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“Something brushed against my leg!”

“It was probably Fisi,” Ethan said, hauling Tariro up as quickly as he could before diving in to push Fisi to the ledge. If the hyena youth’s spectacular belly-flop into the pool were anything to go by, Ethan guessed he would be a little worse for wear. Sure enough, he coughed and spluttered, then lay on his back, a picture of abject misery.

“Well, that was creepy!” Tariro grumbled, looking down into the gloomy depths of the water below.

Jimoh muttered something to him in Shona. “He says it felt as if the giant hand of the devil was going to come up from the bottom and pull us under,” Tariro interpreted, nodding in agreement.
 

Ethan, too, was aware of an indefinable fear, even though there was plenty of shadowy light pouring in from the open sky. “At least it’s a sinkhole and not a cave,” he said, trying to cheer everyone up.

“What is sinkhole?” Jimoh asked.

“An underground cave, but with the roof fallen in,” Tariro explained.

Several waterfalls cascaded into the hole from various tunnels – some large and fast flowing, some smaller, diminishing down to one that was barely a trickle. The river must have split up somewhere inside the mountain, Ethan thought. A faint smell of rotting vegetation hung in the air and, oddly, a whiff of sulphur.

“Our crocodile friends are going to drag us through that underwater tunnel connecting this pool to a lake, which is their home,” Salih said, pointing at a sinister-looking dark spot several metres below the surface of the water. He did not look happy.

“Underwater?” Tariro said dubiously when Ethan explained that to him. “Look, I am not afraid or anything, but do these guys understand how long we can hold our breath before we drown? Are you sure they don’t plan to take us under there and drown us anyway?”

“Tariro, is better to drown than to stay here. This place very creepy,” Jimoh shuddered.

“No, Jimoh! Is better we get out of here alive and go find Joe,” Tariro said.

“They understand this with the breath. They have taken a human this way before,” Salih said. “I will go first to make sure it is safe. Then they can come back for you.” Ethan sensed that even Salih was anxious to get away from the hole. He wondered if the leopard knew something they did not.

While they waited their turn, Jimoh gathered the equipment. He let the air out of the tubes regretfully. “We have lost foot pump by hippo pool, Ethan, but can cut up for sling.”
 

Remembering his aunt’s advice about the mosquito nets, Ethan tied them up in a bundle to take through the tunnel. He suddenly realised he hadn’t worried about malaria in days – not since his aunt had asked him about the anti-malaria pills. Could the magic be protecting him from that too? He hadn’t felt asthmatic either... Maybe this journey wasn’t so bad after all.
 

Stashing the sweets and his penknife in the watertight compartment of his rucksack, he zipped it up tightly. He would have to remember to oil his knife later as his step-dad had shown him, whether or not it got wet.

Eventually the two crocodiles reappeared without Salih and swam up beside the ledge, indicating that they were ready for the next passengers.

Tariro and Fisi went after Salih. In the end, Tariro was more spooked by the creepiness of the sinkhole than the danger of the underwater tunnel, and couldn’t wait to get going.
 

Having ran out of tasks to keep them occupied, Ethan and Jimoh huddled together in the disquieting sinkhole alone, chilled and wretched, listening for the sound of Amun and Darwishi’s return. Ethan stared down into the water. He could not shake the dreadful feeling that something dark moved in the gloomy depths below watching every move they made.
 

As he watched, a shaft of sunshine grew slowly across the water and the sun moved vertically overhead. The nature of the grotto began to change. Gradually, the water lightened to azure blue. Mist thrown up by the waterfalls displayed an almost perfectly circular rainbow that looked like a Catharine Wheel in the sunlight. Hundreds of colourful little fishes darted to and fro just below the shelf.

“Look, Ethan!” Jimoh grabbed Ethan by the back of his shirt and pointed down into the depths of the water. A couple of metres below, sunlight bounced off a small pile of multicoloured crystals spilling over a narrow ledge.
 

“That’s what’s making the coloured reflections on the walls,” Ethan began, then his eyes widened in disbelief. “Oh my word – they’re gemstones!” He shook Jimoh excitedly. “Do you think there will be more on the bottom?” He put his face into the water and tried to see the bottom of the sinkhole. It was deep, but there were definitely colours down there.

“I am going to dive down and have a look,” he said, starting to remove his trousers.

