Daughter of the Storm

by Tina Callaghan

  He gave Becky another kiss.

  ‘Make the tea, there’s a good woman. I’m going out to do manly stuff.’ He flexed his muscles, earned from being on fishing boats from his teens. It always made her laugh, but this time she only had a ghost of a smile for him. It was better than nothing and would do for the moment. At least she had started talking. Later on, when they were cuddled up under a blanket on the sofa, she might feel ready to tell him more.

  He smiled back. ‘Love you, babe.’

  ‘Love you too, Matt.’

  He went outside, whistling a bit. Things weren’t right but she was talking and loved him still, so it’d be OK. He had bought a few new DVDs for the portable player and the big generator would keep the lights on if the storm knocked the island out. He got finished quickly, stocking up on too much firewood and coal, just in case. Everything loose was in the garage and the windows were protected by storm shutters. They were ready.

  He turned for a last look, and saw a fishing boat way out, making for the main port across on the mainland. She was already diving into deep troughs and climbing steep waves on the other side. He said a quiet prayer for her and her crew that they would make landfall before the real storm hit. It was growing dark even though it was only around midday.

  He checked his watch. The 31st of October. He had always loved the season as a child on the mainland. There, it was fun to dress up in a scary costume and go with a gang of his friends from house to house, collecting sweets and chocolate and nuts, to compare and swap afterwards, before heading home for family games and his mother’s toffee apples. It wasn’t such a big deal on the island. No one made a fuss about it. The pub didn’t decorate with fake cobwebs and spiders, or skeletons or even pumpkins. It hadn’t bothered him before that there weren’t any children on the island to go trick or treating. Somehow, it hadn’t bothered him before that there no children on the island. That girl, Harry’s niece, was here now but between her and the baby, there was no one. He was away at sea a lot, but he and Becky had been so wrapped up in each other, sorting out the house and preparing for the baby, that he hadn’t quite noticed. Becky hadn’t wanted to live on the mainland and he loved the sea, so it didn’t matter to him where they were. But, as he stood looking at the darkening afternoon, he couldn’t have told a stranger why they were living here. Why anyone was living here.

  A deep sense of unease made his skin goose-bump under his heavy sweater. The wind tugged at him. He had been alone on deck in cold seas, with nothing but the crystal sky and the dark ocean for company, and even then he hadn’t felt as lonely as he suddenly did now.

  The world was a boat-ride away, but with the storm it might as well have been on the moon. People would have left on the ferry. Those who stayed were about to become some of the most isolated people on the planet.

  ‘No more,’ he said, under his breath.

  Now that the baby had arrived, he wanted to get off the island. It was beautiful here for a lot of the year, but this storm was bringing the winter and it was not for the vulnerable. He swore softly, wishing he had carried his wife and son onto the ferry, even kicking and screaming, with his mother-in-law over his shoulder. It was too late to get them onto a smaller boat now. Too late for a lot of things. He turned his back on the premature darkness and went back into the house that he suddenly didn’t want anymore.

  ‘I need help battening down the hatches for the storm,’ said Harry. ‘Ed?’

  ‘No problem. Can we do the farm after if there’s time? I know it’s empty, but I don’t want the windows blowing in.’

  ‘Sure. If there’s time.’

  Lia watched their grim faces as they got ready for going out. The lights were on in the kitchen and no one was in the bar. She stood up.

  ‘Hey, what about me? I want to help.’

  Both men looked at her with practically the same expression. She felt a flash of anger. ‘Or don’t you think I can help because I’m a girl?’

  ‘It’s not that, Lia,’ Harry said.

  He and Ed shared a look.

  ‘I’d rather if you didn’t go out at all, Lia,’ Ed said apologetically. ‘That thing … the girl could still be out there.’

  ‘You’re going out,’ she said.

  ‘Yeah, but …’ Ed said.

  ‘But you’re big strong men and I’m only a little woman that you have to protect?’

  ‘Well …’ Ed was getting red.

  She cocked one eyebrow at him.

  Harry handed her a heavy jacket. ‘No point in arguing, Ed. It’s not dark yet anyway. Lia, collect up all the plant pots and leave them in the back hall. They’ll be in France tomorrow if we don’t bring them in.’

  He walked out of the room and Ed, turning to go with him, made a rueful face at her. ‘Sorry.’

  She shooed him out and followed them out into the strange dark afternoon, her first Halloween in Ireland. No pumpkins or trick or treating, but a dark Celtic turning from summer into winter. Samhain. Her father had explained it to her. The time of the year when the veil between this world and the otherworld was at its thinnest. On this night, the beloved dead were to be welcomed into the home, and the evil were to be guarded against. That girl who had attacked Rose and followed Ed was beautiful, more beautiful than anything Lia had ever seen, but she had no doubts that she was also the most evil thing she had ever seen. She moved too fast, she had hurt Rose so badly, and she was so strange. Instead of being unnatural, Lia thought she was probably of nature, but nature red in tooth and claw. She was like nothing so much as a predatory bird, curious, sharp, vicious, uncaring.

