RUBY AND KEKOA TOOK A BOAT out to the Sibling Waters. The two sister rocks rose dramatically out of the sea before them. It was easy to understand why sailors of days gone by had been superstitious about them. The rocks were beautiful but lonely, isolated there in restless seas – though today the water was tranquil.
They manoeuvred the boat until they were between the two rocky outcrops once known as the toes of the sisters.
‘So what’s the story with the rocks?’ asked Hitch, peering at them through the haze of the morning light. ‘How did they come to be called the Sibling Islands, apart from the obvious I mean?’
Ruby listened closely as Kekoa explained: as one would expect, she knew a lot about the coasts and seas, but Ruby was impressed at how much she also knew about local history and mythology.
Ruby was familiar with this story from all her library research, but she liked the way Kekoa told it.
It was a melancholy tale of two sisters. Both had been flung overboard during a violent storm. Separated by the waves, they were then miraculously rescued by the tide, which carried them each to their own island. It was said that the girls climbed to the pinnacle of each rock and called to passing mariners. ‘Help us,’ they cried, but their calls were muffled by the wind and sounded like whispers and most did not hear them.
Those who did hear their calls mistook them for the voices of sirens, mermaids luring them onto the rocks. Sailors who followed sirens rarely lived to tell the tale, their bones smashed to pieces and their lifeless bodies dragged down to the depths of the indigo ocean. So the sisters were destined to call to each other across the turbulent channel forever more.
Today though the islands looked far from tragic, glowing gold in the hazy morning light. Hitch scanned the horizon, but there were no other boats to be seen; they were alone as far as they could tell.
They waited for an hour or so, Hitch regularly scanning the radar for vessels which might prove sinister. To pass time more merrily he tuned into the radio and an old-fashioned song spilled out. ‘WELCOME TO CHIME MELODY,’ came the announcer’s voice. ‘HERE FOR YOUR LISTENING PLEASURE.’
‘It would seem your theory is correct kid,’ said Hitch. ‘Chime is the only station you can receive in these waters, so I guess it’s the old tunes or no tunes.’
‘I don’t mind,’ said Ruby, ‘I kinda like the oldies.’
Kekoa didn’t say anything, but Ruby could tell she would rather have silence no matter what the radio was playing.
‘So you find out anything more about the sea whisperings?’ asked Ruby.
Kekoa shook her head. ‘No,’ she said, ‘not yet.’
‘One of the kids in my swim team thought she heard it in Twinford Bay.’
Kekoa looked up. ‘Really?’ she said. ‘No one heard it there before.’
‘Well, I wouldn’t hold your breath,’ said Ruby. ‘Red’s a very imaginative kid, if you know what I mean. She was prepared to believe it was mermaids.’
Kekoa continued to stare at Ruby, but didn’t say a word.
Hitch wouldn’t allow anyone to dive until he had checked out everything he could check out. The coast seemed to be clear – nothing untoward was beeping on the radar – and finally he said, ‘Well, there don’t seem to be any murderous pirates around so I guess you’re good to go.’
The water was dead calm, the whirling currents and undertow gone for a while at least, but there was no way of knowing for exactly how long.
‘Be careful Ruby,’ said Kekoa. ‘This situation is not safe; these waters should not be so still, and might not be for much longer – these are dangerous seas.’
If Ruby had interpreted the coded message correctly, then they were moored just above the wreck of the Seahorse where the toes of the sisters meet. The location seemed to fit with Martha Fairbank’s description too. ‘We sailed to the rock guarded by the golden bird.’
Hitch lined up the boat in such a way that indeed, from that angle, the pinnacle of the rock did look like a golden bird. As he did so, Ruby saw what looked like a blink of light flash from the smaller island. She squinted, staring ahead of her, but it didn’t come again.
‘What is it?’ asked Hitch.
‘I thought I saw something – a trick of the light I guess,’ said Ruby.
‘You sure you’re up for this kid?’ Hitch asked.
‘Why wouldn’t I be?’ said Ruby.
‘Diving for real is different from diving in training; you don’t know what you’re going to find down there.’
‘Isn’t that the whole point?’ said Ruby. ‘Oh, you think I might see a skeleton or two?’ She gave him a mock-horrified look.
‘I’m not so concerned about the already-dead, it’s the live ones who can cause the grief. We don’t know who’s been down there recently or what they’ve been up to so be careful and stay close to Kekoa. You hear me?’
‘I hear you,’ said Ruby.
He tapped her hand that clutched the boat’s side. ‘I’ll be right here kid. And I can follow your movements on the radar.’
She nodded, and the two Spectrum agents attached their breathing apparatus and fell back into the water.
They saw it before long: a carcass of sorts, a ship’s skeleton, covered in barnacles and seaweed, its wooden frame rotting into and blending with the very seabed. Amazing marine plants and coral had grown through it, around it and within it, and this long-dead thing was now alive and crawling with sea creatures.
Ruby stayed close to Kekoa, who signalled them towards the less accessible part of the wreck, and they made their way inside a tangled mess of wood and seaweed. Ruby felt her way, her underwater flashlight illuminating small areas at a time, catching drifts of silt in its beam, flashes of silver as quick fish dodged and darted. Shy crabs scuttled sideways and bashful anemones drew in their tentacles as she passed. All manner of life had taken up residence here, undisturbed by the world above. It was unlikely that any of these creatures had ever seen a scuba-diving schoolgirl before.
She and Kekoa moved slowly round the old ship, half-recognisable objects part-buried in the silt: something that could perhaps be a candlestick, a cup; something that might once have been a piece of furniture, but now was no more than a curiously shaped piece of wood, loomed out of the semi-dark.
They moved methodically and silently, swimming further into the wreck, Ruby pointing the flashlight into the dark recesses of what was left of the ship. They looked for anything that might provide a clue that would in turn lead them to the pirates or whoever else might be after the sunken treasure.
They had been under for about forty-seven minutes when things went bad.
A loud noise, like the rumble of thunder, and Ruby turned to see Kekoa pinned under a huge wooden beam, part of the old ship finally succumbing to the sea. Kekoa was trapped and blood was beginning to drift from her head into the water, creating a scarlet halo. But far worse was the leg wound. Ruby thought she could see bone. It
