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<title>Spellbinder - Chapter 27</title>
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<h1>27</h1><p>A strong wind and stronger current carried them away from Fingal's cove. The island seemed to drift past them like a great ship as they bobbed along, surprisingly quickly. The little coracle sat high in the water, just a basket of reeds and sealskin. Kerry's knuckles were tight on the rim.</p>
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<p>"This is pure suicide," he muttered. "Why can't we pick a better world? Where people are nice."</p>
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<p>"Like back home with mad Billy Robbins?"</p>
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<p>"Like somewhere warm, with good fishing. And sausages and beans."</p>
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<p>Jack managed a laugh.</p>
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<p>"What's sausages?" Connor asked, and this time Kerry forgot his terror and burst into a fit of the giggles until he started to make the coracle spin and his knuckles went white again.</p>
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<p>They reached the north point of the island where a swirling current turned them about and drove them onwards. Jack had one paddle, but it was ineffectual against the flow. Finally he shipped it and huddled down out of the wind and let the sea take them where it would.</p>
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<p>His eyes closed and he thought of what Fingal had told him about the travelling man and the sword. It <em>must</em> have been his father, here on some quest long, long ago. But to the heartstone and the lock on the stone in Cromwath Blackwood, time mattered very little.</p>
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<p>Journeyman, Jack thought. <em>He can travel between worlds</em>. Which one he had gone to, Jack was determined to find out, even if he had to die trying, once this was all over. If it was over.</p>
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<p>Corriwen's cry jerked him out of his thoughts.</p>
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<p>They were well out at sea now, and Fingal's island a smudge on the horizon. Corriwen knelt facing behind them, pointing astern.</p>
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<p>Four black ships were tacking towards them, sails billowing tight.</p>
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<p>"Fingal was right," Connor said. "Not all their ships were wrecked."</p>
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<p>Jack turned to look ahead. There was no sign of anything at all except a distant sea-fog, and they had no sail to speed them along. His fingers found the heartstone and he felt its smooth contours as it beat softly with its own life. He opened Brand's bottomless bag and looked again at the golden harp. Such a small thing to be such a powerful talisman. The strings hung uselessly.</p>
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<p>Jack glanced back to see the four ships had gained some distance, and he wondered whether to throw the bag overboard and let it sink. That way neither Dermott nor Fainn could get their hands on it.</p>
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<p>But then again, he thought, he had no choice at all. They had to find a way out of this and follow the directions in the Book of Ways to end this quest and find their way home. Otherwise there would be no way home at all.</p>
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<p>"We could use an Evinrude," Kerry said. "A big forty horsepower outboard. That would give them a surprise.</p>
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<p>"It that some kind of spell?" Connor asked. "You'd be as well asking the Kelpies for a tow."</p>
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<p>"I wish the undines were here to help," Corriwen said. </p>
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<p>But there was no help. Behind them four black ships and ahead of them the line of mist that shrouded the sea.</p>
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<p>And something else. Kerry saw it first and pointed ahead to where a patch of sea was frothing with choppy waves.</p>
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<p>"What's that?"</p>
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<p>Jack risked standing up to look. When he sat down again, the three of them could see the concern on his face.</p>
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<p>"It's a tide rip," he said. "I've seen it back home. Two currents going different ways. It churns the water up."</p>
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<p>"Is that bad?" Connor asked. "I've never been to sea before now."</p>
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<p>"It depends on which current we get into. The wrong one's going to carry us backwards."</p>
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<p>"That <em>would</em> be bad."</p>
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<p>"We might get lucky," Kerry said hopefully.</p>
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<p>The wind picked up and carried them nearer to the cross-current, and the waves started getting higher.</p>
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<p>Kerry held tight. "I don't like this one little bit."</p>
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<p>Neither did Jack. The coracle was bobbing like a cork, one minute deep in a trough and the next soaring up to a breaking crest that would drench them before dropping them into another trough.</p>
