She contained her gasp, sealed her mouth. She’d breathed underwater once before, and did not want to repeat the experience—the burning pain as water entered her lungs, the indignity of heaving it out. She swam forward, giving Jake room to clear the Gate. After a few arm strokes, she came up against a smooth white wall that completely encircled them, as if they were in the shaft of a giant well. Light shone from above; she could not see the bottom. She couldn’t guess where they were. Obviously not in the sea surrounding Caelum—not if the walls surrounded them. The hum of the Gate disappeared. Khavi hadn’t delayed closing it. Her dark hair floated around Alice’s shoulders as she faced Jake. He stared upward, and a grin slowly widened his mouth. You won’t believe what this is, he signed. What? she asked, but he only took her hand, and dug the toes of his boots against the wall to propel them up faster than they could have swum. They didn’t have far to go—only one or two hundred meters.
