The Symbolon

by Colvin, Delia

“It’s warm,” she said between shivers, attempting to reassure them that she was okay.

  “Caleb, do you have her?”

  Caleb gripped her arm solidly. “Got her.” Valeria frantically clung to both of them.

  “Val, I need to let go. Caleb has you.” While he held on to her wrist, her fingers desperately fumbled along the edge of the river so that she clung to Caleb and the edge. She groped along until she found Caleb’s left hand and noticed what many would not…he was wearing the rubberized covering on both hands.

  She heard Alex sliding into the water next to her and felt his body next to hers. It was a shock to find that despite her terror, his body next to hers was still such a thrill.

  “All right,” Alex said softly. “Are you both ready?” She felt him turn toward her and then his hand slid her snorkel into place on her face. “Okay? Let’s try it out.” She nodded and he gently pulled her underwater. She immediately fought him and rose.

  “I don’t think I can do this,” she said frantically.

  Alex’s hand stroked her face. “You can do this!” She shook her head violently in disagreement, forgetting that he could see her every movement. Alex took her face in his hands. “Yes. Yes, you can.” He swallowed. “Beautiful, it’s okay. Just feel the snorkel.” He took her fingers and led them along the length of the tube.

  “Feel it?” he asked, as he huffed out water that had flowed into his mouth. “The snorkel is long enough for this depth—we’ll need to be that deep to get by the others. We’re going to stay along this edge where the current isn’t so strong. I’ll have your hand and Caleb will be pushing both of our feet.” He held her close and kissed the top of her head. “I want you to bring your knees up and just float here for a minute. I’ll hang on to you.” Valeria put her face in the water for an instant and, faced with the blackness, immediately pulled it back up. “Good,” he whispered. “Try it again.” This time she was able to actually relax a bit. Then she came up. “Very good! Now, I want you to put your head down and get water in the snorkel. I need you to breathe the water out, like you heard Caleb do just a few minutes ago.”

  “It’s easy!” Caleb added as she heard him taking in air and huffing it out.

  Alex heard a sound and she could feel his alarm. “I think we’re out of time. I’ll try not to get you too deep for your snorkel, but if I do, quickly…let me hear you blow out on the snorkel.” She blew out. He sighed, then said more softly, “All right…so if you start to get water in your mouth just breathe out, okay?” he repeated nervously.

  Her shaking had increased to a level that she could barely speak. “Okay.”

  “Just relax and imagine we’re home, in front of the fire. Imagine we’re listening to Jason Mraz on the stereo and you’re sipping the Ladera Cab that you love. Can you imagine that?” She nodded slightly. “Good…what song would be playing?”

  “Umm…Sleeping to Dream,” she mumbled.

  “Perfect.” Alex drew a deep breath. “Caleb, let’s go.”

  Valeria grabbed his arm. “No, wait! How long will this take?” She knew it was only another delay tactic, but she couldn’t help herself.

  “To get out of the River Styx, I hope about ten minutes.”

  “Okay…well then, Song for a Friend…that’s over ten minutes.”

  “Good. Beautiful, we’re going now.” He leaned over and kissed her and she felt the goggles brush her cheek.

  “On three…one, two, three.” Then Alex dove holding on to her arm. She left the safety of the wall and suddenly felt something on her foot. She kicked and pulled her face out of the water.

  Caleb whispered, “It’s okay, Val, it’s not a monster, it’s just me. I need to have your foot to push you.”

  She spit the snorkel out of her mouth. “Oh, okay.” He grasped her feet. Alex lifted his head out of the water as they started to move.

  “Beautiful, put your snorkel back in.” He helped her replace it. “Good. Now, head down.” She reluctantly complied as they continued to move. Then he wrapped his arm around her waist and she clung to his arm like a life-preserver. She closed her eyes and tried to breathe calmly. Alex squeezed her for an instant and she was at once overwhelmed by the blessed feeling of him next to her. The emotion began to choke her and she worked to minimize that thought for the moment. She needed to feel like they had never been apart. She could feel him using his other arm to guide them along the edge of the river.

