I shrink back into the darkness, still pulled by Violet, desperate, hoping it is Violet pulling me and not some flubbery, faceless horror from the deep.

“Quiet,” I hear her say, close to my ear.

It’s possible that I’m making some small whimpering sounds right now. I can’t, despite my best efforts, stop thinking that very soon the sea will surge back over the deck of the ship and fill this small dark space with water. What if we’re still here when that happens? What if the door slams shut? What if this is our tomb…?

“Herbie, seriously, be quiet!”

I clench my teeth firmly together.

It’s hard to distinguish any noise from outside now, beyond the whistle of the wind. But is that a footstep? Then there’s a clang of metal banging against metal, and suddenly, before we can do anything, there’s a blinding flash.

A head – it must be Eels – looks into the doorway, and his helmet torches fill the inside of the turret with brilliant light. I see the slimy, metal interior of the turret crawling with sea creatures in a moment of vivid awfulness, and then the light is gone, leaving me blinded, with the memory of those sea creatures swarming in my mind.

Amazingly, Eels doesn’t seem to have spotted us. We’re flat against one side of the turret, partly shielded by a curtain of seaweed. And he only glanced inside, anyway, perhaps thinking no one in their right mind would crawl into such a small and dismal hole.

“It’s not here,” we hear him call over the wind, somewhere outside on the deck. “We mustn’t waste time…”

Another sound cuts through his voice – a high roaring shriek, like sheet metal being rent in two. But it’s not really that. In the foetid dark, Violet and I look at each other as we recognize the cry of the malamander.

“Come on!” cries Eels, and we hear his boots thudding away across the deck. Soon we can hear nothing but the gusting of the wind outside.

“I need to get out of here,” I whisper, but Violet grabs my arm again.

“Wait, didn’t you notice it?” she says. “When he shone his light inside?”

“It?” I say, remembering the crawling, spiny, scaly creatures that call this watery hell their home. “Don’t you mean them? We need to get out of here, Violet. Now!”