13 Tangler

Orcara had mended Jake's leg well and with his new strength swimming underwater was easy. He was relieved to leave the village behind.

Jake let Cal go ahead. But after a while he caught up and offered to carry the basket again. This time she agreed. She too seemed happier away from the village, secretly convinced herself that her father was still alive somewhere. She handed him the heavy load and he strung it across his shoulders.

"Let's head foe that reef, just beyond the sea fans," she said. "I think we'll find food there." Jake nodded. He was hungry.

Cal reached them first as Jake stopped to watch a bloom of milky white jellyfish rise towards the surface. As she had guessed, the reef was thick with good things to eat.

"All right," Jake conceded. "You're faster, but I'll still carry the basket."

Cal handed him a piece of green algae. "You're not so bad, Creeper," she said, tearing another handful from the rock. "But we mustn't stay long. It's too open here."

"Where do you think the Bloodfin are now?" asked Jake, stretching for some seaweed he recognized from the day before.

"Well-" Cal looked into the distance, "if they were headed to the nearest Silvertail settlement they'd have to cross Brightwater to the Blue Caves. I sent skimmer there to warn the pod. I hope he arrived in time. But there are other Silvertails on the margin of the Upwelling and a big pod that live in a wreck near the Twister."

"What's the Twister?" asked Jake. "It's a deep channel in the rock where the current's forced at great speed."

"It sounds a dangerous place to live," said Jake, trying to satisfy his hunger as quickly as possible.

"It is perilous," said Cal, "but the pod know its moods. They live near the Twister because there's always plenty of food where the water's stirred up. And stranger don't go near."

"So are all the Delphines called Silvertails?" Jake was still confused.

"No," Cal said patiently. "There are many Delphines, all with their homewaters; Dusking live at the rim of Deep Sea, Pearlflukes farm the Crystal Drift, where the sparkling water's warm. I'd love to go there. Further along the shallows there are Bluestreaks and in the down-current, of course, the Bloodfin, they hunt in the Melt eat the Ice Crust." Jake wished he had a map of the sea - a Delphine map. He decided to ask Cal to draw one in the sand later when they were in a safer place. Now he thrust a handful of algae into his pocket and helped her gather the bartering things together. His mind turned again to the box.

"Do you think the Bloodfin came back and took the box?" he said. "Surely nobody could get by Skimmer?"

"They wouldn't have stolen the box and left us sleeping," said Cal. "They'd have killed me and take you. No, they must have moved on to search for another settlement. As for Skimmer, he often wanders away. It's the busiest feeding time in the open ocean. There's a great plankton feast, especially at this time of year. Small fish swim up for the plankton, the bigger fish swim up for the small fish - Skimmer loves to graze at night."

"Then who could have taken it?" asked Jake. He didn't like the idea of someone, or something, searching around while they were asleep.

"Why are you so interested?" asked Cal. "It's my box." Jake felt embarrassed. He didn't want to tell Cal about his dreams.

"I don't know," he lied. "I like a puzzle. I bet I could open it for you." He looked up and caught Cal's pained expression, as if something hurt and she didn't want to admit it. She started to swim away.

"I want to open it too. It belong to my mother," she mumbled over her shoulder as her words were carried away in the stream of bubbles. "I want it too."

Tarian's place was a morning journey from Cal's village, further out to sea across the Ribditch- a rough, furrowed plain studded with spiny urchins and starfish. There water there was murky and Jake swam closer to Cal. He decided to approach the subject of the box again by asking about her mother.

"I was only small when she died," Cal said. "I don't remember her."

"Didn't your father tell you about her?" "It made him sad to speak about it, so I never asked." At once Jake felt the water around Cal cool, as if her body warmth had dropped. It cast a chill upon him too. "I'd like to now about my mother, my real mother," he heard himself saying. The thought surprised him. "What do you mean?" Cal realized she hadn't considered whether Jake had any family.

"Well, I was found in a boat when I was a baby. That one you saw me fishing in. It was pulled up on the beach. No one knew who left me there."

Cal was shocked. "Who took care of you?" "I did have a dad," said Jake, smiling as he saw Charley's face in his mind. "A good dad. And a mother too. But there must have been - you know, the one that left me in that boat. I think my real dad must have been a fisherman because-" Jake suddenly felt he'd said too much. "Anyway they've gone now, all of them." His brow knotted. "And the boat's gone too."

"So you're alone, like me?" she said. Jake nodded and turned away. He heaved the net bag higher up his back. He'd have enough talk.

They swam along in silence for a while. The water became dull freyish green, clouded with floating debris from the siltbed below. Then Jake saw a stack of rusty metal ahead. It looked like a buckled section of ship's hull. When they drew closer they found a enormous anchor propped against a rock and more jagged metal plates, some half hurried in the sand. "Is it a shipwreck?" asked Jake.

"No. It must be Tarian's place. We're nearly there," said Cal, leading him through the wreckage. As they went on the heaps appeared more deliberately arranged, like to organised chaos of a scrapyard. Great broken pieces of hull were filled with jumbled chains, propellers and curious bits of ship's fittings that Jake couldn't identify.

They swam further, now weaving a passage between junk that towered several feet high. Every shadow taunted them with the silhouettes of fins, spears and marlin spikes. Jake scanned the dark spaces nervously. Cal strained every sense to read the water around them. Lobsters scuttled over the wreckage and crabs scrambled in and out of crevices. The whole place echoed with the deep groan of metal shifting in the current. It sounded to Jake as if the earth itself was in pain. He imagined the screams of drowned sailors and the tangle of their trapped, ghostly limbs...

Cal swam nearer to Jake, so closed that her hair strayed across his face. "Look! That must be where he lives." She pointed between two mountains heaps of rope. Jake stopped in his tracks.

