The Seventh Tide (22 page)

She stumbled over to the bench and dropped down on it, trying to think, while the dog twitched and woofled in his sleep.

‘That’s unusual,’ said a voice.

Jay fell off the bench on to the ground and stared in astonishment at the cloaked and hooded figure standing by the wall. She was
sure
there’d been no one there a second ago.

‘Where did
you
come from?’ she blurted.

The figure’s laugh was low, and deeper than you’d expect.

‘Isn’t that supposed to be
my
question? You can get up, by the way – I don’t require a complete obeisance.’

Jay scrambled to her feet. She wasn’t entirely sure what an obeisance was, but the mocking tone was clear enough.

As the figure uncloaked, Jay took a step back. The woman was only a little taller than she was and slightly built, but the luxurious raven-wing hair and the way she moved like a coiled spring were unmistakable. It was the same person Jay had seen in her ‘dream’.

Circe. The Lady.

‘No one comes here,’ the Lady said. ‘A powerful sorceress might pass my warnings perhaps, or a questor of great courage and determination might brave them, to trespass in my sacred garden…’ Her voice ended on a rising note, as if she couldn’t really see Jay in either of those categories.

‘The dog came in,’ said Jay defensively.

‘He belongs,’ said the Lady. ‘You don’t.’ Suddenly her eyes narrowed. ‘You didn’t just trespass, did you… you saw things…’

She moved like a cat, took Jay’s hand and opened it. The crushed remains of the leaf lay on her palm, and the scent rose, dangerously, again. The Lady pulled her over to the stream and scrubbed her hand vigorously in the iciness. A greenish blur bled into the water and was swept away.

‘Is that a poison?’Jay stammered. ‘Will it affect things downstream?’ The garden suddenly felt like a dangerous place to be.

But the Lady seemed unconcerned. ‘Some fish in the strait may have strange dreams tonight, but that won’t be unusual for them.’ She took hold of Jay’s head and moved it so she could examine the wound. ‘This isn’t
too bad. Why did they cut your hair off? What were you being punished for?’

‘They? Who? Oww! I
like
my hair!’

‘This isn’t as bad as it might be.’ Examination complete, the Lady turned Jay abruptly to face her.

‘What did you see?’ The question came sharp and sudden.

‘I… I saw…
you
,’ Jay stuttered. It didn’t even occur to her to play for time or pretend she didn’t know what the Lady was referring to. ‘It’s hard to remember – like a dream.’

‘The gift of forgetfulness comes so easily to some… Why do I sense so much water from you? You are no Oceanid, like my mother, and yet the sea is all around you… The sea, which is always changing, is always the same…’

There was a groan from ground level. ‘Lord of All Rubbish – can a dog not fall asleep for two seconds around here without you going mystical?! It’s no wonder you can’t keep a man, talking tosh like that!’

Jay couldn’t help giggling. The dog looked a bit surprised to see her there.

The Lady looked down at him, an unreadable expression on her face.

‘You’re a man,’ she said quietly.
‘You’re
still here.’

The dog snorted. ‘It’s an island, darling. You think I want to swim Corrievrechan just to get away from you?’ He looked at her, his tongue hanging out the side of his mouth, one ear inside out – the picture of a pooch… until you came to the eyes.

‘Odysseus,’ whispered the Lady. There was such honey in her voice, as if there were no one else there.

Jay squirmed uncomfortably.

Then the dog sneezed, knocking his ear the right way out again, and the moment passed.

‘Where did she come from?’ he asked. ‘And when did you start bringing the new girls here?’

‘I didn’t,’ said the Lady. ‘She brought herself.’

‘That’s unusual,’ said the dog, unconsciously repeating his mistress’s words. ‘She doesn’t
smell
like a sorceress. Not that it’s easy to tell round here,’ and he sneezed again.

Circe walked round Jay slowly, staring at her intently. ‘No, you’re right. Not a sorceress… or a heroine…’ When she finished her circuit, the expression on her face hardened. She reached up and began to plait and twist together four strands of her midnight hair.

‘I’ll tell you what I sense here. I sense arrogance. Ignorance. I sense another world…’

Suddenly, Jay found she couldn’t move, not even to blink, barely to breathe. The Lady looked into her eyes, on into her mind, and there was nothing she could do to stop her.

