Alistair Grim's Odd Aquaticum Read Online Free

balustrade and dropped from the balcony too.
    The darkness rushed up at me, filling my lungs with icy air as the Eye of Mars plummeted into the black water below. A moment later, I plunged in after it. My entire body felt as if it had been pierced by a thousand red-hot needles, but somehow my arms and legs carried me downward through the frigid waters until finally I felt the Eye’s warmth in my hand—more than just my hand, I realized. My
entire body
was now warm, as if I’d fallen into a luxurious bath.
    My lungs, on the other hand, were beginning to burn for want of air. I kicked myself upward. I could see the green glow of the Odditorium’s exhaust shimmering upon the surface. I kicked harder, the light so close and yet still so far away. My lungs felt on the verge of collapse—I was not going to make it, I thought—when out of nowhere Father dove into the water and pulled me to safety.
    Gasping for breath, I offered him the Eye of Mars, but Father only pushed it aside and hugged me. “Thank goodness you’re safe!” he said, shivering as he held me tighter than ever before.
    “Hold on to the Eye, sir,” I said, and I pressed it into his hand. His shivering stopped at once, and we began treading water with the Eye of Mars held between us.
    “A job well done, lad,” Father said. “But you must promise me you’ll never do anything like that again.”
    I nodded, and Father gazed upward, his face aglow with the light from the Eye. The Odditorium was high above us now. And although I was plenty warm, a chill coursed through my veins when I discovered how far I’d actually jumped.
    “Begging your pardon, sir,” I said, “but how shall we get back up there?”
    At that very moment, Mrs. Pinch, the Odditorium’s housekeeper and resident witch, swooped down on her broom and hovered in midair beside us.
    “You should have thought about that before you jumped,” she said. “Blind me if both your heads don’t need oiling!”
    “Your advice is duly noted, Mrs. Pinch,” Father said. “What say you, Broom? Have you room for two?”
    Mrs. Pinch’s broom—whose name, by the way, was just that:
Broom
—nodded her stick in the affirmative.
    “Up you go, then, Grubb,” Father said. “I’ll hold on to the Eye while Mrs. Pinch flies you to safety.”
    Father took the Eye of Mars and instantly I was freezing again.
    “Well, climb aboard,” said Mrs. Pinch. “I haven’t got all night.”
    Shivering, I hoisted myself onto Broom behind Mrs. Pinch. She flew us up to the Odditorium and deposited me on the balcony. Father’s best mate Lord Dreary was there waiting for me, his eyes wide and his mouth gaping below his waxed white mustache. As Mrs. Pinch flew back down to get Father, the old man wrapped me in a blanket.
    “Great poppycock, lad!” he exclaimed. “Have you lost your mind?”
    I answered him with a
click-click-click
of chattering teeth. Lord Dreary sighed and ushered me into the library, where we found Gwendolyn lounging casually atop a stack of Father’s books. Lorcan Dalach, on the other hand, was now in the center of the room, still trapped inside the yellow bubble and struggling to break free. The bubble flashed and fizzled as if it might pop, but Gwendolyn only yawned and hurled another ball of fairy dust to strengthen it.
    “You’re wasting your time, banshee,” she said. “I can go toe-to-toe all night.”
    Lorcan Dalach growled with frustration.
    “Here, lad,” Lord Dreary said, and he took off his apron and began drying my hair with it. He’d obviously been in the kitchen helping Mrs. Pinch again. The old woman had been having a hard go of it these past few weeks without her spectacles—which, I’m ashamed to admit, I accidentally squashed during our escape from London.
    Father and Mrs. Pinch entered from the balcony with Broom floating in the air behind them. “Well done, everyone,” Father said, and he returned the Eye of Mars to its conductor sphere above the hearth. He