Shine Light (16 page)

His first attempt to climb in failed and he fell into the water. When he tried again, he used the oar like a rope, hand over hand until he pulled himself to the lip of the boat. He scrambled in next to Naif like a crab.

Rollo didn’t fare as well. The rotten wood broke as soon as he put weight on it.

The boat began to move.

‘Find something else,’ said Naif to Kero. ‘Hurry.’

‘Stop it!’ Kero shouted at Ufur. ‘He’s not aboard.’

But the uther prince seemed oblivious to the situation, his nose pressed into the wind, head cocked as if listening.

Rollo tried to hold on to the boat but it slipped from his grasp and he fell into the water.

Kero pulled the belt from his trousers and leaned over the side. ‘Hold onto me,’ he told Naif.

She grabbed his hips and wedged her feet into the side of the boat, as Kero reached over the edge to Rollo.

Naif heard the slap of the belt hitting his hands and both boys swearing. Then she felt Kero strain to lift Rollo in. But Rollo was heavy and Kero started to tip over the side.

‘Frossing hold me!’ he bellowed at Naif.

She dug her shoes into the side of the boat and braced with all her strength. Her shoulders wrenched hard in their sockets and her back cramped.

She gritted her teeth and hauled backwards.

Kero managed to get the balance of his weight back in the boat and with it pulled Rollo up high enough that he could grip the edge. They took a few breaths and then side by side pulled Rollo into the boat.

Naif looked around, dazed from the effort. Ufur was at the bow, his paws lightly shifting a lever. He stared ahead, oblivious to their trouble. The odd boat picked up speed quickly, heading towards the reef.

Naif tried to stand and promptly fell.

‘Hold on to the grabs,’ said Rollo. He had his hand through a leather loop attached to the side.

Naif reached for one close to her. It steadied her motion enough that she could get to her knees.

Ahead, the white surf breaking on the reef stretched in a line both ways.
Where can we cross it?

‘Ufur, the reef,’ she called.

But the uther didn’t appear to hear her. The boat rolled in the swell like a tossed shell. Spray drenched them. A wave broke so high it slapped Naif in the face and sent a gush of seawater into her nose and throat. She fell down, coughing and gagging.

Opposite her, Kero and Rollo fared no better. They all crouched lower in the boat. Only Ufur stayed exposed to the waves, his drenched fur matting into rivulets, his paw steady on the levers.

Naif managed to catch the leather grab again and right herself. As she peered over the bow, the line of black-wet reef loomed. She ducked her head, bracing for the impact.

I can’t swim. I can’t . . . Lenoir, I can’t . . .

But the crash didn’t come.

‘We’re through!’ shouted Rollo jubilantly.

Kero and Naif stayed crouched down while Rollo had his head back, shoulders squared. She heard the exhilaration in his voice and thought of Jarrold. He would be the same, if he were here.

On the other side of the reef the boat settled into a more constant rhythm of peaks and troughs and Naif risked looking back to see the hump of reef retreating.

‘How did he find that gap in the reef ?’ gasped Naif.

‘He did. That’s all that matters,’ said Rollo.

‘As long as he can find it on the way back,’ said Kero grimly. Then he surged towards the side and vomited.

He hung there for a while as the boat ploughed onwards.

Naif peered ahead so hard her eyes watered from the wind and the salt. She was the first to see the atoll.

‘Over there!’ she called to the others, pointing.

Ufur steered the little shell boat in the direction she pointed. It cut through the lighter swell swiftly, bobbing them up towards the glittering strip of black sand. The uther caught a wave that lifted them easily onto the tiny beach.

The jar of the quick landing sent Kero, Rollo and Naif sprawling across the bottom of the boat. But Ufur didn’t give them a backwards glance as he bounded off the boat onto the island.

‘Fross!’ said Kero. He sat up, picking kelp from his hair. ‘He’s in a hurry.’

