Storm Surge

by Melissa Gunn

  “Pirates?! No way, you have all the luck. Did you use your tricks on them?” queried Aisha. Freya looked at Karim.

  “What are your tricks?” she asked. “I’ve seen Aisha’s bugs. Do you do something similar?”

  Karim’s mouth fell open.

  “Woah, you know all the secrets. How long did you say you’ve known her, Aisha?” he asked.

  “I guess it’s only a few weeks,” said Aisha. “But they’ve been really busy weeks. Did you hear about the storm we had? Freya was nearly squashed by a tree in her own bedroom. I could hardly leave her with a branch spearing her pillow now, could I? Plus, she had some trouble with The Family, so she’s a natural ally. And you haven’t answered her question, Karim.”

  “Oh, well,” he said. “If you know about Aisha’s bugs, and you’re not aligned with The Family, then I guess I can tell you. But it’s a bit embarrassing – not masculine, or anything. That’s what comes of being descended from a goddess like Bastet. I kind of wish Aisha had it, and I had her tricks. But, yeah. I make ointments. Or potions, that sounds better. Good ones. I can make potions that preserve stone, even. That’s what got me interested in archaeology. But it turns out that I can’t put any potions on artifacts without ‘full and rigorous scientific testing’, or my dig supervisor said. So, I need to get my degree, then I can use the potions the way I want. Meanwhile, every time I come home, this lot get me to whip up a few first aid potions. So, yeah. That’s my trick.”

  Freya, who’d been smiling to herself while he described his non-masculine abilities, thought that as tricks went, it sounded useful – probably more useful if not applied to archaeological finds. But since she had yet to figure out what power she had herself, other than summoning water spirits like her sister, she wasn’t going to judge.

  “That sounds useful. Got anything for were-bites?” she asked.

  Karim goggled at her. “Wow, you really did have a run-in with The Family, didn’t you? I’ve never tried making anything for were-bites, but I guess I can try. We’ve avoided getting that close to the weres in this town. Do you have some bites at the minute?” He sounded curious.

  Freya shrugged, and pulled up her trouser leg a little to show the unhealed bite on her calf.

  “It’s been there for weeks. It just doesn’t go away.”

  “Freya! Why didn’t you tell me about that?” demanded Aisha.

  “Sorry, I guess I didn’t think you could do anything. And it doesn’t bother me all the time,” Freya apologised. “Usually, I’d show my Mum something like this, but she’s been so busy at the greenhouse, I barely see her.” Freya paused, then added half-jokingly, “And this town wouldn’t survive without tomatoes, so she’s doing vital work.”

  “Oh yes, go the tomato-lady, we all need tomatoes!” said Karim enthusiastically.

  “In actual fact,” interrupted Aisha’s mother, “I think that this town would fall apart at the seams without the food from the greenhouse. But speaking of food, Karim, have you had anything yet? Surely it is nearly time for a meal. We didn’t know you’d be coming today, so it’s just falafel and rice. You’ll feel like you’ve hardly left Egypt! But we do, in fact, have fresh tomatoes. Freya, will you stay for mealtime?” Unwilling to interrupt a family homecoming further, Freya mumbled an apology about being expected at home.

  “But you just said your Mum was working all hours at the greenhouse. She’s not at home, is she?” Aisha interjected.

  Freya was forced to admit that Danae was unlikely to be home.

  “So, you should stay! After all, it will be dark soon, and it’s better not to walk home alone in the dark. Right Mama?”

  Aisha’s mother looked sternly at Aisha.

  “Please don’t pressure your friend to stay if she does not want to. Freya, you are welcome to stay if you wish, but I will not be offended if you wish to get home before dark instead. And if you do want an ointment for those wounds, I will send Karim over tomorrow with something, once he has consulted with Nena. She is as good as he is, you know, and she certainly has many more years of experience. Please do consider an ointment. Were-bites are nasty things.”

  Freya now felt more in-the-way than ever. But she would like to have her leg whole and healed again.

  “I should get home and make something so that Mum eats when she gets home. Sometimes she’s too tired to eat, when she gets in after a late session at the greenhouse.” Freya made a face. “Then she’s unbelievably crabby.” She covered her mouth, realising too late that she shouldn’t criticise her mother in front of others. “Oops. Guess I shouldn’t say that.”

