The sun passed, creating instant shadow in the narrows and making it more difficult for Dion to see. He hated not knowing what was happening, and instead of trying to see the black shape under the water he tried to read the water at the place where the opposing rock walls were closest.

‘Can you see the splashes about thirty feet from the left face? I think that’s where it is.’ He pointed while Cob frowned, squinting and shaking his head. ‘You can see the splashes, can’t you?’

‘I’m trying, lad.’

‘Look harder.’

Cob narrowed his eyes and peered at the water. ‘Surely it has to come up for air? I saw no gills.’

The time dragged out. In his mind’s eye Dion tried to see the serpent using its sheer size and strength to push away the boulder.

He was staring so hard at the sea in the distant narrows that he almost fell overboard when there was a sudden explosion in the water next to the boat. Gray skin and scales appeared out of nowhere. The water beside the boat erupted like a volcano.

A monstrous head shot out barely four feet away from the boat’s gunwale. It lifted itself vertically into the air as water streamed from its sides, drenching Dion instantly in the torrent. The boat rocked precariously and threatened to tip over as the eldran regarded Dion with angular glaring eyes. The thin pupils were as black as night, surrounded by amber irises flecked with golden sparks.

Dion and the serpent looked eye to eye.

The frill was flattened against its neck, adding to the impression of a wedge-shaped head, all sharp and spiny, with two holes for nostrils and a mouth of curved white teeth. The eyes were surprisingly warm and filled with intelligence. Dion knew without a doubt that this creature was aware, in a way no beast or fish was.

There was a crescent scar on the serpent’s left cheek and the occasional silver scale was mottled, as if it were old. When he thought that this creature, or another of its kind, had saved Chloe’s sister’s life, and that Chloe considered the eldren friends, Dion gained new respect for the first consul’s daughter.

The leviathan regarded him and bowed its head slowly.

‘What . . . What is it doing?’ Dion asked Cob.

‘I think he’s telling us that he’s done it.’

‘How do you know it’s a he?’

Cob shrugged. ‘He looks like a he.’

Still standing and gripping the mast with a white-knuckled hand, Dion bowed to the eldran. ‘Thank you!’ he called.

The jaws parted and the serpent nodded again. The huge reptilian head slowly sank beneath the water.

And when Dion and Cob raised the sail and once more approached the narrows, the blockage was gone.