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ground in a circle, joined together by a thin line of gold. In their center, a bright blue stone shaped like a rocket pointed up to the surface of the water.
    “What in the ocean . . . ?” Shona swam around and around the display, her mouth open, her eyeshuge, shining with the reflection of the blue stone.
    I looked around. There was more. Once we started looking, it seemed that stones and crystals covered the entire floor of the cave, packed and tucked into gaps in the rock all around us.
    “Emily, I think we need to get back.” A fat green angelfish hovered between us, its startled eyes staring into ours before it spun around and disappeared into a rocky crevice. “We’ve seen it now. We’re not supposed to be here.”
    I stopped gazing around. Shona was right. “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go back.” We’d found the answer to Althea’s and Marina’s questions. The lagoon hid a cave filled with jewels. But why? It didn’t make sense.
    Shona turned immediately and started making her way back toward the tunnel. But then I noticed something on the cave’s wall: a picture exactly like the engraving we’d seen earlier, only even bigger. It looked like a mosaic. I knew that shape — I was sure of it. And even though it didn’t make any sense, I had this overwhelming feeling that it knew me too! As we got closer, I could see it was made out of jewels: a huge golden one in the center, oval shaped and about half as tall as me, with multicolored strandsspinning outward from it. I put my hand out to touch it. It wobbled.
    “Shona!”
    “Come on.” She kept swimming.
    I pushed at the jewel. It was lodged in the rock, but only loosely. We could probably get it out. I had to try. There was a secret in here — I was sure of it. Something was drawing me on and I couldn’t resist it.
    “Shona!” I called again. “Just look at this.”
    She stopped swimming and turned.
    “It’s loose!” I pulled at it, edging my fingertips underneath to lever it up. “Help me.”
    She swam reluctantly back to me. “I thought we were — sharks alive!”
    “You thought we were sharks?”
    Shona stared at the mosaic. “What is it?”
    “Help me get it out.”
    “You’re pulling my tail, aren’t you? We can’t go around vandalizing the place!”
    “We’re not vandalizing anything. We’ll put it back. Let’s just see what’s behind it.” An image of Althea’s and Marina’s faces flickered across my mind, their eyes wide and impressed with my bravery. All the other mermaids crowding around me, wanting to be my friends, accepting me as one of them, not the odd one out, not the freak. This cave was going to change my life; I just knew it.
    Shona sighed heavily, then reluctantly dug her fingers under the jewel, and we gradually levered it little by little out of its hole. A moment later, we were holding it between us. We lowered it to the ground and it plopped onto the seabed with a soft thunk, scattering a shower of sand in a swirl around us.
    “Now what?” Shona stared down at it.
    I swam up to the hole it had left behind and poked my head into it. Another tunnel. I grabbed Shona’s arm, pointing into the blackness. “We have to go down there.”
    “We don’t have to go anywhere!” Shona snapped.
    “ Please! Aren’t you dying to know what’s in there? Can’t you feel it?” This wasn’t even about Althea and Marina anymore. It was more like a thirst, or a magnet pulling me.
    A magnet? My throat closed up as I remembered. . . . But it couldn’t lead to the Triangle. We were in the middle of the island.
    Shona peered into the tunnel. Her eyes sparkled against the reflection of the crystals. I could see the dilemma in them. “We just have a quick look, see what’s there, and then we go home,” she said eventually.
    “Deal!”
    We edged our way carefully into the hole,slithering along in the silent dark. Me first, Shona following closely behind. The tunnel grew colder as we made our way deeper into the rock.