Bloodstone (18 page)

I called the roan.

We didn’t have far to ride. Beyond the grassy plain of the machair there were low hills of sharp rough grass, then dunes, hard sand and the vastness of the sea. Finn
gripped the roan’s mane hard, and her whole body in front of me was tense as a bowstring, but she hadn’t hesitated. I could only admire her surly nerve in reaching for my arm when
I’d offered it to her, and climbing back on a horse that had just tried to eat her.

The roan wasn’t interested in her this time. It slid down a shifting dune almost on its haunches and thundered down onto the beach. The black horse was not thirty yards ahead, Conal
trotting it first one way and then the other along the edge of the water.

The silvered bay was maybe a mile long, flanked by bulky headlands that spilled a tumble of rocks to the sea. The black-bellied waves were fringed with phosphorescence, and against their light
was a figure: too tall, too lanky to be Leonora, hunched into a long coat with an upturned collar. The coat that was no coat moved and glistened like a wet pelt. The creature wearing it turned, and
I sucked in a cold salty breath.

No going back, I thought. Not for us, not for Leonora.

The black pawed the hard sand and whinnied, but Conal only stared at the thing. I’d never seen one in the cold wet flesh before, but I knew well enough what it was. Its long-boned face was
covered in a thin layer of sleek grey hair and its eyes were black from corner to corner, like a seal’s. Conal’s horse called to it again, familiarly, gills flapping open and shut.

‘Mother!’ Ignoring the creature at the water’s edge, Conal yelled, ‘Leonora!’

‘Conal, my darling!’ The voice floated down from the cliff above us. ‘Of course you know you have company?’

We could make out the old woman now, standing quite still, right on the edge, gazing down. In front of me Finn shuddered with vicarious vertigo.

Wheeling the black on its haunches, Conal rode back to us, throwing me a glare. I met it with one of my own, and he could only look away, at Finn, his face softening. I resisted the urge to put
an arm round her waist and hug her. It wasn’t that difficult, since she oozed poisonous resentment.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said.

She was too choked with angry emotion to answer him. Conal seemed to hesitate for a moment, then he flicked the reins and turned back to the cliff.

‘Mother! Don’t do this to us! To her!’

‘Conal MacGregor,’ Leonora chided. ‘I don’t expect much from your half-brother, but have you no respect?’

Conal glared up at her. ‘Seth is my
brother
and he’s all I’d ask of one.’

‘Of course. I apologise.’ Leonora’s voice was clear on the still air. Then I saw what was behind her on the rocks: another Selkyr in its silvery rippling coat. Leonora glanced
back at it, smiling.

She turned back to Conal and his horse. ‘Clever Finn,’ she called. ‘How talented you are! I should have confiscated that wretched stone.’

In front of me, she trembled and clasped her pendant.

‘For gods’ sake, Mother. The dun’s shield, all our protection. It goes with you!’

‘All the same, my Conal. You can hardly expect me not to go.’

Finn’s head whipped round and she hissed at me, ‘What’s happening?’

I shrugged, avoiding her glare again. ‘Nothing we can stop. Keep your mouth shut. Leave it to Conal.’

He yelled, ‘You don’t have to do this! You could have stayed on the other side. Lived!’

‘What? You’d consign me to madness and rot, darling boy? Just for one last try at the Stone?’

‘Why not? It’s what you’ve lived for! It’s what you stayed for!’

Leonora gave a deep gurgling laugh. ‘That’s the difference between us, Conal. I know when I’m beaten. Wait till it’s your turn, hm? You won’t stay, either.
You’ll run back where you belong, as fast as you can. You’ll die as you should and where you should. You’d be a fool not to.’ She hesitated. ‘There comes a time when
they all must shift for themselves.’

‘Indeed.’ Conal’s voice hardened, and something cruel crept into it. ‘Just so you understand, Mother, I’m taking Finn to the dun.’

For a moment Leonora lost her diamond-hard cockiness. ‘Conal, you can’t...’

‘I’ve had enough, Mother. She’s here. You brought her, and it isn’t my fault, and I’m sick of it. Stella can
shift for herself.
In fact, Stella can go
hang.’

I should have swelled with self-righteous satisfaction. Instead I felt cold and unsure.

‘That’s between you and your sister,’ said Leonora sadly. ‘I have no say in it any more.’

‘You told me,’ Conal shouted, ‘you told me the child needed you!’

‘She had me.’ Leonora gave a complacent shrug. Despite the Selkyr behind her, she didn’t look trapped. She looked smug, as if she’d caught up with something she’d
been chasing for a long time.

‘This isn’t right,’ whispered Finn, to no-one in particular. ‘It isn’t right.’

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It is.’

She went rigid as steel, and I realised she was crying.

Conal gave a frustrated yell of rage and grief. ‘Weren’t you going to say goodbye? MOTHER?’

‘Ah, Conal, you’d only try to talk me out of it. And that would be terrible for both of us.’ As Leonora’s breezy voice drifted down from the headland, I had to admire the
cool of her. Heedless, I thought. Not innocent, not unfeeling: just very, very heedless, as if Leonora could see the long run, and feelings came to nothing in it. ‘Goodbye, then!’

Finn’s fingers were wrapped so tightly in the roan’s mane, it was snorting irritably. ‘This is what it was about? This? The care home was a lie. I can’t believe I was so
stupid!’

‘You weren’t stupid,’ I muttered. ‘You heard what you expected to hear. That’s not a magic spell.’

‘Conal! Finn!’ For the first time there were tears in the old woman’s voice. ‘I loved you.’

She turned into the arms of the thing behind her. Its shimmering coat coiled around both of them, sheathing them like a pelt, and as one they toppled from the rocks. There was barely a splash as
they plunged into the water.

