“No, but?—”
“You really should learn. That’s not safe,” Kizzi agreed.
Redd nodded solemnly.
“I can’t swim either,” Tandor added. “Orcs don’t float. We sink like rocks. It’s really a problem when?—”
“Let me explain!” I snapped.
The room settled into tense silence.
A rustle from the corner told me the dragons were stirring, but I ignored them.
I took a deep, calming breath.
“Sorry,” Tandor said quietly.
“I couldn’t find him for dinner,” I started, leaning back and settling my mug of tea on my thigh. “A storm was rolling in, but he didn’t come when I called. So, I looked for him. They wander, you know,” I flapped my hand while the others nodded. “But he wasn’t in any of his normal spots. I followed this cat. I’m going to call him Chicken. He’s an asshole, really.”
Fiella looked like she wanted to interrupt, but Redd placed a solid hand on her knee to keep her quiet.
“He led me to the edge of the forest, where the Barren Lands meet the river. I’m sure you know that part already. But that’s when I saw him.”
“In the water?”
I swallowed. “Yes. Clinging to a log. Fates, it wasawful. I yanked off my cloak, preparing to jump in, and then…” I struggled to describe the sensation—I hardly understood it myself. “Shadows stopped me.”
Shock crossed the expression of my friends’ faces. “Shadows?” Kizzi asked.
“Like iron. Unbreakable. I screamed, I fought, but that stubborn, idiotic…” I shook my head to clear it. “He jumped in instead.”
“Shade?” Fiella asked, disbelieving.
“Thegod?” Kizzi echoed.
“Fucking fates,” Tandor whispered.
“I know!” I agreed. “He jumped right in.”
“He swam out to rescue Brambleby?” Kizzi asked, as if her ears were playing tricks on her.
I thought about the way Shade had battled the water—beating it with his limbs rather than letting it carry him. The way he thrashed and flailed. The way the water dragged him under.
He couldn’t swim, either.
Tears pricked the back of my eyes.
“Something like that. He jumped into the river. He got Bram out.”
The tension in the cottage was so thick it was almost tangible.
“Well, I’ll be,” Tandor said, stupefied. “That doesn’t sound like him.”
“It was,” I insisted. “He scooped Bram right out.”
“And he held you back with his shadows?” Kizzi asked.
“He did.”
