J ack splashed into the blue sunlit sea. He sank tothe bottom and then bobbed back up. He coughed andpushed his hair out of his eyes.
Annie was treading water nearby. "Hey!" she called.
"Hey!" Jack sputtered.
"I was wrong! You were right!" Annie said. Shesounded thrilled. "The Spider Queen just wanted tohelp us!""Yeah," said Jack. He shook the seawater off hisglasses and put them back on.
50"She must be really lonely!" said Annie. "Sheprobably feels like she has to hide in that cavebecause she's so scary-looking!""Maybe," said Jack. He looked around the secondcove. Purple shadows stretched over a rocky seashorebeneath the cliffs. The sun had moved farther acrossthe sky.
"We'd better hurry!" said Jack. "What do we donow?""Read the rhyme!" said Annie.
Jack pulled the shell out of his pocket. Treadingwater, he read the next line in Merlin's poem:
And swim with a selkie clothed in green.
"What's a selkie?" said Annie.
"Who knows?" said Jack.
He looked at the cliffs and the shore. Is a selkie afish? A person? What?he wondered. Then Jack sawtwo dark shapes speeding like fat torpedoes below thesurface of the water. They were coming straighttoward him and Annie.
51"Watch out!" Jack shouted.
"Yikes!" Annie yelled.
Jack and Annie swam out of the way as thecreatures moved swiftly past them. Suddenly twosleek gray heads popped above the surface. They hadwide snouts and long white whiskers. They had tiny,wrinkly ears and big, dark eyes.
"Seals!" cried Annie.
The two seals turned their heads like periscopes.
When they saw Jack and Annie, they opened theirmouths, showing their small, pointed teeth. Theyseemed to be smiling.
"Hi, guys!" said Annie.
Barrh! Barrh! the seals barked. Then they rolledthrough the water and bumped Jack and Annie withtheir noses. They barked again joyfully, then dartedtoward the shore.
"Come on!" cried Annie. "Let's play with them!""We don't have timeto play!" said Jack.
But Annie had already started after the52[Image: Seals.]
seals, swimming toward the rocky beach.
"Annie! Stop!" called Jack. "We have to hurry andfind the selkie! And the Sword of Light! Beforenightfall! Or King Arthur will meet his doom...."Jack's voice trailed off.
Annie didn't hear him. She and the two seals hadreached the shore and were getting out of the water.
The seals clumsily hauled their chubby bodies onto abig rock and flopped down. Annie climbed onto therock, too.
"Annie, come on!" shouted Jack. It could be as lateas four o'clock now,he thought. And there was still alotthey had to do before nightfall.
"Let's rest for a minute!" Annie called. She53sat near the seals and patted their shiny heads as ifthey were big dogs. The seals barked.
Actually, Jack wanted to rest, too. He felt reallytired. Maybe we could rest for a minute on the rockwith the seals,he thought, then search for the selkie.
"Well, okay," he shouted. "But just for a quickminute!"Jack headed for shore. By the time he draggedhimself out of the water, the seals were lying on theirbacks with their eyes closed. Their white whiskerstwitched as they slept in the warm sunlight.
"Shhh, they're napping," said Annie. She lay downbeside the seals and closed her eyes, too. "The sunfeels really good, Jack. Come on. Lie down with us fora second.""Oh, brother," Jack muttered. But the afternoonsunlight did feel good. He climbed onto the warmrock and lay down next to Annie and the seals.
54"Okay, just for a quicksecond," he said.
Jack closed his eyes. The sunshine felt good on histired arms and legs. The gentle sea breeze feltespecially clean and fresh after the Cave of the SpiderQueen. The next thing he knew, he had faded into adeep, peaceful sleep.... |