. He dumped me in the water and wrecked my kayak. He said he wanted to see a friend. One of the sirens, I guess. Please let me get away from here,” he added with feeling, then again lowered his face to Ellie’s shoulder. He touched only her life jacket, but she saw Madame’s lips tighten.