‘We need to get the boat higher or the tide will wash it back out,’ said Rollo. He climbed over the side and dropped onto the sand. ‘Come on.’

Naif and Kero followed him and the three pulled the shell boat up past the tideline.

The Ixion lights were only a pale glimmer now – enough, though, to show stunted silvery brush ahead of them. Naif could see no other landmark on the island; no buildings or remnants of trees.

‘It’s smaller than I expected,’ she said.

‘Ufur’s gone straight across. We should walk around the beach,’ suggested Rollo.

‘I suppose – uthers can – see in the – dark,’ said Kero. He kept licking his lips as if he might be sick again.

‘One of us should stay and watch the boat,’ said Naif.

‘Yeah,’ said Rollo. ‘In case Ufur decides to leave without us.’

‘I’ll do it.’ Kero sounded relieved. He set himself down in the sand, his back up against the bow. ‘I can see both ways from here.’

Rollo and Naif set out in a clockwise direction. They stayed close to the waterline but stared intently into the centre of the miniature island. The air seemed cooler here and wind rattled the brush.

‘What convinced you that Brand brought the queen here?’ Rollo asked Naif.

‘Charlonge said she’d been coming to Vank, studying the books. That’s how Char found them. Some of the maps were made after the Ripers came, while it was turning dark. I think that this little island was once part of Ixion, until the Ripers’ ship crashed and broke a piece off it.’

‘Where’s this ship of theirs now then?’ he asked.

‘Underwater here somewhere. Lenoir couldn’t say exactly.’

Rollo stopped walking suddenly. ‘Is that why you came back? Because of . . . him?’

Naif stopped as well. ‘What do you mean?’

‘Hasn’t he got some kind of hold on you since he healed you? Did he force you to come back?’ He kicked at the water, splashing it against her legs.

‘Stop it,’ she said automatically.

He stood still and waited. ‘Well?’

‘Rollo, all the young ones that Ruzalia took, they’re still dying because of their badges. I came back because of them, and everyone who will end up in Danskoi, because of Clash and . . . you.’

‘Me?’ he asked quietly.

‘My friends. You, Suki, Kero. Even Eve.’

‘And not for him?’

‘What difference does it make?’

‘A lot,’ he said. ‘Are you with them or are you with us?’

Naif felt a rush of anger at him. How could he make something so complicated so simplistic? ‘You don’t trust me?’

‘I dunno, Naif. It’s just that . . .’

He started walking again, more quickly this time. Naif hastened after him.

‘It’s just that . . .
what?
’ She couldn’t leave it at that. ‘What about you? When I left you’d joined the League. You wanted to stop the Ripers and find out about the Elders. I get back and you’re hiding from what’s happening by taking beads and pods.’

‘I’m not hiding,’ he said, raising a clenched fist.

Naif stepped away from him, suddenly afraid.

He saw her reaction and dropped his hand. ‘But when that . . . happened to Krista-belle. It was right in front of us. Right there . . . the Night Creature snapped her neck.’

His voice sounded thick with emotion.

‘Do you think I didn’t feel it like you did?’ she asked. They stood staring at each other while the waves lapped close to their feet. ‘It was terrible,’ she whispered. ‘That’s why we have to stop them.’

‘But you’re friends with one of them. You talk to him. Listen to him. He
touched
you.’

Naif’s stomach clenched at the disgust in his voice. ‘He kept me alive, Rollo. I should have died from what Brand did to me.’

‘Yeah, well maybe it would’ve been . . .’ He trailed off rather than finishing the horrible thing he’d started to say.

Naif blazed. ‘What? Better that I had died? Like Lottie? Like Krista-belle?’ Rollo didn’t know Charlotte, the girl who had died in the bed alongside Naif. He hadn’t been there to hear her calling for her mama.

He scuffed his foot in the sand. ‘No! I . . . I didn’t mean that! I’m sorry, Naif. It’s just . . .’

A noise made Rollo pause.