There was so much about her own world that she never thought about, all the common, everyday images. Wallpaper stuff, really – so much part of the landscape of her mind that she never considered it consciously herself. When Adom and Eo and Hurple had arrived on her doorstep, they had seemed amazed and impressed. At least that was what she assumed they’d been feeling. Now she was seeing what Circe saw, without any polite obfuscation. The high-tech pods and workplaces suddenly appeared cramped to her and restrictive, like too-small cages. The calculated ballet of traffic between sectors
and levels seemed artificial and controlled, like the herded scuttling of lab rats in a maze. And everywhere, there were the Guardians. There were so many, hung round with sprayers and needlers and nets. Had she
realized
how many there were?

‘Cramped, controlled, drugged, without even the awareness you are not free… And
that
is why you think you are superior?’ The Lady sounded mildly incredulous. ‘Perhaps on a more personal level…’

She looked deeper, and Jay had no choice but to look as well. She wouldn’t have said it out loud, but she
knew
what she thought of herself. She thought she was special. That she would do great things someday. It was only a matter of time. But Circe wasn’t seeing what Jay thought. She was seeing what she
did…

‘But that’s not it!’ Jay choked. ‘I’m not just – and I
don’t
think I’m superior! That’s…’
true
, she thought to herself as her voice died away.
I
do!
Right from the beginning… there was Adom – he outclassed me, but he was shy and awkward and he didn’t know one end of a computer from the other, so I told myself I was better. And Eo – he’s a shape-shifter, for crying out loud, but I convinced myself he was just a child. And Hurple, who knows more than I could ever learn in my whole life – well, he’s just an animal, isn’t he? And the people we’ve met, in each Tide… I’m the lowest you can get in my world, but because of all the technology I was born into, that I never made and don’t even understand, I thought I was better than all of them…

She felt ashamed.

‘In the world I come from it’s the same, of course,’ said the Lady. ‘Except that it’s being born into money there, or family, or being male, that makes you superior.
I thought you might be unusual, but after all, it’s just the old story – the safe way. No need to find out what you could do if you had to – never push hard enough to find out – ride on someone else’s achievements. I understand.’

‘But that’s not it… you just met me. You don’t know me!’ Jay cried.

The Lady shrugged. ‘It’s not important,’ she said. ‘I just wondered, that’s all. So, what is it you’ve come to ask me for?’

Jay felt as if she’d been kicked in the stomach.

She didn’t see the sly smile on the Lady’s face.

Back at the cave, the boys were still trying to come to grips with what the Professor was saying.

Adom said, ‘So are you trying to tell us that we are trapped on the island of the witch-sorceress Circe as described in the pagan writings of the poet Homer?’

The ferret nodded. ‘Fabulous, isn’t it!’

But Eo was worrying at another bit of the tale. He said, ‘So are you trying to tell us that Circe, the Lady right, named her
dog
after her
boyfriend
!?’

‘What makes you think she named him
after
anyone?’ Hurple ignored their stunned expressions. ‘Odysseus really loved her, you know – there’s more than one version of that story. They don’t all end the same way.’

‘She
bewitched
him?!’ gasped Adom.

‘Funny word, that,’ said the ferret thoughtfully. According to everything I’ve read, she certainly
was
bewitching, and she certainly
did
some bewitching, but there’s quite a difference. When you think about it.’

‘I don’t
want
to think about it,’ snapped Adom. ‘I want to go and make sure she isn’t turning
Jay
into a duck or a bowl of fruit or something!’

‘Or
maybe
Jay’s convincing her to help us, right at this very moment,’ said the ferret. ‘Have you thought of
that
? It’s not as if anyone
we’ve
met seems eager to give us anything.’

‘Other than a poke with a sharp stick,’ said Eo mournfully.

‘Or a long drop off a short rock,’ said Adom.

‘Don’t remind them!’ said Hurple.

‘It’s not the first time I’ve been asked for assistance of this kind,’ the Lady said, with a wry note to her voice. ‘Where are they now, your companions?’

‘The one called Moira said to put them in a cave of some sort. In a pen with a bunch of sheep.’Jay was still finding it hard to speak. A bad taste of worthlessness and shame kept trying to block her throat.

