Day 18 of Midwinter, Midday

At Sea, Lough Solais

Annwn

Hullraiser shook from the impact of the hag’s massive hammer. Crew members went flying; most were knocked to the deck from the force of the blow. Scolt and Salka were still on their feet, as were Fern and I. To my shock, the mast hadn’t shattered from the impact, only bent.

“Fire everything you have!” Commander Scolt yelled. The crew hurried to reload both the cannon and the ballista. Salka sprinted to the main mast and began scurrying upward.

“What is she doing?” Fern shouted over the crash of water from the righting of the ship. “She’s going to get herself killed up there!"

I sighed, then dashed over to begin climbing after her. Fern was right, climbing up to meet the hag was suicide. “You’re crazy!” I yelled up to the tide-master. “But I like it!”

Salka didn’t respond, seeming intent on making it up the mast before the hag could take another swing. She climbed with surprising ease and dexterity.

Below us, I could see Commander Scolt trying to steer the ship away from the flying menace. Fern had taken on Salka’s responsibility of navigation. The dark-haired selkie remained in her human shape as she called out any obstacles in the water, which in this part of the lough were plentiful.

The crew had the ballista reloaded and were trying to lock onto the hag, who was phasing in and out of the grey clouds around the mast as the ship surged forward. Salka had made it into the crow’s nest when the hag finally reappeared, coming from behind the tide-master.

“Behind you!” I screamed, hanging from the rigging of the mast. If only my farthing wings were working!

Salka turned to face the hag. In her hand, she held a long tube. As the hag drew back to swing her hammer, Salka pulled a lever, shooting a massive ball of fire from the end of the tube, which I realized was some sort of flare.

The fireball exploded on the hag’s chest, the flames quickly spreading across her body. She screamed and disappeared into the low-hanging grey mist, the only sign of her a stream of fire as she rocketed around inside the clouds. Salka reached down for my hand, grunting as she pulled me into the crow’s nest with her. Despite my small size, it was a tight fit.

“Can you reload that thing?” I asked. The stoic woman shook her head, tossing the smoking tube aside to draw her curved blade. “You know that won’t do any good against that thing.”

“We have to try,” she said, turning to set her back against mine. “Get out those Silverwhite blades.”

“You ain’t the boss of me!” came my instinctive response. I rustled around in my pockets looking for the small object. My hands closed around the small piece of Mirrorstone I had broken off the one Morias gave to me. I had planned on saving my secret weapon for the next time I saw Bren, but I found myself wondering whether any of us were going to make it that long. Under the circumstances, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t mind.

The flaming hag was visible again, circling us and growing closer and closer with each pass. I held the tiny stone in front of me, tracing the hag’s path through the sky. It was surprisingly easy to follow her while she was on fire.

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“Okay…” I began, unsure of how to broach my plan with Salka. “I’m going to do something that you aren’t going to like.” Salka didn’t answer. “You need to go tell your crew not to freak out.”

“Why do I get the feeling you are underselling that statement?” Salka hooked a long leg over the edge of the barrel, preparing to shimmy back down to the deck. I gave her a sheepish grin and shrugged. She shook her head and then disappeared from sight. I knew what I was about to do could go very badly, but I also didn’t really have a choice. I would have to time things just right.

“Hey, you!” I screamed into the dark clouds, waving an arm to get the hag’s attention. “All hail the Hag of Winter! Uglier than an ogre’s arse, but just as full of chet!” I can admit it wasn’t the most original insult, but it still worked.

The creature shot directly toward me, her hammer back behind her head, ready to crush me and the crow's nest and likely drive the mast directly through the bottom of the ship. Huh, I hadn’t considered that particular approach.

With no time to reassess my plan, I activated the Mirrorstone. A heartbeat passed, then another, with no change. Just as I started to think I had made a huge mistake and doomed us all, a massive blue oilliphéist shot from the small stone to wrap itself around the hag, bringing them both crashing down onto the deck below. The hag lost hold of her hammer, which crashed through the top deck.

The weight of the hag and the oilliphéist pushed the boat down lower into the water, but it quickly rebounded back up, the motion nearly toppled me out of the crow’s nest. I laughed hysterically as I watched the crew take Salka’s hurriedly shouted orders. They drew blades and surrounded the strange pair, trying their best to stay out of the way of the thrashing tail of the oilliphéist.

I smiled, thinking of Morias. The Mirrorstone was supposed to be his way into Fintan’s underwater tower. He had one half, and had given me the other half to put in the tower so he could project himself inside and study all of that sage-level mumbo jumbo. But then I had encountered the beithir, and more strangely, had encountered one very specific, very familiar oilliphéist.

It seemed that Monty had followed my scent to the cliffs of the Sacred Cape, looking for Bren, and had swam the perilous depths to enter Fintan’s tower, only to end up in a deadly fight with the beithir. We had won, Monty and I, but only because we outnumbered the creature. Without the oilliphéist, I would have died a grizzly death.

After that, I had decided I needed a portion of the Mirrorstone for a rainy day. In my defense, I did warn Morias that there was a friendly neighborhood death serpent currently in Fintan’s tower…even if I hadn’t told him I had broken off part of the Mirrorstone. Thankfully, it seemed to be working out for me. And thankfully, oilliphéist were always ready and willing to fight and eat.

The hag shrieked in rage and pain. Monty had her completely wrapped up and was peppering her with a venom-dripping stinger the size of a long sword. By the time I had moseyed back down to the deck, the entire crew stood out of the path of the wrestling pair. Scolt and Salka stared at me, while Fern just shook her head.

“Now what?” Commander Scolt asked. I could tell by the tone of his voice that his real question was “Why did you let an oilliphéist loose on my boat?”

I shrugged. “How quickly can you get to Cnoc Aine?”

“At this pace, Midday,” Salka answered.

“Yeah, that’s definitely not going to work.” I gestured. “Monty can’t hold the hag that long, and I'm pretty sure his venom is just making her more angry.”

“Listen!” Fern interrupted from the helm. She was staring out at the sea. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Commander Scolt asked. The deck was strangely quiet. Monty held the hag still, or more precisely, the Hag had stopped struggling as she listened, too.

“That’s just it,” Salka said, reinforcing Fern’s point. “I don’t hear anything.”

In the silence of the deck, I could hear…nothing. Not even the normal splash of the waves against the hull. The water sat eerily still, as if we had crossed into the doldrums, and even the clouds had vanished from the sky.

The hag shrieked, and the hammer flew from below deck into her hand. She pounded Monty once, twice, three times, until the oilliphéist loosened his grip enough for her to squeeze free. She shot into the air, seeming completely unharmed from her scrap with Monty, looking toward the coast (or where I imagined the coast would be). She hung in the air, motionless, staring off toward the northeast.

Commander Scolt and Salka retreated to the helm, and the crew began to edge back to man the ballista and cannon. A low rumbling started, the sound snapping out of the quiet that had gripped us. A not-so-gentle spray of the sea splashed onto my face as the boat accelerated forward. I clutched the railing for dear life as I heard Fern’s voice yell in wonderment. “He did it. I know where Bren is.”