CANDLE

Two Days Earlier

32

Sea and Serpent

Candle and Locryn crashed down the side of the mountain, aiming for the deep green of the forest edge that grew a few hundred yards from the boundary wall. The sea sparkled below them, the wind gusting up the gully like a chimney, blowing salty air directly into their faces. High above them, cloud was pouring down the high slopes. Candle's heart lifted at the scent and sight of the sea. With any luck, they should be able to lose their pursuers in the cloud. Behind them, a handful of Lochlanachs clambering over the wall. Glancing back Candle saw the first drop to the ground, crouching down as he quickly assembled his weapon. He angled the shaft towards her, and Candle ran faster, praying to the Ancestor's that she would not trip and fall. They dove into the trees at the edge of the chasm just as a stinging hail of metal pinged off the rocks behind them. Candle stumbled in shock as a hole several inches wide was blasted through the twisting trunk of a nearby stinkwood.

"Come on," shouted Locryn, pushing her forward, as she staggered. Together they raced slipping and sliding down the slick rocks of the gorge, tripping over the little stream at its centre and skinning their hands and knees on the branches they grabbed in passing. As they ran the cloud closed over them and the gorge became a wet, damp world of green and their own ragged breath. Locryn gestured for Candle to slow, his fingers on his lips. Together, they stood and listened. Hearing nothing but distant shouts they crept forward, taking pains to make as little noise as possible.

They went on as quickly as they could, but they could barely see their hands in front of their faces now. The mist hid them but made everything slick and damp. Locryn stumbled over a rock and fell. He got up slower than he should have, and Candle was alarmed to see a spreading stain of red blooming on his side.

"Are you hurt?"

"It's not too bad," he said, pressing forward, Candle climbing after him. As they continued, he increasingly favoured his wounded side. Within a few minutes, his face was streaked with sweat, and he was struggling to breathe.

"There should be a bothy at the base of the Old Man's Head," whispered Candle, "under the cliffs by the beach." She looked back up the way they had come, but everything was silent and shrouded in white. How long till twilight, she wondered? They needed a place to hide, and they needed to look at Locryn's side. It was hard to tell how long they had been scrambling down the gorge. The mist enveloped everything, and they could no longer see the sea or the mountains. Twilight would likely arrive early. If they could find the bothy, they would be better lying low and then setting out for Gwavas in the night. Locryn's face was scrunched up in pain. He saw her looking at him.

"I'm fine," he said, through gritted teeth "but... let's see if we can find the bothy. Although it will probably be infested with wights, or worse."

"Did you hurt yourself when you fell?" He shook his head.

"One of those infernal weapons," he said, "I don't know when it hit me." He lifted his shirt, and she hissed through her teeth as she saw the torn and shredded skin. It looked bad - he was losing too much blood. She paused to rip a strip off her shirt which she handed to him silently. He accepted it with bad grace and winced as he bound his side. The cloth was instantly soaked through. She took off her cloak and wadded it up, handing it to him.

"Press it against your side," she said, and he did so with a grunt. Keeping an anxious eye on Locryn, Candle took the lead, angling down and to the right of the Old Man's Head, pushing through dense growths of lilies and ferns away from the stream. The sea was close by - frustratingly close. She could smell it but not see it. She had never been so close to it before. This wasn't how she had imagined her first trip would be.

They slogged down, sliding and cursing, quietly under their breath. Candle didn't dare to ask Locryn if he was alright. Not again. The scowl on his face was enough to prevent conversation and the pain writ large on his brow enough that she did not need to ask to know the answer. At least, Candle thought, there was no sign of pursuit. At least, none that they could hear or see.

The smell of salt becoming stronger and the trees thinned. Suddenly they could hear the crash of waves on unseen rocks. Candle's heart leapt, and she hurried forward, trying to penetrate through the double blindness of her blindfold and the mist. Sand scrunched under her feet. Where was the sea? It must be close by. She felt a queer thrill at the thought of all that water, but it would have to wait till Locryn was safe and healed. Looking back at Locryn, she saw he was sitting on the ground, his eyes closed. Her heart skipped a beat, but then he swore expressively.

"Wait here," she said, "I'll find it and come back for you." He nodded, his face tight, his eyes half closed. She sped off, her feet crunching on the sand. The mist was beginning to thin, she saw with some alarm. They needed to find cover fast, they were sitting ducks on the beach, and they didn't have any weapons. Not that Locryn was in a state to use one.

High above them, she could make out the vague shape of the Old Man's Head, rising in an almost vertical cliff. She knew the bothy was built directly into a modified cave, so it made sense that it would be near the rocks. She padded up the sandy dunes till she came to the rocks and then clambered over them, searching and ignoring the thrill of the waves that called to her.

