Part 29 (2/2)

She was still drowsy from the effects of the perfume.

”I'm going back to the s.h.i.+p.”

Something hard and unyielding wrapped around her ankle. She felt it keenly through the gelsuit, gave a little scream, and tried to pull free. She couldn't, but when she looked down, it was to see Sam grinning at her behind his face mask. He was leaning out of a modest hole in the reef wall.

”Don't go back just yet,” he said easily, ignoring her furious expression. ”I've something to show you. Why did you think I brought you down here?”

More curious than angry now, she followed him as he disappeared. She could touch both sides of the tun- nel by extending her arms. Her suit light showed that

126.

CACHALOT.

CACHALOT.

127.

the roof and the floor were equally close. Of course, if Sam could fit through...

They swam for several minutes. Then the tunnel angled upward slightly. It was completely unexpected when she broke the surface.

”What on earth? ...” A soft hissing sound came

from nearby.

”Air cylinder from our chemical stores,” Sam said.

”Switch off your light.”

She did so, blinked as her eyes adjusted, and then sucked in her breath in surprise.

Lining the curving ceiling of the cave were a thou- sand creatures that resembled starfish, only they boasted rune dancing tentacles and a single greenish eye in the center of their bodies. At the tip of each tentacle was a glowing jewel, and the arms and cen- tral body sparkled with lambent dust.

Each animal was a different color from its neigh- bor: green, crimson, argent and gold, white and pur- ple. Doubflessly the larger lights on the end of each weaving tentacle were used to attract prey when the cave was filled with water, as it would normally be.

She had the feeling they were outside on a clear night.

Only now she could actually reach up and touch the stars. The ghostly firmament, constantly s.h.i.+fting to some instinctive ch.o.r.eography, hummed down to her as the ma.s.sed creatures chatted at one another.

”Never . . . I've never seen anything so beautiful.”

First the perfume, now this, she thought. The stars were moving, crawling across each other as the ani- mals hunted for better places on the ceiling.

”I don't understand ... the air ...” Hesitantly she lifted her mask. Not only was the air breathable, but it was fresh and sweet.

”There's enough pressure from the cylinder to hold the water back for roughly half an hour,” he whis- pered to her. ”The chromacules can survive much longer than that without it.”

He was behind her now, treading water easily, his enormous arms enveloping her around her shoulders, hands locked in front of her. The fresh oxygen, the crawling, semaphoring stars on the ceiling, and the lingering aroma of the Pheromonite combined to over- whelm her. The tenseness that had been with her in varying amounts since she had first landed on Cach- alot left her completely. What was more, some of that other, permanent tenseness faded away.

”You know,” he was whispering in her ear, ”the water's not that cold.”

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