Sinead nodded but privately thought it had been a good place before, but the other creatures were probably thinking the neighborhood had gone to hell now.
She watched three of the sharks dive and saw that they were converging on some hapless prey, but she couldn't see what it was, despite the clarity of the waters. She felt sorry for it, whatever it was. She was a bit surprised when a few moments later the water on the surface was dyed a deep indigo.
An octopus or squid perhaps? She thought their ink was black.
She had little time to think after that because suddenly the boat lurched and she fell hard against the railing. It listed severely onto its starboard side, spinning in a huge circle. She had a fleeting impression of Puna and the others thrown into the water amid the sharks, who were also whipped around helplessly. An enormous whirlpool drilled into the sea floor.
Suddenly, Sinead was torn from the boat and gulping frigid saltwater. She spun in an ever narrowing and deepening spiral as she was sucked downward to the bottom of the sea. At the same time she was being pulled apart, she felt crushing pressure from her burning lungs and freezing body. A primordial roar filled her ears, and her eyes were blinded with churning water.
By the time the whirling ceased, releasing her, she hung in its depths like a broken doll.
KUSHTAKA'S CITY WAS gone! Murel swam straight to where it had been. Only an open trough remained. The volcanic vents within the trough glowed dully, their heat momentarily dimmed by the push of cold water from above.
Murel blinked. Ronan? Ro? she called, but heard nothing, sensed nothing. Her twin was gone.
But when she looked up into what had been the vortex of the whirlpool, she saw her aunt floating in the water above her. For a second she didn't react except to think, What's Sinead doing here? She doesn't swim. Then she thought, more clearly, She doesn't swim! and rushed up to the drowned woman, grabbing her by the back of her windbreaker and hauling her to the surface. The water was full of sharks with people attached to them. The sharks had rescued their own human relatives, but the boat and the other Petaybean crew members were nowhere to be seen.
Murel had been so shocked by what happened to Jeel, the whirlpool, and the disappearance of the undersea city, that she hadn't realized what the maelstrom had done to the boat.
This was horrible, horrible. Without someplace solid to lay Aunt Sinead, without someplace dry to transform herself, she knew she had no hope of reviving her aunt.
Da! Mum! she cried into the sea and air, not knowing where her parents were or even how long she and Ronan had lain unconscious in the room in the underwater city before Sky awakened them. Sky, oh, Sky, another loss-her otter friend gone with her brother, her aunt, with the boat's crew. Everything was suddenly too awful to bear. It couldn't possibly be worse.
Then she saw the black fins bearing down on her. The killer whales had returned.
CHAPTER 17
THE WHALES CHARGED straight at Murel, and though she tried to outswim them, she was hampered by the need to keep Sinead's face above the water. She wasn't sure it mattered, since it seemed her aunt was already drowned, and it wouldn't matter if they were both eaten by orcas, but she was afraid that dragging her aunt facedown would mean certain death and she couldn't bear that. If she hadn't been so focused on warning the deep sea otters about the bloody sharks, if she hadn't stupidly fallen asleep and become separated from Ro and the Honus, the stupid whales wouldn't have almost got her, and the wretched aliens wouldn't have sucked her and Ro into their stupid city. And if Jeel hadn't been so stupid about sharks, and if Kushtaka hadn't been so suspicious and poky about letting her go rescue him, she could have saved him from the sharks and Kushtaka would have let Ronan and Sky go and they would have had their memories wiped and none of this wretched stuff would have ever happened.
Meanwhile, she had to swim backward, towing her poor drowned aunty, while those awful orcas came on faster, ready to ram into her.
As the lead whale drew close enough for her to see the water running down his head, he dived. Suddenly, the surface was full of black-and-white whale tails.
Oh, great, they were going to attack from underneath and scoop Sinead and her into their open mouths! On the positive side, there was no longer a shark to be seen anywhere.
Murel felt something brush her tail and called a mental good-bye to her parents and Ronan.
Then she was hoisted aloft, precariously balanced on her back on the back of one whale while two others flanked him to catch her or Sinead if she fell off. Not a single thought did they send her, but she saw the rest of the pod split from the group and swim away. Keeping her balance was impossible. When she started to fall, she released her hold on Sinead, who was now well above water, and twisted her body out from under her aunt's. She slid down the whale's side into the space between him and one of the adjacent whales. The whale on the side moved to allow her to fall into the sea but made no move to retrieve or attack her. Sinead still lay on the back of the middle whale.
For the first time one of them thought-spoke. This way. Land is near.
You're saving us?
Isn't it obvious?
Why didn't you say so?
We didn't want to alert the sharks. They are a nasty-looking lot indeed and wouldn't have been above attacking us while we were answering your distress call.
But I called for Da and Mum. I didn't cry "Whale!" at any time, she argued- peevishly, she knew, but too much had happened and she wasn't feeling very rational at that moment.
We heard. We, uh, knew there was a father missing some younglings, although frankly we expected you both to be seals.
We are! That's my aunt Sinead riding on your back. She's my da's sister but she's always human.
Where is your sib?
He's-it's kind of complicated. Look, why are we headed for the volcano island?
It's dangerous. It could erupt again and kill us at any time.
Do you see any other land where we could release your father's sister without beaching ourselves? The island is the only place. And you will not be alone.
That turned out to be true. Puna and her human family members were already sitting on the folded black rock far beneath the rim of the volcano's summit. To
Murel's relief, Seamus and Liam were there too. The Honus who had apparently saved them were swimming away, having just deposited them. There was one more form, smaller, furrier, and looking slumped and unhappy until Murel flopped onto the beach beside him.
Sky! You escaped.
Otters are very cunning, he answered. But not cunning enough to save Ronan.
She felt no need to cover herself this time as she turned into her human shape.
None of the other people had retained many clothes after their dunking either. If Aunt Sinead hadn't laced her warm clothes to her so securely, she might have lost hers too-which could have lightened her burden enough so she might have been able to reach the surface, Murel thought. Her boots alone must have weighed a ton.
The other able-bodied occupants of the island lifted Sinead from the obliging orca's back and began trying to revive her.
She was glacier blue with cold and lack of oxygen. Now fully human, Murel tried mouth-to-mouth to help her breathe, but Sinead's chest didn't move. Seamus pushed her aside and bent over her aunt, sticking his hand into her mouth and pulling out a glob of seaweed. Then he pushed her onto her side to let water run out. Some spilled from her mouth and nose but she didn't stir of her own accord.
He tried mouth-to-mouth and thumping on her chest with the same results.
He flipped her over and pumped on her back three or four times. Now more water gushed out and she gave a weak cough. Turning her back over, he resumed the mouth-to-mouth until she fought him off, weakly but determinedly, and tried to sit up.