Devil's Rock - Chris Speyer [82]
‘I don’t know,’ said Zaki. ‘If Rhiannon was wearing her bracelet, she might have known what happened. Perhaps she’s trying to get away before Maunder catches up with her.’
‘What if he did catch up with her?’
‘You mean Michael . . . Maunder is on Curlew?’ It hadn’t occurred to him. But it was possible, of course it was possible. It wasn’t difficult to steal a boat. He could have taken a dinghy from Kingsbridge and come down on the tide.
Anusha nodded. ‘Can you still make phantom creatures without the bracelet?’
‘I think so. I could last night.’
‘Could you use one to look for Curlew; see who’s on board?’
‘I can try. You take the helm.’
‘What do I do?’
‘Push the tiller the opposite way from the way you want the boat to go. You’ll soon get the hang of it.’
They changed places and Anusha eased the boat ahead, slowly at first, while she got used to steering. Zaki sat in the bows and gathered his thoughts. He would use the hawk; its exceptional power of sight was what he needed. He recalled the moment in the classroom when it alighted on his arm; its piercing yellow eyes, the hooked beak, the mottled feathers, the way it swivelled its head to look over its shoulder. He held his right arm out level and thought only of the bird . . . nothing happened. How stupid! He’d tried to create it out of thin air! He looked around for a suitable object to transform and found a coil of rope in the bottom of the boat. He stood, cleared his mind once more and thought of the bird, then flung the rope as high into the air as he could. The coil spun end over end, seemed to hang, suspended, go out of focus, blurred, developed an eye, and then the hawk was wheeling and soaring above him.
He sat, closed his eyes, and imagined the world from the hawk’s point of view. Immediately, he was seeing through the hawk’s eyes. The horizon swung up and down in a dizzying see-sawing motion as the hawk’s flight dipped left and right. He saw himself and Anusha in the launch far below. He thought the hawk down the estuary and out to sea and let the strengthening head wind lift it higher and higher until it rose above the rocky pinnacles of Bolt Head. He turned the bird’s head, scanning the coast east and west.
There she was! Reaching fast under full sail, half a mile to sea of the Ham Stone, heading west. The angle of the sail prevented him from seeing how many people were on the boat. He sent the bird after her. Curlew leapt and bucked in the short, steep waves that the southerly wind had already whipped up off the headland. Now he could see the cockpit. Now he could see how many were aboard. He let out a groan. Only one person was visible but that person was Michael – at least it appeared to be Michael from the back, but when he saw the scarred face he knew it wasn’t really his brother who was steering the boat. Where was Rhiannon? Had he killed her?
Zaki brought the hawk back across the headland. He held up his arm and made the hawk alight on it, then released it from his mind and the coil of rope dropped back into the boat.
‘I still can’t really believe you can do that,’ said Anusha.
‘I could only see Maunder.’
‘Where’s Rhiannon?’
‘In the cabin, perhaps. Let’s hope so. They’re heading down the coast.’
‘Can we catch them?’
‘Not in this.’
‘Where are they going?’
‘My guess is they’re heading for the Orme.’
‘What if we took Morveren?’
Zaki didn’t answer. He looked at Anusha and she looked steadily back at him, waiting for his reply. Take Morveren. Morveren was a bigger boat than Curlew, but heavier. She had a motor and Curlew didn’t. They might overtake her.
‘You take the launch back. I’ll take Morveren.’
‘Oh no! You said next time you raced you wanted me to crew. Well, this is a race and I’m crewing.’ She altered course, swinging the launch towards Morveren’s mooring.
‘Anusha, it’s looking rough out there.’
‘What are trying to say? You think because I’m a girl I’m