Storm Singing and other Tangled Tasks (12 page)

Helen sighed. “Do I have to row along the coast again, hunting for Roxburgh?”

Rona shook her head. “We can walk to Roxy’s favourite hangout. He’ll be on the pebble beach, with the selkie boys from other colonies here to watch the contest.”

Yann said, “We need to speak to him privately, so we’d better get the search for Lavender and Catesby called off.”

Lavender nodded. “Catesby, please fly to Sheila’s, and say we’re both safe, but don’t mention the bloom. Not yet. We need to hear Roxburgh’s story before we decide who to trust.”

So Catesby flew towards the house, as the others walked round to the shore. At the beach, they found a group of teenage selkies skimming stones, so Helen, Rona and Lavender headed towards the boys.

“Roxburgh,” shouted Rona. “Can we have a word?”

“Oooh!” called his mates. “The ladies want a word, Roxy!”

Roxburgh blushed, and his mates pushed him forward, then dived into the water and swam offshore, sniggering.

Helen pointed the way round a large boulder.

Where Roxburgh walked right into Yann.

Roxburgh immediately backed off. But Helen and Rona blocked his way, and Lavender pointed her wand at him.

“Don’t rush off, Roxburgh,” said Yann. “We have a few questions. Why did the sea-through try to help you win the Storm Singer competition?”

“It didn’t! It was trying to ruin my song!”

“No, it wasn’t,” Helen said. “You were waiting for it to attack. I could hear you saving your voice’s strength, to sing at your best once it attacked, to impress the audience.”

Roxburgh shook his head.

Lavender said, “There’s no point denying it. We heard your dad here last night, bargaining with the sea-through for the crown.”

Roxburgh went pale, but still didn’t say anything.

Yann stepped closer to the selkie. “If you’d rather answer these questions in front of Strathy and the other elders, we’re happy to arrange that.”

Roxburgh looked around frantically.

Yann said calmly, “The elders aren’t here. Your father’s not here either. You have to make this decision yourself. Tell us about the sea-through.”

Roxburgh put his head in his hands and mumbled, “You’re right. I
was
expecting the attack. The sea-through and my father had a deal to make me Storm Singer, then Sea Herald. My father didn’t think I could beat Rona without help, so the sea-through offered a way for me to look brave as well as sound good, so they’d all vote for me. And if I needed help to win the Sea Herald contest I would get that too. Once I was
herald, all I had to do was deliver a message written by the sea-through, rather than the message written by Thalas, and the sea-through would give my father what he’s always wanted.”

“The crown?” asked Helen.

He nodded. “My father has always wanted to be king. The sea-through said the collective memory of the bloom could find the lost selkie crown, and father could use the crown to rule all selkies, if I would deliver their message.

“I did want to be Storm Singer, and I do want my father to be king because then I’d be king next, and father never gives me a choice anyway, so I agreed. But now I haven’t won, I’m glad the plan failed. It would be pretty scary delivering the wrong message to Merras!”

“Who does the sea-through want to win now?” asked Lavender.

“Anyone who’s desperate for something the bloom can provide, I suppose.” He turned to Rona. “But it doesn’t want you, I do know that, so it would be safer for you to give up now …” Then he shivered, and looked up at Yann. “Are you going to tell anyone?”

“Not now. Later, once we’ve worked out what’s going on, you might need to tell the elders this story. Once they know, Roxburgh, you’ll not have to worry about your father bossing you around any more.”

The selkie boy looked both shocked and relieved. Suddenly Catesby swooped overhead, squawking softly.

Yann nodded to Roxburgh. “Thanks. If you think of anything else we need to know to get the sea-through and your father off your back, please tell us.”

“I’m not on your side!”

Rona moved to let him past. “Once you know what the bloom wants to do, Roxburgh, you will be on our side.”

When they were back in the tent, Yann muttered to Rona, “You’re a lot braver than that little water rat …”

Lavender spoke over him, asking Catesby urgently, “Did you say the elders and judges are meeting in Sheila’s kitchen?”

The phoenix nodded.

“Let’s go and tell them right now,” said Rona.

“Not yet,” said Lavender. “We need to think this through. We know the sea-through is trying to fix the result of the Sea Herald contest, but now that Roxburgh can’t win, who is the sea-through helping?”

Lavender started to answer her own question, hovering in the centre of the tent, counting facts on her fingers. “We know it doesn’t want Rona to win. That’s why it held her out of the tidal race, and probably why it tried to drown Helen, because if she’d drowned, you’d have been too upset to compete, wouldn’t you?” Rona nodded, and squeezed Helen’s hand.

