The passage was pitch black and the water freezing. Crispin had found a couple of wetsuits but neither fitted properly. Water got in and circulated around the body, robbing it of heat. That was unpleasant but not nearly as unpleasant as the things that hung down from the roof of the passage and rubbed against them.
Liala mistook them for seaweed. Then one latched on to her and she realised she was being attacked. An animal of some sort was slithering over her body. She had a knife but couldn't use it. Her hands were fully occupied hanging onto Oona. All she knew was that the thing had sharp teeth and powerful suckers.
Her lungs began to heave. The passage was either longer than she thought or the dolphins weren't swimming as fast as usual ... perhaps both. And the passage didn't go straight. Maybe other passages led off. That was an awful thought. The dolphins could have taken a wrong turn.
Light appeared and she expected Oona to surface ... but she didn't. The light came and went. They had passed beneath a shaft of some sort. There would have been air to breath. Perhaps she'd failed to get her message across. Oona might think she had her air bottles.
She wondered about Bryn. He was a good breath-hold diver but not as good as her. If she was having difficulty then he would be in even greater strife. Liala had visions of arriving at the other end without him. He could already have succumbed for all she knew. He could be lying on the bottom with tentacles wrapped around him and sharp teeth nibbling at his vitals.
More light appeared. Liala pounded Oona's head in a frantic attempt to tell her something was seriously wrong and she must surface as soon as possible. That wasn't necessary. The light grew brighter and she saw steps.
Blood spattered the landing stage as she crawled onto it. The thing with tentacles and teeth clung on tight. It had a face like a vampire bat and limbs like an octopus. She hacked at them with her knife. The body fell away but the suckers remained attached to her body.
Bryn's chest was heaving and he was unable to speak. Liala dug her knife into the first of the vampires, sucking at his body, and was about to tackle a second when it dropped off and slithered into the water, followed by the rest of its kind.
A light shone and she heard Dafne's shrill voice.
'You thought you could sneak in the back way.'
The ancient guardian was standing at the top of a flight of steps, flanked by two wild-eyed women. She let forth a blood curdling laugh.