17. In the Sea Cave of the Nuckalavee

The sea and the bobbing bottles went right inside the cave, but it was very dark in there and they did not dare take the log boat in, in case the cave narrowed farther down and the boat got stuck. They wanted to get off the Isle of the Nuckalavee as quickly as they could once they’d completed their quest.

If they completed their quest, that is.

So Crusher the giant dragged the boat up the beach and left it there, beside forty or fifty other log boats hauled up high above the sands. A bit like the shoes, these boats were a melancholy presence, because whoever had crossed the sea in them had made a one-way trip and never returned.

They made themselves slo-o-o-o-owly enter the sea cave, trying to ignore every nerve in their bodies screaming “DON’T GO IN! DON’T GO IN!,” not to mention Bumbleboozle buzzing around in such a state of anxiety that she had blown up like a pufferfish.

Poor little Squeezjoos had not left Xar’s pocket since they had traveled farther and farther away from Perdita’s healing influence. He was trembling and going rigid again, the Witchblood poison affecting him as it had done once before. Now he put one green eye to a hole in Xar’s pocket and peered out fearfully.

It was not surprising that they needed COURAGE to go into that cave. For there were extraordinary rock formations that looked uncannily like TEETH and gave the impression that you might indeed be entering the mouth of a monster, as Bumbleboozle had suggested. And this cave contained some of the Droods’ greatest secrets, so all around them in the cavern’s hush there came a wicked whisper of “Beware…” that sent the hairs at the back of everyone’s necks quivering electrically upward, along with strange scuttling noises that might have been the pattering feet of rats or mice, or were they just the fearful scurry of Wish’s frantically beating heart?

“Beware… Beware… Beware…” sang the unknown voices, and they could be ghosts or they might be will-o’-the-wisps that were appearing out of nowhere, laughing and cackling, and then adding more eerily, “Come here only if you dare…” as they dived and swooped and vanished back into the darkness, leaving haunting echo whispers of “Beware…” in sound and in sprite-writing fading into the dark air in front of them. And then they heard louder scraping noises, this time made by larger and more malevolent creatures with paws that had talons.

“I bet those are nixes,” said Caliburn, shivering. “I HATE nixes… horrible animals. Everyone, watch out, for they’ll strangle you if they catch you.”

“Isss ssppooky down here,” whispered poor little Squeezjoos from Xar’s pocket. “I’sss really don’t like it… can’t we go home to Pook’s Hill? Pleeeeeasssee??”

But Squeezjoos’s plight only reminded everyone of the urgency of their quest.

“We have to go on,” said Wish. “We must find Bodkin and get the scales of the Nuckalavee so we can make that spell as quickly as possible.”

Now this was where Xar was extremely helpful as a companion. When things were really dangerous, Xar’s eyes would light up, and he would stick out his chest and whistle, out of tune, as if he didn’t care about any of it. “Bit damp and smelly in here,” sniffed Xar, and even if he was more scared than he looked, his cheerful defiance was useful in fooling them all that this was a lot less dangerous than it seemed.

So on, on, they went. Sometimes the cave narrowed and the beach disappeared entirely, and Crusher had to carry them across the water to the next bit of shore. Xar had explored many a sea cave in his short life, but this was the largest he had ever seen, and it was a long time before they reached what surely must have been the heart of the island, where the cave opened up to reveal a great underwater lake.

All around was darkness and a smell of secrets that made them all shiver with the coldness of it, the air so chokingly foul it was hard to breathe. The sprites lit up as high and bright as they could so that they could see, and the weird green light of little cave slugs gave off a gentle, queasy glow.