High The Vanes (The Change Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

much, but he is an expert and it will carry us safely.”

    “What does it look like?”

    “Small and black. He usually leaves it upside down to keep the inside dry. And don’t forget to bring the pole. It may not be directly beside the cwragl.”

    Baffled, but eager to get away from the mad man, I headed up the path. After ten minutes or so, I came across something that looked like Eluned’s description. I turned it over. It was made of thin branches covered in some sort of fabric that had been painted black. I would not have called it a boat. I could not imagine how it would carry three people. I searched about and eventually discovered a long pole, cut from the branch of a tree, lying in the long grass. It had been well-handled as the top part was worn smooth. Picking it up, I half-dragged, half-carried both objects back to where the mad man was still standing in the water, singing his crazy songs.

    “Put it in the water, but make sure you hold on tight to it,” Eluned said, taking the pole from me.

    When I did as she asked the mad man grabbed the other side and leapt straight into it. The strange craft wallowed a bit but did not tilt over.

    “My poly. My woly. My holy. Needs my holy. Holy day. Christy mass day.”

    “Now you step in. Very gently. Try not to rock it too much.”

    Fearfully, I put first one, then the other foot into the boat. The mad man was still hopping from foot to foot, but the boat remained amazingly balanced. Finally, Eluned also stepped in, clutching at my arm to maintain her balance. With the three of us stood precariously in the middle of the boat, filling it, she handed him the pole.

    “My poly. My woly. My holy,” he sang, plunging the pole far out into the bed of the river.

    Immediately, almost over-balancing us, the boat shot away from the bank and headed for the fast-flowing centre of the river. Seconds later we were caught in it and rapidly heading downstream. As we approached the ruins of the bridge, the mad man struck his pole into a gap between two huge fallen stones. The boat swirled around it and came to a stop, the water still rushing past.

    The mad man turned to look at me. When he spoke it was in a haunted voice.

    “Here the devil did his work, my lady. You see these stones? My father, my mother and my two sisters were standing where they lay on the side of the bridge. The bridge that had stood here from the time of the old Romans. Those old Romans made the road as well. You look like one of them, my lady. You have the face of the devil people. It is here you must step out of my boat.”

    I looked at Eluned. She shook her head. “We need to reach the other side. Come now.”

    “The other side? Yes. You wish to know what they did to my father, my mother and my two sisters? Why their bones sit beneath these two stones even to this day? I will tell you. I will tell you. They made my father hold my sisters – by one of their feet – over the wall of the bridge. One sister in each hand. You understand? Then one of them took his sword and struck off my father’s hands.”

    I put my hands to my eyes. “Eluned, make him stop.”

    “Stop your stories. We have heard them before. Take us to the other side.”

    “This one has not come this way before. She must hear the story. With his hands gone, they tied a rope around my mother’s ankles and hung her around his neck. As he leaned over the wall they cut off his head. Yes! They cut off his head. And I was watching. I was watching. And you expect me to take you across this river? I should drop you in it. To join my father, my mother, and my sisters.”

    As he clutched my arm I screamed in terror. This seemed to break his spell. He turned away, dragged the pole out of the gap and the small boat was swept downstream. Within a minute or two, he plunged the pole in again and brought us to the other side. As the boat bumped up against the bank he pushed us and we literally fell out onto the grass. Before we could