Orcara brought the the tip of her staff down towards Jake's ankle with great force, but pulled back just short of his skin. For a moment she held it there, chanting, swaying in a trance. Jake was so terrified he seemed to disconnect from his body, as if the pain and fear were too much to bear. He found himself watching Orcara perform her mysterious rite as though he were floating around the den, circling the grotesque creature and looking down on himself, unable to move or cry out.
Orcara's muttering grew louder and louder then ceased abruptly. She cast the staff aside and raised her palms to the eerie light as if drawing it down into her hands. She seemed to draw Jake down again too. Once more he lay paralyzes before her. She passed her bony hands across his leg and a rush of warmth flooded through his ankle. As his leg cooled the pain itself dissolved away. The wound healed. Orcara touched Jake's eyelids with her withered fingertips and he slipped into a deep, calm sleep.
"Sleep well," she hissed. "You have two destines to fulfill-yours and mine!" And mumbling to herself, she picked up the staff and shuffled into the depths of her hair. Behind, like a tail, slithered an eel with a V-shape scar.
Jake open his eyes in a dream. It was the dream; the one he'd had so many times before. He lay on a heap of tarpaulin in his boat, hands clasped behind his head, starting at a cloudless, blue sky. A warm breeze below across his face and as it passed the sky rippled gently. Jake saw, as if for the first time, that it was not sky above him after all but clear blue water. A women's face appeared through the ripples, a face with green willow eyes.
"Cal!" Jake called out. But even as he spoke he understood that it was not her. He knew those eyes, but his face was older with silvery hair. The figure dipped back beneath the water and Jake could see her swim, like an angel flying in a painting. He felt an overwhelming sensation of contentment.
Then, with the slightest splash, she emerged, carrying a small box, dripping with seaweed. She seemed to be offering it to him. Jake sat up in the boat and held out his arms. But instead of handing him the box the women drew back, smiling. Jake stretched, reaching out...
"Wake up!" Cal had hold of his hands and was shaking them, pulling him from the bed in Orcara's den, pleading insistently in his ear.
"Wake up, we've got to get out of here!" She peered around the den. "Where's Orcara?" "Who?" muttered Jake, still half asleep.
Cal reached for a scrap of wine lying on the stony floor and hurriedly died a knot message to warn Orcara about the Bloodfin. She fixed to a furbelow stem by the doorway. She returned to Jake and roused him once more. Jake groaned and pushed Cal away, angry at being woken from his dream. Then he looked round and remembered where he was.
"Sorry." he said, sitting up. "How's your leg?" She asked. "What did she do to you?" Jake looked and saw that his ankle was completely healed.
"I'm fine," he said. "I'm really fine." He stood up. His leg felt strong. In fact, now he was awake, he felt invigorated, as if he'd plunged into the sea on a baking hot day. "Come on, let's get out of here."
Without another word they left Orcara's lair. This time Cal didn't use the trail that had brought her back through the forest the forest so quickly. She was afraid that the Bloodfin might discover her markers. I hope Orcara finds my warning, she thought as she hurried Jake away in the opposite direction. Cal couldn't read the water in the forest. There was no smell of open sea nearby because the salty tang of the kelp was overpowering, so she and Jake had to wander on blindly. They took it in turns to make decisions whenever they reached a fork. "At least I can move faster," said Jake. With his mind clear of pain he marveled at the profusion of life in the bustling forest. Numerous shoals of fish flitted among the swaying fronds: whelks and urchins fed on algae-covered trunks and brittle stars hid among the holdfasts that anchored the kelp to the rock; young mollusks grazed the forest floor, which was thick with anemones, and ferocious fiddler crabs darted from crevices to hunt and fight.
Far above their heads the kelp glowed as light penetrated the fronds, but down below shadows danced. Jake was mesmerized.
However, Cal scanned the maze fearfully. A flank of scarred flesh stirred among the weed. She gasped and reached for Jake's arm. As the light shifted she saw it was only a patch of fretted shade.
