Chapter 12: The Cave

The line parted.

The air stopped in the middle of my breath.

I sucked on the regulator, and it sucked back at me, empty.

Above me, Barrows tucked the cut end and the camera under his arm and kicked away into the dark.

He didn't look back.

I clawed at the clip on my chest.

My fingers were too cold to work it.

I went down slowly, with the useless yellow hose trailing up out of my harness.

The green went gray.

The gray went black.

Then something closed around me.

Arms, hard and cold, and a body against mine, and speed.

Water roared past my ears.

We came up into air.

It was dark and echoing and smelled of stone.

Somebody laid me on wet rock and tore the regulator out of my mouth.

A mouth covered mine.

Breath went into me, salt and cold, again and again.

Then, close against my ear, someone sang.

My heart jumped like a fish on a deck.

I coughed up the sea and opened my eyes.

A young man was bent over me in the half dark, with long black hair and gray eyes and black scales on his shoulders.

He looked as frightened as I was.

"You're all right," he said, in broken English. "Breathe."

I breathed.

I wasn't afraid.

I put my hand on his face.

"You saved me," I said.

Then the water at the mouth of the cave went red.

A woman rose in it, her hair spread out.

She looked at me for a long time.

"Make her forget, or I'll make her stop," she said.

The young man looked down at me.

He was crying.

"I have to take this from you," he said. "Or she'll kill you."

"Then I'll come back," I told him. "I'll find you. I promise."

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