The Sea-Road to Rathlin
The children climb onto Bran's back and the giant hound leaps across a hidden sea-road of glowing basalt stones beneath the waves. They race beneath the ancient Carrick-a-Rede rope bridge, which collapses as a trap triggered by the stones. Soaked but unharmed, they reach Rathlin Island's white cliffs, where a strange song drifts from a sea cave and webbed Merfolk hands rise from the swirling water.
Chapter 4
The Sea-Road to Rathlin
Climbing onto the back of a giant hound was not easy.
It was like trying to climb onto a moving sofa made of muscle and fur.
Finn McCool laughed as the children scrambled and slipped.
One by one, he lifted them gently in his huge hands and placed them onto Bran's broad back.
"Hold on tight, little ones," Finn said. "The northern sea is wild, and Bran is fast."
Noah made sure he was at the front.
He dug both hands deep into Bran's thick charcoal fur and pulled Liam close against him. Chloe held onto Noah's jacket. Rory sat behind Chloe, and Áine squeezed in at the back, grinning as if this were the best day of her life.
"Are we really doing this?" Rory asked, his voice wobbling.
"We are absolutely doing this," said Áine.
"We are riding a myth!"
Finn stepped back and raised a huge hand.
"Look for the white cliffs," he called. "The blue stone lies hidden on Rathlin. Go quickly. The tide is turning."
Bran gave a sharp, eager bark.
Then she ran.
She shot forward so suddenly that Noah nearly lost his breath.
The black basalt stones of the Giant's Causeway flashed beneath her pounding paws.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Faster and faster she raced, straight towards the edge of the sea.
"She's going to jump!" Chloe cried.
Bran leapt.
The children braced for freezing water.
But instead of crashing into the waves, Bran landed with a heavy THUD on something solid hidden just beneath the surface.
Noah stared down over her neck.
The Causeway did not end at the shore.
It kept going.
Far below the waves, a hidden road of hexagonal stone columns stretched out across the sea.
As Bran ran, the tops of the buried stones began to glow blue beneath the water, lighting up one by one like a secret path.
"It's a bridge!" Rory shouted. "A real bridge! It's just under the tide!"
Bran bounded from one glowing stone to the next.
The children flew high above the spray, the sea bursting white around them as the great hound raced across the hidden road.
Liam laughed wildly and held the wooden kite reel tight against his chest. The dark blue kite streamed behind them like a flag.
To their right, the coastline flashed past.
Dark cliffs.
Foaming waves.
Old ruins.
No roads.
No cars.
No houses.
Only wild land and sea.
Then suddenly the open water narrowed.
Ahead of them, the sea squeezed into a rocky channel between steep cliffs.
And high above it, stretched from the mainland cliffs to a small rocky island, was a bridge.
But it was not the neat rope bridge tourists crossed in their own time.
This one was ancient.
It was made from thick twisted ropes, rough driftwood and great nets of seaweed and kelp. It sagged across the gap like a giant trap.
Áine gasped.
"Carrick-a-Rede!"
Rory looked up.
"It's the old rope bridge!"
The hidden sea-road ran straight beneath it.
And then Noah saw the problem.
"This is bad," he said.
As Bran's huge paws slammed onto the glowing stones in the narrow channel, the whole rock passage began to shake.
A deep clunk echoed through the cliffs.
Something had been triggered.
The ropes above them shuddered.
The bridge moved.
"Noah!" Áine shouted. "It's falling!"
With a terrible CRACK, the ancient bridge gave way.
The whole thing dropped towards them - ropes, logs, kelp and all - collapsing like a giant net.
"Hold on!" Noah roared, wrapping himself around Liam.
Chloe buried her face in Bran's fur.
Rory yelped.
Áine squeezed her eyes shut.
But Bran did not stop.
She lowered her head, dug in her claws, and surged forward with a fierce growl.
At the very last second, she slid low and shot beneath the falling bridge.
It crashed into the sea behind them with an enormous SPLASH.
A wall of icy water exploded over the children.
They were drenched in an instant.
Liam coughed and spluttered.
Rory spat seawater from his mouth.
"My hair is full of seaweed!"
Áine pushed wet hair out of her eyes and laughed.
"That was brilliant!"
"That was nearly death!" Rory shouted.
Bran kept going.
She burst out of the narrow channel and back into the open sea, leaving the broken bridge tangled in the waves behind them.
Rory twisted around for one last look.
"It was a trap," he said, wiping salt water from his face. "The stones must have set it off. Somebody wanted to stop anyone using this road."
"The Merfolk," Noah said grimly.
"Then we go faster," said Áine.
As if she understood, Bran gave a fierce bark and leapt even harder across the glowing sea-road.
At last, through the mist ahead, they saw it.
Rathlin Island.
It rose out of the sea in huge white cliffs and dark rock, sharp and lonely against the sky.
It did not look friendly.
It looked like a fortress.
As Bran drew nearer, the glowing stones beneath the waves began to sink deeper and deeper.
The jumps grew longer.
The sea rose higher around them.
Bran's paws splashed hard now, and cold spray hit Noah and Liam in the face.
"No more path," Noah said.
Bran gave a low growl.
The last glowing column appeared beneath the surface.
Then it vanished into the dark.
"Just get us to land!" Áine cried.
With one mighty leap, Bran launched herself off the final hidden stone and crashed through the surf onto a narrow beach at the foot of the cliffs.
She stumbled over wet black rocks and kelp, then scrambled up onto the shingle.
At last she stopped.
Her sides heaved as she caught her breath.
Noah slid down first and helped Liam.
Then Chloe, Rory and Áine climbed off, their legs shaking so badly they could barely stand.
The cove was cold and still.
The high white cliffs curved around them like a giant wall.
Above, hundreds of gulls circled in the sky.
But none of them made a sound.
Not one.
Liam looked up uneasily.
"Why are they so quiet?"
No one answered.
From the back of the cove came a strange sound.
A song.
It floated out from the mouth of a dark sea cave hidden in the rocks.
The voices were soft and beautiful, but they made Noah's skin prickle.
Inside the cave, something glowed blue.
A steady, shining pulse.
The blue stone.
"It's in there," Chloe whispered.
Noah took a step forward.
Then the water at the edge of the beach began to swirl.
Round and round it turned.
Something pale moved beneath the surface.
Long fingers gripped the rocks.
Webbed fingers.
More hands appeared.
Then more.
The singing grew louder.
The Merfolk of Rathlin knew they were here.
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