by Joni Sensel
After they ate, Dain showed her and Zeke where she slept. A gap in the stones let in a tendril of wind that, at Dain's coaxing, would spin their lamp flame in an unearthly dance.
Before long, Scarl drew aside the sail that served as Dain's door. "We've used enough of Cassalie's lamp oil tonight," he said. "But there's a mountain of furs in her pantry for you, Zeke, and your blanket's there, too. You'll be as snug as a mouse in a pocket."
Zeke bid the girls sweet dreams and slipped out as Ariel accepted her own blanket from Scarl. She and Dain snuggled in side by side.
"All set? Then sleep well." Scarl turned to leave.
Ariel could not let him go, not just yet. Not knowing he was going back to Cassalie. "Wait. Scarl?"
She winced, but he turned back without a hint of impatience.
"Yes?"
Ariel stammered, too aware of Dain there to hear her. And what did she want to say, anyhow? I won't peek at you and Cassalie tonight? I'm happy for you, so why do I feel scared? Are you sure there's space in your heart for us both?
Don't leave me?
"Good night," she managed.
He bent and his hand brushed her hair. "Good night, dear one." After blowing out their lamp, he let the drape close.
"Ariel," whispered Dain, "is your heartthrob Zeke?"
"What?" With her emotions bare, Ariel didn't think before she answered. "I don't think so. I mean... No. I have a heartthrob at home. Nace."
"Say true? What's he like?"
The more Ariel described, the more she missed him. She made herself stop. "Don't mention Nace around Zeke, though, all right?"
"'Cause you're Zeke's heartthrob, huh?" A nod rustled. "Aye, I can tell."
They fell silent. Though the furs made the softest bed she'd ever had, Ariel lay tense, staring into the dark. Pangs for Zeke wracked her heart. It was true that her feelings might have been different if she'd never met Nace... or if illness took him as it'd taken a sweetheart from Scarl.
Appalled, Ariel twisted away from such thoughts. How could she even think them? Terrible things could occur without warning; what if such thoughts made them happen? Losing one love could not increase another. It would only crush half the love out of her heart. The mere idea of Nace harmed made her skin prickle.
Surf swished in the cove without soothing her. The darkness in the house felt too quiet. Restless, Ariel kicked at the furs on her legs.
"Want a lullaby?" Dain whispered.
"Please."
Dain whistled softly. The wind played in its crack in the wall, rising and falling like music. The song swaddled Ariel's troubling thoughts and floated her off into sleep.
Unlike the music, her dreams were unpleasant. She found herself again in the cramped tunnel she'd escaped that afternoon. No sea flooded it, and the exit was near, but some threat waited beyond the arch. A shadow fell over the light there, and fear kept her huddling in the dark.
At last, thinking the danger had gone, she crawled forward. The first thing she saw was the end of a staff. Beside it rose legs that were casting the shadow. Ariel rushed forward, Scarl's name on her lips.
As she rounded the corner, her mistake became clear. A Finder awaited just outside the tunnel, but it wasn't Scarl. Elbert, back from the dead, had collected her staff with his knife still attached. His hand reached to grab her. This time, it took hold. Fingers clenching her hair, he dragged her into the sea.
Ariel started awake, gasping and unsure of where she was in the dark. Struggling to sit up, she recognized the soft weight of the furs warming her. The banging of her heart only gradually easing, she settled closer to Dain, who hadn't stirred. The other girl's steady breathing gave Ariel comfort. Still, she didn't sleep much more that night.
Chapter 18
In the daylight, Ariel could evade the grasping hand from her nightmares. Whether it was Dain's doing or not, they enjoyed some fine weather, and Ariel often napped to the surf's soothing beat. When she wasn't dozing, she dived or taught Dain to ride Willow, though they never went far. Sometimes she mounted the horse by herself, going nowhere but thinking of Nace.
Cassalie and Scarl became inseparable. He brushed her hair in the mornings before she plaited it up. She raised creatures from the seabed to show him their beauty before taking them back down below. Together they did chores for the old 'uns. With help from Cassalie's delicate fingers, they even managed to get Scarl's timepiece to work, although not correctly, since the hands counted backward. Laughter filled the house, and he relaxed in a way Ariel had seen only once, in the wood cabin where she'd met his first love.
