Kingdom Keepers V(34)

The wave reached its peak, its mass exceeding its surface tension. It tumbled forward like a building collapsing. It came to kill.

And then it stopped, as if hitting a brick wall. The force of all that water leaning—leaning—out over Amanda and Finn. A lot of water splashed to the pool floor, but the wave itself held.

“Amanda?” Finn whispered into her ear.

He could feel her distance, her removal from her body. She was locked, rock hard, as if in a trance. Her arms trembled as jolts of energy moved through her. Amanda was holding back the wave.

“Don’t let go,” she said in a voice he hadn’t heard her use before. Darker. Lower. Guttural. “Guide me back toward the gate.”

She was weaker, he realized. The effort was draining her.

“Okay,” he whispered.

Holding tightly around her waist, he took a step back, pulling Amanda with him. Was he dreaming, or did the entire wave move a few feet as they did? He took another step.

The wave advanced with them. For each step Finn took, the wave took the same step. He realized whatever force Amanda possessed, whatever accounted for the halting wave, was at its limit. She could exert no more pressure against it. He wasn’t a genius when it came to math, but it occurred to him that no matter how far they backed up, the wave was going to move with them. There was no escaping it.

“Amanda?”

“A little busy here,” she said.

“It’s just that it’s…moving.”

“Yeah…I know.” They took another step back. The wave lurched forward. But something had changed. Its splashing crest was slightly lower. The more they retreated, the lower it went.

“We’re winning,” Finn said, not knowing exactly what he meant. He moved her back more quickly.

“I can’t hold it,” she said. In fact, her arms were trembling, her strength waning. The wave had changed positions, now leaning like a shelf directly overhead. If it collapsed…

“I can!” came the thundering voice of Triton, his face appearing inside the huge wave. “Go! Quickly!”

Finn kicked away some of the tangled pool furniture, making a path for them. But they still had to clear Castaway Creek and get through the gate to reach Finn’s mom.

He nudged a clear tire tube aside. Then a double tube. Then some armchairs and a lounge chair. More and more water spilled from the crown of the wave thirty feet overhead. Amanda could no longer contain it.

The gate was impossibly far away. Then he spotted the solution.

“I’ve got a plan,” he said.

“I…”

She’d lost her strength.

Triton held back the towering wall of water. It foamed and spit as if it were suddenly boiling. “Goooo,” Triton growled.

Amanda threw her hands out to help Triton hold it back.

Finn craned forward and kissed her on the cheek from behind. “You can do this.”

A bolt of electricity passed through her like a shiver. The wave lifted and stood up behind the power of her force.

“Turn and grab hold of me, on three,” he said.

“But—”

“One…two…” He let go of her, pivoted, and dove for the double tube, grabbing its black rubber handles. He was face down, stretched across the tube. He felt her land on top of him and wrap her arms around his waist. He stood up, the tube held in front of him, Amanda dragging behind, and he started running. Amanda figured it out, moved to hold him around the chest, and also ran.

The wave seemed to hang in the air. Triton faded and disappeared. Whatever force had been holding it back faded. The wave sank under the weight of its crest, losing its form. It flowed out at the bottom, flooding instead of breaking. Sinking instead of cresting.

Thousands of gallons of water ran in both directions—one wave rushing back toward the Surf Pool, another surging toward the gate. It quickly caught up to Finn and Amanda, ankle deep, knee deep…

“Dive!” Finn shouted.

Together they leaped away from the flood. Finn landed squarely atop the tube, Amanda holding him around the chest. The tube caught the leading edge of the surge like a surfboard, picking up speed and lifting into the curl of the newly formed wave.

“Left!” Finn shouted, leaning in that direction. He had to steer the tube down the wave and toward the right if they were going to find the gate and avoid being smashed into structures.

“Right!” he called out.

Amanda did not argue. He felt her lean slightly to the right. The nose of the tube broke free and fell down the steep incline of water like a sled on ice.

“Finn!” she cried, squeezing the air out of him. Down, down they raced, in a nosedive heading toward the concrete below.

He counted down in his head, the gate area appearing far to his right. Just as he was about to shout out a move to the right, the wave reached the lazy river. It was like catching the toe of your shoe on a doorsill. The wave stumbled, rippled, and briefly lost its form. It threw the tube into the air.