Chapter 5
(Plot 4)The swan-folk gulped down a morsel of bread. “Find a good spot?”
“Yes,” said Nizhoni confidently, “the dock can be built right over the circle of stones out in Cadfel Cove.”
Calufray took a big step closer. “That’s the Fairy Circle.” He still had his eye on the Pitcher. It was holding down one corner of the diagrams next to Nizhoni’s hand—like a common paperweight.
Several adults looked over their shoulders at Calufray and laughed lightly.
“Yes, I’m sure the children will be broken up for a few weeks about losing a curious beach spot,” Nizhoni stated matter-of-factly. “After their stomachs are full of the food coming off of Master Folger’s ships—which will be able to make port after we build the dock over those stones—I’m sure they won’t mind so much.”
The swan-folk shook his beak and a ridge of short feathers rose up over his head defensively. He tossed his hunk of bread to the table and shot Calufray a stern glance. “I can always take my business elsewhere.”
“That won’t be necessary, Master Folger,” said Nizhoni casually. “You mustn’t take anything Calufray says on behalf of Cadfelham. He’s a bit of a wandering soul—no real home to call his own, you might say.”
Tonya scoffed sympathetically, but Master Folger calmed and he and Nizhoni continued their conversation as if nothing had happened.
Calufray couldn’t take this insult. If he had thought on it longer, he might have concluded that the Fairy Circle would be of little use to the dead, and the children did need food. And if he hadn’t been distracted by his own foolishness in leaving the Pitcher behind to be found by this insufferable siren, he might have made other suggestions about where the dock could be built. But as it was his blood was boiling.
Crack!
Calufray’s knuckles stung after his fist slammed into the side of Nizhoni’s head. Tonya gasped. The other adults immediately reacted, several of them rushing to lift Nizhoni from the ground and several others to restrain Calufray.
“That’s enough, Calufray,” said the woman holding his right arm. “You’ve made your point. We’ll talk this over with Master Folger and see what can be done.” When Calufray threw off one of the men, she got close enough to speak quietly—but with a warning tone—in his ear. “Take a walk.”
His eyes widened with rage and he threw himself forward, lunging for the Pitcher. If he could not knock Nizhoni senseless, at least he wouldn’t let him have that.
But Nizhoni’s hand was faster, and a whip flung from his hip, snagging the Pitcher and bringing it back to him where he dropped the whip and caught the Pitcher in the same hand. All this time his other hand was wiping the blue blood from his mouth. Nizhoni looked down at the blood and back up to Calufray, who was still restrained.
“Take him away. He doesn’t belong here.” And he dropped the Pitcher in the dirt among the whip’s coils, watching only long enough to be sure that Calufray was on his way. “I apologize for that display, Master Folger,” Calufray heard Nizhoni say as he was faced toward the beach and pushed along by several pairs of hands. “Now, I think we can have the dock in place within a day or two. How soon can your ships be available…?”
When Calufray was planted on the beach of Cadfel Cove, he stood in place and didn’t move, letting his anger seethe.
“Calufray?” came Tonya’s voice from behind him. He didn’t move. He heard her sniff. “What will you do, Calufray?”
He let out a heavy breath. “I’ll be fine. Thank you. I suppose I won’t be welcome here for awhile.” He turned to look over his shoulder. “But I’ll be back. This place is my home, no matter what is said about me.” He stared at the beach. “And I’m sorry.” He paused, meaning more than Tonya could have known. “For everything I’ve done. I'll make it up to all of you somehow.”
And leaving the words where he stood, he walked along the beach, leaving Tonya and Cadfelham behind. She didn’t follow him.
His path went where it would, sometimes into the trees, sometimes into the water. Without the Pitcher he felt aimless, like he didn’t know what to do next. He couldn’t leave it, but he couldn’t go back. Not now. Not while Nizhoni was waiting with so many hamlet-folk on his side. And the children did need food; he shouldn’t stand in the way of that. As much as Calufray hated Nizhoni right now, he was taking care of them. He had a plan, which was more than Calufray could say.
What was his plan? What did he want most? What would his mother say?
Lay aside your self-pity and remorse, Calufray. Save them.
Calufray raised his head and looked toward the water. The voice hadn’t come from anywhere; it hadn’t even been a voice at all...had it? He paid more attention to where he was, placing himself in his surroundings. There was a familiar ridge of stone that jutted out from the shore near the…
The Fairy Ring waited silently, the stones being tucked in by the sea with a blanket of water over and over again. It was resting now, but he believed as much now as he did when he was a child that it held power. He walked closer, half expecting to see something, half wanting to convince himself that something was there anyway. He tried not to push on that thought too hard, hoping it would make it more likely.
His heart pounded. Something was there. He stopped. He stared.
Nothing happened. He picked up a smooth stone from the beach, wanting something to do with his hands while he waited. The waves came in, they went out.
“What am I supposed to do next?” He asked the ring of stones. When no answer came, he shook his head, tossing the stone into the circle and walked away.
Floop! went the stone as it landed in the water.
A swirl of light brought him spinning back around. Just as he did, it resolved into the figure of a man-sized eagle, shimmering with iridescent translucence, but—to Calufray’s eyes—very much a solid creature. It was standing in the ring of stones, perfectly balanced on an unseen perch just above the water’s surface regarding him with passive attention.
