Storm Singing and other Tangled Tasks

by Lari Don

  Chapter 21

  “It’s my fault! I sang up the weather,” sobbed Rona.

  “No, it’s my fault! I wouldn’t listen to them, so they kept following me,” Helen sniffed.

  Helen and Rona were sitting beside each other, looking at the feather on Helen’s lap, tears running down their cheeks.

  “It’s not anyone’s fault!” yelled Yann. “Or even if it is, sitting here crying about it won’t help. We have to get out there and find them.” Yann hustled the girls out of the tent into the evening sunshine.

  Aunt Sheila, who hadn’t looked Helen in the eye since they got back, had used her influence as a selkie elder to organise search parties of mermaids and blue loons out at sea, and selkies in human form along the shoreline.

  Yann watched the sea tribes searching for his missing friends. “They know the shore better than Helen and I do. We should leave them to it.”

  “So what can we do?” asked Helen, trying not to use her hankie when Yann was looking.

  “We can think about what they would have done if the storm did catch them.”

  “Catesby was protecting Lavender from the seabirds and the wind,” said Helen. “He would have kept her safe, unless the winds separated them.”

  “The winds which I sang up!” Rona started wailing again until she saw Yann’s face. “Sorry. I’ll concentrate.”

  “So would Lavender cling to Catesby’s feathers, or would he use his beak to grab her clothes?” Yann asked. “How would that affect their aerodynamics and flight pattern?”

  “I have no idea,” said Helen. “They were sticking close to the cliffs, so if the winds were blowing away from Rona, they might have been carried inland rather than out to sea.”

  Rona sighed. “The air was swirling all over the place, especially when I was trying to sink those orange canoes. It’s just as likely that they were blown out to sea … oh dear … Lavender hates getting wet!”

  “Lavender just whinges about her clothes,” said Yann. “She’s really very tough. She’ll be fine.”

  Yann was interrupted by a clanging from Sheila’s house.

  “Does that mean the searchers have found them?” asked Helen.

  “No. It’s a warning bell. The Scouts must be coming back,” gasped Rona. “The searchers have to get out of sight. We’ll never find them now!”

  Yann ducked back into his tall tent, as the selkies in the distance slipped into their sealskins, and the mermaids and blue loons swam further out to sea. Helen and Rona watched three minibuses drive up.

  “Will they recognise us?” Helen whispered.

  “Of course. They saw us yesterday when we said we’d a burst pipe.”

  “No, I mean will they recognise us as the people who rescued them?”

  “I doubt it,” said Rona. “They were confused and their eyes were full of water.”

  They stood to one side, as the sodden Scouts clambered out of the minibuses. Helen saw several of them give Rona funny looks, and Emily started to walk towards them. Helen smiled calmly, as if nothing strange had been happening, so the Scout shook her head and went into her tent instead.

  After a few minutes of milling around, the campsite was quiet again. All the Scouts were in their tents getting dry clothes, or in the toilet block having hot showers.

  Then Helen heard a tiny sneeze, from the direction of the parked minibuses. She sprinted over. Where had that sneeze come from? She looked in the nearest door. The seats were all empty.

  There was another sneeze from above her. She banged her head on the doorframe as she leapt back and looked up.

  There, clinging to the roofrack, soaking wet and miserable, were Lavender and Catesby.

  Lavender was so wet her dress was indigo. Catesby was a bony muddy brown.

  Helen reached up and her friends fell into her arms.

  She ran towards Yann’s tent and stumbled in, followed by Rona.

  “They’re here, they’re alive! And they’re freezing! Hand me a towel, or that horse blanket if it’s all you’ve got.”

  For a few moments no one spoke, as they carefully dried Lavender and Catesby. Then they started asking questions:

  “Why were you on the minibus roof?”

  “We were too tired to fly, so we hitched a lift from the beach, but that’s not the important thing …”

  “Were you blown out to sea?”

  “Yes, but that’s not what we have to tell you …”

  “How did you get back to shore?”

  “We used every bit of energy we had, so don’t make us shout. Shut up and listen!”

