Fionn could barely see through the freezing sheets of rain. His heart was thumping wildly now and he couldn’t tell how much of it was fear for his sister and how much of it was longing for the opportunity that had been whipped from his grasp at the last second.
They ducked under a sopping wooden fence and waded through mud up to their ankles. ‘Look!’ yelled Shelby. ‘We’re nearly there!’
A string of seaweed tumbled from the sky and lashed Fionn across the face. He kept his head down, clambering over another fence as blood dripped down his cheek.
When they reached the lighthouse, they found Bartley huddled into a ball behind it.
‘Hey!’ Fionn kicked him in the shin. ‘Where’s my sister!’
Bartley snapped his head up, his face blotchy with tears. ‘The cave took her! I couldn’t save her! There wasn’t enough time!’
Fionn kicked him again, harder this time. ‘You had time to save yourself though! Some Storm Keeper you’ll make!’
‘Where’s Malachy?’ said Bartley, turning his panic on Shelby. ‘I told you to get Malachy! He’s the bloody Storm Keeper!’
‘He’s not coming! We’re on our own!’
‘We?’ said Bartley, staggering to his feet. ‘What can we do?’
‘We can help!’ shouted Shelby, louder and fiercer than Fionn had ever heard her. ‘We can go back down there and do something!’
‘I almost died!’ said Bartley, his eyes wild. ‘I’m not going near that thing again! I’ve called Gran! She and Douglas are on the way! They’ll know what to do since Malachy clearly doesn’t care enough!’
‘Coward,’ spat Fionn. If it was any other occasion, he’d lay into Bartley for speaking badly about his grandfather but the sky was glittering violently and the storm was turning purple around the edges. They were running out of time.
He swung the schoolbag over his front and dug around inside. His fingers were shaking badly and his mind was racing a mile a minute.
The storm was twisting around the island like a tornado. It looked like it might rip the lighthouse up at any moment and fling it out to sea. The tide was bobbing up and down, high one minute and low the next, as though it couldn’t make its mind up. The waves were hurling themselves against the cliffs below, thrashing and hissing as they broke around jagged rocks.
Shelby screamed and flattened herself against the lighthouse as something small and hard hurtled past her shoulder. ‘Is that a crab?’
Bartley picked a clump of neon coral from her hair and held it up to his face. ‘Where did this come from?’
Fionn found the Ebb Tide candle and clamped it in his fist.
‘Which one’s that?’ said Bartley, his attention flitting to Fionn.
‘Go and find shelter,’ said Fionn, one eye on the tornado as he searched for the lighter.
‘What are you going to do?’ Shelby asked, jumping to the side as a pink jellyfish arced over her head.
Fionn unearthed the lighter and flicked it open. ‘I’m going to sink the sea.’
Bartley yelped as a school of mackerel soared past them.
Fionn was already stalking away from them. He followed the headland down to the coast, sliding over mud and grass as the sea rained down on him.
‘Let me come too!’ shouted Shelby, slipping down after him. ‘I can help!’
‘Are you both insane?!’ called Bartley from his perch by the lighthouse. ‘There are people coming to help us!’
Fionn knew better. There was no one in the world who could save his sister now. No one but him. ‘Don’t try to follow me into the cave!’ Fionn called over his shoulder. Shelby was far behind him already, stumbling through the soupy mud. ‘Wait until the tide settles again. We might need someone to pull us out!’
When he reached the edge of the cliff, he curved his shoulders over the candle to keep it dry and then brought the flame to Ebb Tide.
It lit up immediately.
The island inhaled.
The sky quietened. The rain sputtered into a light drizzle and the thunder faded as Fionn sank into a different layer of Arranmore. The water was dragged away from the cliffs, the waves trickling back out to sea until the beach emerged below him.
Fionn lowered himself on to the crumbling staircase.
