by E M Graham
And galing it was, out here, for the wind had risen to hurricane force, and lashed us with sharp nails of rain in our faces as if the island itself had risen in protest at my actions. Sandy walked behind me still forcing Fergie ahead of him, but the others, I could no longer see them.
I couldn’t keep it up of course, this immense intake and outpouring of energies, even with Willem in my head to buffer the extreme force of the flow. The cobblestoned path leading to the pier was wet and slippery, and I found my feet stumbling and sliding as I made my way down the slope. The crystal was slick in my arms from the wet, and my arms were quickly losing their strength. The crystal shifted in my grasp.
‘Over to the boat now, you and Sandy come with me!’
I paused and looked up. There was Willem waiting near the prow of a small boat, ready to board but waiting for me to give him his precious cargo, his brown robe flapping in the harsh winds. His hood had fallen; by the light of the crystal I could see the voracious need in his pale eyes as he urged me forward.
Was this what I wanted in my life? To become an outlaw with him, sailing the seas of magic like pirates, always on the run, always looking for more, never satisfied with our ill-gotten gains?
‘No!’ I shouted into the storm, yet my feet kept walking forward. I was now on the ancient pier, slippery with rain and sea moss. On either side of it were the endless boulders, now lashed by waves from the disturbed ocean.
He stepped forward and looked at me, a mere ten feet away now, and I could see him shake his head, just ever so slightly. ‘Do not betray me now,’ he said quietly, yet I could hear him above the howling wind. ‘All is lost for you, you can’t go back.’
Sandy pushed past me and waited for me at the boat, his knife still at Fergie’s throat. ‘Get aboard!’ he snarled at me. ‘And hurry up about it, they’re coming!’
My feet would not stop in their path, yet I was screaming inside against every movement like a runner at the end of the marathon, every bone in my body ached and cried out for me to stop, but my feet could not understand the command.
I kept barrelling on, and could not stop the momentum even to stop myself from crashing toward the small boat and Willem. I plowed into him like a hurricane wind, causing us both to lose balance and fall over the edge of the pier on to the rocks below.
Chapter 21
I MAY HAVE PASSED OUT for a moment, or perhaps it was the sudden absence of the crystal’s power flowing into me that caused the momentary dislocation of my mind, but when I looked up I could see it glowing still, not five feet from me. And there was a shadow reaching to it, coming from the side.
Willem. He almost had it in his grasp.
‘Better even than I could have hoped, my dear,’ he snarled, all pretense of a partnership between us dropped. ‘Sandy, drop that wench and help me with this!’
I desperately tried to get up to reach the crystal before him, but my ankle was paining terribly and could only manage a crawl over the slippery rocks, when all of a sudden each and every one of the boulders around us was roiling like ocean waves, as if we’d been plunged into the sea itself. I watched as the one he was on opened first one crepey eyelid, then another. Willem realized what was happening and he scrambled off the beast’s back just as the giant maw opened, with its rows of flint like teeth. They gnashed where the sorcerer had been only moments before.
I guess Willem, too was feeling the effects of his extended proximity to the charm stone, even if it had been by proxy, and he was slow to react. He looked from the crystal to the waiting boat, and then back to the rock beast’s terrible bite, but then his decision was made for him.
The beast’s large paw swept out and playfully came down on the crystal, drawing it in, and it looked with glee at the sorcerer as if daring him to snatch it away. It leaned its fearsome head upon the stone and began to croon with pleasure.
This was not a game Willem would win and he knew it. He fled to the small boat with Sandy at its helm, and they were quickly swallowed up by the fog and wind and sheets of rain.
AND WILLEM was gone. I gingerly felt through my head, lightly brushing past the bruises deep inside but there was no trace of the sorcerer, as if he’d never been, not even a fingerprint burned into the dust of my mind. I lay back on the beach, the hard pebbles under my back, but I was so sore and bruised and ill-used I couldn’t think of moving.
