Pinto was right. The second trip went a lot smoother. This time they got three containers and all made it back to the surface with at least a little air to spare. It was obvious that everyone was exhausted though. There was a lot less chatter than after the first dive.

  Abe started up for a bit but then Sam elbowed him and he was quiet again.

  While they waited and Riki did his healing thing, which even he seemed to be getting tried from, Ryan handed out some food. There was cheese and crackers, square ones, plain and simple and obviously home-baked. They were also wriggling.

  Amanda recognised the weevils. She made a face at Sirius who grinned and simply replied, “Make sure you pick the small ones.”

  She rolled her eyes and packed hers high with extra cheese so she couldn’t see the insects. She knew they didn’t hurt but it was still better to pretend they weren’t there. If you focused on them too much you’d start tasting them.

  “You know, I don’t see how a kraken pulled a ship that big under the water,” Amanda whispered to Sirius as they waited.

  He nodded then shrugged. “Big kraken?” But she could see the worried look on his face.

  A really really big kraken she thought.

  Two hours later they were back in the water again. Last trip down. And every time it took her a few seconds to get used to the water. At first touch it was refreshing. The sun had warmed them, but the second the water found the hole at her neck her wetsuit was quickly filled with the cold. It lasted longer than it should have thanks to their increasing descent into cooler water. But by the time she reached that open door in the ship’s side, the combination of swimming and the evening out of the water temperature had her much more accustomed to it.

  Every dive she’d glance out into the great beyond and wonder what was out there. They’d been lucky so far. Only a few more crates to go.

  They were faster now. They had a rhythm going and the guys knew exactly what crates to go for.

  One crate lifted, tied up, and sent off. Then two. Easy as.

  They’d just set the third one in position for tying when the materiokinesis holding Sirius’s wetsuit together finally collapsed. The entire suit fell apart at the seams and he was left in just his swimming trunks.

  Amanda was busy tying the netting around the crate but she snagged a quick glance out of the corner of her eye and saw Pinto indicate for Sirius to go back up.

  It made sense. He’d get colder faster now and they only really needed two strongarms to pull the crate the last little way out the door.

  Amanda swam around the back to tie the last few knots while Miles did the front.

  His part done, Miles left through the door and followed Sirius up while Brutus and Sam tugged the crate the last metre or so toward the door. Then they got out of the way.

  Amanda and Pinto waited inside the ship. Amanda checked her air. It was running a little lower than last time but not so much that she was in trouble. Worst case she might have to cut a few minutes off the decompression time. With Riki waiting up there, that shouldn’t be too bad though.

  Off the crate went. With a groan and a creek, it started to inch. Finally it tipped over the edge and went flying off into the blue, sinking fast before the ropes caught and began to tug it upward.

  Amanda followed Pinto toward the exit from the ship, moving calmly and keeping her breath steady. She knew better than to celebrate too early. They still had to ascend the 40 or so metres up to the surface.

  But as Pinto crossed the threshold, a dark shape appeared beside him. The hands of another diver reached out and grabbed Pinto by the head. They twisted fast and sudden. There was no crack, not this far under the water but Amanda knew there should have been what with the way his head was now turned completely the opposite way to his body.

  For a full few seconds she completely forgot about breathing as she quickly back-paddled away from the door and the figure. But there was nowhere to go in this room and the killer blocked her only way out. She froze in place, her eyes fixated on Pinto, her mind still processing.

  Sam. It was Sam. He moved forward a few inches into the room but before she could remember her magic, he’d kicked the wedge out from out the heavy metal door. It slammed shut, leaving her in complete darkness.

  Relax. Breathe. Don’t panic. The words repeated themselves over and over in her head. Relax. Breathe. Don’t panic.

  Why had Sam done that? What was she going to do now?

  Relax. Breathe. Don’t panic. One thing at a time. She needed light. That she could do. Even under the water. But it would cost her. Magic was energy. Energy was air. And she only had so much of that.

  Oh but you silly girl. There was a light on her weight belt. In her panic she had almost forgotten. Pinto had made them each carry one, just in case. They just hadn’t needed them, until now. The light from the giant door had been enough and Amanda could tie over a dozen knots in her sleep.

  She clicked it on. She didn’t check her air. No point wasting time on that yet. She needed to get out. She swam over to the door. He couldn’t lock it from the outside. It didn’t matter though. A test tug made it clear that she was never going to be able to move it. Only a strongarm could get that door open again. It was too heavy. So what did she do? Wait for the others to notice she was missing? Did she have enough air for that? How long would it take them? More air than they had she was sure and definitely more air than she had. Plus they didn’t know what Sam had done. Right now, he was a danger to them. Amanda needed to get out and she needed to do it soon.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Relax. Breathe. Easier said than done. She knew she was breathing too fast, it was hard not to but worrying about it wouldn’t make it better. She did her best to focus on what was before her. The metal wall of the ship. She could melt through. She had done it before, just not 40 metres underwater. She didn’t have a choice. They’d never get to her in time.

  She placed her hands against the hull. It would have to be hot and it would have to be fast. It would also have to be a big hole. She paused. Perhaps this wasn’t the best way to do it. Her gaze found the door. Perhaps the best spot was the rim of the door. If she melted enough of the edge then the door might just fall out. She’d likely need to melt less of the metal but a line was also probably harder than a hole. She had to make a decision and she had to make one quick.

