Summer of the Sea Serpent: A Merlin Mission

they rounded a corner, they both gasped.
    In front of them was the mouth of a cave. The mouth was covered with thick, sticky white ropes. The ropes were woven tightly together in a crisscross cobweb pattern.
    “If that’s a spiderweb, we’re in big trouble,” said Annie.
    Jack tried to sound calm. “Um, the size of the web doesn’t actually tell us the size of the spider,” he said. “Plus, I once read that no spider on earth is bigger than a dinner plate.”
    “Yeah, and no horse on earth has a giant fish’s tail either,” said Annie.
    Good point,
thought Jack. “Let’s just concentrate on finding the Sword of Light before nightfall,” he said.
    Jack picked up a stone the size of a softball. He hurled it toward the mouth of the cave. The stone sailed through the giant cobweb and into the cave, pulling the sticky rope-like strands down with it.

    Jack turned to Annie. “Ready?” he said.
    She didn’t move.
    Jack took her hand. “Don’t worry, I won’t let any monster spiders get you,” he said. He nodded toward the mouth of the cave. “Onward?”
    “Onward,” Annie repeated in a small voice. Then together she and Jack stepped over the fallen web and entered the Cave of the Spider Queen.
    Inside the cave, the walls were black and shiny. The ground was wet and slippery under their bare feet.
    “Yikes!” Annie said, jumping back. A pale pink crab scuttled sideways across the rocky floor.
    “Don’t be afraid,” said Jack. “That’s not a spider.”
    “I know,” said Annie. “Sorry.”
    As they went deeper and deeper into the cave, it grew darker and darker. Finally Jack saw a faint light coming from a wide, arched passage. “That way,” he said.
    They stepped through the arch into a round chamber with a high ceiling. There were several large cracks in the ceiling that let in beams of sunlight. The misty light shined on mossy green ledges and on a green, spongy-looking floor. Silver droplets dripped from above,
ker-plopping
into tiny pools. Squeaks and chirps came from crannies and hiding places in the walls.
    “What’s that noise?” asked Annie.
    “Probably just teeny cave crickets or baby bats,” said Jack.
    “No,
that
noise,” said Annie, “the whispering noise.”
    Jack listened. Then he heard it: a low whispering. He couldn’t make out the words. It just sounded like
whisper-whisper-whisper-whisper.
The hair stood up on the back of his neck. Now
he
began to feel scared.
    “This place is really creepy,” said Annie.
    “No kidding,” said Jack. “But we don’t have to stay here long. The rhyme says we just haveto
pass through
the cave. So let’s hurry and pass through it.”
    Jack and Annie walked through the ghostly green light of the chamber. The spongy floor squished beneath their bare feet. As they searched for an exit from the cave, they both kept an eye out for the Spider Queen.
    “Hey, look at the starfish,” said Annie. She pointed to a bright orange starfish clinging to the rocky ceiling. “How’d
he
get up there?”
    Before Jack could answer, a wave crashed into the chamber. Water splashed over Jack and Annie.
    “Yikes!” said Annie. She and Jack jumped onto a mossy ledge jutting out from the wall.
    The wave washed back out. There was a moment of quiet. Then another wave surged into the chamber. It splashed against the cave walls, soaking Jack and Annie again.
    “Oh, man,” said Jack. “The tide must be coming in! Soon this whole cave will be flooded!”
    The wave receded. For a moment all was quiet again.
    “We’d better leave
now
!” said Jack. “Quick! Go back the way we came in!”

    Jack and Annie jumped down from the ledge. But before they could escape, another wave crashed into the cave! This one swept them off their feet and pulled them down into the foamy water.
    Jack grabbed Annie’s hand. Fighting the swirling current, they climbed back up onto the mossy ledge. The water churned and gurgled around the chamber.
    “We can’t go back the way we came in,” said Jack. “The waves will just keep knocking us down, and we’ll get caught in the current!”
    “Maybe we can get out through that crack!” cried Annie. She pointed to the widest crack in the cave ceiling. It was high above the swirling water.
    “It’s too high!” said Jack. “We can’t get up there!” He looked frantically around the flooded cave, searching for another way out. Suddenly he froze in horror.
    Clinging to a ledge near the ceiling crack was the Spider