“So does it want the blue loon to win?” Yann asked. “Is Tangaroa a traitor, like Sinclair?”

“He could be, but so could Serena,” said Lavender.

“The sea-through hasn’t helped her,” Helen objected.

“It could have done. Today, at the beach, by holding up Rona’s canoes, it ensured Rona would lose, which could just as easily have helped Serena win as Tangaroa.”

“Maybe it doesn’t mind which of them wins,” said Helen. “Roxburgh said it could be anyone who wants something the bloom can find. The others both want to be Sea Herald to get something else: directions home,
or lifting the curse. If the bloom has a long memory, it might be able to help either of them.”

Lavender nodded vigorously. “So the sea-through doesn’t mind whether Tangaroa or Serena wins, because it can bribe either of them. Therefore we have to make sure
neither
of them wins. We have to make sure Rona wins. Because what’s the thing you’ve always wanted most in the world?”

“To be Storm Singer.”

“You already have that. So you’re the only contestant the bloom can’t bribe. Which means you have to win, so the bloom can’t control the herald or the battle, so the coastline will be safe.”

“How can we make sure she wins?” asked Helen.

Lavender turned to Rona. “Tell us exactly what you have to do tomorrow.”

“This last task is the quest to find the herald’s holder. There are three holders in three different places, one for each contestant. Each quest starts with a riddle, which gives the location of a map. But the map has a guardian, who will fight to defend it. The contestant has to defeat the guardian, then follow the map to the holder. The first contestant to bring their holder home wins.”

“How do you think you’ll do?” asked Lavender. “And how will the other contestants do?”

“I might not solve a riddle as quickly as the
verse-covered
blue loon, but I’m sure I’ll get it fairly fast. I’ll be faster than the others at map reading and the race back, because Tangaroa prefers word trails to drawn maps, and Serena’s tail injury will slow her down.

“But I’m nervous about the map guardian. We don’t find out what kind of creature the guardian is until we
get there. It could be
anything
. I’m worried I might just give up when I see the guardian, if it’s big, or scary, or …”

Lavender said insistently, “How will the others do against their map guardians?”

Rona shrugged, trying to wipe tears from her eyes. Helen, who never understood why selkies made dresses without pockets, dug a hanky out of her jeans, and shoved it at Rona.

Lavender turned to the centaur. “Yann, how will they do in a fight?”

“Tangaroa made peace rather than fight me at the feast, but I think that was good sense not cowardice. He’s strong and ruthless, so I’m sure he’ll beat his guardian without much trouble. I don’t know about Serena. She could be vicious under all those simpers, though perhaps only when she’s got friends to back her up. The sea-through could be that friend …”

Yann stepped closer to Rona. “So for you to have a chance of finishing your quest before either of them, Rona, we need to work out how you can defeat the guardian.”

“No,” said Lavender, “it’s simpler than that. For you to win, we need to
help
you defeat the guardian.”

“Actually
help
me?” Rona was shocked out of her silence. “Actually fight it with me?”

“Yes.”

“That’s cheating! I’m meant to do it on my own.”

“You would do it on your own if this was just about you winning a title. But this is about preserving the balance between land and sea and about saving lives. We have to help.”

Yann interrupted, “Lavender, this is wrong. Rona can’t
cheat. We can’t cheat. This is an ancient, honourable contest. We can’t ruin it.”

“Why not? Roxburgh and his dad cheated. Tangaroa may have been conspiring with the sea-through today. Serena might be waiting for help tomorrow.”

“So if Rona is the only honest contestant, then let her stay that way.”

“Don’t be daft, Yann! As the only honest contestant, she’ll
lose
!”

Yann shook his head. “It’s better to lose honestly, than win dishonestly.”

“Don’t be such a prat, Yann,” said Helen. “Most of the people in Sutherland and Caithness live by the sea. If a battle forces flood waters a mile inland, think of all the villages and towns which will be destroyed. And what if the battle moves around? Then coastlines everywhere will be hit. This battle could destroy hundreds, thousands of villages, towns and cities. We have a chance to stop that destruction before it starts.

“This isn’t about honour or honesty, Yann. It’s about survival. Anyway, it isn’t what you think that matters. Rona, what do
you
think? Will you accept our help to win? Will you cheat?”

