The Deep

The power of Ingo sweeps through my body and I race after him. I could never swim this strongly in the human world, up on the surface. My body cuts through the water. I feel as sleek and fast as a seal, and I’m not tired at all, even though we must be more than a mile out from land already.

Now there’s the first tug of a current. It seizes us in its strong arms, and drags us southward. Slowly at first and then faster, faster, until the water flies past us and the sea bed below us is a blur.

But no matter how fast we go, Faro’s friend is still ahead of us. There he is, just visible, riding the current’s crest. He’s not going to let me catch up with him. Faro could, easily, but I’m not fast enough.

“Why won’t he wait for us, Faro?”

Faro’s white teeth show in a teasing smile. “He’s shy of you, Sapphire.”

“He can’t be!”

“You’re human, don’t forget. Morlader’s not like me. He’s never spoken to a human, or even seen one up close. Most of the Mer are like that. You don’t realise how unusual I am,” he adds with self-satisfaction.

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you different from the others?”

Faro frowns. “You wouldn’t understand, Sapphire. It’s a Mer thing.” Streams of bubbles play over his face, half-hiding it. He’s close, but he looks far away. A Mer thing. His words hurt, but the water of Ingo surges around me, and my own Mer blood tingles with excitement. How fast is this current taking us? How far? We must be miles and miles from land now. It’s like flying underwater. I’ve never travelled so fast in Ingo, but I’m not afraid. I’m elated. How can Faro think I won’t understand?

“I’m not all human, Faro,” I say. “You know that.”

Faro turns to me. His hair flows past his shoulders, plastered to his skin by the force of the current. His eyes scan my face, intent, anxious – and maybe even a little fearful. He isn’t hiding from me now. Suddenly I remember the first time we met.

“You weren’t ever shy of me, Faro.”

“No.”

“Why weren’t you? You’re Mer too.”

A strange expression crosses Faro’s face. “Yes,” he says, more hesitant than I’ve ever heard him, “yes, of course I’m Mer. But Sapphire, there’s something—Look out!”

He grabs my hand and hurls us sideways out of the grip of the current, just missing a jagged spear of rock. In the calm water, he lets go of me. There are white marks on my hand where his fingers dug into the flesh. I could never have got out of that current on my own. Faro’s strength is almost frightening sometimes – but he did it to save me.

Faro looks shocked. “It nearly got us. I must have been dreaming. I can’t believe I let that happen.”

“Scary,” I say weakly as I try to calm the pumping of my heart. Usually Faro is as quick as a fish. He senses danger at the first shadow of it. That rock would have killed us, and we only missed it by a few centimetres. If Faro hadn’t dragged me sideways, I’d be drifting down to the sea bed now, my body broken and bleeding. For the first time, I really understand that only a second separates life from death, and it’s very easy to die. My heart thuds so hard I can feel it in my throat.

Faro rubs his hands over his face, as if he’s wiping away a nightmare. He takes hold of my hand, lifts it, and examines it. There are the marks of his nails, too, in my skin. My hand is bleeding.

“I didn’t mean to hurt you, little sister,” he says.

“I’m all right. We could have died, couldn’t we? I think you saved my life.”

Faro glances around quickly as if someone might overhear him. “This place could eat us alive and still be hungry,” he whispers. “Its spirit is bad – drokobereth. We must hurry.”

I glance around fearfully. Now the rocks look as if they are clawing the water, reaching out for prey.

“Where’s Morlader gone?”

Faro points ahead where the rocks rise up sheer, towering into an under-sea mountain range. I thought that the Bawns near our cove were huge, but these are ten times higher. They are bleak and barren. They look as if they’ve crowded together deliberately, so there won’t be a way through them. They don’t want us here.

“Morlader has gone ahead of us, to the Assembly,” says Faro.

“Where’s that?”

“Farther on. It’s no use being afraid of the mountains, Sapphire. There’s no other way except through them.”

“I’m not afraid!”

“Of course you are,” says Faro. His face is very serious. “And so am I.”

“If it’s so dangerous, why do the Mer hold their Assemblies on these mountains?”

“Not on the mountains: in them. Our Assembly cave is deep in the heart of the mountains. Our ancestors chose it, because we could hide from our enemies there for a thousand years if need be. We could defend ourselves with only a handful of warriors.”