  Aisha’s mother smoothly covered Freya’s gaffe.

  “Well, if you are going home simply to cook, perhaps you can stay for dinner here, and take home some extra for your mother?” Correctly interpreting Freya’s facial expression, Aisha’s mother added;

  “Don’t worry, the chilli is mostly added separately to this meal.”

  Freya had not reacted well to her first major encounter with chilli at Aisha’s house. Bowing to the inevitable, she thanked Aisha’s mother, took off her boots and moved into the house after Karim.

  Karim disappeared to the kitchen to start talking ointments and potions with his grandmother. Aisha muttered that her grandmother usually appeared a few minutes before the meal was set on the table, just after closing the station cafe. Listening at the door, Freya was surprised that Karim did not dominate that conversation. He only spoke to answer questions put to him by his mother or grandmother. After his earlier loquaciousness, this was something of a surprise to Freya.

  Aisha and Karim’s father appeared late, and was duly scolded. Freya had seen him a couple of times - a stocky man with heavy grey eyebrows and a bald head. He seemed generally amiable, and indeed, on other visits, Freya had only ever seen him acquiesce to any demands from his wife.

  “Sorry, sorry my dear. I was busy in the shop. Wouldn’t you rather we had customers? But I’ll try not to be late in future. If I’d known Karim had returned, I would have turned the customers away. How are you, boy? Still able to make yourself understood in the old country?”

  “‘Course, Dad. Every time,” said Karim.

  “Are you ready for your stint of higher education, then?”

  “Yes, Dad. I got my acceptance ages ago. It was just a matter of getting back in time. So here I am, and I’ll head off to uni in time for the start of term.” Karim turned to his mother.

  “Any letters from the student halls yet?”

  She turned away from the table long enough to locate an unopened letter, which she put in front of Karim. He tore it open eagerly, but his face fell as he read it.

  “They don’t have a place for me. What do I do now? I don’t know anyone in the city.”

  “Are you sure, Karim?” asked his mother. “I thought they had to keep halls for first year students.”

  “No, it says they’re over-booked.”

  “You’ll have to go flatting then. Some poor person will have to share your cooking space. I wish them luck,” Aisha chipped in.

  Karim seemed unconvinced, leaning his arms on the table and placing his head in his hands dramatically.

  “My university career is doomed before I even start. How can I study with nowhere to live?”

  I’m sure things will work out,” said Nena reassuringly.

  “Yeah,” said Aisha, “and even if you do have to find a flat, at least you won’t have to dodge pirates. York’s only got a river. The worst you’ll face is flooding. Speaking of which, did you hear about the flood we had here?” Aisha launched into the now-familiar recount of the flooded shopping centre.

  After dinner, Freya rose to take her leave. Aisha’s mother had packaged up some extra falafel and rice. The rice was something of a luxury to Freya - the price of rice had increased dramatically after the flooding of Bangladesh, and no other rice-growing country fully made up the short-fall. The difference in available food choice at Aisha’s house made her achingly aware of her own famil
y’s poverty.

  No use worrying over that now though. One day I’ll be in a better position.

  “It’s a shame you don’t wear knee-high boots,” said Aisha as she surveyed Freya’s mauled calf while Freya prepared to leave.

  “Then my legs would have just been bitten higher up,” Freya groused in response.

  “Fair point. But they’d look good,” countered Aisha.

  “Glad to know you’re more concerned with fashion than with my welfare,” Freya said.

  “Can’t I be both? One of these days, I’m getting you to a decent thrift shop.”

  “I tremble at the thought.”

  “Leave off, Aisha,” said Karim. “I’m ready to go.”

  The plan was for Karim and Aisha to walk Freya home, so that Aisha didn’t end up walking home alone, either. The three of them set out as the moon was rising through a drizzly sky, shining through occasional breaks in the clouds. The temperature was dropping as winter grew closer. Aisha took the lead, both in pace and in questioning.

  “So, Karim, did you really have to dodge pirates in the Channel?”

