CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The master of The Serrin, the vessel which was to take Lewvin and the two boys to Jeggan, capital city of the Theigian islands, said the voyage would take three days, but perhaps twice that if the winds were unfavourable.
His ship was a two-masted, square-rigged merchantman with ports below the main deck for ten long oars, two men to each oar. A stepped, two-tiered housing in the stern incorporated a tiny stateroom, to be shared by Chaldez and Dan, and two smaller cabins, one of which was to be Lewvin's.
On the second day out of Venka the wind, until then a steady and helpful easterly, freshened noticeably. By evening The Serrin was plunging and bucking on a wild and boisterous sea beneath a blackening sky. Chaldez, looking out over the stern from the stateroom window, was appalled to see waves as high as the ship's masts rearing up and racing towards him, as though to engulf the puny craft. As they passed underneath, lifting The Serrin up and up, until it seemed she must brush the torn, scudding clouds, his terror gave way to wonder and exhilaration. The continuously repeated drama enthralled him, and it was sometime before he realised that Dan was not sharing his excitement. Dan was prostrate in his cot, moaning and whimpering.
By morning the gale had lost some of its bluster, and towards midday there was a cry from the look-out that land was in sight. Chaldez was already on deck, and he peered towards the lifting and falling horizon. Then he too glimpsed a dim, rugged line that betrayed the nearest of the Theigan islands. They would be in sight of one island or another for the remainder of the voyage, the ship's master said. Chaldez felt a sense of disappointment, as though the adventure had slipped away from him.
Dan and Lewvin had both been sick all night, and although the storm was now in its dotage and weakening fast, Lewvin kept to her cot. Dan, red-eyed and wan, came out on deck, and seemed to find some comfort in the news that the open sea was now behind them.
Chaldez thought that they must reach Jeggan in another day or so, and was surprised that evening to see the mariners reducing the canvass, rather than putting up more in order to take advantage of the brisk easterly. The helmsman pointed with his thumb over his shoulder when Chaldez asked him why. "Baggamanzi's just taking a breath," he said, referring to the demon king of the sea. "He was only playing with us before. Tonight he'll mean business, you see."
The storm broke at about midnight. Chaldez was tipped out of his cot, and water slopped over him. The ship's motion was so violent that he was unable to get to his feet. Timbers creaked, the wind shrieked through the rigging and there was a constant roar of crashing waves, and through it all he heard Dan moaning and crying. Guided by the sound, he attempted to make his way towards him, crawling on all fours, but was repeatedly thrown on to his side; his head, arms, legs and body crashing against the sides and pieces of cabin furniture.
How could he have thought that a storm at sea was nothing to be afraid of? He was now more terrified than he had ever been in his life before. If the ship would only remain still for a moment he could find his bearings and get a grip on his senses, but The Serrin seemed to be alive, and determined to break every bone in his body.
He was sliding across the floor when his right hand touched, and grasped, the fixed leg of the table. He pulled himself up to it, and clung there as the water sloshed back and forth over his legs. He was so cold that he had lost all feeling in his fingers; his whole body was shaking convulsively. He was hauling himself up into a standing position when The Serrin gave a shuddering lurch and he was thrown to the deck once more, striking his head as he went down. For several moments he lay where he had landed, too dazed to move. Gradually he became aware of voices shouting above the clamour of the storm. The cabin door was flung open and a figure was silhouetted against the grey night sky.
"We're on a reef!! We're on a reef!" Then the figure was gone.
Chaldez managed to get to his feet. Helped by the dim light from the open door he reached Dan's side. He felt his body in the cot; touched his face. It was cold and damp. "Dan!" he bellowed. "We've got to get out of here! We're on a reef. We must find your mother. Get up, Dan!" He clawed at Dan's body, dragging it out of the cot. Dan struggled to his feet. Clinging to one another, they groped their way to the door. Beyond it they found themselves engulfed by pandemonium.
