It took a few minutes for all the swimmers to get their bearings, not to mention coming to realize that they were not going to drown. They left the naiad’s grotto, in part being pulled out by the current, and went to sea. They needed to find the underwater castle of Amphitrite. David had asked who Amphitrite was, but all Inaros said was “Your father.” It seemed to David his father was practically everyone.

David looked around, more surprised that his eyes did not sting from the salt water than he was about being able to see at that depth with a darkening sky overhead. Back home, David hated to get his eyes wet and never opened them in a pool, let alone in the ocean at the beach. But here, he saw quite well, and certainly well enough to see skinny old Inaros, with his long legs and long arms, looking very much like a frog. Floren undulated her body, more like a snake, or he imagined a mermaid. It felt hard to tell how Oren and Alden looked in swimming because they were already playing shark and about to fall behind.

“Keep up,” Floren yelled at them, and David got startled. He did not know they could talk underwater.

“We got a coral reef ahead,” a different voice startled David. Mickey O’Mac swam beside him, laying on his back with his hands behind his head and kicking with his feet. He grinned as he turned again to his stomach and swam down toward the coral. David followed.

The reef appeared all pink and green, but the colors were dulled because the light was dim. “Must be a real blow going on up there,” Inaros said. He saw David and Mickey and followed them down, but David did not see him, so he jumped again. “Sorry. Can’t hear well down here. You never know when someone might be sneaking up on you.”

David nodded and felt a bump on his leg. He figured it was Alden or Oren, but when he turned, he saw the teeth of the shark as it turned and opened its mouth. A string of some kind shot out from between David and Inaros. It slapped the shark in the mouth and left a thin layer of something like jell or plastic which effectively cut off the danger from the teeth. The shark turned aside and David looked at Mickey. He appeared dazed from the exertion of whatever that stringy magic was.

David felt his hand grabbed by Inaros and he, in turn, grabbed Mickey by the scruff of his collar. “More coming,” Inaros said as he headed them straight toward the reef. There were a dozen sharks, not far off, and coming on fast. David wanted no part of it. “In here,” Inaros said, dragging David toward a hole in the coral no more than ten inches in diameter.

“I can’t fit in there.” David started into his liturgy of protest, but Mickey, somewhat recovered, cut him off.

“Get small,” he said and he and Inaros both yanked on David’s hands and pulled him right into the little hole.

The big shark, a great white, which had gotten mostly free of its mouth covering, came seconds behind. It smashed its own snout into the hole with enough force to collapse the coral all around. If a shark could be said to be angry, this was an angry shark. The hole became covered with debris that blocked their exit, but Mickey hollered at them from the back.

“There’s another way out at the back of the reef.” David and Inaros both sighed relief and followed. The way through the coral seemed full of twists and turns, and some jagged spots where they had to be careful, but soon enough they popped out of the coral and resumed their normal sizes. Immediately, David wanted to get small again, but he was not sure how. The great white, its mouth now free, showed a remarkable degree of intelligence and swam over the top of the reef to get at them on the other side.

“Run!” Mickey shouted. He went left and Inaros went right, but David stayed frozen for a moment in the face of those terrible teeth. The great mouth started to open when two spears shot straight into that maw. Again, the shark turned aside and began to thrash about in an attempt to dislodge the projectiles. Its jaws snapped shut and sliced right though the metal spear shafts, but it was the damage on the inside that it could not do anything about. The shark had no gag reflex to rid itself of anything, once eaten.

Two mermen came up alongside David. They had something like crossbows in their hands, and the weapons were loaded. They only seemed to be waiting for a clear shot to finish the monster. Floren came wiggling up and grabbed David by his shirt collar in much the same way he had grabbed Mickey, and she hauled him off in the direction of Inaros. Together, with Oren and Alden, they entered an underwater forest where the weeds grew thirty and forty feet high.

Floren and Inaros lead the way while David sought for safety and squeezed between Oren and Alden. The boys stayed quiet, but Alden especially looked around for monsters hiding between the weed trees, or sharks that might be following them. Oren was the one who pointed out the mermaids who paced them, mostly hidden in the weeds. David could not be sure, but he imagined they were giggling. They seemed to regularly point at Inaros and his frog stroke. David did not blame them for giggling.

They stopped at the edge of the forest and looked out on the castle hill. It looked exactly like the one above, with more towers and spires than David could count, some of which went right up out of sight to poke above the surface of the sea. Far off to their right, the sea appeared to be boiling. There were occasional flashes of red and it looked like a mound was slowly building.

Inaros explained. “An underwater volcano, but I don’t know if a new island is forming in the archipelago or if Avalon is slowly falling apart.” He shook his head, sadly.