Ufur appeared between them, his fur wet and stinking of something unpleasant.

‘Fross!’ said Rollo. ‘Don’t do that!’

Naif wondered how much of their conversation the uther had heard before he made his presence known. ‘Have you found the queen?’

The uther thumped the sand with its tail and slapped its paws together. An unhappy rasping noise escaped its throat.

‘Rollo! Naif!’ called a voice.

Naif looked ahead. It was Kero; a dark outline leaning against another, bigger shadow. They had almost walked around the entire atoll in the time their conversation had taken.

Disappointment tasted sour on her lips.
Nothing. There’s nothing here. I was so sure . . .

‘You were only gone a few moments,’ said Kero as they joined him.

‘The island’s tiny,’ said Naif. ‘Hardly more than a sandbar with bush on it.’

Ufur made a clicking noise. He jumped into the boat, settling into the helm position, and waited.

‘Are you sure?’ said Kero.

‘Nothing.’

Kero kicked the side of the boat. ‘Fross!’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Naif. ‘I thought . . .’

‘Forget it,’ said Rollo. ‘Let’s just get back.’

The wind had picked up, blowing in gusts. Sand drifts stung Naif’s face as they pushed the boat down to the shallow water and helped each other in. She blinked grit from her eyes, resisting rubbing them.

‘What’s happening to the weather?’ asked Kero.

Naif didn’t know. Ixion’s weather stayed fairly stable. She’d never felt this kind of wind here before. Maybe it was what caused the rough water in this area.

‘This is weird. We should hurry.’ Rollo felt in the bottom of the boat and located another segment of the broken oar, which he used to push them off the beach.

Ufur took over from there, steering them straight back towards Ixion. They kneeled in the bottom of the boat, holding their grabs and enduring the rollercoaster of waves.

What had Brand found in the books then, if not where Merpati lay, Naif asked herself. What else had she been looking for?

‘Hold on!’ shouted Rollo. ‘We’re getting close to the reef.’

The boat began to pitch as it caught in the swirling water around the reef. It tipped so far over that water poured in on top of Naif.

She held her breath. The spray was so thick that she could barely see Ufur at the helm. Across from her, Kero curled in a ball, his hand over his mouth. But Rollo hung on tenaciously to his grab, peering ahead.

‘I can see the gap!’ Rollo’s words were whipped across to her by the wind. ‘I think we’re going to miss it.’

Miss it!
Naif’s heart hammered. She couldn’t swim and the reef would smash the boat.

Moments later, the boat slammed into something solid, and cartwheeled. They were tossed out, landing on the strip of rock that battled to stay above the surf.

Air rushed from Naif’s lungs with the impact of the fall but strangely it didn’t hurt. She gasped and floundered, feeling for something to stop her slipping into the sea. To one side of her Rollo had hold of Kero, pulling him back from the waves to a higher part of the reef.

Naif began to slide. She dug her fingers into the rock, desperate to find a crevice or hand hold, but the texture was smooth and spongy. Waves crashed on her back and water filled her mouth. She coughed and thrashed and kicked but the pull of the water was too strong.

Her fingers slipped.

A stab of memory.
Slipping down the drawbridge of the Ixion barge. A strong, cold hand gripping her fingers before she fell, pulling her to safety.

There was no Riper here, though. This time she was lost.

No!
She gave several determined kicks, propelling her body upward. Her hands touched the reef again. Why was it so smooth?

She felt something scrape the back of her neck. Claws hooked into her clothes and suddenly she came free of the sucking water.

Ufur held her suspended as he bounded to the highest part of the reef where Rollo and Kero huddled.

The boys pulled her into their circle, linking their arms with hers.

‘Naif!’ croaked Kero.

‘Fross, Naif! You almost drowned!’ Rollo hugged her tight.

But she pushed away from them, brushing her wet hair out of her eyes. ‘It’s not a reef!’ she cried.