Dreska and Inesh clamber inside and she casts a wary look back at the steamed-up inn windows, then at the two other carriages. ‘Nova, I need you to stay inside the coach with Dreska and Inesh. Keep them calm.’
And what do you intend to do?
Brielle smiles. ‘Our coach needs a driver.’
She runs a hand over the horses and speaks softly to them, opening up a path between her and them. She finds they are weary but well fed. She whispers a witch word to each of them, giving them strength and courage, and leaps on to the driver’s seat, taking up the reins. As she urges the horses forward, rain peppers the seat beside her. She looks up, finding the grey clouds shrouding the last of the sun as it dips down, near the horizon. She doesn’t want to make this journey now. If anything, they should hunker down, allow the horsessome rest, take a room and set off at dawn. Slick roads, poor daylight and the chance of witches on their heels is a poor recipe for success. But they have little choice.
Brielle clicks her tongue and the horses pull forward, away from the inn. She peers over her shoulder through the steadily increasing rain and, just before they round the corner, she sees the door fly open, two figures emerging. She was right. They are being watched. She whispers again to the horses and they launch into a trot, needing to put distance between them and the hunters. If they can just reach the mountain pass, they can find a place to hide. There’s a village where she has friends, where she rid them of a ghoul a year ago …
It’s dangerous, this pass, and at this time of the year, if the rain has swelled the river, if the horses baulk … but she has to try. She sets her sights on the road, determination steeling her as the rain trickles down inside her jacket. She clicks her tongue again, picturing those witches already in pursuit. ‘Faster, beauties. Faster!’
Then she hears it, between the sounds of this coach’s wheels and the horses’ hooves as she attunes her senses. Another coach. No, two coaches, the clatter of many hooves, of wheels clashing against the stone and ground as they pull away from the inn.
She swears softly, calculating the time to the pass, hoping that this coach doesn’t throw a wheel. The horses can canter, but only over a short distance while attached to the coach and there’s no time to unhookthem now. She clicks her tongue again, her entire being tensing, fizzing with the possibility of a skirmish with these hunters.
As the rain falls around them, the wind whipping up the trees crowding the road as they flee, she wonders if they will survive the night.
i leap to the side,grabbing the blade, and surge up with it held in my fist. The creature shrieks then sniffs the air, eyes darting back and forth.
‘Where are you?’ it says, voice like the hideous grating of claws on granite. ‘Where have you gone?’
Is it … blind? Can this creature not see me? I wave my arm, keeping the blade poised for attack, but the creature crouches, still sniffing the air. Its joints are all turned inwards, like an inverted spider with an almost human face, yet it seems bleached of sunlight, as though it lives in the depths of the sea. I rake my memories for any mention of a being such as this and only find one answer.
Mermaid.
Not quite fish, not quite phantom squid, and not quite siren either. A creature that dwells in the deepest parts of the ocean, where even the light fails to filter down. It doesn’t need sight because its other senses –
It snaps its head to me. ‘Found you.’
– are excellent.
Vaulting over the table, it misses me by inches, cursing and scrambling like a spider over the floor. I scoop up the treasure box and turn just as the creature barrels into me, jaws gnashing. I fend it off with the blade, swiping at its chest, and it shrieks, cowering back. Breathing deeply, panic blooming inside me, I look to see if I can make it to the door. I hear a thump outside, more footsteps in the corridor, then a gasp of horror before another creature shrieks in glee. There is more than one mermaid aboard and, from the sound of the footsteps, at least two other contenders are seeking treasure elsewhere on the ship. I have to escape while I can.
‘Evil human, nasty, all of you,’ the creature says, drawing my focus to it as its pale eyes rake back and forth. Black blood clots across its chest where I swiped out with my blade, but it doesn’t seem to have slowed the creature down. In fact, the wound has already clotted.
I don’t dare talk, barely dare to breathe, as it sniffs the air, searching again for me. Carefully, one tread at a time, I wend my way back to the door, blade outstretched in my shaking fist. I need to time this right, when I cannot hear the others in the narrow corridor outside. When I can safely make a dash for it.
‘You think there aren’t more out there, waiting?’ the mermaid taunts. ‘They brought us all to the arena, lured us with meat and blood … but you’re fresher; I can smell it. Human, and yet … not entirely.’
‘What you can scent in my blood will be the death of you if you cross me again,’ I hiss, reaching the door.
The mermaid lunges, but I’m faster. When it’s a handbreadth away, when I can smell its foul breath, I strike. My blade crunches past rows of teeth, through bone and blood and flesh, lodging in the back of its skull with a dull thud. It twitches horribly, its dark blood oozing down my arm as I lower it to the ground and pull its carcass loose from the blade.
Tremors racking my limbs, I blink quickly, gathering myself, and wipe the blade down my thigh. The creature’s blood still clings to my arm and I suppress a shudder, opening the door. I leave it alone, dead and hungry, and rush back through the ship on nimble feet. I hear others still onboard, but manage to avoid them. If there are more of those creatures in the water, I need to return to Kell. He is without a weapon, a perfect target.
At the side of the ship, I find Sember and Heath panting, covered in blood. Sember wipes a hand over her forehead and I see two mermaids floating behind her in the water. Dead. ‘You found treasure?’
‘I did,’ I say, quickly opening the treasure chest tucked under my arm. Releasing the clasp, I find a string of pearls and a brooch, glittering with gems. I toss the treasure box to her with the brooch inside and she catches it deftly, tucking it under her own arm. Then I wind the pearls round my wrist, tying them off securely. ‘Just creature or human as well?’
‘Creature blood,’ she breathes as Heath ducks, an arrow flying to embed itself in the wood behind his head. ‘I smell like a fish market.’
‘But the other contenders arenotgoing to like losing,’ Heath adds. ‘We need to leave. Carefully.’
I stride forward, ducking down beside the entrance, and try not to look too closely at the two dead mermaids floating on the eddying waves. The contenders from the Spines are nocking arrows, crouched on a rock, waiting for us to escape. And the others … they’re either engaged in their own battles or searching for treasure in the bowels of the ship. I bite my lip, searching swiftly for Kell, and relief floods me as I catch sight of him still clinging to the rocks on the opposite wall of the arena. Somehow, he hasn’t been hunted. Yet.
‘Fey and Soturi are close by, there are more creatures in the water and at least three of the others fighting,’ I rattle off quickly, turning to Sember and Heath. ‘I’ll cover you both. You get back to your circle.’
They glance at each other. ‘And what about you?’ Sember asks.
