After a few minutes I became used to ankle-deep water, but then it rose, until we routinely encountered stretches where the water reached our knees. We took off our shoes, slinging them by their laces around our necks. Sometimes the tunnels angled up,and we’d be dry for a while but never long. The sound of dripping and sloshing water echoed around us.
We’d stopped talking some time ago when our tunnel opened up into a vast cavern, the largest we’d seen yet. We stood at the entrance on dry rock. It sloped down into a massive black pool of water, which filled two-thirds of the chamber.
“Now what?” Leah whispered.
Daziel raised a hand, and from it a light shot up, illuminating the whole cavern. On the far side, where water touched the rock wall, a deeper black circle indicated an opening. A tunnel to another cave.
I looked at Élodie’s compass. It pointed toward the opening.
“We need a boat,” Élodie said, the usual bell tone of her voice somewhat subdued.
I shook my head. No time or way to get a boat. “We’ll need to swim.”
Daziel looked miserable. “Must we?”
“We should have brought goggles,” Gidon said. “And those globes divers wear to bring oxygen with them, in case we wind up underwater—”
“If we fail, we can go back and find those.” I glanced at Daziel. Surely we’d be able to keep his father from dragging him home in the morning if we explained everything, wouldn’t we? But I was scared to risk it. I thought of how close we’d been to saving the Ziz, if only we had worked faster. Two days. I thought of the tremors. We’d assumed they were from the death of the Ziz upsetting natural magic. But a tremor could also be caused by the rocking of something deep in the earth. How long did it take an egg to hatch?
“What if we get trapped?” Daziel asked, and I noticed he wasbreathing quickly as he stared at the black water. “What if the tunnel angles down and there’s no air?”
Humans couldn’t survive without oxygen. Neither could fire.
“Maybe you’re right,” I said quickly to Élodie. “Maybe we should go back for equipment—”
“No.” Daziel shored up his shoulders. “We’ll try.”
“Not everyone needs to come,” I said. “We’ll send a small team. I’ll go.”
Daziel glared. “Obviously I’m going with you.”
“I’ll go too,” Jelan said. “We’ll send someone back after a few minutes.”
There was a general outcry, Stefan and Élodie and Leah insisting on coming, but Yael and Jelan argued them down. Élodie reluctantly handed me the compass.
We shed down to our smallclothes. Jelan and I holding our globes, Daziel glowing, we waded into the dark, still water. It was cool, but not as freezing as I had expected, though it was unsettling to be in opaque water, in a dark cave, preparing to go deeper. The water reached our hips, sliding over us like silk, then higher still. I shivered. Beneath my feet, the stone floor was slippery.
“Ready?” I said when the water hugged my ribs. Best to jump in while we could still gain some momentum.
“Ready,” the others said, and we dove forward and swam toward the dark opening.
Twenty-five
It took only two dozenstrokes to reach the far side of the cave, where the water slipped under the gap. Daziel’s light wasn’t so strong here, and I wondered how much the water hampered him. The tunnel’s roof was low—four feet above the water when we entered, then three, then two. Then one. Claustrophobia raked at me. I looked at Daziel, and he gave me a strained smile in return.
We swam another dozen yards, our dim lights battling the darkness. I didn’t like thinking about what else could be down here in the darkness.Nothing, I told myself firmly.Fish. That’s all.
Then the rocky ceiling lowered even more, or the water rose—in any case, there was no air left between the water and the rock. We paused, treading water. I looked at the compass, still clenched in my hand. “It was supposed to show a path with oxygen.”
“Maybe it’s only briefly underwater,” Jelan said. “I’ll go.”
“It’ll be easier for me,” Daziel said, voice tight. “I don’t need to breathe as often as you two.”
“I’m not letting you go alone,” I said. “Are you okay in the water? You don’t seem it.”
He scowled. I scowled back.
“How long can you both hold your breath?” Jelan said. “We’ll go for half that length, then turn around.”
