Page 34 (1/2)

While Septi into the unknoith Syrah, far below the sea Wolf Boy and Lucy were deep in their own unknown Breathing in stale air that s their feet, they sat behind Miarr as the Red Tube purred through the depths Each stared out of a thick glass , seeing a strange combination of their wide-eyed, pale reflections and the darkness of the sea beyond Far above theo - they could see the Lightslowly across the surface of the water, like theacross a starless sky

"Mr Miarr," said Lucy "Mr Miarr"

Miarr&039;s neat head appeared around the edge of his tall seat, his yellow eyes glinting in the red glow

"Yes, Lucy Gringe?" His oddly crackly voice gave Lucy goose bumps

"Why is your voice funny?" asked Lucy "It&039;s weird"

Miarr pointed to a circlet of wire around his neck "This makes it so It is what the pilot must wear It is to make it easy to speak to many people in the Tube after a rescue If it is necessary to be heard in a storer of the Isles, it will also carry sound to the outside My voice is not strong, but with this it is" Miarr&039;s head disappeared back behind his seat

Now that she knew the reason Miarr sounded so odd, Lucy relaxed a little

"Mr Miarr?"

"Yes, Lucy Gringe?" There was a smile in Miarr&039;s voice as he spoke

"Why are we so far down? It&039;s creepy"

"I wish to follow the Light without being seen These marauders are bad people"

"I know," said Lucy "But couldn&039;t we go just a little nearer to the surface? They wouldn&039;t notice us, surely"

"It is safer here," crackled Miarr

Lucy gazed out, watching the beao water, illu to drag people into their clutches Lucy shuddered She had had enough of tentacles to last her a very long tiular, spotty head and two huge white eyes shot out of the weeds, swam up to theand head-butted it hard The Red Tube shook

Lucy screaasped

"It is a cowfish," said Miarr "They taste horrible"

The cowfish&039;s googly eyes peered in wistfully

"Oh, it&039;s revolting" Lucy shuddered "I bet tons of theht of real tentacles - thick, white ones with big pink suckers - e toward the Red Tube that finally did it for Lucy

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!" she screamed

"Up!" Miarr&039;s voice crackled, and they shot above the tentacles and the weeds into brighter waters The Red Tube continued on its way, its pilot skillfully shadowing the Marauder, keeping his course soht

He reasoned - correctly - that none of the creould be looking too closely into the brilliance that followed thereen water andfish, Lucy and Wolf Boy settled back into their seats and began to enjoy the sensation of flying below the water, as Wolf Boy put it, dodging between jagged-topped rocks that stretched toward the sun, stopping just below the surface Miarr offered the of chocolate raisins a the packets of dried fish and bottles of stale water The chocolate raisins tasted somewhat fishy, but Lucy didn&039;t care - chocolate was chocolate She changed her mind, however, when she realized that the raisins were tiny fish heads

Above the water, not so far away, Beetle was having little success with the fae rocky plateau by soreen of the sea was a rich, dark blue They sat watching the sea lapping against the rocks, peering down, seeing the seaweed on the rocksdreaht sight of fish swi Beetle&039;s offering There were obviously a lot nicer things to eat down there than hook-buried-in-fish-head sandwich, Jenna said

Beetle was disappointed After his successes froun to see himself as an expert fisherman, but he now realized there was probablyline

"Perhaps we should get back to Sep and see how Spit Fyre is," he said Jenna was quick to agree She did not find fishing theof occupations

They walked across the rocky plateau, dropped down onto a stone-covered beach and picked their way across the shingle to the next outcrop of rocks The tide was falling, revealing a long line of rocks, which stretched out to sea in a gentle curve, as though a giant had carelessly thron a string of massive black pearls The line ended with a tall pillar-like rock that Jenna recognized as the one she had seen from their beach and had called the Pinnacle

"Look, Beetle," she said "Those rocks are like stepping stones We could run along them all the way to the Pinnacle Maybe we could even climb it and wave to Sep That would be fun"

It wasn&039;t exactly Beetle&039;s idea of fun, but he didn&039;t mind - if Jenna wanted to do it then he was happy to do it too Jenna clareat!" She laughed "Come on, Beetle See you there!"

Beetle watched Jenna set off, leaping fro surely on the slippery, seaweed-covered rocks Less sure of hi from rock to rock more carefully By the time he reached the foot of the Pinnacle, Jenna was already at the top

"Come on up, Beetle," she said "It&039;s really easy Look, there are steps" There were indeed footholds cut into the rock - and a huge, rusty iron ring hammered into its side Beetle cliht, he thought, it was fun Not quite as much fun as a double-whiz turn in the Ice Tunnels, but it ca way above the water, feeling the cool breeze in his hair, listening to the cry of the gulls and the swish-swash of the gentle waves below - and he especially loved sitting there with Jenna

"Look," said Jenna, "there&039;s our bay, but I can&039;t see Sep anywhere"

"He&039;s probably with Spit Fyre," said Beetle

"Mm, I hope Spit Fyre&039;s okay," said Jenna "He did s, didn&039;t he? Ithan usual"

"Yeah," said Beetle "But I didn&039;t say anything You kno touchy Sep gets about stuff like that"

"I know It is lovely here, isn&039;t it? When Spit Fyre is better we azed about, taking it all in She was surprised at how narrow the island was There was no ht of as their bay from the coast on the other side of the island She looked up at the one and only hill, which rose behind therove of twisted, wind-stunted trees

"Yeah, it is pretty special," said Beetle They sat for a while, listening to the occasional cry of gulls and watching the sparkling sea, until suddenly Beetle said,

"There&039;s a boat!"

Jenna juot to his feet for a better look There was not a lot of room on top of the Pinnacle He shaded his eyes froht when he looked at the boat

"Over there," he said, pointing to a s boat with red sails that had just come into view at the northern tip of the island

"It&039;s so bright," said Jenna, screwing up her eyes "I can hardly look at it"

"Don&039;t look at it," said Beetle suddenly "It&039;s too bright I thinkoh, hoeirdI think they&039;re towing a great big laentle breezes of the early afternoon, the Marauder was ress toward her destination Skipper Fry had sailed north of the island for a safer approach that avoided some notorious rocks, but the wind had dropped and it had taken er than he had expected But now their destination was in sight

"Jakey!" he yelled "Keep a lookout We&039;re gettin&039; near the Lurkers!" The Lurkers were a string of jagged rocks scattered around the Pinnacle and lying just below the surface of the water