“What enemies?”

Faro glances round again, quickly, cautiously. “We can’t talk about it here. Come on, Sapphire. It’s not solid rock, there’s a way through. We’d be safer approaching from the south, but we haven’t got time to swim all the way round now.”

“Do you know the way?”

“Of course,” says Faro. I’m sure I can hear doubt in his voice, but there’s no choice. We’ve got to go on.

“Careful,” whispers Faro. “Even a scratch from these rocks can turn to poison.” We swim forward very slowly, gliding cautiously around the razor-sharp flanks of the rocks.

Before long the rocks have closed around us. Ahead, the rising mountain blocks our sight. There’s no clear water anywhere, only channels between dangers. I’ve never felt cold in Ingo before, but these rocks cast an icy shadow. There is no sign of life. No flickering fish, no glowing sea anemones, no graceful herds of sea horses. There isn’t even any seaweed clinging to the rocks. The valleys are empty and the peaks bare. Below us the sand is dark, ashy grey.

We swim on, barely disturbing the water. Now the rocks on either side of us look as if they’ve been split open by a giant hammer.

“The tides did this when they broke loose,” says Faro, steering me past a shattered fang of coral. We slow down even more, so that we can ease our bodies through the wreckage without getting trapped in it. Besides, I don’t want to disturb these waters, for fear of what might come out.

“Why can’t we swim higher up in clear water?” I whisper.

“We have to go this way,” says Faro. “Mind your hand, Sapphire! That’s where the eels have their holes.”

I snatch my hand back, shuddering. So there is something alive here. Roger told me once that divers have to watch out for conger eels. They live in crevices like these. If they get your arm in their jaws, they won’t let go. What else is hidden away in the holes and crevices?

“Search every crook and granny,” I murmur.

“What?”

“It’s meant to be ‘Search every nook and cranny’ – Conor got it wrong when he was little and so we always say it like that.”

“Why would you search a granny – you mean, your mother’s mother?”

“Never mind, Faro, it’s not important.”

It’s like trying to tell a joke at a funeral. Everything is so eerily silent. The split rock glimmers like oil. At the corner of my eye something flickers.

“Faro!”

But when I turn my head, there’s nothing.

“Faro, I’m sure someone – something was there.”

A flash of alarm crosses Faro’s face.

“Just keep swimming,” he whispers in my ear. “Pretend you haven’t seen them.” He takes my hand and pulls me with him. “Don’t look back.”

I wasn’t going to look back. I swear I wasn’t. But somehow my head turns, and the flicker of movement behind me becomes real, solid—

“Faro, look! Look at her!”

“No, Sapphire!”

“But she’s so beautiful!”

So beautiful. She’s sitting on the knife-sharp edge of the rock, but it doesn’t seem to hurt her. Her shining hair drifts around her shoulders like a cloak of glass. Her smile glows with welcome and her arms are open wide as if to embrace us.

“But, Faro, she’s Mer. She’s one of your people. Why won’t you look at her?”

Her eyes fix mine. They are huge and hungry. She wants me. She wants me to come to her.

“She’s not Mer!” says Faro, his voice full of revulsion.

“Just look for a minute. She’s so lovely,” I plead with him.

“All right then, Sapphire, you look at her if you want to! Look!”

Her beautiful face, her sloping shoulders and swirling hair – her—

“Look, Sapphire!”

She twists her body free of the rock. She pushes off with her hands. She’s coming towards us…

Where a tail should be if she were Mer, where legs would be if she were human, there is a claw. A single claw, steel blue and gleaming. An open claw that snaps as the creature swirls towards us—

Faro raises both hands, fingers crossed, and touches them to his forehead. The creature stalls in the water.

“Get behind me,” he mutters, “and whatever you do, don’t look at it again.” Very slowly he begins to swim backwards, still holding his hands in place and shielding me with his body. I scull myself backwards with trembling hands, keeping my eyes fixed on Faro’s back. I won’t look at – at it – again. It’s not going to make me look at it. A faint sound drifts through the water. Clack. Clack. The claw, I think. It’s opening and shutting the claw, getting ready to snap—

“Don’t be scared,” murmurs Faro. “Feel behind you.” My back is against the wall now. A sheer, gleaming wall of rock that blocks our way.

