The giant kelp was dense and claustrophobic. It tangled itself around Jake's arms and legs and slapped him in the face. Dogfish and lumpsuckers hunted in and out of the roots and there was a constant noise of tiny whistles and clicking sounds.
Although Cal had passed Strapkelp before, she had never been allowed to ventured inside and, inquisitive she was, had never been wanted to stray into its creepy maze. She had no idea how to find Orcara's den but she wasn't going to let Jake know that. She pushed forward, pulling him beside her, hoping that they would soon come across some sign of passage or habitation.
After what seems like hours of struggling the kelp thinned out and tunnel-like passageways appeared. Cal stopped to let Jake rest against a root clump. "We must be nearly there." she said, picking up a shell that had caught her eye. "When you meet Orcara, Don't show her that you can speak or understand our language. Just pretend you're dumb."
Cal hesitated. "She's not like us, Nobody know much about her. She lives here alone, away from the pods." "But you said she was a healer?" "I've heard she has those skills. We haven't got much time. Your wound is bad. It's strange enough that you are here at all. The fewer that know and the less they know the better." Jake was too exhausted to argue. "I won't say anything. But what's a pod?"
"It's a kin-shoal," said Cal, "sometimes just a few Delphines living together, sometimes many. There are pods off Silvertail Delphines, then there are Bluestreaks, Dusking and others. They all have their own homewaters. You'll see." Cal pulled Jake to his feet once more and they continued along the path, which widened now and then as other paths crossed it. At last she stopped and listened. She heard a faint grumble, a guttural sound. "We're here."
At first Jake saw nothing but then he made out a solid wall of kelp in front of them, with a small parting for a low doorway. Cal shut her eyes and sang a long, plaintive note. Jake had never heard such a haunting sound before. It was Cal's calling sign. After a moment a tremulous moan rose and faded in answer. Cal smiled unconvincingly at Jake and, before either of them had time to think about it, heaved him through the doorway into the dark interior.
Orcara's den was a vast, cavernous structure like an upturned basket of loosely woven, living kelp. Jake and Cal stared wide-eyed. In some places the weed was knotted together, in others twisted, or plaited and here and there bunched untimely into thick sheaves. It reminded Jake of some knitting he'd seen once, full of lumps and holes. Small objects hung around the walls: tiny bottles suspended by twine looped around their necks, a bunch of spoons, old keys of various sizes and short lengths of chain, all lit by a phosphorescent glow coming from a mass of algae hanging from the domed roof.
Jake stumbled. Cal, with her arm still around his shoulder, guided him to a heap of sealskins lying against the wall of the kelp cave. Jake sat back thankfully. He was about to ask where Orcara was when Cal twisted slightly and tipped her tail. Jake understood at once she was gesturing towards the far side of the chamber. He made out a huge mound of knotted seaweed, this time heaped in a pile the size of a beach hut. Looking close he saw it was tangled up with shells, twine, fragments of cork and crabs' claws, the sort of flotsam and jetsam he loved to trawl through at the tide line. But there was no sign of Orcara.
Then the whole mound heaved and shook, and a shower of slugs dropped from its fronds. To Jake's horror a withered finger emerged halfway up the heap. It grew into a gnarled hand that stretched up, parting the seaweed to reveal a small face, white and bone, with hooded yellow eyes and cruel lips.
Orcara!
Her mess of hair, with a matted skullcap of algae, had been extended with lengths of kelp and thong weed to the floor and threaded with small bones, beads of glass and sea trinkets. It was so long and thick that her body was completely hidden. Another hand reached out and grasped the staff leaning against the wall beside her. Jake had seen something like it in the harbor museum at home. He recognized the spiral twist along its length. It was a narwhal's tusk. A striped urchin shell had been pushed halfway down for a hand rest. The tip was worn smooth and he could just make out patterns carved around it. Leaning on the staff, Orcara rose and propelled herself, slowly, towards Cal.
For a moment, as they faced each other, the water around them tensed with apprehension. Jake notice Cal's fist clenched tightly at her side. He wanted to leap up beside her but all he could do was watched in silent as he'd promised. Then, to his relief Cal opened her her fist and banded Orcara a jade cowrie shell with an intricate lace pattern. Jake hadn't noticed her picking it up earlier. Orcara lifted the shell to the light and smiled, revealing a solitary tooth - sharp and serrated, like that of a shark. Now Cal spoke. Jake tried to hear her words but couldn't make no sense of them. He lay back on the seal pelts, slipping in and out of consciousness. Orcara moved toward him and bent over his ankle. The touch of her slimy hair against his leg roused Jake. He recoiled in horror.
She turned to Cal.
"I could heal him, but there'll be a price to pay." Cal hadn't taught of that. She swam to the entrance of the den.
"My father will reward you, she said. I'll be back for him with the tide." And with a deft flick of her tail she was gone.
Orcara smiled. This time her single tooth hung viciously over her lip.
"Your father won't reward me for this, my precious delphling," she chuckled after her. "Oh no! You'll pay for it yourself. If only you know how much you will pay!" Them, seeming to summon supernatural strength, she raised the tusk staff above her head, mumbling and spitting as she lifted her face to the bright glow. What a sudden shriek she plunged the tusk down toward Jake's ankle. Jake tried to pull his leg away but he was paralyzed with fear.
"NO!" he cried.