He kept his eyes firmly on his feet. The steps were still broken, while some were no longer there at all. He crept down, down, down, following the sinking tide, as ravens swooped from the sky and beckoned him onwards. Unease grumbled in his stomach. It was a warning, painted in shrieking black feathers, but he couldn’t turn back now. Not while Tara was in trouble. He took a deep breath and kept moving.
The mouth of the Sea Cave emerged from the retreating sea. Fionn kept clambering, his fingers scrabbling against the rock face as he lunged over gaps in the stairway. The rain had stopped, and a thick mist hung like a veil over the sea. The stairway grew steeper, growing more complete near the bottom where the steps were unweathered by time and would-be explorers.
When Fionn reached the end of the stairway, the island fell eerily silent. He could feel its eyes on him as he stood at the entrance to the Sea Cave. It was much bigger now that he was standing in front of it, and so tall it dwarfed him.
A trickle of seawater crossed the sandbank and slithered inside, like a snake. Fionn followed it into the cave.
The island watched him go.
‘Tara?’ The word echoed back at him, punctuated by his own ragged breaths.
The cave was unnaturally dark, the blackness unfeathered by the flame in his fist. He couldn’t see his own feet as he shuffled forward, knocking against rocks and slipping over seaweed. He held the light up to the wall and saw nothing but droplets sliding down the carved rock.
‘Tara!’ he shouted.
‘Tara!’ the cave called back.
Fionn’s grandfather was right. There was something else here – something beyond the island’s ancient magic. It made the air heavier, the darkness denser, and as he walked onwards, into the abyss, it caressed his ears and whispered to him.
Come to me, my fearless Boyle.
The longer Fionn walked, the less he believed there was an end to this ancient, rustling place. He could barely see his own nose in here and he was afraid of the voice calling to him in the darkness. He swung his bag around and fumbled inside until he found Sunrise, barely discernible by its dim amber glow. He had never done this before – burned two candles at once and stitched two completely separate layers together, but he knew it wasn’t impossible. He just had to be very careful.
‘Please,’ he whispered, appealing to whatever magic was tucked away inside the cave, whatever tendril of it was inside the candle. ‘Please let this work.’
Fionn held his breath as he set Sunrise alight. The island took another heaving breath. The flame fought its way into the darkness, the wind changing around him as he held a candle in each hand, like battle swords.
Somewhere in the distance, came the lilt of birdsong. The voice in Fionn’s ears quietened as the rising sun poured its rays into the cave and the rock face lit up in yawning pockets of sunlight. He exhaled with relief, the air shimmering around him as the layers melded together, the tide low, and the sun rising.
Now he could see everything.
Crystal stalactites hung from the ceiling like chandeliers. They glinted at Fionn as he passed between them, navigating the spires that wound up from the ground. The scent of salt and brine hung heavy in the air, dampness clinging to his skin as he pushed onwards, into the belly of the cave. There were shells everywhere – pearl and silver and blue and gold, and as he walked, more sprouted up from the ground like coins, ripe for the taking.
He didn’t dare.
He could feel the island’s presence more keenly now. Sunrise had illuminated everything – both the seen and the unseen. Magic rose from the ground like steam and hummed in the air like wind chimes.
The cave was definitely enchanted.
And in the unknowable, unignorable magic, he could h
ear his sister sobbing.
It was an echo. Tara was not quite here in this strange layer, the one that Fionn had cobbled together with Sunrise and Ebb Tide. But she was nearby. He tried to follow the sound, but it wavered in and out, like a radio station struggling for signal. The cave grew steeper, tunnelling downwards into the heart of island.
The candles were burning too quickly and the sunlight behind Fionn was disappearing, ray by ray. The further into the cave he got, the faster the wax melted. By the time Tara’s echo had faded entirely, the candles had pooled all over his fists.
The flames went out, one after another. First Ebb Tide, and then Sunrise. Fionn came to a stop, his heart hammering in his chest.
He couldn’t hear his sister any more.
He couldn’t see the entrance, or even the path that had led him here.
He was lost.
Outside, the tide would be coming in. Inside, the darkness was growing denser. Time was running out.
