A flurry of movement behind me. “No!” shouted Gareth and Cathal together. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t breathe. For, of course, there was one man on board who was not a member of the crew, one man who might, at an extreme, disobey the captain’s orders. Felix was astride the rail. He steadied himself, brought his other leg over, then dived, straight as an arrow, into the bay. The waters closed over him, and he, too, was gone. Gone in a heartbeat. Gone between one breath and the next. Gone as if he had never been.

I rushed for the rail, scrabbling to climb up. If I jumped now I could save him, I had to, it wasn’t too late, he couldn’t die—

A pair of hands closed around my arms, restraining me firmly but gently. “No, Sibeal,” said Cathal. As I twisted and kicked and fought, shouting my rage, he held me firm all the way to shore.

I was on the beach. Liadan lay at anchor some little distance out in the water. Crewmen had conveyed me to shore in a small rowing boat. The pebbles were hard underneath me; the air was chill against my wet cheeks. I heard Gareth giving sharp orders, his tone forbidding comment. And someone was making a whimpering sound like the cry of a whipped dog. Maybe it was me. There was no druid here, no brave woman with the ear of the gods and a spirit honed to strength and wisdom by years of discipline. The last spark of that person had dwindled and died out there on the water. There was only a hollow where my heart had been ripped out. Cast away. Sunk deep as death.

“Sibeal?”

Cathal was crouching beside me, his tone unusually kindly. He put his hand on my shoulder.

“Don’t touch me!” I shrank into myself, hugging my anguish close.

“Sibeal, we need your help. Take a deep breath and look at me. Sibeal, look at me.”

“Go away.”

A crunch as he settled on the stones beside me. A silence. Then he said, “Being leader of a mission means certain responsibilities. That includes making decisions on the instant. Sometimes those decisions seem wrong. If you’re not a fighting man they may seem very wrong indeed. Sibeal, Gareth can’t afford to lose any more men. If our numbers drop below a certain level we won’t be able to get home. That could have been a trap, designed to draw one after another of us into the water in a vain rescue attempt. He had to do what he did.” After a moment he added, “Both of them vanished the moment they went under the water. We could go out in the small boat. We could search until nightfall, putting ourselves in the perfect position to be snapped up by that creature. Chances are we’d still find no trace of them.”

I tried to close my ears. Gull. Felix. Gone.