  Helen, Rona and Yann stopped asking questions, and Lavender, who hadn’t complained once about her ruined dress, started to talk.

  “We know why the sea-through has been attacking selkies. It wants to manipulate the Sea Herald contest to make its own favourite win! When we were blown over the water, we saw a massive colony of sea-throughs just under the surface, all joined together. That’s a bloom, isn’t it, Rona?”

  “Yes,” the selkie said faintly, her head in her hands.

  “But it wasn’t lots of individual sea-throughs in a shoal or a flock. They were linked together like one animal: all their tentacles on the outside, all their stomachs making one big pink intestine in the middle.”

  Catesby made a retching noise, and Lavender nodded. “It was pretty yucky, even though pink and purple usually go well together. When we were hovering above the bloom, trying to get our bearings, the big sea-through which attacked you swam back. We heard what it said, just before it sank itself into the bloom.

  “It said, ‘I hindered one to help another. Soon we will control the Sea Herald, then we will glory in a true equinox battle, and the sea will take back what belongs to the sea.’ It chanted that last part, and the others in the bloom joined in. Then it squidged into the bloom, and the whole thing sank below the surface.

  “So there’s not just one sea-through, there’s a huge slimy lump of them, and they’re trying to control the contest, the herald and the ritual battle. Which is all very important, and helps explain what Helen and I heard on the beach last night, and we do need to talk about it, but could I put a dry dress on first?”

  Lavender made herself a little changing room of darkness in the corner, as Helen quickly updated the two newcomers on how the sea-through had interfered with the second task, and how Tangaroa had won this round.

  Rona wasn’t really listening. She just shook her head. “A bloom. There hasn’t been a bloom here for centuries. Blooms are obsessed with returning sea-grown or sea-drowned objects to the sea. If this bloom can turn the ritual fight into a true battle, that would certainly get some of the sea’s possessions back.”

  “How?” asked Helen.

  “A real battle between Merras and Thalas would produce waves and surges so high that water would flood at least a mile inland, dragging everything back out to sea, whether it used to belong to the sea or not. The battle storm would also drown animals and people, flood caves, and, if our legends are true, crack cliffs, smash boulders into mountains, eat away at beaches and change the shape of the coast. That’s why the Sea Heralds were created, to stop the real battles, to prevent destruction of the coast.”

  They all sat quietly, listening to the gentle murmur of the sea outside. Then Helen asked, “Should we tell your family?”

  “Of course we should. The tribes can search for the bloom at sea, and the judges can watch out for the sea-through at the task tomorrow.”

  “Let’s not tell them yet,” said Lavender, emerging from her little shadow in a tidy blue dress. “We might need the judges off guard rather than on guard tomorrow. Let’s think about this. Let’s fit it together with what we overheard last night, which we haven’t had a minute to discuss with Rona.”

  So Helen and Lavender explained how they’d followed the sea-through and what they’d heard on the beach.

  “Who do you think the selkie was, Rona?” Lavender asked eagerly. “What do you think their failed
plan was, and what do you think they’re planning to do next?”

  Rona looked overwhelmed by Lavender’s questions. “Is one of my tribe a traitor? Working with the sea-through to destroy the coast? I can’t believe that …”

  “Whoever the selkie was,” said Helen, “he wanted a crown. Rona, does that sound familiar?”

  “That must be the lost crown of the selkies!” whispered Rona. “We’ve not had a king for generations. Each colony governs itself now, and the crown has been hidden, so no one is tempted to rule all the selkies at once. But there’s one family on Eilan nan MacCodrum which traces its line back to the ancient kings, one selkie family who love to boast about their royal blood. I wonder … Surely not …” She drifted off into silence.

  Helen said suddenly, “Roxburgh sang about his royal ancestors at the Storm Singing competition yesterday. Is that who you mean, Rona?”

  She nodded sadly. “On his father’s side, Roxy’s family claim direct descent from the selkie kings.”

  Catesby squawked a question.

  Lavender answered, “No, it wasn’t Roxburgh meeting the sea-through last night. It was a fully grown selkie.”

