by Adam Blade
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
1: Heading North
2: Entering the Forest
3: Breaking the Waves
4: A Circle of Friends
5: Venom!
6: Sacrifice
7: Life or Death
8: Return to Life
9: A Message
10: Mind Games
Preview: Deep Dive #4: Kraya the Blood Shark
Also Available
Copyright
MAX STOOD ON THE DOCKS OF THE MIGHTY CITY of Aquora. His mother held his left hand. His father held his right. Max’s mother wore her pale green engineer overalls, and a light breeze stirred her long red hair. Max’s dad stood tall and proud in his black Defense Chief uniform. It was a warm, sunny day, and the sunlight sparkled on the ripples of the ocean.
I can’t believe I’m back with Mom and Dad again, he thought. I was sure I’d lost them both forever! He smiled at his mother. She smiled back, squeezing his hand.
“Where did you go?” he asked. “Why were you away for so long?”
“I’ve never been away, Max,” she said. “I’ve always been with you.”
Max turned to his father. “How did you get away? You were captured — kidnapped —”
His father shook his head. “That never happened. It must have been a dream you had.”
Max felt the ground under his feet tremble. Looking down, he saw the wood was splitting. A huge crack ran between him and his mother, widening rapidly. Their hands parted as they were pulled away from each other.
“Mom!”
Another great crack appeared between him and his father. Both his parents were holding out their hands to him — but the ground they stood on was moving away.
Max heard the crash and thud of falling masonry. Chunks of steel and glass and concrete tumbled into the sea, sending up huge splashes. Aquora was breaking up. His parents fell into the sea and disappeared beneath the waves.
“No!” he cried. He stood on a floating fragment of wood. It rocked and pitched beneath him, and then he was falling, too, headlong into the ocean.
Max plunged beneath the waves. In the dark, icy water he saw the giant face of a man with close-cropped gray hair; sharp, clever eyes; and a cruel, laughing mouth. I know that face, he thought. I know that man, but — who is he?
The giant face opened his mouth. Instead of a tongue, a slimy monster with tentacles emerged. The tentacles grabbed at Max’s legs, pulling him farther down into the ocean. He couldn’t breathe.
Max struck at the creature with all his force. But it was no good. A long, wet limb tightened around his chest —
“Aaagh!” he shouted.
His eyes snapped open. He looked around, trying to figure out where he was. Slowly, he sat up.
He was in a giant conch shell, in an underwater cave. Lia was floating by the side of the shell, cradling a funny little fish in her arms. It was green, about the size of a kitten, with cute eyes and long whiskers sprouting from its jaws.
“It’s a whisker fish,” Lia said. “They’re harmless. It only wanted to play.” She stroked the whisker fish’s head and released it. It darted away and was gone.
“Sorry,” Max said. “I — I had a bad dream.”
“How are you feeling now?” Lia said.
Max clambered out of the shell and stretched. “I’m okay,” he said. “I guess I’m still feeling jumpy after everything we’ve been through. Getting caught in the undertow, and nearly being eaten by snapperfish, and having to fight two sea monsters — and I still don’t know where my dad is.”
“You’ll feel better after you eat,” Lia said. “I gathered some sea fungus while you were sleeping.” She pointed at a plate-sized seashell on the cave floor, filled with spongy red and green objects that looked like fancy mushrooms.
“Oh,” Max said, feeling a slight sense of dread. So far, Merryn food hadn’t exactly tickled his taste buds. “Does it … taste good?”
“Delicious … and so good for you!” A sense of doom descended over Max.
She picked up the shell, and Spike, her pet swordfish, came nuzzling up to her. She fed him a couple of pieces and he snapped them up.
“Okay, I’ll try some,” Max said. He picked up a piece of the sea fungus and chewed it.
“What do you think?” Lia asked.
“It’s … unusual,” Max said. Actually, it tasted the way old socks smelled. He had no idea how Lia could call it delicious. But there was nothing else to eat, and it would be rude to refuse it. He forced himself to eat a few more pieces.
“We’d better get moving,” Max said when they finished eating. They had to find the next piece of the Skull of Thallos, stolen by the evil Professor. Without the skull, the Merryn’s aqua powers were fading, and Lia’s people would not be able to defend themselves against the Professor’s plans to enslave them all and rule the ocean. But Max also had his own reason for wanting to defeat the Professor: He’d kidnapped Max’s dad.
“Did you have enough to eat?” Lia asked.
“Definitely,” Max said.
He touched Rivet’s head, and the robodog, who had been in sleep mode, instantly awoke. His stumpy robot tail wagged from side to side. “Morning, Max. Morning, girl. Morning, fish.”
“Good boy, Rivet.” Max opened the storage compartment in Rivet’s back and got out the two-part piece of the Skull of Thallos that they had taken from the Robobeasts Cephalox and Silda. The pieces had fused together, as though they had never been separated, to form half of the skull. It glowed with a soft, steady blue light. Max looked at the pointed jaw and the gaping eye socket and could hardly stop himself from shuddering.
He released the skull. It floated in the water in front of him, then slowly turned and held steady.
“To the north!” Lia said.