  Although his arm had a tight grip around her, his fingers gently stroked her waist. With the feeling of the warm water gently moving over them and his arms around her, she began to relax. She noticed that he pulled her down deeper and this time she permitted herself to go. It meant being closer to him.

  Through her closed eyelids, she could sense increasing light but she didn’t want to open her eyes. She was afraid of what she would see. She felt their progress slow down and she felt her head touch the surface when Alex tapped her. She prayed that they were finished being in the water. But she knew that was too much to hope for. She saw Alex pull the goggles down around his neck and, glancing at her, he touched his finger to his mouth with a slight wink. She could see the tension in his eyes even though he was attempting to hide it from her. They were in the Council Room!

  The smooth sandstone ledge rose up almost two feet. She watched as Alex grasped along the shoreline for something—she realized that this was where she and Alex had been right before the meeting…when Paolo had found them.

  Then she heard Shinsu’s voice, “I apologize, I simply wanted to discuss this while it was fresh…”

  And then another voice, most definitely Jeremiah’s, but she missed what he said.

  Valeria looked into Alex’s eyes and, at that moment, she knew without a doubt that she would do anything for him! He winked again, replaced the snorkel in his mouth and they dove back into the water. Valeria relaxed into the feeling of his arm as the water surrounded them.

  They continued along smoothly until Valeria felt Alex’s sudden jolt, and then she sensed Caleb responding to something as well. A monster? She didn’t want to look. Fortunately, they continued and then it got darker again. At last, Alex rose out of the water pulling her up as well. They were in the cave entrance to Delos, where the large boulder sat and they had loaded onto the gondolas. She watched the rough water from the sea roll past them, barely affecting them while they were behind the boulder.

  “You did great,” he whispered. Valeria noticed that Alex looked upset.

  Caleb looked excited. “That was cool! Did you see—”

  Alex gave a very brief shake of his head. Caleb nodded into silence.

  Looking around in the light, Valeria could see that both Alex and Caleb had the goggles around their neck. She could see some light shining down from the Council Room. It would have seemed mostly dark, except for the extreme darkness they had just left. They had successfully passed the remaining council members and guards! Valeria glanced down the inlet to the cave, wondering if she would see the trog that was going to come and get them.

  “Where’s the boat?” she asked.

  Alex shook his head. “Sorry, love. There is no boat. Right now, we have to get across this water way. That’s the tricky part—or one of them. They confiscated Caleb’s kayak. So right now, we need to get across here, there’s a rope attached to the cave wall. The boats guide themselves in and out with it. We’re going to use it to get out of here. Caleb? Do you have the hook?” he asked.

  Caleb dove down and came back up, handing Alex a line of cord with a large hook on the end. Alex threw the hook toward the base of the railing on the other side of the cave. The hook splashed into the water. He pulled it back in.

  “Alex can’t we just lower the bridge?” Valeria asked.

  “We can’t risk having someone hear or see it. Sorry.” Tossing the hook a second time, it latched on to the railing. “Okay, Caleb. Do you have it secured on this end?”

  “Yep,” Caleb answered. Valeria could tell Caleb was enjoyi
ng this.

  “Okay, beautiful, I’m going over to the other side. Watch how I move. Then you are going to cross. Okay?”

  Valeria nodded.

  Carefully placing his hands, Alex started to move along the cord and then immediately turned back and pulled his goggles around to the back of his neck and signaled for Caleb to do the same. Then he moved across the rushing tidal water clinging to the cord and struggling to hang on until he finally reached the other side. He looked at Caleb.

  Caleb nodded. “Alex just told me to tell you that I’m supposed to tie you in.” Valeria glanced at Alex and realized he had passed Caleb a silent communication. “He says the current is too strong for you.” Caleb took the cord and hooked it securely around her waist. “Alex says it’s pretty rough, but it will only be a couple of minutes and then he’ll have you.”

  “Okay.” This was far less worrisome to her than snorkeling in the dark. But she wasn’t excited about it either.