  Helen remembered the moment when she thought she’d recognised the voice. The selkie on the beach blustering: But, but, but …

  “Sinclair!” she blurted out. “It was Sinclair! He sounded just like that on the clifftop, when Strathy insisted Rona was still the winner.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” said Rona. “The sea-through attacked Roxburgh and tried to stop him winning, so why would Sinclair work with the sea-through?”

  Yann shook his head. “Perhaps the sea-through wasn’t attacking Roxburgh to stop him winning. You even said, Helen, that Roxburgh impressed the audience by singing brilliantly despite the distraction, so if Rona hadn’t actually sung up a storm, Roxburgh would have won. Perhaps the sea-through wasn’t sabotaging him. Perhaps the sea-through was helping him. Perhaps it was making him look like a true Storm Singer, by singing through an attack, just like Strathy said.”

  Lavender whirled round with excitement. “Yes! Maybe that’s the plan which failed yesterday! Maybe the sea-through wanted Roxburgh to become Storm Singer, so he would be the selkie participant in the Sea Herald contest, then win that too. That’s why the sea-through doesn’t think Sinclair can help any more, because Roxburgh can’t become Sea Herald.”

  Yann nodded. “We should talk to Roxburgh. Find out if he did expect that attack, if that’s why he was able to sing through it. And ask what the sea-through wanted him to do if he won.”

  “What if he won’t answer?” Helen asked.

  Yann lifted his hoof, and stamped it down. “I’m looking for a fight I can win today. I’ll make sure he answers.”

  Chapter 22

  Helen sighed. “Do I have to row along the coast again, hunting for Roxburgh?”

  Rona shook her head. “We can walk to Roxy’s favourite hangout. He’ll be on the pebble beach, with the selkie boys from other colonies here to watch the contest.”

  Yann said, “We need to speak to him privately, so we’d better get the search for Lavender and Catesby called off.”

  Lavender nodded. “Catesby, please fly to Sheila’s, and say we’re both safe, but don’t mention the bloom. Not yet. We need to hear Roxburgh’s story before we decide who to trust.”

  So Catesby flew towards the house, as the others walked round to the shore. At the beach, they found a group of teenage selkies skimming stones, so Helen, Rona and Lavender headed towards the boys.

  “Roxburgh,” shouted Rona. “Can we have a word?”

  “Oooh!” called his mates. “The ladies want a word, Roxy!”

  Roxburgh blushed, and his mates pushed him forward, then dived into the water and swam offshore, sniggering.

  Helen pointed the way round a large boulder.

  Where Roxburgh walked right into Yann.

  Roxburgh immediately backed off. But Helen and Rona blocked his way, and Lavender pointed her wand at him.

  “Don’t rush off, Roxburgh,” said Yann. “We have a few questions. Why did the sea-through try to help you win the Storm Singer competition?”

  “It didn’t! It was trying to ruin my song!”

  “No, it wasn’t,” Helen said. “You were waiting for it to attack. I could hear you saving your voice’s strength, to sing at your best once it attacked, to impress the audience.”

  Roxburgh shook his head.

  Lavender said, “There’s no point denying it. We heard your dad here last night, bargaining with the sea-through for the crown.”

  Roxburgh went pale, but still didn’t say anything.

  Yann stepped closer to the selkie. “If you’d rather answer these questions in front of Strathy and the other elders, we’re happy to arrange that.”

  Roxburgh looked around frantically.

  Yann said calmly, “The elders aren’t here. Your father’s not here either. You have to make this decision yourself. Tell us about the sea-through.”

  Roxburgh put his head in his hands and mumbled, “You’re right. I was expecting the attack. The sea-through and my father had a deal to make me Storm Singer, then Sea Herald. My father didn’t think I could beat Rona without help, so the sea-through offered a way for me to look brave as well as sound good, so they’d all vote for me. And if I needed help to win the Sea Herald contest I would get that too. Once I was herald, all I had to do was deliver a message written by the sea-through, rather than the message written by Thalas, and the sea-through would give my father what he’s always wanted.”

