Marco let go immediately and dived to the map, which had come loose and was drifting up towards the surface.
Razi broke the surface and took in gulps of cool, fresh air. His chest ached with the effort of staying down too long. But in a few seconds he’d caught his breath and struck out behind the man again.
Marco had the map! He was swimming towards the shore. Razi sneaked up behind him and bit him hard on the shin. The man yelled and twisted round, cuffing Razi on the head. Razi darted forward and yanked the map from him. He turned over and used the man’s head to kick off from, propelling himself forward towards the boat. Razi swam fast but Marco was hot on his heels again. Perhaps he was a better swimmer than Razi had thought.
He was tiring from the effort of fighting Marco off. The big man was within arm’s length now but Razi couldn’t go any faster. His exhaustion turned to horror as he felt the beginnings of a cramp. He was doomed. He couldn’t do it any more. He felt himself slow down in spite of his best efforts.
Then Razi felt himself pulled clean out of the water and tossed down on to something hard. The wind was knocked out of him and he lay there, gasping, the map clutched tightly in his fingers. He blinked water out of his eyes.
He was back in the boat! He pulled himself up to peer over the side. Marco was in the water, left far behind them as Shifa powered the boat through the sea, her hair flying madly in the wind.
Nathan’s boat was very similar to Father’s. It was pretty much the same as all the other fishing boats, except for the turtle he’d painted on the side. Shifa pulled its oars through the quiet waves. Marco was far behind now, wading to the shore in his wet clothes.
“Are you OK?” said Shifa.
Razi sat up and looked down at himself in dismay. “Yes, a bit wet, that’s all.”
“No, I meant in other ways.”
“Huh?” Razi stared at his sister.
“Never mind.”
“Oh.” He was startled when the rupee dropped. “I … I’d actually forgotten.”
It was strange. But all his focus was on how important the map was in saving Zheng’s life. And when it came down to it, it was as if Razi had never been away at all.
Shifa smiled. “Good.” She steered the boat further on. “And I’m glad you’re OK. For a minute there I thought he’d got you.”
“I know,” said Razi, thinking of his bursting lungs. “Just wondering why you didn’t whack him hard on the head with the spade? You could have saved me a lot of trouble.”
“Don’t be silly,” she said. “Hit him on the head? That could cause him permanent damage.”
“He was trying to do me permanent damage.”
“Still,” she said. “I’m trying to be a healer, not a destroyer.”
Razi huffed and unrolled the map. He had to admit, Shifa’s idea for the pouch had been clever. The map wasn’t completely dry, but it was only slightly damp. Nothing that a bit of sun wouldn’t sort out.
“I know how to get to Elephant Rock easily,” said Razi. “From there, I don’t think it’ll be that hard to find the islet. It’s all by itself to the west of the rock. If we come to a cluster of five we know we’ve gone too far.”
The land was way behind them now. Very soon they’d be in open seas, with nothing around them but the aquamarine water. The sea had deepened into a rolling, undulating green. Razi looked into its depths and his head spun. They were in very deep water, bluish green and almost clear. Pods of dolphins accompanied them now and then, arcing and sometimes spinning in the air, their splashes and the oars the only sounds in the stillness.
“The sea looks so beautiful, doesn’t it?” said Shifa, glancing around at the endless blue. Waves crested and ebbed gently and all else was still.
Razi shrugged. He knew her words were for his benefit. She wasn’t interested in the ocean at all.
“We should be coming to Elephant Rock soon, no?” It seemed like they’d been sailing for ages. Shifa shielded her eyes and looked at the horizon. “How long have we been travelling?”
“About an hour,” said Razi. “Once we see the rock we then head west through the Sea of Monsters. Come on, let’s swap now.”
Shifa scoffed as they changed places. “I hope you don’t believe Zheng’s nonsense about monsters. I wonder what that label actually said.”