  The light was odd, a bruised blue and yellow around the pub. Out to sea, the sky was black. Lia shivered and quickly started moving plants indoors, as Ed and Harry secured the windows. She felt as though someone was watching her from behind. A seagull, heading for the middle of the island, screamed as it passed the pub and Lia almost dropped the plant she was holding. She was not sorry to be helping, but she was sorry that any of them were out here. She hurried through her task and helped the others. She felt like dancing on the spot with urgency, shouting at them to hurry up, come on. The spirit must have passed from her to them, because they did finish fast. Lia whirled around and headed for the back door, determined not to run and panic for no reason.

  The girl was standing between them and the door. Her pale beauty was like moonlight on ice. She wasn’t looking at Lia, but past her to Ed and Harry, with sharp avian interest. When she did turn her gaze on Lia, it wasn’t friendly. Lia saw her start to move, and felt both Ed and Harry move as well, everyone with one goal. She turned to run and had a glimpse of white faces before she was grabbed and lifted. The girl’s feet were talons buried in the thick coat that was saving her skin. The terror of being caught by a beast overrode the pain. Lia twisted, the instinct to escape stronger than the fear of falling. What she saw above her made her freeze before struggling harder. The talons simply curled and gripped her harder. This close, Lia saw that the girl was pale because her skin was delicate layers of tiny white feathers, each one perfect. Her arms extended into white wings that, this high off the ground, caught the light that the storm hadn’t yet extinguished. The powerful beat of the wings swept them out over the sea and back in above the cliffs. Lia gave up struggling. Escape was impossible.

  The creature took her over the village and out beyond the harbour into the oncoming storm. The first wave was hailstones, lashing her face. Before she closed her eyes, she saw the dark shapes of the Chimneys rising from the wild sea. A terrifying shriek filled the whole world, leaving her stunned. The talons unclenched and with a shake she was free, and falling.

  Ed ran, following the creature as far as he could before she swept out over the sea. He heard the cry from somewhere out in the dark and it was like the owl, freezing its prey with terror. He stood on the edge of the cliff as hailstones reached him. She was gone. Both of them were gone. The water below was churning in the caves and he could hear the blowholes out on the far reaches of t
he island beginning to boom. He felt like the wind was going to take him and he almost wanted it to.

  He ran back to the pub and halted again to stare out to sea, but he could see no flash of white.

  When a hand touched his shoulder, he jumped and tipped forward. The hand jerked him backwards and he and the person tumbled onto the wet ground together.

  The woman pushed herself up and shouted to make herself heard.

  ‘Where is my daughter? Where is Lia?’

  Twenty-Two

  The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul. Not drowned entirely, though. Rather carried down alive to wondrous depths, where strange shapes of the unwarped primal world glided to and fro before his passive eyes.

  Herman Melville, Moby Dick or The Whale, 1851

  All of the watching they had done, waiting for the cover of a storm to lure a boat onto the Devil’s Teeth, was pointless now. In all of the long years past, they had waited and caught food for the Strix, enough to keep her satiated and quiet. It had taken a long time to figure out how much would stop her from hunting for herself, but not enough to make her strong. Her gift in return was long life. Brendan looked at himself in the spotty mirror. The offer had seemed a good one, especially as it was that, or death, or worse than death. Now, after three hundred years of being alone with no companions but the small group of men who knew, Brendan realised that it was no bargain at all. It was better when Will was here, but after he was gone all of the hundreds of years weighed upon Brendan like the rocky soil of an island grave.

  Oh, Andrew liked it well enough. He went through generations of wives and children, waiting for the day when death would finally come to them, so that he could create a new heir to help him continue the work of keeping the creature shut up in the Hall. It wasn’t out of the goodness of his heart. That heart had always been black, before the Strix ever came to shore. He enjoyed the power. Brendan was closest to him, although they were definitely not friends. Brendan had liked Evan and Jim once but, over the many years, he saw them for what they were. Empty vessels. Long life suited them because they were not prone to brooding over the past or the future. They were like Andrew in one way, in that they enjoyed the life, but Andrew had depth where they had none. Andrew’s depths were dark indeed, but couldn’t be dismissed.

  Brendan had a moment of shame. Surely they had dismissed the lives of too many? Had he learned nothing? Whatever they were, they were still here, his long-time companions. The island was emptying of other people.

  The children didn’t stay any more. Many of the sons fled, unable or unwilling to bear the burden imposed on them. The horror. For the daughters, who were spared that terrible knowledge, there were too many attractions on the mainland – including men to marry. The blood of the old families was growing thin. It was harder to find wives for the men who wanted them. Why would any woman want to live out here, especially in the winter? The storms were worse now than they had been when he was young, truly young.

  But the storm had come late this year. The summer had lasted longer than it used to. Out here, where the weather was both adversary and blessing, it was easier to see the climate change over the centuries. When the storm hadn’t come, they had, not for the first time, considered taking someone from the mainland, or a visitor, but they had waited too long.

