Rogue Wave (Waterfire Saga #2)(50)

“What are you doing? Grab the moonstone!”

“Um, no can do, Chief,” Ikraan said.

Neela and the others dropped whatever they were holding and swam over the treasure pile. Ikraan was floating just above another nest—this one containing six tussling baby sea dragons, each as big as a great white.

One had a gold scepter in its long black claws. Another had a soda can. A spiny sea urchin. A snorkeler’s mask. A snorkeler’s head. And a moonstone.

Neela caught her breath when she saw it. It was Navi’s talisman; she was sure of it. It was the size of an albatross’s egg, nearly six inches long. Silver-blue in color, it glowed from within.

“Isn’t that cute?” Basra said acidly. “They’re sleeping with their cuddly toys.”

The babies heard them. They hissed. One tried to scrabble out of the nest.

“How are we ever going to get that moonstone away from them?” Naasir asked.

Neela had an idea. She started to sing, soft and low.

“What?” Basra said. “What’s that going to do? We’re going to have to take them out, one by one.”

“No, wait, Basra!” Naasir said. “Look!”

The babies were swaying back and forth. They’d stopped hissing. Their scaly eyelids drooped over their yellow eyes. Neela was singing them an old Matali lullaby—one her mother had sung to her. After a few minutes they were almost out, when one suddenly slugged another one for no good reason. They all started tussling and hissing again, but Neela kept singing, and a few minutes later they were finally asleep.

“Nice work!” Ikraan whispered.

No longer singing, Neela swam toward the nest. It was for her to get the moonstone, no one else. She halted when a baby stirred, then hovered above the one who was holding the moonstone, clutching it to his chest. Working slowly and carefully, Neela pried his claws from around the talisman and took it. Then she turned to the others and smiled.

Which was a big mistake.

A swipe of pain across her back, sudden and blinding, made her scream. She dropped the moonstone. The baby dragon whose toy she’d taken had clawed her. He hissed angrily, then yawped for the jewel. Blood rose from the jagged tears in Neela’s skin, curling through the water. Their sibling’s noise, and the smell of blood, woke the others. Their eyes opened rapidly, their tongues flicked through their lips, and they started to crawl out of the nest.

In agony, Neela swooped down and retrieved the moonstone. As soon as she had it, Ikraan and Basra grabbed her. Naasir and Jamal snatched pieces of treasure from Hagarla’s pile and threw them at the babies, driving the creatures back into their nest. Furious at being deprived of a nice bloody snack and pelted with hard objects, they all started yawping loudly.

“Come on, we’ve got to go. Now!” Basra ordered.

Neela and the Askari fled. They swam away from the nest, over the treasure pile, and down the passageway to the cave’s mouth.

“Thank gods they’re too young to come after us,” Ikraan said, looking behind herself. She still had Neela’s arm.

Basra, ahead of them all, stopped short. “But he’s not,” she said.

Ahead of them, standing in the cave’s mouth, was a male dragon. He was smaller than Hagarla, but not by much. He growled at the mermaids, flattening his ears.

“Swim back to the treasure room. Very, very slowly,” Basra said quietly. “It’s our only chance.”

The mermaids did so, their eyes on the dragon. He followed them, snaking his head from side to side. Silvery strands of saliva spilled from his jaw. To Neela it felt like forever until they were back in the treasure room, but it had only taken a few seconds.

“Spread out and hit the ground,” Basra ordered.

They did and their camo blended them into the muddy, weedy cave floor. Confused, the dragon stopped short. He sniffed the water, then scuttled toward Neela, scenting her blood.

“Hey!” Basra yelled. “Hey, silt for brains! Over here!”

The dragon’s eyes narrowed. He lunged at her, jaws snapping. She darted backward, just out of his reach.

“Get out of here, all of you!” she yelled, drawing the dragon farther away from the passage.

Naasir, still holding his bag full of stolen treasure, made a dash for it, but the dragon sensed him. The creature whirled around and swung his massive head toward the merman. Naasir dove under the dragon’s chest and around his foreleg, barely avoiding his snapping jaws. He tried to make the passage, but the dragon blocked him, roaring in anger.

Ikraan swore. “We’ll never get out of here,” she said. “Basra, keep him engaged. I’m going to draw him over the treasure pile to the nest. Everyone else, get ready.”

While Basra clapped her hands at the dragon, luring him toward her, Ikraan darted backward, grabbed a jeweled box from the treasure pile, and then swam to the nest. Neela couldn’t see what she was doing, but two seconds later, she heard a baby dragon’s screech. Ikraan must’ve thrown the box and hit one, she thought.

At the sound of the screeching baby, the male roared. He turned his back on Basra and scrambled over the mountain of treasure.

“Go!” Ikraan yelled, her voice carrying up from the nest. “Get out of here!”

Basra grabbed Neela’s arm and yanked her toward the passageway.

“We can’t leave her!” Neela cried.