“There it is!” Razi pointed to the rock, which rose out of the water looking for all the world like an elephant raising its trunk to the sky. From one angle you could even make out tusks. Terns squawked and circled over its head. They’d built nests in all the nooks and crannies of the rock.
“OK, we’re on track! West now,” said Shifa, the map spread out on her lap and her voice shivering with excitement.
Razi rowed under the arch of the rock, the birds getting louder and flapping into the air from their rocky perches as the boat went by.
They sailed on, leaving the rock far behind. The ocean was vast around them, and they were a tiny dot in it. Razi hoped Marco didn’t catch up with them here. The wind blew west, bringing the faint cry of terns from the rock they’d left behind.
Shifa was twisting her hair round her fingers.
“What’s the matter?” said Razi. He knew her sign of nervousness well.
She looked a bit unsure. “I-I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“But?”
“I thought… I thought I heard something.”
“It’s the birds,” said Razi.
She nodded slowly. “Yes. Although this sounded a bit … different.”
“In what way?”
“Like … a throb.”
Razi giggled. “I don’t hear it. But it doesn’t sound that alarming.”
Shifa smiled, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She seemed on edge. Scared almost.
Razi kept on west. He couldn’t do with Shifa losing her nerve. The day was getting hot and he wiped his brow.
Suddenly out of nowhere came a low, haunting moan. So low he wasn’t sure if he’d heard it.
Razi stopped rowing. What in the name of everything fishy was that?
Shifa’s hair was twisted round all her fingers now. She looked about the boat wildly, as if searching for something.
This was crazy. The wind had to be carrying the sound from land somewhere. There were no moans or groans on the high seas. This was different from a dolphin’s whistle or click too. Razi decided to ignore it.
“We’re well on target for the islet,” he said, with what he hoped was a companionable casualness. The last thing he wanted was to spook Shifa. “We should be coming to the Sea of Mons—”
He stopped as a horrid realisation hit him. Shifa wasn’t looking at him. A low, deepwater sound reached his ears.
Throb, throb, throb, throb. Throb, throb, throb, throb.
Terror hit Razi like a ton of mullet slapped on the beach. The Sea of Monsters was real. Zheng hadn’t made it up. There was such a place.
Shifa had gone pale.
Razi looked into the water.
The sea under them had gone grey and mottled. As he watched, the darkness spread out around them, getting bigger and bigger, as if something was rising from the bottom of the ocean.
“Razi,” said Shifa, speaking without moving her lips. “What. Is. That?”
Something was moving underneath them. Something huge, something bigger than a house, with grey, blotched skin.
He tried to keep the terror out of his voice. “It’s – it’s a shark. It’s a shark. Look, it’s a shark.” His voice went very high at the last shark.
Shifa nodded, looking anything but convinced. “Of course. It’s a shark.”
We are finished, thought Razi.
The shadow underneath the boat glided out in front of them, the water hardly moving as Razi watched it move away. Just when he thought it was leaving them alone, the water splashed and it turned back towards them. A humungous head dipped up and came towards the surface.
Shifa’s scream was muffled by her hands. A gigantic pointed
face emerged; tiny eyes, turned-down mouth.
Razi leaned forward. Was that…?
A fountain of water gushed high into the air from its head as it boomed towards them. The unearthly cry twanged the air again, but this time Razi wasn’t afraid.
“Shif, it’s OK,” said Razi, but Shifa stared, transfixed, at the creature by the side of their boat. It was as long as six town houses. It glided through the turquoise waters, its back topped by a ridged, glistening spine. As they watched, it blew another mountain of sea spray high into the air.
Razi leaned out for a better view, but Shifa was dumbstruck, beads of spray from the whale clinging to her face.
The whale groaned, that keening sound that Razi couldn’t quite hear. As if it was there but not there at all.
Without warning, the whale jumped clean out of the water. Razi screamed involuntarily and Shifa rocked towards the other side of the boat.