“How do you know that way’s north?” Max asked. “There’s no sun down here to get your bearings from.”
“I’m Merryn,” Lia said. “We always know where we are in the sea.”
Max got on his aquabike and revved the engine. Rivet paddled over to his side and Max returned the skull to Rivet’s back compartment. Lia sat astride Spike and led the way out of the cave.
Soon they were cruising through the ocean at top speed. They didn’t speak much as they raced over undersea hills and valleys, past schools of fish and fields of gently waving seaweed. Max was thinking about the clue they had found in the Professor’s abandoned submarine — was it only yesterday? They now knew that the Professor’s base was the Black Caves. And that must be where Max’s dad was being held. But Max had no idea where the Black Caves were located.
“Wait!” Lia said. She touched Spike’s side to slow him down. Max hit the brakes.
“What?”
Lia looked worried. “If we keep going north, we’ll reach the Forest of Souls.”
“Is that bad?” Max asked.
“We can’t go there unprepared!” Lia said.
Abruptly, she swung Spike around and headed off to the side.
“Where are you going?” called Max.
Lia shouted something over her shoulder, but Max couldn’t hear.
He twisted the throttle and raced to catch up with her. There was only one thought in his head now. What is the Forest of Souls?
MAX SAW LIA AND SPIKE STOP BESIDE A HUGE black rock. He eased the aquabike to a halt by their side.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Watch.” Lia made a piercing whistling sound from the back of her throat. For a second, nothing happened. Then a host of little golden gleams of light shot out from cracks in the boulder — thousands of them, dancing around Max and Lia in a glittering swarm.
&
nbsp; Max saw that they were tiny fish. Each was no longer than the joint of a finger, and they glowed different shades: some gold, some orange, some copper, some yellow, some almost white. He and Lia were standing in a sphere of shifting light. The sparkles were reflected in Rivet’s metal sides, and the sand on the ocean floor shone brilliant silver.
“Wow,” Max said softly. “That’s incredible.”
Lia seemed pleased. “They’re pretty, aren’t they? They’re called glindles.”
“They’re beautiful,” Max said. “Thanks for showing them to me — only, do we have time for this? I mean, we’re on a mission here.”
“They’ll light our way through the Forest of Souls,” Lia said.
“Isn’t there a danger that these … glindles will attract predators?”
Lia shook her head. “Absolutely not. Glindles give off a scent that repels other sea creatures. They will light the way and keep us safe from the creatures that lurk in the Forest of Souls.”
Max felt a twinge of unease. “What creatures?”
“No one knows for sure,” Lia said in a low voice, as if she feared someone was listening. “There are only rumors — legends. But it is said that dangerous monsters dwell there.”
Max began to wonder if they would need something more than fish scent to get them safely through.
Lia made the whistling noise again, and the glindles followed her in a gleaming crowd as she steered Spike back toward the north.
Max rode beside her, enjoying the sensation of moving in a bubble of light. From time to time, Lia took scraps of kelp or fungus from her tunic and gave it to the glindles to nibble. Spike turned to look at her reproachfully, and she fed him, too.
After a time, Max saw that Rivet was struggling — the poor dogbot wasn’t built to keep up with Spike or the aquabike.
“Here, Rivet!” Max patted the space at the back of the bike. Rivet wagged his stumpy tail and jumped up behind Max. He sat there, resting his propellers, as they rode farther and farther north.
Eventually, the scenery began to change. The dark green seaweed that was dotting the ocean bed began to grow more thickly. The fronds — huge feathery arms that swayed in the ocean currents like the branches of trees in a breeze — grew taller. Max began to feel hemmed in by the forest of dark, slimy seaweed that surrounded them, soaring far above their heads. If it hadn’t been for the glindles, they would hardly have been able to see a thing.
“Is this it?” Max said. “The Forest of Souls?”
Lia inclined her head. “It is the beginning.”
“Then let’s check our location,” Max said.
Max reached behind him and took out the Skull of Thallos from Rivet’s storage compartment. He held it in front of him and frowned. Something was wrong. The skull wasn’t glowing as steadily as before. Its light pulsed weakly, faded away, then flared up briefly before disappearing again.
He let go of it, watching to see where it pointed. But the skull just bobbed in the water in front of him, slowly turning around, not settling on any direction.
“It’s not working anymore!” Max groaned. “Is it because we’re in the Forest of Souls?”
“It must be,” Lia said, in that same hushed voice she’d used earlier. “We must be very, very careful. No Merryn would enter this forest willingly.”
Max felt like saying, Neither would I, but stopped himself. If he wanted to be brave, he had to sound brave. “It’ll be fine,” he said. “We know we’re going in the right direction, and as long as we stick together we’re bound to find some clue. If the Robobeast is hiding in here, we’ll find it. We have the glindles, don’t we?”
Lia nodded slowly. She patted Spike and they moved on. The fronds of seaweed became even thicker, pressing in on them.
Then, suddenly, they emerged into a clearing. Lia was ahead and Max heard her cry out in alarm. “Max!”
The next moment his own stomach twisted with fear.
