by Amy Alward
‘I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to change the centaur’s mind,’ I say, after the silence becomes too much for me to bear. ‘It didn’t feel right to bargain with the eye. Or to use it to save Nova. It belonged to them.’
There’s another long period of silence as she turns the car around and begins the drive back to the village. After a while, she clears her throat. There are tears in her eyes. ‘I understand what you did. And I understand why you didn’t tell me about the eye. I might have tried to convince you to do something different. But what you did was right. I at least must respect you for that. But I can’t help you any further. This has sealed our fate. I must help the last of the villagers with their packing, and discuss where we should go next.’
‘Will you find somewhere to go?’
‘We always do,’ says Nadya. ‘It’s just the fewer elders there are, the fewer people there are who know how to live successfully like we do, in the old ways. So many of the young ones want to make their fortune in the city, and who can blame them? It’s what I did. I’ve come back here educated, privileged. Life moves on. At least now you have paid your debt to the centaurs. Maybe one day they will let you learn more of their secrets.’
‘I don’t know what the point of that will be. If I don’t find the cure soon, my grandfather might . . .’ I can’t even finish the sentence; I choke up. ‘I might not have a mentor, a store – heck, I might not even have a country to go back to! Not as I know it.’
‘Don’t give up yet,’ says Nadya. ‘You still have the lake to search, remember?’
We are driving along its shores and I look out over the vastness of the water. ‘We’re looking for one tiny journal in this immense lake. How will we possibly find it, even if it’s there? This is just a hunch.’
‘From what the Wilde Hunt showed, your hunches often turn out to be right. That’s no longer called luck. That’s called brains.’
‘And I might have to give them all up to save my grandad . . .’
‘What was that?’ asks Nadya.
‘Oh, nothing. I’m just terrified what the cost might be to make the aqua vitae, if indeed I find the recipe.’
‘Whatever the cost is, I’m sure it’s not more than your grandfather’s life. You know that.’
I smile up at her. ‘I do.’
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Samantha
NADYA DROPS ME OFF AT the shack by the water’s edge, when Arjun emerges with two large oxygen tanks over his shoulder.
‘I have to leave you here,’ Nadya says. ‘I’m sorry that I can’t be more help. Good luck to you, Samantha.’
‘Thank you. I understand.’
She gives me a small smile and then heads off in her 4×4. Dust clouds rise up in the wake of her vehicle. The volleyball court beside us has been taken down hastily, the bottom of a net pole still sticking up out of the sand. My heart aches, but I know I will never be so casual about dropping in on a community again. I will come back here and make right what I’ve destroyed.
Anita comes up behind me. ‘You couldn’t have known.’
‘Couldn’t I? Things always seem to go wrong in my pursuit of potions. My sister almost died when I tried to produce the love potion . . . And now a whole village is gone. And it still could all be for nothing.’
‘Let’s make sure it’s not for nothing,’ she says. ‘Come on, I’ve been doing some good research.’
I head inside the shack and it looks like a typical diver’s hangout: lots of bright, bold stickers on the wall, postcards of beautiful ocean vistas and coral formations. There are also pictures of the different type of fish that can be found in the lake – with some varieties that are unique to this region. There thankfully aren’t any big lake creatures for me to fear – and definitely no sharks. There are also charts on the wall. Lots and lots of charts, covering the room like wallpaper. Anita has spread one of them on the floor – all the other furniture has been taken away.
‘Arjun? Are you ready? Sam’s here . . .’
‘Yeah, coming.’
Arjun emerges, his brow covered in sweat. ‘We found a few full air tanks out the back along with wetsuits, snorkels and fins. I think they were planning on taking all the equipment tomorrow. We can pay them for the air we use and the petrol for the boat – I negotiated a deal. But no one is willing to stay to help guide us.’
Panic grips my chest at the thought of heading out into the lake without any local knowledge whatsoever. ‘Do you think we’ll be okay?’
‘Well, I have some diving experience – I should be able to show you the ropes. Hopefully it will be enough,’ he says.
