“Merc,” I hiss so that I don’t attract any guard that might be up walking our defense’s parapet. “Merc.”
Abruptly, I remember the rope. My hands snatch at the knot he tied at my waist, and I pull, pull, pull on the lax—
The end arrives without preamble, and I bring it up out of the water. The twist has been sliced cleanly.
“Merc!”
Grabbing a breath, I plunge under, but can see nothing as I wave my arms around and pull myself deeper. When I have to replenish my lungs, I resurface—
As I’m breathing in to resume my search, bubbles appear three lengths over from me: My agitating movements have called one of the beastly guards to me. Fates! I’m going to get eaten—
Even though I should maybe stay still, I start stroking for the moat’s stone banking. The fact that it rises a full body’s length above me makes me realize I’m in a bowl set for the aquatic predators, and just as a serving of stew has no hope of besting the rim that contains it, I can’t imagine being able to get up and over to the grass above.
ThebalasI ate and am still digesting is about to be avenged by its brethren. Even if they don’t know they’re settling the score—
A great breaching explodes behind me, and as the beast lands on the surface with a slap, a tidal wave pushes me along, giving me an advantage that will be closed instantly. I paddle faster, slapping at the water with panic—
“Wait for me, why dontcha,” comes an impatient voice.
I roll over in surprise, and keep gliding from my momentum. “M-Merc?”
Against all odds, he’s surfaced, and he seems equally flabbergasted to see me.
“What happened?” I exclaim.
“You can’t swim, huh,” he mutters as he shoves his braids back and pulls a hand down his face. “You have fucking fins—”
“Behind you!”
The first of thebalasappears, its red eyes glowing out from beneath its knobby glower. Merc doesn’t bother to assess what I’ve reported. He starts for me with powerful strokes, and I know the only way I can help us is by leading the charge to the impossible moat edge.
When I get to the stones, I try to set my blunt fingers into the seams between the algae’d, smooth-faced rocks, but there’s no purchase, the slime preventing me from securing any kind of hold. I keep attempting to find some sort of grip, even as I glance back once again. Merc is coming at me so fast, he has a wake behind him, but the disturbances have called even more to us. Fouror five otherbalashave zeroed in from way across the water, their tails swirling back and forth with the lazy movement of cats on the hunt.
Right before the mouse is toyed with.
Merc arrives at me and throws himself at the walling. He fails as I do, but doesn’t keep up with trying. In a single move, he comes about and unsheathes the broadsword, the tip breaching the surface and gleaming wet in the sunlight.
There’s no way he can defend us, and they’re all closing in, the monsters bickering back and forth, their jaws snapping in a fanged argument over who gets first bite. And behind the lineup, there are countless others ready to strike.
I go back to throwing myself at the slick stones, and a scream gets trapped in my throat when I notice that there are a similar series of pawings, long stripes of something—or someone—desperately trying to extricate themselves in a losing battle, the kind of epitaph that terrifies me—
Out of the corner of my eye, I see one of thebalasrushing in on me from the side. It’s decided not to take the common frontal approach, and it’s going to get me and Merc as a reward for its thinking.
To hell with the guards on the parapet. I start to scream—
That’s when the snake lands on my head.
Twenty-OneThe Snake and the Grave.
Furious at the unfairness of a reptilian counterstrike, I bat at the snake, but it’s tenacious, wrapping around my head and falling down my shoulders. I look to Merc for help, but he’s got his own problems—and they’re all about protecting me. He’s put himself between me and what’s now a ring ofbalas, his arms spread wide, that broadsword at the ready as he treads water to stay afloat. The countdown to the attack has started, and the predators are focused now, no longer biting at each other.
As the one coming at me from the right opens its jaws into an evil smile, full of filthy yellow teeth, I grab at the snake and yank it off me—
What’s in my hand makes no sense.
While the rope comes into focus, a male voice from above says, “I shall pull you out! Hold on!”
In the back of my mind, I know I’ve heard the man before, but I’m too confused to make the connection. All that matters is that maybe this is a way out.
