Rage was building in her with each stroke. They were abandoning those men

Manigan put his back to the shore and bowed ceremoniously to the gutted, gory remains of the walrus. “May the birds take your soul back to the ocean, my friend. We will try to make amends, and make

you whole again.”

Rian was rooted to the spot. He shoved her forwards. “Don’t look at them, just go to Bradan.”

She tried to ignore that the boat was too low in the water and that there were men wailing in panic, men floundering in the cold sea, men drowning, surrounded by monster animals.

She put one foot in front of the next beside Manigan, lugging the weighty sack, dripping blood. She stumbled across the spit to where Kino waited to help them on board the boat.

Badger was ahead. He tossed the hide into Bradan and followed it on board. Kino gave her a shove up over the bow.

Manigan and Kino were both in the boat with a single leap and they went straight for the oars, wordlessly turning the vessel and getting into rhythm, facing the sinking and wrecked boats with their frenzied sailors, but rowing determinedly away from them.

Snatched

Rian sat on a trunk in the stern. She wanted to watch the struggling boat, the men splashing about, making for land, but Badger, who had the tiller, shoved her round so she was facing the two rowers.

Kino snatched at each stroke with a brittle whip of his body while Manigan rowed with a rolling ease, yet despite their different builds and movements, the two oars rose and dipped and pulled in synchronicity.

Rage was building in her with each stroke. They were abandoning those men.

Surely, no matter what they had done, they couldn’t just let them drown?

“Don’t be angry,” Manigan said. “You think we should stay and help them, don’t you?”

She looked him in the eye and nodded. How could he look so calm? What kind of man leaves his fellow sailors to drown?

“What if they drown?” Her voice sounded shrill to her. “And we did nothing to help them?”

“They did not help themselves.”

They were out of the shelter of the spit now and the water was jabbly.

“Sail up.” Manigan abruptly ceased to row. Kino slumped forward over his oar, panting, then took up his position at the bow to help haul the sail.

Manigan got to his feet and started untying ropes, then hoisted the sail with long, bouncing tugs on the halyard. He gestured to Rian. “Here. Pull this.”

She pulled and pulled and the small top sail began to inch its way up the rigging. They were under way.

She chanced a glance back. Already the spit was shrinking away.

She could see no sign of either boat. There were several people on the land, but they were already too far away to see them clearly.

Was that a boat on the shore, or a walrus? It was impossible to tell at this distance. There were sea gulls circling, drawn no doubt by the smell of blood.

She looked ahead. They were heading into the archipelago. Badger and Manigan discussed their course. Both seemed to be familiar with the place.

Kino was whistling a warbling tune as he tidied away the weapons and tools from the hunt, wiping them down and rinsing the blood off the decks with seawater.

A well-aimed bucketful saw off a gull trying to investigate the potential for food.

Rian sat back down on the chest and allowed herself to feel sorry for Jan Bonxie and his men. The walrus head looked at her with baleful eyes. She was queasy again and hungry. Thirsty.

She got up and without asking took a cup of water from the barrel. It was fresh from Fair Isle and it was cleansing after all that gore and violence.

Kino took the cup from her and helped himself as she sat back down.

Where now? She was too angry to ask. Where was Ussa? No doubt she would not give up her pursuit of the stone, so she must be out there somewhere, trying to track them down.

She had stupidly thought she would be safe with Manigan but as long as she stayed with him Ussa would be on their tail.

Now Jan Bonxie would also be after him if he had survived. Was there no end to the running away?

WHALE ISLAND

They were close enough to an island to smell peat smoke. As they got nearer, a broch surrounded by a huddle of huts came into view.

Around the point there was a sheltered shore. The sea calmed suddenly and they took the sail down. Kino consented to row. He and Manigan nudged the boat up to a shingly beach between low, flat rocks where Manigan jumped out, tugged the boat into the shallows then tied the rope around a boulder.

He gave instructions for unloading, before leaving them and sprinting away towards the roundhouse.

Rian, grumpy with hunger and tiredness, didn’t understand the purpose of this stop.

She allowed herself to be ordered about by Badger and Kino but her frustration must have been obvious.

“What’s the matter? Are you not feeling well?” Badger took a rope off her and stowed it.

“I’m fine. What are we doing here anyway? Where is this?”

“They call it Whale Island. We’ve still to thank the Old One so I suppose Manigan’s checking out with the wise woman if he can do his ceremony at the temple. It’s big power.”

Sacred

He held both hands in front of him as if at a blazing fire to signify some sacred force.

They finished unloading the boat, then sat in a line on the shore.

“You’ll be hungry.” Badger took out a leather pouch. “Emergency rations.”

He grinned, handing Rian an oatcake. Kino took one too and they munched without speaking,

It was a warm evening and calmer now. A cormorant cruised and dived just below them close to the boat, and a sandpiper peeped among the weeds on the rocks.

The tide was falling. Soon the boat would be high and dry.

“Manigan’ll be ages,” Badger said. “We might as well have a hot drink. It could be a long night.”

He looked expectantly at Rian. It had become her role, firemaker.

She pulled out her fire pouch, gathered some driftwood and set about making a blaeberry tea, fuming.

Kino produced a flask of alcohol and offered to share it, but Rian refused.

Badger took a slug, and nudged Rian. “What’s getting to you? You don’t need to worry on account of Bonxie and them. They got what was coming to them.”