Diamond Waves

Prologue

11 years ago

“You must always treat the sea with respect, Tatty,” her father always told her. “Treat it as you would a person, and the waves will always take care of you.”

Little Tatiana Ashburn gazed up at her father with wide, inquisitive eyes. Dark sapphire, like the ocean atmidnight her mother lovingly told her. The sand beneath their feet was cool, the sunset streaking the ocean amber, gold, midnight blue and forest green. It reminded Tatiana of a piece of canvas her teacher had given her in art class. Then a box of paints. She’d been told to paint whatever she wanted, so she had done a rainbow. Bright and cheerful. She felt so proud of herself when her mother hung it in the living room, a twinkling smile that made her eyes shine bright.

The waves were crashing softly onto the beach. A picture of calm.

As they strode up the narrow cliff path that was littered with loose stones to the top, Tatiana was out of breath. It was beautiful up here. But if you strayed too close to the edge, you would fall over onto the jagged rocks below. It had happened before, and it would happen again, she was sure.

She just had no idea that it would be that evening.

Her father, a tall man with ragged black hair that fell into his sapphire eyes sat down upon the lush green grass, his seven year old daughter jumping into his lap and stealing a chocolate bar from the plastic bag they’d bought up. A picnic by the light of the sunset. It turned the girls honey blonde hair amber, her eyes very nearly midnight.

It was sudden, how the wind picked up. Tatiana blinked and stared up at the sky, watching the dark clouds rolling in as if someone was pushing them along. So black and angry.

Her father carefully dislodged her from his lap and stood up, the wind smashing into his face like a train. He gasped from the stinging pain. Tatiana retreated to the trees a few meters away, calling out, “daddy?”

“It’s okay sweetie,” he replied, utterly confused- how was it even possible for the weather to change so very fast? Even the sea was rolling angrily now. It was as black as the depths of hell.

Tatiana could barely see anything for the hair that was in her eyes. But when she looked again, her father was gone. She clung for dear life to the tree as the wind pounded against her, a scream escaping her lips, but she didn’t close her eyes. She couldn’t. Instead she stared out to sea, eyes tracing the waves that seemed like iron, twisting itself around and around as if some wild beast. The crashes were like pounding hooves.

And that was when she saw it, running across the surface of the angry ocean like a shadow. A horse in shape, with a young man upon its back. His face from what she could see was lean and determined. There was no saddle, just his hands wound into the horses midnight mane. His own hair was long and the palest she had ever seen. White or faint blonde. It was impossible to tell, the waves were swallowing them. Within a few seconds, they had dived under the waves and were gone.

And almost instantly, the ocean started to calm itself. The waves stopped their writhing and the sky cleared to an inky black spattered with stars.

Tatiana just stood there, her eyes wide and fear rooting her to the ground. Was it possible? Horses of the ocean and their riders? It all seemed like one great big fantasy story from her bookshelf. But her eyes didn’t lie.

“Daddy?” she called now, taking a tentative step forwards, shivering as the evening air touched her bare arms. But there was no one else up there on the cliff with her. She was alone.

“Daddy?!” Tatiana called louder, panic starting to seep into her heart.

A week later a shoe that had belonged to Thomas Ashburn washed up on shore, and he was proclaimed lost at sea.

Tatiana never saw the water horse and its rider again.