Page:Wet Magic - Nesbit.djvu/108

Wet Magic And there was no doubt about it; the person who owned the hand had done it—and done it very thoroughly. It was plain enough now that what they had been living in was not water, and that this was. The first rush of it was terrible—but in less than a moment the whole kingdom was flooded, and then the water became clear and quiet.

The children found no difficulty in breathing, and it was as easy to walk as it is on land in a high wind. They could not run, but they walked as fast as they could to the place where they had left the Princess pouring out the water for all the rivers in all the world.

And as they went, one of them said, "Oh don't, don't tell it was me. You don't know what punishments they may have here."

The others said of course they wouldn't tell. But the one who had touched the sky felt that it was despised and disgraced.

They found the pedestal, but what had been the pool was only part of the enormous sea, and so was the little marble channel.

The Princess was not there, and they began to look for her, more and more anxious and wretched.

"It's all your fault," said Francis to the guilty one who had broken the sky by touching it; and Bernard said, "You shut up, can't you?"

It was a long time before they found their Princess, and when they did find her they hardly knew her. She came swimming toward them, and she was wearing her tail, and a cuirass and helmet of the most beautiful mother-of-pearl—thin scales of it overlapping; and the crest on her helmet was one great pearl, as big as a billiard ball. She carried something over her arm.

"Here you are," she said. "I've been looking for you. The future is full of danger. The water has got in."

"Yes, we noticed that," said Bernard.

And Mavis said: "Please, it was us. We touched the sky." 98