Free Magic Casement by Dave Duncan Page A

ruffling the surface, but there were no
waves. Anxiously Rap eyed the causeway ahead.
    “Too
late!” Lin sighed.
    “Not
much swell,” Rap said stubbornly. “I’ll risk it.” He
stood up and thumped the reins on the horses’ backs, urging them to a
canter, wondering if Lin would demand to be let off. He would not be able to
swim with that cast on his arm, but Lin probably did not know how to swim
anyway. There was no point learning--a man died of cold in a few minutes in the
Winter Ocean. Then Rap remembered that he could not swim, either.
    Lin
did not speak. The wagon picked up speed, thundering along the top of the quay
toward the long curve of the causeway that led to the distant shore. Most of it
ran over land-low islands and rocks, dry land except in the big winter
storms-but there were four low spots and the tide was already running over
three of them. The wagon bounced and rolled and sent seabirds screaming; then
there was water on both sides of the way and Big Damp was coming up ahead.
    Rap
took that one at full speed. It was straight and shallow and he did not sense
any worry from the horses. Water shot out in silver sheets and salt spray
splashed in his face and then they were safe on the other side, Duck Island. It
had been deeper than he had expected, though.
    Lin,
still sitting and thus lower than Rap, had been soaked. He whistled and then
laughed, a little nervously.
    “I
hope that new wheel stays on,” he remarked.
    Little
Damp was still dry, except for a few spray pools, where wavelets were starting
to splash over.
    Now
they were climbing over Big Island, and Rap slackened the pace so as not to
heat the horses. But he stayed standing. The rocks and shingle alongside the
road gave way to the harsh, stubborn grasses that enjoyed the challenge of
living so close to the sea, and for a moment the water was out of view. Then
the wagon rolled roughly over the crest and started steeply down.
    Ahead
lay the main stretch of causeway... except that most of it wasn’t there.
    Lin
squealed, “Rap!” and straightened up.
    Rap
had not expected the gap to be quite so wide yet. Already the blue tide was
pouring through, shiny and beautiful under the sunshine. He had never seen
this, except from shore. The wind was strong now and cold, whipping the horses’
manes, but the waves were very small. The raised roadway ran out into the sea
ahead for a short way and then dipped under. Far away to the left, jutting out
from Tallow Rocks, was the other end.
    There
were two bends in the road. Somewhere.
    “Rap,
you can’t!”
    “Get
off, then! “ Rap snapped, without slowing the wagon. He was not going to
sit for six or seven hours on Big Island and be laughed at for the rest of his
days. In truth, he was already too late to stop, for the roadbed was raised and
there was no room to turn; this part would be underwater in an hour or so.
Backing up would be tricky. Then hooves started splashing and he saw eight ears
begin to flicker with alarm. He could calm horses by singing to them-not that
he had any sort of a voice, but horses were not music critics. He started
singing the first thing that came into his head.
    I
traveled land, I traveled sea...
    “Rap!”
Lin howled. “You’ll go off the road! Stop, for the Gods’
sake!”
    “Shut
up!” Rap said, and went back to singing. The horses’ ears rose
again as they listened to him. They kept splashing their big hooves and the
wagon continued to roll steadily forward. A couple of swimming gulls watched
intently, bobbing up and down as the waves flowed under them.
    “Shut
up, Lin!”
    Maiden,
maiden... maiden, oh. Maiden, maiden, maiden, oh...
    Far
off to his left, two fishing boats were setting sail from the quay, and Rap
wondered what they thought of this strange horsedrawn vessel plying their
harbor. There were a couple of big rocks coming up on his right, green with
weed and purple with mussels, being lapped by the small waves, and he knew
about how far those were