The Stone of Destiny

by Caroline Logan

  “Not unless you picked up the stone and bashed them about the head with it,” answered Harris with a laugh. He seemed so at ease for being so far from the sea. Angus felt a pang of jealousy which he immediately admonished himself for. It’s no good envying others. If you want to be that way, just act like it. Fake it till you make it, he thought wryly. He puffed up his chest and followed behind the selkie, being sure to keep Ailsa in the middle so she would feel safer. He knew how debilitating it was to be afraid.

  Harris whistled a tune and Ailsa swung her axe as they walked. Her eyes were always alert and focussed in front of her. Angus sensed she was listening intently.

  Once they could no longer see the clearing behind them, it was Harris that gave a start.

  “What is this?”

  He was trailing his hand over the trunks again, but the one he was touching had something on it. When Angus came closer to investigate, he realised it was a scorch mark.

  In the shape of a hand.

  “Well, that’s suitably creepy,” said Harris. his voice still cheerful. “Don’t worry, it looks pretty old,” he attempted to reassure Ailsa.

  From the corner of his vision, Angus could see she was not convinced.

  “What do you think caused it?” she whispered. Her gaze darted wildly around the trees, taking in all the shadows.

  “A few months ago, some people came to speak to my father about fires being started in the woods.” Angus lifted a finger and traced the burn mark thoughtfully. “They said they had been caused by a demon and asked him to send someone to kill it. My father told them it was probably some youths attempting to scare everyone and sent them away with some donkeys they could use to transport water if the fires got too close to their village.”

  “Which is probably why this handprint is here.” Harris pushed them on, away from the tree. “Just some kids trying to scare travellers.”

  “How exactly would they do that?” questioned Angus. He received a glare from Harris, who looked pointedly over at Ailsa. Her face had become ashen and she was unconsciously hugging her axe and wringing her hands.

  “Right,” said Angus, taking a deep breath. “Probably kids.”

  The sooner they left this forest, the better.

  Chapter 25

  Ailsa was feeling more tired than terrified after yet another hour. It wasn’t that she felt reassured, she just couldn’t stay uneasy any longer. This had been the longest she had ever been in a forest without the red-eyed creature appearing. Maybe it had died? She was still rather tetchy though.

  Angus bumped his shoulder against hers. “Let’s play a game.”

  Ailsa could think of nothing worse, but seeing Harris’s warning look, she reined in her frustration.

  “Is it called Everyone-Shuts-Up-and-Leaves-Ailsa-Alone?” she asked with steely eyes.

  Angus pursed his lips. “No, the day will seem quicker if we talk—”

  “Not likely,” she muttered.

  Undeterred, Angus pressed on. “So, what you have to do is, make up a rhyme about a person we know and Harris and I have to guess who it is.”

  “We’ve only just met,” she grumbled. “How many people can we make rhymes about?”

  Taking her question as cooperation, he beamed. “We have a few people in common. Harris, you start.”

  The selkie thought for a second and then gave her a wink. “Okay. There was a girl who moaned all the time, though her axe skills were simply sublime. She thinks that I’m hot, and likes me a lot, but she isn’t impressed by my rhyme.”

  “No,” Ailsa protested, reddening all the same. “I’m not.”

  Clearly enjoying the fun, Angus’s grin grew. There was also a wicked glint in his eye that made her wonder if he was making things awkward on purpose.

  “Right, Ailsa, your turn,” he snickered.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Nope. Not going to happen.”

  “Please,” he pouted, sidling up to her and, in an unexpectedly bold move, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. He squeezed her tightly, causing her to suck in air. The prince smelled like the outdoors: cedar and some type of herb. It distracted her and she missed half of what he was saying. Unfortunately, he seemed to still be pleading with her to join in.

  He gave her another squeeze and implored sweetly, “I’ll give you a title?”

  A quick bark of laughter escaped before she could stop herself. “You can do that?”

  Angus grinned guiltily. “Not really.” He let her go and she immediately missed the warmth his arm had provided. “But I can promise all-you-can-eat cake when we return.”

