Chapter 35 - Storm at Sea

The storm grew worse. The boat pitched and corkscrewed as the waves hit from every angle. Aron had the sails furled almost to the size of tea-towels. Every time they crested another wave, they felt a weightless surge. In the little remaining light, they could see the white caps of the waves, but little else. Somehow, the sky grew darker than the sea — and the sea itself looked a flinty black. They kept a few torches shining out from the sleeves of their waterproofs, and the lonely vessel was the only island of light in the chaotic void.

None of those huddled in the centre of the ferry spoke. In the stern, Freddie had fallen silent, watching Aron's determined efforts at the tiller. Freddie held onto two wooden hand-holds, his feet wedged under a wooden rail provided for that purpose. Xander purred, unheard, under Sophie's coat. Dev's face was as white as a ghost's, his imagination running wild with fatal scenarios. Shona worried for everyone but herself. Christie was smiling. She was watching Jimmy and Corben. They would make a great couple when they dared. They were taking this opportunity to keep each other warm.

Lydia kept looking at Aron, in case he was about to call on her magic. He sat, as ever, with his arm on the tiller. The only change was that he was moving the tiller more, responding to the movement of the waves like a circus performer balancing on a rope. Oddy was watching Lydia.

No one was sure if it was raining, so much spray was being driven at them by the wind. Water ran down their clothes in rivers. Little seemed to collect in the bottom of the boat. Either Aron or his vessel had some magic of their own, it appeared.

The storm went on. The ferryman continued to steer. Lydia's friends were cold and wet. Their hands were sore and their muscles ached with hanging on to rope and wood. The storm's intensity seemed to have reached a plateau. It was raging and chaotic, but appeared not to be getting any worse.

There was a creaking and splintering sound from over their heads that they had not heard before. Looking up, they saw the mast had an angle in it, the upper part now swinging wildly as the storm threw the boat from side to side. Sophie jumped up, almost losing her hold. Out came her wand, and the mast sprang back into its familiar straight line.

The sky roared.

Lydia shot to her feet, hands raised. Oddy threw his arms around her waist as the boat bucked. A flash of light illuminated everything. A bolt of actinic brightness connected sky and sea, but angled away from the craft. Another roar and flash. This one shattered into a myriad balls of light, skittering over the heaving sea. The storm hurled lightning and Lydia deflected every strike.

The battle with the bolts raged on. Strike: hurled back. Strike: angled away. Strike: dissipated in sparks.

Lydia gave a roar they would not have believed possible. It rang out over the tumult of the storm. She pushed the biggest lightning strike thus far back into the sky. Bursts of light rippled outwards through the storm clouds, burning them away in roiling circles. The sea continued to heave, but the fury of the howling winds dwindled. Above them, the clouds burned away in a circle and the stars appeared. The clearing spread until they could see the dawn's glow on the horizon.

The sea swelled and heaved, but the impetus drained away. A vehement intent had gone from the wind. The storm was no more.

"Lydz!" Freddie screamed from the stern. "Help!"

Lydia turned to look. Oddy let go of her waist. She held onto his hands as she looked aft. Aron had slumped across his tiller.

Lydia grabbed the lifelines which ran the length of the boat. She made her way to Freddie's side.

"He stood up," Freddie gasped. "Lightning hit him. He fell down like that. He was saving me from it. Can you do something?"

Before Lydia could answer, a moan rose from the cloaked figure.

"What's that?!" Freddie cried.

"It is the sound of a ferryman wishing to go about his work," Aron said as he rose again into his customary seated position.

"I thought you were dead!" Freddie wailed, flinging his arms around the ferryman.

"I decided my work would be substandard if I went about it deceased," Aron said.

Freddie hugged him harder. Aron raised a six-fingered hand and patted Freddie's permanently tousled head.

"And I decided you would be a poor companion if you were deceased," he added.

Lydia hugged the ferryman and kissed Freddie's forehead.