‘Gerroff the beach!’ Fergie had quickly recovered from her ordeal at the sight of me down amongst the rock beasts.
All around me they still thronged, except for the biggest one which had taken the Crystal Charm Stone. It was leaning against me, I recognized the red and black lines in the pinkish granite as the one who had stolen my chocolate bar, that first day across the stretch of water to Scarp. I could feel the thrum of a purr deep within the beast.
‘Oh, you stink!’ I said as I roughly tried to push it away, but there was no moving that mass; at least it wasn’t trying to lick me with affection. Instead, I pushed off the beast to help me stand, and made my wobbly way back to the pier where Fergie waited. She refused to jump down to help me up, unwilling to chance danger a second time that night.
‘Not a chance,’ she said when I suggested she come help give me a leg up. ‘They’re bloody rock beasts.’ She did hold out her hand for me to grasp though and used her considerable strength to pull me up.
As she did so, she drew in a sharp breath. ‘Feck me, Dara, you’re glowing!’
I looked down at my body, and it was true, I was shimmering all over, as if I’d been dunked into an ocean of phosphorescence. Fergie wiped her hand on her pants and we watched as the glittering particles melted into the air.
‘How does it feel?’ she whispered.
Our eyes met, and I could see the greenish glow of me reflected into her eyes. ‘It feels good,’ I said, wonderment dawning. It must have been the proximity of the crystal, from carrying it in my hands for that length of time. ‘Like a tingle all over, like I’ve just eaten the best butter pastry in the world with a double espresso. Like I have energy for days and could run a marathon...’
I winced there, because I’d shifted my weight to my twisted ankle. ‘Except for that.’
‘I think you’ll find that will heal in very short order.’ It was Johanna’s voice.
I quickly lifted my head while trying to keep my balance, and I saw that the small concrete pier was now crowded with the island’s inhabitants.
‘Well played, Dara,’ Johanna said drily. She stood over me, the other four and Durand and Ratten and Hugh all stood silently behind her. Perhaps it was the effect of the crystal on me that made me more sensitive, for I could see plain as day that the dryness of her tone was covering up the emotions that were running through her at that moment. I watched as the series of feelings and thoughts played over her face – puzzlement and consternation at what I had done, then a flash of anger and outrage that I had dared to get mixed up in such a heresy, then wonderment that it was even possible, and finally she settled into smugness. She had been right, after all, that day in Inverness. She had known my potential, and against the loud protests of the other elders, she had insisted on my acceptance to Scarp.
Being right softened her anger towards me, even caused her to look upon me with indulgence.
‘But I did say there were to be no injuries incurred,’ she continued in a severe voice. ‘You failed there. And I didn’t mean for you to actually steal the Crystal Charm Stone.’
We all looked down at the moving boulders beneath our feet.
‘You are expected to retrieve it, the sooner the better.’
Chapter 22
I SAT ON THE EDGE of the pier, staring hopelessly at my rock beast. A single torch reflected the light in those black eyes as it watched me back, and I realized its petrification spell had no effect on me. I could swear there was a look of playfulness about the creature, as if it was waiting for me to give chase and lead me on a fine romp through the beaches and wa
ters surrounding the island.
How the heck did one retrieve the lodestone of the Kin from the grasp of such a beast? I could feel the eyes of everyone on my back, the pressure from them as they stood at a safe distance, watching and waiting for me to make good my screw up. Hylda and her consort had driven a vehicle down to the beach, a sort of golf cart on treads like a snowmobile, in order to safely lug the stone back to its seat in the tunnel.
‘Pss, pss,’ I tried to coax it closer like you would a feral cat. ‘Come on, that’s a good little pebble. Come on over. How about if I give you a name? I’m going to call you Haggis.’
But he, or she or it, wasn’t taken in by my charms and remained out of reach, its jaws open in a grin, ready to playfully snap at me if I came too close. It was a hopeless stand-off. I was suddenly ready to cry; all the good feeling powerfulness had dissipated, leaving me washed out and hung out to dry, and every bone and muscle in my body ached.