It sailed over their heads and time slowed right down. Droplets of water sprinkled off the silvery head, catching the sunlight as they broke into thousands of tiny prisms. The pale underbelly followed, its ridged skin stretching and loosening as its gigantic muscles strained in movement. Clusters of barnacles pockmarked the enormous body soaring powerfully over them. Razi and Shifa shrank under the whale, mouths stretched in silent screams as the mammoth shadow blotted out the sky.
It fell into the water with a crash on the other side. The boat rocked in place, waves splashing over the sides and drenching them both.
Razi exhaled in wonder.
He’d never seen anything more beautiful in his life.
The whale swam away towards the horizon, where the line between sea and sky merged into the same deepening blue. Parts of its blue-grey back broke the surface now and then, revealing its course as it swam into the distance.
Shifa pressed her fists to her eyes. “What was THAT?” she exploded. She was shaking.
“They look scary but they’re harmless,” said Razi. “So this is Zheng’s Sea of Monsters, isn’t it? He was right all along.”
“Argh, Zheng and his stupid—” Shifa seemed to make a conscious effort not to lose her temper. “What was that?”
“A blue whale! I didn’t know we had them in these parts. Father said he saw one once, a long time ago, but he thought it had strayed from somewhere else. I can’t believe it! How lucky are we.”
“That size.” Shifa shuddered. “And the sea around here is full of them?”
“Looks like it. But they really aren’t dangerous, you know. And I think they’re quite solitary, so we won’t see loads of them together.”
“Very comforting, but seeing that one was plenty, thank you very much.”
Just as the words were out of her mouth, they saw two more blue whales swimming in the distance. Shifa let out a low moan as one of them doubled back towards them.
It came up close to them and bumped their boat gently. Water splashed against the side of the boat and Razi laughed.
“What is it doing?” Shifa had pressed herself to the side furthest away.
“It’s just trying to be friendly. Look, it’s the same one that jumped over us. It has some kind of scarring on its back.”
She leaned over the boat to look at the several clefts on its back. “How did he get those?”
“Could have been a ship,” said Razi. “Sometimes they cause serious injuries or even death. I think it’s a she, by the way. Just guessing. The females are larger.”
The whale came up and bumped the boat again.
“I wish she’d go away.” Shifa’s voice was very small and she looked frightened out of her mind. “She’s so big and this boat is so small and we’re in the middle of the ocean with nothing else around.”
“She just wants to play.” Razi smiled and called out to the whale. “Stop scaring my sister, Maalu.”
“Maalu?”
“She needs a name, doesn’t she?”
Maalu breached again, but thankfully a little away from the boat this time.
Razi laughed. “Now she’s just showing off!”
Shifa didn’t seem impressed. If anything she was even more nervous. Razi couldn’t blame her. The sheer size of the animal was mind-boggling. Maalu came up and touched the boat with the tip of her nose and Shifa gripped the side, white-knuckled.
“Nothing’s going to happen, Shifa. She’s harmless.”
But Shifa screwed up her eyes tightly as the boat rocked from Maalu’s movements.
Razi got up and kneeled over the side. The whale was very persistent. He’d have to try to send her away before Shifa fainted with fright.
“What are you doing?” said Shifa, alarmed.
Before he could answer, Maalu jabbed at the boat and Razi fell into the sea.
The shock was greater than the physical impact as Razi hit the waves. He sputtered as he sank into the depths, the water getting cooler as he plummeted downwards. The blue-tinted world around him flapped in slow motion and a clump of seaweed floated past as he gazed at the sandy seabed far below.
Automatically, his body responded. His legs kicked out and pushed him up, his head breaking the surface to see Shifa looking worriedly over the boat. Water sloshed at his back as something big slid past. He turned to see Maalu frolicking in the water near him.
She dipped down into the depths, tail slapping the water. Without thinking, he dived after her.
Maalu glided through the water and spun round, circling Razi. His heart soared and he paddled towards her, marvelling at her size and majesty. He wasn’t afraid. She was magnificent. Her head flashed past again as she swam around him, so close he could put out his hand and touch her.
