“I’m Vela, and this is my brother Enkle,” the woman said. “We run the Seaturtle Lodging House.” She waved at the building behind them. “You can stay here, have a bite to eat, while you wait for him to return.”
“How long will it be?” Jack asked. “Is there a way to tell him I’m here?”
Enkle squinted at the cloudy sky. “It’s not advised.”
Vela said kindly, “Your father, when he arrived…You should know he tried desperately to return to you. He journeyed…”
“So far. So very far,” Enkle said.
“Beyond what is known.” Vela gestured broadly at the cliffs and beyond. “He was gone for months at a time, searching, always searching…always returning when his search failed.”
Calisa watched Jack. He was drinking in every word, blinking hard to fight back tears. His hands kept curling and uncurling into fists, and she wanted to wrap her arms around him, but she didn’t. She was ready, though, if he needed her. This had to feel overwhelming—to find out now that what Jack had feared, that his father hadn’t been able to find another portal, was true….
“After failing again and again, he returned to us and resolved to wait here,” Vela said. “He believed the portal would reopen. He never quit believing.”
“I confess we did not,” Enkle said. “We thought he’d baked in the sun too long….”
“Or drank too much of the sea,” Vela said.
“Or stared into the eyes of a sea snake,” Enkle said.
Jack looked dazed.
“Sea snake,” Calisa repeated lightly, eyes still on Jack, readyto be there if he needed her. She couldn’t tell if he was about to fall apart from fear or explode from hope. “I admit I was rooting for ‘sea dragon.’ It’s a cooler name.”
“Our dragons fly, not swim,” Enkle said. “It wouldn’t make sense to give them both the same name. You should know that, given the little dragon you carry.” He held a finger out toward Steve.
Catlike, or more accurately, dragon-like, Steve sniffed it and then let out a puff of smoke.
Calisa stared at Steve. “Little dragon.” In retrospect, it was obvious. She’d just been too busy and too distracted to properly think it through. “Okay, that tracks.” To Jack, she said, “Told you Draco fit him.”
Jack shrugged. “I still think he’s a Steve.”
To Enkle, Calisa asked, “Is Steve from here?” She twisted to look again at the little dragon on her shoulder. He’d quit rumbling once Vela and Enkle had started speaking to them. “Is this your home?”
He didn’t reply, of course.
“Doesn’t look like one of ours,” Enkle said. “Ours aren’t that small.”
Calisa wanted to ask a thousand more questions about dragons and sea serpents and their world and why they didn’t have other portals and what their lives were like.Another time.“Jack’s dad—do you have a way to contact him and tell him to come back to shore?”
“We don’t know how long the portal will stay open,” Jack explained.
He’s right.It had closed on Jack’s father, and Auntie Zeehad been unable to reopen it. What if it closed again, trapping them inside? She hadn’t considered that possibility when they’d walked through, but then she hadn’t known this wasthatportal. A shiver ran through her. She thought of her moms and how worried they’d be. “We can’t stay.”
“Please,” Jack said.
Both Vela and Enkle looked alarmed. “Of course,” Vela said. “We should have thought of that. You can’t linger.” She nodded at Enkle. “We’ll sound the horn. Your father will come.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
As they followed the two silvery villagers to the end of the dock, Calisa shot another glance at Jack. She couldn’t imagine everything he must be feeling right now—so close to a reunion with his father. She wondered if she should step back, let him have the moment to himself.
“Are you okay?” Calisa asked. “Do you want to be alone? I could return to the portal. I’ll wait for you there, if you want this moment with your dad.”
He was staring straight out at the water.
He took her hand.
