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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 23</title>
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<h1>23</h1><p>Tallabaun Strand stretched out as far as the eye could see. Mile after mile of flat sand. But they had to cross it.</p>
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<p>"It's a desert," Kerry said.</p>
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<p>"No." Jack replied. "It's a beach. The book said we'd find it."</p>
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<p>They stood together staring out across it, and there was no sign of the two horses and no sign of Corriwen and Connor. Jack's heart sank.</p>
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<p>They had escaped the nightmare Bogrim from the tarns, but the flickering flares of exploding marsh gas had surely pinpointed their presence to the hunters strung along the hills on the far side of the bog. In the morning, all of Dermott's men would zero in on them for sure.</p>
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<p>"We should move before dawn," Corriwen ventured.</p>
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<p>"I think we should move right now," Jack said.</p>
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<p>"But there's Bogrim in the dark." Connor didn't like that idea at all.</p>
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<p>"We know how to beat them, off," Kerry said stoutly. He held up his sword. "I'm not scared of them. I've had a freakin' alien inside me, so dead men walking are a dawdle."</p>
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<p>Despite Connor's misgivings, they led the horses away from the rock shelter and felt their way in the dark round the edges of tarns and pits, all the time ready for signs of attack. Things moved, out of sight, with glutinous sounds, and those despairing voices whispered in their minds, begging for warmth and the end to loneliness.</p>
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<p>There was nothing to do but listen to the shuddery pleas and hope a dripping hand would not reach above the surface and snatch them down, until, after a long and tiring night they reached the far side of the CorNamara bogs as grey daylight began to spread over the wasted land.</p>
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<p>They were hungry, wet and tired, but there was no rest for them here at the base of the black mountains that towered above them. They climbed up a series of rocky tracks that were just wide enough to let the horses past and when they got high enough they turned to look back.</p>
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<p>Far in the distance, lines of men and horses had started down towards the bogland on a front maybe a mile wide. Dermott was taking no chances. He'd comb the entire barrens if he had to.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Down in Wolfen Castle, Fainn the Pict stared from bloodshot eyes. The thieves had found their way into the bogland, herded there by the frigid wind he'd sent to drive them onwards.</p>
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<p>From there, with hordes of hunters ranging behind them, there was only one way to go: into the black mountains.</p>
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<p>And if they made it across those dark peaks, he knew where they'd reach. If not, they'd die there and Dermott would have the harp again, and he, Fainn, would have that dark stone heart. And sooner or later he'd find out its secrets.</p>
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<p>He turned from the smoking pit and stalked out of the chamber and into the great hall.</p>
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<p>Dermott was brooding, brows drawn down in constant anger. He sat in a scatter of bloodied feathers that drifted around his feet. In amongst them were the torn bodies of the messenger pigeons that had brought news of the thieves' escape from the trees and into the bogs, then the further news that they had fled into the night. Dermott just could not control his anger, and could never be replied upon to refrain from killing the messenger, even if it was just a pigeon.</p>
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<p>"You lost them!" he turned his accusing eyes on Fainn. </p>
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<p>"A temporary misplacement, my Lord," Fainn whispered back.</p>
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<p>"My harp! That damned harp. I want it back."</p>
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<p>"As ebb follows flow Lord, you shall have it. It is time to end their game."</p>
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<p>"You have them?"</p>
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<p>"We will have them soon. They head west, towards the ocean. I have ordered the black ships to raise sail. And summoned a sea-wind to speed us."</p>
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<p>Dermott's face visibly brightened.</p>
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<p>"To oars then," he boomed. "Every hand to the rigging."</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>They had picked their way ever up, through gullies and ravines where fast water cascaded down from high melt snow until the air sharpened and squalls of hard hail stung their cheeks and blinded the horses. They climbed on and up, sheltering behind the beasts when they could, and taking the brunt of the hail when they couldn't. Every now and again, a motion would catch Kerry's eye and he would spin in alarm to see a dark boulder tumble down a scree slope. Jack thought he could feel eyes on him, but couldn't be sure. The stone here was dark, almost black, as if pushed up from hot depths. No tree grew. Behind them, the bogland was like a wet moonscape, pocked and cratered. The long sweep of trailing horsemen were just dots in its vastness.</p>