Dain and Zeke, too, were nearly constant companions, making up riddles and visiting Dain's singing rock whether Ariel joined them or not. Twice she caught Zeke studying Dain from afar, but when she asked him about it, he blustered about trying to remember a riddle.
She'd heard enough of those lately to last her whole life, but even she was intrigued when, several mornings after their first in the cove, Dain said, "Ho! The Riddlestone! I should show you today!"
After checking the tide, Dain led her and Zeke toward the point and into a narrow fissure called The Devil's Staircase. Slippery steps twisted down into the rock.
Zeke trailed his hands on the barnacled walls. "These stones are surprised to have people between them. They're more used to fish."
"It floods at high tide," Dain explained.
Zeke looked up fast.
"Don't worry," Dain added. "There's no roof. We'd float out."
They reached the end of the passage, a sheer-sided cup carved smooth by waves. A fallen slab rested alone in the center. Creases wrinkled its surface, and a corroded metal ring was affixed near its base.
Zeke halted so abruptly that Ariel bumped into his back. He said, "I don't want to get closer."
Dain turned, her eyes glowing. "You're probably the only strangers to ever see the Riddlestone without wearing chains."
Ariel eyed the thick ring. "Did they chain people here to drown in the tide?"
"Something like that." Grimacing, Zeke closed his eyes, the better to listen.
"In the old days, heaps of smugglers were wreckers," Dain explained. "They lit fires on the point to lure boats to the rocks. When the ships wrecked, they'd steal the cargo."
"That's awful!" Ariel said. "What about the poor sailors?"
"Any crew that washed up, the wreckers brought here." Dain gestured to the ring. "They gave 'em a chance, though. They gave 'em this riddle. The sailors who figured the answer could live. The sailors who didn't..." Her fingers traced the stone's creases, which looked to Ariel like trickling tears.
"Don't touch it!" Grabbing Dain's hand, Zeke pulled her away. "This stone has grown too used to evil. It likes feeling blood in those cracks. Human blood."
Ariel's mouth dried.
"You really can hear stones, can't you?" Dain marveled. "How else would you know?"
Zeke didn't bother to answer.
At the same instant, they all noticed he was still holding Dain's hand. Dain gave their linked fingers the same mystified gaze she might have turned on a talking bird. Zeke met Ariel's eyes and yanked his hand loose as if burned.
"Let's go." Blushing, he spun back the way they'd come.
"You haven't heard the riddle yet," Dain said.
"Tell us on the way. Your Riddlestone gives me the--" Zeke stopped.
Ariel followed his gaze. Her walking stick lay at the base of the wall, tangled in seaweed. Although the leather wraps on it had swollen and slipped, they still held Elbert's knife.
"--creeps." Zeke hurried past the staff. "Come on."
Ariel glanced quickly in every direction. She half expected a dead Finder to appear, reaching for her. None did, of course. Gulls cried and distant waves sloshed as usual. Apparently the staff had floated here on the tide.
Ariel couldn't walk past it. She nudged it with her foot and then picked it up, pulling away green and brown slime. The grip Nace had smoothed for her was salt-roughened and battered, and
the staff's tip had busted. The knife, when she wiggled it, fell into her hand. Rust--at least, she hoped it was rust--dulled the blade.
"I wonder if the Riddlestone called it," Dain said. "My ma used to say 'One wickedness draws another.' Want to tie it here so it can't float out again?"
"No." Leaving the blade with a stone that liked blood seemed like feeding evil. Ariel didn't want it, but the sea had spit it back out. She wondered if it had turned up for a reason. Even if she could ignore her nightmares, it was hard not to think the knife had tried to delay her on that day in the tunnel. It seemed safer to keep a watch on the knife until she could destroy it completely.
Scarl might be right about using fire. She'd build a bonfire on the slip at low tide so the waves could bear away the warped metal and ashes. Waterlogged now, the knife might resist flame, but she had an idea how to make it burn anyway.
Flinging away the ruined staff, Ariel gripped the knife's hilt and hurried after Zeke.
They emerged from the staircase back onto the shore, where a breeze bathed their faces. Zeke scowled at Ariel's burden but said, "What's the riddle, then, Dain? I hope it's good, if people's lives depended on it."
