The Secrets of Pimsim Cove - 15. Chapter 15

The cool morning water splashed over my warm suntanned skin. I shivered as my tail and fins immediately covered with scales. The sensation of the change still amazed me. It felt like tiny electrical jolts kissing my skin as the scales formed.

But today, I didn’t care what color they were. I let the lower ones fade to light brown, matching my favorite khaki pants and the scales covering my breast shimmered dark forest green to match my tank top.

I ran my fingers over the smooth skin of my stomach, several times, trying to figure out what happens when the scales appear. The fabric seemed to just disappear and my skin was bare everywhere except my tiny boobs. The scales were so silky smooth there couldn’t possibly be any cumbersome fabric trapped underneath.

Afraid that I would run into someone returning home, from last night’s celebration, I took the long way around until I was near the backside of the steep cliffs and descended down that far side. Talbot’s guard sharks were still patrolling the water directly over the City, so I made sure that I was well out of their reach before swimming near the gate.

Last night’s busy streets were now deserted. Only a handful of people were out and about, this early in the morning. The backside of the City had a large stone entrance that matched the other gate at the front.

People passed in and out unnoticed as the guard leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest and his head bent low as if he was studying something on the ground. My heart caught in my chest as I immediately recognized the guard as Collin from the last night. No wonder the poor guy was sleeping on the job, if he pulled double duty after patrolling the front gate last night and now, today, he’s working the back gate.

A group of women were approaching the entrance in front of me. They were heading into the City, so I scurried behind them. I kept my head down trying to be as inconspicuous as possible and when they suddenly turned left after crossing through the threshold into the City, I was snagged backwards by a pair of strong hands.

“Ouch!” I squeaked and tried to break free from the clutches at the back of my slightly bruised arm. I swung around to face Collin. Even though I glared at him, he kept a painfully firm grip on my arm.

“What are you doing down here, Anna?” He asked.

“Let go of me!”

“First, you tell me what you’re doing down here sneaking around--”

“I wasn’t sneaking--”

“Well then…what are you doing?” Collin let go of my arm and my hand immediately rubbed the sore flesh.

“I had to see…well, I was checking on…” Think Anna! I needed to come up with a convincing fib and fast. “Aunt Rosy,” I blurted out, “she lost her Ring…at the Palace last night and I was just heading over there to see if anyone had found it.”

His eyes narrowed on me as he considered my story. My heart pounded in my chest while he was deciding if he believed me or not. “A Ring?”

“Yep, this is all about a Ring!” I held my chin up as I spoke the truth and met his weary gaze. I lowered my voice and added, “come on Collin, I know that you’ve heard the whispers…the talk about Rook…” He nodded his head, but didn’t say anything. “A new King always needs loyal people and I could put in a good word for you…” I trailed off and let his mind fill in his own blanks.

Collin stepped back and straightened his shoulders as a soft smile returned to his face. “Thank you, Miss Anna. Enjoy your stay while here in Pimsim City.”

“Yes, Collin, I will.” I tipped my head to him in a sophisticated goodbye and hurried off into the City before the streets began to grow more crowded.

***

The Palace was still as breathtaking as when I saw it for the first time. It felt noble and majestic. I couldn’t believe that such a ruthless evil creature could dwell inside of such a beautiful place. If the Palace was a living thing, she would have been so repulsed by Talbot that she would have purged him out of her soul, revealing his true nature to the Tritons.

Maybe then they would stand up for themselves and revolt against Talbot and demand that he step aside for a new leader.

Workers rushed about the Palace, cleaning up after last night’s celebration. I watched them from my hiding place, behind a stone pillar. There was a big man near the front door, barking out orders to the workers.

I pulled the rubber band off my wrist and twisted my hair back into a tight bun and then commanded that my scales turn pale fleshy color before joining the other young maids falling into a straight line. He marched them into the Palace to start cleaning up the ballroom.

