A growl followed by yelling down below made me wade into the frothy water. I pushed off the embankment and swam toward the center of the river, and then I turned toward the valley and let the current lasso me toward the fight below.
31
The Fourth One
Iclosed my eyes as I tipped over, curling my body into a compact ball to avoid skeletal damage. I thought of Sook, my thrill-seeking cousin. Of how he’d probably have hollered an impassioned “cowabunga” like he did when he flew over the Pink Sea and divebombed me, one of his very favorite pastimes.
Hitting the pool was almost like hitting solid rock. My organs remained intact inside my body, but damn . . . my poor skull. It pounded and wobbled like the rest of my bones.
I suddenly remembered my swimming buddy, and my arms and legs sprang out and carved through the water just as he collided into it. While he dropped like a stone, I scissor-kicked to the surface.
“Is the cat dead?” I asked once he’d emerged.
“If it doesn’t move, it’s dead.”
Treading water, I surveyed its ribcage. When it didn’t expand, I headed toward the shore. Over the sound of my arms slapping water came a series of distant grunts followed by a non-human roar. My pulse faltered, and so did my desire to join the fight, but Remo was out there.
I pushed away my apprehension and swam faster, studying the purple giant’s serrated claws, peaked ears, and twin golden fangs that jutted from its jaw, reddened by—I gulped—blood. As my boots gained purchase on the sandy bottom, a succession of shivers zipped up my spine.
“Move!” Baldie shoved past me, running his palms down his face to whisk off the water. “They need our help.”
I raced after him, Karsyn’s dust tingling in my palm, reminding me it was there for the taking, and Iwouldtake it if push came to shove. “What about weapons?” I yelled as he kicked up sand that stuck to my wet suit.
“They should have extra on site. If not, we hit the caves.”
I didn’t ask where the caves were, just followed him. Movement to our right made him change course. He veered so sharply around a thick, peeling trunk I missed the liana hung between it and the next tree, and it whipped my forehead, snapping my head back. Miraculously, I didn’t fall, but little stars spangled my vision. I shook my head to clear it just as a growl erupted so close I swore I could smell the creature’s rank breath in the air.
My blood and breaths came quicker. Soon, I burst from a thicket of yellow plants with curled tentacular leaves that scraped at my shins.
Holy Skies above.
Atigriwas standing on its hind legs, and in front of it, holding a spear as puny as a matchstick, was Remo, bare chest streaked in blood and sand.
Not seeing Baldie anywhere, I fashioned a spear of my own that resembled Remo’s, only three times longer and sharper. And then I hollered at the beast to get its attention, which also got my fiancé’s attention. The huge feline landed, its paws making the very ground shake. My knees softened and bent as I squatted into a battle stance.
Thetigripivoted toward me and sniffed the air. And then it licked its chops and bounded.
Remo shouted, but my thrashing pulse drowned out his voice.
A dose of adrenaline so potent shot through me that I thought I might rocket off the ground if I so much as hopped. Even though I would never own up to it, I did jump and got a whole whopping foot of air between me and the ground before thumping right back down.
Since flying was a no-go, I reeled my arm back, preparing to throw my spear, but even if my aim was true and my velocity stellar, my pointy stick would probably glance off the compact wall of muscle coming at me. When I was younger, Iba had taught me that the best way to disarm your enemy, when outnumbered or outpowered, was by using the element of surprise. He’d demonstrated this when we’d jousted with reeds in place of swords. As I went for the final blow, Iba had dusted his face to look like Pappy, and although we weren’t supposed to use any magic, and Iknewit was a trick, it halted me long enough for him to sweep my legs out from underneath me and pin me under his play sword.
As my strategy firmed up, thetigrilaunched itself at me, gilded fur rippling around its protruding haunches. I flexed my fingers around my spear and transformed it into a net of barbed wire, which I tossed at the animal. It snarled as it made contact, then howled as it became so tangled in the spiky mesh that it smacked into the ground. Remo, who’d raced behind it, jumped and plunged the spear into the beast’s neck. Right before my companion’s body could land on the prickly metal, I summoned my dust back.
Scowling, he yanked his weapon out of the beast’s neck, the flesh squishing wetly around the whittled wood. Remo’s gaze was so full of anger and anguish and a hundred other murky emotions that I felt like I’d done something wrong even though my only wrong move had been displaying my magic.
Hopefully, no one had been privy to the little show.
“What the fuck was that?” Baldie asked, popping out from a yellow thicket with two spears and a machete.
Remo’s lips were a thin line on his chiseled, blood-streaked face.
I feigned innocence. “What was what?”
“The fucking wire thingie. Where did you get it from?”
“What wire?” I asked.
