I wash my face and rub at my skin, using my nails to scrub my knees, elbows, and feet. My teeth are chattering and I’m starting to feel numb from the cold, but it’s also a relief to shed all the dirt and sour sweat of fear off me.
We may be poor, but Naida raised me with certain rules and they have become a part of me. Wash yourself. Use a twig and water to clean your teeth at night. Make sure your clothes are clean and change your underpants often. We may not bearistocrats, but we’re honest people and don’t stink. Being a healer means she also believes cleanness is the key to good health.
So, as the shock of everything that has happened starts to wear off a little, an icy layer thawing, it lets my thoughts run down their usual pathways, and washing myself is turning into a pleasure.
“Get on with it,” Roane rumbles, his broad back hunched. “If you don’t die of the cold, there may be other ways.”
“Almost done.” I scrub away at my skin, humming a tune under my breath. “Why, have you seen something?”
“The griffins are active in the sky. What if they’ve noticed the missing egg?”
That breaks through my bubble of happiness. I glance up at the winged shapes circling in the high. “Gods, I hope not.”
“We won’t have light for much longer. Come.”
He’s right. I wade through the rushing water toward the bank as the sky darkens, flickers of light popping up, imitating the stars set on the real sky.
Roane is standing there and in the gathering dark, he has… a glow about him. Are my eyes playing tricks on me? Narrowing my gaze, I force myself to move faster through the water, stepping over flat stones and untangling my leg from a knot of weeds, only… for something else to snag my ankle.
A cry escapes me. I shake my leg and it’s freed. Spinning in a circle, I glance wildly about. “What was that?”
“Aline?” Roane turns and suddenly he’s unsheathing his scimitars and splashing into the river. “Watch out!”
“What are you doing?”
“There is something there. Keep still!”
“What is it?” I swallow a shriek when a sleek, long tentacle slithers over my leg. “It’s here!”
Roane roars, sinking into the water, scimitars and all, his glow winking out. He leaves me floundering in a gathering darkness that’s more mental than physical.
“Roane!” I inch backward toward the shore, my nipples as hard as pebbles, my skin erupting in gooseflesh. “Are you all right?”
The water seems to be boiling where he sank. Something gray and glittery swims under the surface, and I clap a hand over my mouth, bile rising in my throat.
Long hair flying, Roane surges out of the water and hacks at the creature with both scimitars, turning and twisting, dancing a dance of death.
Shadow and thorn,I think of the names of his scimitars.One dark, the other silver.
Crimson blood sprays, and the creature swings around. There are five huge snakes rising out of the water. The glow about Roane intensifies, his movements accelerating. He cuts off a head, but another emerges from the stump almost instantly.
“Hydra,” I say. “It’s a Lirnean hydra!”
The moment I call out the creature’s name, the snaky heads swing toward me.
“Fire,” I shout. Grabbing stones from the riverbank, I start throwing them at the monster, distracting it from Roane. “Fire!”
“Is that supposed to be helping me?” he grouses, lifting his scimitars, preparing to attack again.
“It’s fire we need. You have to cut off every head and scorch the stumps. Call your phoenix down!”
He hesitates for a long moment, his gaze on me, then he looks up. “Simu!” he hollers. “Over here!”
I keep throwing stones, wishing I knew how to use a sling, a bow and arrows, or maybe how to throw knives. It was never a skill I thought I’d ever need, but here it’s a whole different story, pun intended, and new skills are required.
A flash at the edge of my vision, high up in the sky, resolves into the phoenix. Seeing it from afar is so different. It’s a magnificent dragon-like creature, burning as it flies.
Which is strange. I thought phoenixes only burned after dying and were then reborn. But there was a story Naida told me, about a phoenix who burned forever…