Conal stared at the spot where his mother had vanished. Nothing surfaced. Not even bubbles.

Silence echoed, and then Finn screamed. ‘
Where’s she gone
?’

Slowly, reluctantly, he rode back, and stopped alongside us. ‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t know!’ She lunged and struggled as I gripped her arm.

‘No, I don’t know, I don’t remember.’ He was in a daze. ‘Back where she came from? Maybe we’ll all know it when we get there.’

Finn’s breathing was high and hard, but she’d weakened with shock. ‘You let her—’

‘It’s not a question of letting her. She did it, that’s all.’ Conal nudged the black away so he wouldn’t have to look into her eyes any more. ‘You
shouldn’t have brought Finn here, Seth.’

I said nothing. Thank the gods, Finn didn’t either. I didn’t think anything needed saying. Instead I turned the roan after him.

‘Wait! Wait!’

Someone was squeezing out from the tumbled mass of rocks at the end of the bay, so fast he ripped his jumper. I watched, jaw wide, as Jed clambered and slithered across.

‘Wait!’ he yelled, casting nervous glances at the shore and the remaining Selkyr. ‘Finn!’

Conal hauled the black’s head round, stared at him.

‘Jed.’

‘Yes! Wait for me!’

Dawning horror on Conal’s face, mirroring mine.

‘Holy shit, Jed!
Run
.’

He was already galloping towards Jed as he shouted, as if it was a wild homicidal hunt, and from the look on Jed’s face, I reckon he thought it was. Then we all saw the first Selkyr,
striding fast towards Jed from the sea’s edge. For all its speed it didn’t look in any hurry.

Jed backed off, up towards the dunes, but it came on remorselessly. He took another step back, and another, scared to turn his back on it.

‘Christ’s sake, I said RUN!’

Jed was out of choices. He turned and bolted.

Finn’s legs were flailing at the roan’s sides, but of course it wouldn’t move. I put an arm round her, pinning her arms to her sides, lifting her off its back so she lost her
leverage.

‘Sit still,’ I snarled. As she swore and tried to wriggle free, I added: ‘And stay on this horse.
Stay on
.’

She went limp very suddenly, giving up, crying audibly this time. I took no notice, just kicked the roan into a gallop after Conal. Jed was still running, sliding and stumbling, his hands
sinking in gummy sand, seawater soaking his legs. He fell headlong and scrambled up, out of breath and effort, staring wildly from the seal-creature to Conal’s horse.

The Selkyr was within ten yards of Jed when the black overtook it, and then Conal was off the horse and grabbing Jed into his arms.

‘What do you think you’re doing?’ Conal shouted at him, then he took a bewildered breath. ‘
How are you blocking me?
’

Jed only shook his head, speechless.

‘I will hang Sionnach!’ yelled Conal. Holding Jed tightly, arms locked around his chest, Conal faced the Selkyr as it strode relentlessly towards them. Jed’s eyes bulged with
terror. I pulled the blue roan to a slithering halt as the Selkyr stopped, two arms’ lengths from them.

‘No,’ Conal told it softly. ‘Not him.’

The blackwater eyes fastened on Conal. It took a step towards Jed, reaching out long fingers, moonlight gleaming through the membranes of its finned hand.

Jed shrank against my brother.

‘I said
no
,’ said Conal, more intently.

It lowered its arm and curled its fingers into a loose fist.

‘Not yet,’ it said.

The voice was wet, liquid, cold as death. It turned and walked away towards the ocean. There was not another sound from Conal, but in the stark moonlight, as he shoved Jed away, there were
tracks of tears on his face.

When we rode back to the camp, we didn’t have to say anything. We were without Leonora: that said it all.

Sionnach got his deserved bollocking, but with only half of Conal’s heart. He was used to Conal’s temper; after half a millennium we all were, and besides, as he said later, fair
enough if Conal
had
strung him up. Eili was too preoccupied with the loss of Leonora to defend her brother; she simply crouched to sharpen one of her swords, every sinew screaming furious
grief. I knew that wasn’t over; there would be more bitterness where that came from. I couldn’t blame her. Hard enough to spawn a child; near to impossible when your lover was taken
from you for most of your long, long life, and to no point at all.

Jed hovered close to Conal now, a small planet round my brother’s sun. It didn’t annoy me as much as I thought it would. The boy worshipped him. I could see it already, in his
constantly flickering, sleep-deprived gaze. Poor sod; and poor Eili too. Conal, for the moment, had attention only for Finn.

‘Take that necklace off. I want to talk to you. Properly.’

Finn looked like she wanted to slap him. ‘I’m not sure I want to take it off.’

‘I’m here, aren’t I? You think I’d let any harm come to you? Take it
off
.’

He was missing the point, deliberately or not, but she tugged the chain over her head, wincing as it scraped her hand. Taking it in his, Conal frowned. ‘What happened to you?’

She let him touch it gently. I knew fine her hand didn’t need any more attention, but Finn obviously did.

‘Ah.’ He shut one eye and grinned. ‘You old faker, toots.’

‘Eili fixed it,’ I said, sliding a whetstone down my blade. ‘You should recognize her work.’

He shut his eyes, but he’d spent the last of his anger on Sionnach. Finn stared at the unbuttoned collar of his slate-blue shirt, where the white line of a scar started at his collarbone.
I knew, as she did, that it went down to his eleventh rib.

‘See, this is what hurts,’ she told him calmly. ‘You calling
me
a faker.’

Sighing, he pulled his shirt collar apart with his fingers and peered down guiltily.

‘I’m sorry I hurt you. That’s the truth. I didn’t want to do it.’

‘I knew that car crash was a lie,’ she said. ‘See you? Always having a go at me for listening at doors, when you’ve been eavesdropping on me. Spying on my head.
My
whole life
.’