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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 25</title>
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<h1>25</h1><p>The land was far behind them now, but the ships were closer. They half-carried Connor across Finn's causeway. Already they could see hordes of hunters coming round the side of the rumbling mountain and down towards the first of the pillar-steps.</p>
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<p>The black ships had veered out from the shallows, heading for somewhere ahead of them where the bridge disappeared into thick mist and Jack knew they would try to cut them off.</p>
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<p>"We must be prepared to fight," Corriwen said. "They have the wind in their sails."</p>
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<p>Jack knew he and Kerry, with Brand's special boots, could have raced on ahead, but that was no option, not with Corriwen and Connor unable to catch up and there had been no way they could have got the horse down the steps to where they now were.</p>
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<p>"Leave me," Connor said. "I'm just slowing you down."</p>
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<p>"No chance," Kerry said. "It's one for all and each for everybody else. That's our rule."</p>
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<p>"But I can swim! Since I was a baby I've been a swimmer. They'll never find me in these seas."</p>
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<p>"Yeah, but something else might," Kerry snorted. "You see that fish Finn caught? It could swallow you whole."</p>
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<p>Kerry was remembering the way the wolf-hound had disappeared under the water on Temair. And the eels that had slithered out to feast on Corriwen. He didn't like water and the unknown things that lived in it.</p>
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<p>Connor was flagging. His leg had been crippled enough before, but the weight of the horse had twisted it so hard Jack feared it had come out of the socket. They paused to rest for a moment and he turned shoreward. The black ships were bearing down on them inexorably, and hunters were almost at the edge of the causeway.</p>
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<p>Behind the hunters, the Grumbling Mountain – <em>Gerumbel – </em>Jack corrected himself shivered again, quite visibly across the distance. Finn was still astride the plug-stone, standing hands on hips. But the mountain seemed bigger now, its sides less conical. A couple of the fuming spires broke off and crashed to splinters with the sound of thunder.</p>
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<p>"It's swelling," Jack said. </p>
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<p>And that was true. The mountain's sides were convex where they had been concave before, as if the pressure was inflating its entire bulk.</p>
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<p>"Finn had better move," Kerry said. "If that thing blows…."</p>
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<p>The mountain shuddered. A smoking spire blew off like a rocket, followed by a roar of yellow smoke. Rocks tumbled down the swelling seaward face.</p>
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<p>"Come on Finn," Jack yelled into the wind, although he knew the giant would never hear him.</p>
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<p>Gerumbel swelled so powerfully they could sea its sides heave like a beast.</p>
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<p>Then the top simply blew in cataclysmic blast of sound and smoke. One second Finn was standing on the plug-stone, keeping in the heat and pressure. The next he was gone in an enormous explosion of smoke and steam and the whole mountain and the ground around it bucked like a beast.</p>
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<p>A vast wave rushed out from the mountain base, higher than a house, churning up rocks and boulders.</p>
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<p>The first hunters on the causeway were swept away in the blink of an eye.</p>
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<p>"Oh Finn!" Jack wailed.</p>
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<p>"Jack. I think we should get the hell out of here." Kerry's eyes were fixed on the seismic wave as it sped out towards them in a roaring grey wall.</p>
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<p>On top of Gerumbel Mountain, a pillar of smoke and ash towered high into the sky. There was no sign of Finn.</p>
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<p>"He sacrificed himself for us," Connor said. "He must have known."</p>
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<p>A big tear rolled down Connor's cheek. "Nobody ever did anything like that for me before."</p>
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<p>"Jack," Kerry said in a shaky voice. "That big wave. It's heading this way."</p>
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<p>It was, and so were the black ships. They had veered with the wind and they were now so close that figures could be made out in the rigging.</p>
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<p>"Come on," Jack said, bleakly, turning seawards, but before he had turned completely, something else caught his attention.</p>
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<p>Right by the shore, where the first of the hunters had been swept away by the wave, the great rearing stack of pillars was beginning to subside.</p>
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<p>Jack stopped, still holding Connor's shoulder. His mouth fell open.</p>
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<p>"What's wrong?" Corriwen asked. Jack could only point.</p>
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<p>Very slowly, the pillars that had formed the causeway were sinking back down into the sea.</p>
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<p>"The bridge," he finally found his voice. "It's going down."</p>
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<p>Kerry swore without repeating himself for almost a minute. </p>
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<p>The causeway was sinking. The first pillars disappeared beneath the foaming surf, then another section slowly vanished. It was clear that whatever pressure had held them up was gone and the weight of the standing stones was forcing them back down into the hidden depths.</p>
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<p>Yard by yard, pillar by pillar, the land bridge was vanishing.</p>
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<p>And the four of them were stuck in the middle of it, with the line of black ships veering in to cut them off.</p>