  She went for the hole against the wall. The less she moved the better. The less time it took also the better.

  She concentrated. Building up magic pressure until with precise focus she pushed it all into the wall of the ship. Her hands were pressed hard against the hull. They had to be for that kind of heat. It burned her hands. Not molten hot, she could prevent the worst of it, but could not avoid all of it. Still she kept them tightly pressed against the rapidly melting metal. Until suddenly, an explosion of air and water flung her backward.

  She crashed into a crate back first and hard, but it stopped her flying too far into the hold. The water around her was filled with bubbles which obscured her vision, but as they cleared she was met with glorious sight. The explosion had blown a decent sized hole in the exterior of the ship. She could see daylight again.

  She pushed off the crate and swam towards it. Vaguely she noted that the smooth edges of this new hole bore a remarkable resemblance to the larger one that had sunk the ship. When she broke out into open ocean she was met with a large emptiness. She could see no one but for the small dark shape of the longboat on the surface and Pinto’s body, drifting lifelessly several metres below her.

  She turned her head back up. Don’t look down. Down was death. She pushed up toward the surface. Safety lay only 40 metres above her but even disregarding the threat of decompression sickness it would take her at least 4 minutes to reach the surface.

  The desire to drop her entire weight belt and inflate her BCD to the max to speed up her ascent was strong. But she resisted. Carefully she unhooked a single weight.

  She had to still had to swim a little at this depth even with careful inflation of the BCD and a dropped weight just to overcome the negative buoyancy. It was not a nice feeling knowing that if she stopped swimming, she’d sink just like Pinto was and if that happened there would be no coming back up.

  Of course she could drop more weight or inflate the BCD further but both carried risks of speed in the other direction. She dare not ascend faster her bubbles, indeed even matching their ascent could prove instantaneously deadly. Lung overexpansion would kill far quicker then decompression sickness ever would. Too fast for a healer to ever get to her in time.

  Inflating the BCD also required using some of the air in her tanks but it was more efficient than what purely swimming would require. She just had to make sure to carefully control the inflation rate. She did it in small bursts, paying careful attention to her speed.

  She hit the halfway point, the first decompression stop, and there she halted her ascent. If she had to cut out decompression stops it was better that it was the shallower stops. She was still a flat two minute swim from the surface. She could do this.

  It was at that moment that she felt a change in the air she was breathing. Suddenly it felt harder to get a breath. She knew immediately that she’d run out of air. When she’d been learning to dive the instructor had made them experience it close to the surface, just so they’d know what it was like. So they wouldn’t panic if it ever happened for real.

  Another thing easier said than done. Instinct was to try to breathe deeper but it only confounded the problem. Amanda knew how this ended. Hyperventilation and loss of consciousness. She was only two minutes from the surface. So close.

  Except all her brain could think about was getting a breath that just wouldn’t come. Her fingers reached for her weight belt. Except even in this state she hadn’t forgotten, ascending too fast equaled instant death. She could not drop the entire belt.

  One weight then just swim up. She did that and she kept her mouthpiece in just as she’d been taught. All the while her instinct fought her brain. Training overruled them both, her actions dictated more by muscle memory than anything else.

  Above her, the surface sparkled. As she drew closer it took on a sort of blurry sheen. Her vision got muggy. The world felt distant and imaginary. She could no longer feel anything in her fingers except for a faint tingling. Despite all that, the feeling of panic receded and she felt almost calm.

  From up above a dark shadow suddenly broke through the surface. A figure swam down toward her, surrounded by a halo of light. At first she couldn’t make out who it was. Was it Sam come back to finish her off?

  Except the figure was too big for Sam and he wasn’t wearing a wetsuit. As he drew closer she knew who it was. She’d recognise that chest anywhere and those emerald green eyes. She tried to reach up for Sirius but she couldn’t make her arms move.

  And then he reached for her. Took her in his arms, pulled her towards himself. He removed her regulator and then he put his mouth over hers and for one beautiful moment she could breathe again.

  She was careful not to take in too much, even though all she wanted to do was gulp down as much air as she could. Her semi-delirious state helped a little. Her panic didn’t return but she wondered for a moment if she was already dead. His touch was real though. She could feel his skin, cool to the touch but just as soft as she remembered. She clung to that.

  Together they swam toward the surface.

  When they broke through she gasped for air and forgot how to float. But Sirius lifted her up, stopped her from going back under.

  She didn’t know what had happened with Sam. Did they know what he had done after he’d locked her in? And Pinto, poor Pinto, all alone down there, no way to bring him back up.

  Her head spun. Her skin itched. The world felt wobbly again and vaguely she was aware that all of those things were symptoms of the bends. Where was Riki?

  Through the fog she heard Sirius speaking to her. “We have to go back down. Finish decompressing. Riki’s out of it. Get as much air as you can in your next few breaths. When you run out, I’ll give you more.”

  “What?” She tried to fix her gaze on him but his image didn’t seem to stay in one place. She understood though.

  “We have to go back down. Finish decompression. I’ll breathe for you. I promise. Understand?”

  Vaguely she nodded.

  To someone else he said, “Swim back to the ship. Fetch my coat.”

  Then he turned to her. “Alright, ready?”

  Another nod.

  He started counting down from three.

  She took a deep breath and tried to calm her beating heart.

  Then, without another word, he pulled them both back down under the water.