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<p>Over the wind and the crash of waves, Jack thought he heard something. He cupped his hands to his ears, straining to hear.</p>
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<p>A low rumble began to swell. It sounded very much like the thunder of the vast cataract they had barely survived on the river in Temair.</p>
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<p>But it couldn't be a cataract, not at sea, Jack knew.</p>
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<p>"What's that?" Corriwen asked.</p>
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<p>"I don't know." Jack held her shoulders to risk standing up again, waiting until they had reached the crest of the next big wave to try to get a glimpse of what lay ahead. They were a hundred yards from the frothing water where the two currents forced past each other, and the rumbling sound was suddenly very loud indeed.</p>
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<p>They went down into a trough and up the other side and this time Jack got a glimpse of what lay beyond the foaming water and he sat down, white faced.</p>
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<p>"What is it?" Kerry asked.</p>
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<p>"Nothing at all," Jack said. "Just brace yourself. It's going to get a bit rough."</p>
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<p>"Going to get rough?" Kerry snorted. "It's rougher than a badger's arse already."</p>
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<p>This time Connor laughed at Kerry's rejoinder, but Jack didn't manage a smile. He had seen what lay ahead. His hand found the handles of Brand's bag and he looped one round the strap of the backpack, cinching it tight, then he gripped the coracle's frame so hard his fingers went as white as Kerry's.</p>
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<p>And a few seconds later they were in the frothing water, spinning madly this way and that, helpless in the edge of the tide-rip. Waves broke over them and almost filled the coracle, then spun them so fast the water poured out again. And the rumbling sound became a growl that rose to a deafening roar.</p>
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<p>"Jack," Kerry cried. "Don't you let me….." His jaw dropped as the little cockleshell spun as it rose up a foaming wave and he saw what lay ahead. "Oh <em>freak!</em>"</p>
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<p>That was all he managed before the foaming sea spat them out in a crazy spin.</p>
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<p>And a great maw opened up to swallow them.</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>Dermott the Wolf was in a savage mood. He had lost two ships on the rocks and he himself had almost drowned when he was thrown into the surf and battered against jagged barnacles. And he had lost a good sword in the process.</p>
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<p>Yet still those thieves. Those cursed <em>children </em>had thwarted him yet again.</p>
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<p>They had made it through the haunted bogs and managed to survive the Fell Runners in the mountains.</p>
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<p>Even the killer rip-tide of Tallabaun Strand had failed to stop them.</p>
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<p>Now they had escaped again, across that preposterous causeway that rose up to carry them before it sank back. It was evil spellbinding, for sure. Some sorcerer had to be helping them.</p>
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<p>He had raged at Fainn. That Pict warlock was supposed to be the most powerful in the whole of Eirinn. Yet for all his far-sight and his incantations, that red-haired girl was still on the run, fleeing for now, but sure to come back when he least expected it. The runes had foretold it all and he had tried to thwart the runes by capturing her.</p>
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<p><em>Ah!</em> He growled at himself. He should have killed her out of hand. Stuck her like a pig when she was still bound behind bars on the wagon. But no. He had wanted his sport, thinking that Wolfen Castle was impregnable and that no-one would dare come against him.</p>
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<p>Until that raggle-taggle band of gypsies and strangelings came with their tricks and sleight of hand. And they had stolen his harp - the harp that made him stronger by making everybody else weaker. The great cauldron was never empty. It gave out whatever one wished and it was his to use as he saw fit.</p>
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<p>Those thieves with the precious harp. They could find a spellbinder or a bard to make the harp sing again and when the seasons returned, then the cauldron would become nothing more than a handy supply store. The other kings would regain their strength at the first harvest, and Dermott knew their resentment over the years of hunger would turn to hate and to action. They would band together and come for him and all his ambition and planning would be for nothing.</p>
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<p>He turned on the shore beside the wreckage of the ship. Four other boats had beached themselves on shingle, though half the crews had been washed overboard by that huge wave. Dermott was still shaking with anger.</p>