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<p>The final ridge took them by surprise. It had taken them all day to reach the heights where razor-sharp edges and towering stacks made the going almost impossible for the horses until Corriwen blindfolded them when they refused some narrow tracks and they led them slowly up.</p>
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<p>Wind whistled in cols and ridges, wails of lost souls. It was dismal, cold and barren. Jack was in two minds whether he preferred the bleak hills to the black bogs. It was a toss-up. Both were dangerous and miserable.</p>
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<p>When they breasted the ridge, Jack sank to his haunches and called a halt. His legs were aching and shaky. Connor stood beside him, breathing quite easily and Jack felt a pang of shame at feeling so weak when this boy with one good leg had matched him step for step the whole climb and seemed none the worse for it.</p>
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<p>"Glad you said it," Connor said. "I'm about dead on my toes."</p>
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<p>"You've done pretty well so far," Kerry said.</p>
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<p>"Only because of those things in the bogs. My backside's been puckering the whole way. I don't like dead people. Especially ones that move."</p>
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<p>He grinned again. "Sure, it's pure cowardice that keeps me going."</p>
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<p>They rested an hour, no more, and then Jack said they had to continue. The far side was a nightmare, on muscles accustomed to climbing that had to be now used for descent. The slopes were steep and slick from rain and avalanches of rock-chips trickled down from above, threatening to cover them, and from below their feet, threatening to spill them out and down.</p>
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<p>Everywhere, the sound of shifting, sliding rock, grating rumbles that sounded like the Scree ogres of Temair, and all the time, they could feel unseen eyes follow their progress.</p>
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<p>Then the fell runners swooped on them when they were barely half-way down the far side.</p>
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<p>They moved with frightening speed.</p>
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<p>The fugitives were working their way through a narrow pass that gave out onto a wider valley when Jack caught something out of the corner of his eye and turned round quickly, expecting to see Dermott's hunters coming for them.</p>
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<p>"You see something?" Kerry stood beside him.</p>
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<p>"I thought I did." Jack scanned the rocky valley sides.</p>
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<p>"There's things watching us," Connor said. "It's sending shivers up and down my spine." Corriwen's hand edged towards her knives.</p>
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<p>"Every time I look round," Connor said. "They disappear. Maybe it's mountain sprites. They hide in the rocks."</p>
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<p>"As long as they stay hidden," Jack said. When the going got easier, they climbed into the saddles again and let the horses find the track down. </p>
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<p>And at the end of the valley, the avalanche came swooping down the slope towards them. It came so silently that at first Jack thought he was seeing things. In the first instant it looked like rolling grey bounders, bouncing and tumbling over the splintered rock, then it suddenly leapt into focus.</p>
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<p>They moved so fast they were almost a blur of ragged grey.</p>
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<p>"Fell runners!" Connor barked a warning and their horse reared in alarm to paw the air.</p>
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<p>They were tall and thin as skeletons, leaping from rock to rock like spiders. Eyes bulged in gaunt faces where every dark vein showed through and as they ran, their mouths gaped wide, showing long yellow teeth.</p>
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<p>"What in the name…?" Kerry almost fell off the horse.</p>
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<p>"Starvelings!" Connor cried. "Fell runners." He kicked the horse and it took off. Jack and Kerry were right on its heels as the grey horde, fifty or more, came charging down the hillside faster than any man could run, tattered clothes flapping in the wind. Jack risked a glance over his shoulder and saw them gaining, long spindly legs that ended in horny feet, every stride ten feet or more, and on every emaciated, staring face he could see a dreadful, implacable hunger.</p>
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<p>They raced over the edge of the valley and thundered down slopes of loose rock and behind them the thud and scrape of those horny feet came ever louder. The horses whinnied in fear, but they kept going, sending up sprays of shale.</p>
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<p>"Come on Jack," Kerry said in his ear, holding on to his belt. "They're catching us up."</p>
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<p>Jack urged the horse on, up and over a lip and down a gradual slope, but the horse was tiring fast. Its breath came in steamy clouds and sounded hoarse and dry.</p>
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<p>Beyond them the slope surged down towards a flat plain where the mountains ended.</p>
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<p>"We'll never make it," Jack said, holding tight to the reins. "They're too fast."</p>
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<p>Behind them the thin chasers snickered and howled, sounding too much like a pack of hungry hyenas to Jack.</p>
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<p>Ahead of them, Corriwen's horse was faltering on the hard-going track and it kept wheeling its head to see whatever was chasing them.</p>
