Crystal Doors #2: Ocean Realm (No. 2) by Kevin J. Anderson, Rebecca Moesta

said.
    Vic snapped his fingers. “Water runs both up- and downhill here. We just have to find the right spell.”
    Sharif looked relieved. “Indeed it does, Viccus. Most of the canals that line the streets in Elantya carry seawater. When I first came here, I often allowed Piri to ride in a small boat in the canals beside me while I walked from place to place, getting to know the city.” The nymph djinni gave off a yellow glow of contentment at the memory.
    “I would have thought you’d just use your magic carpet to explore every street without getting your feet tired,” Vic teased, though the prince did not seem to find it amusing.
    “I did that as well, but I do not wish to become fat and lazy, refusing to use my own muscles or my own mind as some sultans have done.” His voice was haughty, his olive green eyes full of pride.
    “Good,” Gwen broke in. “Let’s use the canal along the street outside the tower.”
    Vic stroked his chin with a thumb and forefinger, pretending to be very thoughtful. “Nothing simpler then. If Lyssandra can get the hose for us, we’ll rig it so it enters the canal beneath the surface of the water so we won’t block any deliveries, maybe flare the opening a bit so that it gathers more water. Then we face the end of the hose into the current — and let gravity or magic do the rest of the work.”
    Lyssandra’s father always kept a hose at the ready while designing his pyrotechnics, so Sharif flew the petite girl home on his carpet to fetch it. Meanwhile, Gwen busied herself rearranging Rubicas’s discarded scrolls, and Vic and Tiaret went outside to survey the canal and make plans. When Lyssandra and Sharif returned, the five of them set to work together.
    Vic admired the vivid spring green color of the thick tubing. “How do they make this?”
    “We do not make it. We collect it from the sea. It comes from doolya, a type of seaweed that can grow up to a hundred times as long as I am tall. We use the sap-stalk as tubing, and the fronds make excellent rope. Thick jungles of doolya grow in many places beneath the water, and we harvest what we need.”
    Gwen found herself fascinated by this explanation. The doolya stalk was as tough as bamboo, yet nearly as flexible as a boiled noodle, and translucent. Working together, they ran the hose from the main aquarium tank through the experimental chamber, down the hallway, out to the street, and into the canal. When all was ready, Gwen waited by the canal holding one end of the hose and sent Tiaret and Vic inside to hold the other end steady where it ran into the aquarium, so that the flow of water would not accidentally dislodge it.
    When they were ready, Tiaret signaled from the top of the tower above Rubicas’s laboratory. “You may begin!” she shouted down, then disappeared again.
    While Piri “supervised” the operation through her eggsphere wall, Sharif and Gwen fed the tube into the canal and Lyssandra weighted it down, securing it at the bottom of the canal with rocks. Water gushed into the tubing, filling the hollow space and making the hose twitch and buck. The three went back into the laboratory to watch the tanks fill.
    Vic greeted them with elation. “See? No problem. Works like a charm.” Water gushed from the end of the sap-stalk at a satisfying rate. The hose squirmed in his hands, so he held it in place with a precariously balanced chunk of rock. When he had secured the tube, he let go and climbed back down the copper wall ladder to the floor. “Easy enough. How long do you think it’ll take?”
    “Many hours,” Sharif concluded.
    “Even so, we should remain close by,” Lyssandra said.
    “Or we could go visit my dad, see if he’s all right,” Vic said anxiously. “What could possibly go wrong here? It’s just a water hose and a tank —”
    As if in response to his words, the floor beneath their feet rumbled and trembled and the water in the tanks sloshed wildly. “Earthquake!” Gwen said at the same