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

time Vic cried out, “Stand in the doorway!”
    Before they could head for the safety of the door arch, the rough stone chunk weighing down the doolya hose tumbled to the floor. The sap-stem slipped out of the aquarium and, writhing like a snake, sprayed water every which way around the laboratory. The floor still shook from the quake, and now the stone tiles were slippery.
    At his worktable, Rubicas did not look up from his scrolls.
    Vic and Sharif dove for the wild hose, but both missed as it squirmed away from them. Vic landed on the floor and slid like a penguin on ice.
    Gwen ran to salvage the scrolls beneath Rubicas’s desk, but she slipped and landed squarely on her rear end. Lyssandra too landed on the floor with a delicate yelp. Tiaret, proving her agility, darted back and forth in pursuit of the snaking water tube; though she did not catch it, neither did she land ignominiously on the floor as the others had.
    As suddenly as it had started, the earthquake stopped. Water continued to spurt from the hose. Sharif got to his feet, wringing water from his dripping, billowy sleeves. “What was that shaking and rumbling?” Of course, a boy from a flying city would never have encountered seismic shocks.
    “It was just an earthquake,” Gwen said a split second before the serpentine stream of water hit Sharif in the face, completely drenching him and Piri, who flickered alternately pink and orange, obviously vacillating between amusement and alarm.
    Gwen and Vic and even Tiaret laughed. The friends ganged up on the rogue hose and, after a merry chase with a good deal more sliding and laughter, tackled it. Vic trapped part of the hose with his foot, and Tiaret grabbed the end. Sharif took the end of the tube, climbed quickly to the top of the aquariums, and fed the hose back into the partly filled reservoir, where he anchored it much more securely this time.
    Gwen groaned and sat down on the wet floor with a plop. “It’s going to take forever to clean up this mess.” She nudged Lyssandra, who sat in silence beside her, then realized with concern that her friend had not moved since falling there. The ethereal girl sat stiff and still, her face as pale as milk. Her eyes did not blink. Was she in shock? “Hey, Lyssandra, it’s okay.” She put an arm around the girl’s shoulder, hoping to comfort her. “It was just a short earthquake.”
    “No. I — I saw that in my dream. The whole island shaking. And in the next part, I kept seeing myself drowning, being pulled under the water, unable to breathe.”
    Vic sloshed over to them, also concerned. “Well, this water’s not very deep, and you’re not going to drown here. The quake is over now, just a little one. Nothing like the temblors we had in California.”
    Lyssandra’s voice was barely above a whisper. “But Elantya was formed by magic, anchored to the foundation of the world itself. We have never experienced this shaking of the ground. Never.”
    Rubicas finally got down from his stool and joined the conversation. “She is correct. In the history of this island, an earthquake has never been recorded. It is somewhat disturbing.” As he talked, he climbed a ladder to reach some high shelves, rummaged briefly among the paraphernalia there, then retrieved the scroll he’d been looking for. Still high on the ladder, Rubicas opened the scroll, murmured a few words, and said “S’ibah.” Magically, a drain opened in the marble floor, and the water began to gurgle away. “Mmm. That should do nicely.”
    LATE THAT AFTERNOON, WHEN Dr. Pierce was thoroughly rested, fed, cleaned, and bandaged, he came to join the companions down at the partially rebuilt Elantyan harbor, where his purple speedboat was tied up to a half-restored dock. The crew that had rescued him out in the middle of the ocean had taken care of the boat, which sparkled in the slanted sunlight.
    Vic stood by his father, admiring the design of the speedboat. Gwen stepped down into it and took a