A droplet fell from the ceiling of the cave and landed in a puddle at his feet, its plink! echoing around him. The water rippled, turning a deep, shimmering blue. Fionn stared at the blueness, until the blueness stared back, and then it winked, and Fionn understood with sudden clarity.
The island will answer to you, if you ask the right questions.
Fionn took a deep breath and with all the courage he could muster, he said to the magic and the cave, and the rustling island above: ‘My name is Fionn Boyle, son of Evelyn McCauley and Cormac Boyle, grandson of Winnie and Malachy Boyle, and I wish for my sister back.’
A stalactite came crashing down beside his left ear. It shattered into a thousand crystals that sank into the ground and disappeared. Fionn raised his chin. ‘I wish for my sister to be returned to me,’ he said, more loudly this time. ‘I come on behalf of the Storm Keeper of Arranmore and I want my sister back!’
The island groaned.
It seemed for a heartbeat that Fionn was not in a cave but in the belly of some great and terrible whale. He crushed his wax-stained fingers into fists as the ground bubbled beneath his feet. Shells tumbled over shells, sapphire and ruby twinkling in the darkness. Bejewelled stalactites formed around him, crawling down around his ears. They fused with stalagmites that crept up from the ground until Fionn was surrounded by a hundred glittering columns – the makings of a marbled palace underneath the island.
The cave settled and then there was nothing but silence.
‘Tara?’ The wind swirled around him and carried it deep into the cave.
Five heartbeats.
Ten heartbeats.
And then – ‘Fionn?’
Fionn’s heart leapt in his chest. ‘Tara? Where are you?’
‘I … I d-don’t know,’ came his sister’s voice.
At one end of the strange chamber, the walls tapered into a narrow passageway. Fionn had to flatten himself and squeeze through, holding his breath and raising his chin so as not to scrape his face. He inched along, his arms splayed either side of him, until he came to the very end, where a small hole had been carved into the rock. He pressed his face to the opening and peered inside the crack. ‘Tara?’
Tucked inside a hollow barely bigger than himself, Fionn’s sister was huddled into a little ball. She blinked up at him, the whites of her eyes shining in the darkness.
Then she burst into tears.
Chapter Twenty-Two
THE LAST LIFEBOAT
Fionn’s relief was short-lived. ‘Come out of there,’ he said, shuffling backwards.
Tara pressed her face through the gap and stared at Fionn with eyes made round with fear. ‘We’ll drown,’ she whispered. ‘The cave will drown us for this.’
‘Not if we hurry,’ Fionn insisted, reaching inside and tugging at her hand. ‘The tide is coming back in!’
Tara squeezed through the tiny gap, yelping as she nicked her shoulder on the rock. Her jumper was pocked with holes and there were tracks of mud on her cheeks. ‘I’m sorry, Fionny. I know I shouldn’t have come without you but Bartley was going to take it, with or without me.’ Her fingers tightened around his, as though she was afraid he might let go. ‘I wanted to out-wish him.’
‘You shouldn’t have risked it,’ said Fionn tightly.
The walls reclined from one another, the gap opening out into the cavern of jewelled columns and glittering rock. They hurried into the belly of the cave, crunching over seashells as saltwater trickled into their trainers and pooled between their toes.
Shadows slunk down the walls and crawled over them.
The island was shifting.
Tara lurched against him as the sea began to rush in. ‘The tide is rising!’
Fionn pulled her after him, the arms of his hoodie slashed open by columns of rock as they stumbled in the darkness. He could feel blood trickling along his skin, the fresh cuts on his arms stinging from the saltwater. The cave felt bigger now, and much deeper than before. The darkness was toying with them.
And then – a flicker of hope.
‘There! Look!’ shouted Tara, gesturing up ahead.
Fionn spied a pocket of grey sky glowing in the distance. ‘Hurry!’
The water climbed to their shins and then their knees as they ran, and when it was at their hips and the entrance was still out of reach, Fionn fumbled in his bag for another candle. His skin was mottled with wax, slipping and sliding over the last tools at his disposal. A candle rolled out into the darkness and landed with a plop! in the water.
