CHAPTER EIGHT

Sharp horns pierced the surface of the water, and then a scaly head emerged, and finally two sparkling, midnight-blue eyes.

It was the same head and face they had seen in the sewage spout. But now it was enormous.

The creature rose up out of the water. Its neck and body were as wide as the base of a palm tree. It was a sea serpent—a humungous, terrifying sea serpent—and it rose in a coiling spiral until it towered above the members of the Unicorn Rescue Society.

“Is that . . . ?” Professor Fauna whispered, his voice a blend of fear and excitement.

“That’s the Madre de aguas,” Yoenis whispered back. “My mom’s friend from her fuentecita. I knew she could change sizes, but I’ve never seen anything like this. . . .”

The giant sea serpent gnashed her teeth, each one like a terrible fishhook, curving and sharp and large enough to hook a great white shark. The Madre de aguas’s purple tongue twisted in the air.

And then she began to swim toward the Phoenix . . . which the members of the Unicorn Rescue Society were still clinging to desperately.

“This is bad,” said Elliot.

“Is it bad?” Uchenna asked Yoenis. “Is she dangerous? Isn’t she your friend?”

“I don’t know. We used to hang out when she was in my mom’s fountain. Maybe she’ll remember me?”

Suddenly, the sea serpent pulled her head back. She looked like a snake about to strike.

“Okay,” said Yoenis. “I’m with Elliot. This is bad.”

The Madre de aguas roared, shaking the surface of the water—it looked like something right out of a nightmare.

She lunged.

And then, she . . . squeaked.

The sound she made could only be described as a squeak.

And she dove away, into the waves.

They all stared, completely confused as to why they were not dead.

Jersey swooped down toward the surface of the water. The Madre de aguas stuck her head out of the water, saw Jersey, and dove back under the waves. She was now hurrying away from them, getting smaller and smaller as she went, until she was invisible in the bright blue bay. They saw a splash as she leapt up and into the sewage pipe, small as she had been when they first saw her. And then she disappeared into the darkness.

“Wow.” Uchenna was gazing at Jersey, who was flapping above the waves. “I think Jersey just scared off the Madre de aguas.”

“I am inclined to agree with you,” Professor Fauna said. “As difficult as that is to believe.” The water was lapping the professor’s soaked suit jacket, shirt, and tie.

Yoenis had clambered into the cockpit of the Phoenix. “I’m going to call for help,” he said. “My cousin, Maceo, pilots a barge that cleans junk out of the bay. Maybe he can help with this plane.”

“Are you calling the Phoenix junk?!” Professor Fauna exclaimed, holding on to a wing of the Phoenix.

“Exacto, Mito,” Yoenis replied. He fiddled with the two-way radio and then spoke into it. “Limpiador, Limpiador, Limpiador para Phoenix. Cambio.”

Some garbled speech came out of the radio, and Yoenis broke into a grin.

“¡Hola, primo! ¡Sí, fui yo! ¡Ven a buscarnos! Cambio y fuera.”