The moon, low on the horizon, showed her full pale face fitfully through ragged clouds. By her dim light it was possible to make out a tangled mass of rigging strewn over the deck and the shattered mast to which it was still attached. Figures, drenched by torrential rain and cascading spray, clambered feverishly about as though pursued by demons, and then The Serrin gave another violent lurch as a giant wave lifted her up momentarilly and smashed her down on to the reef a second time. For a moment the storm's cacophony was blocked out by the groans and crack of her timbers as they stove in.
"She's breaking up!" a voice cried. "Every man for himself!"
The door to Lewvin's cabin, unfastened, was swinging to and fro. Dan went inside and a moment later reappeared. "Help me get her out!" he shouted. She was on the floor of the cabin, and apparently injured. They half dragged and half carried her out. She was barely conscious, and moaned continuously.
The Serrin shuddered as another huge wave crashed over her. Chaldez steadied himself and looked up in time to sea a dark, transluscent wall of water towering above him, then all was confusion as he was swept off his feet and over the side.
As he sank down and down he was at first conscious only of the silence in which he was suddenly and totally enveloped, and then of the dim, greenish light before his eyes. He seemed to sink for ever. His lungs now were bursting; he was seized by panic, overwhelmed by the need to take breath. He struggled violently, and was on the point of taking a fatal gasp when his head burst through the tumultuous surface, and he filled his lungs with air. Then once more the sea embraced him in green suffocating silence.
The next time it delivered him to the surface his flailing arms struck a floating spa. He hugged it to him, coughing and spluttering. A wave almost tore them apart, but he clung on. The waves and the wind bore them through a gap in the reef, and onwards towards a rocky shore.
That turbulent voyage, in which he was as often below the surface as above it, lasted, it seemed, for an age; consciousness was slipping away. The hands that pulled him roughly out of the surf seemed unreal. Was he in the land of the dead? A torch, its flame flattened by the gale, was thrust towards him. By its uncertain light he could make out bearded faces peering into his own. Words were spoken, but he had no idea of their meaning. He was pulled to his feet and led, stumbling and staggering over jumbled boulders, to where the bubbling, shallow water of a stream emerged from a narrow, steep-sided valley cut into the steep, angular cliff.
There were two men on either side of him, big men, who took his weight whenever he lost his footing and was in danger of falling as together they followed the course of the stream. It rose sharply, the water rushing over the rock-strewn bed and tumbling over countless little falls.
After a short but difficult climb, the three of them came out at the top of the ravine from where they continued inland across rolling downs. The low-slung moon lit the soft curves in her eerie, colourless light, filling the hollows and folds with black shadows. The thunder of the sea grew fainter, and the wind, though blustery and wild, had shed its terrifying madness.
The trio trudged on over the spongy turf. Chaldez, aching, bruised, exhausted and cold, felt as though he had been walking for ever when at last their route took them off the higher ground. Then they were passing what looked, in the moonlight, like wide grassy mounds. Chaldez was puzzled until he realised that they were dwellings; he was in some sort of village.
The two men, who had not uttered a word since leaving the shore, tightened their grip on his arms, and led him down a narrow side track which passed between two of the half-buried houses. They passed through a gateway and stopped in front of a wooden hut; one of the men lifted out a retaining bar and pulled open the rickety door. Chaldez was pushed through; the door was pushed to, he heard the bar being replaced, and then he was alone. The voices of the two men, who had begun to exchange muttered remarks as soon as the door was closed, quickly faded.
Chaldez was enclosed in total darkness. The hut smelt of hay and animals, and was quite warm. He stood, listening, and then pushed against the door experimentally. The retaining bar, as he had guessed, held it fast. Then he sank to his knees, put his face in his hands, and wept.
For a long time his mind was in turmoil as he re-lived the terrors of the ship-wreck, and wondered again and again what had become of Lewvin and Dan. And what was to become of him, among these strange and unfriendly islanders?
The loss of his friends, and the uncertainty of his future, brought the tears to his eyes once more and he sobbed uncontrollably.