“Ow!” He grunts. “What was that for?”
“How good is your balance?” I ask him, turning to look him in the eyes.
“My balance?” he repeats. “What does that?—”
“Just tell me,” I growl. “No need for extra questions.”
He furrows his brows and shrugs. “It’s not bad. I was a Spine Jacker, remember. Gotta have good balance for the good stuff.”
“Okay, good. Because I have an idea.” I move close to the edge of the water and point to the nearest log. “These are floating all over the river. The longer I look at them, the more I realize there’s a pattern to it. I think, if we’re careful and pick our pathway cautiously, we can leap across these logs and make it to the other side.”
He’s slack-jawed as he stares at me. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
Offended, I brace my hands on my hips. “I’m not. You don’t have a better solution, so here we are.”
“And what if we fall in?” he asks, gesturing at the water. “Remember that conversation about magically learning how to swim? Yeah, we didn’t learn. Plus, the fucking water beasts are going to eat us!”
“It’s our only option,” I argue. “We either leap across, or we sit here and wait for Stryker to find us.” I look back out across the water. “Whatever you decide, I’ll be waiting on the other side.”
Without waiting for his answer, I leap from the shore and land on the nearest log. It bobs under my weight, water rushing over my boots briefly before it stabilizes and I’m able to balance on top of it.
“Motherfucker,” Locke growls. “When we die, remember it’s your fault.”
I walk toward the end of the log I’m standing on, nervous when it dips into the water just before I launch myself to the next floating log. I land on it hard enough to splash water up my trousers. The creatures in the water take notice, still too many of them for me to pick them out individually.
Behind me, Locke leaps for the first log and lands on it with a grunt. He swings his arms and gains his balance quickly, showing how skilled he was as a Spine Jacker with his recovery.
I move again, leaping from one log to the next, careful where I place my feet as the logs bob and dance in the rushing water. We immediately start sweeping down the river, but the logs move slowly, giving us enough time to hopefully get to the other side before we’re swept back into The Red Bloom Court.
“This is stupid,” Locke shouts from behind me, “even if it’s working.”
“It’s not stupid if it’s working,” I shout back, laughing as I leap again.
We’re about halfway across the river now. If we fall in, that’s it. Carefully, I move along the large log I’m standing on and pick out the next logs floating before me. There are two directions I can go. Both logs look sturdy enough, thick around the middle. The texture on the left one looks better for keeping my footing beneath me, so I turn toward it.
“Come on,” I call to Locke as he lands on the log behind me.
I leap for the log, my boot landing on the bark. The texture does in fact hold my boot steady and I balance myself, and I grin in success.
“We’ve got this—” I start to tell Locke, confident in my plan now that it’s clearly successful. We’re going to make it to the other side and get across this river, dry and safe. Except . . . before I can finish my words, the log I’m standing on begins to rumble.
The awareness my mask gives me flares to life a second later, a few seconds too later.
“Uh, Vesper,” Locke says, staring after me with wide eyes.
“Fuck,” I grunt, rushing along the length of my “log” back to the one I’d come from. Just as it begins to shift beneath me, sinking into the water, I launch off and land safely back on the original log.
The caiman shifts in the water and stares at me with large yellow eyes. I can feel his presence as much as I can see him. With direct eye contact, I watch as he sinks beneath the water and disappears. My awareness splinters again with so many lifeforces beneath the water.
“That’s not good,” I rasp. I glance over my shoulder at Locke where he still balances on another log. “Time to go. Quickly.”
I leap for the other log, this one most assuredly a fallen tree. I land on it hard enough to splash water back at Locke, but I’m already leaping again before I can dwell on it for too long.
“I thought you can sense them with your mask?” Locke asks, following quickly behind me. Thank the Harrow we’re both agile enough to do this. Had we been anything other than a Spine Jacker and a Courier, this wouldn’t be possible.
“Can’t,” I say as I leap again. “Not when they’re underwater. Too many creatures beneath.”
“Fuck,” he grunts, realizing how much of a disadvantage we’re at.