‘Hopefully,’ I say. I hadn’t actually given the whole searching underwater part much thought before the moment arrived. I’ve known a few people who have dived without any training though, and thankfully I know how to swim. It was one of the first skills that our mum had us learn. She had always struggled in the water, and she didn’t want Molly and me to ever have that same issue.
‘Okay, so I’ve taken a look at these charts, and it seems that the algae really likes to clump in a few locations,’ says Anita. ‘It does drift around a fair bit, so if the centaurs said that the diary was looking at the algae about a week ago, that gives us a good idea of which part of the lake to search. I’ve highlighted three areas . . .’
At the same time, Arjun is writing down a dive plan. ‘We won’t have much opportunity to waste. You should normally only go diving twice in one day, but if we don’t go too deep we can maybe stretch it to three.’
‘The water is quite deep in some of these locations,’ Anita says, pointing at the charts.
‘We’ll just have to do what we can. If we can’t find it now . . . maybe we can come back and search with a proper dive master?’ even saying it out loud, I know that would be impossible. For one thing, the area will soon be swarming with centaurs. They’re not exactly going to appreciate a bunch of divers in wetsuits coming to break up their party.
‘So do we know how to get to those locations by boat?’ Anita asks.
‘Yes, the boat has a GPS system on it. We can input the co-ordinates and make sure we’re searching the right areas.’
‘Okay, well then, let’s suit up and go,’ I say, with more confidence than I feel. Is it even possible that a diary could survive underwater for so long without dissolving into mush? I try not to think about it.
Anita hands me a swimsuit she found drying in the back room, and I change into the black one-piece. Then I try and get the wetsuit on. It’s cold and slightly slimy, and I hate the feeling of it enclosing my body. But it’s better than being out in the cold – and I definitely wouldn’t survive being at any depth in the water without it. I have to jump a few times to get the wetsuit up over my hips, and then I tug at the long string attached to the zipper to get it done up all the way. Just before I close it off completely, I slip the fairybug light out of the backpack I took from Prince Stefan and put it on around my neck, tucking it beneath the tight collar of my wetsuit. I hope I won’t need it, but the riddle ‘day is always night’ suggests darkness that maybe even a torch can’t brighten. Then I join Arjun and Anita on the boat. Arjun is also suited up.
‘Wait, before we get too far offshore, you need to practise a few things in the water,’ he says. He helps me into the vest, with the airtanks strapped onto my back. He tosses me a whistle as well, which I put around my neck. ‘You’re going to need that in case we surface away from the boat. Now, put your regulator – that’s the thing that you breathe into – in your mouth, hold it tight to your mouth with your hand – and follow me.’ He rolls off the boat and into the water, and I reluctantly follow suit. I let out a little shriek as the cold water seeps into my wetsuit.
Slowly, though, the suit warms up, and I start to feel more confident. Arjun shows me how to inflate and deflate the vest I’m wearing so that I can sink, checks my air supply and then gets me to put on a weight belt. I learn how to empty my snorkel mask in case it fills with water or get
s knocked off my face while I’m under, and how to retrieve my air regulator if it gets separated from my mouth. He also teaches me a series of hand gestures we can use underwater to communicate. We descend to a small distance, and I learn how to equalise the pressure in my ears. Once he’s satisfied I know the basics, we clamber back into the boat. Anita inputs the co-ordinates, and we’re off.
Arjun and I sit together in the back of the boat, while Anita focuses on navigating us to the right spot. Arjun grabs my hand. ‘You know, Sam, you don’t have to try and fix everyone, all the time.’
The words are enough to make me shake with fear and worry. He pulls me towards him and hugs me. ‘You know you are like a sister to me,’ he says, when I finally sit back up again. ‘But you don’t have to do this alone. I’m glad you called us. What you went through with Emilia . . . that must have been terrifying.’
I wipe my eyes, willing my tears to stop, and let out a hiccup-laugh. ‘I don’t think I’ve really processed it yet,’ I say, with a small shrug.
