“If you have a walnut, you must drop it now and it will grow into a tree on which I can rest. Otherwise, I must throw you into the sea or I will not make it to the other side.”
“What!” Julie shrieked. “But I don’t have a walnut! I don’t have any magic things. I lost them all!”
Boots yelped. “I hate water!”
“You can’t drop us!” Julie said. “Please! We’ll drown!”
“It’s not my choice,” the griffin said irritably. “It’s the rules. I asked you if you knew them. If you cross the ocean on the griffin’s back, this is how this story bit goes. I am sorry, especially considering your mother, but any second now, I will shake you off my back. If it’s any consolation, it’s the Wild that will do it, not me.”
He couldn’t be serious. “Some consolation . . .” Julie began.
The griffin dove toward the water. Julie shrieked and clutched his feathers as he tilted sideways. His feathers grazed the waves, and then he flipped upside down. Julie and the cat dangled.
Upside down, the griffin shook his back. Feathers slipped through Julie’s fingers. Boots yowled as he lost his grip. “Boots! No!” Julie yelled. He splashed into the sea. Sputtering, he bobbed between the waves. Boots!
Without stopping to think, Julie released the griffin’s feathers. Screaming, she flailed at the air. She splashed into the water.
Salt water filled her mouth as she slipped beneath the waves. Pinwheeling, she burst to the surface and spat. Cold seeped directly into her skin. Oh, God, I’m going to drown! Please, please, don’t let me drown. She heard a meow. “Boots!” She splashed over to the cat. “Hang on to me!” she said.
Boots latched onto her sweater. She sank into the waves and kicked herself back up. “Watch the claws!” she said. “Which way is shore?”
“I don’t know! I can’t see land!” the cat howled.
Think. Don’t panic. Just don’t panic. Trying to imagine the sea as Northcourt Pool, she started breaststroking. Waves broke against her. Her side cramped almost instantly. Her arms began to ache. She’d never make it. It was too far. It was endless. It was impossible.
Now she remembered she’d once seen her mom scared. Julie was younger, in elementary school, and she and Gillian were trying to ice-skate on the pond behind Gillian’s house. Except the water wasn’t fully frozen. Her mom came outside just as the ice first cracked.
A swell shoved into her, and Julie went under. She came up sputtering. “I don’t want to drown!” Boots cried. “I’m too young to drown! I’ve never had kittens! I’ve never even had a girlfriend!”
Swells crashed into them, dunking them. Boots dug his claws into her back and yowled at the waves.
Chapter Sixteen
Swan Soldiers
She felt a yank on her hair, and her face was jerked above the waves. Julie gasped for air. It burned. Oh, it burned! Something clamped onto her elbows and then onto her legs. Horizontal, she was raised out of the ocean.
Suspended an inch over the water, she started moving forward with a whoosh sound. Her stomach skimmed the surface of the sea. Waves slapped her face. She rose higher. Whoosh, whoosh, she heard. What was happening?
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of white. Held by the hair, she couldn’t move her head. “Boots! Boots, where are you?” she called.
She heard the cat’s voice: “Don’t eat me! Please, don’t eat me! I swear I’ll never chase another sparrow. Not even a chickadee!”
She heard a louder whoosh. Feathers filled her view—she was in a flock of giant swans. Each bird was at least six feet long from beak to tail feathers. The closest swan turned its boa neck toward her. “Don’t worry, miss. Everything’s under control. We said we’d look out for you, and here we are,” the swan said. “Lieutenant, loosen up on that hair there.”
Lieutenant . . . She knew them! She’d seen them turned into swans: they were the National Guardsmen she’d met back on Main Street.
The lieutenant holding her hair loosened his grip, and she turned her head to see a man-sized swan holding her elbow in his beak. “Where are you taking us?” she called.
The lead swan flapped ahead without answering. “Keep up that V formation, boys! Let me see those wings flap! What are you, a bunch of sissies? Up, down. Up, down!”
Ocean passed underneath her as the swans flew on.
“Gently, gently. On three: one, two . . .” The swans lowered her toward a patch of moss. Two inches from the ground, the swans released her and she belly-flopped onto the ground.