“We need to head further west.” His words were quiet but self-assured. He seemed to know what he was talking about and Saxu paused only a moment before agreeing.
But when Saxu directed the boats, Sagam shook his head. “That way.”
He gestured at a different angle, his arm pointing intoa darker area of the swamp where the trees had grown so dense there was no sign of sun at all.
Saxu considered the route, his eyes lifting again to the canopy. Then his mouth tightened. He ordered the crew to steer the boat in the direction Sagam had indicated.
The other boats followed us. Slowly, the fog lifted, leaving a trail of goose bumps on my skin. At first, the darkness wasn’t complete, light still filtering down.
But as my eyes adjusted and we got further in, rather than seeing by shafts of sunlight that made their way through the swamp trees, we were seeing in a perpetual evening twilight, the only light so dim it barely let us see the men with us.
Sweat formed on my arms and neck, the layers of imperial clothing trapping it against my skin. It was more humid, the air itself thick with warm moisture. When I took a breath, it felt heavy, heating me more than soothing.
Eventually, the trees grew so dense that the boats were forced to move in a single file, the men barely having enough room to row, so instead they began pushing their oars off tree trunks, using that to propel us forward.
The buzz of insects turned into chirps and louder clicking noises, as though the innards of a clock had been exposed in the forest, counting down. One of the soldiers slapped at his neck, gasping when he saw the size of the insect he had killed.
There was a loud splash, and a cut-off scream. Someone shrieked in the dark before they were muffled, their voice disappearing into nothing but whispers.
A soft sound was taken up around us, a cacophony of whispering sounds. In the quiet of the swamp, it had to be echoes given life, but instead I had the strange feeling that the trees were talking.
“A boat’s gone!” someone from the back called, their voice rising in panic. The words echoed forward, along with a soft, chittering giggle from the flora around us.
I turned, rising onto my knees and bracing one handagainst Tallu’s shoulder to squint over the row of boats. We were now down to eight, and I desperately searched for Iradîo. I should have insisted she be on my boat, but I had been foolish enough to think she could take care of herself. What would I do if her boat disappeared? Would I dive into the water, knowing there were monsters waiting for me?
She lied to you, something deep inside me whispered.She lied to you over and over.
But she had saved me over and over again as well. She had promised her loyalty to me, even though she worried it might conflict with her loyalty to the north.
My eyes skimmed over Empress Koque’s robes and the servants scattered throughout the boats. Finally I saw an owl perched on the edge of Koque’s rowboat, its feathers glowing in the dim light. It turned its head to look at me accusingly.
“Nuisance of a creature. Do you want me to eat it?”Naî asked, her eyes following the direction of my own.
“What destroyed the boat?” I asked. I tried to direct my question at General Saxu, but his attention was focused on the men around us, and he called out a warning in military shorthand.
The remaining boats clumped closer together, our line so tight that with each row our boat gently knocked against the one in front of us.
“There are monsters living in the swamp,” Commander Rede answered me, leaning forward so that his words wouldn’t interfere with the commands and information flowing between the officers.
“Like what?” I pressed, my eyes searching the trees. But it was so dark all I could see was shifting shadows and I couldn’t tell if they were animals or simply branches moving in the wind.
“Alligators as large as a pleasure boat. Snakes that breathe the water and eat young alligators.” Commander Rede looked up. “Elves that live in the trees.”
His words were a warning, and I wondered if that had been what had taken out the first boat. Were thereelves that had survived the ransacking of their nation and were now handed His Imperial Majesty on the proverbial platter?
The boats quieted, and I glanced across to see General Saxu was looking up, searching for something in the branches of the trees. Over the course of a few strokes from the rowers, the last of the light dimmed out to darkness.
Humid air dampened my skin. We werenotin the belly of a volcano. I wasnothiding in the rafters of the emperor’s bedroom waiting to kill him. I kept hold of my sword with one hand and grabbed the back of Tallu’s neck with the other.
The moss growing up one of the tree trunks wound its way around and around, glowing at first dimly and then more brightly as we approached. It pulsed with life, as though it had a heartbeat of its own. We passed by, and I saw vines dripping from one of the tree branches, with small patterns of light traveling up them. The light shivered up the vine, starting where it touched the water and ending in the high branches before starting over again.
It was so beautiful that it distracted me for a second from the pair of eyes that just barely crested the surface of the water. I pushed back, fisting a hand against Tallu’s chest, protectively grabbing his shirt.
The eyes disappeared, something heavy scraping the underside of our boat. I searched the water on the other side but didn’t see whatever creature had been observing us.
“Sagam?” I asked, but he was already half up on his knees, his sword drawn, but held flat against his forearm.
Then there was a heavy crunch, and I spun, watching as the last boat in our line cracked in two, massive jaws swallowing wood and screaming soldiers. Three of the servants managed to scramble onto the next boat, but the rest disappeared under the water, floundering, their yellow clothes fluttering before they were dragged under.