I felt the warmth of another person behind me, then Hugh sat down beside me on the pier, his leather jacket gleaming in the single light.
‘Here,’ he said. ‘I brought you something to refuel with. You need to keep up your strength after all that.’
Cookies, or biscuits as they called them here. Ginger snaps full of sugar and spice. I cracked the first in half and shoved it in my mouth, and the beast’s eyes widened at the sound. Ah! Of course. The beast’s weakness was sugar.
‘C’mon,’ I purred as I held out the other half. ‘Want a cookie? Does my wee beastie want a sweet, sweet bickie?’ I held my breath, and realized I was sweating with tension. This had to work, there was no way I had the strength to wrestle with the beast.
It hesitated, and then it lifted its snout, sniffing the air, then it reluctantly moved an inch in my direction, still holding the crystal firmly in its grasp. I slipped off the jetty and crouched down at a distance away from it, wincing a bit as I settled on my bad ankle, and held the sweet out enticingly.
‘How am I going to get the crystal back?’ I asked Hugh in a soft voice.
‘You’re on your own there,’ he said unhelpfully. ‘No one else can dare to touch it.’
‘I’m going to need more than one cookie to distract it long enough.’
He reached over and handed me the rest of the package.
I could see the indecision in the beast’s eyes; it knew the cookies were attainable, but in order to gain them, it would have to leave the crystal behind. It gave a howl as loud as a foghorn, trying to scare me into dropping the package, but I held firm and forced myself not to show fear.
Finally, its greed won out, and it shuffled slowly toward me and nosed the cookie in my hand, sniffing hard. Drool of some kind was dripping from its mouth, through the rows of sharp teeth. It gave a low growl.
The stink of its breath was terrific. ‘You’re not to bite me, or you won’t get the biscuit,’ I told it severely.
It took the gingersnap from my hand – oh so delicately for such a terrible creature, and I surreptitiously wiped the slime from its tongue onto my jeans as I laid the rest of the package some further distance away. It had the taste of the cookie now, it had no choice but to follow the scent to scarf the whole lot down, leaving me free to snatch up the stone glowing behind it.
Oh, holding the crystal again was revitalizing. I could sit with it in my arms forever, feeling the music of the spheres thrumming through my entire body.
But it wasn’t to be. I forced myself to jump up and lay it in the cart waiting on the pier, and Hylda and her companion immediately started the engine and began the slow drive towards the castle.
That was the last I saw of the crystal for a long, long time, but its effects of its proximity to me that night were to stay with me forever.
HUGH RUSHED me back to the castle with no apparent concern for my well-being. I felt bruised all over, wrung out like an old washcloth, and could hardly walk on my ankle, but still he pushed me forward.
‘Your night is not over yet,’ he told me crisply. ‘It was Willem, wasn’t it?’
I nodded.
‘In your mind?’
‘And Sandy’s. He used both of us.’
‘Where is he now?’
I searched inside me. I felt nothing, for the first time in ages. Not a whisper. I shook my head.
‘I don’t know. He’s not in me anymore.’
‘I mean, where is he physically? Can you find him for me?’
‘He took off on the boat, him and Sandy.’
‘Yes, I know you let them get away,’ Hugh said. ‘We need you to find him for us.’
We were nearing the grand Victorian entrance to the castle. I stopped and planted my feet firmly on the ground; well, except for my throbbing ankle, but the accusation stung even worse. ‘You know, if you’d listened to me in the first place, none of this would have happened.’
He hadn’t believed me when I’d warned him. Hugh Sabiston, the great wonder of the Kin, he could have stopped this mayhem if he had only taken me seriously. I lifted my chin at him, looking up at all six feet three of him, and for the first time ever the nine inches of difference did not cause me to feel less than him. And I could have sworn there was a new respect for me in his eyes.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said, and I knew it was genuine. ‘But this is urgent.’