They all stared at the selkie. She shivered. “I don’t care about winning the contest. I don’t want to be Sea Herald. But I don’t want caves flooded, cliffs ripped down and lots of humans drowned. What belongs to the sea and what belongs to the land meet at the coast; the sea can’t have it all. We have to defend our coastline, even if it means cheating.”

“Why not just tell the elders?” pleaded Yann. “Then you wouldn’t have to cheat, they could stop the
sea-through
and bloom interfering, they could make sure the winning Sea Herald is honest.”

Lavender laughed. “What? The mighty quest warrior Yann Smith wants to let the
grown-ups
sort it out!”

Helen said more soothingly, “Yann, we know Sinclair is conspiring with the sea-through, so we don’t know if we can trust the other elders.”

“Anyway,” said Rona, “a bloom isn’t easy to defeat. A girl and a centaur can defeat one sea-through, but it would take several sea tribes to deal with a large bloom. There may not be time to defeat it that way.”

Catesby squawked at Yann’s face, and Yann whacked him out of the way. “No! I am not trying to get out of a fight!” The centaur whirled away, and took a couple of
deep breaths. Then he turned back with a grim smile. “Accusing me of being a coward won’t turn me into a cheat.”

“Yann, we can’t do this without you,” said Lavender. “Despite Helen’s display this afternoon, you’re our fighter. Whatever that guardian is, we need you. You wouldn’t just be fighting for Rona, you’d be fighting for the miles of coastline that would be sucked under in a sea battle. Really …” the fairy winked at Helen as she flitted in front of the centaur, “… really, it’s your
duty
to fight for her, for your friends, for your whole country. Like going to war …”

“War? Duty?” Yann shook his head. “You think of me as your warrior, your muscles, your fast transport, but apparently you also think I’m stupid. You think if you call me a coward I’ll do anything daft to disprove it. Or if you dangle a war in front of me I’ll leap into action. I’m not that easy to manipulate. I know what’s right and what’s wrong. This is
wrong
.”

“Fine.” Helen stood up. “If you prefer your code of honour to fighting baddies and saving the world, then we’ll do it without you. But we have to start now.”

“Why now?” asked Rona quietly.

“We need to steal the riddles now.”

“Why? I know you’re good at riddles, Helen, but I can solve it myself tomorrow.”

“Solving it tomorrow is too late. We need to know the map location now, because we have to be hidden there before the judges and the guardian arrive. We can’t just trot along behind you tomorrow. The judges are in Sheila’s kitchen, so let’s go and eavesdrop.”

“That
really
feels like cheating,” said Rona doubtfully.

“It is,” snorted Yann, as the others left the tent. “It is cheating, and you’ll regret it.”

It was just as well they didn’t have Yann with them, Helen thought as they crept up to the kitchen window, because centaurs aren’t great at sneaking.

They heard a selkie voice say, “Are the guardians in place?”

Another voice said, “Not yet. They have been paid, though, and have agreed to be in place before dawn. They were amused when I added the danger money in case they got hurt, and I’m not convinced they listened when I reminded them they were not to
kill
the contestants.”

Rona was shivering, and Helen slid her arm round her friend’s shoulders. Helen wasn’t feeling much better, because she’d just talked herself into fighting a creature which laughed at danger money and ignored health and safety instructions.

The first voice asked, “Do we have the final riddles yet?”

Another voice said, “Let me read out what I’ve written.”

The eavesdroppers huddled closer, Lavender whispering, “Remember every word.”

They heard paper rustle, then a voice spoke clearly:

“No, that’s not correct,” said a new voice. “Sheep graze above, not cows.”

“But sheep don’t moo, and I need an ‘oo’ rhyme.”

Various voices chipped in with “boo?” and “loo?”

“The rhymes are too easy,” said the first voice, which Helen now recognised as Strathy’s. “We need something more cryptic, maybe about ‘that which made me still falling through me’.”

Another voice growled, “We don’t want to make them too hard, and anyway, the use of ‘through’ is clever because it does not look like a rhyme. If we write it down, it might take her a while to realise the words do all rhyme.”

“That’s an idea,” said the riddler. “We can confuse it with other ‘oo’ sounds, but different spellings. Like true, blue, glue, shoe, who …”

“How are we doing with the other two?” Strathy asked.

“‘Two’ rhymes as well.”

“We have enough ‘oo’s now. How is the lad’s one coming along?”

“I’ve got:

“Is it too complex?” asked Strathy. “The ‘clear’ and ‘cleared’ is clever, but he’s not local, will he know this area’s history?”

