Page 177 of Tiger's Voyage
I thought about what would be the appropriate thing to say for a second, and then snuggled against his chest and wrapped my arms around his waist.
“I stayed with you because … I love you, and you make me happy.”
“I love you too,bilauta.” He tucked my head under his chin and stroked my back.
I could tell Ren had returned when I heard the bags thump to the floor. I stepped out of Kishan’s embrace, straightened my skirt guiltily and heard Ren say, “Let’s get this over with. Kelsey, if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Pearl Necklace,” I said, “please create a way for us to rise to the surface and don’t forget about the ocean pressure and that we need oxygen.”
The Necklace sparkled and began to glow so intensely, we had to look away. After a few seconds it faded, but nothing had happened.
“What are we supposed to do?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” Ren replied.
“Something’s coming closer. Do you see that glow?” Kishan pointed at the black window.
Sure enough, something was moving closer. Globs of pulsing white light came into view. “They’re jellyfish,” Kishan said. “Only they’re giants!”
They were giants alright. Each one looked bigger than a hot air balloon. An idea struck me, I sucked in a breath, and said, “I think they might be our transportation.”
“I don’t think so, Kells,” Kishan said. “How would we breathe?”
“Stranger things have happened,” I answered.
He grunted, and the three of us pressed our noses against the glass window, staring at the approaching globes. They were fascinating. Moving slowly but surely toward us, the pulsing domes puffed up and expelled water as they danced toward us like fleshy puppets on strings. They had long trailing tentacles that hung from their bodies like ribbons from a piñata.
Their round hoods were bell-shaped, diaphanous, and luminescent. And dangling from the centers of the creatures were feathery arms that reminded me of wisteria hanging from a tree but instead of white or soft lilac like those blossoms, these feathery fronds were bright orange and yellow. The arms fluttered in the water and could also be seen through the hood. It made the jellyfish look as if they glowed with an inner fire.
A jellyfish approached us, hung there for a moment, and then lifted several thin tentacles and touched the window. They trailed over the shape of the glass, feeling the surface delicately, like a blind man touching a shrine. Then, finding a chosen spot, the thin fingers actually pierced the glass and moved toward us. All three of us backed up, startled. The creature angled closer, while we stood frozen like statues. Somehow it had crossed the barrier of the window without breaking it.
No ocean water surged in. Not so much as a drop trickled down the window. A tentacle reached Kishan and wrapped gently around his arm. He could have pulled away, but the creature was so delicate, to move back might have injured it. Softly it pulled on Kishan’s arm until he took a step forward. More tentacles surged in and wrapped around him, drawing him closer to the window. The creature pulled him into its gentle embrace, reminding me of a frail old grandmother trying to hug her strapping grandson.
The jellyfish began to back away from the window, pulling Kishan along with it. His arm disappeared through its black surface and reappeared in the water outside. He sucked in a breath and with a gentle tug the creature carried him through the glass, gathered him close, and held him tightly. Creating a bower, it nestled him so his head rested just under its hood. He gave us a thumbs-up sign and showed us he was breathing.
Kishan’s jellyfish moved away and another one moved closer. As its tentacles entered the pagoda window, Ren adjusted the straps of his pack.
I touched his arm and said, “I’ll go next.”
Nodding, Ren stepped out of way as the tentacles reached for me. He watched as the creature slowly enfolded me. He seemed so sad, and he looked at me as if he was never going to see me again.
As the jellyfish began to tug me slowly toward the window, Ren took my arm, pressed his lips to my ear, and quoted, “‘Like as the waves make toward the pebbl’d shore, so do our minutes, hasten to their end.’” He softly kissed my temple and whispered, “Remember, I love you,priyatama.”
I was about to respond when the creature sucked me through the window and into the freezing ocean. I was only cold for a moment, because as soon as the animal pulled me into its feathery embrace, the temperature changed. My head was drawn up into the hood and was nestled against a warm rubbery pillow that glowed softly in the darkness like a flickering candle.
From my shoulders up, I was suspended above the jellyfish’s interior water line and heard a rush of air like a bellows. I laughed as I realized the animal was making oxygen for me. The rest of my body hung in a sort of hammock created by the tentacles and a surge of warmth cycled around my body. It felt like I was lounging in a hot spa and, as if the jellyfish could read my mind, its body began to hum and vibrate. I sighed and relaxed in the capable “hands” of my abyssal-plain masseur.
When I cracked open my eyes a moment later, I saw Ren had joined us. I could easily make him out through his transparent balloon, and slightly behind and above me was Kishan. The lights dimmed to a faint glow, and I felt the great pumping of my jellyfish as it began to move upward in the dark water. The Seventh Pagoda disappeared beneath us in a swirl of shadow and then was gone.
Our couriers moved steadily if not quickly, and I didn’t feel the pressure of the surrounding ocean or even see any deep-sea creatures, though I kept my eyes peeled. The jellyfish gracefully swirled around each other in an ocean ballet. When mine rose slightly above the others, I felt like a lady with full lacy petticoats and a parasol swinging above a stage oblivious to all except the men who came to see the show and who watched me from below with hungry eyes.
I could sense when we left the abyssal plain and moved upward through the bathypelagic zone and into Jnsèlóng’s realm. I began to see fish. At first, they were the scary long-toothed type, but then the water brightened slightly, and I saw a sperm whale. As we rose higher still, the first shark appeared. I panicked, but it was only a hammerhead that ignored us. A school of tuna with flashing scales passed us, and I took a deep breath, relieved. We were going to make it. I estimated we had roughly a thousand feet to go. More animals swam by us, some curious, but the jellyfish continued to make their way upward.
Excitedly, I was pointing out the first cluster of plants to Kishan when I felt a disturbance in the water. Kishan’s eyes widened, and I searched for what had caused him alarm. I trembled and prayed that it wasn’t what I feared. I pressed my hands against the flexible skin of the jellyfish hood and looked into the ocean. At first I saw nothing, but then the jellyfish spun, and I saw the fearsome shape of the giant shark from the Seventh Pagoda. It moved lazily along, patrolling the water.
The shark swam with its mouth slightly open, and, even from a distance I could see its rows of sharp teeth. Other sharks, probing, approached and then rapidly sped off. Even a pod of dolphins swam quickly away from it while screeching a warning in the water. I watched them disappear and wished I could do the same, but I knew this shark wouldn’t bother the surrounding sea life. It didn’t eat. It didn’t sleep. There was only one purpose it had been created for—preventing the Necklace from reaching the surface … and the Necklace was on me. The good news was that it still hadn’t seen us. The bad news was that we still had around five hundred feet more to go.
The shark swam parallel to us for a while and then passed out of our visual range, but it soon returned and swam around us in a wide circle. At about that time, the sun came out from behind a cloud and the water turned from gray to a bright blue. My jellyfish shifted, and the gold belt I was wearing cast a sparkling reflection in the water.
