The Girl Who Lost Her Shadow

by Emily Ilett

  Mhirran pulled the map from her pocket, flattening it against the ear of the chalk wildcat, and looked between the pictures and their surroundings.

  “There—” She pointed to their right. “That must be the tree.”

  Gail squinted at a tall pine, solitary and stern on a steep hill further south, and nodded, but before they could walk on, a shriek of birds exploded from the forest a little way behind them.

  Mhirran spun around. “Someone’s following us.”

  Gail scrambled up onto the rock. From the top, she could see a lean figure, a long way behind them, moving between the trees. He was striding quickly, with something heavy pulling at his back.

  “It’s Francis.” Gail slid down, her face as hard as the stone she stood next to. “He’s coming after Kay’s shadow, isn’t he?”

  Mhirran didn’t need to answer. Gail squeezed her hand, took the map and folded it carefully into her pocket. “Let’s go,” she said. “From the tree, we should be able to find the way.” One branch of the swaying pine reached out like a hand to the west, its wooden fingers pointing to the faintest trace of a path, raised high along the rocky ridge.

  ***

  The island was narrowing and their eyes were filled with the sea, whale-grey with toothpaste smears of white where the wind chewed at the water. The land rose and fell like waves, jagged at the edges, and everything stood waiting beneath the rising storm. A lochan beneath them blinked like an eye as clouds rolled across it, watching their movements as they inched closer to the far point of the island.

  “Jake said we should stay on the high path.” Gail struggled to make herself heard over the wind that tore through her hair. “Francis won’t know about the swamp. He might try and cut through the valley and by the lochan towards the bothy.” She pointed to a low stone hut in the distance. “The swamp will slow him down.”

  She turned back to her friend. Her words were muffled by the hair flung inside her mouth, but Mhirran understood the hand that reached out to her. They gazed ahead towards the rocky southern point of the island. Kay’s shadow must be somewhere among those sharp points and drops. Inch by inch, and hand in hand, the two girls made their way along the ridge.

  When the path finally dipped down, they hurried past the bothy, its dark windows cobwebbed and watchful. Francis was nowhere to be seen. Boulders grew around them and, as the rocky finger of island narrowed, they heard the distinct ripple of moving water.

  “We’re close to the ravine,” Gail whispered, as Mhirran bumped against her shoulder. “Stay down in case Femi and those boys are nearby.”

  Jake had explained that a river tumbled out of the southern end of the island, just this side of the Storm Sisters. Near where it reached the sea, the river had carved a deep fissure into the rocks. He’d said they might be able to get down into it on this side if they followed the path from behind the bothy.

  They inched forward, slipping between rocks and thorny gorse bushes, keeping their heads hidden. Every now and then, Gail stuck her face out to scan ahead.

  At last she glimpsed the wet shine of water down on their right: it was the river running below a cliff face on its far side that reared up two metres tall, the rock sheer and smooth as an eel. Her eyes searched for Femi.

  “No sign,” she hissed. Another dash between rocks.

  “Nothing.” Another sprint. Another skipped heartbeat.

  Then they heard a rough shuffling ahead. Feet on rocks. Gail hesitated for a second, unease prickling within her. She inched cautiously closer. As they began to curve around a rock face, they heard the sudden rise of a voice, then a sharp grunt of pain. Gail turned back to Mhirran, and saw her own fear reflected in Mhirran’s wide eyes. They pressed themselves back against the rock, its slope hiding them from sight.

  “I knew you were up to something! You’re leaving marks so someone will find us. Aren’t you, Femi?”

  Gail peered past the rock. Femi was metres from them, his face pressed against a boulder and his arm twisted sharply behind his back. Euan had him pinned. Gail could see the bruising of his fingers around Femi’s wrist. The other boy hovered close by, a piece of chalk crushed beneath his boot.

  “Who’s this for?” Euan jerked his head towards a scrap of white drawing on the rock behind Femi. It looked almost like a flipper.

  Femi winced. “I wasn’t—”

  “I told you, Euan.” The other boy’s face was tight with worry. “It’s a trick. He’s leading someone to us. Let’s get out of here.”

