Through the Whirlpool (16 page)

Then that door shut on him
, and he was pushed farther into the labyrinth.

He was in space, bodiless, in a perception of reality he had never known. He felt Taashou
’s mind next to his, within his and around, conscious of how they linked. The two of them formed part of a wide net, like a fishing net, but including everything imaginable within it. Other worlds were there, too, stretching out into endless space, but meanwhile contained within each other, like an infinity of baskets, one placed inside the other, intermeshed and interwoven in a way he could conceive but not picture—yet each replete in its own capsule of time.

Then he saw, sensed, a link,
where one world seemed momentarily to brush another in time and space. It formed like a tunnel or bridge, a gossamer spider’s thread linking the two dimensions. They opened, united, were briefly one. Their substance flowed together, each feeding the other, as though the separate realities were fertilizing, pollinating each other for a time before the link snapped and the two universes parted again, became individual bubbles, isolated yet connected within the same ocean.

The
rift.

Th
is was the rift, her mind speech informed him. He saw the bridge form again, between two other unknown worlds. And again. Each time, the worlds seemed to brush. There was a point of contact. Out stretched the gossamer tornado bridge, and those worlds communed with each other for a spell before contact was broken. Focusing again on his own world, he saw the bridge linking them with another place—and now he sensed that sickness, a basic imbalance affecting his own world, flowing in from outside. And matter—his ocean replete with its kree-eh shoals—being sucked out. The source was that foreign world, yet all worlds were connected. The rot, he knew, was now part of his own.

R
ena’s gang towered over Dr. Hagues. As if to give himself the advantage, he walked straight up to the group of trunks where Jade was hiding before turning to face them. Though scant yards away, Jade had to strain to catch what he said. Hagues barely raised his voice above a whisper.

“
I’m glad you could come, Rena, lads.”

“
I wa…” the Head began, but Rena cuffed him, and he was silent.

She spoke instead:
“We’re here to help you out, sir.”

“
Do you kids know why we chose to build our laboratory here at Point Mauri?”

“
We are so grateful for that, Dr. Hagues, your company taking the initiative of bringing work into the area… lowering unemployment…”

“
Yes, yes, naturally. But that isn’t the reason. This area is swarming with environmental groups… Only a very dimwitted businessman would dream of setting up here. But look out there.”

They looked, as did Jade.

“It’s that current, the river mouth and ocean current… so perfect for our needs.”

“
What you explained the other day, Dr. Hagues—that’s certainly ingenious, how you’ve managed to calculate the risks and can keep our area so clean and picturesque. The greenies certainly can’t argue with that.”

The two boys nodded. When the Head went to speak, Screwdriver pricked him with his weapon.

“And beyond, what do you see?”

“
Ah, the sea?”

“
Yes. That marvelous, never-ending, barely touched resource. But something else.”

“
I can’t see anything,” growled Rena. Jade could tell she was rapidly losing patience with Hagues’ enigmatic approach.

“
Out there, where you can’t see anything, are certain coordinates, which I discovered many years ago…”

“
Didn’t know you’d been to Mauri Cove before, sir.”

“
I haven’t. I’m not really a biologist, you know, but a physicist. Those coordinates make this the best spot for my enterprise.”

Rena
’s eyes lit up. “You don’t mean the research station out there, do you?”

“
I do. Do you see that storm brewing out there, kids?”

“
Of course, sir.”

Dr
. Hagues laughed. “Well, I created that!”

All three, along with Jade in her hiding spot, were
shocked.

“
That storm is going to make me extremely rich. It could make you kids rich into the bargain. If you stick by me.”

“
We’re with you, sir,” said Rena, and the other two nodded.

“
In these early stages, it’s all a bit messy. Eventually, we’ll get a pipeline in—much cleaner—but until then, you remember your job. Keep people away. If you think there’s the slightest suspicion…”

“
I understand, sir—we call it off.”

“
Don’t be dim! I have far too much money invested in this. Just do whatever you need to keep snoopers away. Both from the river and the research station. Outage is at seven next morning—it’s tricky, but we need to use the tides. And we can’t afford to have any early morning anglers mucking up my plans.”

Dr
. Hagues took a bunch of keys from his pocket, slipped an L-shaped tool from the ring, and passed it to Rena.

“
You’re the only one I want in my lab… Understand? Your buddies’ job is to keep that river clean… No fishermen, nothing. The launch you’ll be using is powerful... straight from the showroom. It’s the one we use for the harvest, so I don’t want it knocked about. Remember, I’m paying you for absolute discretion. Report to me in the morning, once outage is done.”

He left them, walking with quick steps back to his car. They were silent until his car purred into life
and cruised away up the jetty road. Jade remained mystified. She waited. Yet it was only as they were jumping into their buggy that Rena said, “You guys be on the river by five, okay? Outage: seven. Give it a couple of hours to flow down the river. The tide turns at eight-thirty and should wash it all out. Problem solved. But keep people away till at least twelve if you can... Got your fancy dress? Remember: NO snoopers.”

They roared off.

