“We’re going?” said Tam.
“We’re going.”
“Not without me, you’re not.” Donnan emerged from the entrance. “You’re planning to rescue Aedan now, aren’t you?” he said. “Well, let’s go.”
“Donnan, you need to stay here,” said Kaetha.
“An extra pair of hands might be useful,” said Tam.
“See? Even he thinks I should come.”
Kaetha sighed.
“I see,” said Donnan, his voice flat. “You don’t want me.”
“Donnan—” she started to explain but then, for a moment, she sensed his thoughts. Crouching in the darkness, hiding whilst his mother screamed.
“You don’t trust me. You think that if things go bad I’ll—”
“No, Donnan.” She grasped his arms. “Believe me. I know how strong and brave you are. I just don’t want to put you at risk. I want to keep you safe.”
“Yet you’re willing to put yourself at risk?”
“I have an advantage which you don’t have. That’s just how it is.”
He shrugged free of her grip. “Fire won’t get you out of every situation, you know,” he said grumpily. “In fact, it will probably only draw danger to you.”
“I know. But I have more than just that Fire now. Much more.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come,” she took his arm again. “I’ll explain as we walk. We’re wasting time here.”
“You’re letting me come with you?”
“I don’t think I can stop you. Just make sure you do whatever I say.”
“Nothing unusual there then.”
“Shut up,” she said, suppressing a laugh.
Kaetha knew the knack of unlocking the stable door from the outside. She’d done it since she was a child so that she could visit Lossie in the stables when she was meant to be studying or helping the servants. She put a long coil of rope over her shoulder and led Smoke, Gwyn’s old horse, out into the night.
As they walked through woods and over hills, she explained to Donnan about her discovery of the elemental stones.
“So you’ve got more power than Meraud now?” he asked.
“She’s had more time to practise using the Water stone than I’ve had with these three. But time is something we simply don’t have. I’ll just have to use them as best I can to rescue Pa.”
“And you could use them to overpower Meraud and take the Water stone too. Then they could all be safe from the likes of her,” said Tam.
“I’m here for Pa,” said Kaetha. “That’s all I can think about right now. Besides, we’ve no idea where Meraud is.”
“And what if Meraud gets her hands on all four? It doesn’t sound like it’s worth the risk,” said Donnan.
Tam said nothing but, to Kaetha, his silence was as heavy as rock, his thoughts as impenetrable as ever.
No moonlight reached between the hills and she heard Donnan trip a couple of times, swearing under his breath. She was struggling to see her way too and kept on scratching her ankles on spiky thistles. Glancing at Tam, she realised why he didn’t have the same problem. His eyes glinted yellowish green in the darkness, like a cat’s eyes.
“You lead the way to the loch, Tam. And try to find a way that avoids thistles.”
As they followed Tam, her earlier words to Donnan echoed in her mind and she imagined how he must have felt upon hearing them.
“Donnan?” she said, unable to see him.
“Aye?” His elbow brushed against hers.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
When they got to the river, she tied Smoke to a bush and fed her a handful of hay she’d brought, grateful that Tam had had the foresight to bring a blanket from the stables which he spread out over the horse’s back.
She patted Smoke’s neck. “Good lass.”
“Why aren’t we riding her to Ciadrath?” asked Donnan.
“Tam’s acquired us a quieter way.”
“I took a boat from the loch,” said Tam.
“You stole it, you mean,” said Donnan.
Tam shrugged and led them to the rowing boat which was pulled up onto the bank. “You can take it back when we’re done with it, if it bothers you that much.”
Donnan ignored him. “But what do we need Smoke for then?”
“If we manage to get Pa, we can row him back here. But if he’s too weak to walk far, he’ll need Smoke.”
Moonlight revealed what looked like a charcoal image of a hammer and chisel scratched on the inside of the boat. Kaetha remembered with a smirk that the Clatcher family used that mark. The slim trace of guilt she’d felt for taking the boat vanished.
Tam made to take the oars but Donnan reached them first and started rowing downriver.
“There’s something about this place that sends a shiver up my spine,” said Donnan. “Like we’re being watched.”
Kaetha didn’t tell Donnan that they probably were. “You should make the most of this, it’s the safe bit.”
“And so you actually do have a plan for the not so safe bit?” he asked.
“In a manner of speaking,” she said. “We just need a little luck.”
“Oh, if that’s all, I’m sure we’ll be fine,” said Donnan, a little too cheerfully.
Moonlight flecked the black river like a scattering of silver coins and gave a vague sense of shape to the dark masses of hills and woods around them. The boat rocked unsteadily.
“Go carefully,” she said though, even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t anything to do with Donnan’s handling of the boat. She sat beside him, taking the oars in her hands too, feeling them jerking and tugging, seemingly of their own accord. They had to fight hard to stop the boat from spinning.
Tam lurched forward, applying his weight to the oars too. “You have to do something, Kaetha,” he said.
“Please, Lanngorm,” she said to the Fuathan as irritated thoughts of disturbed rest and thoughtless