"What's up?" asked Jake. "Nothing Cal muttered. "Let's go faster." But in every dark blade she saw Bloodfin spears, in every. thicket she glimpsed the brutal faces of Leaper and Barb. They struggled on earnestly. As the glow above began to fade Jake realized it must be late in the afternoon. He'd lost all sense of time since the storm early that morning. Cal noticed him push ahead with more determination. She voiced his thoughts. "We don't want to be caught in the forest at night." Jake shook his head silently. It became harder and harder to find a way through the relentless wall of kelp. Jake wish there was a break, a glimpse of what lay beyond, something to measure their progress by. "We could be lost in here forever," he sighed.
"We mustn't get separated, whatever happens." Jake heard the tense chord in Cal's voice. She looked drawn and tired. "Look..." He picked up a sharp razor shell and cut a length of kelp from it stem, tied it around his waist and offered Cal the other end. She saw what he wanted her to do and looped it around herself, fixing it with a knot. "That's better," said Jake, pleased with himself. And on they went, fighting their way through the forest. Eventually they came to a trampled patch of weed and Jake begin to suspect they were going round in circle. "Where are we heading?" he asked.
"Home," Cal replied, pulling away at the puckered fronds that continually snagged her tail. "But I taught you went home when you left me?" "NO. I went back to find the Bloodfin, to find out what they wanted."
"That was stupid!" Jake stopped abruptly and the kelp tether snapped."
Cal swung away from him crossly and set about tying it together.
"No, it wasn't. I found out they've come to hunt down our people. I've got to warn my father." Agitated, she fumble with the knot, gave it a tug and begin to move forward again.
"Cal did they see you? What if you'd been caught?" Jake was astonished that she'd put herself in such danger. "No one saw me," Cal lied. I'll tell you everything when we get out of here."
"If we get out of here," he muttered. A little way behind them Orcara's eel turned and hastened away to his mistress...
At least Cal and Jake find their way out of the forest and untied themselves.
"I'm not sure Skimmer will come if I call him," said Cal, remembering how he had ignored her earlier. "I'm not even sure that I should call him-" she secured the open water"- we don't know who else might be listening out there." But as Cal pulled shreds of weed from her hair an unmistakeable silhouette glided towards them. With a graceful swoop Skimmer circled their heads, hovering impatiently. He seemed keen, like them, to leave Strapkelp at once. Within moments Cal and Jake were on his back and they set off at an alarming speed, up and over the ridge once more, then away into brighter waters past a stretch of ripple ands, sending startled flat fish shimmying away in their wake.
A Jake rocked across Skimmer's back he tried to focus on what had happened. It still seemed impossible that he should be there, underwater, and yet he had to believe it. He had to believe without understanding. Jake didn't doubt the danger in that place. What were those rogue currents Cal seemed to be afraid of? Who were the Bloodfin? He wanted slipstream snatched his words. He gripped Skimmer's wing tight and scanned the water. Trouble could come from ahead or behind, above or below - anywhere in this water world.
At least Skimmer seemed to tire and slowed a little.
"We're almost here," said Cal.
"First tell me what happened when you left me," Jake insisted. "I need to know. I can't - well, I'm just - oh, don't you see, it's impossible for me if I don't understand anything!"
Cal realized she would have to tell him everything that had happened Chimney Crags, but she wasn't sure how to explain it when she couldn't Kane sense of it herself. Jake listened in shocked silence as she described Bait and his gang and related what she'd overheard. "But why? Why are they trying to find me?" He was horrified. "I'm not one of you, I mean... I'm a boy! How do they know I'm here? And why do they need to kill anybody?" Skimmer banked and Jake was jolted hard against Cal. Their eyes met. He saw she was as frightened as him.
Cal turned away. "Something truly awful is starting to happen. "The wrath is rising," that's what they said."
"What is the wrath?" Jake felt warm sweat meet the cold water beneath this armpits.
"I don't know. When we've warned my father I'll take you back to--"
Skimmer stalled suddenly.
Cal fell silent. She stared ahead, her face ashen.