‘No, I don’t think you have. What happened to you is a huge deal. But we’ll look for this diary today – and then we’ll let the professionals handle it, okay? I’m sure Evelyn can get teams of divers to search this entire lake. We’ll find your great-grandmother’s diary. And if we don’t? We’ll make sure that Emilia and Prince Stefan can’t find it either. We’ll find a way to make your grandad well again.’
‘Thank you,’ I say, smiling gratefully. I love his optimism, but deep down I know this is our only shot.
‘Okay, we’re at the first spot,’ Anita says. ‘Stay safe down there. I’ll be counting for you – you’re allowed twenty minutes, tops, okay?’
I nod, unable to talk now that I have bitten down on the regulator with my teeth. I give Arjun a thumbs-up, then tip back into the water, holding onto my snorkel mask with my fingers.
I hit the water, but at least the cold isn’t so much of a shock this time. Anita has dropped the anchor and there’s a bright orange buoy attached to the top to act as our reference point. Arjun makes me hold onto the anchor line as we descend, so that I can get my bearings without panicking. I’m grateful to him as we descend, and my head is slowly swallowed up by the lake water.
We’re diving. We’re actually under the surface.
This is unreal. We descend to about twelve metres according to the gauge on my suit. I’m surprised by how clear it is underwater, and I can see the bottom of the lake rising up beneath me. It’s a relief to be able to see the sandy floor, as I was worried we might not be diving deep enough.
I look up at Arjun. He’s brought a long stick in order to overturn rocks or dig in the sand if necessary. He’s gesturing at me, pointing first at my eyes and then at his. He’s telling me to watch him at all times – or, at the very least, to be mindful of where he is and not to drift too far away. The current doesn’t feel very strong, but there’s no telling what we might find underneath the water – and I could find myself adrift from him in the blink of an eye. I give an ‘okay’ sign with my thumb and forefinger to show I understand. I follow just behind Arjun and to his right. We scan the bottom of the lake, but here it seems far too empty.
Arjun points towards another section of the lake, which looks like it’s covered in a forest of kelp: perfect for concealing something for over five decades. I nod and swim over to it, brushing the scalloped edges of the seaweed aside to search. There are far more fish swimming around once we are inside the kelp forest. They seem completely undisturbed by the fact that we’re in their midst.
As I push another weed aside, one strand of it loops its way around my arm. Even though it’s completely harmless, I have a flashback to the eluvian ivy, and panic grips my heart. I launch forward with my other arm and manage to grab Arjun’s flipper – and at the same time, his attention.
My instinct is to swim straight to the surface, but Arjun is by my side with a few strong sweeps of his arms. He is calm as he unwraps the kelp from my wrist and takes me up above the weed. He looks me deep in the eyes and brings his hand to his mouth and then back out again, simulating a breath. I try to follow him. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.
My heartbeat returns to normal. Arjun looks concerned, his dark brown eyes magnified by the mask. He gives me a thumbs-up, but I know what he means: he’s asking if I want to surface. I check my air: I still have plenty. That means we can’t have spent our twenty minutes yet. We still have so much lake to search. I shake my head and nod to continue. He holds me there for a few moments, then nods back. He gives me an ‘okay’ sign, and we continue.
I feel silly for having panicked, as it really is so peaceful beneath the water. Because the fish don’t seem bothered by our presence at all, it’s almost like we’re not there. I’ve always loved heading to the local aquarium to watch the fish swim past – and this is like the up-close-and-personal version. I’ll have to do this again, under different – less stressful – circumstances.
Arjun indicates that he’s going back down to search the kelp by hand, but that I should float above and see what I can spot with my eyes. I wish I had the courage to go back in there, but I also know I’ll be less than helpful if I panic again. I wish I hadn’t been so traumatised by the ivy, but it remains the most terrifying experience of my life. Even more so than the abominable snowman – the thing that brought me and Zain together. The thought of Zain makes the chain of guilt rattle once again. I wish I could have called him after my escape.