“Oh yes,” said a soft voice, “we had the same in the Western Isles. And we visited that village on the first day here, when you showed us the areas likely to attract human tourists. I’m sure he will get that.”

“And the final one?”

“It’s really elegant,” the riddler said, proudly.

“More puns,” said Strathy. “Is it too simple?”

“If we read it out, so she hears the fourth ‘you’ rather than sees it, that might be confusing for a minute or two.”

The elders agreed the final riddle, so Lavender gestured the friends silently back to the tent.

Yann was still sulking, so Lavender took charge, just like Strathy in the kitchen. “We don’t have to solve the silence and cleared and village one, because it’s for Tangaroa.”

“No need to solve it, because it’s so easy,” laughed Helen. “The word ‘cleared’ and him knowing his history, it must be the Highland Clearances.”

“And if tourists visit it, it must be the clearance village in Strathnaver,” added Rona.

“The others aren’t so easy,” sighed Helen.

“Do the upside down one next,” suggested Lavender. “It should be a similar distance from here as Strathnaver, so that gives us a clue.”

They all murmured the riddle to themselves.

“Upside down you, that doesn’t make any sense, unless …” Helen dipped a fingertip in the puddle of water which had dripped from Catesby’s feathers, and drew a wet U on the groundsheet. “A letter U, look! If you turn it upside down …” she drew again, “… it’s an arch! With the sky, the rock and the surface over you … Rona, is there an underwater arch nearby?”

“Yes, Fenia’s Gateway. But,” Rona’s voice wobbled, “but how could you help me underwater?”

“Don’t panic,” said Lavender. “There’s still one more riddle, the rhyming one.” She repeated it out loud. Rona snorted. “Pigeons cooing and cows mooing. It’s like a nursery rhyme.”

“They suggested another clue,” Helen remembered. “‘What made me still falls through me …’ What could that mean?”

They sat quietly for a while, with the occasional mutter of “moo”, “loo”, “blue” …

Then Yann stamped his hoof. “It’s so obvious! It’s a cave! What made me, still falling through me, and water in the middle going through. Water, through rock, makes a cave!”

“Thanks for bothering to join in,” snapped Lavender, “but there are lots of caves round here, so that doesn’t actually help much.”

Helen said, “The answer must be a rhyme. Go through the alphabet.”

“Boo, coo, do …” They muttered their way through the alphabet, until Rona said, “Queue, roo, Sue, oh! Soo, smoo!”

The others stared at her.

“Smoo! Smoo Cave has a waterfall through it, and grass above it, and there are even pigeons nesting on ledges at the front. Smoo Cave! But how do we know which is mine? Smoo Cave or Fenia’s Gateway? And Smoo Cave …” Her voice fell. “It’s deep and dark and huge. And it’s half watery and half dry …”

“How deep is the water in the cave?” asked Helen.

“It’s really deep under the waterfall, but it flows out as a shallow river, just centimetres deep in places.”

“So this one is your riddle,” said Helen. “If it’s not deep water, then Serena can’t swim, she’d have to walk. The judges didn’t seem that bothered about your safety, but they did want the riddles to be equally difficult, so they must be trying to keep the quests fair. It wouldn’t be fair to give a mermaid a quest on land, because her legs are wobbly and sore.

“So he gets the village, she gets the arch, you get the cave. Now we have to decide how we can help you in the cave.”

“Not now,” said Rona. “We need to eat and sleep first.”

“No,” said a voice behind them. “No food. No sleep. We must go now.”

It was Yann. “We have to recce the battleground, and work out our tactics, before the guardian or the judge arrive.”

They were all staring at him.

“You’re coming with us?” said Rona.

“Of course I’m coming with you. Not because you’ve shamed me or teased me into it, but because I’ve realised it’s not really cheating to break rules in a contest that’s already broken wide open. Come on. Let’s get to Smoo Cave.”
Helen rubbed her aching arm muscles. “Do I have to row a whole horse around the coast again?”

“No, because the moored boat would give away our location,” said Yann. “If we’re going to cheat, we’re going to get away with it. I’ll get us there much faster. It’s time I ran a race too, even if it’s only against
middle-aged
judges who’re probably still arguing about what rhymes with ‘moo’.”

Before Yann could rush them all out of the tent, Helen grabbed the packed lunches, which had been forgotten in the arguments after the race, so that Rona wouldn’t be starving as well as scared.

Then, in a storm of speed, they galloped along cliffs, over moors, round kyles, through sea air and darkening night, towards Smoo Cave.