Valvera Ketch's Arc

Chapter 6 of 2

Neville held the map to the green lantern light. His arm traced a line that bent downward, past the last marker Valvera knew. "The route drops here," he said. "Below the sunlit water. The depth signs go deeper than the light reaches." Valvera studied the marks. The path she needed ran straight down into dark, cold water. She had no way to see there. Worse, she had no way to breathe. A scallop pumped water through her shell, but not at that depth, not for that long. "I can't follow it down," she said. "Not like this." Calidan climbed to the raft's edge. He wore the shell she had traded him and her old crab flippers, still strapped to his legs. He peered over the side. "Then we're stuck," he said. "The current won't carry us down. Only across." Neville said nothing. He tucked a book under one arm and slid off the raft. He came back dragging a tangle of glossy seaweed. A green mask sat half-buried in the fronds, its carved face staring up. "Snagged on a rock below," he said. "Old diver's gear, I think." Valvera pushed at the fronds with her shell. The mask was hard and hollow. A ridge ran along its edge, shaped to seal against skin. Two dark cups fit over eyes. She turned it and found a hole at the mouth, fitted with a stiff green tube that ran back into the seaweed. "This isn't just a face," she said. Her voice sharpened. "It's a breathing mask." Neville leaned close. "The tube pulls air," he said. He traced the seaweed with one arm. "These fronds hold it, like a jar holds water. A diver could carry a breath down and read the map by the light." "Then I go down," Valvera said. "But I can't wear it. It's shaped for a face, not a shell." They both looked at Calidan. Calidan backed a step. His legs clicked on the wet peel. "Me?" "You have the flippers," Valvera said. "You have the shell. You can hold the mask, hold the lantern, and follow the marks I point to. I'll ride your back and read the map." Calidan stared at the dark water. He had spent years alone in a glass jar. He knew tight, quiet spaces. He did not know deep ones. But he fit the flippers to his feet, took the mask, and pressed it to his face. The seal held. He breathed through the tube once, twice. Valvera settled the lantern's rope in his claw. Its green core glowed steady. She climbed onto his shell and gripped tight. "Straight down," she said. "I'll count the depth marks." Calidan slipped off the raft. The water closed over them. The lantern lit a small green room in the dark. Valvera held the map close and read the first deep mark. They sank past the sunlight. The next marker waited somewhere below, and now they could reach it.