Keeping my weight equally balanced, legs akimbo, I reach out and cup his chin, lifting it clear of the water.
He is breathing heavily, but he’s looking at me, willing me to help.
Hope.
His eyes are filled with hope. And I know exactly how dangerous that is.
‘That’s right, big guy, we’re getting you out of here,’ I promise.
His head is heavier than I expected, especially with waterlogged fur, and the shaking – whether from fear, cold, or pure exhaustion – makes holding it up even harder.
If we don’t get him out fast, he’s not going to make it.
I check my hands and make sure his head is positioned safely out of the water, then turn my attention to the riverbank.
Closing my eyes, I call to my magic and pull at the ivy, entreating it to grow to me.
‘It’s too thin!’ Caz yells out from where she holds the horses. ‘It won’t take his weight. You need to make it thicker.’
Thicker. Stronger.
‘Not too thick!’ Benny shouts at me a second later. ‘Or I won’t be able to fit my hands around it!’
Llinos’s voice threatens a pithy comeback in mymind, but I push it down. Now is not the time for ghosts when the living so clearly need me.
Like me, Benny has taken off his fur and weapons. He picks up the vine and begins to coil it around his arm. Once enough is gathered, he lashes the coiled loops onto his shoulder, pulls them taut, and then begins to take the exact same steps I did from the riverbank.
Unlike me, though, he blisters the air with swear words as he goes on and on about how cold it is.
Nobles, I think to myself.
‘Help is coming now,’ I say confidently to Fen. ‘You’re going to be okay.’
‘The tide is coming in,’ Thessa calls to us. ‘Benny, you need to move faster.’
‘I don’t see you volunteering to wade into the bloody freezing river!’ Benny shoots back.
I ignore him. ‘How long will it take for the tide to come in?’ I call back to Thessa, but it’s Stide who replies.
‘In half an hour the wolf will be dead,’ she says, offering the answer to the question I was too afraid to voice.
In response to Stide’s words, or maybe her ominous tone, Fen starts to thrash around, and I’m bombarded with his panic again.
The fear is so thick I can hardly breathe, and I work hard to calm myself down and project that calm to Fen. ‘Hey, it’s going to be okay. I promise you. We’re going to get you out. Just calm down, big guy. We need you to conserve your energy for when it’s really go time.’
But Thessa is right – the water level is rising. I tip his chin up a little higher, and though it can’t be comfortable, he doesn’t complain. Instead, he stares at me with an expression I wish I could read.
Unlike Elska, the wolf has no white rings around his eyes, and pure olive green meets my gaze. Presumably the rings faded away with Zelle.
Benny is slowly getting closer, his curses still colouring the air as his teeth chatter. ‘Just take your time,’ I call out. The last thing I need is for him to get stuck too. If that happens, we’re completely lost.
Careful not to upset my footing, I adjust my grip a little beneath Fen’s chin. His eyes have calmed by a fraction, but he is still straining against the sucking mud, and it’s drawing him back in tighter. I need to distract him.
‘Zelle saved me, you know,’ I say to the wolf, stroking my fingers against his muzzle as I hold him up. ‘Not directly,’ I admit. ‘But he helped me re-learn how to fight. Gave me the confidence to believe in myself.’ I pause, my voice caught on the lump forming at the back of my throat. ‘He was a good man. One of the best. And that tells me you must be one of the best wolves.’
The wolf shivers beneath me and I pull him a little closer as I flick my eyes back to Benny.
Come on, Benny!