  Euan turned to him and growled, “Shut up, Gus. Look at him. We’re not running from him. If he’s lied to us, I’m sure his dad won’t be pleased to find out we caught him pearl fishing in the river – again,” he sneered.

  Gail swallowed hard. Femi’s head twisted, and his eyes were dark like wet stones in his face. Then he saw her and a strangled noise grew from his throat. Gail thrust herself back behind the rock, holding her breath.

  “What’s that?” Gus asked abruptly. Gail heard him walk closer. “He saw something,” Gus said to Euan.

  “I-I- wasn’t leading anyone anywhere,” she heard Femi stutter out, and the footsteps slowed. “Except you. I said I’d show you where you’d find them – the oldest, biggest mussels – and I have. They’re just up there.”

  “Take us then,” Euan snarled, releasing Femi and pushing him towards the ravine. Femi stumbled forward with the other two close at his heels. Gail watched them move upriver, clambering around stony outcrops along the top of the ravine wall, until they were out of sight.

  Behind the rock, Mhirran’s hands were flapping in panic. “What now?” she whispered.

  Gail caught Mhirran’s hands to still them and tried to make her thoughts go faster, but all she could see was the dark wet panic in Femi’s eyes. What now what now what now. What did Femi need from them? How could they help him? What would Kay have done? She took a deep breath, chewing furiously at her lips, but her thoughts were scattered and confused. It felt like trying to do maths homework, all the numbers swimming around the page.

  Gail breathed out. That was it. When the numbers swim, swim with them, Kay always said when Gail got stuck. Then she’d pick up the page and spin it around three times. She’d tell Gail to stand up, close her eyes and push her arms through the air in breaststroke, and then she’d put the sum in front of her again saying, Go back to the beginning. Go right back to the very beginning and start again.

  “Um. What are you doing, Gail?”

  Moving your arms through the air like breaststroke while crouched in a ball behind a rock was surprisingly awkward. “We’ve got to go back to the beginning, Mhirran.”

  “Back to the beginning?” Mhirran repeated.

  Gail nodded and opened her eyes. “So, first: he left a map for Kay.”

  “And Kay must have known he’d leave it,” Mhirran continued. “They must have had a plan. Then once he knew she wasn’t coming he told you he needed something, but we don’t know what.”

  Gail frowned. “He drew me another map on the ground. And he drew us signs. The manta ray, and the wildcat, and this turtle fin.”

  “He used the pictures to show us the way, like a code.”

  Gail’s voice glittered with excitement. “But he must have always known where he was going – right from the start, when he drew the first map. He wanted to bring them here.”

  “Right,” Mhirran said, her eyes glowing. “And if he knows they’re endangered creatures, he wouldn’t lead Euan to a real mussel river, would he?”

  Gail nodded furiously. “He’s brought them here because this place is—”

  “This is the trap,” Mhirran finished. They grinned at each other.

  “So I think I know what he needs. It’s like Jake warned us. Someone could probably get down into the ravine by themselves, but they wouldn’t be able to get back out without help.” Gail straightened. “You’ve got to get me down there, Mhirran,” she said.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  By the time her toes s
craped the ground, Gail was convinced her arm had stretched by at least ten centimetres. Mhirran was holding Gail’s hand with her good wrist, lowering her down the side of the ravine. The skin was grazed off both Gail’s knees and her shoulder ached from the strain, but when she landed with a clap of bruised bones and scattered stones, she patted off the worst of the damage and grinned up at her friend.

  “Made it,” she whispered.

  The ledge Mhirran knelt on was a short clamber down from the full height of the ravine wall. It hadn’t taken them long to find it, following Jake’s description. Mhirran held Gail’s rucksack close, and when Gail raised her eyebrows, she nodded firmly, though her chin quivered.

  “We can do this,” Gail said quietly, as she edged backwards towards the river, the wind whipping around her cheeks, stinging her ears and drawing the storm closer.

  Mhirran tapped a sequence of dots and scrapes on the rock beneath her. “Good luck,” she mouthed. And then she disappeared.

  Gail took a deep breath and turned to the river. This had to work. The water hurtled towards the coastal cliff edge, where she could just see the spray as it fell down towards the ocean. Another waterfall. She smiled to herself.