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<p>"Pray for a miracle," Jack said, and something smashed against the stone he was standing on. Splinters of glassy rock bulleted out, stinging Jack's legs. Beside Corriwen, another rock fell from the sky and shattered explosively.</p>
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<p>"Fall-out," Kerry yelped, dodging another stone that plummeted from the steaming skies.</p>
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<p>In a matter of seconds, the sea around them was churning with falling ash and stones, sending up such great plumes of water that they could see virtually nothing beyond the edge of the causeway.</p>
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<p>"Run," Jack bawled, turning Connor around.</p>
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<p>"I can hop," he said. "best I can do."</p>
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<p>"Then hop it man," Kerry told him. "Hop for your freakin' life."</p>
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<p>Rocks and pebbles crashed around them in a rumble of hard rain, but over that rumble came another sound, like the whoop of a strong wind. It got louder and louder, soaring to a scream, then a deafening howl. Jack covered his head with his spare arm and risked a look.</p>
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<p>A black shape tumbled out of the sky. It moved so fast it was just a blur, trailing smoke and steam as it plummeted. Jack saw it expand in his vision, bigger and bigger until it seemed to fill the entire sky.</p>
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<p>"Oh no! It's the top of the mountain!"</p>
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<p>The vast rock came straight down and for a second Jack was convinced it would smash them flat.</p>
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<p>He instinctively cringed as the rock's shadow passed over them.</p>
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<p>But it was further away than he thought. It came bulleting down with that screeching noise, like a hellish express train and smacked the outermost ship. One second the ship was heeling against the wind, and then it was gone. Completely gone.</p>
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<p>A monstrous fountain of water reached for the sky and a wave, even bigger than the one racing out from the shore rose from the depths.</p>
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<p>The black ships – less the one that vanished without trace – were caught between them. Jack saw their masts toss and dip and then the great wave from the fallen rock carried them before it as it raced in towards the far shore. The crest curled over in a frothy maelstrom and then all the ships that had been gaining on them were suddenly going in the opposite direction.</p>
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<p>Sudden relief surged through them.</p>
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<p>"Did you see that?" Kerry gasped. "The whole ship went down.</p>
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<p>Jack got a flash of the horse on the strand when Dermott had catapulted the rock at them. Standing one second, gone the next. A savage joy expanded in his chest.</p>
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<p>"Serves them right," he said. </p>
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<p>But they were not out of danger. Far from it.</p>
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<p>For the causeway was still collapsing as the risen pillars sank under their own weight. And that sinking was accelerating as they watched. Already, there was a half-mile gap between their side of the causeway and the shore. Yard upon yard, the land bridge was disappearing in a continuous wave, like colossal a line of dominoes.</p>
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<p>Jack turned to look ahead.</p>
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<p>They had a mile or so before the bridge vanished into the sea mist.</p>
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<p>Beyond that, who knew what lay?</p>
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<p>He took Connor's weight. Kerry took the other shoulder and they started moving as fast as they could on the slick and slimy causeway, while the first tidal wave came rushing out towards them as the causeway sank.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>The ships surfed the enormous roller that carried them helpless towards the black shore. Dermott held to a rigging rope. Fainn the Pict stood with his arms folded and the wind whipping his batwing cloak around him, watching the shore rush towards them as they swept down the side of the wave.</p>
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<p>All round them men cried out in terror as they raced landwards while the top of the breaker curled over and smashed into the decks, hurling sailors and soldiers to their deaths.</p>
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<p>"Lost them again!" Dermott roared over the thunder of rolling water. "Every turn, they thwart me!"</p>
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<p>But Fainn was also watching the land-bridge that had appeared so suddenly. It was now disappearing just as quickly, and their quarry was stuck out there.</p>
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<p>All he cared about was finding the bodies afterwards, and that black stone the boy carried.</p>
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<p>Dermott could have the stolen harp back, and he had the cauldron that could feed the whole of Eirinn as he chose until such time as they decided to re-string the harp and let the seasons turn once more.</p>
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<p>But that stone, it was different from anything in this world.</p>
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<p>It called to him over time and distance, an old and powerful thing that he would eventually hold in his hands and he would work out its secrets, find its power.</p>
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<p>Another man was thrown over the side. Fainn watched him, curious, as he struggled desperately and then disappeared in a surge of white water.</p>
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<p>The keel hit sand and then rock. Fainn braced himself for the impact, closing his eyes and using all his powers to turn his weight to nothing. Dermott hung on to the ropes and then the water crashed all around them and the ship broke itself on the rocks under the grumbling mountain.</p>
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<p>Fainn smiled to himself as he watched the great stone pillars slide faster and faster beneath the water as the causeway sank.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>They could hear the grinding of sinking pillars, louder and louder as they raced across the vanishing causeway, but Jack held tight to Connor and spurred him on.</p>