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<p>"Get those ships in the water," he roared. He cracked his black whip, slicing it at the half-drowned sailors. "Come on you dolts! Get my ships afloat. Drag them if you have to, but get me back to sea."</p>
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<p>He rounded on Fainn who stool in the breeze, eyes hooded, cloak fluttering wildly.</p>
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<p>"Find them, spellbinder. I want to know where they are! Dead or alive!</p>
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<p>Fainn faced him, unafraid. He was afraid of nothing in this world.</p>
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<p>"Alas, lord. That is hidden from me now. I sense another presence around them who shields them from my search."</p>
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<p>"Another presence? Who? What?"</p>
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<p>"A bard, my lord. Maybe the last in all of Eirinn. But he cannot shield them forever. And then again, where can they possible go?"</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>A whirlpool had sucked them in. A vast hole in the middle of the sea, whirling like a black summer storm on Temair.</p>
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<p>"Jack….!" Kerry's voice was suddenly cut off as the spinning surge of water dragged them in over its lip.</p>
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<p>Beneath them was a corkscrew hole that seemed to drill right down into the bed of the sea.</p>
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<p>It caught them and they were suddenly spiralling down the side while the coracle itself spun like a top at dizzying speed. Green water encased them, roiling with bubbles. They zoomed down ten feet until the sea was all around them, roaring like a gigantic beast, sucking them down and down.</p>
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<p>Kerry was holding Jack's wrist to tightly he could feel the bones grind together. A surge caught them in the blink of an eye and tossed the little craft up on its end. Connor let out a wail of fright as he began to slip over the side. Corriwen grasped him by his shirt and hauled him back, but the motion turned the coracle round in a complete circle, throwing them against its lip with centripetal force. It slammed down against the vertical wall, bounced hard and Kerry was thrown right over.</p>
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<p>There was a brief cry and then Kerry was gone. He went straight into the side of the maelstrom. Jack saw him alongside them for a second and then the boat was spun away. Kerry's pale face sank into the deep green.</p>
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<p>"No…..!" Jack's yell of fright and anguish was smothered under the roar of raging water. </p>
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<p>He grabbed the paddle to try to stop the motion, jabbing the blade into the surface. The craft righted itself and in the brief respite Jack knelt up to search the whirlpool wall for his friend.</p>
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<p>There was no sign. The sea had swallowed Kerry and taken him away.</p>
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<p>Jack's heart was hammering in his chest and he found it hard to draw a breath. Corriwen and Connor had been thrown to a sprawl in the bottom and were still trying to untangle themselves.</p>
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<p>"Where is he?" she gasped, face ashen.</p>
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<p>"Gone." Jack moaned. "He's…<em>gone</em>."</p>
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<p><em>Don't you let me drown! </em> Oh, he had heard that before. Too often. It was as if Kerry had had somehow had a premonition of what was to come.</p>
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<p>The waterfall's roar built up to a crescendo and they were skeltering down into its depths, helpless to do anything but hold to the sides. Connor's eyes were tight shut as if he'd seen enough. But for Jack the narrowing, spinning funnel below him held his eyes as if it was the last thing he'd ever see.</p>
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<p>The boat bobbed, tilted again, throwing them violently from side to side.</p>
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<p>Then a shape appeared in the deep green. Something moved so fast it was barely discernible. Something long and slender, like a silver fish. It came arrowing in from the side, angling upwards. Jack just caught the motion from the corner of his eye. His head whipped round and the thing came blasting right through the whirling water-wall above them.</p>
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<p>For an instant Jack thought it was a big fish, something that hunted in the maelstrom. Instinctively he ducked his head.</p>
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<p>But it sailed right over him. All he saw was a lithe body sparkling in its own spray of droplets, and silken tresses of green hair that trailed behind it like a veil. A fine-vaned tail thrashed powerfully, sending it soaring in an arc right across the whirlpool, from one side to the other. Its head turned and Jack saw big, lustrous eyes fix on his.</p>
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<p>"Undine," he thought. </p>