"Now," Aron said. "I must attend to the tiller. I am a ferryman — I may have mentioned that."

The sea settled as the dawn blossomed across the sky. A moderate breeze picked up, carrying the boat on its way.

"Have we got much further to go?" Christie asked Aron.

"No! Don't ask that!" Oddy and Freddie warned.

Aron smiled and pointed over his shoulder.

A line of cliffs was visible on the horizon.

"Is that where we're supposed to be going?" Christie asked, confused.

"That's where we came from," Lydia said from under the awning. "We've come about ten kilometres at most, thanks to that storm."

"If the weather holds," Aron said, "our journey will take another day and a half, perhaps two days."

"Oh, so now you can do times and distances?" Freddie complained.

"I have taught, and you have learned," the ferryman explained. "It is no longer necessary for me to teach. Also, the way is clearer now."

"He means it's not funny anymore," Xander said.

Aron inclined his head.

Oddy laughed. Freddie grinned and shook his head.

"I don't suppose anyone got any sleep last night?" Lydia called. "We should try to rest while we can."

"That is good advice," Aron spoke up, enough for all to hear. "I need no sleep. The act of sailing on a day such as this is restorative. Lydia will take no rest until she knows you are all safe and well. We can barely keep Xander from his slumber. The remainder of you will find no difficulty."

They took the ferryman's advice. They retired to the shelter and arranged themselves in a slumped tangle, leaning on each other in their exhaustion. Xander curled up with Dev and was soon asleep. Dev enjoyed a sense of relief he had not known since leaving Elsa at the Old Rectory.

Lydia sat with Aron for a while. They did not speak. When all the others were sleeping, Aron nodded to Lydia to suggest she join them.

"I don't think I will sleep," she said.

"No," Aron agreed. "But it will benefit your heart to be with your people. Go to them."

She stood, then paused.

"Can I trust you, Aron?" she asked.

"You could," he said. "The question is whether you should."

"Should I?"

"No, but only because you should trust no one more than you must, unless you brought them with you. Perhaps not all of those you did bring."

"Who?" Lydia demanded.

"I say this only as general advice," Aron soothed. "How well do we know those whose loyalty we have not yet tested with fire? Forgive me: it sounds like I care."

Lydia put her hand on his, then went to join the others. Oddy was lying across a thwart. She lifted his head to make space for her to sit down. Then she lowered it onto her lap.

Freddie woke up. Everyone else was still asleep. Even Lydia was asleep. She had Oddy's head in her lap and her own head was lolling against one of those bits of rope that held the mast in place. Freddie thought they looked sweet together. Aron was still where he always was, sitting steering the boat. He wondered what the ferryman did when he was not driving boats. Perhaps there was a friendly pub somewhere where Aron hung out with his friends. That was assuming he had any friends. Maybe he had scared them all away with his talk about time being made up of little bits of consequences.

Screwing up his eyes, Freddie braved the glare of the lovely sunshine and sat with Aron until the rest of the gang woke up. He decided not to ask Aron if he had friends. He did not want to offend the ferryman. And he could not face a long philosophical lecture about friendship being made up of little bits of orange peel or something. They would just sit in silence. Be friends. That would be easy.

Then Freddie had a brilliant idea. He wondered if Aron had ever seen anything like his mandala. At the moment, it was just being its ordinary mandala self, not the magic mandala that told them where to go. Even so, Freddie thought it was really interesting and pretty.

He took the mandala from his rucksack.

"Ohmygod," he thought, "these rucksacks are so amazing! Whatever you needed, if you have it in your bag, you just put your hand in and it gives it to you. And the fur is still clean and silky. It's dry, even after that storm, and gorgeously sleek, just like Xander was when he isn't dripping wet and looking like a stick figure."

Freddie stopped himself from wondering what Elsa was doing and held the mandala out for Aron to see.

"Have you ever come across one of these, Aron?"