When our twenty minutes are up, Arjun gestures for us to head up to the surface: another thumbs-up. I nod, and we ascend until we’re only a few metres away. Then I hold onto the anchor line as my body adjusts. When we’ve stopped for the allotted time and allowed our bodies to readjust to the depth, I climb back up the anchor to the boat.
‘Any luck?’ Anita asks as she helps me back into the boat. I take off my mask and shake my head.
‘’Fraid not.’ My mouth feels dry from the compressed air, so I take a large swig of water.
‘Nothing down there except a lot of seaweed and a lot of fish,’ says Arjun. ‘That was kind of wild, huh? I’ve never done any lake diving before.’
I nod, but my heart is tight within my chest. ‘It feels even more like a lost cause when we’re down there,’ I say.
‘Let’s move on to the next place,’ replies Anita. ‘It’s almost right in the middle of the lake. Are you happy to go again?’
‘Yes, let’s do it,’ I say.
‘We’ll have to rest for at least an hour before we can go under again,’ says Arjun.
‘Seriously, Arjun? Aren’t we going to run out of daylight by our third dive?’
‘Okay fine, forty-five minutes rest. But I’m not budging on this. There’s no point if we find the diary only to die of decompression sickness.’
‘I suppose,’ I say.
But the next dive is no more fruitful than the first. Arjun dives a bit deeper than I do, but he finds nothing. We even get to explore a cave, which excites me as that could fit the brief: somewhere where it is always dark, but stars can appear on command. Unfortunately, there’s no sign of any human objects down there – let alone a journal. I do come face-to-face with an eel though, which is slightly more than I bargained for. Luckily for me, it just opens and closes its mouth, gaping like a child on Midwinter morning. I feel deflated, like someone who hasn’t received the presents they wanted. I haven’t even seen a sign of this bioluminescent algae that Anita was going on about. I keep trying to snap my fingers and clap my hands, but nothing happens.
‘Okay, this next location is a bit closer to the shore, but according to the charts, the shoreline drops quite steeply underwater, so it’s still pretty deep. I also won’t be able to drop an anchor here,’ says Anita, once we’re back on the boat.
‘Are you sure there isn’t somewhere with a great concentration of algae – where it’s more likely to be?’
Anita frowns. ‘That’s exactly how I’m choosing them: these are the top t
hree algae locations.’
‘I know,’ I reach out and grab Anita’s hand. ‘Thank you. I’m sorry I’m being grouchy. It’s just that . . . I really really need this to be it.’
We wait the allotted hour, and watch as the sun heads steadily towards the horizon. It’s amazing how fast the sun sets here –it seems to fall through the sky. Something about the flat landscape and our proximity to the equator makes the twilight shorter.
‘I don’t know if we should do this,’ says Arjun, looking up at the sky. ‘Diving in the daylight is one thing, but at night? That’s for advanced divers.’
‘Well, we’ll have torches with us, right? We can use them to search as much as possible. Then as soon as you feel uncomfortable, I’ll come up. I promise.’
He hesitates, so despite the fact that I hate having to force him to make a decision, I leap off the boat so he has to follow me. Inside my flippers, I try to cross my toes, just like I’m crossing my fingers. This needs to be the time we find it.
It has to be.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Samantha
WHEN WE DESCEND THIS TIME, it’s noticeably darker. Luckily, the torches illuminate the darkness, though only for a few feet. It’s much eerier down here in the twilight. The water that was once clear becomes murky, and even though I know there are miles of lake all around us, I can’t help but feel enclosed.
I can tell that Arjun is annoyed at me through his body language: the sharp, curt hand gestures and the snap of his fins. I hope that he will forgive me one day, because it seems like he might have been right. Searching in this semi-darkness, which is getting darker by the second, is stupid. The bottom of the lake is just sand, sand and more sand – and then a steep drop that leads down deeper into the lake. There are more plants down here opening in the darkness, huge flowers unfurling their large petals – and I might have been able to appreciate their strange beauty under different circumstances – but now all I feel is frustration.