  She turned to Harris, but found that he was not smiling. Instead, he was instead watching them with a with a look Ailsa couldn’t quite place.

  “Urgh, fine,” she relented, catching the selkie’s eye and sticking her tongue out at him before continuing. “There once was an annoying prince, who constantly made me wince. I don’t want to play, so please go away. You and Harris both talk utter…” She chewed the inside of her cheek in concentration, searching for a rhyme. “Mince.”

  Harris’s lips twitched, but it was Angus who threw his head back with laughter. “That’s good, Ailsa, well done. Now I’ll go.” He scratched his beard in thought before making a noise of triumph. “There was a boy who turned into a seal…” he began, reaching around to clap the other man on the back, “and really loved eating fish for a meal. He was a huge flirt, and did not wear a shirt—”

  “Such a shame he had no sex appeal!” finished Ailsa smugly.

  “Hey!” Harris grabbed at her but missed as she dodged out of the way. “I’ll have you know I’m very appealing.”

  “You know, Ailsa, he’s right,” laughed Angus. “As a seal, he is adorable.”

  “He should stay that way more often, then,” she teased.

  Harris sniffed in mock indignation. “Shut up,” he said. “Or I’ll no longer be your friend.”

  “Angus, you’re a genius!” said Ailsa. “All it took was some poetry to get him to leave us alone!”

  Harris turned on them then, hands on his hips, doing a good impression of a nagging mother—or his sister.

  “You two need t—” His head snapped to the side, his body suddenly rigid. “What was that?”

  Angus rolled his eyes. “Don’t try to trick us, Harris.”

  “No. I heard a noise. It sounded like a crunch, behind us.”

  Ailsa’s laughter died in her throat and she went still.

  It couldn’t be. Not now.

  They remained silent as they listened. The wind whistled through the treetops and the birds chirped somewhere overhead.

  “There’s nothing—” Angus began, but cut off to stare at the forest behind them.

  Then Ailsa heard it; the distinctive crunch that always echoed her footsteps whenever she stepped into a forest.

  “Move,” she breathed.

  Chapter 26

  Angus could tell that Ailsa was extremely frightened. Even Harris looked unsettled. Although unaware of what the potential danger was, Angus knew these woods. He’d spent his youth hunting game in here; the things that could harm them tended to stay out of the way. Just as he was about to joke about squirrels, he saw Ailsa’s knuckles turn white as she gripped her axe handle fiercely.

  “Just keep walking,” Ailsa spoke quietly but firmly, clearly pushing down her fear. “Faster.” The trio remained in a tight line but quickened their footsteps.

  Why is she so scared? The hair on the back of his neck stood up when he looked behind them. It was like his body could feel danger, even if his mind was still attempting to understand.

  “What is it?”

  Ailsa’s blue eyes were wide, piercing. “This is why I don’t like to go into the forest.”

  His face contorted with confusion. “Because of a crunch?”

  “There’s something following us, Angus,” Harris murmured from the front. The selkie was taking her fear seriously.

  Ailsa’s voice cracked as she urged the
m on. “Just walk faster.”

  “Look, over there—” Angus pointed through the trees to a loch sparkling in the fleeting evening light. “Just there, at the water’s edge. There’s a boat under that bush, maybe we should get out of the forest for a bit.”

  He hesitated for a moment at the thought of spending the night on a cramped boat, but Ailsa was already sprinting to the shoreline. As he followed, he heard Harris’s thundering steps behind him, echoed by another presence.

  Oh Gods, it’s real.

  It wasn’t the thing chasing them that scared Angus, but the realisation that Ailsa—this brave, indomitable girl—was terrified of it.

  The boat was little more than a wooden dinghy, but it looked sturdy. Ailsa pulled on it desperately. When Angus and Harris reached her, they joined her in forcing it through the muddy banks to the loch.

  “Don’t you think it belongs to someone?” asked Angus. He was all for getting away from whatever monster stalked them, but stealing was something he liked to avoid in general.

