Venom and Song (6 page)

But it was here that the cavesurfers showed their true qualities. Tommy, still certain his life was about to end, suddenly felt their craft skimming sideways—across the face of the falls. He stole a look at Grimwarden, whose arm and shoulder muscles were taut as he steered. The torch was only a small flickering light, but it was enough for Tommy to see the Guardmaster, who appeared to be enjoying the plunge as he expertly navigated the falls. Then Tommy saw him smile.

Tommy tapped Kat on the shoulder. “This is insane!”

She nodded and mouthed something Tommy couldn't hear. He looked over at Kiri Lee, and his heart stopped for a moment. She had ducked her head and bent her torso down so low that at first he thought she was gone.
It wouldn't be that hard,
Tommy thought,
to fall out
. He shook the image away and tried to focus on the positive.
Jett's got to be loving this
. Tommy started to turn to look for Brynn's cavesurfer, but heard Grimwarden: “HEAD DOWN! DEEP BREATH!”

The cavesurfer stabbed into the black water at the bottom of the falls. Tommy felt as if his stomach broke free from its lodging in his head, shot down through his neck, ricocheted around his shoulders and rib cage, and jettisoned into his feet. There was silence, but a deep churning pressure pulsed in his ears. All went dark until he saw stars and struggled against the urge to gasp for air. Tommy forced himself to relax and was rewarded with the feeling of ascent. Just when he thought he couldn't hold his breath anymore, he felt his back pop-up into open air, water filling the cavesurfer to his knees.

“You can sit up now,” Grimwarden instructed, the rushing sound of water falling behind them.

“You mean, we're not dead?” Tommy asked.

“No, Tommy. But almost.”

“That was—”

“HELP!” came a desperate scream half-choked with water.

Grimwarden jammed hard on the tiller and spun the surfer around. “Where?” he demanded. Other cavesurfers continued to plunge into the falls, only to pop-up seconds later. “Where?! Does anyone see?”

“Wait,” said Kat. “Where's Flet Marshall Brynn's surfer? They were right behind us.”

“They were,” Goldarrow confirmed. “But I don't see them.”

“HELP!” came the voice again. A flame leaped up from the water.

“It's Johnny!” Kiri Lee yelled. “Look there!”

They could all see Johnny now, flailing, his head dipping beneath the water. Just in time, Regis's surfer swept by him, and she grabbed his arm. Her flet soldier passengers hauled Johnny out of the water. “We have him!” she called.

“What of Jett, Jimmy . . . and the others?” Grimwarden called back.

Ice forming in the pit of his stomach, Tommy watched as Regis and the others scanned the water, each crying out, “Brynn! Jimmy! Jett! Can you hear me?! Mr. Wallace!”

Regis called again, waited, and then shook her head. “No sign!” Regis called back. She wheeled the craft around and raced immediately to Grimwarden. “Johnny says their surfer capsized,” Regis explained, still looking out into the water.

“Flet soldiers!” Grimwarden called. “Rekindle the torchcells! Spread out and search. We have four in the water! Beware of the whirlpool!” Immediately more than a dozen surfers scattered.

“We need more light!” Goldarrow exclaimed.

A timid voice emerged from Regis's cavesurfer. “I think . . . I can help with that.”

Those who heard looked over at Johnny.

“Nay, son,” said Grimwarden. “Rest, get your strength back.”

A gentle hand touched his shoulder. “Olin, we need the light.”

Grimwarden frowned. He knew she was right. He looked across the water at Johnny. “Can you manage?”

“I think so.”

“Flet soldiers, give him room!” commanded Goldarrow. Then to Johnny, she said, “Not too much, all right?” She indicated the lightly constructed cavesurfer and its occupants.

“Right,” he breathed, remembering how far the flames traveled the last time. “Not too much . . .” Johnny held out his hands in front of him, staring into his palms as if studying every line on his skin. He furrowed his brow and worked his jaw. But nothing happened.

Ah, he is spent,
thought Goldarrow.
He'd done so much in the Veil . . . and he'd been through so much
.

“You got this!” yelled Tommy.

“You can do it, Johnny,” Kat entreated.

Johnny sat up a little straighter. Tension lined his brow, and he flexed his arms. He grunted and a small glow appeared in his hands. “It's working,” he said. “I can feel it now!”

“Good, Johnny,” said Grimwarden. “The roof of this cavern may be too high, but stalactites reach down—hit those if you can.”

“Go ahead, Johnny,” Nelly urged from her cavesurfer, her familiar voice giving him confidence.

Johnny took a breath, looked high above, and picked the center of the darkness overhead. He groaned, and the glow in his palms turned to a blaze. Twin streams of fire leaped up from Johnny's hands and stretched far into the darkness. He walked the flames about until he found a stalactite. Then it seemed he intensified the flow even more. The sandstone spike was enveloped in fire.

“WHOA!” Tommy exclaimed. Instantly half of the cavern was bathed in a brilliant orange glow, and at once the Elves began searching the waters.

Johnny turned around and shot another blast of liquid fire onto a second stalactite.

At last, Tommy could see just how vast and deep the cavern was.
They could park a battleship in here, he thought with dismay. How are we going to—?

“We have Lord Hamandar!” yelled a deep voice near the turbulent base of the falls. “He is unconscious, but he lives!”

“Who?” asked Kiri Lee.

“Jett!” said Goldarrow with a cry of relief. “Oh, thank Ellos!”

“Commander!” called another voice. “We have their cavesurfer. . . . Wait, someone is in it! It is Brynn, and she lives!”

