Dark Calling by Darren Shan Read Free Book Online Page B

next. I don’t think it’s easy. These patches of
     lights aren’t as easily mastered as the ones I’m accustomed to. It seems to be hard work.
    I’m still worried about Dervish and the others, and in shock about the loss of Beranabus. But there’s nothing I can do, so
     I lie back and bide my time. I’m in the grip of something more powerful than myself. I don’t understand it and I can’t fight
     or escape.
Yet.
      We pass through another window and I find myself in a waterlogged chamber. I’m not sure what the walls are made of, but it
     looks like seaweed. As we slip through, parts of the walls glow. It’s not magic—I can see small organisms in the crevices
     of the greenish blocks. They’re like underwater glowworms.
    “We will rest awhile,” Art says, letting the window close behind us. The lights surrounding me shimmer, then slip off, although
     a layer remains, keeping me dry and providing me with air.
    “That’s clever,” I note as the ball of light transforms into a boy.
    “What?” Art frowns.
    “The shield.”
    “It is nothing special.”
    “Are you tired?” I ask, detecting weariness in his tone.
    “Yes.” He sighs. “Travel of this nature is draining. We don’t normally cross vast distances so swiftly. But time is against
     us, so I must push myself.”
    “How far have we come?”
    He pauses, then says, “You do not have words to describe it. Your scientists do, but their terms would mean nothing to you.”
    Art heads towards a gap in the glowing blocks and I glide after him. We exit the chamber and I’m confronted with an underwater
     paradise. I’m blown away by what I see, and it takes a minute before I can do anything except bob up and down in the water
     and stare.
    We’re in the middle of a city. The buildings are all kinds of weird shapes, made of seaweed, shells, and huge, twisting roots.
     Many rise far above and deep below us, two hundred floors high, maybe more. Most sway gently. All sorts of colors, illuminated
     by enormous swathes of the glowing organisms I saw in the chamber.
    There are no roads, just avenues between, through, and around the buildings. No glass or doors, only scores of holes in the
     structures.
    I spot some creatures. There are hordes—schools?—of them all around us, floating along the avenues, darting in and out of
     holes in the buildings. They look like the sea life of my world, only more varied.
    As I’m watching, a shark-like beast with several mouths and one giant eye chases an animal that looks like a cross between
     a seal and a deer. The predator runs down its prey and rips it to shreds. Clouds of scavengers move in quickly and finish
     off the scraps that the shark leaves behind.
    “Are we safe?” I ask nervously. There are more of the sharks around, and other mutations that look ever fiercer.
    “They won’t harm us,” Art says. “This is a perfectly balanced world. Nothing would attack anything that it was not, by nature,
     designed to prey upon.”
    As he says that, a sea snake the size of a redwood tree passes beneath us. It raises its huge head and studies us. I feel
     like I’m going to be its lunch. But then it moves on, jaws opening and closing slowly, in search of other food.
    “I don’t like this,” I mutter. “When can we leave?”
    “Soon,” Art says. “First I must acknowledge the greeting of the natives.”
    A ring of creatures closes around us. Each looks like a cross between a small whale and an octopus, large but graceful. Their
     many arms are adorned with shells and sea flowers, and intricate designs that might be tattoos. They swirl over, under, and
     around one another, as if dancing.
    “They
are
dancing,” Art says. “They worship my kind and wish to perform in our honor. We have not passed through here in a long time.
     They are excited.”
    “Why do they think so much of you?” I ask.
    “We saved them from a demon attack long ago.”
    “The Demonata cross to other worlds?” I