As though the ocean itself had sensed their fear and wanted to add to it, the waves that had been lifting and dropping the raft grew larger. They rode to the top of a crest, and the raft tilted up, so Dela felt sure she was going to fall off the back, and then sloped forward again as it plunged down the other side. It hit the trough, and water flooded over the front of the raft, and the vines they’d so tightly knotted loosened under the impact.
She thought they’d at least managed to lose the sea serpent, but the familiar bumping from beneath came again, and a moment later, a big wave hit.
Dela felt a looseness beneath her, and she glanced down to find space had appeared between the poles, and she could see the dark water of the ocean beneath. In the gap, something else moved, something with scales and a long, muscular, twisting body.
“The vines are coming undone!”
“We’re going to have to keep going,” Warsgra yelled. “If we don’t, the raft is going to break apart.”
“It feels like it’s breaking apart anyway,” she cried.
“Better that we cover some distance while we still have the chance, or else we’re going to be swimming with that thing and the Gods only know what else.”
Though they’d been trying not to be seen by the sea serpent, the men had no choice but to plunge the poles back into the water and keep paddling. Dela clung onto the raft, trying to hold the pieces together.
“Come up to the front, with us,” Warsgra growled.
“I can’t. If I let go of the poles, they’ll come apart, I’m sure of it.”
Orergon was to the right of her. His vines had held together, so far, but they would be bound to pull apart if her side of the raft came undone completely.
“Paddle faster!” the Norc instructed everyone.
Dela wished she could help. She felt useless and helpless, balancing on top of the poles, unable to paddle. Each wave that hit them threatened to pull more of the poles out of her grasp, and she wasn’t sure she could hold on much longer. She could feel her corner of the raft sinking, more water spilling in over her hands, knees, and feet. Where had the sea serpent gone? Had it left them alone?
She risked looking up to see how much distance they had left to go. They were almost at the island, but it still felt like an impossible distance.
A sudden jolt from beneath the raft launched Dela into the air. She barely managed to keep her grip on the raft, one hand lashed tight around the pole. But then she realized the pole she held onto was no longer attached to the rest of the raft.
“Dela!”
She heard her name moments before plunging beneath the waves. Her hearing grew hollow as water filled her ears. Her chest contracted with the punch of cold, and she fought against the desire to suck in a breath. She was in the water, still sinking deeper, and that serpent was in here with her. Panic clutched her, and she kicked her legs and powered her arms through the water, fighting against the drag pulling her down. She managed to change direction to swim back up. How far had she been thrown from the raft? Was the serpent coming for her now? Or was it preoccupied with the raft? The back of it must have come apart when the creature struck it. Did that mean the others were in the water with her?
She breached the surface and gasped for breath.
Waves battered her, washing over the top of her head and pushing her under again. She couldn’t get her bearings. What direction should she look? Where were the others? Where was the island? All these thoughts went through her head in a matter of seconds.
She was already exhausted from paddling and then trying to hold the raft together. How long would she be able to swim?
Panic filled her as she twisted one way and then the other, constantly expecting something to attack her legs and drag her down deeper into the depths of the ocean. She was terrified about what might be happening to the others. Were they still on the raft, or had the whole thing fallen apart? She didn’t know how far she’d been thrown when the serpent hit the bottom of the raft, but she hoped if the raft was still together that the men wouldn’t come in after her. There was no point in them all dying out here.
What little energy she had remaining began to seep away. Her muscles cramped from the cold water, and she suddenly realized she’d stopped trying to swim. She tried to give another burst of energy to keep her head above water, but she wasn’t able to do it. Her brain had lost the ability to connect with her muscles.
Something bumped against her leg—something strong and powerful—and even though her mind went into overdrive, her body didn’t respond.
This is it for me, she thought. She was going to die before her life had even properly got started. Her heart ached for Orergon, and Vehel, and Warsgra, and for her parents back home, and how they would never truly know what had happened to her. Overwhelming sadness took hold of her for the bigger story as well, for the war starting in the south, and how it would spread to the other races and how many lives would be lost.
