The Blue Seal of Trinity Cove Read Free Page A

professor ran to her and turned her over to take her pulse, afraid that she had perished.
    â€œGet me my ball,” screamed the Oracle, “Get me my ball. Do as I say or you shall both meet with the same destiny.” And with that the Oracle uncoiled two of her tentacles, which floated threateningly toward the professor.
    At that moment Ranku and Tinka and their father, who was the island’s chief, burst into the hut. The children had spears, which they at once held to the throat of the Workhouse Oracle. The chief wielded a long machete-looking weapon through the air, slicing through the two tentacles in an instant at the point closest to the body so that they fell, motionless to the floor.
    The Workhouse Oracle let out a scream that threatened to pierce the eardrums of everyone within and without the hut. They all clapped their hands to their ears to block the reverberating scream.
    â€œMy legs, my legs,” she said over and over again, “my beautiful legs. You’re all going to pay for this.” Ranku and Tinka savagely pressed their spears to her throat in the warrior fashion in which they had been trained, lest she imagined she could wreak more havoc on their friends. But as the blood poured from her open wounds creating river systems in the sandy floor, she seemed gradually to grow very weak and then she faded away altogether and the children, the professor and the chief were stunned to find that the island Crone was suddenly lying in front of them on the bed. She sat up on the bed and looked around seeming more lucid than anyone had seen her for a long time. Ranku and Tinka withdrew their spears and took a step backwards, each as stunned as the other to see their beloved Crone before them.
    â€œDid I miss the party?” she asked in a croaky, girly voice, quite innocently. They all looked from one to the other; if it hadn’t been for the severity of the occasion there would have been laughter at that point.
    â€œAnd which party would that be Oracle?” the professor asked. The door of the hut opened and Sebastian, along with Ranku and Tinka’s family, entered, all surveying the scene and taking in, in an instant, what was before them. They were relieved to see that everyone was okay but rushed to where Bobby was lying. She sat up and looked at all of the faces, and then at the pools of blood in the sand, and next at herself, to make sure it wasn’t her own blood.
    â€œNo, my darling you are okay,” the professor reassured her, “but I must insist that you sit here for a little longer until you get your strength back. You have had quite an ordeal.” He took a blanket from a nearby chair and wrapped it around her shoulders.
    â€œAnd you too, dear Crone,” he added just as the Crone was swinging her legs out of the bed to get up. “No, my love, I’m afraid you can’t go getting up just yet. Plenty of rest is what you need now and I’ll not hear another word about it.” He took another blanket and wrapped it around the Crone. He could have wrapped it four or five times around her, she was so tiny and frail.
    â€œBut the party …” She stared blankly at everyone, “I can’t miss it.”
    â€œYes, that’s right dear, we are going to have a party and you’re going to be the guest of honour but not right at this instant because we have some other pressing matters that we have to tend to,” the professor spoke tenderly to her as if to a child and pushed her lank, matted hair back from her eyes.
    â€œDo you remember what’s been happening lately, my dear?” the professor asked as he knelt at her bedside. She looked at all of the faces individually for the longest time and Bobby thought that she might at any moment say something that would help them in their plight against the Workhouse Oracle and their quest to save the island. Or maybe she was about to make a joke. But then she stared at the sandy