Stormswept. Part 15

"He'll wait till we've gone, and then he'll go to Carrie's," I say as we hurry home.

"Mm."

Still eggy, I think, but I don't say it. "OK, as soon as we get home, I'll find the groundsheet while you get the wetsuits and stuff, then we'll go straight to the pool."

Jenna doesn't answer. She's frowning and she looks a million miles away, but that doesn't matter. She's coming with me, and together we can get Malin out of the pool, down the rocks and away over the sand to the sea. By the end of tonight, Malin will be free.

Mum is at the door, looking out as if she's waiting for us. Light streams from behind her, outlining her.

"Morveren! Jenna!" she cries in a voice I've never heard before. "Have you got Digory with you?"

"No!" we say as we run to her. "What's happened? Is he lost?"

We all crowd in through the door.

"Where have you been?" Mum demands.

"Only over in Marazance."

"I didn't know where you were. I thought maybe he was with you."

"We'd have said, Mum, if we were taking him to Marazance," says Jenna. Mum nods, biting her lip. Her eyes are fixed on the dark behind us.

"I don't know where he is," she says, in a tight, unfamiliar voice. "We've been looking everywhere. You know what he's like for wandering off."

"When did you last see him?" I think back. Was Digory in the house when Mum told me to clean the bathroom? That was hours ago.

"He was playing with his Lego, and then he called up that he wanted to go over and play with Robbie Savage. I was finishing off upstairs, doing the bathroom-"

"Oh, Mum!" I feel a horrible pang of guilt. If we'd cleaned the bathroom, Mum would have been downstairs with Digory and maybe he wouldn't have gone out.

"-and I was in the middle of it so I called down that he could go, but he had to be back for tea. I know he had his watch on."

It is quarter to six. "He's useless at telling the time," I say quickly. "Maybe he's still-"

"No, I've been to the Savages'. Rose said he hadn't been there, but Robbie'd taken his bike down to the village hall, so maybe Digory was there too. You know how they like racing their bikes round the building. But he wasn't there. Your dad came back from work and he's gone out looking. You know what Digory's like, he could be in any house in the village. I stayed here because I didn't want him to come home and find the house empty."

It's like an echo of the storm, and the missing sailors. A shudder runs through me. Digory shouldn't be out there in the cold darkness.

"It gets dark so early these days," says Mum, as if she has heard my thoughts. "When I heard you coming I thought he might be with you."

"He's always going off, Mum. He'll be fine," says Jenna soothingly, but she can't hide the worry on her face.

"He's like you, Morveren. He hates the dark," says Mum.

Thoughts crowd my head, flashing into images of Digory lost, Digory crying, Digory on his own in the dark. Maybe he's fallen somewhere, or hurt himself. I look at Mum's face and know that the same thoughts are in her too.

"No one would hurt a child like Digory," she says as if to herself.

"Of course they wouldn't," I say, but as the words leave my mouth, another thought stabs me. Bran Helyer told Digory that he would throw him into the sea. No. I'm over-reacting. Bran might threaten but he would never, ever do such a thing. He's not that bad. Besides, Bran is over in Marazance, and Digory didn't even leave our cottage until Bran was well off the Island.

When Digory goes off on his own, it's usually because he wants to play his violin somewhere quiet, where n.o.body will hear him...

"Mum, is Digory's violin here?"

But Digory's violin is safe in its usual place. I'm relieved. Digory won't go anywhere for long without it. He'll be back soon.

The moment of relief doesn't last. I don't know what instinct it is that makes me look up, to the shelf where Conan's fiddle sleeps in its case, wrapped in its blue velvet cloth. The shelf is empty. Conan's fiddle has gone.

Mum hasn't noticed. Jenna hasn't noticed. I clench my hands tight, digging my nails into my palms to stop myself from crying out. Why has Digory taken it? Some people say that if the fiddle is ever lost or broken, it will be the end of our island... But Digory wouldn't worry about that. To him, every instrument is like a person. You learn to know it and you don't fear it. All he would want to do is make music with it.

I am afraid. Too many things are coming together. Digory's words echo like a trickle of icy water through my mind.

"I was standing right on the edge of the sea. They knew I was there. They wanted me to come in the sea with them, but I said I couldn't."

The Mer can hear Digory's playing, and he can hear theirs. He listens to the musicians of Ingo and answers them with his own music. He plays so beautifully... maybe too beautifully. There is something magical in the way that Digory plays, and it makes you want to listen for ever. But this time he's taken an instrument that's a hundred times more powerful than his little everyday violin. If all those stories are true, Conan's fiddle comes from the time before our island even existed. What will happen when the Mer hear Conan's instrument, with Digory playing it?