‘They’ve put them in a cave with sheep? Well, that’s an idea that’s been used before, eh?’ She glanced sideways at the dog.

The dog snorted. He
might
have just been clearing his throat.

While asking her questions the Lady was also preparing a potion, brewing herbs and leaves in a pot over a fire inside the hut. Again, she had first rearranged her long hair, made a particular plait, quickly and without fuss. Jay wondered dully what it meant.

‘Here, drink this.’ The Lady handed her a wooden cup of the liquid. ‘I think you’ll find you are fit enough then.’

It didn’t seem likely she’d deem her
worth
poisoning, so Jay drank up. The stuff was slightly bitter, but not too unpleasant, and it did give her a sense of new strength and health.

The Lady carefully banked the fire and stood up, smoothing her robe and shaking out her hair.

The dog stood too and gave
himself
a shake, but the Lady put her hand on his head. Odysseus, I want you to stay here,’ she said quietly.

‘And why is that, might I ask?’ The dog looked huffy.

‘Dearest, you know the girls are working with the sheep just now. And you know you can’t resist how their white waggly tails flap up and down. Or the way their wool bounces all over when they run. Now can you? Hmm?’

A small whimper of longing escaped from the dog, but he lay down again.

‘Wait for me,’ she said. ‘Till I get back.’

From the entrance to the garden, Jay could still see him lying there, his head on his outstretched paws, waiting for the Lady’s return.

Eo sighed and looked out to see if there was any sign yet of Jay. The number of sheep still in the pen with them had been steadily declining, as more and more of the animals were dragged out, shoved into the dipping pool and allowed to escape, yelling in indignation, from the other side. Now there was only one left, the most obstreperous of the lot. It was tough and cantankerous, and too canny by half. It took all the women to get that one beast to the edge of the dip.

Eo was feeling grubby and hungry and anxious and scared, but it was a sight that made him grin in spite of himself. He was about to pass a comment to Adom when suddenly –

– she was there. Jay was back, looking well again. And she was not alone.

A black-haired woman was standing beside her. There was something about her, something…
bewitching.
It was nothing like the mesmer of the Kelpie Queen, which bewildered and bemused – if anything, it made him feel he was seeing more
clearly.
For a moment, he was swept by an irrational desire to drop to his knees. Then she caught his eye, half-smiled, and put a long finger to her lips.

Eo shoved Adom, but he was already staring in the same direction.

‘The Lady
,’ he breathed, and Eo gave the slightest of nods.

The women at the dip hadn’t yet noticed the new arrivals. Their attention was too caught up in the last sheep, still showing no sign of a willingness to cooperate. Then the Lady took a strand of her long, loose hair and twisted it in a certain way – and suddenly the sheep stopped baaing and struggling. It trotted of its own accord into the deep water, ducked its head, swam across and came out on the other side with no more than a decorous shake of its wool. The women, wet and filthy, were also silent. They turned to the Lady and waited for her to tell them what to do.

‘Those boys who came here – it seems they’re gone,’ she said calmly. ‘They’ve taken the boat, and the girl, and they’ve gone away. Never mind. It doesn’t matter.
Tell Moira and the others. And send word to Fiona we’ll be needing a new boat built.’

Jay was standing right in front of the women, in plain view. To see the boys, all they had to do was turn their heads and look into the cave. But they didn’t. They nodded, and a few dropped curtsies, and then, without saying a word, they all left.

Not until the last sound of their feet on the rocks died away did the Lady let the strand of hair unwind. Eo, Hurple (standing eagerly upright on his shoulder and holding on to his ear) and Adom immediately clambered over the barricade and rushed across the shallows below the dam.

‘Jay – are you all right?’

‘I’m
all right – but you smell of – what
is
that?!’ Jay held her nose.

‘Sheep pee, mostly.’

‘It’s been a bit of an anxious time for them.’

‘Yeah, they worry about getting dipped.’

And they express their worry by weeing on you two?’ said Jay.

They were all grinning madly.

‘Oh yes. It’s the Sheep Way.’

The Lady’s voice cut through their reunion.

‘I will speak with that one,’ she said, pointing at Eo.

‘I’ll just come along too, then, shall I?’ asked Hurple, but one look from the Lady and he immediately slid to the ground.