Hugh opened his arms, and I didn’t fall into them as I might once have done. No, that would be too easy for him, he hadn’t yet paid the price of my forgiveness. I stood my ground, my hands on my hips, waiting for a verbal acknowledgment.
He nodded again, then spoke. ‘You were right.’
I let out my breath, I hadn’t realized I was holding it. ‘Yes.’
The bevelled glass of the door shone prisms all over his face, catching the raindrops still on his hair.
‘How were you able to hold the stone and carry it all that way?’ His voice was hushed. ‘Willem was working through you? In your mind? That’s how you were able to do... this.’
‘He sure was,’ I said. I shot another glance up to his green eyes. The gold flecks shone with the flickering light.
‘You’ll be changed forever now, you realize.’
‘In a good way?’
He shook his head. ‘I just don’t know. Nothing like this has ever happened before, not since the first McCloud took the stone with his bride, from the Ice King.’
The he was all business again. ‘I need you to send your search throughout the entire island. Now. We need to stop him.’
I leaned against the cold stone wall of the castle and closed my eyes, sending feelers out for the essence of the sorcerer, looking for anything, the slightest hint of him, then shook my head again.
‘Come with me,’ Hugh said as he took my arm and picked up the pace. A lot. I found us almost at a run, a painful hobble in my case, through the castle into the old part to a set of steps I’d never seen before. The narrow steep stairs spiralled up into darkness.
‘Up here,’ he said. ‘To the old Keep.’
We entered the room at the top, if it could be called a room, merely a stone enclosure with four openings to the cold air and wind of the sea.
‘You must search for Willem,’ he commanded me. ‘Get out there and find him.’ Hugh was waiting at the empty window space looking out over the hills, toward the broch.
I teetered by the low lip, the wind catching me and I put my arms out to steady me in order to stop the swaying. The ground was a long way away. I couldn’t do this. I had to.
‘I want you with me,’ I said. ‘Like before. Stay by my side.’
‘No.’ His voice was terse. ‘He’ll know if I’m there. You have to do this by yourself. You’ve done it before, without me.’
I almost smiled to myself. Yes, I had, and in Alt, too. I could do this. It was just a matter of flying, of letting go of the body. I took a deep breath and sent my mind outside.
Soaring into the air.
The moon was shining, and
as the island came rushing up at me, I could pick out every bush and every sheep glowing beneath me. Willem’s brown cloak would be invisible in the shadows, even if he wasn’t armed with an invisibility spell.
I didn’t know what I was looking for, so I had to wing it. A sparkle of loose magic perhaps, a whiff of the Dutchman’s garlic breath? This wasn’t working.
I needed a stronger link with him, and had to allow a deeper part of my mind to take over the search, the part that had Willem indelibly burned on it, and risk letting him inside myself yet again. Finding the sorcerer’s mind was almost second nature to me now; it scared and sickened me how easily we fit together. Yet I had to do it for it was my last hope. I prayed that I would not be causing more damage to my psyche by doing this.
Willem, I breathed. I called him forth, and felt a small stirring deep within, but the movement was quickly quenched.
Willem, I need you.
There was no answer from him, but there! A loose trail, a light dusting off to the left, over the water, towards the mainland.
Willem!
Yes, there he was, barely perceptible against the dark of the cliffs in the moonlight. He wasn’t at the ancient concrete slip where the ferryman had picked us up that first day, but further north on the opposite shore. I saw a small boat’s outline on the sand and a flurry of brown robe. I hovered over now, flying freely over the beach, and called out to him again. And I saw the last glimmer of the crystal’s power on him, the power he had absorbed through being in my mind while I carried the stone.
He looked up, and I swore that was a smile on his face, a tender look as he recognized my touch on his mind.
‘You learn quickly, my dear one,’ he whispered into the rising wind. He laughed. ‘But we must say our farewells. I must hurry, so this is adieu, until we meet again. And when we do, I may forgive you for tonight’s betrayal. Follow the coin, it will lead you to me.’
He touched his hand lightly to his lips then gently threw his kiss to me.
