Storm Singing and other Tangled Tasks (13 page)

They arrived at a clifftop carpark after midnight.

“We’re definitely here before the judges,” said Yann, slightly out of breath. “Let’s go down and check out this cave.”

“But the guardian might be here already,” said Rona, shakily.

“Why?” asked Lavender. “It doesn’t need to be here until dawn.”

“Maybe it’s the kind of monster which
enjoys
lurking in deep dark drippy caves all night.”

Helen laughed. “Rona,
you
live in a cave. Don’t start building this guardian up into something from a horror film. It’s only a task, not a fight to the death.” Then she remembered the voice in the kitchen saying the guardians hadn’t listened when told not to kill the contestants.

“Helen, don’t downplay this creature,” said Yann, as they followed the tourist signs and Lavender’s lightballs along steep steps down the cliff. “It’s more dangerous to underestimate than overestimate an opponent. Let’s assume it’s nasty, violent and large, with an array of effective weapons, and prepare accordingly. If it’s actually a bunny rabbit with a sharp stick, we can laugh
at our over-preparation once we’re safe. So think huge, dangerous, fast and predatory.”

“You’re not helping,” muttered Helen. “Rona’s very nervous. Stop using words like weapons and predatory, and stop sounding like this is fun!”

“Sorry,” he murmured.

They reached the foot of the steps, at the end of a long, high inlet, and crossed a wooden bridge over a river flowing out of a black hole in the cliff.

“There are two caves,” explained Rona. “The outer one is huge and mostly dry, the inner one is smaller and flooded, because the river running from the hills has broken through the roof. We’ll have to check both.”

Lavender whispered, “Should we use light in the cave?”

“I’m sure we’re first here, but even so, keep light and talk to a minimum when we’re inside,” said Yann. “Let’s go in, have a look round, come back out to discuss tactics, then Rona can head home and the rest of us will go back in and hide.”

So with Lavender’s lightballs looking unusually pale, they walked into Smoo Cave.

Rona led them past a wide pillar into a high arched cave. There was a big teardrop-shaped hole in the roof, with a few smaller holes at its tail, and when Helen stood under them, she could see through to the stars.

Yann paced out the cave, checking it was empty, then Rona led them along a wooden walkway, through a tunnel, to a platform at the entrance to the inner cave. They were battered by spray and noise from a waterfall plunging through the high roof into a dark pool.

Lavender encouraged her lightballs to swoop round the cave. The walls were wet from the constant spray, and the wide sheet of water looked cold and deep.

Helen knelt on the planks of the platform to see if there was anything visible under the water, but she couldn’t see any shapes or movement.

Rona leant even closer to the dark choppy surface. She gasped, then turned and ran, not stopping until she was out in the clear night air.

They all ran after her, Yann bringing up the rear.

“What did you see?” asked Helen.

“Nothing! I didn’t see anything! We couldn’t really see anything in the shadows of the big cave, either. They could put the map anywhere: high on a ledge, or underwater in that black pool, or up on the roof where the river falls in, because selkie maps don’t mind getting wet.

“And the guardian could be anywhere and anything. It could be a monster from inland, because they must be using a land beast in Strathnaver. Or it could be a monster from the darkness of the far ocean, in that deep pool. It could be
anything
and I won’t know until it attacks and I don’t think I can do this!”

She sat down on a rock, near where the narrow river met the sea, and tried to gulp back tears. Helen crouched beside her. “We’ll be with you.”

“But you can’t be at the entrance or the judge outside will see you, so what if it jumps me when I walk in? And you can’t be in the water, so what if it’s swimming down in the dark?”

Rona was weeping now. “I wish I knew what it
was
, because at the moment it’s everything scary and
dangerous all mixed up together! You know I’m not as brave as all of you. Walking into a cave to meet a creature which could
eat
me, which could bite and swallow and digest me … I just can’t do it. It’s my worst nightmare. I’m sorry. I can’t.”

Helen looked at Rona’s rock, then at a much larger rock nearer the mouth of the inlet. “You don’t have to go into the cave at all.”

“Of course she does,” said Yann briskly. “The judges weren’t inside the wreck or the tidal race, but they were stationed outside. There will be a judge
out here
, so Rona has to go in, and she has to come out with the map.”

