The Island on the Edge of Forever (The Epic of Aravinda Book 2) by Andrew M. Crusoe

these tunnels, she saw a light. The light became brighter and brighter until it shone clearly onto the far wall.
    A moment later, Asha could scarcely believe her eyes when a gigantic jellyfish squirted out of the opening and expanded like an inflating balloon. It was easily larger than either Liila or Navika, and as its enormous, grey-purple tentacles draped down, they struck Asha as particularly ominous. Had these been the same arms that had brought their ship down?
    A bizarre grinding sound filled her ears, until she could make out words between them. Yet they weren’t words. It felt as if she had just learned the creature’s language in an instant, but Asha knew better. Just as it always did, her wristcomm was now forming a psychic bridge between their minds, allowing Asha to understand everything that the formidable creature was saying.
    “Trespass,” it whispered. “Trespass you have. Lessons. Yes.”
    “We didn’t mean to trespass,” Asha said. “We’re looking for someone. A friend. He has—” She stopped herself. There was no reason this creature needed to know about their mission. She just needed to deal with him and move on. “I’m looking for my friend. I didn’t mean to trespass.”
    “Trespass.” The creature scooped her up with one of its tentacles. She almost screamed as she was hoisted up, but she controlled herself. “You who are like stone, why do you question your sinking?”
    Asha held onto the wide end of the tentacle that acted as a pad. “I — I’m not stone! I’m a healer.”
    Bubbles escaped from the bottom of the beast, and behind it she noticed that one of the tentacles had a nasty gash. “An amusing lie. But no healer can be stone.” The creature brought her closer to the edge of its mighty domed head, eyeless.
    “What do you mean?” Asha struggled to stand up. “I’m not stone. I’m trying to find my friend. His name is Zahn. Have you heard of him? And where is Mira? She was on the ship. What did you do with her?”
    “Answers are not given to liars. You have trespassed on a sacred place, a Cradle of Life.” The water became still. “You must choose your fate, you with a heavy heart. You must choose eternal captivity, or death.”
    Asha was silent for a while, and the creature continued to hold her steady about a dozen meters over the walkway.
    “Does it hurt?” she finally said.
    The creature bobbed up and down for a second. “The stone fails to make sense.”
    “I see one of your tentacles has been cut. Does it hurt?”
    Only a few bubbles escaped the beast this time. “Care not for me, small stone. You could never understand.”
    Asha blinked, and she thought she saw a red spark shoot up from the damaged tentacle.
    “It’s okay. I can see it; I can heal it.”
    “How can you of a heavy heart possibly help me?”
    Asha crossed her arms. “Because I’ve helped many others before you. I wasn’t lying. I am a healer! Can I just try, please? I can help you.”
    For a few moments, nothing moved except tiny particles of debris floating in the haze around them. And slowly, the creature brought the damaged tentacle around to Asha. The gash was about as long as her arm, and she put her hands over it and closed her eyes.
    She began softly, but her chant grew to a resonating pitch. Asha found singing underwater to be difficult at first. None of the consonants were audible, but the round vowels of the song opened her up. The songs that the Amithyans had taught her brought warmth to every situation, and soon she felt an undeniable tingling where her hands touched its wound. With each verse, she relaxed, and opened her heart more and more to the creature, showering it with love.
    At last, the song ended, and she removed her hands and opened her eyes. The cut was gone, and she saw a golden light percolate down to the tentacle she had been working on.
    Without saying a word, the colossal jellyfish floated upward, and Asha watched as the circular walkway diminished in