Dain perched on a rock and wrapped her arms around her knees. "No fair asking the stones for the answer. You ready?"
When they nodded, she recited:
"Black snakes are poison, but so is the red.
Get bit by the wrong one, and you'll end up dead.
Black snakes are poison, but red's poison, too.
And you've got a red snake a'troubling you.
"No snake-hawk or weapon can fight it --
To kill a red snake, you must bite it.
So quick, now, with courage and speed,
If you want to live, a red snake must bleed."
"Hmm." The sparkle returned to Zeke's eyes. "Snakes, huh?"
"I've never heard of a red snake," Ariel said. "And I sure wouldn't bite one, unless it was already dead and roasted!"
Dain turned a self-satisfied grin to the sky. "Tell me if you need to hear it again. Can't have no hints, though. I've given plenty of those."
Ariel pondered the riddle for maybe two minutes, but her mind had moved on by the time they arrived back at Cassalie's.
Scarl was unhappy to see Elbert's knife. "We can find you another staff, if you want, but you should have walked away from that blade." He insisted she shut it up in the boathouse.
She agreed, but before taking it there, she climbed to the spot on the hillside where he'd chipped out the brimstone. With a few pieces, she could make sure the knife burned.
She pounded the black stone with the knife and a rock. With each strike, the blade shivered, speaking both to her ears and her hand. Cassalie had been right about this being hard work, and Ariel worried she might break the blade.
Resting, she rubbed her cheek, aware her concern was silly. Yet reviled or not, the longer she'd carried the blade, the more it had become not just Elbert's, but hers. Perhaps that was the real reason she hadn't left the knife with her staff. Turning her back on it, letting it go, seemed to deny not just Elbert but her own past and a part of herself. Though not nice, that part felt like something she needed--something that might keep her nightmares at bay. Defiance and survival, that's what Elbert's knife stood for, and she wanted to carry both into her future.
Maybe by burning them out of the blade she could keep their fire, like her memories, warm in her heart.
She managed to break loose three small chunks of brimstone. That should be enough.
Climbing down to the boathouse, she left the knife and the brimstones inside until the evening's low tide. She promised herself the blade would die then.
She stepped toward the door. A clinking sound made her turn. The blade and the brimstones, which rested on a mound of sailcloth, rolled and tumbled together. For an instant, she thought the blade was moving by itself--
No! It wasn't the knife. Like a rat trapped in bedclothes, something was shoving at the sailcloth from beneath. The stones and knife slid away, scattering, as the sailcloth bulged and rose where they'd been.
Ariel leapt backward, sure maggots were squirming from the earth toward the knife--or, more likely, an immense knot of flies. As the lump grew taller, however, like a sail-shrouded corpse, another possibility struck: Elbert was rising from the bowels of the earth to grab her.
Chapter 19
Her throat too tight to scream, Ariel lunged for the knife. The shape hidden under the sail beat against it. Dodging, Ariel gripped the hilt with both hands. She'd stab Elbert with his own blade before he got clear of the sail. She'd have to strike hard. But she trembled. He was already dead--what if it didn't work?
The figure rose past her waist. Now or never! She drew back the blade for a thrust.
"Mudbellies! Where's the luff edge?"
Ariel's legs wilted. "Dain!" She sank to the floor.
"Ariel?" With a last effort, the lump under the sail flung it sideways and off. Dain stepped over the folds. "What are you doing here? I thought I saw you on the hill."
Ariel's breath wouldn't come. Seeing Elbert's knife in her hand, she flung it away. "I almost stabbed you!"
Dain tipped her head. "You hated my Riddlestone riddle that much?"
Powered by anger, Ariel bolted back to her feet. "Why'd you sneak up like that?"
"Sneak? I didn't even know you were out here," Dain said. "I hide here from chores I don't want to do. I just didn't expect sail to be fouling the hatch."
Ariel scowled at the floor. The sail had masked a narrow, wooden trap door, shifted now to the side to reveal a hole. "It goes into the house?"
"Just behind it," Dain said. "Next to the cistern. Or out to the point. Or around to the--"
"Never mind." Ariel stared at her hands. Rust smeared her skin. She imagined it blood.