‘What are you doing?’ said Tara frantically. ‘Go faster! We have to go faster!’
The water was at their belly buttons now. Fionn found a candle, but it slipped from his grasp as he scrabbled to light it.
The water was almost up to his chest.
‘There’s no time!’ shouted Tara, as Fionn tried to reach for another candle. ‘We have to keep moving!’
Fionn eyed the slash of grey sky before them.
He pushed his sister in front of him, his hand curled in her hoodie as they half swam, half waded towards the mouth of the cave. ‘You go first.’
‘But –’
Fionn pushed her with all his might. The bobbing tide pushed them back. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the cave was beginning to whisper again.
Come to me, my fearless Boyle …
‘Try to swim,’ Fionn heaved, failing to break through the waves pooling at the mouth of the cave.
‘I can’t,’ Tara gritted, knocking back into him.
And see the magic I can brew …
Outside, the sky was shimmering, streaks of grey and purple slashing through the clouds as Arranmore broke through again.
The tide was rising higher and higher.
Visit me beneath the soil …
And then Shelby Beasley appeared. Her hair was sopping wet, her body submerged in the water as she bobbed up and down at the mouth of the cave.
‘Tara! Fionn! There you are!’ She anchored herself to the rock as she leaned inside.
She flung her arm out. ‘Quick! Take my hand!’
Fionn shoved his sister, using every last ounce of his strength to propel her through the surging current. Tara reached out, her fingers scrabbling in the half-light, before finally closing around Shelby’s. Fionn stumbled forward, releasing the back of her hoodie as Shelby pulled her from the other side.
Come and wish me back to you …
Tara turned back to Fionn as the waves lapped over her shoulders.
Fionn grappled at thin air as froth exploded between them.
The current pulled him back.
‘It’s sealing you in!’ cried Tara.
‘Swim!’ shouted Shelby from over her shoulder. ‘Try and swim to us!’
It was too late for that now. Fionn was a poor swimmer even at the best of times. The current was too strong, the tide too high, and still it climbed. If they stayed any longer it would swallow them all.
‘I have candles! Save yourselves!’ screamed Fionn, as a wave washed over him and pou
red saltwater down his throat. He jumped and spat it out, frantically hoisting the schoolbag over his head. Two more candles tumbled out and floated into the blackness. The current dragged him back, towards the voice that called to him from that strange shadow layer inside the rock.
Find me where the ravens flock …
The ravens were shrieking outside the cave. They swarmed in front of the entrance, blotting out Tara and Shelby. Fionn could only hope they had listened to him and saved themselves.
And wake me from my endless sleep …
Another wave swept over him. In the murky water, he scrabbled for another candle, his dread spiking when he realised it was the last one. He clamped it in his fist before it could wriggle free.
Fionn pulled the lighter from his pocket as the schoolbag floated away from him. He held his breath as another wave pushed him back, a spire of rock ripping the kneecap from his jeans.
The voice was getting impatient. It rose up like a terrifying aria as the shadows climbed out of the cave like skeletons.
Unbury me from endless rock …
The sea was pushing him back and the darkness was pulling him in. He wasn’t alone now. No. He had never been alone in here.
And give to me your soul to keep!
There was something else with him and it was not the island’s magic. Not any more.
Coward!
Fionn imagined talons scraping along his neck, icy breath shivering in his ear. Fear closed a fist around his heart and dragged it into his stomach. He couldn’t breathe properly. He couldn’t think straight. There was only terror and an ache deep in the centre of his soul. The shadows were swarming around him, their edges twisting into hunched, skeletal forms.
You belong to me! cried the voice. You have always belonged to me!
Fionn squinted at the final candle. It was too dark to know if the last memory would bring the water to the cave ceiling and herald his certain death, or worse, an eternity without a soul, but the odds were stacked against him already and despair was crawling over him like a shroud.
The Storm Keeper's Island Page 17