  “He says he’s sorry about this.” She shrugged and grabbed hold of the cord as Alex nodded, and she discovered that she was shaking again. Immediately, the character of the water changed to brutally rough and cool. She was instantly rolled underwater and tossed downstream and then a moment later her face broke the surface and she caught a breath before being dragged back under. Then she felt Alex pull her out of the water and she was in his arms. His eyes looked particularly tense. “We’re about out of time here!” He tossed the cord back to Caleb, who tied it around his waist as Alex pulled him across.

  “Val, we need to hide in the water. We need to wait for them to close the adamantine gate. But I’m going to stay right with you!” They walked deeper into the cave and then he said, “I think this will work.” He glanced toward where they had been and nodded. “We may need to dive down a couple of times.”

  Then she heard Shinsu and Jeremiah arguing loudly. “If I am to be the senior wife, I insist that the girl treats me as such! Simply because she is your favorite consort is no reason for such disrespect!”

  “Shinsu, you know full well that she is not a consort! The issue is that the girl feels that you dislike her.”

  “I do dislike her! She is disrespectful! You certainly would not tolerate the insults that she lavishes on me.”

  Alex pulled Valeria toward him and hugged her while tying the cord around her waist again. On each end of the cord was a clip. “I’m sorry, love. You will probably have rope burn but it’s the best I can do.” He finished with the knot.

  Then he knelt by the water and hooked the rope around the railing while clipping the other end around his waist. “In the water,” he said, as his eyes darted toward the boulder and the approaching gondola. She lowered herself into the water and wrapped her arms and legs around him as he clung to the cord and railing. The bridge began to lower and they could hear Shinsu and Jeremiah continue to argue.

  “Jeremiah, I will never understand how you justify this lifestyle!” she snorted.

  “I have told you, my dear, it has always been our way to abide by the rules of the society that we live in.”

  “And how long did it take you to discover this society?”

  “Why are we always arguing the same point?”

  They had crossed the bridge, while Jeremiah carried a torch. The bridge rose back up and there was an incredibly loud screeching noise and, as if by magic, the boulder at the gate of the River Styx began to move and seal the entrance to Delos. Jeremiah and Shinsu walked down the walkway as a boat trog pulled into the cave.

  A light from the boat shined near Alex and Valeria. “Go under, now!” Valeria was plunged under the water as Alex wrapped himself around her like a cocoon, protecting her from the violent pulls of the rope and sea. A moment later, the boat turned off its forward lights and they lifted their heads out of the water. “A few more minutes,” Alex whispered to her. Valeria felt movement and was certain that it was Alex and Caleb replacing their night vision goggles. Then, Jeremiah and Shinsu were gone, and they were back in total darkness, except for the last burning embers of Jeremiah’s torch.

  Alex lifted her onto the ledge and then he and climbed out. “We can relax here for a couple of minutes,” Alex said.

  She was glad to be out of the water; there was just something about water in the dark that she really hated!

  “Caleb, where’s the bag?” Alex asked. She could hear Caleb splashing around in the water and then there was something urgent about his movements. She heard the panic creeping into Alex’s voice, “Caleb?”

  Suddenly, Caleb breathed a sigh of relief which echoed through the momentary silence of the cave, until the next surge of water came through. “Good,” Alex said and she could hear him rummaging through something.

  A moment later she heard a flick and a small flashlight came on. Caleb handed it to her, while leaving the goggles over his eyes.

  “Thought you might like to be able to see,” Alex said.

  Her face showed relief and she kissed his neck. There was a band attached to the small flashlight and Alex pulled it over the top of Valeria’s head and adjusted the angle of the flashlight. He stood and helped her up; then he picked up a large white mesh bag, evidently the one that Caleb had been searching for. Then, Alex said, “Let’s go.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “We are going to walk along the ledge until it ends. And then—I am sorry to tell you this—but, beautiful, we have to swim out of here. If we had requested a trog to pick us up, it would have alerted Jeremiah and we couldn’t think of a way to hide a kayak.”

  They walked along the edge of the water until the ledge ended in the spot where the troglodyte had let them off.

