Yrsa peered into the darkness, looking for threats. “Can’t see anything threatening from here, and I can’t hear anything but water. Or smell much more than sulfur. Let’s go. Careful on the way down.”
We entered the passage, Yrsa first, then my twin, me, Inga, and the vampires. Geiravor marked the passage with magic I could not see, but she insisted Qildor would be able to feel when the males made it our way. That done, she shut the door behind us, and descended into the dark, toward the glittering water. It would be beautiful if I didn’t have a hunch that the channel would bring some horrible deadly creature.
“Astril and Freyia, can you see further down the water channel?” I asked, taking the steps more slowly than usual.
“No,” Astril replied. “It appears to take a turn, blocking my view.”
“Besides the bats, do you have any idea what creatures are down here?” Thyra asked Yrsa as the stairs leveled out. We’d reached the bottom and were close enough to the underground stream to see the outline of the five boats upon the shimmering water.
Yrsa shook her head. “I only know about the bats because a few got loose and fae saw them exit by the sea. A couple got bit too. Of course they had no idea where they’d come from, but I put two and two together. And it’s not like I can talk to othersabout it. Only a few servants know of this place. The ones who have to stock emergency supplies.”
“Should we take any of that?” I gestured to the cages off to the side that were filled with supplies.
“I don’t want to waste time breaking it open. Not when we know who could be coming after us.”
“Yrsa’s right,” Geiravor said. “The Ithamais might make a secret escape, but soldiers outside the castle will soon learn that we’re fleeing—if they don’t already know. We can’t risk it or slow down.”
I turned my attention to the boats. They fit four each and bobbed in the stream, about thirty paces wide. With Freyia’s help, I passed Inga to Thyra. My sister eased the queen down, and propped Inga against one end of the boat. I hopped in after them. Astril joined the Riis sisters in another boat, and Geiravor took up the oars.
“I’m on watch.” I caught a glimmer of amusement in Freyia’s eyes as she gestured to the oars. “Better vision and faster reflexes than the two of you.”
I was strong and could fight, but my sister was better at combat. Not by much after all my training, but any advantage counted in this scenario. Understanding my place in all of this, I took up the oars, Thyra untied the boat, and we were off, drifting on a current that was stronger than I’d expected, making my work more that of steering than propelling.
The shimmering channel of water below lit the way enough to keep complete panic at bay. But that didn’t mean my heart wasn’t racing with each paddle of the oars.
I couldn’t release the image of Vale standing against the king’s forces with only his cabal by his side. The urge to leap from the boat and fly back overpowered me. I could help. My winter magic was powerful. And then there were the shadows . . .
I forced my heart to hear the word as strongly as my head.
We’d come here on a mission, and we’d completed it. Vale had told me to go as much for my safety as his mother’s. He needed to know that no one would torment Inga any longer. I could deliver that. I would not fail him, and he would not fail me. He never had before.
They’re probably right behind us,was my last thought before I noticed the water to the side of the boat below begin to ripple.
Stomach tightening, I peered into the black water speckled by blue and white lights. The water was still moving in an eerie way.
“Look to the side,” I whispered.
As if my words had cast a spell on the channel, the waters swirled. Slowly at first but gaining speed by the second.
“Something is rising.” Freyia’s back was taut, her weapons at the ready. She stood poised at the bow of the small boat.
Inga hadn’t stirred, and a sheen of sweat now covered her brow. Had they starved her? Or was she ill? Worry rose in my chest, only to drown with a splash to my right.
Thyra stiffened and leaned over the side. “What in the nine kingdoms is?—”
A webbed hand, grotesquely wrinkled and bone-white, shot out of the water.
My sister stumbled back, and Freyia caught her with one hand and flung a dagger at the water, spearing the creature through the palm.
An ear-shattering shriek filled the cavern, and to my horror, other strangled, garbled voices joined in. The question of what things made such sounds was answered when four heads rose from the water.
Their faces were as wrinkled as their hands, their eyes fully black. Fins bobbed above the surface, hinting that these things might look like the merpeople, but hideous, rather thanlovely and ethereal. Nose-less and with voids for mouths, these creatures would feature in future nightmares.
If I was still alive to have them.
Freyia reached over the side of the boat for her dagger, still embedded in the hand. We didn’t know how many more of these creatures existed or what else might be in the passage. Every weapon counted.
The vampire managed to rip the dagger from the thing’s flesh just before the creature lunged up to hiss at her. With enviable speed and dexterity, the vampire sliced the thing across the neck. Astril had gained a sword in the earlier skirmish, and she used that weapon to fend off two creatures that swam closer.