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<p>"We have to do something," Jack bawled. He raised a foot from the stirrups and pointed first at his leather boots, then at Connor and Corriwen just ahead of them. "They'd be faster on a horse each."</p>
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<p>Kerry looked at him, uncomprehending. Then it dawned.</p>
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<p>"You think we can take them?"</p>
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<p>"We have to give it a try." Jack spurred the mount to one last effort, got it alongside the lead horse. Reaching out, he grabbed Connor by the neck of his threadbare tunic and hauled him from behind Corriwen. The boy yelled in fright and surprise and for a second, the horse almost juddered to a halt under the triple weight, but as soon as Connor was on its neck, Jack swung one leg off. Kerry simply tumbled backwards and hit the ground on his feet, moving fast.</p>
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<p>With only one rider, the horse seemed to gather itself. Corriwen turned in her saddle and saw Connor alone. Her mouth opened wide when she saw Jack and Kerry on the track with the horde of fell runners arrowing straight for them.</p>
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<p>Then the boys <em>moved</em>. One second they were on the track and the next they were up and running over the hard rocks, leaping like mountain goats, almost faster than the eye could follow.</p>
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<p>Kerry bent and snatched a handful of stones and his sling was already swinging when the nearest hungry runner got to within twenty feet from him. He wheeled, splitting from Jack. The runner seemed to falter for a second as its prey separated. Kerry leapt from one jagged rock to another, spun as he landed and let fly with a rock.</p>
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<p>It took the lead runner between the eyes with a sound like a hammer blow. Blood spattered and the thin thing went down in a clatter of bones.</p>
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<p>Jack had his bow ready for the next one that came bounding in a ragged grey streak straight towards him, laughing like something demented. He held his breath to steady his aim, drew the string and let fly. At the astonishing speed the thing was moving at, the arrow went clean through his neck and lodged in the eye of another monstrosity ten feet behind. They both tumbled head first into the bare rocks and then Jack and Kerry were off again, haring after the horses but sufficiently off the trail to lead the hunters to the side.</p>
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<p>"These boots are pure magic," Kerry said. "I thought those things were fast, but we're….we're just super-<em>freakin'</em>-sonic."</p>
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<p>He sped away from Jack, seemed to run straight up the face of a massive boulder.</p>
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<p>"Come on!" he yelled. "Come and get me, you bunch of bony freaks."</p>
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<p>A runner darted straight for him, long arms stretched out and hands hooked into claws. He reached the top of the rock and just as his fingers went to close on Kerry's neck, Kerry vanished in a flick of green. The momentum carried the fell-runner straight off the top of the rock and down a sheer drop on the far side. It howled in panic, waving its scrawny arms to achieve some balance as it fell, but to no avail. It hit with a strangely wet sound. Kerry turned, sling in hand, as another one raced up the boulder towards him, mouth gaping wide. He pivoted and used the big stone in the sling as a mace. It took the runner on the side of the head and sent it somersaulting off the rock to disappear screaming into a crevasse.</p>
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<p>Forty yards away, Jack had found a high vantage and was on one knee, sending a volley of arrows into the main pack, and finding a solid target for each one.</p>
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<p>Kerry whooped as the avalanche of runners slowed in confusion and ragged screams of pain. They gibbered and slobbered, like a back of mindless animals. </p>
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<p>Kerry skipped off the great boulder to another and another until he reached Jack.</p>
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<p>"That stopped them," he crowed. "What a team!"</p>
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<p>Upslope, the grey runners milled together, just out of range now. Two of them fell on one of their fallen and without a pause, began to feast noisily, while the thing writhed and hissed until it could writhe no more.</p>
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<p>"Gross!" Kerry groaned. "That would turn your stomach."</p>
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<p>"Come on," Jack said. "While they're busy."</p>
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<p>They scampered off the rock and found the trail again, running easily while the land zoomed past them until they reached the long downslope towards the plain below.</p>
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<p>When they got there, they discovered it wasn't a plain, but a vast and featureless beach.</p>
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<p>And there was no sign of Corriwen and Connor.</p>
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<p>The Book of Ways had told them they must cross the strand. Jack and Kerry walked down through the tide-line where marooned tree-trunks jutted like tumbled bones, and real bones, great white curves angled up from deep sand, ribs and skulls filled with curving teeth, as if this was a place where all the monsters of the deep came to die. Far, far in the north, a faint smudge told them where the beach ended. It could have been twenty miles away, or fifty. They just couldn't tell.</p>