  Alex sat the mesh bag on the ground and opened it. He pulled out three sets of flippers and three bright yellow cans with mouthpieces that were the size of a large can of hairspray.

  “Okay, you’ll need to put on the flippers.”

  Valeria looked at the current. “Alex, I can’t swim against this.”

  “We won’t be swimming for a while. But you need to be ready. We’ll have to swim out of the entrance. We’ll wait for the outbound wave and ride it out. But there’ll be another wave behind it pulling us back in. That second wave is the dangerous one. We can get trapped miles down the cave where there is no rope to hang on to.

  He lifted one of the cans. “This is air. So on the second wave, you’ll put this into your mouth and breathe slowly. We are going to dive low to avoid the heavy currents and catch the undertow away from the shoreline. With the way you’re breathing, you’ll only have two to three minutes of air if you’re lucky, so I want you to practice slowing your breathing, okay?” Valeria nodded as Alex continued, “Once we get to the entrance, we’re going to take three deep breaths in and out.” He demonstrated. “And then we’ll dive down and out until we are safely off shore. Okay?”

  She nodded. She didn’t want to do that but it was the only way out. The mesh bag converted to a back pack and Alex pulled the straps over his arms. He checked the cord around Valeria’s waist. “Caleb? We’re ready for you.” Caleb stepped around her and grabbed the other end of the cord, ran it around the thick rope on the cave wall and clipped it to his waist. Then he slid into the water.

  “Ready?”

  She thought, No, but she grabbed the rope; she realized with disgust that it was covered with a slimy algae. Alex strung his end of the cord around the rope and then clipped the cord around his waist. She clung to the rope and crawled into the cold water, with Caleb in front of her and Alex behind her constantly encouraging her forward movement down the rope. She was splashed in the face several times and stopped. Alex tried to keep her moving.

  Every ten feet, the rope was attached to the cave wall and, when they came to the first attachment, Caleb unclipped the cord around him and was about to refasten it on the other side when a wave came and threw him violently into Valeria. Alex tried to move her, but Caleb’s elbow slammed into her face, hitting her and zapping Alex. Caleb frantically c
lung to the cord and then was able to grab the rope and clip his line back into place.

  With a panicked look, Caleb glanced over as Alex turned Valeria around to see if she was hurt. “Are you all right?” She was shaking so bad from nerves and the cool sea water that all she could do was nod. She really didn’t know if she was hurt; she just felt numb.

  She wanted to reassure Caleb, but she just couldn’t do anything but hang on and shiver. Alex nodded to Caleb.

  “It’s okay, buddy. Next time, we’ll wait until the inbound wave passes before the transfer.”

  Caleb nodded, obviously upset. He took a deep breath as Alex grabbed Valeria around her waist. After the third stop, her flashlight was already starting to dim.

  “It was supposed to last for hours!” Alex took it for a minute and tapped it in his palm and it brightened.

  She dreaded moving back into the darkness and tried not to think about the slime on the rope. Then the light dimmed again and died, leaving her in the pitch-blackness again. Despite the occasional wave in the face, she was calmer now; especially with Alex so near, her shaking became less fierce.

  This continued for almost an hour. The strength of the current slowed their progress significantly. Finally, Alex pointed out that they were not far from the opening, and then Valeria saw the momentary reflection of the moonlight, as the sound of the crashing waves became thunderous. Her gut tightened in fear—swimming out terrified her.

  Alex pulled off the mesh backpack and took out the cans of air, handing one to Caleb and attaching one to his snorkel band.

  “Okay, we are going to wait for the outbound wave and swim. When I say dive, I need you to take a deep breath and dive with me. Put the snorkel in your mouth.” He attached the yellow can to the strap on her snorkel and then leaned his forehead against hers. “We’re almost done here but if we’re going to get out of here alive, you’re going to have to do exactly what I say. Okay?” She nodded.

  “Caleb, are you good?” he asked. The boy nodded.

  She could almost see Caleb as he turned to face her. “I know Alex will help you. But I can help you too.” She shivered and gave Caleb a hug.