“No, she doesn’t. I’ll go in,” said Helen. “You all hide inside, but I’ll hide out here, behind that big rock, and swap places with Rona before she goes in.”

“But you don’t look like Rona,” objected Yann.

“You could,” said Lavender. “If you wear one of Rona’s dresses – and you would look much nicer in a dress than those jeans – and if we style your hair so it’s long and straight …”

“We don’t need to style my hair. If I get it wet, the weight of it will make it hang down, and the water will make it shiny like Rona’s.”

“So, in a dress and wet hair, Helen could look like a selkie,” said Lavender. “The light will be dim just after dawn, and the judge will be expecting Rona, so he or she won’t be looking for a switch.”

“But the guardian will tell the judges it was defeated by a human, a centaur, a fairy and a phoenix, rather than a selkie,” said Rona miserably. “I
have
to go in.”

“The two winged ones could be mistaken for the birds which live in the cave …” said Yann, thinking out loud,
“Helen will be dressed as a selkie, and if I attack from behind … it won’t know what hit it.” He nodded. “That could work. We’ll have to split up. Helen will stay out here tonight, and one of us should stay with her, in case the sea-through is still hunting for that coral necklace.”

Catesby cooed reassuringly.

Helen smiled at the phoenix. “Thanks.”

“Fine,” said Yann. “Try not to be too obvious when you fly into the cave at dawn, Catesby. Lavender and I will hide in the shadows of the outer cave all night, and watch the guardian arrive. And tomorrow morning, Rona, once you’ve pretended to puzzle over the riddle, get here fast and haul out behind that rock, then Helen will appear and come into the cave. Once we’ve defeated the guardian, Helen will come back behind the rock and give the map to you. And off you go to win the quest. Simple.”

“But Helen doesn’t have a dress!” Rona wailed.

“Calm down!” said Yann. “Let’s eat our very late lunch, then I’ll take you back to Taltomie and you can give me a dress for Helen.”

Once they’d eaten the slightly stale sandwiches, Yann and Rona headed up the steps and galloped off. Then Helen searched the shoreline. With the help of Lavender’s light and Catesby’s sharp eyes, she found a crusty old plastic bottle. She rinsed it as clean as she could, filled it with water, then balanced it behind the large rock.

Lavender sat on her knee. “Are you sure about this, Helen? Once you’re in the cave, we’ll only be able to help from the shadows. It’s probably more dangerous than we were admitting to Rona.”

“I’ll be fine,” said Helen. “Yann says it’ll just be a bunny rabbit with a sharp stick.”

Catesby laughed heartily, but Lavender made a face and flew to the cave to find a hidden perch. Helen said “night night” to Catesby, who was keeping watch on the hill behind her. As she dozed off, with her arms pulled out of her sleeves and wrapped around her chest inside her fleece, she hoped the guardian wasn’t pink and purple with tentacles.

She was woken by a soft touch on her face. Yann was standing above her, lit by a sprinkling of stars, holding out a dark green dress. “Rona says she’s got another like this, which she’ll wear for the quest.” He paused. “Don’t worry about tomorrow, Helen. I’ll be right beside you. Just concentrate on the map, and I’ll deal with the guardian.”

“Thanks, Yann.” He disappeared into the cave.

Helen pulled on the soft silky dress, amazed at how warm it was. She didn’t even need to put her fleece back on, so she made a pillow out of her jeans and fleece, and dozed more comfortably.

She was woken by a loud
SPLASH
from the cave. She peered out from behind the rock, and in the early morning light, she saw a high wave surfing along the river out of the cave, followed by a chorus of smaller ripples. Something had fallen into the pool. Or something had jumped. The guardian had arrived.

Before she could wonder what that wave meant about the size and nature of the guardian, she heard a smaller splash from the seaward side, and saw a blue man step out of the dark water in the inlet.

The judge had a large kelp bag on his back, and he pulled out a hammer and a wooden sign. He marched a few paces up towards the carpark, and hammered the sign into the path. Helen nodded. The sign must be to keep humans away. She heard the whirr of wings behind her, as Catesby took the chance to fly to the cave.

The blue man came back down, and pulled a roll of silvery parchment out of the bag. Then he walked cautiously into the cave. Even the judge was frightened of the guardian, Helen thought.