He kicked up to the surface, and she glided up too, both of them breaking the water at the same time. Razi gulped in a mouthful of air while Maalu sprayed a fountain of water through her blowhole.
“Look, Razi!” yelled Shifa. She was laughing and screaming and clapping her hands all at the same time. “Behind you!”
Razi turned round. Behind Maalu the sea was studded with more whales. A whole pod of them, this time a different species, with rectangular heads and small, cheeky eyes. Maybe thirty of them, swimming serenely in the great ocean without a care in the world.
For some reason he couldn’t understand, Razi began to cry. He let himself slip down underwater to better watch them, becoming a tiny blot among these magnificent monsters of the ocean.
He came up to the surface again and Shifa gave him a hand as he clambered into the boat. From here, the view was even more glorious. The water was a clear sapphire around them, the pod of whales speckling it in hues of silver and Maalu swimming away into the distance.
Razi sat down in the boat in his soaked clothes and began to sob properly. Shifa wordlessly passed him a gunny sack from the boat to use as a towel and took over the oars.
She patted his arm before they pulled away.
Razi shivered in his wet clothes as they cut through the water. He had never been more exhilarated in his life, but the tears came thick and fast at the same time. Shifa didn’t say anything, but after a minute when his tears didn’t abate she leaned over and hugged him tightly, and he broke down completely and sobbed on her shoulder even more.
Zheng winced as his head thudded repeatedly against the side of the boat. He was on the floor, having been tossed unceremoniously there by Cook after he’d refused to tell them anything useful about the map.
Marco was sailing, and they zipped through the water at speed. He’d hired a boat in town and this one was quite marvellous, as boats went. But Zheng wasn’t too worried. He may be bound and gagged in a boat with his sworn enemies, but it was nothing compared to some of the other scrapes he’d been in.
“The boy was lying again,” said Marco to Cook over the sound of the waves. His voice was angry, frustrated. “There’s no temple in the middle of the sea where a blue-haired hermit lives.”
Zheng snorted behind his gag. He’d persuaded Marco not to kill him by promising to explai
n the map. But he’d set him on the wrong track. After hours of searching, Marco had risked showing the map to a fisherman to decipher. Unfortunately, the man had set Marco right.
“The fisherman said it’s a rock shaped like an elephant,” continued Marco. “I’m sure the children must have passed there by now.”
Zheng wasn’t sure whether to be happy or disappointed that Razi and Shifa were on the trail of the dagger. It was great that they were doing this, but really, they didn’t have the kind of expertise Zheng did.
“There it is!” said Cook.
Squawks filled the air. From Zheng’s angle he could see the top of a high rock full of birds’ nests as they navigated under it. He was annoyed to see that it was Elephant Rock. Never mind, he hoped Razi and Shifa were well out of the way by now and on the islet.
Cook turned back and gave a kick at Zheng. “We’ll get you for this, you liar.”
“Leave him for now,” said Marco dismissively. “We’ll punish him when it’s time. He might yet prove useful.”
Most people would quail at that but not Zheng. The time he’d been thrown in a cage to fight an enraged hippo definitely ranked higher on the scariness scale.
All he wanted was for Razi and Shifa to be well on the way. He tried to send out a silent message to them. Marco is coming and he’ll stop at nothing. Please hurry.
Soon Razi and Shifa had left the whales behind as they moved on in search of the islet. Razi sniffled and wrapped himself up tightly in the sack. Even covered up like that he dried off pretty quickly in the sun.
“All right now, Razi?” asked Shifa.
Razi nodded. “Hey, look! There’s the islet.”
Two more blue whales frolicked in the distance, keeping out of their way. Razi swapped places with Shifa and rowed towards the islet. Now that they were closer they could see it was a tiny one, with coconut trees sprouting all over it and a rocky cliff on one side. Razi steered around it first, giving it a wide berth until they found a suitable landing place. A wide beach on the other side of the cliff made landing perfectly easy.
The Boy Who Met a Whale Page 5