“Is there no one else?” Regis called.

The flet soldier shook his head.

“We should see the others by now . . . ,” Grimwarden muttered, his voice trailing off. He spun the boat about and raced toward the back corner of the right side of the cavern.

“Where are you going?” yelled Regis.

“Keep searching!” barked the Guardmaster, rowing frantically. Tommy, Kat, and Kiri Lee held on once more. They couldn't believe how strong Grimwarden was—how he moved the craft so quickly. But he stopped just as suddenly and brought the cavesurfer around.

“We can go no farther,” he said, speaking over the pounding water of the falls. “Beyond this point, the current will drag us in.”

They all saw the change in the water ahead. It churned counterclockwise in a vast water vortex . . . at least seventy yards in diameter. Closer to the center, the water rotated faster until it bottomed out to where no one could see.

Tommy blinked and stared. “There . . . on the edge. Do you see?”

“No . . . nothing,” Goldarrow said.

“I see!” Kiri Lee cried out. “I think it's Jimmy!”

Grimwarden at last saw what the young lords had seen: the silhouette of an arm and a head barely above water. The arm was moving, but by the current or from life, he could not tell. Grimwarden stood up, rocking the boat. “Keep the craft steady,” he told Goldarrow.

“What are you doing?” she shot back. “You aren't going to dive into—?”

“We have no choice!” he yelled.

“B-But . . . ,” she stammered. “How will we get you back?”

“Think of something!” he yelled, and he dove into the black water.

Jimmy was disoriented and very close to drowning. The tumble he'd taken out of the cavesurfer had taken its toll, plunging him into the turbulent cauldron at the bottom of the falls. He swallowed more than his share of water as the swirling currents turned him 'round and 'round beneath the water. Suddenly the violent water released its grip on him, and Jimmy found himself floating in darkness on the surface. He'd called out again and again, but no one responded. Jimmy felt certain that Brynn, Mr. Wallace, Johnny, and Jett . . . were all gone, killed when their surfer capsized. Once or twice he thought he'd seen the flicker of light off in the unknown distance, torchcells from the other Elven pilots. They had plunged down the left side of the falls as instructed and now seemed so far away. He cried out once more, but realized he could barely hear his own weak voice above the explosive ruckus of the falls.

It seemed like an eternity he floated in the darkness, his thoughts all to himself. He was moving, slowly at first, but gradually gaining speed. Knowing he could only tread water for so long, he had almost resigned himself to the fact that he would indeed die here. But something inside Jimmy Gresham would not quit. Maybe it was the hardness he'd gained when he was very young from life in an orphanage. But there was sometone else, too. When he'd lived with the Gresham family, he'd hoped to have found a home . . . hoped to have found love. That had all vanished when Geoffry was born. But then . . . out of nowhere, Miss Finney and Regis had come and told Jimmy he was not a castaway kid, but someone quite special . . . royalty even. They'd told him there was a place where he belonged and an important job for him to do. No way he could give up now . . . NO WAY.

Then a brilliant burst of light exploded somewhere ahead. Jimmy turned, his senses coming alive. One of the giant dangling stalactites was now a raging inferno of flames, casting a warm orange glow throughout the cavern.

Jimmy felt a spike of energy, and he propelled himself hard against the current. But he could see his peril now. He could see the whirlpool: a monstrous spiral galaxy of water churning with slow but unstoppable progress. He was not in the outer bands but just thirty yards from the center.

“JIMMY!” a voice rang out. “Fight the current, Jimmy!”

Jimmy turned to face the voice. He couldn't quite make out the form, but someone was clearly telling him to swim for it.

Grimwarden splashed his way toward the whirlpool. Between spraying water and submerging for breaths, he saw Jimmy struggling. Knowing Jimmy was too far in to escape and in moments he would be, too, Grimwarden left their fate to Ellos and dauntlessly plowed on.

Then he saw Jimmy go under. “NOOO!” Grimwarden clawed at the water and kicked his feet with long, mighty strokes. The whirling current threatened to throw him off course, but instinctively he made the water flow work for him, curling with it to the side. Then he saw Jimmy's hand reaching up above the water.

Grimwarden jetted through the water, getting closer to the young lord.

“We've got rope!” Goldarrow said, raising the coil she'd found stowed beneath the backseat.

“Oh no,” Kat cried. “Jimmy's gone under!”

Moving suddenly to see, Tommy and Goldarrow almost tipped the cavesurfer. They saw Grimwarden just as he dove beneath the surface. There were several breathless seconds until Grimwarden came up . . . empty-handed.

“Flet Marshall Goldarrow!” yelled a young flet soldier who had maneuvered his cavesurfer near. “You are too close to the pool currents! Row away!”

Goldarrow looked from the scene near the middle of the whirlpool back to the currents surrounding their vessel. She dropped onto the rear bench, grabbed an oar, and moved them back.

“Ah!” Kat screamed. “He's got him! Grimwarden's got Jimmy!”

Goldarrow jerked her head around.
Thank Ellos!
she thought.
But they are so far. How will I ever get this rope to them?
She thought about tying the rope to one of the oars and throwing it like a spear. No . . . Jett might be able to, but she couldn't.
Kiri Lee
. But she was too sick to attempt such a treacherous air walk. Then it came to her.
TOMMY
.

She grabbed the young lord's shoulder. “Your bow!” Goldarrow demanded. “String it! Have you any arrows left?”

“I think . . . one maybe—whoa!” Tommy fell on his rear in the bottom of the surfer, clambered back to his seat, and rummaged around looking for his quiver.