The wave hit us. I fought for purchase, clinging to my companion as the water crashed into me, chest-high, and spent itself on the rocks. All was swirling white around us, and then came the sucking undertow, and I did pray, a wordless, mindless plea. It was gone, and we were still here. He wheezed for air, the sound like a knife scraping iron. His legs were buckling. I fought to keep him on his feet.

“Well done!” I shouted. “Now up! Up, quick!”

I dragged him up, step by stumbling step onto the slippery rocks. His breathing vibrated through my body. “Up there. Next wave—up to that ledge. Higher! Up! Up!” And let the next wave not smash my head into a boulder, or we’re both gone.

My legs ached. My shoulders felt like fire. Another step up, and another. Let me be right about how fast this uncanny tide was rising. Let this wave carry us up to the ledge. The voice of the sea thundered its challenge. Now, it was coming now.

I found a tree root between the stones and grabbed it with my left hand. My right arm was clamped around the man’s waist. “Breathe!” I ordered, then took a breath deep into my chest as I had been taught. The water came, chill and hard. It was in my face, up my nose, filling my ears. My head hit something. I surfaced, my shoulder smashing against the rocks. The man was slipping from my grip, down, down and away. “No!” I shrieked in defiance of the sea, and I grabbed his hair and held on like a barnacle to its rock. “No! You’re going to live!”

The wave subsided, leaving us just below the safe ledge.

“Up!” I croaked. His breathing screamed hurt. His face was ghastly white, his eyes dark hollows. I must be cruel. “Move! This way!” The next wave would get us there. It must. I got his arm around my shoulders again. He forced himself more or less upright. Nyd. Courage in the face of the impossible. “Good work,” I said. “Keep hold of me. I won’t let you go.”

We struggled over a patch of sliding stones and past a projecting boulder. As the next wave roared up behind us, we reached the ledge. The surge washed us up onto it, as if weary of the game we were playing. The water receded, and we were safe.