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The Old Creatures fall silent and I get the sense that they won’t talk to us again Drust senses it too and prepares to leave in a hurry without asking any further questions Once we’ve recast the breathing and war me in the eye-and we juh the tunnel I thought we’d ainst us, but it’s exactly the sa out of the tunnel, we rise to the surface, where we hang, bobbing up and doith the swell of the waves I don’t breakover my head With his free hand, Drust points at the cliff face I think he’s mad-there’s no e can make the cliff safely or cliuides us towards it, opposing the pull and cut of the waves
We move on the surface of the sea as welike seabirds across the surf The wind and waves lash us angrily, as though enraged by our ability to defy them
Closer to the lethal screen of the cliff closer almost upon it One more sweep of a wave and I’ll be able to reach out and touch it
We co with the swell of the waves, but nottowards or away from the cliff Drust puts his free hand on mine and moves it forward until I es my other hand up beside it and releases both at the sao, the wind and waves bite at ertips and screa spell
Then Drust’s aroing! Don’t look down!"
"I’ll fall!" I shriek "I’ll drown!"
"You will if you don’t cli his chin hard into my neck
Since I’ve no choice but to climb and risk death or stay and die for certain, I pushfor a handhold After a second or two I find one and rest a moment, face turned away froht hand up My feet follow auto for toeholds
Drust keeps his hand onpressure on s, finally my feet When I move out of reach, he shouts at me to stop, then climbs up after ain
That’s hoe progress, a s the angry howls of the sea, disturbing seagulls in their slu in the air ain
I look down once and immediately wish I hadn’t
"We’ll never th ebb away, certain I’ll collapse soon, not even able to keep ic
"We will," Drust replies stubbornly, then pinches ain
Finally, when I’ve started to think this is a nightmare from which I’ll never awake, we e of the cliff, then carry us to our clothes Fiachna has to help rasp and manipulate the material
They ask what happened, where we’ve been, hoe survived,They were sure we’d drowned Their excite us alive nores the questions and pulls on his robes I ignore them as well, too exhausted to provide answers When we’re fully dressed, the clothes deliriously warm on my cold-blue skin, Drust tells the others we need so the cliff to where a jutting rock shelters us froic, makes it expand so the fla into the heart of the blaze, saying nothing
"Why didn’t you tell h to speak
"I couldn’t," he replies "You wouldn’t have coht"
"No You wouldn’t have trustedto keep it secret?" I snort "Not tell ?"
"Aye" He looks at ance and shain with Yes, I needed to bring your h the way you were But I also didn’t want to get close to you because I knew I’d have to"
He stops and looks at the fire again
"Was there another ician with you when you first set off?" I ask
He nods "An apprentice No grown druid would accompany me As I told you before, they have no love for Christians and will be quite pleased if the Demonata take over this land But I found an apprentice as born here, whose family still live on these shores He was happy to lay down his life if necessary"
"If?" I sneer "You told hiht not be?"
Drust blushes "I said there ht be other ways It wasn’t a total lie Until I asked the Old Creatures, I still hoped" He trails off into silence
"Is it truly the only way?" I murmur after a while
"So the Old Creatures said," he sighs
"They couldn’t be wrong?" He shakes his head "Then we o there and you must kill me," I mutter, and his neck practically snaps as his head lifts sharply
"What?" he gasps
"If that’s the only way to close the tunnel, we must do it"
"You mean you’ll let me" He stops and scratches his head "Why? Now that you know, you don’t have to come You can flee, sail for safe lands to the east With your power, you could beco or even a druid There’s never been a feic, so perhaps you’d be the first You don’t have to stay-or die"
I stare at him as if he’s insane "But the tunnel would remain open," I say slowly "The demon masters would cross They’d kill everyone, then make them walk around as undead slaves I can’t let that happen"
"Even if it means your own death?" Drust asks
"Of course" I frown "Why do you ask me this? You feel the same way Otherhy come on this quest and risk your life?"
He shifts uncomfortably "My reasons are not the same as yours These aren’t my people, so I don’t really care whether they live or die And I never planned to perish The risks were high but I hoped-still hope-to get out of here alive But if you go on, it’s to certain death, one way or the other How can you do that?"
"How can I not?" I reply siainst thousands I’d give it a dozen times over to save the lives of those I care about"
"And those you don’t knohoto you?"
"Aye"
Drust chuckles darkly "A teacher ofof ordinary people, that we’d been apart fro, we couldn’t understand theree, but I see now that he iser thanis opposite to ours No druid would throay his life to save others Some let thereater power in the Otherworld But I know none who’d offer themselves as you have"
"Then they’re fools," I tell hi Only the clan ain "So different," he mumbles, then looks at me with fresh respect "Very well, Bec Our quest continues, even though I believe it’s doomed and on’t make the tunnel in time But if we do, you knohat must be done?"
"Aye"
"You’ll accept uidance, follow my orders, let me kill you?"
A short pause Then, softly but firmly, "Aye"
"You are a true hero" He sirl We must leave as soon as possible, but we’re in no condition to , then make our way east as quickly as we can"
"Is it all right if I sleep with the others?" I ask
"You’re tired of runts, "Of course They’re your people Spend as much time with them as you wish"
"Thank you" I rise and ainst the wind As I round the rock there’s a noise, like hooves skittering over grass I glance up but the wind and rain are in my eyes and it’s a few seconds before I can see clearly When I look, there’s nothing nearby I don’t worry about it as I tra can harination, it was probably just a rabbit or fox But it ht have been a human-one who could move very, very fast
When I’ to what Drust and I were saying The boy sabbles a few less words I feel uneasy about it as I settle down to sleep Then Bran snuggles up beside me for warmth and murmurs, "Flower," under his breath as he folds his ars vanishing It probably wasn’t Bran I heard when I was co back, only a wild animal
And even if it was hi to fear from Bran What harm could a poor, innocent, muddled boy like hi He says the location of the tunnel has been revealed to him but doesn’t mention the fact that I have to be sacrificed to close it Then he outlines our main problee," he says "A er But we only have two days and nights Then the deh and we’re finished It will be too late to repair the dae"
"Then we’ve lost," Goll says softly "We carees "But we have to try We’ll push on as quickly as we can Run in bursts Use boats or rafts on rivers and streaods that the demons encounter soic?" Fiachna asks "Can’t you use that to ht The demon poison froly purple colour He has the shakes and is sweating badly I tried to cure him, without success I asked Drust if he could help but he said this wasn’t soe of
"There are spells which would allow us to runThey’d let us push our bodies to their li and drop dead If it was a matter of a day or two’s reat When we’re closer, we’ll gamble But not now"
"What if you cast the spell on only a few of us?" Lorcan asks "We could provide rides for the rest of you"
Drust blinks "Use you as horses?" he says, astonished
"Why not?" the teenager shrugs "We’ll die anyway if the deh Bec and Bran are too small, and Fiachna’s in no shape to carry anyone, but the rest of us could-"
"Notmyself dead for that damn druid!"
"You’d rather perish at the hands of demons?" Goll asks coolly
"I won’t-" Connla starts to shout, then stops and growls "I mean, I’d rather take my chances with the monsters I trust them more than this one You knohere you stand with demons"
"You’re a fool," Goll says bluntly, then faces Drust "Even without our young king, Lorcan and I could carry you and Bec And Bran could keep up, the speed he runs at ItFiachna behind, but he’ll probably die soon anyway" He grins bleakly at Fiachna "Sorry for being so blunt"
"Don’t worry about it," Fiachna wheezes, grinning back