Clack, clack.

Surely the sound is fainter now?

“Faro – Faro – has it gone?”

“Wait.”

We hang still in the water, backs to the wall, and wait.

“Don’t look, Sapphire. It’s not safe yet.”

Clack, clack.

It’s almost gone. At last Faro’s shoulders slacken with relief. His hands drop to his sides.

“It’s gone back to its hole,” he says. “But we’ve got to be quick. There’ll be more of the Claw Creatures around here and I can’t hold off more than one at a time.”

“Can’t we swim straight up the rock, Faro?”

“No. We’ve got to go through. There’s a passage here somewhere. I used to know where it was, but since the Tide Knot broke, everything’s changed. Even the routes we’ve used for a thousand years. Come round this way, Sapphire. Squeeze through. That’s it. Good, the Claw Creatures can’t get in here.”

We’re in a small cave. The back of it is blind, and there’s no passage through the rock.

“We’ll rest here for a while,” says Faro, and closes his eyes. It’s very gloomy in the cave, but there’s enough light to see how drained he looks.

“At least now you know never to look at one of the Claw Creatures,” he says lightly.

“If you hadn’t been there—”

“Shall I tell you what would have happened, little sister?”

“No, don’t. I can guess.”

We are quiet for a while, resting. I wonder how much farther we’ve got to go. Faro says that everything’s changed in Ingo since the Tide Knot broke.

“But the tides went back,” I say aloud.

“Ingo is slow to heal.”

Like the human world, I think. St Pirans is shadowy in my mind now, but I can’t forget the destruction of the flood.

“Ingo er kommolek,” I say suddenly, without realising that I’m going to speak. Just as suddenly I remember where those words came from. The dolphins spoke them, that day last autumn when they came into the bay, and we were out in the boat with Mal’s dad. But the words were different then… Ingo er lowenek… was that it?

My brain doesn’t know what the words mean, but something deeper in me understands. There’s a shadow over Ingo now. Grief and destruction have spread through Ingo like currents of rushing water.

“Ingo er kommolek… kommolek… trist Ingo… trist, trist Ingo…”

Faro is staring at me.

“How do you know those words, Sapphire?”

Power rises in me again, as it did when I was standing on the rock, back in our cove.

“I learned them from the dolphins.”

“You’re coming on, little sister,” says Faro in his mocking way. “You are becoming a daughter of Ingo.”

His words thrill through me.

“Sometimes I think that won’t ever happen. Just when I feel I’m part of Ingo, I’m pushed away again.”

“I don’t push you away.”

But there’s a lot you never talk about. How little I know about Faro’s history – and I still feel I can’t ask him quite ordinary things like where he was born, who his parents are…

“Sapphire?”

“What?”

“Wake up. It’s time to move on.”

CHAPTER THREE

We come out of the cave, and stare up the sheer face of the mountain. It’s just as forbidding, but now there’s a challenge in it, too.

“Morlader must have found the passage.”

“Yes,” Faro agrees.

“But then why didn’t he wait for us?”

Faro shrugs. His eyes are dark and grim. “You think all the Mer are one family, Sapphire. But it’s not as simple as that. Sometimes we… we test one another.”

“You mean Morlader’s testing us to see if we can find the way?”

“Not Morlader alone,” says Faro. “He’s been sent, and told what to do. And I think I know who sent him. Come, little sister, we have to take this path.”

He points around the shoulder of the rock face. We edge along it, keeping close to the rock without ever touching it. Faro takes my hand and steers us both onwards with barely a flicker of his powerful tail. The rock is no longer barren. Weed clings to it, and in crevices there are limpets crusting its smoothness. Long trails of weed catch at my feet. It’s a dark, smooth green, like bottle-glass. It hangs from the rock in swaying curtains, so thick that we can’t see through them.

“The entrance is here somewhere,” says Faro. He lets go of my hand, pushes aside the curtain of weed, and vanishes.

“Faro!”

“Come on, Sapphire, it’s this way.”

His voice sounds muffled and hollow. Where is he? Gingerly, I touch the weed. I’ll have to push my way through it, and I don’t want to. It’s like going into a trap.