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<p>Beyond the bones, the sand was flat and the wind was in their faces. Behind them, up on the slope, the runners hooted and jabbered, but made no further attempt at pursuit. After a mile or so, they couldn't be heard at all, and best of all, they couldn't be seen. Jack scanned the beach from horizon to horizon. He couldn't quite recall, in all the excitement, just how long they'd managed to divert the mad pursuit in the hills, but it couldn't have been long enough for the two horses to disappear entirely, he was sure of that.</p>
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<p>Yet the sand was empty, devoid of life. It stretched out before them, with only wavelet marks on its surface to break the monotony, and soon enough even those marks became monotonous. Kerry searched like a hunting dog, looking for signs until he found what might have been horse-tracks that were slowly filling in with fine damp sand. They were barely visible, but he convinced himself and Jack that they were real.</p>
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<p>He pointed north. "That way."</p>
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<p>Jack paused and slowly scanned the extent of the long shore. Far away on the left, the faint sound of waves whispered across the sand and he thought he could make out the motion of waves blurring in the distance.</p>
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<p>"The tide's far out," he said. "And we're a long way from the hills."</p>
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<p>"Takes ages for the tide to come in," Kerry said, but there was something in this empty expanse that made Jack feel nervous and exposed. Here and there, as they walked, they stumbled into a patch of softer sand that gave under their feet and sucked them up to their knees.</p>
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<p>"What if they hit quicksand?" Kerry asked.</p>
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<p>Jack didn't want to think about that. They plodded on, leaving two pairs of fading footprint trails behind them and the sand grew wetter and wetter until every step was a sheer slog.</p>
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<p>They came on the inlet when they were still trudging, heads down against the rising wind, and it was only by sheer luck that they didn't tumble straight into the sea. Beyond the narrow neck of water, the beach continued in big undulations where some massive waves had thrown up dunes of cockle-shells. They stood for a moment, considering whether to go seawards or landwards to attempt a crossing when Jack spotted something out in the west.</p>
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<p>A black sail was just visible above the far horizon.</p>
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<p>A seabird cry carried to them on the wind, faint and high.</p>
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<p>Kerry grabbed Jack, pulling his gaze away from the black shape in the distance.</p>
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<p>"Did you hear something?"</p>
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<p>"A bird," Jack said.</p>
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<p>"No, I don't think so." Kerry ran along the edge of the inlet, breasted a small rise formed by swirling tides then turned and yelled.</p>
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<p>"I see them. Come on!"</p>
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<p>Jack run up beside him. It was no seabird. Corriwen was jumping up and down, waving her arms, her voice just a shrill piping a mile away.</p>
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<p>Jack looked back out to sea. Another black sail had appeared beside the first, and the first one looked as if it was closer than it had been. Before he could say anything, Kerry was hauling him by the arm along the rill, slipping in damp sand until they found a place shallow enough to cross. The inlet was only a hundred yards wide, but the sand underneath was like silt and sucked at their feet as they waded. They were half-way across when something made Jack turn, and when he did, his jaw dropped slack.</p>
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<p>"Jeez Kerry!"</p>
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<p>"What's the….?"</p>
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<p>Then Kerry went silent. On the seaward side, a black line that spanned the whole inlet swelled even darker.</p>
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<p>"What <em>is </em> that?" </p>
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<p>"A bore," Jack gulped.</p>
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<p>"Like a pig?"</p>
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<p>"No! Move Kerry. We have to get across right now."</p>
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<p>Jack had seen something like this on television, on some river down south. On the Severn, he was sure.</p>
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<p>It was a big wave. A huge wave. And it was getting bigger and bigger every second as the tide forced it up the narrowing inlet to where they stood. Jack could hear the swelling roar as it barrelled up the natural funnel.</p>
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<p>"A tidal bore," he cried. He shoved Kerry hard, forcing him to move through the cold water. "It's going to catch us."</p>
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<p>Kerry's eyes were wide as saucers. </p>
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<p>"That's no boar," he said, stumbling in the shallows. "It's a freaking great wave! Don't you let me…"</p>
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<p>But the roar of the approaching wave swamped his words.</p>
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<p>"I won't let you drown," Jack shouted, though he hardly even heard his own words. The wave rolled on towards them, gaining height and speed and strength. Jack kept a hold of Kerry, shoving him on and on as the water shallowed ahead of them until they were thigh-deep, then knee deep, then splashing through mere inches.</p>