  She became hungry and didn’t wait. The Strix. They didn’t know what she was at first, but over the long years they learned. She came from the hills of ancient Rome and she needed blood to survive. She was beautiful when she was near to human in form, and beautiful when she chose to appear as the owl, white, perfect, murderous. He felt a kind of horrific love for her. They had kept her prisoner here, as she had kept them. They had sacrificed enemies to her. Those who had committed transgressions against them, or uncovered their secret, or like Dan had put them all in jeopardy. Ed, among all of the young ones, had stayed. Harry’s niece had come home to the island. Their blood was strong and, if they could be linked, they would produce a new bloodline from two of the old families. Brendan could almost smell it off them. If they stayed here, they would live on. They could contain her and keep the world safe.

  The ones who had brought her on the ship were trying to do the same. Wrecked on the Devil’s Teeth, they had passed the burden on to the old families. The wreckers. Brendan thought it was nothing less than they deserved.

  And now the Strix was beyond their control. He had heard her triumphant scream, the same scream he had first heard on the cliff path three hundred years ago. She was out there at her full strength and there was nothing any of them could do. Brendan looked around at the dirty kitchen. Nothing to care about him, not even a dog. He raised the cutthroat razor to his throat. Will’s death had proved that they could die and he didn’t want to see what was going to happen next. He had seen far too much already in a lonely life that had dipped and climbed between boredom and terror.

  He touched the blade to his skin and made an exploratory nick. His blood ran in a tiny trickle down the column of his neck. The sight of it made him sick and he threw the razor on the countertop. It slid and fell into the sink, rattling against the dirty dishes.

  That wasn’t the right way. It was the sea he wanted. The right thing to do, finally, was to go into the water with the bones of the generations who had been devoured by the sea before. He left the house for the last time, leaving the door swinging open in the wind. It didn’t matter anymore.

  It was hard to walk against the rain but he knew the path well. He wanted to die where Will had died. Then he saw a group of people ahead so he dropped behind some low scrub, not caring that it scratched his face. The men were Ed and Harry, by the shape of them. There was a woman with them but it wasn’t the American girl, the niece. He couldn’t make her out. They were shouting something at each other. Brendan moved back along the cliff. After all, it didn’t really matter where he jumped.

  He got far enough away from them to a place where he thought he could clear the rocks and stood at the edge of the cliff. A wild feeling of exhilaration swept through him and he didn’t hesitate. He spread his arms like a bird and flung himself into the wind. For a moment, he feared that it would blow him back onto the clifftop, but it hadn’t gained its full strength yet and he plunged towards the waves below.

  As had happened to him once before, his fall was suddenly interrupted by something striking him. It was her. This time instead of buffeting him to a softer fall, she dug her talons into him and carried him along the coast, so close to the water that his feet hit the sharp peaks of the Devil’s Teeth.

  She rolled him until he was facing her belly as she flew. He, who had never loved women, felt a surge of the thrall that the men all felt. He brought his hands up and buried them in her soft feathers. She was cold, but she lit a fire in him. His longing to finally die was replaced by a desire to never be parted from her again. She knew it and although her talons dug deeper, she bent to touch her face briefly to his. The touch was close to a kindness, as close as a creature such as she could get. And it turned out to be a goodbye. She circled around and dropped him. The wild water would embrace him and bring him to a final end on the rocky sea floor, where his staring eyes would turn white and his flesh would be consumed by the denizens of that realm.

  His last sight was of her beautiful white form riding the storm back to the island, as cruel as any predator in nature. Not evil, but pure and instinctive. Fighting to survive. Then the heartless sea took him as it had so many others at his hands.

  He thought he would drift to the bottom and have the sea above him when he took a breath and let the water in. Instead, he crashed into turbulent waves which swept him towards the cliffs. Though they were still far away, he knew that it wouldn’t take long before he reached the first of the hidden rocks upon which so many ships had foundered.

  He had seen the effects of those rocks on men as well as ships. He didn’t want that fate for himself. He dived under the rolling waves and kicked down.
The current threatened to take him up again, but he pushed through, swimming as deep as he could. But there was no peaceful moment of rest on the bottom. It felt like a giant had put a hand in the sea and was stirring it. He whirled and hit the bottom a few times before finding a piece of wreckage to cling to. Then before he could be swept away, he opened his mouth and breathed the sea in.

  Water rushed down his throat, filling his lungs. The pain was a shock but he had heard that it passed to be replaced by a kind of euphoria. He waited, hurting but aware. Nothing changed. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed but he wasn’t dying. He was not only conscious but completely lucid. He could see better than when he had first grabbed the hunk of some lost ship’s stern.

  He saw something move in the dark water, coming towards him from the island. He wondered if it was her, the Strix, coming to take him fully into her world. Then he saw who it was. Glorious, bright and good. His red hair was a flash of colour in a monochrome world. It was impossible, but he knew well that impossible meant nothing here.

  Will Crowe swam to him and they embraced. The waters still churned around them, but they were suddenly still, in a pocket of calm. Will smiled at him and Brendan found that the pain was gone.

  I must be dead at last.