The Key (The Magnificent 12 3)

The All-Mother’s eye glittered.

Then he pulled out the second part, heavier, rather awkward, from where he had slipped it into the waist of his pants.

“The Key!” the sea serpent hissed.

“The deal with Frank was that if he helped us get it, we’d use it to free you,” Mack explained.

“And then, with the Key in my possession, I can have my revenge!” Nessie exulted. “My foes will flee before me! I will crush all other fairy clans! I will rain down fire on Blisterthöng! I will sink every boat that has ever chased me around this forsaken lake. And then, on to the destruction of towns and villages!”

“Um …,” Mack said.

“What happened to fairies being a peaceful people?” Jarrah asked.

“We aren’t giving you the Key,” Mack said. “That wasn’t the deal.”

“Frank is a good fairy,” Nessie said. “But he doesn’t make decisions like that. I do! Now: give me the Key!”

“No, we can’t do that if you’re going to go rampaging around and … you know. Kill everyone.”

Nessie got a crafty look in her sea serpent eye. “You’re right; I won’t do that.”

“I kind of don’t believe you,” Mack said.

“You can absolutely believe me,” Nessie said with utmost sincerity. “I could not be more trustworthy. That other stuff I said? Fairy humor. Ha. Ha-ha. See?”

“Look, all I can do is what I agreed to,” Mac

k said. “I can free you from the spell. But there’s no way I’m going to let you have the Key. We need it to defeat the Pale Queen. Plus, you’re obviously nuts.”

At this she lowered her head until it was level with Mack’s. “If the Key were to sink to the bottom of the loch, I would be the only one who could find it.”

“Well, I’m not going to drop it into—” And then Mack stopped, because he got where she was going. “Oh.”

Up shot the massive dinosaur head.

Then down it came in a rush, water spraying and then surging up, and the head slammed (!) straight down at the deck.

Mack shoved Xiao aside and Stefan tripped backward, accidentally knocking Dietmar out of the way.

The monster’s head hit the deck like someone had dropped a safe. The whole boat shook. But the deck was steel so it didn’t break.

The same could not be said for the railing, the deck chairs, and the chest where they kept life jackets. These were all bent and splintered.

Rrraaaww-chug-chug-rrraawww!

The captain threw the boat into reverse. The engines responded quickly but not quickly enough. Nessie, the All-Mother of clan Begonia, was quick. She spun around more like a cat than a massive sea serpent and slammed her tail into the side of the boat. There was a loud splintering sound, and Mack, who had just gotten to his feet, was knocked off balance again.

The boat gathered speed, but it was moving backward, which was not its best angle.

Nessie easily kept pace, swimming alongside, her head high out of the water, then veered into the boat. The boat and the sea serpent were roughly the same size, but Nessie had the speed and the agility. The impact pushed the boat over so that the deck canted sharply and Jarrah went flying, hit the tangled railing, and was barely saved by Stefan’s quickly outstretched hand.

He yanked her back aboard. The captain killed the engines—at this angle and moving backward, he was going to poop the boat.

(This requires some explanation. For a boat to be “pooped” means being swamped by a wave coming over the stern. Get your mind out of the gutter.)

That’s right: they were seconds away from the boat being pooped.

So the captain killed the engine and turned the rudder hard, trying to use the momentum to spin around forward.