  As she rounded a bend of the river, her breath stuck in her throat. They were huge. Two giants of stone, their heads leaning in to each other. The Storm Sisters, sitting right at the edge of the sea cliff. They were so beautiful she stopped suddenly, one hand half-raised in the air towards them, as if in greeting.

  “HEY!”

  Gail spun around. Euan loomed at the edge of the ravine. “What are you up to?”

  Gail swallowed hard. She could do this. She shrugged one shoulder in a way she hoped looked half-guilty, half-defensive. It was a lot to ask of a shoulder shrug. “N-nothing,” she stammered. She stepped backwards and carefully let the mussel shell drop from her pocket, as if by accident.

  “What’s that?” Euan’s voice was sharp with accusation.

  Gail hurried to pick up the shell. “It’s nothing, just a mussel,” she mumbled. She waved it in the air for him to see, her smile wobbling.

  “It’s big,” Euan said slowly. “Really big.”

  Gail paused. She was a terrible liar, Kay always said so. “Is it?” she asked tentatively.

  Euan turned and shouted something over his shoulder and Gus appeared at the edge of the ravine. Gail’s throat constricted. Where was Femi?

  Gus nodded towards Gail. “Looks like a freshwater mussel you have there,” he said, cautiously. He lowered his voice and turned to Euan, but Gail still caught his next words: “Femi was right.”

  “Seen any more of them around here?” Euan asked. His question was heavy with forced lightness.

  Gail bit her lip. “Are you looking for them?”

  Euan and Gus exchanged glances. They nodded and Gail smiled innocently. “There’s loads,” she said, gesturing at the river behind her. “And look.” In her hand she held up the small pearl Femi had left. She heard Euan’s sharp intake of breath and Gus’s urgent muttering, his head close to Euan’s.

  “How did you get down there?” Gus shouted out at last.

  Gail pointed back round the bend of the river towards the ledge. “It’s less steep there,” she directed, and they nodded, striding away, their faces tight with expectation.

  Hearing their muffled curses as they slipped and scrambled down the rock face, Gail tried to bite back the grin that bloomed on her face. The plan was working.

  She looked up at a noise and saw Femi approaching the edge of the ravine, just above where she was standing. Spotting her, his eyes widened.

  “What are you doing?” he hissed.

  “We’re helping you,” Gail whispered up to him.

  “We?” Femi asked, then shrank back when Gus and Euan rounded the corner.

  Gail threw the shell high in the air and Euan snatched it as it fell, pulling it close to his eyes. A look of greed crawled across his face. “Show us the pearl, then,” he said, while Gus removed a bucket from his pack, rolled up his trousers and waded into the water.

  Gail’s palm closed around the pearl and she could feel its smoothness press against her skin. She glanced up to where she was sure Femi must be crouched, watching, but he wasn’t there. Her eyes scanned the edge of the ravine, raking over rocks and gorse. Where had he gone? And where was Mhirran? She should be here by now.

  Euan tapped the shell against his teeth as Gail reluctantly held out the pearl. When he reached for it, she pulled back.

  “Find your own,” she said, her light words betrayed by the ripple of unease running through them. “You’ve seen pearls before,” she added, but Euan’s eyes glittered, and she realised he hadn’t. He’d never found one.

  She moved away and turned so she was backing along the riverbed. Euan was between her and the ravine wall where she’d seen Femi. She glanced behind his shoulders but there was no one above.

  Euan half-stepped forward, then turned to follow her gaze. “What are you looking at?” he asked, and Gail could hear suspicion stinging his voice. His eyes narrowed and he stared at the mussel shell in his hand then back at Gail. “Why did you say you were here?” he growled. “How do you know about this place? Who told you?”

  Gail stumbled backwards and opened her mouth to reply when Gus shouted out behind them, “Euan, there’s nothing here. Look.” Shooting a warning glare at Gail, Euan strode over to where Gus crouched with his hands deep in the water. “There’re no mussels at all.”

  Both boys stared at Gail. Euan’s eyes flashed dangerously and Gus’s lean body quivered with tension.

  Gail could feel her heart beating like a fish’s tail against her ribs, pounding at her chest. “But-but-I found it,” she stammered out. “I did… Right here.”

