Page 46 of Coral Prince Conundrum
“I am at the surface home. What is wrong?”
“Come to the marine life hospital at Port City.” His voice sounds grave, and he’s huffing his breath like he’s walking rapidly. “Something…has gone wrong.”
Blood leaves my face, and I fear the worst. I know the hospital is for creatures of the sea, the pets of the most wealthy in the country. However, some instinctual part of me knows Daryl is hurt. So, I holler for Imelda to bring around a seahorse-drawn boat and driver.
My heart beats rapidly as I storm out of the house. As I wait for the carriage to pull up to the waterway, I try to take calm, slow breaths, to no avail. All I can think of is that I should never have let Daryl out of my sight.
It’s a horrific vision at the maritime animal hospital. We’re near a private operating room with the most experiencedveterinarians in the country. The guards stand outside, allowing only those I trust to enter the emergency area, including my siblings. My heart breaks as I gaze at Drakey, my beloved sea dragon, on the operating room table. Apparently, he suffocated and has laceration marks around his long body. No one can configure how a water creature was strangled in the ocean, but he was lucky to make it back to shore. Fortunately, since the guards recognized him as one of the royal steeds, he was rushed to the vet immediately.
It’s all too much. After the doctor explains the injuries, I turn and hug my brother and sister.I can’t lose Drakey, too. I already said goodbye to…
“Wait, what of Daryl?” I wipe a tear from my cheek and face the veterinarian. “What of Daryl?” I repeat, panic rising in my throat.
The vet looks to my brother for guidance. “Brother,” Oroy says quietly, taking my arm. We walk toward the waiting area, barren since the guards have cleared that area as well. “He hasn’t been spotted.”
“The royal guard is searching for him,” Priya says softly. “But they suspect a whirlpool?—”
“No,” I say firmly. I won’t hear of it, Daryl cannot be dead. I shrug off my siblings and briskly walk away. They follow as I leave the animal hospital. The main port of entry is not too far from here, but I’ll need to borrow a seahorse.
“Brother, wait,” Priya says. “I need you to calmly think this through.”
“I’ll think this through when I FIND HIM!” I snap. “I will turn the oceans upside down if it means protecting Daryl Tishman.”
My siblings glance at each other in concern. “They already have the best coast guards looking through his path in the ocean,” Oroy says.
I turn and briskly walk down the stone sidewalk, closer to the waterway. I’m willing to pay for any sea creature available to take me out there. “They do not have me,” I say with a frown. “Because he’s mine, and I need to find him. We have a bond, and…and I’ll track him down myself.”
“The public is going to see you,” Priya says as the two of them follow me. “It will be an international incident.”
“I do not care.”
“Whirlpools happen,” Priya says quietly.
“And I sent almost all the guards out,” Oroy adds.
I turn and glare at them. “I don’t believe it was a whirlpool. Drakey did not get those bloody marks from nature. This has to be an assassination plot! Someone hurt Daryl!”
“We have never had one of those,” Oroy says, looking down.
“Are you suggesting that someone purposefully went after him?” Priya asks.
“Yes, and I should have been there. They nearly killed Drakey, and they—” My words are cut off when I look up.
Seagulls float above, which is a common sight throughout the kingdom. My siblings aren’t nearly as well-versed in communing with marine life as I am. Hope blooms in my chest, and I whistle. In less than a minute, my prayers are answered.
“Pelly!” I say. My siblings look at each other with confusion as the bird lands on my arm. “What happened?” I ask.
The speech is garbled, but I understand enough. I smile and whistle, asking her to take flight.
“What’s going on?” Priya asks as I stride forward.
“Daryl is alive.” I look up at Pelly in the sky, and my pulse pounds faster. “Pelly says so. I asked her to look out for him, and she did.”
I find an officer near a waterway and quickly ask to borrow his golden sea dragon. He nods and bows—I’ve never loved my power as the Coral Prince more than I do now.
“So wait, what?” Priya asks.
“He is in a south coast cave, near the rocky crags. At least I think that’s what the pelican is saying.” I grip the reins and glance at my brother. “Oroy, can you gather a security detail and a royal meeting? Mother and Father need to know about the assassination attempt.”