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<p>Jack saw a big shadow loom behind him.</p>
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<p>And something vast slammed into him and he was gone.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Fainn stood with Dermott on the foredeck of the black ship. The Lord of Wolfen Castle paced about in his shaggy fur robe, clenching and unclenching brawny fists.</p>
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<p>"You're sure they're here?"</p>
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<p>"They are here, my Lord. And we have a tide wind."</p>
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<p>He gestured with one hand and the steersman made an adjustment so they tacked in close to shore at the wide mouth of an inlet.</p>
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<p>Fainn held something up to his forehead and closed his eyes. Dermott saw something like an eye enclosed in a crystal and knew it was some devilry of Fainn's arcane knowledge, but, while he knew nothing of the spellbinding arts, he trusted Fainn to make them work.</p>
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<p>Finally Fainn put down the strange object. The wind caught his cloak and made it flutter like a nest of bats. He pointed a long finger across the sands.</p>
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<p>"I see them now. Hunted from the hills, and they have no escape. The Tallabaun Tide works for us, and I have turned the wind shoreward. You shall have them."</p>
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<p>The boat entered the inlet. Behind it, a fleet of low, sleek craft, each bearing a wolf's head on its prow, turned in unison, and the rising aft wind sent them arrowing in.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>The wave hit them so hard it threw them off their feet. Kerry bawled in fright and then went silent as the water catapulted them into the air then tumbled them in green depths and it was all Jack could do to keep a hold of Kerry's arm.</p>
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<p>The wave lifted them up and smashed them down. Jack hit the sand face-first and Kerry's knees knocked the breath out of him and for a second he thought he was pinned into the silt.</p>
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<p>Then the wave passed and the after-tug sucked him up and out of the sand to flounder, gasping in thick silted water.</p>
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<p>Kerry spluttered beside him, coughing and retching as if he'd swallowed an ocean. His fingers were clenched to tightly on Jack's tunic that his knuckles were white.</p>
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<p>"Where did <em>that</em> come from?" he finally managed.</p>
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<p>Jack wiped salt water from his eyes. He had no time for explanations. </p>
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<p>"Come on," he urged. "It's the tide."</p>
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<p>He turned to the seaward side and saw the second wave boring up the inlet, every bit as big as the first, ten foot high or more and foaming at the crest. Behind it there would be seven or eight more, if he remembered the nature programme correctly. And the two of them were caught out on the open sands.</p>
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<p>They turned and raced towards where Corriwen was still calling and waving.</p>
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<p>When they reached her, Connor was stuck. Really stuck.</p>
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<p>He was caught under the horse which was on its side and half buried in sand. Its eyes rolled as it struggled to free itself and Connor's face was waxy with pain.</p>
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<p>"It got stuck and rolled," Corriwen said. "I can't get it free."</p>
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<p>Kerry bent down beside Connor whose tawny hair was matted with damp sand.</p>
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<p>"You okay?"</p>
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<p>Sweat beaded the boy's brow. "I think he's broke my leg," he gasped. The horse flailed and he groaned under its weight. "But it's a useless leg anyhow."</p>
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<p>"The horse bolted and he couldn't stop it," Corriwen explained.</p>
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<p>"Never had a horse before. Didn't know the stop word."</p>
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<p>Jack could see he was making a big effort, but there was no time to waste.</p>
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<p>"We have to move him," he said. "The tide's coming in."</p>
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<p>Corriwen let her eyes flick towards the outer edge of the shore. Another big bore was driving up the inlet, scouring the sides and flooding the sand on either side.</p>
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<p>"The horse is stuck fast."</p>
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<p>"Where's the other one?" Corriwen turned to face inland. "That way."</p>
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<p>Jack peered towards where the shore met higher ground. The other horse had stopped, but it was just a dot in the distance. But they needed its strength if they were going to pull the other one from the sucking sand and get Connor free. And they needed it fast, because Jack could see the tide was racing in, driven by a hard onshore wind.</p>
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<p>He turned to Kerry. </p>
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<p>"Bring him in," he said quietly. "And make it quick."</p>
