Stung by her words, Bradan moistened his lips with a mouthful of their precious water and tried again.
'That's better.' Melcorka continued to hack at the invading plants. 'Now you are whistling like a king. You could charm the birds from the trees if there were any birds around here, or any trees…'
No sooner had Melcorka spoken than the sea altered. A deep swell began to move the plants, so they rose and fell like yellow waves.
'Something's happening.' Bradan wrestled an oar free of the crawling plants. 'It's working!'
The swell rose, carrying Catriona up and down as if she were a cork. One minute she was deep in the trough between two mountains of vegetation, the next, she was poised up high, revealing a limitless vista of unbroken yellow-brown. Above, the sky darkened, with thick clouds rolling in from the north and west, some black, others purple-tinged and full-bellied, pregnant with menace.
'What's happening, Bradan?' Melcorka asked.
'We whistled for the wind,' Bradan said, 'and your Defender summoned us up something a bit stronger. Look at the plants!'
Already, the rising swell showed patches of clear water through the vegetation. A spatter of spray rattled against Catriona's hull.
'I've never seen anything like this before.' Bradan watched with interest. 'It's a new experience.'
'It's a new experience I can do without. What is that?' Melcorka pointed astern, where a patch of clear sea brightened to flaming orange. She could only stare as the water erupted behind them, thrusting upward in a fiery red mass, edged with orange and purple. 'In the name of God!
The sea surged skyward in a wave ten, fifteen, twenty, fifty times higher than Catriona's mast and still rising.
'Hold on!' Bradan yelled. 'Mel! Find something to hold on to!'
The sea continued to rise, higher and higher until it blocked the sky astern, augmented by a smoky dark cloud and the reek of sulphur.
'It's Hell!' Melcorka shouted. 'The gates of Hell have opened up behind us!'
'Row!' Thumping onto a rowing bench, Bradan grabbed a pair of oars. 'Row, Melcorka! Row as if your soul depends on it.' Leaning forward, he dipped the blades in the seething water and pulled back, with Melcorka doing the same, until they realised that Catriona was already rushing forward at a far higher speed than anything they could manage. The smell of sulphur was overpowering, as fish, living and dead, rained down on them, together with water that was so hot it burned their skin. Glowing embers joined the fish, some hissing as they landed in the sea, others hitting the hull or sliding down the much-patched linen sail.
'Get the sail in!' Bradan yelled. 'These burning rocks will set it on fire!' Shipping his oars, he began to furl the fabric, with Melcorka joining him, swearing as the hot rocks hurtled down and fish flapped and writhed in the seething water that lapped at their shins and knees. They bundled the sail on deck, where it smouldered and charred under the onslaught of hot rocks.
'Hurry!' Bradan slapped at the flames until a wave crashed against the hull and sent a bathful of hot water to douse the fire.
'What's happening?' Melcorka yelled, above the roar of water and wind. Her hair beat a mad frenzy against her head, one second covering her face, the next, streaming down her back. 'Is it the devil coming for us?' She glanced toward Defender, thrumming in the vibrating mast. 'I'll fight it, if it is!'
'No!' Bradan shouted. 'It's a volcano! I've heard about them before. It's a mountain exploding and spewing out its flaming insides.'
'We're at sea!' Melcorka nearly screamed. 'There are no mountains here!'
'It must be a mountain under the sea!' Bradan roared.
'I've never heard of that before.' Melcorka tried to control her flying hair.
'Sit down, grab hold of something and pray,' Bradan said. 'There's nothing else we can do.' Balancing in the madly rocking boat, he inched to the stern and clutched at the tiller.
'It's all right, Bradan,' Melcorka said. 'Don't forget that a master-builder created Catriona. No sea can sink her.'
'No sea can sink her –' Bradan glanced at the nightmarish mountains of water behind him, shuddered and quickly turned his attention forward, 'but the sea might still capsize her, or toss us out.' He had to bellow to be heard above the roaring of wind and water. 'I'll keep her head straight.'
All around them, the sea was a maelstrom, with waves rising and falling. Debris from the volcano continued to hammer down, lashing the surface of the water like a thousand flails.
As Catriona rushed on, Bradan fought the tiller that bucked and reared in his hands, trying to guide the ship through the nightmare of rising and falling water. Twice, he saw colossal sea monsters of a type he had never met before, and each time they vanished again, as some hidden current dragged them away. Melcorka laughed, crawled to the bow and stood there like a splendid figurehead, her head thrown back and her legs braced to challenge this new experience.
'That's my Mel,' Bradan whispered. 'Whatever comes at us, we'll get through it.' His arms ached with the strain of steering Catriona, yet knew he had to hold on. If he relaxed, a wave could smash at them from starboard or larboard, capsizing them in half a second. Bradan knew that Finlay MacCodrum, Catriona's builder, had been part selkie, a creature of the sea. Finlay had designed Catriona to be unsinkable, but had he taken account of underwater volcanoes?
Had Finlay even known about such things?
Bradan held on, keeping Catriona's stern to the sea, guiding her despite the constant ache of his arms. He lost track of time, he lost track of distance or location. Keeping afloat mattered, keeping alive mattered. Nothing else. Ignoring the pain, ignoring the fatigue, Bradan remained at his post as the sea hissed and spumed and roared around them.
'I'll take over! Have a break!' Melcorka crawled to Bradan's side, her voice sounding dim through the thick cloud of his
