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couldn’t I just brush away his words and his sneering manner and threatening tone? Or perhaps it had more to do with the reminder of what it was like to be on the receiving end of Neptune’s anger.
    “I — I found something,” I said.
    He moved closer. “Found something?”
    “A — a ring.” I could sense Shona next to me, almost feel her eyes staring at me — almost hear the question in her mind. I didn’t look at her.
    “What kind of ring?” he asked.
    I would have shown it to him. I would have. I’d have handed it over on the spot if I could. But I couldn’t. The ring felt like a claw, gripping my palm, pinning my hand to my pocket. “A diamond,” I said, feeling warmth flood through me as I thought about the ring. “A huge diamond. All shiny and sparkly — the most beautiful diamond ring you’ve ever seen.”
    Mr. Beeston sniffed. “There was no such ring in the collection,” he said, starting to swim away from me.
    “And it had a thick gold band that was battered and twisted out of shape,” I called to his retreatingback. Now that I’d started talking about the ring, I couldn’t stop myself from saying more. A second later I wished I had, as Mr. Beeston stopped and turned. “Wait a minute!” His face had gone gray. “Diamond, you say?” he sputtered.
    I nodded.
    “A huge diamond, a battered gold band?”
    I nodded again.
    “Battered as though it had been thrown away, discarded?”
    “As though it had been through a war!” I said.
    Mr. Beeston swallowed and wiped a strand of hair from his face. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “That must be the —” Then he stopped. “Where is it?” he hissed quietly, close to my ear.
    One last time, I tried to lift my hand. I couldn’t do it. What was I going to do? I couldn’t say that the ring wouldn’t let me take my hand out of my pocket! How utterly ridiculous would that sound? No one would believe me, let alone Mr. Beeston. And, anyway, I could sense it, feel it, trying to pull me back, shut me up.
    “I lost it,” I said eventually.
    “Lost it?” Mr. Beeston spluttered. “ Lost it? You can’t have lost it!”
    “I dropped it in the sand. Sorry,” I said, turning my face away and praying he wouldn’t notice my reddening cheeks. They felt almost as hot as the ring, still burning a hole in my hand.
    He swam closer. “Let me see your —”
    At that moment, Miss Finwave swam in between us. “Mr. Beeston, in case you hadn’t noticed, the children gathered plenty of jewels for Neptune. And he seemed perfectly happy with our work. So I would be very grateful if you could please acknowledge our efforts just a little bit and leave us to get on with our school day. We have a lot to do.”
    “Very well,” Mr. Beeston said. With a curt bow to the teacher, he swam to the edge of the pool, toward the tunnel that led out of the cave. Turning back toward us when he reached the tunnel’s entrance, he added, “Thank you, children,” and smiled.
    Then Miss Finwave flicked the end of her tail in a loud snap to get our attention, and everyone turned back to face her. Everyone except me. I was still looking at Mr. Beeston. He was still looking at me. “We’re not done yet,” he mouthed. “You’ll see.”
    And with that, he swam off and disappeared into the darkness of the tunnel.
    I pretended to listen like the rest of the class as Miss Finwave started to talk about the afternoon’s test. I pretended I didn’t care about Mr. Beeston’s silly threats or Neptune’s anger or any of it. Neptune had been here to see us all, not just me. And Mr. Beeston hadn’t really whispered a threat to me as he left. Not really. I must have misread his lips, orhe was talking to someone else. It was just me imagining things again.
    I gripped the ring for comfort. At least I had that.
    And if it felt as though it glowed and burned on my finger, reaching out for me with a sharpness that almost cut through me — well, surely I was imagining that