the far walls of the building. At least I thought we were still in a building. None of this really made sense, but then again, if it was a fantasy, was it supposed to make sense? It probably did to Dr. Zetlin.
After climbing for a few minutes, we found ourselves in darkness. Looking down below we saw the jungle, and to be honest, it was making my palms sweat. We were pretty high up. I was trying to figure how we would make our way back through the jungle to get out of here, when Loor stopped suddenly.
“Trouble,” she said calmly.
“What is it?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know.
I looked up to see we had reached the next level. The circular staircase continued up through a large round hole in the black ceiling. Loor reached her hand up through that hole, but when she pulled it back down, I felt drops of water on my head. Huh? She showed me her hand. It was wet.
“I don’t get it,” I said, and climbed up past her. I put my hand up to the hole to find that it was actually a circle of water. As soon as I touched it, ripples spread out from my fingers, as if I were looking at an upside down pond. I had no idea how the liquid could be suspended like that and not gush down through the large opening. But it was and it didn’t.
Loor said, “I am beginning to believe Dr. Zetlin does not like visitors.”
“You think?” I said sarcastically. “We gotta go through this.”
“Pendragon,” Loor said with a firm voice. “I cannot swim.”
Oh, man, I’d forgotten. As incredible an athlete as Loor was, she was like a rock in the water. This was bad. I knew what had to happen next, and it made my stomach twist.
“We gotta keep going,” I said, trying to sound confident. “I’ll check it out.”
I really, really didn’t want to, but what else could I do? I could tell that Loor wanted to argue, but she knew there was no other way. So before I could chicken out, I took another step up so that my head was just below the ceiling of water. I took a couple of deep breaths to expand my lungs, then held the last breath and pushed my head up into the wet.
The water was warm. That was one good thing. I only went in up to my shoulders and did my best to get a look around. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, but I think that was mostly because my vision was blurred by the water. What I wouldn’t have given at that moment for an air globe from Cloral! As it was, there was nothing to see when I looked around but wet blackness.
Yet when I looked straight up, I saw light coming from above. I took a step back down and dropped out of the water. My head and shoulders were wet, but very little water spilled out from above. Unbelievable.
“It’s a big pool,” I said. “This is the bottom, but I can’t tell how far it is to the surface.”
Loor and I looked at each other. We both knew what had to happen next. Loor started yanking vines off the railing of the stairs.
“I will tie one end to your ankle,” she explained.
She was a few steps ahead of me. I was still trying to get my mind around the fact that I had to swim up into the unknown. Loor was already making sure I would get back to safety. She quickly tore off a length of vine that was plenty long enough for this adventure. If I swam upward for the full length of this vine and still hadn’t found the surface, there would be no way I’d have enough air in my lungs to make it back to the hole.
Loor tied one end around my ankle, then stood and faced me.
“I will hold on to your waist,” she said. “Please do not lose me.”
“Whoa, you’re not coming!”
“It is better that we stay together and make the trip only once,” she explained.
She didn’t show a touch of fear, though she had to be terrified. Man, this girl was brave. I wasn’t sure which was worse, taking her with me, or risking the trip by myself and having to do it twice. I decided that as long as Loor was game, we’d go together.
“Okay,” I said. “But if we don’t find the surface right away, we’re coming right back.”
Loor nodded. She tied the other end of the vine around the railing of the stairs. With a quick tug, she made sure it was secure. The rest of the vine she placed in a coil on one of the stairs. Loor then stood behind me, and wrapped her arms around my waist. I could feel the strength in those arms. I sure hoped she didn’t get too scared, or she’d break me in half.
“If you start running out of breath, give me two quick squeezes,” I instructed. “I’ll turn us around and get right back here.”
“I understand,” she said.
Loor was focused, battling her fear. There was no way I was going to let anything happen to her. We stood together with my head just below the water.
“Take some deep breatlis,” I said. “You’ll be able to hold your breath longer.”
We both took three deep breaths, holding the third. With a quick nod, we both walked up into the water.
We had to move fast. Every second counted. It was a strange feeling. A second before, we were standing on stairs with gravity pulling us down. Now the water took over, and we were pulled the other way, up. I started doing the breast-stroke, spearing my hands up, then pulling a downward stroke with as much power as I had. Loor held tight and her weight was a huge drag. It didn’t matter. All I could focus on was getting to the surface as fast as possible. There was no way of knowing how far it was. After about five strokes, I started thinking about turning back, because it was going to be a lot harder to swim down than up. I made a quick decision. Five more strokes and we’d turn around.
That’s when I heard a strange sound. It was high-pitched, like an engine. Of course, it was hard to know where it was coming from because we were underwater. But there was one thing for sure: Whatever it was, it was getting louder. That meant it was getting closer.
I took a quick look straight ahead and saw lights in the distance. There were five of them at our level, underwater. They looked like flashlight beams, headed our way. Fast. Whatever they were, they were definitely making the whining sound.
I didn’t know what to do. Were these lights a threat? Should I turn around and get us back down to the hole? Should I pull even harder and hope we would reach the surface? Should we stay where we were and defend ourselves?
I didn’t have time to decide because in seconds they were on us. All five lights dipped down and passed underneath us so fast that I couldn’t get a good look at what they were. They didn’t hit us, but as soon as they shot beneath, I felt a hard tug that forced me to stop swimming. I knew instantly what had happened. A quick look down confirmed it.
Whatever those speeding lights were, they severed the vine that was our lifeline to the bottom. The cut end drifted up next to me. We were floating free.
That’s when Loor gave me two quick squeezes. She was running out of air.
We were trapped in a watery limbo.
(CONTINUED)
VEELOX
I had to keep swimming for the surface.
We were too far away from the hole at the bottom to get back down. Besides, without the vine to guide us there was no guarantee I would even find it. No, the choice was clear. Swim up like crazy, or drown.
I kept doing the breaststroke as hard as I could. I really wished I could have kicked my legs, too, but Loor was wrapped around my lower body. My lungs were starting to ache. I think I was swimming so hard that it burned up whatever oxygen I had left.
An idea hit me: Press the button on my control bracelet and end the jump. If we didn’t reach the surface in a few seconds it would be our only hope. But it was the last resort and there was no guarantee it would even work. Keep swimming.
A few agonizing seconds passed and we were still underwater. I was starting to black out. We had to get air, now. Time to abort. I reached for my control bracelet, but at the exact moment before I bailed us out, something splashed down into the water only a few yards away. Whatever it was, it was pretty big and moving fast because it
