Page 77 of Corvus and the Broken God

“They left in the middle of the night. I heard the splashes. Are you hungry?”

“They left? But the original cavern caved in. I was going to lead them out safely.”

“I’m pretty sure swimming in a cave with a six-foot crocodile was just as much an option for them as it is for me.”

I sat up and rubbed the sleep from my eyes, holding my hands in front of my face, desperate to see anything, even the faintest sliver of light, but failing. “Well, I hope they find their way out.”

“Unlikely.”

“You’re in a good mood this morning.” Probably happy the men who brought him here would run out of oxygen before they found their way out of the underwater labyrinth. Because they deserved to die for trapping him here, never mind they probably had no choice in the matter.

“Not really.” He scooted next to me, his warmth soothing in the darkness.

“Is there food?” I asked, just in case I had heard him right.

“They left some cans of beans, so depends on what you think about cold canned beans.”

“Okay, let’s get the hell out of here. I don’t care how dark it is in the water. I hate not being able to see anything.”

He remained quiet beside me.

“So, you can’t swim at all?” I asked, testing the breadth of what I was dealing with.

“No. I sink.”

“But you can’t die unless somebody takes your head off. Or did your wife lie to me?”

“She told you that? Willingly?”

“Yeah, then again, she thought she was about to kill me. But don’t try to change the topic. This seems like something important for me to know.”

He didn’t say anything for a long time. I focused on my breathing, waiting him out, until he said, “Basically, I get to relive the whole drowning experience over and over again until someone either rescues me or takes my head off.”

Oh wow. That sounded worse than awful. But unless he insisted on keeping the horns, it also didn’t make any sense. Because of physics.

“Do you think you could turn into a crocodile like I did? Wait, did you even see me as a crocodile?”

“I caught a glimpse, but then you changed.”

“That was actually a really fun shape. Excellent swimmer, powerful, definitely didn’t sink. Quite the opposite, actually, a strong, buoyant body. What do you think? Did you get a good enough look at me? Could you change into one?”

“It is unlikely. Besides, remember when I told you it’s impossible to do something you don’t believe you can do?”

“Yes?” I vaguely remembered him saying that to me a long time ago. Back then, I had so much more to ponder, but this seemed to be one of his core truths and probably something I’d need to think about some more.

“Kind of how you were able to best Ixtab by thinking outside of the box. She didn’t know you could transform her into a statue, and you didn’t know that was something you shouldn’t be able to do. This is the opposite of that.” He paused. “Since I’m certain I will drown in the water, I will not be able to swim out of there no matter what I change into.”

A hint of desperation had crept into his voice, so instead of answering him, I tried to put myself in his place. The complete darkness helped take me out of my head, although I would’ve preferred it if I could see. Then I had a thought.

“Can you see in here at all?”

“There isn’t even a speck of light.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I can’t see anything.”

Still, knowing him I said, “What aren’t you saying?”