The weed sways like an animal being stroked. Suddenly the fog that hides the human world when I’m in Ingo clears for a moment, and I see Sadie standing in a patch of sunlight. Sadie! Thoughts of her flood my mind. Her warm smooth coat, her brown eyes, the way she scans my face to work out what I’m saying. Dear Sadie. My hand falls to my side. What am I doing here? Her eyes plead with me to come home. Why am I pushing my way through a slimy curtain of weed?

“Sapphire!”

Faro sounds farther away now, and impatient. He’s going on. He’s not waiting for me. I can’t get left behind here on my own – but I can’t go in. Rocks and icy shadows and cold unfriendly water press in on me. Get out of here, a voice says in my brain. Get out now, while you still can.

Suddenly I hear another sound. It’s very faint, but as soon as I hear it a prickle of terror races over my skin.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

I’m imagining it; of course I am. But Faro’s not here to help me now. Don’t look back, Sapphire. Don’t risk being trapped by that beautiful face and that lethal claw.

Clack. Clack. Clack.

It’s coming closer. Frantically I scrabble at the curtain of weed, trying to find an opening. The weed resists, then suddenly it parts and I fall through it.

It’s dark in here, a shadowy greenish murk. I blink, and slowly my eyes adjust. There’s Faro, about a hundred metres ahead. The rock face curves inward at the bottom, and the weed hangs down, creating a secret space.

“Quick, Sapphire! Here!”

I swim forward, and see a narrow hole in the rock. It must be the opening of the passage Faro wants us to go through. It’s just wide enough for our bodies, but we won’t be able to swim. We’ll have to use our hands to pull ourselves through. But it’s so narrow – what if we get stuck?

“Hurry!” says Faro in an urgent whisper. “They’ll scout up and down the weed, searching for us. They’re stupid, so they probably won’t find us. But you can never be sure. Come on. I’ll go first.”

“But, Faro—”

“It’s the only way. Come on. They can’t come into the tunnel because their claws get jammed.”

His eyes are bright in the gloom as he squeezes my hand. “It takes us to the Assembly chamber. I know it does. Trust me, Sapphire.”

He swims down to the hole and grips both sides with his hands. With a sinuous, supple movement he squeezes his body in, and disappears.

It’s all right for you, I think angrily. You’ve done this before. And besides, you’re Mer.

My heart is beating fast again. I’m frightened but I push the fear down. In a place like this it’s not safe to show weakness. That creature with the claw can’t get into the passage; Faro said it couldn’t—

Clack. Clack. Clack.

Am I really hearing it?

Stop it, Sapphire. Don’t think about the claw.

Faro’s tail has vanished. I’ve got to follow him.

I swim down to the tunnel entrance and scull the water as I try to peer inside. It’s very narrow. I can only just fit in. There’s hardly any light at all. My fingers look ghostly.

Do it, Sapphire. You’ve got to go in.

I reach for the entrance of the tunnel. My hair floats around my face, blinding me for a second. What if my hair gets caught and I’m trapped?

I shut my mind, swim down, feel for the sides of the tunnel, and haul myself in.

I can’t see anything. My body blocks out the light behind, and Faro must be blocking the light ahead.

“Faro?” I whisper. I don’t dare call out. Anything might be listening. A conger eel would love to coil itself away here, and wait for its prey. Maybe there’s a labyrinth of tunnels leading away from this one. Tunnels full of hidden creatures. Octopuses, giant squid, crabs and eels—

“Faro!”

I’m not making a sound. I’m trying to reach Faro with my mind. Where is he?

Hurry up, Sapphire. Human toes are a rare treat for conger eels down here.

He’s heard my thoughts. I’ve never been so glad to be teased in my life. Somehow Faro turns the conger eels into cartoon creatures. But under the teasing, I sense that Faro’s afraid too. Not of eels or octopuses, but of something deeper. Something formless, shadowy. A flicker of his fear brushes over my mind and I shudder.

I’m not going to let fear win. I’m going to fight back, like Faro.

Those conger eels don’t care about toes, they’re after your tail, I shape my thoughts to tell him. I know how proud Faro is of his strong, supple tail.

I’d like to see them try. One blow from my tail and they’d never move again. Feel your way along the rock with your hands, Sapphire. If you find a hold you can pull yourself along.

He shows me a mental image of what he is doing. His strong hands grasp the sides of the rock and propel him forwards.