The big guy handed me a bag, a broom, and a dust pan. I didn’t know how this was going to work under water, but I watched the other girls, I figured it out pretty quick. The dirt drifted around the floor with little effort from the broom and was easy to scoop up and place into the trash bag. After I cleaned the section assigned to me, I kept casually sweeping along the floor as I slowly mover further back towards the door that Sean and Rahuna had slipped through last night before.

Watching the big guy turn and walk back outside, I knew that was going to be my only chance to slip away, while the other maids were still busy finishing up their work. The doorway led to a long narrow hallway. It was lit on both sides by globes of glowing jellyfish.

Every few feet, they cast their soft light into the darkness. I continued down the hallway, sticking close to the far right wall. The first door that I came to was closed so I pressed my ear to the surface listening for the slightest sound that anyone was inside. Finding that it was silent, I glanced back down the long hallway to make sure that nobody was around before turning the knob and quietly entering the room. My hands shook as I went in to find out what was hidden inside.

The large living room was filled with very odd, but exotic furniture. I let out a long string of bubbles as I sighed. I was super relieved to only find furniture hidden behind the closed door and no occupants inside.

The view through the huge windows gave a spectacular view of the City. I turned, ready to leave, when I noticed another doorway hidden in the back corner and suddenly remembered something I had once read in a novel, this one guy wrote. It said, ‘dungeons are where we put the people that we can’t put out of our minds.’

“We push them to the back of our minds,” I whispered to myself. “He was telling me that I’d find the dungeon in the deepest, darkest place in the back of the Palace.” I gasped. I knew I loved his books for a reason. Worried that, any minute, someone would stumble into the room and find me there crouched behind one of the large strange couches, I rushed off to find the back of the Palace.

***

I poked my head around each corner before stepping out of the safety of the darkness. The Palace was quiet. I quickly slipped, unnoticed, through its twisting maze of darkened hallways.

The light from the big front windows couldn’t penetrate through the deep darkness that swallowed up every single ray, before it reached back here. As I rounded this last corner, the jellyfish globes disappeared. They didn’t light the rest of the hallway, I back tracked to the last globe I had passed and gently lifted the glass off the high shelf.

I couldn’t just carry the glowing thing through the hallways. The pulsing light would be spotted from far away and would be a dead giveaway.

Concentrating on my scales, I demanded that the ones covering my upper body to return to flesh and suddenly felt soft fabric from my tank top brush against my skin.

Even with nobody around in the empty hallway to see me, I was still embarrassed at the thought of being naked in Talbot’s Palace. I quickly rushed to pull my shirt off, leaving my skin chilled by the cool dark water. Stretching out the fabric, I got it to completely cover the glass globe.

I used my tank top straps to cinch it totally closed when I needed to shut out the light, but could still pull the material back and adjust how much light escaped and open it even wider if I needed more light.

The skin over my exposed boobies returned to scales, fleshy mute colored scales, on its own in the salty water. A totally gross thought popped into my head…all of Talbot’s servants were all naked under their scales. Eeewww! That’s why their scales were pale flesh-like instead of dark black or vivid colors like the party guests. Just another reason Talbot needed to be put out of power. How could he subject his workers to such hideous treatment?

The dim hallway grew narrow then abruptly ended. “Crap!” I grumbled in frustration, but I suddenly noticed that it wasn’t a stone wall at the end, but a thin stone doorway. This had to be it! My favorite author was right.

Talbot found a spot so far out of sight that he could keep his prisoners out of mind. I ran to the narrow doorway and yanked on the metal ring protruding from the stone wall. It protested and creaked and cracked as the door opened, revealing a set of steep stairs hidden behind it.

My heart started to frantically pound inside my chest. I pulled the globe free from my shirt and rushed down the creepy steps into the unknown.

***

Dad? My mind called out into the darkness, but my mouth was frozen in fear. The dungeon was small and dirty…and scary! Four prison cells surrounded the tiny landing at the bottom of the stairway.