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<p>The creature had a half smile on its face as it arced over him. And as it did, a slender arm dragged something behind it, hauling it through the glassy wall. She continued on over the void and disappeared back into the water again.</p>
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<p>And the bundle she had dragged with her, tumbled to land, coughing, spluttering and cursing very sincerely, in their midst.</p>
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<p>Kerry belched a gout of salt water. He opened his eyes and saw Jack and Corriwen staring down at him in utter amazement.</p>
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<p>"I told you not to let me drown!" he bawled. "Didn't I tell you?"</p>
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<p>"It was a Selkie," Connor said, astonished "Fingal said they'd help us. I never saw anything as beautiful in all my life."</p>
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<p>He knelt up, staring into the roiling water.</p>
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<p>"Look," he cried. "There's more of them."</p>
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<p>They all turned and saw the shapes in the water, tails lashing, a dozen, two dozen; fifty or more. They all swam together, graceful as dolphins, beautiful and lithe. They moved in unison, right up against the wall, only inches away from them. Luminous eyes gazed at the four in the boat, almost curiously, and Jack could see nothing but gentle kindness in there.</p>
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<p>They pressed together, flowing in the same direction as the maelstrom, then moving even faster than the madly spinning vortex. Together they pressed against the sides, forcing the water outwards in a bulge under the coracle, faster and faster.</p>
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<p>The Selkie were under them, easing them up and up with the power of their tails, keeping pace with them as they rose higher towards the sky.</p>
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<p>Then they gave a last, blurringly fast burst of speed, a host of beautiful creatures with silken emerald hair streaming behind them, and the coracle bobbed up and over the lip.</p>
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<p>Immediately the counter-current dragged them away and north, faster and faster as the sucking power of the whirlpool lost its force and in mere minutes they were a mile and more away.</p>
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<p>"That was a miracle," Kerry said. "I really thought I'd had it."</p>
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<p>"So did we," Corriwen said. She grabbed him in both arms and hugged him until his ribs squeaked, her face wreathed in smiles. She finally let him go, looked straight into his eyes, as tears sparkled in her own, hardly able to believe that he'd been given back to them.</p>
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<p>Then she raised her hand and rapped her knuckles hard on Kerry's skull.</p>
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<p>"Don't you ever do that to me again," she said. Tears were running freely down her cheeks. "I couldn't stand it."</p>
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<p>"I'll do my best," Kerry said. "Honest. Cross my heart and hope to die."</p>
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<p>He let out a huge breath. "Or not."</p>
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<p class='break'>* * *</p>
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<p>They were out of the whirlpool, but not out of danger. The current whipped them along on its rip-tide way, but behind them the four ships had tacked again in the cross current and angled towards them, wind puffing their sails out.</p>
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<p>"They'll get us now," Connor said.</p>
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<p>"Oh don't be such a pessimist," Kerry said, sheer bravado. But his eyes too were fixed on the dark sails as the boats sent up white bow-waves in their haste to intercept them. The lead boat was already in the frothing edge where the two currents met. It soared over the high water, prow up, with two other boats racing alongside it. The bow came down with a mighty splash of spray.</p>
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<p>At that moment the tail-wind dropped. Immediately the taught sails luffed slackly and the ships went dead in the water right on the edge of the maelstrom. Without the wind they had no power to haul them through.</p>
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<p>Jack saw one man up in the rigging, frantically waving his hands at the helmsman, The ship shuddered, veered to starboard, its sails now whipping this way and that. Its prow clipped the nearest craft, gouging a hole in timbers, and causing it to heel dangerously to port. The third ship managed to steer past them, drew ahead, and the whirlpool's power sucked it in. The first ship spun in a complete circle while water flooded through the gash in the third boat's hull. </p>
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<p>"It's got them!" Connor cried. "Go on! Take them down!"</p>
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<p>As if it heard him, the raging sea snared the boats into the hole in its depths. Beyond the rim of lashing froth, they watched as the boats began to spin, first slowly, then faster. They heard the sound of two hulls crashing together. Masts whipped back and forth as the craft disappeared from view.</p>