She heard the sound of hammering from deep inside the cave. When the judge came back out, she crossed her fingers, hoping he wouldn’t sit too near her rock. He perched on the bridge over the peaty brown river, opened his bag again, and pulled out his breakfast.

Helen tried not to think about the guardian in the cave, distracting herself by wondering what guardians the blue loon and the mermaid would have to fight, and whether the sea-through would help either of them. But she kept hearing that splash echoing round her head, and wondering what size of guardian could have sent a wave so high down such a shallow river.

She heard another splash behind her, and nearly screamed. Then a gentle voice said, “Let’s give you long straight selkie hair.” The bottle of manky cold water was tipped over Helen’s head.

She gasped, and turned round. Rona was standing behind her, in an identical green dress. The selkie whispered, “Thank you for doing this.”

Helen gripped her friend’s hands, stood up, and walked out from behind the rock.

Helen walked towards the cave. She didn’t turn to look at the judge on the bridge, like she was too focused to acknowledge him, but really not wanting him to see her face.

She walked in the high arched entrance. There was no one else there. Perhaps Lavender was still asleep. Perhaps Catesby hadn’t got to the cave before the blue man came back down the steps. Perhaps Yann had decided cheating was too dishonourable after all, and gone home. Perhaps she was alone.

Then she heard Lavender whisper, “We’re at your back.”

She smiled and walked deeper into Smoo Cave.

The early sunlight was faint through the holes in the roof. Helen turned slowly round, looking at the cave’s floor and walls, searching for the map, the guardian and her friends.

She saw orange and purple feathers hovering near the roof. But no sign of Yann. Perhaps he was better at sneaking than she thought.

Also no sign of a huge guardian. Nor a map hammered onto a wall. She heard a faint squawk. She looked up, and saw Catesby pointing with his beak at the walkway

The map was in the waterfall cave. The guardian would be there too. So Yann must be there, on the platform, waiting for her.

Perhaps Yann had already dealt with the guardian, perhaps she could just walk in, get the map and walk out.

She marched along the walkway towards the waterfall cave, her face battered by freezing wet air, and her ears filled with an overwhelming roar. The guardian must be massive, she thought, to have made a louder noise than this when it arrived.

Then she was right inside the cave, the fierce white of the waterfall in the darkness ahead of her, and a few of Lavender’s palest lightballs drifting behind her. Helen hoped the tall shape at the darkest part of the platform was Yann.

His welcome voice said, “Helen, stay there.”

Then she saw the map: a square of silver, nailed to the wall to the right of the waterfall. There was a deep black pool between her and the map.

She stepped forward.

“No!” ordered Yann.

The waterfall seemed to move up rather than down as the water exploded out of the pool. When the fountain of spray fell back, Helen saw a column of green stone standing in the middle of the pool.

Then it moved slightly, a ripple up the column. It wasn’t stone. It was a long neck and head, staring at her with flat cold eyes.

A snake? A worm?

It opened its mouth. It didn’t have two snake fangs, it had rows of sharp teeth. The head shot forward.

Helen leapt back. The mouth snapped shut with a squelch, the head pulled back, and the neck slid under the waterfall.

Not a snake. Not a worm.

“An eel,” said Helen. “A giant eel.”

She had retreated further than she thought. She was almost back in the outer cave, her hands clinging to the railing of the walkway, with Yann at her back, Lavender and Catesby above her.

“A giant eel,” she repeated. “Does it have a sharp stick, Yann?”

“It doesn’t need one,” he said loudly. “It has the pool. It just has to stay where it is, and we can’t get the map.”

Helen took a step forward, just far enough in to see the map, and the water between her and the map. She thought about the eel under the water. She nodded. “It doesn’t have to fight. It just has to be there. Because what kind of idiot would swim across that pool?”

She reached her hand out to touch the wall of the cave. “Could I climb round?” But the rock was too wet to grip safely.

She looked at Catesby. He nodded and flew cautiously round the edge of the water. Yann’s hands squeezed Helen’s shoulders as he watched his friend above the eel’s pool.

Catesby hovered in front of the map, and tugged at it with his claws and beak, but the silvery paper was too strong for him to rip, and the nail was hammered in too far for him to pull out.

He flew back, shaking his head.

“It needs hands,” Lavender yelled over the noise. “I’ll go.”

