Dead Water by Tim O'Rourke Page B

was me Kiera was laughing at, I didn’t care. I
was just glad to see her looking happy again. I hoped it would
last. I hoped she was wrong about being led down a dead
end.

Chapter Seventeen
     
    Kiera
     
    I dozed
in and out of sleep as Murphy steered the car high up into the
Cumbrian Mountains. Sensing that our journey was nearing its end, I
wanted to try and get as much rest as possible. Now that Potter and
I had made our peace, my whole being felt more at ease with itself.
Had I done the right thing by giving myself to Potter again? I
didn’t know, and somewhere deep inside of me, I no longer cared. If
what the Elders said was true, and I wouldn’t be going back with my
friends, then I wanted to love and be loved by the man who made me
happy while I still had the chance. Potter said we would stay
together. He said that was his choice to make, but I wasn’t so sure
about that.
    With my
head resting against the window, I peered through my half-open eyes
and down at the landscape stretched below. The sun was setting in
the distance, and the white fields looked trapped between a thin
strip of bright gold. Streams snaked their way through narrow
gorges way below. The fresh stream water bubbled and twinkled in
the fading light. For the first time in ages, I felt an immense
sense of calmness wash over me. I closed my eyes and slept
again.
     
    Potter
shook me gently awake. I rubbed sleep from my eyes with the backs
of my hands. It was dark outside. I peered through the windscreen,
trying to get my bearings.
    “ We’re here,” Potter said in a hushed tone.
    “ The Dead Waters?” I asked, my voice still sounding sleepy. I
stretched my legs straight in the foot well of the car and
yawned.
    “ The forests surrounding them,” Potter said, pushing open the
back door and stepping out.
    I shoved
against the door with my shoulder and climbed from the car. The
night air was cold and crisp. It pinched the end of my nose. I
looked up, the sky was black and star-shot. A full moon hung in the
sky. It was bright white, with a blue haze shimmering around it. I
couldn’t ever quite remember seeing such a full moon. It was
perfectly clear and seemed so close I could reach up and touch its
cratered surface. Murphy was standing in his carpet slippers by the
edge of what was known as the secret forest. In the moonlight, I
couldn’t help but notice how drawn and tired he looked. A length of
his silver hair had flopped over his right eye. He thumbed it away.
I remembered the story he had told me about his life and I wondered
if he was standing in the spot where he had said goodbye to Pen as
a boy. Had this been the place they’d shared their first kiss? I
wondered.
    The fir
trees stretched high above us, tall and black in the night. They
grew close together like an impenetrable wall, barring our entry
into the forest. It was as if the trees were keeping the forest’s
secrets safe. The forest had plenty of them. This was the place I
had been born. My real mother, Kathy Seth, had given birth to me
here as my father had looked on in terror. The forest is where
Murphy had snatched up my body and ran to the Dead Waters – the
place he dared to try and hide my lifeless body.
    With
Potter following close behind me, I approached Murphy.
    “ Ready?” he asked.
    “ Yes,” I nodded, taking a deep breath.
    “ Let’s not waste any more time then,” Murphy said, glancing
back over his shoulder as if we might have been followed here by
someone. He grunted, faced front, and set off into the
forest.
    I
grabbed his arm. He stopped, a questioning look etched on his
face.
    “ Before we reach the Dead Waters, will you take me somewhere?”
I asked him.
    “ Where?” he asked.
    “ To the place I was born,” I whispered.
    Murphy
looked into my eyes as if searching them somehow. “Okay,” he
whispered back, then set off again.
     
    With Potter at my side, we followed Murphy as he cut his way
through the trees. There was no path, no marks or signs