Jade crawled out, so stiff she could not stand, but she didn’t even notice the cramps. Her mind reeled with what was planned on the river early the next morning.
 

*
* *

J
ade followed the shore around until she came to the beach. Though it was two hours before high tide, waves were worrying the seaweed and invading the rock pools. She squinted at the sun setting over the hills behind the house, thinking she should be getting back home. Still, she sat down on the beach and stared out to sea.

To the right, Point Mauri
’s high bulk glowed red-brown and olive in the last setting sun. The lighthouse was a golden wand flashing solar rays against the deep mauve of evening. The sea, a stretched hide scarred by whitecaps, extended eastward. Far out by the horizon, that odd cloud formation churned. Had it truly been created by Dr. Hagues? Its peak rose like a cone, high into the sky, tapering off into a wavering streak that stretched far up into the stratosphere.

Gazing at the water, she felt her mood shift. The air had changed. She waited for
the rushing feeling of dizziness, but it did not come. The colors in the scene remained fixed. Yet something was happening related to the feeling she got with that dizziness. Almost as if the everyday world she was used to sprang more sharply into focus, but through a different lens. Things around her were clearer, yet seemed more dreamlike… subtly different. Staring at the ocean, staring, staring until her eyes began to weep, far out to sea, but closer than that storm cloud, she saw a tiny black point bobbing. As she watched, it moved nearer. Soon she was sure of it: The dark speck was coming closer, heading for Mauri Cove.

F
lung back out into the rain and the cold, to where the ocean heaved around their interlocked crafts, Kreh-ursh felt his own world harsh and cruel as waves piled high above the two canoes. He could feel Taashou bending water, holding back the deluge that threatened to swamp them. He added his mind to hers in support, but she was glaring at him forcefully with both eyes and mind.

She spoke to make the force of her image clearer:
“You must search! We must defeat this evil, cure it. Or our world will perish.”

“
How? Why me?”

Lightning
flashed and thunder rolled low across the ocean, filling the silence her words caused. Disbelief.

“
Your visions, we’ve been searching among the people... You are the one.”

“
Why...?”

“
You must search out the cause... save your world.”

“
I... I exist to protect the life code!”

She tossed a parcel into the bottom of his boat.

“Return when you have succeeded. Jaa-chuunaw Shahee-tohn. I name you Shahee!”

Then she was gone, throwing herself back into her own canoe, untying ropes and digging her paddle into the furious waves. For a moment,
outlined on a wave crest, her wet body shone silver against the dark, limbs shining ghostly. Then her canoe dropped from sight. Kreh-ursh was alone again in the dusk, hurled deeper into the storm’s fury. He focused on beating back the waves that heaved and shattered all around.

So it was a while before he noticed the pu
ll of a singular, churning current. A deep unease took hold of him. When realization dawned, he was already lost. Faster and faster he spun. Using all of his mental skill, he sought to heave himself and his battered vessel free. It was useless. Fear wracked him. He was overwhelmed, yet knew not by what. The ocean rushed him along, frantic and unnatural. Waves reared, their crashing walls enclosing the canoe. Kreh-otchaw-oh galloped into a fathomless maelstrom, into blackness, a void, certain death. With every fiber he sought to keep Kreh-otchaw-oh whole, stopping her from battering herself to driftwood against the walls of this tubular cataract. The air shrieked and roared. The ocean boomed and hissed. Everything became dark, racing water. For an instant they entered a chill vacuum of space. He was plunged into deep cold. Something was wrenched, torn out of him—his heart or soul, he knew not, but a vital piece. It vanished into the black.

Then light came streaming
back through the water. They were careering down a wide, watery slope, his canoe spinning helplessly. The sea was gray-white, the light deep lilac. The tunnel spat them from its maw, and sky returned. Spray crashed, bursting in geysers all around, but the storm had passed over. While the sea still bucked, rough and angry, overhead clouds transmuted into a scarlet twilight. That was when he saw it behind him—an open maw in the ocean, slicing deep into the depths, yet simultaneously like a twisting chimney that spiraled away from the world in which he found himself. Was this it—the rift? He felt drained, weak, and horror-struck. Had he traversed it?

Looking ahead, he saw
a distant shore. The sea was now calm, almost like a mirror. Kreh-otchaw-oh had been gliding fast across it, sail-less, without a paddle, without chants. Now she slowed and took to rocking up and down on the gentle waves that carried them along. For the sea had a different quality, though he could not work out what it was. It was as if this were a different sea, distinct in every sense. Bluer than he was used to, or grayer. Flatter perhaps and the air colder. But the biggest change was not the sea. It was that flat blur of land, not the lush shore he expected. Even from here, he could see that it was not his village coastline. In the distance it glowed, an olive band laden with puffy gold clouds. He was no longer in Shah, or in any place he had ever known, but in a strange, new land.

T
hank you for reading
Through the Whirlpool
. We would love to get your feedback
and
want to spread the word about
Escapade Press
. So if you enjoyed this book, please go to Amazon now and post a review.

For a preview of
Twilight Crosser
, Book II of the Jewel Fish Chronicles, read on.