Captain Richard's Arc

Chapter 9 of 13

By dawn Richard had climbed back up to Alexis and told her plain what waited below. He expected fear. Instead she folded the red gingham blanket under her arm, called the wolf to her side, and walked with him down to the stone rim of the moon pool. She would not be left behind for this. Kovu padded close, scarred eye watching the water. They spread the blanket on the pale stone at the pool's edge. Alexis knelt and laid out what she had carried in her satchel — a golden bridle, heavy with engraved leaves and small hanging charms. Richard stared. She had been making ready for something he had not yet named. "If it comes back," she said, "it doesn't get to be nameless." Richard tapped the water once with the flat of his knife. The ring widened. The blue muzzle rose, calm and old, and the Kelpie set a hoof on the carved rim. Its eyes passed over Alexis and the wolf and settled on Richard. It lowered its head to him. Worthy, that look said. Mine to carry. Alexis stepped forward before Richard could refuse. She slipped the golden bridle over the long blue head and buckled it gentle under the jaw. "Seabreeze," she said, quiet. "Her name is Seabreeze. And she's mine." The charms chimed once against the scaled hide. The Kelpie did not pull away. Richard understood then. The creature would carry him because Alexis had claimed it — owner to rider, a loan, not a bargain with the sea. He swung up onto the wet back. Alexis stepped back onto the red checkered blanket with Kovu pressed to her knee, both of them small and steady on the shore stone beside the bright pool. "Find the way to close it," she said. Richard nodded once. Seabreeze turned toward the open shaft. He did not look back as the water took them down — because looking back was the one thing he had promised her he would never do.