With his Scorched eye Cam glimpsed a pale line flowing outwards from the Redcap in the direction of the stream towards the loch. If he concentrated—in between ducking his head away from vicious branches and rolling to avoid large rocks—he could distinguish a similar line flowing from himself. It entwined with the Redcap’s, pulling them both inexorably forwards and downwards.
They hit a small set of rapids and Cam tried to swim through them as best he could. He felt bruised all over, and the only way to get through this ordeal seemed to be to work with it. His body thumped back onto stony silt, gouging a deeper bed for the tributary where he was being dragged along it. Low-hanging tree boughs cracked under his weight as he smashed through them. At one point he dislodged an entire birch tree that had fallen across the stream. The Redcap continued to scream in his ear, yanking uselessly on his head as though it hoped to change his course.
Light opened up ahead. The tree canopy receded; blue sky revealed. Just a short distance to the cool waters of Loch Ness. Right past a hiking trail and… a large group of tourists.
Oh, no,Cam thought blearily, unable to do anything to change direction. He was moving too fast to think about it properly, anyhow. He vaguely registered gasps and shrieks and what might have been the click of a few phone cameras, but he’d slid past the crowd within a second and the wide-open expanse of Loch Ness loomed before him. He’d never been more grateful to see it. It meant this awful journey was finally at an end.
The Redcap gave a final yowl of despair as they plunged into the water. Cam’s nostrils closed against the current, his mighty lungs full and comfortable. The strain of the magical tether finally released him. His sore muscles relaxed, soothed by the cold water, and he dived deep towards the bottom of the loch.
The Recap moaned against his neck.Dirty tricks, buidseach. Didn’t know it were witch-magic. Didn’t know it werehermagic.Keep yerself away from me.
With that, it detached. Cam spun around, prepared to grab the Redcap with his teeth, but he saw nothing in the murky water. The Redcap’s disembodied voice floated to him indistinctly.’Tis a big loch. Bigger than a stone, at least. You keep outta my way and I’ll keep outta yours. Else you’ll regret it.
The Redcap’s voice faded away. Cam saw no sign of it. Was it trapped in here with him now? He didn’t like that thought at all, but he supposed it was a better alternative than the creature being let loose in the world above.
He remembered the crowd of hikers and groaned a slew of bubbles. Was he going to be on the local news tomorrow? What would the headlines be?Loch Ness Monster Goes For A Swim In Broad Daylight.Hell, he had to hope no one had gotten a decent photo.
Cam propelled himself quickly away from that part of the shoreline. He was a good few miles south of Lachlan’s hill, but he travelled fast underwater and was glad to put some distance between him and any onlookers.
He trusted that Lachlan would be okay. Worried, certainly, but okay. Cam planned to get back onto land in just a few minutes, grab some clothes from his stash by the pier, and run to The Lucky Teapot to use the phone there to let Lachlan know he was all right.
He hadn’t realised how hard the adrenaline was still thumping in his blood until he neared the familiar jetty, and the sight and smell of home calmed him down. He swam a circle in the shallow water beneath it, watching for people-shaped shadows overhead. Everything looked clear.
Cam readied himself, bracing for the sting of cold water on human skin…
…and grunted in confusion as the transformation refused to transpire.
He stretched his flippers and spun a quick three-sixty, as though it might help him reset. He concentrated. Searched for that elastic, squeezing sensation that came with reshaping muscle and bone…
Still nothing.
I’m just tired,he told himself, though he didn’t feel tired at all. If anything, the sudden fear that he might have gotten stuck in Nessie form sent a fresh spike of adrenaline through him.Everything’s fine. I just need to keep trying. There’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to do this.
He’d been stuck as Nessie before and he’d overcome it in record time, according to Lachlan. He could do it again. Hewoulddo it again.
Cam swam another circle in the darkness under the jetty, and concentrated.
Chapter Four
Meanwhile, Lachlan was filling Meredith in on the situation.
‘Oh, gawd,’ she fretted on the other end of the phone. ‘Do you think Cam’s okay? Could the Redcap hurt him? Where is he now?’
‘I think he’s been forced into the loch,’ Lachlan replied. He was walking alongside the previously bubbling stream—now a rather more gushing one as the water flowed fast to fill in the deeper channel left by Cam. ‘I don’t know any more than that, but I don’t believe he’d let the Redcap get the best of him. I can’t imagine it could do him much harm while he’s the monster, anyway.’
He could hear Meredith biting her thumb nail. She didn’t like calling it ‘the monster’, but it was what Lachlan had become accustomed to. You had to, when the word was emblazoned on every piece of tourist paraphernalia for miles around.
‘Okay,’ she said finally. ‘You stay put, hon. I’ll be with you as soon as I can. I just need to lock up the café.’
‘Thank you. But leave the spare key out,’ Lachlan added quickly. ‘Cam will probably go there first.’
‘Will do, hon.’
Ignoring her instruction, Lachlan replaced the phone in his pocket and kept following Cam’s trail. Although Meredith was only travelling from The Lucky Teapot, it was still a long drive round from the other side of Loch Ness and Lachlan couldn’t spend the time doing nothing.
He wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. It seemed that the Redcap must have escaped while they were replacing the wards around its stone, and then it had tried to meddle with Cam’s curse. Had the Redcap caused Cam to transform, or was something else going on? Cam didn’t seem to have much control over it—and the way he was hauled away as if by an invisible rope reminded Lachlan acutely of his own experience of being yanked back into the loch by the curse. Gosh, he hoped Cam was all right.
He was glad Cam had chosen a spot so close to the water for their little excursion. It wasn’t long before he descended a steep bank and could see Loch Ness beyond the trees. Maybe Cam would still be near the shore.