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<p>Kerry nodded. He shucked off the backpack. Jack slapped his shoulder and then Kerry was haring across the flats, faster than Jack had ever see a boy run. Faster than any boy <em>could</em> run, without Rune's Cluricaun boots on his feet. Sand flew in a billowing line as Kerry's shape diminished. Corriwen watched in awe, but Jack was already on his knees, scooping sand away with his hands, trying to clear as much from Connor as he could.</p>
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<p>And all the time the waters were rising.</p>
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<p>It took Kerry half an hour to return at a gallop, because even with wide hooves the horse found it hard going on sand that was now getting moister and softer as it soaked up the rising tide. By the time he got there the sound of surf was now a roar on the wind and the white tops of waves rolled in relentlessly.</p>
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<p>Jack fixed their rope to the pommel while Corriwen made a make-shift harness and looped it round the prone horse's forelegs and neck and then the three of them grabbed the cinches and girl, boys and horse hauled and strained.</p>
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<p>The first wave rolled over Connor and took him completely by surprise. He gulped in a lungful of sea and then coughed it all up again.</p>
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<p>Kerry was already almost knee deep and Jack could see the worry on his face.</p>
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<p>"Jack. We'd really better hurry."</p>
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<p>Jack took hold of the straps again. Corriwen slapped the horse and it heaved once more. The fallen animal whinnied in panic, flailed its hooves, but the sand held fast.</p>
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<p>"Come on!" Jack cried, in sudden frustration. He kicked at the horse and it reared. Then he reached into his quiver, pulled out an arrow and jabbed it into the horse's side. Blood spurted and the horse screeched, lunged forward. Something snapped and a rope end caught Jack hard on the mouth. For an instant he thought the game was over.</p>
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<p>Another wave crashed over Connor. Corriwen wailed. Jack hated himself for doing it, but he stabbed the horse again and held tight to the broken rope. The animal bucked forward and there was a sudden sucking sound as the trapped mount dragged free, rolling Connor over on his side and he screamed as high as the horse had done as it's weight rolled on his hurt leg. Another wave drowned the scream completely.</p>
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<p>"Come on!" Jack ordered. "Get him up."</p>
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<p>He and Kerry lifted Connor up from the sands while Corriwen kept the horse steady and they managed to get him across the saddle. They were up to their thighs in water.</p>
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<p>"We're awfully far out Jack," Kerry said. And he was right. They were three miles out, maybe more than that from the high water mark, just a faint line of driftwood in the distance. Jack turned to assess the situation and his heart leapt to the back of his throat.</p>
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<p>The fleet of black ships was haring up the inlet, almost surfing the big incoming rollers, with the wind billowing the sails out to full extent. Jack could even see two figures on the prow of the lead boat and he knew that Fainn and Dermott had caught up with them. Caught them floundering in the open.</p>
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<p>"Move. Now!" He hustled Corriwen up on the horse beside Connor and was about to climb on the other when a deep bass note came rolling over the flat towards them. It sounded like a bow shot, followed by a loud whooping sound. Jack turned and saw a big rock tumbling through the air towards them.</p>
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<p>"Catapult!" he blurted as the rock came straight at them. He shoved Kerry face down into the shallows and dived after him.</p>
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<p>There was an almighty thump as the missile hit, only yards from where they sprawled. The sand rippled like waves under the impact. Jack pushed himself up, shook the water from his face and looked about. The rock was as big as himself, and cut into a rough sphere. It was almost completely buried in the sand. </p>
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<p>And the horse was gone as if it had never been. The big rock must have smashed it deep underneath its weight.</p>
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<p>Jack felt a sudden rage build up inside him. The mount had carried them for mile after mile and now it was gone. At that moment he could have murdered Dermott and Fainn both. Instead, he turned away and caught up with Corriwen who was leading the other horse through turbid water and sand that was draggingly slow.</p>
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<p>Jack and Kerry forced themselves to move until they reached her and each took hold of the reins as they forced the animal into shallower water, gasping and panting with the effort, while behind them, the ship was running them down.</p>
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<p>By a miracle they came to a little slope where the water was only inches deep and gave them speed. They still held the reins as the horse managed a canter, then a gallop and for the first time, Jack thought they had a chance. Somebody on the ship cursed and bawled. They were over the other side of the slope, and splashing through water again. Jack gauged the distance and saw he had been wrong. It was nearer five miles than three and to his horror he saw that this part of the beach curved inwards, so that they were on a narrow neck of sand with deeper water on either side. And with the speed of the flood, they'd be marooned on an open spit in a matter of minutes.</p>