  “I did have to dodge pirates, but it was in the North Sea. The pirates had a demi with them, but I wasn’t sure which type she was. She had a dog, which kept on barking whenever it smelt us. It was super-irritating. In the end I made a few smell-bombs and threw them out into the water, to try and throw it off. I had to use rotten fish, ‘cos that’s all the captain would let me throw overboard. Mind you, by that time throwing it overboard was the kindest option. We’d have had to eat it otherwise - we didn’t catch anything on the way, and it turned out they hadn’t brought enough food to go round. So, it could have been sea sickness or food poisoning that had me feeling so rough. I hadn’t eaten anything for a couple of days, when I got here. Bastet knows, I was glad Mum had dinner ready for us.”

  Aisha was quiet for a moment, digesting this information.

  “You didn’t tell Mum most of that.”

  “No, and I won’t either. She’d just worry, and try to feed me up. So long as I figure out a place to stay while I study, I’ll be fine - now I’m on dry land, everything seems better.” Karim stretched his arms above his head as he walked. “I’ll be glad to sleep on something that’s not rocking, too,” he said. “Hey. What’s that light up on the cliff? Is there a new house built up there since I left?” They all looked across the town’s roofs to the dark cliffs.

  “No, it’s all reserve land on the cliff edges. You know that, Karim.” Aisha was dismissive. A light flashed up there, once, then again, a few seconds later.

  “It was orange - maybe like flames,” said Karim uncertainly. “Who’d be up on the cliffs with flames on a night like tonight? The wind’s getting up, and those cliffs aren’t fenced.”

  Freya considered the light as it appeared again.

  “It’s too regular for flames, not flickering so much,” she said. “It could be one of those old-fashioned lanterns - with a wick. Though why anyone would be up there...” she trailed off. Could it be the were-clan, getting up to some mischief? “Is this a smuggling sort of place?” she asked, trying not to feel like she’d been thrown into a Famous Five adventure yarn. If it was weres up there, the absolute last thing she wanted to do was go anywhere near them. But she did feel a little braver with Aisha and Karim walking with her. “Tell you what, let’s drop off this food at my house, and then maybe we should check it out? It’s not breeding season for the seabirds, so it’s unlikely to be some twitcher after something rare.”

  Aisha and Karim both looked at her.

  “What? You’ve lived here all your lives, surely you know what twitchers are like?”

  Aisha spoke up.

  “I think we’re just not used to other people knowing what twitchers are. I mean, they’re the birding world’s version of a piranha, but a lot of people think it’s a computer programmer or a tree or something.”

  Freya laughed at this description.

  “I think I know most of the birdlife around here. It’s hard to avoid noticing the birds and animals when you’re competing with them for food,” she said.

  Aisha nodded understandingly, though Karim still seemed surprised.

  “I used to spend a lot of time birdwatching up here, before I went to Egypt,” he said. “There are some pretty amazing birds in Egypt, too. Like those black and white striped kingfishers, they’re pretty cool. Do you still go birding, Aisha?”

  “I’ve stuck with field-based birds for the last little while,” she said. “The gannets always look like they want to peck an eye out.”

  Freya looked from one sibling to the other in surprise.

  “So, you’re both birders, then?”

  “Sort-of,” said Aisha. “Not hugely serious - I mean, I don’t have those huge spotting scopes or anything. Just a good pair of bins. I think it comes from the cat goddess. All cats love watching birds. I’ve even seen one of mine pounce on a bird’s shadow, when it couldn’t get outside to try and catch one. It’s easy to see the attraction.”

  “Does that mean I should keep you away from birds in case you want to pounce?” asked Freya.

  “Don’t worry, I’ve always managed to restrain myself so far,” said Aisha with toss of her head. “And it’s not like we’re weres, we don’t become our goddess’s spirit animal or anything weird.”

  “I guess you’re going to go do biology or animal behaviour at uni next year, then, Freya,” said Karim. “Sounds like you know half the stuff already.”

  Freya, who’d been privately admiring Karim’s green eyes earlier during dinner, suddenly felt out of patience. Why should Karim assume he knew so much about her and what she would do with her future? They’d only just met.