"I'll go out and have another look round," Mum says. Her voice is carefully normal now.

"I'll come with you," says Jenna, but Mum is too quick for her, and is already out of the door. Jenna pushes past me, to follow, but I hold her back, and kick the door shut.

"Jenna, what about Malin? We've got to help him."

"It won't take long to find Digory. He can't have gone far."

I know exactly how Jenna feels, because I feel the same. My stomach is clenched with fear. All I want is for the door to fly open and Mum to come in, pulling Digory by the hand and scolding him because she's been so frightened that she can't help being cross. All I want is to see Digory again.

I take a deep breath. I can't get angry with Jenna.

"Mum and Dad are both out looking. Please, Jen. It won't take long. They could hurt him. He could die-"

Jenna looks straight at me. "I know that. But Digory's our brother, Mor. Malin's not even a Malin's got his own people."

Don't get angry. Don't get angry. It won't help Malin or Digory.

"His people can't come on land. You know that. They can't help him."

"Mor, we're wasting time. What if Digory's had an accident? What if-"

"Please, Jenna. You promised you'd help."

"Digory needs us a hundred times more than Malin does. He's only seven. Now let go of me. Mor, you're hurting my arm."

"Fine," I say furiously. "You're the one who's to blame for Bran finding out about Malin. If it hadn't been for you he'd never even have come here. You encouraged him. And now you just abandon Malin a to be captured a or put in a cage a or a tank a as if he wasn't a person-"

"He's not human, Morveren! They don't help us, do they? When that Polish sailor was drowning, the Mer didn't save him, did they? But you think we've got to put Malin first, ahead of our own brother."

My anger drains away into cold despair. She isn't going to help. She thinks it is either help Malin, or help Digory. She doesn't believe we can do both.

Jenna's thoughts are different from mine and that's not going to change. What's the point of trying to explain that to be a person you don't have to be human?

"I'm not leaving Digory alone, out there in the dark," says Jenna resolutely. "Move out of my way."

I move out of her way. I don't even want to stop her any more, because she believes in what she's doing as much as I believe in rescuing Malin. But I don't follow her. I feel sick. I've done everything wrong. If I'd explained to Jenna properly, she might have listened. Why is it that I can never get things right? Or not here... not in this world...

I wish- I wish- How I wish I could be in Ingo. Away in Ingo, where Malin's people are. The music of the sea and the faraway music I heard when we were burying the Polish sailor are calling me now. And now I think I know what's happened to Digory. He heard that music too, or why else would he have taken Conan's fiddle? Mum and Dad and Jenna can search for him in every house throughout the village, but they won't find him. I am the only one who can do that.

I know what to do. Groundsheet, wetsuit. Maybe, even without Jenna, I can do something to save Malin, and find my brother.

Outside, the calm of the day has dissolved and the wind is blowing strongly from the south-west. I can taste salt. Ingo. I thought I was standing still, but I'm already at the gate. Down past the houses, round the side of the village hall, and on to the track which leads down to the sh.o.r.e. Something is pulling me. I hear a roar of the sea in my ears, drowning out everything.

I reach the rocks where Malin is. There is a faint sheen of light from the sea, just enough for me to climb up safely, lugging the groundsheet. The tide has turned and is already falling, though it will be some time before the causeway is uncovered. Already there is hard, wet sand between the rocks and the sea. For once the darkness isn't my enemy but my friend, because it's hiding both me and Malin.

Now I stand on the lip of King Ragworm Pool, gazing down. I can only see its surface, black as oil. No sign of Malin. For a second I feel an incredible hope that maybe he's escaped and is already free and safe, back in Ingo, and I won't have to be torn in two any longer. All I'll have to do then is join the others and find Digory.

Something makes me look round. A darker shape shifts against the solid darkness of the rock. I nearly scream, but bite it back just in time. The shape becomes clear as the scudding cloud parts and the moon shines down on us. It's a boy, sitting on a shelf of rock on the side of the pool, with his wetsuit pulled down to his waist. It's a boy with a seal tail that curls down almost to the water. It's Malin. On his face there's a smile of triumph that shows his sharp, pointed teeth.

"Malin! How- How did you get there?"

"My arms are strong," says Malin proudly. "All my strength is returning, Morveren. Look!" He points to the gash in his tail, and to my amazement it's no longer a gash but an ugly ridge, a healing scar. "The live water is healing me," he says.

"Are you strong enough to move tonight?"

