Free Magic Casement by Dave Duncan Page B

from the road. A fraction more to the left...
    There
was just enough wind to make the water ruffled and impossible to see through,
but he could tell where the edges were by the way the waves surged over them.
It was safer than it looked, he told himself.
    Lin
was starting to whimper.
    I
gave her love, I gave her smiles,
    I
wooed with all my manly wiles...
    Now
he could imagine that watery blue roadway making its turn. He pulled on the
reins and the wagon curved slowly round and apparently he had guessed right,
because they continued their slow progress.
    Lin
had started to pray to some God Rap had never heard of. A new one, maybe.
    One
of the fishing boats was heading in their direction.
    The
wagon had almost stopped bumping. The tide was stronger here, in the middle,
leaving a wake as it flowed by the horses, and they were getting very nervous
now, no matter how hard he sang.
    Maiden,
maiden...
    “SNOWBALL!”
    ...
maiden...
    The
rocks floated past on the silvery water, and the swell was beginning to trouble
the horses, coming well up their legs now, over the wagon axles. They were
finding the wagon hard to pull. They were towing it.
    The
water was deeper. The waves no longer showed the edge very clearly.
    “Turn,
Rap!” Lin sobbed. “We’re at the bend, Rap! We must be! We’ll
go off!” He rose to his feet, awkwardly holding the seatback with his one
good arm. They were going to get wet boots in a minute. “Rap! Turn!”
    Rap
was not sure. Distances were deceptive when they were all covered with water
and there were no landmarks at hand. He was thinking of the road itself,
beneath the water, two stone walls filled in level with shingle and rocks,
greeny blue, probably, with the strands of weed waving in the current. There
would be shadows of ripples moving over, like cloud shadows moved over the
summer hills. Fish? He had not expected so many fish, little ones...
    Too
far to the right!
    He
eased the lead pair to the left and they carried on. But if the wagon began to
float, then it would surely drag the horses off the road.
    The
second bend, a big, wide curve... the wagon seemed to lift, skew left, then
settle, then lift. He blinked sweat from his eyes, squinting against the sun’s
glare, visualizing that underwater causeway, easing the horses around the bend.
    Staying
away from the edges.
    Then
Tallow Rocks were straight ahead and the current was behind them and the road
was starting to rise. He flicked the reins for more speed and licked salty
lips. He’d done it!
    His
hands were shaking slightly and his neck felt sore. He arched his back to ease
it and then sat down.
    “Sorry,
Lin,” he remarked, “what were you saying?”
    Lin’s
eyes were big as oysters. “How did you do that?”
    Come
to think of it, how had he done that? Rap began to feel very shaky. It was
almost as if he’d been able to see the road under the water. He’d
known where it was, what it looked like, almost. He had not seen it, but he’d
felt as if he knew what it would look like if he could... or as if he could
remember having seen it like that. Which he never had; no man ever had.
    Just
as, earlier, he’d known there was another wagon around the seventh bend?
    He
did not say anything, just shrugged.
    “Another
thing we youngsters have to learn, I suppose?”
    Rap
grinned at him. “Practice by yourself, though.”
    Lin
used some very special obscenities. Where had he learned those?
    “Lin?”
Rap said. “Lin, please don’t go and make a big story out of this?”
    Lin
just stared at him.
    “Lin!
You’ll get me in trouble.”
    “I
suppose you weren’t getting me in trouble?” Lin yelled. He must
have been more scared than Rap had realized.
    “It
was nothing much, Lin. I was standing up. I could see where the water was
flowing over the edges.”
    “Oh...
sure!”
    But
Lin reluctantly promised not to make a big story out of it. They left the water
and followed the lumpy track across Tallow Rocks, wheels spraying silver