My eyes adjusted to the dark as I glanced into each little cell. The first three were empty, but a long lean man was sprawled on top of a tiny bed in the last cell.

“Daddy?” I cried and rushed towards him. His head lifted off the bed. His hair was messy and stuck out as he swam towards the metal prison bars. Dad’s usually clean and handsome face was now thin and dirty. Several days worth of growth had made his beard thick.

Right now, he looked more like Uncle Rook than my dad, but I saw the tears welling up behind his emerald eyes and knew that it was him. I grabbed his hands through the cold metal bars and slipped my arms around him.

“I can’t believe it…you’re here, Anna, you’re really, really here!” He whispered again and again as he clung to me through the bars.

“Of course I’m here!” I sobbed into his chest.

“I was starting to believe that I was going crazy. My mind played tricks on me.” He whispered into my hair. “I kept thinking that I would see you and your mother. A couple times, I thought I heard Jimmy’s sweet laugher…but it was never real…you were never really here…and the dreams would just fade away and I was still stuck here, all alone.” His eyes misted over thinking about Mom and Jimmy back home. I didn’t want to upset him, but I thought he needed to know about Marcus.

“Dad…Mom had the baby last night.”

I thought he would be upset that he wasn’t by Mom’s side when she gave birth to his third child, but his face beamed with joy. “Really? How’s Marcus? How are they…both of them?” He gushed excitedly over the birth of his son.

I smiled thinking about the pictures that Cassy texted me. “He’s beautiful Dad. Mom is doing great. Cassy and Mrs. Morgan are there helping her with the baby and Jimmy until we get back home. Dad, she misses you so very, very much…we all do!”

“I know Princess, I know. I still can’t believe that you’re really here. My little Anna is here in Pimsim City…I just can’t believe it…but here you are…scales and all!”

His soft eyes glanced over my new figure and he was amazed at the sight of my scales, tail and fins. As if I could read his mind, I winked at him and said, “You haven’t seen anything yet! Watch this.”

I closed my eyes and thought about neon blue scales. I concentrated on the bright techno color and heard him gasp when the opaque scales turned bright blue and giggles burst from inside me.

“Wait, Dad it gets even better.” I held up my hands and concentrated on dark pink. For some reason I liked the bold look of contrasting colors and the rest of my scales shimmered pink for a moment before swirling into the vine and flower pattern that I thought complemented my skin. He reached through the bars and lightly touched the pink flowers spanning the length of my arm.

“That’s amazing Anna! How did you learn to change on your own?”

“I couldn’t have learned this alone.” A sharp pain stabbed through my chest when I remembered Sean working with me and the proud smile that painted his face when I finally got my scales. I pushed him out of my thoughts and looked back into Dad’s soft green eyes.

“The McLoughlin’s taught me. Grandma Rosy and Stonebrook have been helping me learn all about the Tritons and Pimsim City.” That was sort of the truth. “And now that I’m here, I’m gonna get you out of there!” I said and pulled back from him, turning my attention to the locked cell door. It looked like thick black rope was wrapped around the rusty metal lock. When I reached out to unwind the cords, Dad gasped and franticly grabbed at my hands.

“No Anna, don’t touch it--”

“But Dad, I can untie this in a flash--” I protested.

“It’s not rope!” He shouted.

My hands suddenly jerked back from the lock as the thick ropes wiggled around to face me. Big black, ominous eyes bulged from its poufy head as it glared at me.

“Don’t touch him. It’s a black beaked octopus…it’s one of the deadliest creatures of the sea.” Dad said as he also took a step back away from the door. The octopus flexed his black rope-like arms as he repositioned himself over the top of the metal lock.

“Well then, how am I going to get you out of here?” I asked him, feeling defeated.

He heard the trembling in my voice and immediately came closer to the far wall away from the evil little creatures. I embraced him through the metal prison bars and sobbed into his dirty chest.