A feeling of awe pierced Calufray to his heart. He suddenly knew—thought he didn’t know how, or why—that he should bow to this creature, like offering your hand to someone you meet for the first time. He dipped his head, never taking his eyes from the man-sized shimmering bird.
“Can you take me to where I’m meant to be? Help me, please.” He reached out his hand.
The magical eagle clicked its beak and lowered its head, stretching one wing down to the water’s surface like a ramp. Calufray understood little about magical birds, but he knew what was being offered, and splashed out into the shallow water, entering the ring of stones, and climbing aboard the eagle’s back.
And as soon as he did, the whole world reversed itself; as the eagle took off, its form gained the brown and white coloration of a real eagle, all while the beach, the trees, even Cadfelham far below, lost its own color and became a swirling mass of shimmering iridescent light.
All at once a new, more real world overlayed the fading one he left behind. He was flying through the sky, among the iridescent clouds, and this alone was marvelous. But atop those clouds were solid, very natural-looking citadels with swooping architecture and unrealistically long banners in colors Calufray couldn’t even name. The banners swirled and billowed in a wind that blew contrary to the one that lifted the eagle.
Circling the citadel nearest Calufray was a flock of birds that zoomed this way and that with a frenetic movement suggestive of hummingbirds. But as the cloud of activity zoomed toward him, Calufray realized they were not hummingbirds, and not even birds at all, but tiny people held aloft by tiny fluttering wings. They darted past him with such speed—but with perfect control—that he could not even glimpse what manner of wings they were. He was simply passed by a humming blur of light and a chorus of faint tinkling sounds, like a cascade of tiny distant brass bells, and then they were gone.
Once the citadel was behind him, he looked, and far below he saw the shape of a particular island he remembered from his time aboard the Trawler. Though it was shimmering with the iridescent light that characterized the world he came from, he recognized the shape, and all at once his time with the Sisseton also returned to him. Now he had three perspectives to compare in his head: the surface of the water, beneath it, and high above it, all in reference to this one island.
In his mind’s eye it was like he could see the island from all sides, now, feeling the sand of its beaches beneath his feet, visiting its secret inlets and caves without ever moving from where he was. Instinctively, his mind reached out to where he expected to find the next island, and instantly it was beneath him, though the eagle hadn’t moved any faster than it had been this whole time. Calufray circled this second island only long enough to catalog it in his mind, to “visit” it thoroughly from all sides, and then moved on to the next one he knew he would see.
So time passed up here, among the cloud citadels of the newly-real world, the less-than-real world presenting itself below him for his study. He didn’t know how long he remained in this state, for this new world didn’t impose on his body the inconveniences of hunger or fatigue. There was simply thrilling exploration, unfettered and thorough, and Calufray feeling more at peace than he had since he discovered that Cadfelham was alive and healing, what now seemed so long ago.
This thought brought him back around to his purpose in being here, on the back of this magical creature, flying over the vastness of the Siren’s Sea. He wanted to be what the village needed. He wanted to make up for what he had done, as well as he might.
And so it was that the sea below him shifted, and instantly an island he knew was below him. It was the home of an underground settlement, damp and small, called Tin Obeliskdale. It was an old settlement, from before the kingdom of Aviqming was founded. Calufray had been there during his time aboard the Trawler, when they had stopped to resupply.
Tin Obeliskdale was populated by halflings who did business very much by the book, and didn’t care whether you were up to no good. “Make the deal, keep the deal,” they would say. “Take the rest up with your gods—ours will not help you.”
The captain of the Trawler had only taken advantage of this attitude once, when talking to the settlement manager, Allira. Calufray had been keeping watch outside Allira’s office at the time, so he had never interacted with Allira directly, but the manager’s reputation spoke for itself. If this was where he needed to be, he would speak to her and see what sort of deal he could make in favor of Cadfelham.
Quick as thought, the magical eagle landed on the island in the middle of a large natural spring. Dismounting, Calufray landed in the cool, ankle-deep water, somehow refreshed by his return to the world he left behind. All at once the swirling lights of the spring and the island where it resided returned to their ordinary colors and solidness, and the eagle reverted to its semi-real shimmering state before dissolving back into the nothing from whence it came.
Calufray hadn’t been to this part of the island before, but he was certain the several streams issuing from the natural spring would lead closer to the settlement; he remembered there being a yawning mouth in the side of the island that exposed the underground to natural light and a fall of freshwater nearby. If he could find the falls, he could find the way underground.
It didn’t take long for him to find the mouth; he soon came upon a sign that pointed back the way he had come labelled “Springs.” After passing several more of these, the ground opened up beneath him and far below he could see the glint of sunlight on the eponymous polished gray obelisk that gave the settlement its name. Squatting next to the tin obelisk was the inn and apartments where the he and the crew of the Trawler had stayed during their visit to the island.
The only problem now was how to get from where he was to where he wanted to be. If the nearest signpost was any indication, it meant following the freshwater falls straight down the wet rockface. Not seeing any easier path, there was nothing for it but to climb. Still feeling refreshed from his visit to the other world, Calufray gave his limbs a quick stretch and set to it.
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