  “The crown?” asked Helen.

  He nodded. “My father has always wanted to be king. The sea-through said the collective memory of the bloom could find the lost selkie crown, and father could use the crown to rule all selkies, if I would deliver their message.

  “I did want to be Storm Singer, and I do want my father to be king because then I’d be king next, and father never gives me a choice anyway, so I agreed. But now I haven’t won, I’m glad the plan failed. It would be pretty scary delivering the wrong message to Merras!”

  “Who does the sea-through want to win now?” asked Lavender.

  “Anyone who’s desperate for something the bloom can provide, I suppose.” He turned to Rona. “But it doesn’t want you, I do know that, so it would be safer for you to give up now …” Then he shivered, and looked up at Yann. “Are you going to tell anyone?”

  “Not now. Later, once we’ve worked out what’s going on, you might need to tell the elders this story. Once they know, Roxburgh, you’ll not have to worry about your father bossing you around any more.”

  The selkie boy looked both shocked and relieved. Suddenly Catesby swooped overhead, squawking softly.

  Yann nodded to Roxburgh. “Thanks. If you think of anything else we need to know to get the sea-through and your father off your back, please tell us.”

  “I’m not on your side!”

  Rona moved to let him past. “Once you know what the bloom wants to do, Roxburgh, you will be on our side.”

  When they were back in the tent, Yann muttered to Rona, “You’re a lot braver than that little water rat …”

  Lavender spoke over him, asking Catesby urgently, “Did you say the elders and judges are meeting in Sheila’s kitchen?”

  The phoenix nodded.

  “Let’s go and tell them right now,” said Rona.

  “Not yet,” said Lavender. “We need to think this through. We know the sea-through is trying to fix the result of the Sea Herald contest, but now that Roxburgh can’t win, who is the sea-through helping?”

  Lavender started to answer her own question, hovering in the centre of the tent, counting facts on her fingers. “We know it doesn’t want Rona to win. That’s why it held her out of the tidal race, and probably why it tried to drown Helen, because if she’d drowned, you’d have been too upset to compete, wouldn’t you?” Rona nodded, and squeezed Helen’s hand.

  “So does it want the blu
e loon to win?” Yann asked. “Is Tangaroa a traitor, like Sinclair?”

  “He could be, but so could Serena,” said Lavender.

  “The sea-through hasn’t helped her,” Helen objected.

  “It could have done. Today, at the beach, by holding up Rona’s canoes, it ensured Rona would lose, which could just as easily have helped Serena win as Tangaroa.”

  “Maybe it doesn’t mind which of them wins,” said Helen. “Roxburgh said it could be anyone who wants something the bloom can find. The others both want to be Sea Herald to get something else: directions home, or lifting the curse. If the bloom has a long memory, it might be able to help either of them.”

  Lavender nodded vigorously. “So the sea-through doesn’t mind whether Tangaroa or Serena wins, because it can bribe either of them. Therefore we have to make sure neither of them wins. We have to make sure Rona wins. Because what’s the thing you’ve always wanted most in the world?”

  “To be Storm Singer.”

  “You already have that. So you’re the only contestant the bloom can’t bribe. Which means you have to win, so the bloom can’t control the herald or the battle, so the coastline will be safe.”

  “How can we make sure she wins?” asked Helen.

  Lavender turned to Rona. “Tell us exactly what you have to do tomorrow.”

  “This last task is the quest to find the herald’s holder. There are three holders in three different places, one for each contestant. Each quest starts with a riddle, which gives the location of a map. But the map has a guardian, who will fight to defend it. The contestant has to defeat the guardian, then follow the map to the holder. The first contestant to bring their holder home wins.”

  “How do you think you’ll do?” asked Lavender. “And how will the other contestants do?”

  “I might not solve a riddle as quickly as the verse-covered blue loon, but I’m sure I’ll get it fairly fast. I’ll be faster than the others at map reading and the race back, because Tangaroa prefers word trails to drawn maps, and Serena’s tail injury will slow her down.