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bad. Some were kind to us. A few of them
left their cities and lived among us. They learned our songs. They helped us
fight against the sentinels that attacked our homes.”
    I think of my father’s songs. Could they have come from the
merrows?
    “Are you . . . you’re not the last merrow, are you?” I ask. She
looks past me for a moment, as if she is thinking of something far away. When
she looks back, I can see her mind is on something else.
    “Wait here,” she says. “I have something that will help you.” She
swims to one of the beams of light coming from the ceiling. She reaches up to
it, and the light seems to disappear. When she returns, she holds in her hand a
bright yellow starfish. Light shines out of a white-hot circular patch at the
center of the starfish’s body. “It’s a sunstar,” she says, as she presses it
gently onto the front of my submarine. “It will help you in your search for
your father.”
    “I don’t know how to thank you,” I tell her, still amazed by the
sight of the sunstar.
    Before I can say another word, I see the white beam of the
sentinel’s searchlight sweep over us.
    “Go!” The merrow’s voice resounds in my head. I turn to see the
Fomori sentinel facing us, less than twenty feet away. Its long claw arm snaps
down at the merrow, narrowly missing her tail as she dodges out of the way.
Three circular green emeralds form a triangle along the front face of the
sentinel. Are those what it uses to see? The faceted emeralds look just
like the eyes of the clockwork seahorse. Did the Fomori create it as well?
    As these thoughts race through my mind, the sentinel turns to face
me. I can see two dark hollow tubes mounted on its lower hull. I manage to
dodge to my right just as a spray of bubbles appears in one of the tubes and a
torpedo whizzes by me on my left.
    There is a terrible cracking sound from behind me, followed by a
powerful wave that sends me tumbling sideways and banging against a stone wall.
Pieces of rock shower down all around me, debris from the crater left by the
torpedo.
    Turning back toward the source of the shot, I see the sentinel
sailing over the broken walls of the village ruins. It’s not looking for me.
It’s trying to kill the merrow.
    I crank the pedals as fast as they will go and aim my sub toward
the sentinel. I sail straight for it, gaining momentum as I go. At the last
moment, I turn sharply, slamming into its rear propeller with the side of my
sub. There is a loud clanging sound. For a moment I think I may have ruptured
the wall of my own sub. I can only hope I managed to do some damage to the
sentinel, too.
    The sentinel turns back toward me. At least I’ve distracted it for
a moment! I turn around, trying to lead it farther away from the merrow. Across
the cavern I can see the faint outline of the tunnel where I came in. I know
there’s no way to make it there in time, but I’m going to try anyway.
    I charge full speed toward the roof, trying to get some separation
from the sentinel. When I hear the burst of bubbles behind me, I dive the sub
down. The torpedo slams into the ceiling above me, sending chunks of rock
showering down on the roof of my sub. I keep diving down toward the floor,
hoping it can’t hit a moving target.
    I hear another torpedo launch, closer behind me this time. I yank
the controls back and the sub lurches upward as the torpedo sails underneath me
and slams into the cavern wall right below the tunnel exit. I sail into the
cloud of debris, unable to see where I’m going. I brace myself for the
shattering of glass and the cold rush of water, but I pass through the cloud
and safely into the tunnel.
    I navigate up through the tunnel, pedaling so fast that my legs
are burning. I see the blue water at the end of the passage up ahead as I hear
another torpedo launch behind me.



 
     
    8
    SWISH
     
    I race up
out of the tunnel and lean into a roll, spinning the sub upside down and out of
the way as the torpedo flies past me