Yann replied, “Don’t be daft, you couldn’t carry the map even if you could get it loose. It’s ten times your size. If it needs hands, I’d better go.”

“No, you won’t,” said Helen. “You’re a huge target with far too many legs. The eel will make horsemeat out of you, then tell the judges that some horse boy tried to get the map. I have to go. I’m wearing selkie clothes, so I’m the only one who can be seen swimming that pool without exposing our cheating.”

Yann looked miserable. “Helen! How can I let you do that? I said I’d deal with the guardian.”

“You aren’t dressed for it, Yann, so I’ll have to go. I’ll swim fast, and … I’ll come back faster!”

She couldn’t think of anything cleverer than that. Swim fast and hope the monster under the water didn’t notice. She gulped. How would it feel to be in the water and know those teeth were under you?

“Maybe I could … em … not swim in a straight line? Not do what it expects?”

“That’s a good idea, but we can do better,” called Yann. “We’ll distract it: kick the water, drop in stones, disturb the pool in several places at once. Give it more than one target. Give you a chance.”

He went to the outer cave to collect an armful of stones, happier now he had a plan. When he returned, Helen nodded at her friends, pulled herself onto the railing, and dived in.

The first thing she noticed was how warm the selkie’s dress made her feel. She knew the water was cold, because her hands and feet were freezing, but her body was cosy in the shimmering material.

However, the dress wouldn’t guard against teeth, and
there was something huge and slimy coiled underneath her, so she swam as fast as she could.

Over the constant thunder of the waterfall, she heard rocks hit the surface on the other side of the pool, and drumming as hooves kicked the water behind her.

Suddenly she was at the rock wall.

Helen was treading water, a stationary target, as she ripped the map from the nail. There was thrashing movement under the water now, as if the eel was confused, turning in circles, trying to decide what to attack.

Catesby squawked above her and reached out his claws to grab the map, so her hands were free to swim. Then she pushed away from the wall and swam for the platform, her arms slicing down in the water.

Rocks were flying through the air, splashing all over the pool, but Helen wondered how long it would take the eel to realise she was the only target moving
away
from the map’s position. She swam as fast as she could.

Then she was punched in the belly by a huge fist. Or a car. Or a train.

She was lifted out of the water, high into the air, arms and legs dangling down.

Then she was flicked up and fell down past the eel’s head, sinking deep into the pool. Helen watched, frozen in the cold water, as the eel’s neck curved, its toothy mouth opened, and it dived down after her.

But the warmth of the dress woke her up enough to twist out of the way, and she was thrown sideways in the dark water by the force of the eel plunging past her. She scrambled into a messy breaststroke back to the surface and tried to work out which way the platform was.

There were splashes to her left, so she kicked off in that direction, her eyes full of water, her blood full of panic.

She felt a pain in her ankle, then a tug on her foot, but she kept kicking and the pressure fell away. She managed one more forward lunge. A hand grabbed her and dragged her out of the water. “That was incredible, my human friend,” Yann gasped.

Helen waggled her left leg. The end of her leg felt very light. And very sore.

“My foot! I think it bit off my foot!” She couldn’t look down.

Lavender said, “No, it just pulled off your shoe. You’re fine.”

Helen looked down. Her ankle was bleeding, her sock was ripped, but her foot was still there.

There was a cough from the pool and her trainer popped up to the surface. Pushed by ripples from the waterfall, it bobbed towards the platform. Catesby squawked and Lavender said, “Don’t be rude. No one would eat your smelly feet either.”

“Do you want that back?” Yann leaned forward to retrieve it.

Helen saw a glitter of slime on the velcro and toothmarks on the sole. “No, it’s ok, I’ve got another pair and some wellies back at the tent.”

She rubbed her eyes. “I’d better take the map to Rona.”

She looked at the walkway shining in the glow from Lavender’s lightballs, carefully placed so they cast shadows for Yann to hide in.

“Has it given up?”

“I don’t know,” said Yann. “But it’s in the water, and you’re on land, so I think you just need to run.”

Helen stood up, took the map from Catesby and ran.

She felt the platform behind her shake. She turned to see the eel’s huge muscled body crash onto the planks between her and the darkness hiding her friends. She suddenly remembered that eels can move house: they can go overland from one river to another. This eel could chase her all the way to the Borders! She stood and stared at it. The eel looked back at her, its eyes bored and flat. It lunged forward.

