Free Emily Windsnap and the Castle in the Mist by Liz Kessler Page A

perfect but not far off.
    “Please let this be a dream,” I whispered, twisting the ring around and around on my finger, talking to it as though it could hear my thoughts and turn them into reality. Was it a friend or enemy? What was its hold over Neptune — and over me? I couldn’t tell.All I had was the knowledge that it was caught up in this whole nightmare with us — and the tiny feeling that it might help us find our way out of it too.
    Please let me be back at Allpoints Island in the morning, I prayed. Please let me hear Mom and Dad arguing in the kitchen as soon as I wake up. Please.
    Next time I looked, the clouds had all moved on. The stars were no longer visible either. Just the moon remained, bright and proud. See? it seemed to snicker at me. I win.

    There was a split second as I woke up when everything felt normal. Any second now, Mom would call me to get up and I’d have to drag myself out of bed. She hadn’t called yet, though. Still half asleep, I stretched and turned over in my warm bed. I was about to go back to my dreams — and then I remembered.
    I sat bolt upright, then jumped out of bed and ran to the porthole. Let me see Allpoints Island. Let us be back there.
    I was greeted by the sight of mauve sea stretching out forever, everywhere I looked. Baby-blue sky. And the white line of mist hovering in the middle, dividing the two worlds.
    “Emily, are you up?” Shona’s voice called quietly from below.
    I ran to the trapdoor and dropped myself down to join her. As soon as my legs touched the water, I felt them change. Please work properly this time, I said to myself, and I held my breath as I felt my tail form. Closing my eyes, I focused for a moment on the feeling, willing it to work completely. But it didn’t. In fact, it was worse than before. Patches of scales were missing; the shine of my sparkling tail seemed duller; my tail moved more stiffly.
    I swallowed my feelings and hoped Shona wouldn’t notice. I still didn’t want to admit it out loud: I wasn’t a mermaid half the time anymore. Now I wasn’t even close to being a real mermaid.
    “Look.” Shona pulled me over to the large porthole door. We swam out through it, around the huge sandbank under the boat, and up to the surface, where we rested, treading water by the side of the boat. Directly ahead of us, hovering on the line of mist as though it were floating, the castle stood bold and gleaming in the sunlight. “I think we should go to it,” Shona said, echoing my thoughts from yesterday.
    “On the boat? How? You saw the sails.”
    Shona was shaking her head. “No, I meant just you and me. We could swim there. It doesn’t look far.”
    It was still early. I could tell by how low the sun was in the sky. In fact, now that I looked, I couldstill see the moon, hanging on like the last guest at a party, reluctant to leave but fading and tired. Could I edge ahead in the battle that was silently taking place between us? Millie would still be in bed. She always slept late. We could get there. As soon as the thought came into my mind, my hand grew hot. The ring — it was telling me something, I was sure of it!
    It was telling us to go.
    “Come on,” I said, feeling hopeful for the first time since we’d landed here. “Let’s do it.”

“How long have we been swimming?” I asked, panting to catch up with Shona. Surely she was swimming faster than usual! I could hardly keep up with her.
    “Not sure. Maybe twenty minutes, half an hour, tops.”
    I stopped where we were and flicked my tail around in fast circles to tread water. “Look,” I said, pointing to the castle. It seemed to be looking back at me, willing me to approach it. Pulling me along. But there was a problem. A big problem.
    Shona looked across at the castle. “What?”
    “It’s no closer. It looks just as far away as it did from the boat.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” Shona said with a laugh. “It’s just . . .” Then she glanced back to see where