"Tonight?" Instantly, his voice sharpens. "Why tonight?"

"There's danger, Malin. Some people a some bad people- We think they know you are here."

"Bad people?" says Malin with devastating emphasis. "What are you saying to me, Morveren? Who has betrayed me?"

"No one's betrayed you, it's just-"

"Where there are humans, there is always betrayal," says Malin.

Angry words leap to my lips. I want to deny it. We're not all like that, I've done nothing but try to help you, I could have left you lying in that sand dune if I didn't care about you... But I don't say any of it, because he's right. None of us meant to betray him, but we have done.

"My brother is missing," I say rapidly. "Jenna's gone to help search for him but as soon as he's found she'll come and help me move you to the sea."

"And when do you expect these *bad people'?" asks Malin steadily, still with the same scorn.

"Not until the next low tide, when the causeway's pa.s.sable. That's when they'll come, if they come tonight."

Malin looks up at the moon. "So when the tide falls, and human beings can walk across land that rightly belongs to Ingo, that's when they'll come."

"I think so."

Malin is silent. I scrabble desperately in my mind for any possible way of getting him down the rocks without help, but I know I can't do it without causing him worse injuries than those he's already had.

"I am strong tonight," he says at last. "Not strong enough to reach the sea, but strong enough to fight. Sometimes your air is my enemy, but tonight it is my friend."

"What do you mean?"

"I am the same as you, Morveren. Sometimes I can live in your element, just as you can live in mine. Tonight your air tastes good. It is wet and full of salt. But you must make me a weapon."

"A weapon?"

"Isn't that what you humans do best? Maybe you have a spear, or a knife? We know that you have weapons that cause death without a man ever touching another man. We have seen them."

"I'm sorry, Malin. I haven't got anything."

"Then lift me the biggest stone you can find, and I will crush their brains in their skulls."

"All right."

I don't tell him that Bran's dad will come with companions, and dogs, and maybe even with guns, if the rumours are true. I scramble down the rocks again and search by starlight for loose stones. There's a good-sized one half-buried in sand, and I gouge it out. It's heavy, and sharp-edged where it must have split from a larger rock. It's difficult to climb up again holding it, but I manage. Carefully balancing on the narrow ledge, I make my way round to Malin.

"Here you are."

He takes the stone in his hands and weighs it. A strange smile curls his lips. "Thank you, Morveren," he says. His thumb tests the sharp edge. "I am going against the laws of the Mer, but my people will forgive me."

"I'll come back. We'll both come. We'll free you before-"

"I know."

I don't want to leave him. "Malin, do you think you should get back into the pool? You'd be better hidden there."

But he doesn't hear me. His head is up, and his face turned to the sea. He puts his hand on my arm. "Listen, Morveren. Can you hear it?"

At first I can't hear anything but the soughing of the wind and the noise of the sea. But then my ears pick out something else. The beat of a drum, a bodhran, fast and urgent as it strikes out the rhythm. And above it comes a thread of melody so sweet and strong that I know at once who is playing.

"Digory," I breathe. But where is he? I can't tell where the sound is coming from. It might be in the air, but I don't think so. It's as wild as the sound of breaking waves.

"The musicians of Ingo have found a new player," says Malin, and now I understand.

"They wanted me to come in the sea with them..."

They wanted you, and you came. It's happening to me now, Digory. They want me to come to them, where you are. Mum and Dad and Jenna are looking all round the village but they won't find you there. Don't be scared. I'm coming.

"You must go," says Malin.

"I'm sorry."

"Go now."

I leave him there. I look back once but I can't see him, because it's too dark and his shape has melted into the bulk of the rock.

walk straight into the sea. To go into the sea on a cold night and alone is the most stupid thing you can ever do, but I close my mind to that and keep on wading, knee-deep, thigh-deep and then waist-deep until the waves lift me off my feet. I don't struggle, but let the power of the sea take me where it wants. Deep inside me I am safe, and free. This is not the sea I've lived with all my life, and learned to love but never trust. This is another world, which was always there, but hidden. Ingo. The word echoes like a word spoken inside a seash.e.l.l.

The clouds are thinning and the moon shines out more strongly, revealing the line of foam where the waves break, and the swell beyond. Wave after wave after wave, going on to the end of the world. I tread water, watching them, waiting for Ingo to tell me what I should do. Like a signal, a wave that is far bigger than all the rest rears up ahead. It hasn't broken yet, but as I watch a line of white foam on its crest catches the moonlight and the wave begins to topple, gathering power as it rushes towards me. In a split second I make my decision and dive down, into the glistening body of the wave.