  Ailsa’s lip curled as she snarled, “I swear to the Gods, Prince Dope, that I will leave you here to be eaten.”

  “Fine!” He gave the dinghy a hard shove, launching it into the water. They waded in up to their knees, pushing it further in. “Let’s go.” They both hopped in while Harris steadied the little craft.

  “Hurry!” cried Ailsa to Harris as she scrambled for the oars.

  “I’ll give us a boost.” With a splash, Harris became a seal again. He nudged the boat with his nose, propelling it into the middle of the loch.

  “That’s it!” Ailsa shouted to him, keeping her eyes on the selkie. “You did it, Harris!”

  Meanwhile, Angus scanned the trees for their would-be attacker. His heart stopped for a moment. There, in the gloam of the forest, he could see a pair of red eyes, then the boat rounded a bend and the eyes disappeared from sight.

  Close call, he thought as he fought to calm his breathing.

  It seemed that Ailsa had been right.

  Chapter 27

  Harris swam beside the boat for a while, nudging it whenever they needed to change course. The loch water was black with silt and plants and Angus wondered if the selkie could even see anything under it. Angus had always been a little afraid of water. It was something about the unknown. When he’d been younger, he’d always tried to avoid swimming beyond the shallows. Of course, when the officers had discovered this fact during a training exercise, he’d been forced to spend a day chained up to a dinghy in the middle of the sea. He’d baked in the sun, terrified of what was lurking underneath him, but at the end of the day his unit returned and found him defiant and uneaten. He still didn’t like deep water, but he was much better at hiding it.

  He glanced sideways at Ailsa in the fading light. She had been huddled up at the opposite end of the boat for the better part of two hours, scanning the trees compulsively. Angus had left her to it. He knew that if he had attempted to comfort her, she’d have bitten his head off.

  Angus wondered what caused her to act that way. Panic borne from such a deep fear gnawed at your insides, leaving lacerations on your being. How long had she been running from her monsters? How many wounds did she carry?

  Soon the sky dimmed as night pressed in and Harris gracelessly heaved himself into the boat before turning back into a human.

  Ailsa grimaced. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to shift before getting in?”

  Harris wedged himself in between the two of them. “This way my clothes are mostly dry.”

  “Looks like this loch goes north for quite a bit. I guess we could just stay in the boat until we reach the top—” Angus was about to continue when he noticed Harris wasn’t really listening. Instead, he was staring intently at the Ailsa.

  Nothing new there then, Angus mused.

  “Ailsa, what was that?” The selkie finally asked.

  She bit her lip, a gesture Angus had come to realise meant she was trying to keep her emotions under control.

  “I don’t know,” she murmured. “Ever since I was a girl, there’s been something in the woods, following me.” Her voice broke on the final word and she set her mouth in a grim line.

  Harris carried on, his voice soft. “These woods? Is this where you came from?”

  “No, every wood. Every forest. Sometimes even groves of trees. They aren’t even connected. And when I’m away from the trees, it’s gone. Somehow it always finds me, even if I’m across the country.” Her voice was weak, now, and tired. It seemed like it pained her to ask her next question.

  “What if it follows me all the time, but I just can’t hear it unless I’m in the forest?” she whispered. Harris reached out to comfort her and she let him, leaning into his body.

  “Today was the first time I could feel its presence,” said Harris. “There hasn’t been anything hanging around you before.”

  Angus scanned the forest suspiciously but there was no sign of the red eyes from earlier. “Can you still feel if it’s there?”

  Harris gave a nod. “It’s away from the shoreline, further into the trees. It’s moving away.”

  Angus heaved a sigh of relief, watching the shadowy bank. “Well, at least we’re safe for now.”

  Ailsa cleared her throat. “You two should get some sleep. I’ll take first watch and let my clothes dry a bit more.” Ailsa scooted away from Harris and ran her hands through her hair in an effort to compose herself.