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<p>And the whirlpool roared as it sucked them deeper and deeper until only the cross-yards were visible, and a few moments after that, all they could see were the red wolves heads of Dermott's pennants before they too vanished.</p>
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<p>Three ships were gone without a trace.</p>
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<p>The fourth veered away at the last moment, turning back as if giving up the pursuit. Jack hoped that Fainn and Dermott had been on one of the sunken craft, but somehow he knew they wouldn't be so lucky.</p>
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<p>But the fast current and the fact that the ship had turned to avoid the same fate meant they gained some distance as they bobbed along until the ship was far behind them and ahead, the white bank of fog loomed like a wall on the sea.</p>
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<p>It closed around them and they drifted in a silken silence, savouring their freedom and their narrow escape, and not a little satisfaction over the three lost ships. </p>
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<p>The current carried them through the damp twilight in the fog bank and they huddled together not knowing what was in store. Finally darkness fell and they drifted on at the mercy of the sea, listening out for any sign of land ahead.</p>
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<p>Some time later, Corriwen shook Jack from a troubled sleep and when he opened his eyes, she clamped a hand over his mouth.</p>
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<p>"I hear a ship," she whispered. She was shivering from the cold and Jack pulled her close to share his warmth.</p>
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<p>Out there in the hazy dark, he heard a loud creak, more like a groan than a creak, and recognised it as straining timber, then dim lights of tallow torches twinkled in the fog.</p>
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<p>They crouched low as the lights came nearer. A man's voice called out and somebody replied. Connor awoke with a start and Jack whispered him to hush. Kerry snored, head back and Corriwen pinched his nose until he jerked awake, hand already reaching for his sword.</p>
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<p>"Damn this fog," Dermott's voice bellowed. "Can't you do something about it?"</p>
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<p>"I have tried, My lord," Fainn's voice cut the fog like a jagged knife. "But some power keeps it in place. But they are here. I can smell them."</p>
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<p>"Well, keep on sniffing, spellbinder. We'll quarter the sea until we find them. Come on swabs, get grappling. We'll get them by hook and crook."</p>
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<p>The ship approached and the lights brightened, haloed in mist, and a shape loomed up next to them. Something flew over their heads and splashed in the water some yards away. A rope tightened.</p>
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<p>"Grappling iron," Corriwen whispered.</p>
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<p>The rope tightened and cut through the water towards them. The coracle spun as the ship's bow wave pushed them aside and then the three-pronged hook came surging up out of the water and disappeared from view.</p>
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<p>The looming hulk slid past them while they crouched with bated breath. Dermott bellowed again as the ship vanished into the mist. They heard the creaking of timbers as the ship criss-crossed the sea, getting fainter with every minute, until they were alone again, and the long night passed, slow and cold, until finally the dawn came, turning the sky from black to grey.</p>
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<p>Somewhere in the distance, Jack heard a low murmur and as they drifted closer, it became a deep pulsing beat.</p>
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<p>"Surf," he said. "We're getting close to something."</p>
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<p>"Oh, I hope it's a nice sandy beach," Kerry said, clasping his hands together in supplication.</p>
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<p>They heard rollers swell somewhere in the fog as they were swept towards it. Big waves were rising and breaking, just out of sight.</p>
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<p>Jack knelt up on what had become the prow, just because it was facing the way they travelled, peering out into the fuzzy gloom. Seabirds mewled plaintively over the breaking waves, and over the noise of the rollers came a hollow booming sound.</p>
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<p>"I don't think that sounds like a beach," Jack said.</p>
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<p>"Oh don't you start the pessimism stuff," Kerry yelled. "Try to look on the bright side."</p>
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<p>"Okay," Jack said. Perhaps their luck had indeed changed.</p>
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<p>He turned back to try to make out what they were heading for.</p>
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<p>And a vast black cliff suddenly loomed out of the fog as the waves drove them straight for the jagged rocks where it met the sea.</p>
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<p> </p>
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