The Rise of the Sea Ghosts (from The Gelid Times Trilogy)

Chapter 16

The River Elin; To theSouth

Beyond the viaduct, the waterway narrowed and meandered in tight hair pin turns towards the estuary. As Kaz navigated the Legend through the twists of the river, he was grateful to have left the immortal stingers behind, while he knew that there were more dangers ahead, he felt comfortable in the security of the innocuous space between the viaduct and the estuary. He stood at the helm in the comfort of his parker, where he had tied the hood with the strings tightly under his chin. So tightly in fact, that only the tip of his nose and eyes peered through the small opening surrounded by fur.

Celeste hovered behind him with her notebook, recording observations on their encounter with the immortal stingers and calculations for the journey ahead once they sailed through the boundary – that is where the fresh water from the river mixed with the salt water of the Saltum Sea. Her handwriting, usually consisted of uniform letters and numbers that sat perfectly next to each other and created tidy rows of words and numbers, was now large and scrawly as her gloved hand struggled to hold the pencil in the cold dying light of the day.

As they neared the mouth of the river, the light shifted to a freezing dusk and from the icy blue water of the estuary, a glacial mist rose in hues of silver and white before they disappeared into the luminosity of the darkening blue haze of the sky.

"It will be dark soon," Celeste said as she joined Kaz at the helm.

"Yes, we've been lucky to navigate this stretch of river in the light, it would be infinitely more difficult when night falls." Kaz replied.

"We cannot stop though – by my calculations Kaz, we can make it up the coast to the base of the Anastase Mountains by morning." Celeste said as she looked at her notes. "Yes – we can definitely make it by morning."

"Sail through the night? Not drop anchor when we cross the boundary point? We won't be able to see a thing, Celeste. The coast will be just there!" Kaz said as he thrust his arm out in a random direction. "Basically, we could sail straight into the coast Celeste. The coast is rocky, you know – rocky – it's not sand. If it were sand, we'd risk beaching the Legend. Beaching can be undone. It's not easy, but it can be undone. No – we'd smash it to pieces and then where would we be. I'll tell you where we'd be – we'd be at the mercy of the stonefishes."

Celeste took a deep breath. Kaz, as usual, jumped from zero to a catastrophic one hundred in one breath. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, Kaz continued.

"Stonefish. You know, creatures about this big?" Kas held both hands up about the width of his shoulders. "Creatures that have thirteen spines on their back and are mostly camouflaged by the rocks that we will obviously crash into because the stars of the night sky are now hopelessly obscured by this foggy mist."

Kaz stopped momentarily to take a breath and the continued steering the boat with one hand towards the estuary and with the other demonstrating the venomous spines with his five fingers. Celeste peered into the small space of his parker trying to catch his eye.

"These," he said staring at his fingers pretending to be spines and then his voice rose to a higher pitch, "will kill us because they will think we are a threat. They're not going to attack us if we sail quietly by, are they? If we crash into the rocks, they will defend Celeste. And by defend, I mean sting. The sting will, as you know be intensely painful, the area will swell, the tissue, my tissue, will die – it will be like being hammered to death, each bone, each muscle, each joint smashed to smithereens. And then, just like that, in probably less than an hour, we will be dead. That is, if we don't freeze to death in the Saltum Sea. So, all round, I think that dropping anchor when we pass the boundary is, in fact, the best option."

Celeste waited for Kaz's rant to be over and spoke calmly and softly as if she was whispering a secret.

"I feel something has changed Kaz. I don't know exactly what. But something out there has changed. And my gut is telling me that there is no time. We had little time before, but now, I feel there is no time at all." Celeste paused as she observed Kaz's eyes registering her words. Looking past the estuary and towards the Saltum Sea, "It's out there and it's coming for us. If we travel up the coast quietly at night, I can hear how close to land we are, the breaking of the waves and the screech of the birds." She pushed her hood off her head. "I can feel the wind on my face, its speed, its change of direction. I can smell the land – the trees and grasses. I can navigate Kaz in this way and we must try."

Kaz placed both hands on the helm as he turned away from Celeste. The silence hung heavily between them as he steered the boat across the estuary towards the boundary where they could just about see the fresh water floating on top and the saltwater on the bottom. Once they crossed the boundary, there would be no going back. They had two choices: drop anchor or press on up the coast.

The blues, silvers, whites of the sea, mist and sky melded and darkened taking on a purple bluish hue. The Legend forged a path towards the boundary. The air was damp and clammy as the mist rolled along the top of the estuary and over the boat.

"Are your ears cleaned out good and proper?" Kaz said quietly as he turned to Celeste. Celeste nodded and smiled. Kaz returned the smile. "This is crazy, Celeste. We're crazy. Navigating with no stars and by pure sense is crazy."

"The Saltum Sea," Celeste nodded as she stood closer to Kaz and hooked her arm in his; Kaz steered the Legend through the boundary and into the salt water of the Saltum Sea.