They crossed the chasm together, but this time they walked over a narrow wooden bridge that Fennel laid across its span, and followed the twisting path until they came to the boat with the ferocious dragon's head on its prow.
Fennel busied herself shipping oars made from single trunks of tall sapplings and helped them climb aboard. Hedda stood in the prow, wearing a tunic of some kind of fish scales that refracted the light into rainbow colour. She was bristling with arms of all kinds and wore an amberhorn bow across her shoulders. Her braided flaming hair hung to her waist.
To Jack, she was the most magnificent person he had ever seen. In the week they had stayed with her, he had come to admire her. And they had learned from her too.
Fennel sat in the stern, and when they were all settled, she heaved at a massive wooden hook that was fixed to a chain pinned to the side of the gulley. There was a grinding creak of protesting wood as the boat began to slip down the slope.
It moved an inch at a time, with Fennel rocking it from side to side to ease its passage, reached the lip of the gulley…and then they were moving.
Beneath them the white fog-bank was as flat as a table, studded with those spiny peaks that soared up from it like gothic spires. The boat gathered speed in the gulley and they plunged into the mist, faster and faster.
Ahead of them, a hollow booming sound, and Jack remembered the chasm he had almost tumbled into. The mist sucked away from them.
"Fennel!" he turned in the thwarts. As usual Kerry was holding tight with both hands. "Fennel, there's a great big……"
He never got to finish the sentence. Fennel was smiling at him, unconcerned.
And the boat simply dropped into the hole.
Kerry squawked as the bench fell away from him and for a second he was suspended a foot above it. Fennel's hand clamped on his shoulder and sat him back.
Then they were no longer falling, but screeching down a curve, underneath the mist, heading for a wide clear light.
The boat hit water with an almighty splash and they were out in the open, skipping along on the surface of the sea at such speed that the keel only touched water every few seconds, until they were a clear mile away from the island and it began to slow down.
Kerry whooped in delight. Connor was grinning like an idiot and Corriwen's face was flushed with exhilaration.
"It's the only way to travel," Kerry said. "Can we go back up and do it again?"
* * *
Now they were powering across the sea, and there was no sign of Dermottt's ships.
Connor, standing in the prow, looked entirely different from the ragamuffin they had saved from Dermott's cage. His fair hair streamed behind him and the rags were gone. Fennel had found him a new leather tunic and a plaid cloak. He now wore Jack's golden torc which Hedda said was a king's right. Both he and Kerry had new short-swords, Jack had the great sword in a leather scabbard, and his quiver was now filled with black arrows, just like the ones he had taken on the last night in the Major's house. He felt as if he was ready to fight.
Fennel steered them closer to the shore when Hedda took a step forward and covered her eyes against the reflections on the water. Jack followed her look and saw a spray of water jet up from the sea.
He moved up to join her. "Is that a whale?"
"A kelpie, perhaps."
The water spouted again and a mass of bubbles churned the surface.
"I see something in the water," Jack said, leaning over the gunwales. A pink shape poked above the waves, then disappeared before another fountain of water sprayed up. Fennel steered towards it.
Jack let out a cry of surprise. What he had thought was a whale, or maybe a walrus was the tip of a big nose, just under the surface. As a wave passed over it, the trough uncovered it and Jack heard a huge suck of air that was cut off by the next wave.
Then, all of a sudden, a huge hand reached up and waved.
"It's Finn!" he cried. "Finn in the water."
They all crowded to the side, causing the ship to wallow again. Jack leaned over the gunwales and peered into the depths.
Finn's moon face wavered down there. Both hands reached up and when a wave passed, he managed a mighty gasp before the water covered him again.
"I thought he was gone," Connor said. "When the mountain blew up."
"Must be tougher than we thought," Kerry said. "But it looks like he's stuck."
Fennel uncoiled a rope and made a fast loop. As the boat passed close, she cast it out when Finn's hands appeared again. The loop snared them together. They thrashed the water, but Fennel turned the boat to catch the wind. It sped away for fifty feet, then shuddered violently, almost coming to a complete halt. The wind filled the big sail and it began to move forward again, slowly at first, then a bit faster. All of a sudden there was a sudden jerk and Finn was up on the surface, thrashing about, making huge waves of his own.
Fennel turned the craft about and came alongside in. The Giant was spluttering and gasping, coughing gouts of water. He reached the gunwales and hauled himself aboard.
The first person he saw was Jack and he clamped a meaty hand on his shoulder, almost flattening him to the deck.
"I been stuck in that mud and kelp for a week," he gasped. "Couldn't get my feet out. It was pure murder every high tide, trying to get a breath."
"We thought you'd been blown to smithereens," Kerry said.
"So did I. But I flew like a bird and then dropped like a stone. And I been stuck there ever since, holding my breath at high tide. I haven't eaten for a week and I'm starving to death."
"I've got food here," Fennel said and Finn turned around.
His eyes widened in surprise. Fennel blushed.
He held out a hand. "I'm Finn McCuill. Pleased to meet you…er... m'lady."
Corriwen smiled up at him. All of a sudden he sounded so shy that if he hadn't been in a boat he'd be hopping from one foot to foot to the other like a bashful child.
Fennel took his hand. "Fennel MacNally," she said, still blushing to the roots.
After five minutes Kerry piped up. "That's all we need. Love at first sight."