The ferryman's hood was down and the sunlight brought out highlights in his hair. There were fine threads of red, purple and blue among the shining black. Aron kept one arm over the tiller and reached for the orb with his free hand.

The touch of his fingers on the silver filaments caused the shape of the mandala to shift. He turned it in his hands for a while, intent on the way it changed. It broadened, opened, lengthened, and closed while he gently manipulated it with his extraordinary fingers. The coloured beads twinkled in the sunshine.

"It is a pretty bauble, ingeniously wrought," he pronounced. "There is a faint, tremulous tingle woven into its strands. It would not astonish me to learn that it has some magic in its purpose."

He gave the mandala back to Freddie. Freddie took it, wondering if he should tell Aron about its magic. Aron was a friend. He was sure of that. But the ferryman had said he had to treat the Watcher's people the way he treated Lydia's — or were they Ambrose's? But that had been before the storm. They had done so much together, been through so much. Aron had taken a bolt of lightning to save him. He would not do that for the Watcher's dark wizards, vampires and terrorchickens, surely?

As his mind stumbled across its usual assault course of random thoughts, Freddie was aware of a blue light. It was the mandala. It was in the shape of a sphere and from inside a blue light shone, bright even in the daylight.

"Ooh, ooh, ooh!" Freddie exclaimed. "It's doing that thing again. Lydia!"

"It is imbued with some enchantment, then," Aron remarked.

"Sorry, Aron," said Freddie, scrambling to his feet. "Have to show this to Lydia."

The ferryman smiled and waved him away.

"Lydzlydzlydz! It's doing its thing again!" he babbled, shaking her.

"I'm awake, Freddie," she grumbled. "Just let me see it. And… thanks, by the way. I didn't mean to be crabby."

She took the mandala and cupped it in her hands. Oddy was sitting up and blinking. The others stirred and stretched.

As Lydia focused on the mandala, the blue light resolved itself into blue and pink and white. A shining white ball sat on a pink cushion under a shimmering blue light.

"Wow! What is it, Lydz?" Sophie asked.

"I'm not sure. But I know it's over that way," she said, pointing over the starboard bow.

"I think it's a pearl," Oddy ventured. "The pink could be the inside of an oyster and the light looks like it's underwater."

"Aren't oysters kind of greyish-white inside?" Lydia quibbled.

Oddy shrugged. "Normally, yes. Maybe it's some sort of clam. I'm not from round here, Lydz, in case you'd forgotten."

She giggled and stroked his face. "I had forgotten. Sorry… Odysseus."

That was not something you saw every day, Freddie thought. Oddy had changed, and he was so good for Lydia. She was under so much pressure, trying to do this quest thingy and look after everyone.

"Silly girl," Freddie thought. "We are here to help you, not to be a burden. We are going to have to use our magic at some point, or why are we here? Sophie was not timid about using magic when the team needed it. Mind you, when she had used reparo on the mast, that was when the lightning had started. Ohmygod! Lydia was so amazing with her magic — apart from that bolt Aron had taken, of course.

"Anyway, Oddy was so good for Lydia. What if there was something between them? They were the only ones clever enough for each other. Nobody had ever brought Oddy out like this. And nobody made Lydz giggle! She called him Odysseus. She had done it twice now, at least. It was better than 'Oddy' — more respectful. It was his proper name. She liked him, and how could he not like her? She is incredible. Just imagine if they got married! Not yet, obviously, we are all too young. But one day they might. What sort of robes could I wear for the wedding? Something special. Pink, maybe, but deep and subtle… and sparkly, or maybe with feathers, or both."

Then Freddie remembered the quest. People would have to survive that first, before anybody could think about getting married. And they would have to be successful, or there would be no planet to get married on. What would they have to deal with next? Oh, right — that's what the mandala was showing them right now.

He watched Lydia go astern to talk to Aron. She pointed out to him where the mandala was telling them to go for the next token. The ferryman altered course.

They did not have to sail very far before Lydia called a stop. Aron hove to and dropped the sails.

