Read The Tide Knot for Free Online Page B

 
      The wind has died down over the weekend. It’s a cold, still night, and the air smell s of salt and seaweed. The moon is almost full , and it is riding clear of a thick shoal of clouds. I decide to take Sadie away from the streetlights onto the beach, where she can chase moon shadows.
      I head down to Polquidden. The bay is full . It’s high tide.
      An exceptionally high tide. It’s not due to turn until eleven tonight, but look how far it’s come up the beach already. It reminds me of the autumn equinox, when the water came up right over the slipway and the harbor road.
      There is still a strip of white sand left, but the water is rising quickly, like a cat putting out one paw and the next.
      Something else that surprises me is how quickly the sea has calmed. Surely the water should be much rougher than this after all the wind yesterday and today? The stillness is eerie.  
      Sadie doesn’t want to go down the steps. She puts her head down, with her legs braced apart.
      “It’s all right, Sadie, you’re allowed on the beach now, remember?” I give a gentle tug on her leash, but she won’t budge.
      “Sadie, you’re being very annoying.”
      I am longing to be down on the sand. I pulls a little harder, but she digs in her claws. I don’t want to force her.
      “All right then, Sadie. Wait here a minute.” I loop her leash around a metal post. Sadie whines.
      There’s enough moonlight for me to see her face. She is pleading with me to stay, but I’m going to harden my heart this time. I’ve got to go down to the beach. The urge is so powerful that I ignore Sadie’s voice, give her a quick hug, say, “Stay, Sadie!” and then hurry down the steps.
      There’s a sound of running water on my right. It’s the stream that tumbles down the rocks onto the beach.
      Children play in it and make dams in summer. The water glints in the moonlight as it pours over the inky black rock.
      The sea is still rising. Why does it look so powerful tonight, even though there are no wild waves, no foam, no pounding of surf?
      There’s not much beach left. I walk to my right, toward a spine of rocks that juts from the glistening sand. A wave flows forward, and I leap up onto the rocks to keep my trainers dry. But I’m still not high enough, because now the water is swirling at my heels. I scramble up again onto dry rock and look back. The bay is full of moonlight and water.
      The sea is lapping around my rock already.
      Sapphire, you idiot, you’re cut off! But it’s not very deep yet. Even in the dark I’ll be able to wade back easily before the tide comes in any farther. I’ll just take my trainers off. But I’d better be quick; look how the water’s rising—
      “You’ll have to swim,” says a voice behind me. I start so violently that I almost fall off the rock. A strong hand grasps my wrist.
      “It’s me, Sapphire.”
      “Faro.”
      “Yes.”
      Suddenly I’m angry with him. “Why don’t you and Elvira come and see us in daylight, like you used to?” I ask sharply. “Conor keeps looking for Elvira. Where is she?”
      “Here and there,” he says, with a gleam of laughter in his voice. “Around and about. Just like me.”
      “Don’t laugh at me!” I say angrily. “I hate it when people are here one moment and then they just—” I swallow the words I was going to say.
      “I didn’t disappear,” says Faro seriously. “I won’t ever disappear. I promise you. But in St. Pirans it’s more difficult for you to see us. Even at night it’s not easy. There are so many people. And besides, St. Pirans is not our place.”  
      “I know that,” I say gloomily. “It’s not mine either.”
      “But you’re human. That’s what humans do, isn’t it? They crowd together in towns and cities. They love it when everything is covered over with concrete and tarmac.” Faro brings out the word “tarmac” with pride. He loves to impress me with his