Storm Singing and other Tangled Tasks Read Online Free PDF Page B

forward to see what fell out …
    Broken shells smashed by birds; a battered but unopened tin of tuna; a cracked mother-of-pearl pendant; a dusty egg-timer filled with sand.
    Strathy stirred the pile with his toe. “This is a habit of the cnidaree. Almost their religion. They collect the sea’s earth-trapped treasures and return them. I wonder …”
    Suddenly the sceptical elders were looking around the clifftop with new enthusiasm. Within moments Rona’s mum found the orange jellyfish which Yann had punched, stuck in a crack in the rock; Strathy found sea urchin spines entangled in heather twenty paces inland; and the oldest elder found a fragment of fishskin clinging to the cliff edge.
    The elders went into a quick huddle, excluding Rona’s mum and Roxburgh’s dad, who was muttering angrily at his son, then Strathy stepped out of the huddle and straight to the cliff edge. Helen and Yann stood close together. Surely they weren’t going to be banished from the coast forever?
    Strathy raised his immense bull seal’s voice. “The selkie elders extend grateful thanks to our dry-shod friends for foiling an intruder’s attack on our competition. We shall fête them as honoured guests at our Storm Singer feast tonight, and invite them to be spectators at the start of the Sea Herald contest tomorrow.”
    The huge cheer from below drowned out Sinclair’s peevish complaints and Rona’s delighted squeals as she hugged Yann and Helen.
    But after the elders headed back to the sea, and Rona’s mum left her daughter with strict instructions to be home an hour before the feast, Rona sank onto the ground, put her head in her hands, and started to sniff.
    “Oh no,” said Yann. “You’re not getting all emotional here. You can get weepy on the way back to Taltomie Bay, if you have to.”
    Yann bent his front legs to let Helen and Rona clamber on his back. He made his usual complaints about being treated like a taxi, but the girls knew he would complain even louder about how long it took them to walk to the campsite on two legs each.
    Yann headed inland, cutting off a bulging curve of coast and galloping straight over the moors to Taltomie Bay.
    “What’s wrong, Rona?” Helen spoke loudly enough for Yann to hear. “You should be delighted about winning the Storm Singer competition. Are you worried about this Sea Herald contest?”
    Rona yelled back, “Yes! Very worried!”
    “You did brilliantly this afternoon. I’m sure you can win another contest.”
    “It’s not winning or losing I’m worried about,” Rona said. “It’s living or dying.”

Chapter 6
    “What?” Helen yelled over the hoofbeats and the wind. Surely she’d misheard Rona’s answer.
    “It’s not losing or winning the contest I’m worried about,” Rona repeated. “It’s surviving it!”
    “What do you mean?”
    “The tasks aren’t about writing and performing. They’re about showing you can survive all the dangers of the sea and the coast.”
    Yann slowed down, and called, “I can help you prepare for the tasks.”
    “How can you help, Yann? The tasks happen out at sea.”
    Yann laughed confidently. “I mean help with psyching yourself up, using your fear to give yourself strength, using your opponents’ fear to defeat them. I’ve won lots of races and fights, so I’m sure I can help you win.”
    “Stop being so macho, Yann. I don’t care about winning this! All I want is to be alive at the autumn equinox, applauding the winning Sea Herald, then getting peace to write more songs. I’m delighted to be a Storm Singer, but I’ve never wanted to be Sea Herald. It’s my bad luck that the year I compete for Storm Singer, they need a new Sea Herald too. So I don’t want your coaching on the competitive spirit, thanks, Yann.Let’s hope I don’t need Helen’s first aid skills either!”
    “But there’s no point taking part if you aren’t trying to win,” yelled Yann. “You could at least try !”
    “Who are the other