  “What about Aisha’s bug army?” she asked defensively. “You seem to know plenty about them.”

  Aisha patted her arm.

  “It’s OK, bio-buff,” she said. “We like people who know stuff. As for the locusts, I know about them because they’re my speciality. Maybe your speciality is just a bit less specialised. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

  Freya felt like a cat whose fur had been brushed backwards before being patted in the correct direction. It took more than a bit of patting to calm down.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  HEARING THINGS

  The trio trudged on up the hill in silence for a while, till they came in view of Freya’s house. There were no lights gleaming from its cracked windows. The headland above it was shrouded by rain.

  “You’re a long way from the waterfront here.”

  “Yes, thank Frigg. We haven’t had much luck with seaside apartments. Oh, will you look at that, now?”

  Freya’s efforts with the tarpaulin on the roof were being undone by a rising breeze that lashed the light drizzle into their faces. “I’ll have to fix that tarpaulin again. In the morning, though. No way am I getting up on that roof at night.”

  “Good call. I don’t miss this weather when I’m in Egypt,” said Karim.

  “I don’t usually mind the rain,” replied Freya, “when I’m properly dressed for it.” She wasn’t, having gone out in the much warmer, drier morning to get to school. It had been a long day out already.

  Aisha gave an exaggerated sigh.

  “It’s just typical that it would rain when there’s a chance of something interesting happening in this town. Freya, if you go in and your Mum’s home, will she make you stay in?”

  “Very likely. Especially since it’s dark and raining. She’d say this is plant-growing weather, not people-growing weather.”

  “Drat. Well, I want to go see what those lights are. Do you want to come?”

  “Er... can I say no? I know it was my idea...” hesitated Freya. She rubbed her leg through her trousers. Although she was curious about the light on the cliff, the old bites on her leg were hurting after the walk up the hill, and probably needed a change of dressing.

  “Why would you do that?”

  “It’s just my leg. I
t’s a bit sore.”

  “You can say no, but that would be super-boring. And I’d miss your company. So would Karim, isn’t that right, Karim?” Aisha bossed.

  “Sure, but who said I was going anywhere but home? You’re assuming a lot, little sis,” Karim replied, refusing to be bossed, or to be drawn about missing Freya’s company.

  Freya intervened before a sibling squabble could break out.

  “Look, I’ll take the food in. If Mum’s there, I’ll stay in. If she’s not, I’ll come out with you, but only to stop you going up there by yourself. You know that’s not sensible, no matter how powerful Bastet is.”

  Aisha accepted this compromise as though it was a heartfelt acceptance.

  “All right, we’re on for adventure!”

  When Freya glared at her, she relented a little.

  “Yes, yes, I know, you’re only coming if your Mum isn’t there. But you’ve had interesting times, lately. I’ve just had second-hand storm stories. The only excitement we had was a lack of trains through the station for a few days while that mudslide was cleared off the tracks. And believe me, that’s the dead opposite of excitement. Anyway, I am ready for something interesting happening in my life. You got were-fights and lightning and mysterious strangers, and I got distant views of mud. So not fair.”

  “You’re welcome to some of my awful luck, if you don’t mind assault. I wouldn’t recommend it, myself. But I guess I was lucky with the lightning,” Freya said somewhat wryly. Somehow, Lio had always felt like a secret friend.

  “Excuse me, ladies,” interrupted Karim, “but are we going to stand out here in the rain all night, or is Freya going to deliver her mum’s dinner?”

  Freya hastened to unlock the door – that probably meant her Mum was not at home, but it wasn’t a total assurance, since Danae had started locking it while she was in sometimes, after the were-attack on Freya. Mr Fluffbum threw himself at Freya’s legs, twining around her.

  “Yes, yes, Mr Fluffbum, I’m happy to see you too. I got you some food.” Freya turned to her companions. “Come in for a moment,” she told Aisha and Karim. The siblings followed her suggestion, only too glad to get out of the cold drizzle for a time. Karim bent to greet Mr Fluffbum, who sniffed Karim’s hand with a series of huffs, before giving it a long smooch. Aisha patted Mr Fluffbum’s back, confident in her welcome as an already known friend.