I reach out cautiously, but the sides of the tunnel aren’t slimy, as I feared. They’re just smooth, and hard, and unforgiving. My nails scrape for a hold. I pull myself forward a little, then my hold breaks. There’s just enough room to put my hands down by my sides. Palm outwards, my hands push and propel me forward.

But now the tunnel’s getting narrower. If I’m not careful I’ll get stuck with my hands wedged by my sides. I won’t be able to bring them up to protect my face.

Don’t panic, Sapphire. If you panic in here you’re in real trouble.

Very cautiously I roll on to my side, and push backwards until I’m pressed against the tunnel wall. Carefully, I work my right elbow loose underneath me until my right arm comes free, and then I roll and do the same for my left.

You’ve done it, I tell myself. You kept calm and worked it out. That’s what you’ve got to do if you’re going to get through the passage.

It feels safer with my hands stretched in front of me. I can’t move as quickly, but I can shield my face. Faro’s quite a way ahead now. He must be moving more easily than me, with the force of his tail to push him on. My head knocks against the roof. Slow down, Sapphire. Take it easy. Faro’s bigger than you and he didn’t get stuck.

My foot catches on an outcrop of rock on the tunnel roof. For a desperate moment I struggle to pull it free, but it won’t go the right way. The rock’s holding on to me. It won’t release me.

I’ve got to think. Think. Use your mind instead of going into a blind, blank panic. You won’t ever get free if you struggle; it’s like pulling a knot tighter. Maybe if I push backwards a little, it’ll take some pressure off my foot.

Very gently I push back against the sides of the tunnel until the grip on my foot eases. I wriggle my foot sideways, and the rock lets me go.

I mustn’t let it catch me again. I scull hard with my hands to bring my body down as close to the floor of the tunnel as possible, and then I edge forwards with my feet together. I won’t kick any more, in case I get trapped again.

It works. I’m moving, slowly and steadily. But there’s no time for relief. I’ve got to catch up with Faro. If I lose him—

What if the tunnel divides and I don’t know which way to go?

It’s cold as well as dark. It feels as if the tunnel walls are breathing out a dead, freezing mist. Every time my fingers touch the rock they get more numb. Got to keep moving. Faro’s up ahead; I know he is even though I can’t see him. I can’t even find him with my mind. Keep going, Sapphire. Pull yourself along. One handhold. Another handhold. Keep going. The water feels cold and lifeless, but it isn’t really. You’re still in Ingo.

My worst fear is that the tunnel’s going to squeeze shut, closing me in. I could never find my way backwards, all the way to the entrance. I’d get stuck, and then I’d be trapped in the tunnel for ever.

As if the tunnel senses my panic, it starts to crowd me. My hands scrabble for space. My feet kick against the tunnel roof.

Faro!

There’s no reply. My thoughts bounce emptily around my mind. Faro has left me. I’m alone.

A wave of panic wipes me out. The rock bulges, crushing me. My fingers scrape at the surface but this time I can’t move. The tunnel has got me and it’s never going to let me escape.

But as the tide of panic roars, a small, quiet voice speaks deep inside me. I don’t know if it’s my voice, or Faro’s. Think, Sapphire. Use your brain. You’re not trapped as long as you think.

I remember how I freed my foot. Ease backwards. Don’t struggle, because it only ties the knot tighter.

It’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. When you’re trapped, every cell of your body screams for you to fight free. But I’ve got to do it, because even Faro can’t help me now. He’s up ahead, waiting for me, I’m sure he’s there, but the tunnel’s too narrow for him to turn and pull me free.

Somehow just the thought of Faro waiting makes the rock face move back a fraction. The roof of the tunnel doesn’t press down quite so hard.

You survived the Deep, Sapphire. None of the Mer can survive the Deep, but you did it. This isn’t so terrible, compared to the Deep.

That’s when I first see the light. It’s a tiny greenish glimmer, so faint I’m not sure at first if it’s real or not. As I watch, another tiny light springs out on the rock face, like a signal. Don’t be afraid. We’re here with you.

Like fairy lights. But they can’t be fairy lights because there’s no electricity down here. I peer through the darkness and then I see them. They are small, worm-shaped creatures, clinging to the rock. The glow of light comes from their heads. As I watch, another point gleams out, and then another. They light the passage, showing the way onwards.