She swerved and sprinted away, limping in her one shoe and one sock, but there was a wet thud behind her. She whirled back, and the eel pitched forward, landing open-mouthed at her feet. Its head bounced once on the wood, then lay still.

Yann stepped into the light. “Once it was out of the water, I could finally deal with it.”

Helen smiled. “You’d better find a hoof-shaped stone to explain the bruise on its neck, while I take the map to Rona.”

She walked through the outer cave, running a hand down her wet hair to make it straight, but as she reached the pillar at the entrance, she was jerked to a stop.

She almost overbalanced because she couldn’t move her feet. She put her hand out to stop herself falling, and felt something wet wrap round her right wrist.

A voice hissed from behind the pillar. “A nasty little human with a fishskin parchment. That belongs to the sea.” The sea-through slid round, pulling itself closer with the tentacles wrapped round Helen’s ankles and right wrist. “You got it by
cheating
, didn’t you? The sea won’t like that. So I’ll have it back.”

“No!” Helen kept her voice quiet so the judge on the bridge wouldn’t hear her. “You’re the cheat. Helping Tangaroa, stopping Rona. All we’re doing is making it fair.”

The map was in her left hand, and she held it away from the pillar, out into the new yellow sunlight, as if she was reading it, but really so the sea-through couldn’t reach it without stepping into the judge’s eyeline.

“Give me the map!”

“No,” said Helen, feeling her skin burn at wrist and ankles, and hoping her friends had realised she was being attacked.

But Yann and the others were covering their tracks round the unconscious eel, and Rona must stay hidden if they were to fool the judge. Helen had to deal with this herself.

She had no weapons, but she did have one thing on her side. The sea-through’s obsession with the sea’s possessions.

“The map
is
going back to the sea,” she said. “Rona will take it straight to the sea, look.” She threw the map out of the cave towards the water.

The judge looked puzzled, but went back to eating his breakfast.

“But this …” Helen pushed back the left sleeve of the selkie dress to show the bracelet she’d made from her broken necklace. “… this coral will
never
go back to the sea.” She used her teeth to pull off the bracelet and held it high.

“I’ll throw it onto a ledge, the pigeons will carry it inland, the magpies will decorate a nest with it, it will sit in a tree for centuries and the sea will
never
get it back.”

The sea-through squealed, and pulled its tentacles off her wrist and ankles. It reached up for the orange bracelet, as Helen flicked it into the air behind her, further inside the cave.

The sea-through darted after the bracelet like a dog after a squirrel, and Helen ran outside, picked up the map, and fell behind the rock.

“The guardian was a giant eel,” she gasped. “The sea-through is right behind me. You’ll have to sprint so it can’t follow you.”

Rona nodded, pulled the map from Helen’s hands, hauled herself out from behind the rock and slid into the water.

The judge watched Rona swim out of the inlet, then walked into the cave. Helen held her breath. What would he find? A centaur? A sea-through? A fairy? A phoenix?

But her friends and enemy must have had time to hide, because soon the judge sauntered back out, picked up his bag, then dived into the sea.

A couple of minutes later the sea-through stumbled out, clutching the coral to its chest, and splashed into the water. Helen hoped it wouldn’t catch up with Rona.

Finally, Yann, Lavender and Catesby came out, blinking in the morning light.

“Where’s the eel?” asked Helen.

Yann grinned. “It’s still out cold, but it’s back in the pool. The judge kicked it in, presumably so it wouldn’t dry out.”

“What if it wakes up in a bad mood, and eats a tourist?” Then Helen looked up the path. “That’s probably why the judge left the sign.”

They walked up the steps to a notice written in deep blue ink:

Helen laughed, and started thinking of rhymes about the eel’s cold eyes, as Yann took them home, at a canter rather than a gallop.

“Did you look at the map?” Lavender asked. “Do you know where Rona’s going?”

“No, I didn’t have time.” Helen explained about the sea-through attacking her.

“Of course. I should have thought of that,” said Lavender, annoyed with herself. “The sea-through couldn’t help Tangaroa on a quest far inland, and there was no point helping Serena because if she wins the result would be a tie. I should have realised it would try to stop Rona again. I hope it’s not caught up with her.”