Chapter 43: Sunken Vault
"Seems like that worked out," Ben remarked, placing the lyre back on the stone slab.
"Kye!" The Merqueen smiled.
"All right, now that we have sung for you, does this mean you will show us the way to the Cursed Vault?" Claire asked the Merqueen politely.
"I hope she does," Merula muttered loudly. "My singing is good enough to rival any Siren!"
The Merqueen ignored Merula's comment and swam toward the stone statue of the Merperson with the trident. She pointed around the statue, and swam behind it.
"We should follow her," Jacob suggested. "But keep your eyes peeled for any danger."
"Yes, let's go," Claire agreed and swam over to where the Merqueen disappeared behind.
Ben, Merula, and Jacob followed, then soon they were in the same spot of the lake floor where Claire encountered the Merwoman with the yellow-green fish tail.
"There's the trident I was talking about," Claire said, pointing to the stone trident sticking out from the lake floor.
Meanwhile, the Merqueen gestured to the rock-covered cave that was beyond the stone trident.
"Does the final Cursed Vault lie in there?" Claire asked.
In response, the Merqueen nodded.
"Terrific!" Merula groaned. "I would be happy if giant rocks weren't covering the entrance."
"Don't worry, Merula," Ben claimed. "We can use Defodio to remove the rocks."
"Will you be coming with us, your Majesty?" Claire asked the Merqueen.
Hesitating, the Merqueen looked down.
"I think this is as far as she's willing to go," Jacob guessed.
"Well, thank you for everything, your Majesty," Claire smiled.
"Kye!" The Merqueen smiled back and swam away.
Approaching the cave past the trident, Claire turned to her companions. "So, are you guys ready for this?"
"I've been waiting for this all year," Merula grinned. "Rakepick will finally get what's coming to her, and deservedly so."
"Rowan's life will be avenged, and we'll finally end the Statue Curse," Ben chimed in.
"Sounds like your friends are pretty eager," Jacob noted. "How do you feel, Pip?"
"Nervous, confident, and excited at the same time," Claire admitted. "Now, who's going to cast Defodio on the rocks?"
"I think you should do it," Ben suggested. "You started this journey, so it only seems fair that you should end it as well."
"Right," Claire agreed. She took out her wand and pointed to the rocks. Remembering the wand movement of the Gouging Spell, she made a vertical line downward with two right angles. Then she said, "Defodio!"
The energy blast from her wand carved a large hole in the rocks. Beyond them lay a set of stone stairs that led further into the cave. Before Claire and the others could enter it, though, a rumbling sound was heard. Next, a bunch of creatures swam out of the darkness circling Claire and the others. In appearance, they had the lower-half of an octopus with the upper-half of a human with pointy fingers and pale-green skin.
"Grindylows!" Merula realized.
"It seems Hagrid and Professor Kettleburn were right," Claire said. "The Grindylows have become very aggressive, and we've just stirred them up."
"Claire, watch out!" Ben said as a Grindylow made a dash toward Claire. He took out his wand and shouted, "Stupefy!"
The blinding flash of light briefly stunned the Grindylow, causing it to falter back. While this happened, Jacob, Merula, and Claire took out their own wands. Aiming them at the Grindylows, they used spells like Stupefy and Aguamenti to send them flying back if they got too close. Eventually, the Grindylows started swimming away in fear of the young Witches and Wizards.
"I hope that's the last of them," Claire sighed. "I'm exhausted."
"We can't rest now, Claire," Ben insisted. "The final Cursed Vault awaits us."
"Copper's right," Merula nodded.
"Right," Claire agreed and walked over to the cave entrance.
Jacob, Ben, and Merula followed, as they and Claire ascended the stone staircase. At the top of it, the water receded. To everyone's surprise, the inside of the cave contained several stone pillars carved out of the rock around a large circular stone floor with a ring of water circling the whole thing. Meanwhile, the walls of the cave had carved statues of women holding jars over their heads and the tentacles of the Kraken.
"Wow," Ben admitted, after removing the Bubble-Head Charm from his mouth while the others did the same. "This is quite impressive. I had no idea something this big could be underneath the Black Lake."
Merula looked around. "Does anyone see an obvious entrance to a vault?"
"No," Claire replied.
But as she spoke, her eyes were drawn to a nearby waterfall between the stone Kraken tentacles. There were stone steps leading up to the waterfall, but a pile of rocks stood in the way.
"Perhaps the entrance to the final Cursed Vault is behind that waterfall," Claire guessed. "Now if only we could blast away those rocks."
"Bombarda comes to mind as a spell that could do the trick," Ben suggested.
"Though it would take a few hits to break through," Jacob pointed out. "But if we all cast Bombarda together…."
"Let's do it, then," Claire decided and pointed her wand at the rocks behind the waterfall. "Bombarda!"
As the others cast the same charm, the rocks easily crumbled. Once they did, a doorway became visible behind the waterfall further up the stone steps with a yellow glow coming out of it.
"Now, before we move, I would like to say that you don't all have to come in with me," Claire said. "I don't know what lies in the next vault."
"If we came in here together, then we enter the final Cursed Vault together," Merula insisted.
"Yes, we've come too far to back out now," Ben added.
Claire looked at her brother Jacob, who nodded in agreement. So they along with Ben and Merula approached the waterfall. From there, they walked up the stone steps into the doorway. Inside was a circular chamber with water dripping down from above and a yellow glowing column made of glass. There were also stone statues of knights, only instead of swords they welded tridents.
To be continued…