The air moved above her, and she instinctively flattened herself on the ground. Something large moved overhead, something with enormous wings. An airship? Or something else? She lay still until it left, praying that the mist would protect her from view until she was safe. After a few minutes, she got up and warily worked her way over the rocks until her eye was attracted by the luminous sparkle of magic. If she had not been able to see it, her eyes would have skimmed right over the tiny structure that was cunningly built into the rock. Quickly she located the doorway which was built on the mountainside and pushed open the iron. It was beginning to rust but was still whole enough to keep out any errant spirits. She hoped. Inside the bothy was more cave than a building. It was smaller even than the Dawn Watch Bothy - just big enough for two people to lie down on the floor, without much room to spare. There were a tiny fireplace and a small cupboard. There was not much else but then what need would the people of Sterlester have to come down to the sea? It was a relic from a bygone era, or for lost souls who wandered too long in the fell.

Candle returned for Locryn who grunted at her and tried to haul himself up, refusing her offer of help. Eventually, he gave up and accepted her arm with exceedingly bad grace, and many protestations of how feeble she was. These cheered her somewhat, as she figured if he were badly hurt, he wouldn't have the energy to insult her. They walked toward the bothy slowly, Locryn leaning so heavily on Candle she had to use all her strength keep from collapsing under his weight. Once there, he rolled onto the floor with a groan of relief. He took off his gambeson with some effort and stuffed it under his head. He lay back, sighed and stopped moving, his eyes shut. Candle bent over him in horror but then relaxed as veins of magic pulsed on his skin, and his wound healed a little. He started to snore, and she sat back on her heels with a sigh of relief.

Satisfied that Locryn would not die in her absence, she left him asleep and went outside to explore. She breathed in a deep, salt-laden breath of air. It cleared her head, and she went outside to sit on the edge of the tiny stone circle. She ate her sandwich thoughtfully, listening to the gentle swish of water breaking on the unseen shore. The mist was lifting, and there was no sign of the barbarians. She peeped back into the bothy, but Locryn was still sleeping. She climbed down the rocks towards the newly visible strip of sand and to the shining expanse of water beyond. She stared in awe as the last of the mist evaporated. Kicking off her shoes, she felt the cool powder of the sand beneath her feet and tentatively walked forward.

The sun was dipping toward the horizon, and the light hit the water like sheets of silver, rippling across the massive bay. The air turned pink and mauve as she watched. The last of the mist pooled on the sand as the moon rose over the mountain behind her. Candle stared and stared, drinking in the sight of the rolling waves before her. Far out on the horizon, a massive creature from the deep ocean leapt into the air and crashed back into the water. Raucous seabirds called to each other in the sky above her. White sand stretched away in both directions, ending in the steep rock of the first of the twelve mountains of Hammett, hidden behind the great bulk of Old Man. The slopes were so steep they dropped almost vertically into the ocean where land met sea.

But the water! The ocean was so vast it made the mountains seem insignificant. It went on forever, meeting the sky halfway around the world. She could not believe the world could be so vast. Great stripes of turquoise blue striped the breakers, and beyond them the waves deepened to a darker teal. Now she was looking carefully she could see that the swells were laced with magic, the telltale glimmer interspersed with the natural sparkle of foam and sinking sun.

She had never seen anything like it. She glanced back at the bothy, feeling guilty. What would Locryn think if he saw her by the water? But she had to take a closer look...she had never seen the sea before. Not this close. Not close enough to touch! Taking one last look back at the bothy, she stepped cautiously across the sand towards the sea. The roll of the waves was hypnotic, dangerous and powerful, but with an intense beauty that made her heart ache. She wanted to touch it, to be in it.

She shook her head, trying to free herself of these dangerous, ridiculous thoughts. The water in front of her was no stream or pool, no domesticated well with a ladder on which to cling. To enter this water would be to court death. The sea was pulsing with magic, and full of great monsters, giant squid, and worse. Who knew how deep it was? The water's opaque surface could hide a myriad of horrors. There was a reason her people built their houses far from the sight of water; she reminded herself. There was a reason the Lochlanach had been the first invaders in over a thousand years, and that they had arrived by air... She swallowed hard and contemplated sticking a toe in at the very edge, hypnotised by the ebb and flow of the waves as they ran up to meet the beach.

The air stirred over her head, and her avid contemplation was interrupted by a sudden tremor. A blast of sand nearly knocked her off her feet. She wiped the grit out of her eyes and turned to face the gigantic black dragon who had landed atop the dunes, looming over her with reptilian menace.