"This is the place," Lydia announced. "Aron, can you keep the boat here without it drifting?"

"I am an experienced sailor," he reminded her.

She looked about them. There were a few islands in the middle distance, but nothing else to navigate by.

"Are you sure?" she queried.

"I am an experienced sailor," he repeated.

"I heard he was a ferryman, Lydz," Freddie added.

"I heard it was in his nature, Faye," Oddy added, using Lydia's middle name.

"I do not know where you hear these things," Aron quipped. "But you are remarkably well-informed."

"OK, thanks, you gits," Lydia said. "It's just that, if I'm going to have to swim to the bottom of the sea for this token, it'd be nice to have the boat here waiting for me."

"Then it is incumbent on you to return to the correct location," Aron explained. "We shall not leave without you."

Lydia trusted Aron, even though he had advised against it. Perhaps she trusted him because of this. Either way, after what Aron had done for Freddie, she was determined to trust him, whatever his advice was.

"You shouldn't go after the token on your own," Oddy warned. "The Watcher will have set traps or posted guards. I'll come with you."

"I can breathe underwater without even trying," Lydia said. "How would you breathe?"

"The Bubble-head Charm," he answered. "It's not on our syllabus, but you don't think I stick to the OWL course books, do you?"

"Of course not!" she smiled. "But it's a charm. No wand magic if we want to avoid the Watcher, remember?"

Oddy hung his head. "Sorry, I forgot. I was only trying to help."

"I know. Thank you."

Lydia turned and called out to them all. "When I get back, I need someone to go home with the token. You lot can decide who while I'm away."

She turned again to Oddy. "It had better not be you. I'm going to want you around. You're my mentor."

Oddy blushed and smiled. "Mentor's too formal. I prefer the term 'favourite genius'."

Lydia smiled and shook her head. "Don't push your luck."

She stepped back and took off her clothes. Underneath, she was wearing a silvery swimming costume.

"Have you had that on all the time?" Freddie asked.

"No, you lettuce," Lydia sighed. "I got changed about ten minutes ago in the alleged bathroom."

"Oh, yeah. Makes sense," Freddie said. He realised she was talking about the extra curtained-off area which contained the 'bucket of doom', as he had named it.

Lydia needed weight to reach the bottom of the sea. She would have to leave it there to return to the surface. The only suitable item she could find was the small anchor.

"Aron?" she ventured. "I need something heavy to take me down where I need to go. The problem is that I'll have to leave it to get back. We could tie our ropes to it and haul it up, if you'd prefer."

"Take it, if it will serve," Aron said. "I use it only rarely because this sea is so deep. I can replace it."

"How deep?" asked Lydia, concerned.

"Hundreds of fathoms," he answered. "Nigh on two hundred fathoms in this area. A fathom is the height of a fine man. I am a little taller."

"About two metres," Oddy translated. "Just under. So the depth here is about three hundred and fifty metres. Lydia, the pressure will be thirty-five atmospheres! You can't go down that far."

"You can't, Odysseus," she said. "We don't know what I'm capable of. There must be some way to get the token, or the quest makes no sense."

Seeing Oddy's horror, she added: "All I can do is try. If I can't do it, I'll come back and we'll have to think of something else."

Oddy breathed deeply and gave her a reluctant nod. He picked up the anchor with some difficulty.

"Would you mind if I give you a hand with that, Oddy?" Jimmy offered. "I'm supposed to be the remaining muscles around here. If I don't help with something like this, then what's the point of me?"

Oddy let Jimmy take the anchor. He balanced it on the rail at the side of the boat and held it in place.

To a chorus of well-wishing, Lydia climbed onto the rail and dropped into the water.

"Take care, Lydia," Aron called to her as she bobbed beside the boat. "There is a forest under the sea here."

Lydia waved to Aron, then to the rest of her friends. Jimmy lifted the anchor off the rail and handed it down to Lydia. She took it from him and disappeared beneath the waves.