“What for we want this thing, Ethan,” Jimoh said, dismissing the idea.

“Jimoh! The stones are valuable,” Ethan said.

“Then he belong to someone, Ethan. Is stealing. Stones like money, they do not grow together all in one place like this. You have to dig them. Someone, he put these stones here.” Jimoh rubbed the back of his neck.

“Jimoh, do you remember Salih told us we might have to trade to get Joe back? Well, this is the perfect thing,” Ethan pleaded. “Even if we don’t have to pay to get Joe back, we could keep them. Just think how much you can uplift your village with this stash. We could run electricity there. You could have computers, TV, build proper houses. Besides, there are piles – no one would notice if we took some.”

Jimoh looked at Ethan as if he was out of his mind. “Tjalotjo happy with houses we have got, Ethan. We build ourselves, from nature.” He shook his head. “Cement for city... TV also.” Then his eyes widened. “What if stones evil, like Gogo Maya stones?”

“No! No. Jimoh. I don’t think Gogo Maya’s stones are evil,” Ethan said. “Look at me! There is the healing and I am so strong now.”

“Also reckless, Ethan, and greedy, I am noticing.” Jimoh wet his lips, and then gave a nod of assent. “But you are right, maybe is only way to save Joe.” He took his hat off his head and twirled it nervously in his hands before him, ready to dive.

“Not so fast, Jimoh, it’s very deep.” Ethan did not want Jimoh to drown, or get the bends from diving too deep. He wasn’t that sure how deep they would have to go before they got decompression sickness. Ethan had seen divers on TV drop down with a weight to make the descent faster, and come up slowly, in stages, to stabilise the nitrogen buildup in their bodies caused by the pressure of all the water above them. Come to think of it, they also used scuba-diving equipment, but he was just going to have to do without. If one of them was going down, he decided, it had better be him. He was beginning to suspect that he could hold his breath for longer than usual because he had done it when facing off with the hippopotamus. He realised he had done it at the Crystal Pools too. There was no time to explain all that to Jimoh before the crocodiles returned. Feeling only slightly guilty about his subterfuge, Ethan said, “I think it is safer for me to go down because of the amulet magic.” He folded Jimoh’s hat under his arm and searched the ledge for a suitable rock to use as a weight.
 

It was too dark down there to see properly what he was doing, so he dug Jimoh’s hat in under the pebbles and gathered up whatever stones lay on the floor, then floated warily upwards through the water, stopping twice and treading water as he had seen on TV. He rushed the last five metres or so because his lungs were fit to burst, but a quick check of his limbs revealed that his body was none the worse for the dive.

Amun and Darwishi lurked, waiting for him on the surface, and before Ethan could take stock of his haul, Darwishi took the hat gently in his mouth and started to tip the contents back into the pool. Jimoh spoke rapidly to him in Shona and, amazingly, he stopped.
 

Ethan whipped round to stare at Jimoh. “You can talk to the crocodiles? They speak Shona?”

Jimoh laughed. “Not like you and Salih, Ethan. More like... dog. But better. Sometime he do what I want. If he want same thing.”

Ethan tried his luck. He explained to Darwishi, more slowly and elaborately than was probably necessary, “I hope you don’t mind. We need the gems to get our friend back. If you want, I will put them back in the water again.”
 

Darwishi, not all that expressive at the best of times, appeared not to care either way, but he let go of the hat. After a moment, Ethan picked it up and started to stash the gems into his pockets. A quick glimpse at the stones told him he had scooped up more than he had bargained for. “They’re not just semi-precious crystals,” he said with a sharp intake of breath. “They’re emeralds and tanzanite! And...” He pocketed them more quickly, in case Darwishi changed his mind.

Climbing on to the backs of the crocodiles both boys took a deep breath in preparation for the dive through the tunnel. Ethan almost gasped for air as Darwishi dove beneath the water. A searing sensation struck his temples, as if he were passing through eucalyptus oil or concentrated mint. Then a vision of a dangerous looking dragon flashed into his head, hanging there for several terrifying moments.
 

It had one sharp rhinoceros horn sweeping back from the middle of its snout, one from its forehead, and an even bigger one on the top of its head. A row of horns decorated each of its brow ridges. All sloping backwards like greenish flames caught in suspended animation and petrified to look like stone. Slanted eyes stared red and angry.
 

