Cal found a swift undertow to carry them away from Tarian's place. The force dragged them along at great speed but Jake struggled to keep his balance and was buffeted against the seabed. He soon needed to rest. He grabbed Cal's wrist. She understood at once and pulled him free.
Them made for an outcrop of rocks, thick with furbelows, and found a shallow trench, just big enough to conceal them both.
"So, what next?" said Jake, rubbing his bruises. "I don't know," said Cal. "None of the Silvertail settlements are safe if the Bloodfin are hunting us down. I hope Skimmer reached the nearest pod with my warning in time. If only he'd come back."
Jake fingered the nugget of glass, still in his pocket. "What about Sylla's message? Let's try and remember more. What was all the stuff about breath?" The channel of water about them heaved suddenly, as if drawing itself to Jake's words. "The breath was important... Sylla called it a gift," said Cal. And Aran, the sister, said it was her inheritance." "Do you think that's the birthright - the breath? Did she mean the Merrow breath?" Cal flicked her tail excitedly. "Of course - it was passed from mother to daughter. That's what Sylla wanted to give me!"
Jake was still puzzled. "But she felt she had to hide it, for safekeeping--" He was sure he was missing something obvious. Then it came to them both at the same time.
"Tarian's shell!"
"Sylla hid the breath in the nautilus shell and you have to find it," cried Jake.
"We have to find it," said Cal. "She wanted us to do this together. I'm sure of it. That's the reason only you can open the box. You must help me."
"I don't expect I'll be much help," said Jake. "I slow you down. I may be able to breath like you, but I don't have your strength. I'm not one of your kind." Jake's words struck Cal like a lighthouse bell. The prophecy. The Tide Turner. Yes, he was of her kind yet not of her kind. But what did it mean? She took him by the shoulders.
"Jake - you have Delphine blood," she said, "don't you feel it yet? Who knows how much of our nature flows through you. Trust the sea. You are strong and you could learn to use your body, to read the water like us." Jake knew he had changed. He wasn't the boy who'd sat alone in his boat such a short time ago. And he wanted to learn more. He wanted to feel what she felt. "Yes, I'll help you," he said, "until I start holding you back."
"Good!" Cal squeezed his hand. "So?" She looked at him expectantly. "Where did Sylla put the shell? Where could you put something you wanted to hide?" Jake picked up an empty dog whelk and a tiny prawn toppled out of it. "You'd put it where no one could see it." He looked out beyond their rocky sanctuary into the boundless green water. "The sea's big enough to swallow mountains," Lil use to say, "just like your appetite!" How could they ever find one shell in that vast ocean?
"We could never search every cave and crevice," sighed Cal. "Anyway, it's so beautiful - it might have been found already. If Sylla didn't trust my father to know about it she wouldn't have left a guardian." Jake agreed.
Cal shut her eyes. Her head had started to throb. Suddenly her aimless search had a purpose, the hope of answers, of Sylla's gift - but how to begin? "If only we had Skimmer," she said again. "Shall I take a chance and call him?"
"What about the Bloodfin? What if they're near?" "We need to move fast," said Cal, "and we'll have no chance of escape without him." Jake saw it was a grim risk they had to take. He nodded and gripped the hilt of Tarian's knife.
Cal slipped into a clearing and beat rhythmically with her tail. Then she dashed back into the trench with Jake and they stared silently into the distance... Nothing came but an inquisitive seal and a dory stalking a little fish. Still they peered into the dimming water. Jake's eyelids grew heavy. He felt an overwhelming desire to nestle against the weed and sleep.
"Maybe Skimmer's waiting until dark," whispered Cal. "Maybe," said Jake, wondering what else was out there, able to rely on sound and taste and smell in the night water. "We can't see anything much now." He yawned. "Let's get some rest and start looking in the morning."
But Cal continued to listen, straining every nerve to identify the minute movements of creatures flitting and floating around them. At last, exhausted, she gave up her watch. Jake was already curled against the rock. Cal studied him in the weak light. His will was strong but his Delphine instincts so new. She lay down beside him. What was the fate of this brother-kin? What other surprise might Sylla's message have revealed? Could they really find the last Merrow breath and turn the treacherous currents around them?
Cal slutched Sylla's pendant and, as settled, she fell asleep herself.