Standing in the clearing, as if awaiting their arrival, was a green creature the size of a man. There were frills around its lizardlike head. Beady black eyes stared straight at them, and its mouth was twisted in an evil grin.
Max tensed. This must be one of the creatures that live here, he thought. And if I have to fight my way past it … bring it on!
GO GET HIM, SPIKE!” LIA YELLED, AND SLAPPED the swordfish’s flank.
Spike shot toward the creature. Max revved the aquabike and caught up — he couldn’t let Lia face that thing alone.
Then he noticed that the creature wasn’t moving. It stayed perfectly still, even when they were almost upon it. Max grabbed Lia’s arm. “Wait!”
Lia and Spike came to a halt as Max hit reverse thrust.
The glindles cast their golden light around the figure, illuminating its green scaly skin and the feathery frills around its head. The grin was fixed on its face. It floated there, completely unmoving.
“It is alive … isn’t it?” Lia said.
The figure’s limbs stayed still, but Max caught a tiny flicker of movement in its shiny black eyes. As if it was trying to communicate with them.
“It’s definitely alive,” he said. “But I think it’s been paralyzed.”
Suddenly, the glindles shot off in different directions. Their light split into a thousand separate gleams. Darkness descended.
Lia called out in panic.
Something must have spooked the glindles. Max fumbled for the headlamps on the aquabike. He felt something hard butting him from behind, and turned. In the dimness he saw Rivet’s square metal head pushing against him.
“What is it, Rivet?” he asked. “What’s gotten into you?”
“Something coming, Max!” replied the dogbot.
Max listened hard. He made out a low humming from somewhere above, which was gradually getting louder. He’d never heard anything like it.
“We’d better hide,” Max said to Lia, “until we see what it is.”
They darted to the edge of the clearing and took shelter behind the tall, dark fronds of seaweed. The humming grew louder. It sounded both musical and machinelike. A moment later, Max saw something descend from above. It was a large green sphere the size of a submarine. A pale yellow light spilled out from two round windows, like eyes.
“What is that?” Max whispered.
Lia shook her head. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The strange vessel stopped next to the paralyzed figure, and the humming noise quieted. A hatch in the side opened, and two more green, scaly figures swam out. They touched the motionless figure gently and spoke low words in a language Max didn’t understand. Then they took hold of their friend and pulled him aboard the green sphere. The hatch closed. The humming grew louder, and the vessel ascended toward the surface.
“Quick,” Max said. “Let’s follow it!”
“Why?” said Lia. “What does it have to do with our Quest? I know now that Breathers can be brave, but this is madness!”
“We don’t have any other clues — you want to just wander around here in the dark?”
“Those creatures could be dangerous!” she hissed.
“But they may be able to help us. They may know where the Robobeast is!”
“Well …” Lia said uncertainly. She bit her lip. “All right. As long as we’re careful …”
“Of course,” Max said. “Come on!”
Max twisted the throttle on his aquabike and pulled the handlebars up. Lia and Spike rose beside him, with Rivet paddling along on the other side. The sphere was a long way above them, but it grew in size as they gained on it.
The water got lighter as they neared the surface. So light that Max had to squint. He had become used to the dim green shades of the undersea world.
There was a dark patch up on the surface, with tendrils that looked like roots dangling down from it. Some sort of floating island made of vegetation, Max thought.
The spherical vessel broke the surface. Max could see just the bottom half
of it, bobbing in the water above. It moved toward the floating island, stopped, and was hauled out of sight.
“Let’s follow and see where they went!” Max said. The thought of seeing the sky and breathing air again filled him with excitement.
But Lia hung back. “I can’t — I can’t leave the ocean. I can’t breathe air; no Merryn can. It’s death to us.”
“Wait a minute,” Max said. He opened the side compartment of his aquabike and rummaged around. At last he pulled out the Amphibio mask — a lightweight oxygen mask with straps. “Put this on.”
Lia shrank back. “What is it? Why do I have to cover my face?”
“Just try it,” he told her.
“How does it work?” Lia asked.
“It’s pure oxygen,” he said, “just like you take from the water — no nitrogen in it. If you can breathe, put your thumb and first finger together in a circle, like this.” He showed her the sign.
Hesitantly, Lia took the mask. Max helped her strap it on. Her eyes widened as she sucked in the oxygen. She smiled and made the circle sign.
Max pointed upward. “If you can breathe through it underwater, it’ll be just the same up above.”
He took her hand. Still she hung back, shaking her head.
“You’ll be fine,” Max said. “I promise. Trust me.”
After a pause, Lia nodded. She kicked her legs and together they shot up to the surface.
Max gasped as his head broke through the water. The sunlight was intense — diamond white. The air felt incredibly clear and pure; it hurt his throat like an ice-cold drink. He was amazed at how easily his body moved out of the water, with no resistance to slow it down. He waved his hand in the air, noticing how puckered and wrinkled the skin looked. Like I’ve spent days in a bath, Max thought. This must all seem so strange to Lia. “Are you okay?” he asked.
She shielded her eyes from the light and made the circle sign again.
“Come on, then.” They were close to the floating island — an enormous shaggy raft of seaweed.
It rose some height from the water, and they couldn’t see what was on top. “Follow me!”