  They straightened, fists tightening at their sides, and panic rose inside her. It had all gone wrong. They knew she’d lied to them and now there was no way out. She was trapped, and could only stumble backwards as Euan and Gus stalked towards her. A deep growl of thunder sounded in the distance.

  Then, out the corner of her eye, she saw a flicker of something orange at the edge of the rocky ravine wall above.

  “Gail!” a small clear voice cried out.

  And she ran. She ran towards the arms that reached out to her, leaning down over the cliff edge. She yelped as Euan darted after her and clutched at her coat, and tore herself away from him, leaping onto a stone to throw herself upwards, her hands open and trusting in the loose air until she found Femi and Mhirran, who each grasped one hand tightly. They pulled her up, her feet and knees scrambling and grazing once again on the smooth rock, until she lay panting on the ground, high above the river, her head in Mhirran’s lap and her foot tangled beneath Femi’s shoe.

  “You’re stronger than you look,” she said at last, catching her breath, and Mhirran grinned at her. “So are you,” she said.

  Femi was on his feet, leaning out over the edge of the ravine wall. He had his phone in his hand and he took photo after photo of Euan holding the mussel shell and Gus with his bucket, scratching and swearing at the smooth wall of rock.

  Throwing the shell aside, Euan stormed towards the ledge they’d used to get down, but Femi shouted after him: “You’re trapped, Euan. It’s too high to climb back up. And even if you could, we’ve barred the way with gorse. Unless you want to get cut to pieces, you’ll have to walk the long way back along the river.”

  Euan’s fists clutched at the empty air. “No one will believe you, Femi.”

  Femi shrugged. The graze on his cheek stood out starkly and his eyes were dark like the deep sea, but his voice was quiet, almost gentle. “No one has to. I’ve got photos. And it’s not just me they’ll be believing.”

  Gail and Mhirran rose up beside him and the three of them stared down at the boys.

  “I gave you so many chances to turn back,” Femi said. “You knew that you’d be killing them. And that they’re endangered.”

  From up here, they looked so much y
ounger, Gail thought. Gus’s face was pale with guilt.

  “We won’t do it again,” he babbled. “We promise. We won’t, will we, Euan?” He lurched forwards. “It wasn’t my idea. Don’t tell anyone, Femi, please.”

  Femi looked at Gail and she raised her eyebrows, turning to Euan. “Well?”

  Euan pushed Gus to one side and glowered up at them. His eyes were flat and furious as they met Gail’s. But she held his gaze with the steady intensity of the wildcat and, as the wind roared around them and the ocean spat and churned beyond the cliff, Euan nodded. Just once. Then he turned and, without a word, began the long walk up the ravine river. Gus hastened after him and Gail breathed out.

  Femi squeezed Gail’s shoulder. “Thanks, wildcat.” He grinned.

  “It was both of us,” Gail said, as Mhirran handed back the rucksack and placed a gentle hand on Gail’s arm.

  Mhirann nodded towards the cliffs. “We’re almost there,” she murmured.

  Gail looked to the Storm Sisters and hope rose inside her. She was so close to Kay’s shadow. She faced her friends. “Can I go first, for this next bit? It’s just—” She shrugged.

  Mhirran nodded. “We’ll be right behind you,” she said, as the first heavy drops of rain splashed onto Gail’s cheeks.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  The two Storm Sisters rose like waves at the edge of the cliff. Gail could see the arch of their backs amongst the ripple and gnarl of the stone. She could make out the bracing of their shoulders and, as the river fell to the right of them and she drew closer, the wide face of the smaller Sister, looking out to sea. She had to squint at first, but when she saw it, she couldn’t stop seeing it. A broad slab of a nose and the faintest ripple of rock that could be the tremor of a mouth.

  CRACK!

  The storm broke; thunder split the sky. Rain fell hard and fast, thick driving sheets of it that soaked through Gail’s coat and stung her cheeks. She felt each clap of thunder vibrate deep inside her ribs while the wind howled around her, chewing at her hair and freezing her fingertips. She fought against it, stumbling onward along the ravine edge. When she looked back over her shoulder, she could no longer see her friends.