Jake was silent as them swam to the Serpent's Throat. He noticed how Cal never stopped looking above and below them. Often she slowed and circled nervously, listening, feeling the flow. He was sure that Sylla had wanted him to protect his sister, but how? Should he try to read the water again? His experience after the Dawn Falling had frightened him. No, he decided. I'll watch and wait. Trust the water, that's what Cal. had said. If it was right for him to be there he would find his way. The seabed sloped steeply and folded itself into a valley of crimped rock studded with dead man's fingers and clumps of rust belt strap weed. The water grew cold and cloudy. As they swam further Cal and Jake could see less and less through the gloom. Indistinct shapes drifted around them.
Cal slowed down. "Stay close." She wondered wether they were doing the right thing. Would Sylla have hidden something so precious in the Serpent's Throat? It seemed a desperate place to go when she was weak and alone. Cal thought again of her mother's message. What could they be sure of from the fragment she'd read? Cal had always assumed the Merrows were creatures of myth. It was incredible to discover they were real after all. But had Sylla, her own mother, really been one of them? Would that mean Cal was the last now - the last Merrow in the whole ocean - for ever?
If that was true, the survival of the ancient powers was in her hands. The chilling curse of Sylla's sister rage through Cal's head. Maybe she was still alive, out there, among the shadows that seemed to follow them... searching for that breath herself?
We have to find the shell, Cal pleaded silently, before Aran finds it, before the Bloodfin murder more Silvertails, before they hunt us down.
The sea had never felt so cold, so hostile, so dangerous... Cal fingered Sylla's pendant hanging around her neck. She held it to her lips. "Help me," she muttered. "Help us both."
Cal was so lost in her thoughts she didn't notice the valley narrow and deepen, but Jake was alarmed to see the rock walls rise steeply around them and a ravin gape open beneath. A stinging wave of fear smacked his body as before.
"It's not safe here," cried Jake. "Can't you feel it?" But his warning came too late.
Like bats from a cave at dusk, a hard of Bloodfin burst from the dark chasm. The sliced, fast and furious, through the water, swooped, looped and attacked from all directions. Cal screamed.
"Hold on!" Jake grabbed her and pulled her close. "Don't let go.
One after another the Bloodfin charged towards Cal and Jake, their eyes burning red with menace. They dived from above, exploded from below in a volley of puddles, skimmed broadside and buzzed them from behind. Cal and Jake were being herded, trapped in an invisible cage. In terror Cal struggled and beat Jake's leg with her tail, but he didn't let her go. Fast and closer the Bloodfin whipped the water around them, tightening it like a tourniquet. Cal thought she would faint. Then just as it seemed the water would wring the breath from them both the Bloodfin began circling, slow and wide. The spinning swell subsided. Jake steadied his dizzy head and counted seven of them. He fought hard not to retch at their rank, oily stench. The Bloodfin were young but their faces contorted with ugly claws. Jake guessed they were a gang but there seemed no obvious leader.
Warily they closed in again, pushing and shoving each other, gripping the hilts of the metal blades that hung from belt around their trunks. They were fascinated, like Tarian, by Jake's legs. He kicked out at them. A youth with a gruesome scab across his eye and made a grab for Jake's ankle but, instantly, a fist smashed down upon his wrist. "Leave it!" snarled the Bloodfin beside him. "This is the freak we were sent for. He must be the one." His word gave Cal an idea, a desperate idea - but they had nothing to lose. She wrestled free of Jake.
"Keep away," she cried, glaring at them one by one. "This is the Tide Turner. See, he has come."
In an instant the gang's fascination turned to fear. To Jake's amazement the Bloodfin backed off.
"What did you say?" hissed Jake. But Cal didn't answer. She clenched her fists and continued.
"He is the one - of our kind, but not of our kind." "Tide Turner?" A Bloodfin wearing a necklet of shark's teeth swam forward. He snarled at Cal. Jake grabbed her hand.
"That's no Tide Turner!" He spat at Jake. But he narrowed his eyes and peered at Jake's legs again closely. "Try him," said Cal, unflinching. Blood rushed around her head almost drowning her daring words.
Jake couldn't believe his ears - what was she doing? "Take us up to the shallows!" said cal.
She's trying to get us a chance to escape, Jake thought. I've got to help her. Suddenly he remembered Tarian's knife in his back pocket. He slipped his hand around his belt. "Keep talking," he urged Cal under his breath, but she gritted her teeth and fell silent, willing them with every nerve in her body to take a risk.
The gang gather to talk in tense, agitated voices. "Why should we take him back and hand him over? We found the freak, let's see what he can do." A disagreement quickly erupted. One with a split fluke broke away and circled the group threateningly.
Jake's finger reached the handle of the knife. Got it! He slid the blade out of his pocket and swung it around before him.
"Get away!" he yelled, stabbing the water fiercely. The Bloodfin reared back in surprise.
"I am the Tide turner. You have no power over me." Cal squeezed his hand tight. Once more the Bloodfin backed off. Whoever this Tide Turner was, thought Jake, he whipped through the water and knocked the knife from his hand. Jake lurched. Instantly a Bloodfin darted forward to catch the spinning knife. He grinned. The gang, bold again, crowed around to inspect it. Jake was furious. The knife snatcher, now taking the lead, gestured to the others to gather behind him. He approached Jake slowly, holding the knife to his face. The he grabbed a fistful of Jake's hair and, with a jab of the blade, sliced it off. Jake clutched his darted to and fro, impressed.
"We'll take you up, Tide Turner," the knife snatcher said, curling his thin lip. "We know the legend. Maybe that's why we were sent to find you. But hunting would be easy with the tide in our power..."
The knife snatcher shove his leathery, pockmarked face close. Jake had never seen eyes burn with such malice. "But if you have no power at all, Creeper..." he opened his fist and let the locks of Jake's hair fall, "we'll cut off your head too." The rest of the gang giggled. "Take him," he ordered, "and chain her up."