  Angus studied her profile as he got more comfortable in the boat. He sensed it was rare for Ailsa to fall apart as much as she had. He placed his pack under his head as a makeshift pillow and crossed his arms over his chest. The boat rocked gently in the breeze, yet he couldn’t sleep. He longed to comfort Ailsa too, but he knew their relationship was tenuous at best. A creak from the other side of the dinghy told him that Harris was awake too.

  “Harris, do you think it wants to kill me?” she whispered.

  “I don’t think so,” the selkie murmured back. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

  Angus could feel the tension as Ailsa quietly snapped, “I can protect myself.”

  Harris chuckled, immune to her sour mood. “Of course you can, lass, but I’ll watch your back nonetheless.”

  They became silent again, and soon Angus could hear a gentle whistling snore from the middle of the boat.

  Ailsa was still tense and stiff at the bow of the craft. She hugged herself tighter and gazed at the night sky. The reflection of the twinkling stars danced in her eyes, the moonlight turning her skin pale like ice, her expression just as cold. If he were to write a melody based on the moment, it would be melancholy and sorrowful, played on a single fiddle. He fell asleep imagining the notes, letting the music carry him to unconsciousness.

  Chapter 28

  The boat bobbed steadily northwards, a soft wind gently jostling the water surrounding them. The day was brighter than yesterday, and the trio allowed themselves to drift peacefully.

  Around midday, Ailsa’s stomach started rumbling which prompted an overdramatic Harris to announce that he would find her some food, lest she starve. With that, he leapt from the boat, transforming before hitting the water with a plop.

  When he resurfaced with his catch, Ailsa tutted in annoyance. “Fish? And just how are we supposed to cook fish on a wooden boat?”

  The seal stared at her, its large black eyes unblinking, before tossing the fish into the air, then catching and swallowing it in one gulp. With another splash, he disappeared back under the water.

  Half an hour later, a sharp tail slap alerted the duo to his return. This time, Harris was floating on his back, with a blackberry branch on his stomach.

  Angus seized the branch and they tucked into the food. With the few crackers left from their packs, the berries were quite good.

  During their meal, Harris floated beside the boat, periodically flicking his tail so he would spin in circles. Every now and then, he would thrust their craft in the right direction. Ailsa had moved to th
e stern, sitting with her back against it, trailing her hand over the water. The seal sniffed her finger and licked it playfully. She sighed and scratched him under the chin.

  “Becoming quite cosy, aren’t you?” Angus laughed from his new position at the front of the boat. She scowled and withdrew her hand, earning a quick splash of water. Harris blew some bubbles and ducked under the surface.

  “What’s the deal with you two anyway?” asked Angus, giving her foot a nudge.

  She shrugged and stretched. “Well usually, he’s an utter pain in my backside.”

  His lips pursed under his beard. “Not what I meant, Ailsa.”

  She blushed and lowered her head. Meddling prince. “I know what you meant,” she replied in a clipped tone, “We’re friends.”

  Angus folded his arms across his chest and regarded her with mirth dancing across his face. “Sure. Or maybe he likes you.” He gave her a half smile to show he was joking… mostly.

  She pouted. “Who says I like him?” she said, turning her focus to the forest again.

  She’d been scanning the trees for the last few hours. They were almost to the top of the loch, which meant they would have to go on foot again. Had the monster left? She gave a rueful sigh as she remembered how utterly boring and safe the glen had been.

  There was a movement off to the right of the boat and Harris’s whiskered face appeared over the side.

  “Look,” said Angus, directing her attention to the end of the loch where they could see the end of the water and the beginning of the treeline.

  “Let’s help him move us,” Ailsa suggested as she grabbed an oar. Together, they managed to make it to the northern bank before sunset. Sweat poured down Ailsa’s back, making her shiver in the evening cold.

  The trees had thinned out. The gaps between them were lit up by the sinking sun. Nothing was hiding amongst them, but Ailsa still ordered Harris and Angus to fan out, checking the area to be sure. Once they had all paced out a hundred yards, the two men re-joined Ailsa where she stood on top of a large slab of bedrock, jutting out from the grass.