Then, just as suddenly the image was gone and Ethan knew it had been sent to him by Amun or Darwishi. Was that an early warning of what the Sobek change into, or were they just trying to frighten him? And if so, why? After they’d been so friendly and helpful all the way from Crystal Pool, were him and Jimoh about to be eaten?

Darwishi pulled Ethan swiftly through the under water passage, and he had only become slightly worried about his next breath when the end of the tunnel lightened and he braced himself to plunge into yet another pool. He was quite taken aback when they emerged smoothly, still underwater, and burst up to the surface to find themselves in an underground cave. He took a deep breath and tried to orientate himself before staring open-mouthed at the immensity of the cavern.

Rocks, the size of houses, lay scattered along the water’s edge, fallen from a hole in the massive vaulted ceiling. A shaft of sunlight beamed down through a lacy fringe of long dangling vines. Giant stalactites clung to the ceiling like petrified stone icicles. Ethan felt almost as if he had shrunk.

“Look, Ethan!” Jimoh pointed skywards. Swallows darted in and out of the brilliant shaft of sunlight, so far up, and so small, they could have been mistaken for butterflies.

An eerie light reflected off the surface of the underground river. Puddles of petrol-coloured liquid floating on the water beside him, absorbed sunlight, held it for a heartbeat, pulsing with an ethereal glow, and then released it back into the atmosphere. Ethan was strangely drawn towards it. He sliced his hand slowly through the nearest puddle, dispersing the liquid, feeling the iciness of it against his hand. He watched it ripple apart into smaller puddles and then drift together again to be reabsorbed like mercury. He snatched his hand away at the thought, hoping it wasn’t poisonous like mercury. A slight smell of tinned pears wafted off it into the air.
 

“We must find Tariro and Fisi,” Jimoh beckoned, applying pressure to Amun’s left flank with his knee and Amun turned away from the sunlight towards the gloomy interior. Was Jimoh riding the crocodile like a horse now? It wouldn’t surprise Ethan, but he was not about to test it himself. Darwishi would probably bite his leg off. He wondered if the crocodile was angry with him, or disappointed about the gemstones. He could tell nothing from Darwishi’s stony expression.

The underground river was deep and slow flowing. It emptied into a lake in a cavern, even larger than the one before. The light from Ethan’s headlamp barely penetrated its vastness, and, if anything, seemed to make the cavern behind look even darker.

Jimoh spotted the others first. They were waiting on the edge of the lake, surrounded by a number of burly-looking people carrying lit fire-torches. Thankfully, there was no sign of the frightening dragon Ethan imagined earlier.

He scrambled off Darwishi’s back and waded through the shallow water towards them. Close up, the Sobek people had a powerful, muscular look about them, with dark ochre-coloured skin and viridian green eyes that flashed in the flickering torchlight. Some looked hairless or had shaved heads, and some wore pitch-black wigs that looked as if they were made out of raffia, which fell in a multitude of plaits to just below their shoulders. They wore layers of wildly patterned, colourful kangas like swimming towels, which seemed appropriate with so much water about. The men wore them tied around their waists, and the women wore them tucked up under their armpits. Single polished gems, mostly topaz or garnet, the size of pigeon eggs dangled from leather thongs strung around the men’s necks. Some of the men wore deep red or blue opaque gems with a six-rayed star that reflected from their depths when they caught the light. Ethan wondered if there was any social significance or hierarchy symbolised by the gems they were wearing, or if they were just a personal choice.
 

A man crushed Ethan’s hand in a vice-like grip, hauling him out of the water as if expecting something much heavier, and spilled him onto the bank. He rumbled something in a voice so deep Ethan could hardly make out what he was saying. His square, short face crinkled into a benign smile and he removed the shocking pink outermost Kanga from around his own waist and offered it to Ethan. The man appeared to have several layers underneath, in a kaleidoscope of patterns and colours – gaudy, even in the gloom of the cave.

“Thank you,” Ethan said. He was not sure he wanted to wear the man’s Kanga but Tariro already wore a similarly donated bright kanga, so he guessed that was the polite thing to do. After wrapping it securely around his waist, he wriggled out of his cargo pants underneath, then rolled them into a ball and gripped them under his arm, acutely aware of his own gems hidden in the pockets.