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<p>The mist swallowed them and for a few mad moments, Jack imagined them falling off the end of the bridge into nothingness. He could barely see more than a couple of yards ahead of them. Corriwen, lighter without a burden, had pulled ahead. She turned, face pale with anxiety.</p>
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<p>Jack saw her eyes widen and couldn't help but glance over his shoulder.</p>
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<p>Behind them the sea was closing in as the pillars cascaded one by one, faster than a horse could gallop, faster than they could possibly run. And in the gap between them and the far shore, the backwash wave was surging towards them.</p>
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<p>Jack estimated they had fifty seconds, no more before either the wave swept them to their deaths, or Finn's causeway disappeared under their feet.</p>
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<p>"Jack," Kerry cried. "I don't think we're going to reach anywhere."</p>
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<p>"Just try," Jack gasped. But for Rune's special boots, he'd have flagged and dropped a mile back.</p>
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<p>"Just let me fall," Connor urged him. "I'm no use to anybody."</p>
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<p>"Oh just try and run," Jack ordered. "We all go together."</p>
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<p>The heart stone was pulsing now. He could feel it on his skin, and the hairs on the back of his head began to prickle in anticipation of the sudden blow from the wall of water powering towards them.</p>
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<p>Only yards behind now, the thud, thud, <em>thud</em> of the pillar-rocks sliding back to the seabed was like a constant drumbeat, loud as thunder, and over that deafening noise, the roar of the rushing wave grew louder and louder.</p>
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<p>The rocks beneath their feet began to sink. Jack felt himself stagger to one side, found his balance. On the next step the stone he was on dropped two feet and Jack's stomach lurched.</p>
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<p>Then he was running through water. In seconds he was wading, up to his knees in the sea. A puzzling darkness closed around him. Kerry shouted and his voice echoed in half a dozen desperate repeats. Jack was now thigh deep. Under his feet, the stone piles suddenly vanished. </p>
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<p>Then the wave hit them.</p>
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<p>It came with such sudden force that they were catapulted forward. </p>
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<p>Kerry screeched in panic. Corriwen held him tight. Connor slipped out of Jack's grasp and then his fingers suddenly found him again. Jack was under, tumbling over and over, the way he had done under Temair's great cataract.</p>
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<p>Everything went completely dark.</p>
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<p>A vast echoing sound sang in his ears. Bubbles frothed around him. Connor struggled, kicked, then seemed to go limp. They were driven through darkness, head over heels, unable to breathe. The weight of water on them felt huge. It crushed their lungs, tried to suck the air out of them as they tumbled in the pitch dark. </p>
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<p>Jack heard the boom again. Like a great gong in the depths of the ocean.</p>
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<p>It came again.</p>
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<p>Boom. <em>Boom. BOOM.</em></p>
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<p>Like the world's own heartbeat.</p>
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<p>Then he felt shingle under him. The force of the water ground his face down onto it, scraped him along and then threw him up.</p>
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<p>Stones scraped under his knees. Jack opened his eyes and saw nothing, nothing at all.</p>
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<p>The great booming sound came again and the world seemed to shiver.</p>
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<p>Connor gasped, crashed into him and knocked him flat on the smooth stones. Jack shook his head, groped for Connor and heaved him up onto what felt like a shore. Corriwen tumbled beside him and coughed out a lungful of water and then Kerry was gasping and floundering like a landed fish.</p>
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<p>Jack rubbed his eyes. A dim light came from somewhere high, a mere pin-point in all this darkness. He rubbed again, and very slowly his eyes began to make out shapes in the dim light.</p>
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<p>He saw black stone walls around them.</p>
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<p>Fronds of seaweed draped all around them. A pallid crab scuttled away. They were in a cave.</p>
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<p><em>Boom! <strong>Boom!</strong></em></p>
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<p>Jack felt a huge vibration shiver through him, then a blast of wind tugged at him. The cave gurgled and snarled as the wave that had carried them here sucked backwards, drawing the air with it so fast they were almost dragged back into the water.</p>
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<p>Instinctively they all held on to each other as the suction reached a screaming crescendo, then subsided as the wave drained its way back to the sea, leaving them bruised and exhausted on the cave floor.</p>
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<p>Jack finally got to his knees, managed to clamber up the shingle, over a smooth rock and ahead of him, lit by that pinhole of light far above him, he saw a gigantic anchor, bigger than anything he had ever seen, from some unbelievable huge ship. It hung on a chain a foot wide or more, and every pulse of the tide slammed its great weight against the black rock cave wall, making it toll like a bell.</p>
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<p>It sounded as if they had found themselves washed up in some underground cathedral. The bell was pealing to welcome them.</p>
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<p>To life, or death, Jack Flint did not know.</p>
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<p>He turned to his sprawled companions.</p>
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<p>And a hand came out of the gloom and cold fingers clamped over his face.</p>
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<p>Jack yelped in sudden fright and landed hard on his backside.</p>
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<p> </p>
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