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<p>The horse was flagging. Kerry had ridden it hard when he caught it, and it had used up a lot in hauling its companion from the sand. Jack felt a clench of despair inside him, while on his chest, the firestone heart had begun to beat ominously.</p>
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<p>"We'll never make it," Kerry said. "Look. It's cutting us off. We're going to get stuck."</p>
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<p>On the saddle, Connor groaned as the horse jolted on and the tide surged in to overtake them.</p>
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<p>"Too fast!" Jack thought. The wind was too high, blowing in from an ocean, driven under thickening black clouds that looked as if they were bringing a storm, and driving the black ships towards them.</p>
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<p>"Have to do something", he told himself. They'd be caught here and they'd die here, either drowned by the rising tide or killed by Dermott and his men. Or worse, they could end up in the hands of that strange Fainn creature and Jack somehow knew death might be preferable to that.</p>
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<p>It was then that he remembered the words of the Book of Ways.</p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Climb bare hill but ware the mire</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>North from sound of thunder fire</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Find the shore and walk the strand</em></p>
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<p class="centered extraspace"><em>Yet ware the tide and ware the sand.</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>In the night the lost await</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Hunger stalks on runners gait.</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Where the ocean finds lands end</em></p>
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<p class="centered"><em>Seek a haven, seek a friend.</em></p>
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<p>They had climbed bare hill and braved the mire. And now they were in the tide and sand.</p>
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<p>"Seek a haven. Find a friend." Jack repeated the words to himself and as he did, he thought of Dilligan Rune. </p>
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<p>"The flute!" he cried. "It has something to…"</p>
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<p>He jabbed a hand into his back and drew out the little flute. It could summon Dilligan Rune, or some of his people. <em>Maybe</em>. Jack kept moving as he put the thing to his lips and blew hard.</p>
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<p>No sound came out. He tried again, and still got nothing at all. He looked at the flute in his fingers. It was made of bone, not the polished wood he recalled Rune handing to him, then remembered. <em>It was the wrong flute</em>. Finn the Giant had given them the bone one. And he was far, far away.</p>
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<p>Jack snatched for the wooden flute and blew on it. This time he got a cacophonous shriek, like the whistle of an old train on a dark night. He blew again and felt as if his eardrums would burst.</p>
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<p>In the distance, something stirred.</p>
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<p>Jack ploughed on, Kerry beside him. Way on the far high tide mark, the loose sand seemed to shift and roll. Pieces of straw and dry seaweed tumbled up into the air. Beyond the tide line, low trees whipped about, then lashed about.</p>
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<p>And down from the mountains came a blast of wind that swept out onto Tallabaun Strand like a storm.</p>
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<p>It almost stopped them in their tracks. The blast, fierce as a hurricane, whipped wet sand and water into the air, blinding them in an instant. Kerry fell and was tumbled backwards and the horse almost went to its knees. Jack held tight to Kerry and hauled him up, shoving against the savage wind. He turned his back, to save his eyes and saw, to his amazement, that the heavy rollers forcing the tide-flood were now moving backwards.</p>
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<p>And the sails on the black ships flopped and whipped about uselessly.</p>
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<p>The wind was so strong it was pushing the tide back. Jack put a hand over his eyes and turned into it, peering through the slit between his fingers, and saw the water that had threatened to cut them off was being forced out and away, leaving the spine of sand free.</p>
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<p>He grabbed the horse's strap.</p>
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<p>"Come on. Just a bit more and we're there."</p>
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<p>Behind them the black ships had stalled in the channel as warring currents whipped and frothed around them, and the hands tried to haul in sail too late as the ships veered in a group and ploughed into the inlet's bank. On the deck, Fainn the Pict and Dermott the Wolf cursed like demons.</p>
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<p>The horse finally made it onto harder sand and despite the windblast, began to make steady headway towards solid ground. A mile, two miles, three and the boats were far behind. Another mile and the high tide line was within reach. Jack gasped for breath, legs aching from the effort of pushing against the headwind. He slapped the horse on the rump and it managed to trot on ahead of them, while he and Kerry held on to each other for balance.</p>
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<p>Connor and Corriwen were up on dry sand now, picking through the strand-line towards the cover of the trees.</p>
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<p>And a huge shaggy beast with a wide gaping mouth and huge teeth came charging out at them.</p>
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<p> </p>
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