“Anna darling, I’m sure that Rook told you why I’m here.” I nodded my head and stifled a sob. “Talbot only wants the Ring. He promised to let me go, but only if Rook returns it to him.” Dad lifted my chin to face him as he wiped away the tears from my eyes. “I need you to go back to the Cove--”

“I’m not leaving you here!”

“Anna,” He said using his, ‘I’m the parent and you’re the child, and you will do as I say tone.’ “You have to go back and tell Rook where I hid the Ring. He’ll never be able to find it on his own and without it, Talbot will leave me here to rot in this filthy cell, forever.”

Only after I nodded and promised to return to the Cove, Dad told me where he hid Talbot’s Ring.

***

Tears poured down my face as I slowly made my way up the narrow steps. I stopped at the top and listened before I swam into the dark hallway. I leaned against the stone wall, closed my eyes, and counted to ten. Concentrating on my slow and steady breath, I felt my heart rate return to normal.

The door creaked when I pushed it open only enough to peer down the narrow hallway. My eyes readjusted to the darkness. When I was confident that the coast was clear, I stepped out of the dungeon entrance and quickly swam down the hallway.

Hesitating at each corner, just long enough to listen for the sounds of voices or swishing bubbles, when I didn’t hear anything, I continued dashing down the next passage only to stop and wait again for any more approaching sounds.

I made it back to the main hallways, lined with the glowing glass globes and quickly returned the lantern to its proper place.

Rounding the corner, my heart raced since. I was almost back to the ballroom. I backed into a darkened corner and listened to the continued silence of the Palace. Just when I flicked my tail to make one last dash towards safety, I was suddenly snatched from my hiding spot and dragged backwards, around the last corner.

“I don’t care what you have to do, Victor,” Talbot’s deep voice boomed as he came down the hallway that I had been ready to dash into.

The King and his entourage passed by the offshoot to the corridor as they continued on down the hallway, unaware of my presence. “But make it happen.” Talbot bellowed at his Advisor, who also happened to be his brother, as he following along on the King’s heels. “I need to have a new wife by my side before the next full moon!”

Their voices grew fainter as they got further away.

I shifted and pushed at the arm that was holding my waist. I swear the guy was a smurfing octopus. “Okay Andrew, they’re gone…so you can let go of me… now!” I growled at him over my shoulder without having to look back to see that it was Talbot’s sleazy nephew that had pulled me out of way, just moments ago.

“I think you should show me a little gratitude for saving your life… twice.” Andrew let go of me, but before I could escape, he spun me around and pressed my back into the cold stone wall and groped at my hips and squeezed my butt. “Talbot doesn’t like outsiders sneaking around the Palace.” He growled and leaned closer to me, trying to nuzzle my ear. “But, if you were my Duchess, then one day, very soon, you could be the next Queen.”

I balked at his crude proposition. If Talbot dies without an heir then Andrew’s father, Victor would become the next King, not slimy Andrew. “Heaven help Pimsim City if you ever become King.”

Anger flashed through his cold eyes. “Oh, I’ll be King alright, and much sooner than you think. Talbot’s days are numbered. I’ve already put plans in motion to see to it that I am King very, very soon!” With each of his haunting words, Andrew got closer and closer.

A chill scraped across my spine as his words settled into my brain. “You would kill your own father to become King?” I gasped as an evil smile slithered along his thin, hard lips.

“Who wouldn’t?” He sneered.

I pushed at him, needing him far away from me. “Who wouldn’t? Oh my goodness! I wouldn’t…I would never do such a thing, you heartless bastard--”

He let go of me and swam a few inches back. “This is your last chance Anna. You can join me, the future King, or return to that no-good Greenie--”

“Or maybe I’ll just go back home and try to forget that I ever met either one of you!” I shouted as I shoved past him and dashed down the hallway. I could still hear his laughter echoing behind me, as I pushed through the doorway that led back into the empty ballroom.