"An old submarine!" But he didn't get a chance for a closer look.

Thwack! A muscular tentacle whipped around his body and thrust him to the sandbed. In the blink of an eye Cal thudded down beside him and a giant octopus lowered its body on top of them both. Jake fought fiercely, pulling the tentacle away from his chest only to have his arm pinned down by another.

"Cal - can you hear me?" he puffed, pushing vainly at the heavy, grey flesh settling on his legs.

Cal set out curses as she wrestled with the octopus's writhing limbs. She'd forgotten about Tangler, Tarian's scout! He smacked her hard with a sucker.

Suddenly, as Jake flung his arm out, his hand hit the bag lying just above his head. He closed his fist around the base of a goblet and tugged, but it was trapped in the net. With a desperate yank he loosened the goblet and pulled it free. He crashed it down on the octopus's body. Tangler reeled, but almost instantly recovered, his weight rolling painfully across Jake's legs. A tentacle wrapped around Jake's wrist and shook the goblet from his hand. Jake felt a pause - Tangler had seen the bag. The rubbery suckers eased their grip. Tangler released his captives, slithered off their bodies over to the bag and picked it up.

He squirmed, wriggling his great arms in delight.

"Those aren't for you," Jake shouted furiously, rubbing his sore legs. He kicked the octopus hard, but Tangler wouldn't be distracted from the bag. Drawing it close to his body he sidle off through the wreckage towards the submarine. Jake turned to Cal. She lay, ,motionless, on the seabed. "No!!" He scrambled all over and lifted her head onto his knees, brushing the hair off her white face. "What's the matter? Cal, Cal, open your eyes!" Jake shook her by the shoulders, pulling her up to rest against his chest. "Come on, come on!" He shook her again frantically.

Something slide alongside Cal's tail. The eel kept his scarred cheek close to her body.

"Get out of here!" Jake lashed out with his fist, letting Cal slip from his arms. But, to Jake's amazement, as she fell to the sandbed she came to. Cal raised her head, dazed and blinking.

"What... what happened?" Jake held her up. He almost hugged her. "You were knocked out - there was an octopus. Remember? I taught it was the - never mind. Ypu're al' right, now."

Cal screwed up her face and rubbed her head. "It must have been Tangler - he's - he's Tarian's scout. I'm sorry... I should have remembered."

"We were lucky he didn't crush us to death," said Jake, "... or strangle us. Don't know which is worse. But he took your bag and headed off towards the sub.

Cal sighed. "Let him have it." "What about Tarian? You wanted news..." Cal hurried her head in her hands. "There won't be any news," she said quietly. "My father's dead. I know. I know it's true. It was only a hope."

Jake couldn't bare to see Cal defeated. "Look, I'm going to get that bag back," he said. "We might as well try. You'd hate yourself for not trying."

Cal looked up and smiled weakly at Jake. He was right. She would hate herself for not trying. How did he know that?

Her smile was all the encouragement Jake needed. "Stay here. I'll be back." And he made his way, warily, towards the submarine.

Jake was taking no chances. He kept his back to the walls of wreckage. In front of the submarine was a sandy clearing strewn with chais and pile of fishing net and a jumble of plastic containers strung together with nylon rope.

As he peeped between the salvage Jake saw the octopus appear from the hatch and slither down the side of the submarine, still nestling Cal's bag close to his body. Keeping to the shadows, Tangler scrambled alongside the sub towards a cliff on the opposite side of the clearing. He stopped beneath a crack in the rock. As Jake watched, Tangler unrolled a tentacle and pushed the bag onto the hole. That's his hiding place, thought Jake with delight. Then Tangler tugged some weed from the cliff face and stuffed it into the crack.

Jake made a dash foe safe cover behind a broken stone column. He had no idea how far an octopus could see, but he guessed it might sense his presence. Tangler returned to the sub and slumped down before it like a guard god, idly twitching the tip of a tentacle.

"Come on, rubber-legs," Jake muttered. "haven't you got somewhere else to go?" He guessed Tarian was not at home, and that Tangler's exploits were his own secret business. Jake picked up a small rock and threw it down one of the avenues of junk. It landed with a clatter. Tangler hurried off to investigate. Now Jake sped across the clearing and swam up to the crack in the rock. Dragging out the weed he reached inside and felt the bag. As he pulled it out his hand knocked against something smooth and hard. The box! So, Tangler had stolen that too! Jake was alarmed to think of the octopus groping Cal and Him as they slept. Ugh!

Hurriedly, Jake dragged the bag from Tengler's hiding place and put it on the sand. Then, pulling out the box he set that beside it. A piece of tarpaulin lay nearby. He grabbed it and spread it out, placed the bag and the box in the middle, tied the corners together and heaved the bundle over his shoulder. Then he raced back to Cal, half leaping, half swimming, his heart beat so loudly he thought it would give him away.

"I've got the bag and, gussying what - the box!" Jake grinned. He looked expectantly at Cal, hoping she was impressed. Her green eyes sparkled beneath her long lashes. "Thank you," she said.

"I din't think Tarian is here," said Jake. "He must be traveling. Let's get away quickly before Tangler finds us again."

Now Cal took the bag and Jake wrapped the box once more in the tarpaulin and they made their way out of Tarian's place through the alleyways of wreckage.

When they came to open water they stopped for Jake to rest. Cal unwrapped the box laid her webbed hands upon the lid.

"Let me try to open it," Jake said. "I've tried hundreds to times," she sighed. "And Father and I search everywhere for the key."

"Let me try." Cal hesitated, then drew back to let Jake kneel close. Slowly he took hold of the lid and lifted it. with ease it opened wide.