Dain gazed at the knife, which lay where she'd thrown it. "That thing's eating you, huh? Want to drop it down here?"
Ariel looked at the tunnel. "I don't want the tide to take it. Will it stay there?"
"Unless it can walk by itself. This tunnel's dry, if you don't count the drip from the cistern." Dain kicked the knife down the hole and covered the opening with both the wood door and the sail. "There." She picked up the brimstones and set them on top.
Ariel thanked her. "What's the chore you were dodging? I'll do it for you."
"Killing the brown crabs Cass brought up for lunch. Scarl's probably done it by now."
As they walked to the house, Ariel patted Dain, relieved her new friend was alive. Her nightmares now might include running the smaller girl through. Maybe she even deserved dreams like that. She needed to think more about those around her and dwell less on the past.
Yet the past kept intruding. During lunch, Zeke cried, "I've got it!"
"Got what?" Scarl asked.
When Zeke explained, Scarl wanted to hear the Riddlestone's riddle. Dain obliged, also sharing the story behind it.
Scarl pondered a moment before nodding. "Solve it, Zeke."
"The red snake is the shipwrecked sailor's tongue," Zeke declared. "If he didn't bite it and keep quiet about the wreckers, they'd leave him there to drown."
"Aw," Dain said, "I thought it would take you longer! But they only drowned the ones who couldn't solve the riddle. The smart ones had to let 'em cut their tongues on the stone."
"I can't believe you're telling those stories, Dain! Awful." Cassalie rose to take empty bowls. "The wreckers were generations ago. Do you think we're all wild and beastly now, Scarl?"
"I thought you were wild before." He smiled. "Now I might say you were...." He couldn't find the jest he wanted, and the attempt sobered him.
Cassalie laughed. "Come, then! What? Fiendish? Bloodthirsty, mayhap?" She slid her hands onto his shoulders from behind. "If I sneak up too close, do you imagine a blade at your throat? Maybe a stab in the back?"
Scarl's gaze fell away, but he lifted one hand to trace over her fingers. Watching his face, Ariel w
anted to warn Cassalie to stop. She didn't know how.
"Tell me true, Scarl," Cass pressed. "A wrecker can take an insult. Do we seem dangerous?"
"Very." Scarl stood and pulled away.
Cassalie's cheer dimmed. She reached after him. "I was only playing."
"I know." He managed a smile and made a show of feeding the fire, but Ariel, at least, was not fooled.
"Perhaps it's my tongue that needs cutting," Cass murmured. "It runs away sometimes."
"Don't say so." Scarl returned to her for an awkward embrace. "I'm ill-tempered, that's all. Ask Ariel. She'll tell you."
"It's true," she confirmed, but she wondered what was weighing on Scarl. Perhaps he was remembering blood he'd spilled himself. Ariel would be the first to defend him, but she understood why he might not bring it up with Cassalie, and she couldn't guess what else might have shadowed his heart.
When they went back outside, Zeke taught Dain to skip rocks--or he tried, but the wind kept snatching Dain's stones. Soon she was sharing her tricks with Zeke. Growing bored, Ariel wandered to the steep meadow where Willow was hobbled. Her excuse was to make sure the horse was all right, but she mostly wanted to pet him. The animal's calm warmth made her feel closer to Nace.
She was surprised to find Scarl there before her. She thought he'd been helping Cassalie dry fish. Instead he stood at Willow's side, absently scratching beneath the horse's long mane. His other hand gripped his own neck as he stared at the clouds hovering beyond the cove.
He jumped when Ariel greeted him.
"Is Willow all right?" she asked. Scarl's posture was tense.
Scarl patted the horse. "Yes. Getting fat on spring grass. Why aren't you with Zeke and Dain?"
Ariel shrugged and stroked Willow's shoulder. The horse nipped grass and chewed in the silence.
"Missing Nace?" Scarl asked finally.
"Yes. But I'm sure he's all right. Scarl, is something wrong?"
He exhaled and looked away. "Not wrong enough."
She waited, resisting the urge to say, ''Want to tell me?" as he would in her place.
"I know I suggested we stay a few weeks," he said at last, without meeting her gaze. "But we need to go soon, Ariel. While I can still bear to leave. And before I do any more damage."