26 To the Serpent's Throat

Jake followed Cal back through the ravine, lost in thought. Daggers of rock rose from the black crevice below. They dive deeper.

Jake shivered. "This water's freezing." "It's going to get colder," Cal warned. "This is Fang Gully." Sure enough Jack saw that the tapering blades were twenty feet high.

A pair of marbled ling snaked ahead in the wake of a small shoal of dogfish. A long, mournful groan reverberated through the water from the great throat of a whale far away in the open ocean. Jack listened for an answering call, but none came.

"Stop a minute," he said. "We've got to to make our way or we'll be lost down here for ever." He looked around and saw a funnel-like object sticking out of the sand. Jake swam over and tugged at the rim. A shield-shaped piece of metal broke off in his hand.

"Perfect!" he said. With force he bent it double, then used the broken edge to scrape a patch of algae from the nearest rock. It felt a chalky mark. "We'll do this every few strokes to leave a trail."

"What if the Bloodfin return and follow it?" "They don't need a trail," scowled Jake. "They can smell us! Come on. Let's find the shell and get out of here as fast as we can."

Presently the gully became so dense they could no longer see in any direction.

Cal called through the water as her father had done before. And just as before, a hairy old anglerfish appeared. Jack had never seen such a grotesque creature. It inspected him closely with tiny bead-like eyes buried deep in the flabby folds of its monstrous head. Its grey flesh was covered with ranks of long spines. But most alarming was the gawping pink, fat-lipped mouth, spiked with rows of needle sharp teeth. Above it dangled a glowing lure, a welcome to the jaws below...

The Anglerfish turned away and began to progress slowly through the gully.

"It'll lead us to Gaping Craw," hissed Cal. "But don't follow too close." Jake nodded. He had no intention of getting friendly with a fiendish looking creature like that, however obliging. As they went, swerving this way and that, he nicked the rocks with his makeshift blade.

The anglerfish was distracted by any passing creature that might fall prey to its lure. However, eventually they came to a clearing before a cliff. A sudden noise startled the anglerfish and it darted off. They were lift alone. Before them was a narrow crack in the foot of the cliff, barely wider than Jack and not quite twice as tall.

"That's it," said Cal, "Gaping Craw."

"Your father took you in there?" said Jack in disbelief. "He wasn't going to," admitted Cal, "but he stood down to look at an injured starfish and I slid in. So he had to follow."

Jack smiled at her determination.

"I'll go first," she said.

"No!" Jack looked around. "No. I'll go first. We don't know what might be waiting for us inside."

Clutching the metal shard and steeling his nerves Jack shuffled sideways thought the crack in the rock.

The passageway was dark and cramped. He counted twenty paces through. When he emerged Jack found himself on a ledge, high in the wall of a vast cavern. He felt dizzy for a moment and steadied himself against the wall as he took in the sight. Thin columns of milky light fall from chimney holes in the roof. Above his head a canopy of tiny, luminescent creatures clung to the cave ceiling and glowing curtains of algae drape the walls and rocks below. The cavern was carpeted with pale moss weed. Drifts of white fungal forms grew through it, giving the appearance of a silky forest floor. Cal was quickly at his side.

"There it is!" She pointed to a ring of jagged rocks in a small hollow at the foot of the far wall. In the midst of them was a black hole. "The Serpent's Throat," she whispered.

"Come on."

Jack kicked off the ledge and swam with Cal through Gaping Craw. As they passed the pillars of light each one vibrated like a plucked harp string. Cal headed for a great buttress of rock that arched over the Serpent's Throat. There she stopped and begin to sing her calling song once more. To Jake's astonishment a dozen small lantern fish swam out of the hallow, their tiny body glistening with light. They darted towards her. These were followed by several more, and more again until a shoal of fishes swam around Cal like a whirl of silvery, windblown leaves. Cal move closer to Jake and the lantern fish surrounded him too.

"Now," said Cal, her face eerily distorted by the moony light, "are you ready?"