She hadn’t been sweating from only heat and exertion, she’d been nervous to be close to the water. I recalled her unease when we crossed the Splits, too. Wellshit.I’d barked orders at her, no warmth to my words as she’d faced her fears. And guilt had so thoroughly eaten at her that she didn’t dare voice her concerns.
A slowing stream of bubbles burst on the water’s surface—she was running out of time. I peeled off my bow and backpack, tossing them haphazardly over the edge I would have emerged from only moments later if I’d continued. Then I shoved off the ledge and prayed to all the gods that I wasn’t about to become a human skewer on these rocks.
That sinking feeling hit my gut before I hit the water. I pinched my nose just as my pointed toes broke the surface. Booming, hollow silence surrounded me, and when my descent ebbed, I opened my eyes.
Alba’s uncoordinated movements were slowing. With broad strokes of my arms, and wide sweeps with my legs, I swam for her. I hooked my arm around her waist, reaching the other toward the surface to help us crawl upward.
The heavy pressure seemed to thicken with her fear. She didn’t pause her wild, frantic movements, latching onto me in a way I couldn’t break free of. It hit me then and there that this wasn’t going to work. Alba was going to drown, and in her panic, she would take me down with her.
With an equal amount of crushing pressure as the water around us, sorrow and guilt constricted my lungs as tangibly as the lack of air. This had been my fault. I’d treated Alba like my enemy because I’d let anger and pride mask my humanity. I couldn’t stand to witness suffering, yet I blatantly ignored all of Alba’s.
And because of it, we’d die here, and Taja would kill everyone in Rahana. “Neri, help us,” I desperately prayed to the God of Water.
“What are you doing, bloop, bloop.”
An unfamiliar voice hit my ears beneath the depths of the water. No, not my ears,my mind. Was I crossing over the bridge of death? Were the gods greeting me?
“You’re not doing it right, bloop.”
Alba’s unrelenting grip drew us further below the surface.
“Bloop bloop, what kind of creature is that?”
My brow wrinkled in confusion. Peering around, once my hair floated out of the way, I saw who was speaking. Several fish had gathered, watching our hysterical spectacle.
They stared, unmoving, save for a tiny sway of their side fins. Was that judgment in their unblinking eyes?
“We need air. We need to go up!”Did fish even hold a sense of direction? With my own seconds counting down, I didn’t know what else to say other than the basic truth.
A moment of reflection came on clear as day. Fish. My last words would be to half a dozen fish.
“She speaks! Bloop.”
“She’s one of us!”
“Bloop bloop, call the rest!”
Alba’s fingernails bit into my skin, but her grip softened. Her kicking feet wrapped around my legs, immobilizing me completely. Instinctively, I looked up at the surface. Above the bubbles climbing upward, a tiny blue blur dashed over the surface. Braxius raced in panicked circles. My heart broke that my little friend would have to watch what happened next. When the bubbles stopped, and the water calmed, I became still far out of his reach.
Alba’s movements eased into jerking motions until she made no more. Even if I unwrapped her from myself, I wouldn’t make it. My lungs were on the brink of exploding or collapsing, whatever lungs did when all the air was gone. The pressure was increasingly painful. Maybe karma was marking its claim on me. Besides, getting myself to safety would only mean abandoning Alba to a watery grave I forced her into. She didn’t deserve to die on Taja’s mission, and I certainly wouldn’t let her die alone. My warm tears became one with the cool water as my hold around her released of its own volition, my strength waning.
I reached out, a gesture of a final goodbye to my dragon friend above, when suddenly the pressure grew more intense. The edges of my vision started fading, but I registered the nudges along my body.
Up. We were rising up.
We cut through the water with impressive speed, the light of the day breaking through the water until, finally, we breached the surface.
I gasped for air.
“RO! RO! Are you alright?!”Braxius cried.
My ability to think clearly or function hadn’t returned yet, my focus solely on filling my lungs with that life saving lightness. When I started regaining function, I whipped to see Alba. Sheremained unconscious, but floating. No, not floating, held up by a school of fish.
Actually, so was I.
24
Ro
