Emitting her little sounds, Nani’s gray body cut through the water around Kaia like a torpedo. Ajax was more awkward, but his enjoyment could be seen through the mask. Leia reached out and grabbed the dolphin’s dorsal fin as she zoomed close. Nani slowed and pulled her through the water. The warm rush of silken water through her hair and over her face brought a feeling of euphoria.
Leia had never swum with a dolphin before. Seeing the intelligence and humor in Nani’s eyes was like looking into the face of a close friend. Leia ran her gloved hands over the dolphin’s body in a last caress, then turned to examine the crack Bane was pointing out. She was sure it wasn’t there the last time she dived here. She looked around to get her bearings and recognized the cave to her left and the mound of coral growing here. This was the place. But there had been no large crack, and wasn’t there more seafloor?
She swam to the edge of the abyss and looked down. The sharp drop-off intrigued her, and she squinted through her mask at the area below her. A bed of seaweed caught her attention. Was that Hypnea musciformis? The rogue seaweed had been introduced to Hawai’i over thirty years ago and spread rampantly. All divers in Moloka’i were asked to be on the lookout for it and to report any outbreaks here. She motioned to Nani. The dolphin approached, and Leia grabbed hold of Nani’s dorsal fin again. She jabbed her thumb down, and the dolphin flipped her tail and dove. The water rushed past Leia’s ears, and she felt a terrifying sense of vertigo. She checked her dive computer and saw she was nearly to two hundred feet. The seaweed was right in front of her. It looked like the Hypnea musciformis.
Leia released Nani and clipped a bit of the seaweed to take back. She was too deep and knew she had to get back to a more shallow depth, but the coral formations here entranced her. To avoid nitrogen narcosis, she inhaled and exhaled slowly and paid attention to her surroundings. The underwater sea cliffs continued down as far as she could see. There was no bottom here. But there was an interesting ledge that jutted out. She floated just above it. The ledge was nearly as long as a football field and about a hundred feet wide. It held the most beautiful coral garden she’d ever seen. Lobe coral massed against the back sea cliff, and red cauliflower coral grew in profusion. The fish in the area had found it too, as schools of bright yellow tangs and striped butterfly fish darted around her.
She stared with a sense of wonder and growing euphoria. A peacock grouper, speckled in bright blue, swam close to take a look at her. The fish seemed to glow with iridescent colors. She wanted to reach out and touch it. If only she could live down here among this beauty. She realized she was grinning hugely when an explosion of bubbles escaped her mouthpiece. She clamped her teeth back down on her mouthpiece, but her lips felt numb. Leia knew she should go back up. The others didn’t know where she’d gone, but she didn’t want to leave. This place was magical.
Her gaze swept the ledge, and she saw the outline of what looked like the hull of a boat. The beauty of it dazzled her even more. Could she have found the galleon they were looking for? She should go up and get Bane, but she couldn’t bring herself to leave. She tried to read on her dive computer, but she found it hard to focus her eyes. Only gradually did she become aware that her ears were ringing, and the sense of euphoria began to slip. She was narced, she realized sluggishly. Nitrogen narcosis. She needed to surface, but her muscles didn’t want to obey.
Nani bumped her nostrum against her hand, and Leia managed to fasten her gaze on the dolphin. She told herself to grab hold, and she reached out with numb fingers. Had she managed to grab Nani? Yes, there was the resilient stability of the dolphin’s body. She wrapped her fingers around the dolphin’s fin, and Nani began to pull her up. Were they going too fast? Leia couldn’t tell. She watched the sea cliffs move past as in a kaleidoscope. She could only trust the dolphin.
They reached the top of the drop-off. Leia paused to try to get her bearings, but her brain still wasn’t thinking clearly. It would take a while for the narcosis to wear off. Nani pulled her toward Bane and Kaia. They were separated by about forty feet and seemed to be looking around. Probably for her, she realized with a dull sense of shame. They were both going to scold her when they got to the top. And she deserved it. She’d broken a cardinal rule of diving by going off alone. She hadn’t realized how quickly she could become narced. If not for Nani, she would probably have died down there. She could only thank God he’d kept the dolphin close.
Bane turned and saw her, and even from this distance, she could see the rigidity in his body relax. An explosion of bubbles escaped from his mouth, and she knew she was in for it. The way she felt right now, she would welcome a chewing out. At least it meant she was alive to hear it.