Rise of the Isle of the Lost (Descendants 3)

“It must be gone forever,” said Uma sadly.

“Hold on. I remember now,” said Cook, wiping her hands on her dirty apron. “It was too dangerous to have a thing like that just lying around, even broken. The pieces were collected and confiscated. They were supposed to go to that museum in Auradon. We heard they found the last two pieces just the other month. But then the embargo happened, so they’re stuck here,” said Cook, cutting up more rotten potatoes for curly fries.

Uma was intrigued. “Here? On the Isle? Where?”

“Who knows? We heard that professor, Yen Sid, was the one in charge of it. If anyone has them, he does,” said Cook with a shrug.

“Professor Yen Sid has the pieces to my mother’s seashell necklace?”

Cook nodded.

“Well, what’s it matter anyway? There’s no magic on the island,” Uma lamented.

Cook considered that. “True. But just because there’s no magic around doesn’t mean there’s no power left in it.”

“What kind of power could it have?” asked Uma, confused.

Cook whispered in her ear. Uma listened carefully. When she was done, Uma raised her eyebrows.

“You don’t say,” she said. What Cook had told her was very interesting indeed. “Are you sure that would work? If I found the necklace and put it back together?”

“Absolutely,” said Cook.

“Uh-huh,” said Uma. This was it; her mother’s seashell necklace was the missing link. She knew exactly how to find the trident now. Ursula’s necklace was the answer.

If only she could discover where Yen Sid was hiding it.

“Wow, that’s one brave mermaid,” said Carlos when Mal was done sharing Arabella’s story with him, Evie, and Jay after they’d pulled Jay away from R.O.A.R. practice. They were sitting at a table in the refectory at Jay’s insistence, since he didn’t like to hear bad news on an empty stomach. “I would never even dream of touching my mom’s furs, and she goes and steals King Triton’s trident? That’s insane.”

Jay nodded, his mouth full of food. He swallowed loudly to the consternation of the girls. “I don’t mean to be rude, but why is this our problem exactly?” he asked.

“Arabella’s a friend, and she came to us,” said Mal defensively. “She didn’t know who else to ask for help.”

“Uh-huh,” said Jay. “Because she did something naughty, and we’re from the Isle of the Lost. But the thing is, we have stuff to do in Auradon now.”

Carlos slowly nodded his head. “Jay has a point. You have a packed royal schedule, Mal. You don’t really have time for something like this. Why does it have to be you—us—who have to look for this thing? We didn’t steal it. Plus, don’t forget, exams are coming up.”

“And what about Ben? Doesn’t this fall under his responsibility?” asked Jay.

“Ben’s in Northern Wei negotiating some kind of truce between the Imperial City and Agrabah,” said Mal. “I don’t want to bother him with this.”

The boys still looked a little wary.

Mal put her hands on her hips and scowled. “Okay, this is not the team that returned to the Isle of the Lost and defeated their evil talismans! I’ll tell you why it’s our problem. Because when a friend’s in trouble, what do we do?” she asked fiercely.

“We leave them alone?” joked Jay. He sighed. “All right, all right.”

“Come on, you guys, we all know what it feels like to have done something wrong,” Evie beseeched. “And to feel scared and alone afterward.”

“Of course we’ll help,” said Carlos.

“Yeah, we were just playing, what do you call it, devil’s advocate,” said Jay with a smile.

“But it seems like the best thing to do is to tell Fairy Godmother so she can alert King Triton,” said Carlos. “I mean, right?”

“But Arabella asked us to keep it secret,” said Evie.

“We can handle this ourselves,” said Mal. “Let’s not bring Fairy Godmother into it.” Mal didn’t want to sit around waiting to have tea with the goddesses from Mount Olympus or laughing at the Sultan of Agrabah’s corny jokes again, which took up a lot of her time now that she was the king’s girlfriend. She itched to do something meaningful, to be useful instead of simply decorative. “Are you guys with me?” she asked.