She didn’t want to die, but, she realized with sudden clarity, people didn’t always get what they wanted.
Chapter 12
Warsgra
Dela!
Warsgra desperately looked around for any sign of her. She’d been thrown into the water, and then a wave had come, and she’d vanished from view. They’d all gone after her, but the rest of the raft had broken apart. All they had to float on were clumps of poles. Some were tied together while others just floated in singles on the surface of the sea. One piece had hit Warsgra smack on the forehead, and for a moment he’d been left dazed and unsure of where everyone was. In the water, when the waves rose up around him, he lost sight of the island and the shoreline where they’d come from. It was impossible to tell what direction he should even be looking, and very quickly he lost sight of the others as well.
Despite being exhausted, he snatched a lungful of air and purposefully plunged beneath the surface, keeping his eyes open wide. Salt stung his eyeballs, but he forced himself to peer through the murky water. The sunlight only penetrated so deep, and all he could see were a few of the poles from the raft. He didn’t spot any of the others and definitely not Dela. Was he too late? Had she already drowned? He couldn’t imagine things ending like this, but this was certainly the way it seemed to be going.
There was no sign of the sea serpent either. Had it taken Dela and swum away? With no one else in sight, and with his lungs burning, Warsgra was forced to power his way back up to the surface. His lack of clothing made it easier for him to swim, though his boots had filled with water, and he was at least thankful Vehel had long since rid himself of his armor. If the Elvish prince had been on the raft wearing armor, he’d have been dragged beneath the surface in no time.
Warsgra’s head broke the surface of the ocean, and he wiped salty water from his eyes before looking around, trying to get his bearings. The waves made it impossible to see if any of the others were near. He opened his mouth to shout out, but was rewarded with a mouthful of salty water. One of the waves lifted him, and he caught sight of the island. It was close now—far closer than it had looked when they’d been on the raft. Though it tore him in half doing so, he struck out toward the island. There was nothing more he could do by staying in the water. He would eventually drown, or else he would become fish food for one of the creatures living in its depths.
His limbs were heavy, his muscles not feeling like they were working correctly, but he wasn’t going to give up now. He swam forward, kicking his feet. His boots had remained strapped to his ankles, and though they were heavy and filled with water, he didn’t want to kick them off.
It felt as though he would never reach the shore, but he pushed himself onward, forcing his arms and legs to move through the water. Though he didn’t even realize he was so close, his feet suddenly hit the ocean floor, and he realized the water was shallow enough for him to stand. On trembling limbs, he pushed himself to his feet his shoulders breaching the surface. He fixed his sights on the island’s small shingle beach and crawled
through the breaking waves to collapse on the shoreline. A number of the poles that made up the raft had also washed up nearby, and Warsgra hoped against hope that he would see Dela or one of the others also washed up in the same spot.
But he was alone.
He pushed himself to sitting. His hair hung like seaweed in wet draggles down his back. Tiny stones and grains of sand had lodged beneath his nails as he’d crawled up the beach, and his forehead throbbed from where a piece of the raft had hit him, but otherwise he was unharmed. Though weakened from his struggle to shore, he forced himself to his feet to get a better look at the ocean. If he spotted one of the others out there, he wouldn’t hesitate to rush back in again. But, other than a couple of the raft poles bobbing on the surface, he didn’t see anyone. Even the sea serpent had vanished. Warsgra just hoped it hadn’t taken one of the others with it.
The thought of having lost any of them twisted Warsgra’s gut with grief. He experienced the emotion with particular clarity for Dela. What would be the point in all of this if they didn’t have her? She was the glue that bound them together.
He walked along the shoreline, desperately watching for any sign of the others. What if he didn’t find them? What then? He had no way of getting back to the mainland. Would he need to head deeper into the island and try to find the Seer Vehel had been talking about? After all, she was the reason they’d done this treacherous journey. If nothing else, perhaps she would be able to help him get back to the mainland.
And then what? Would he travel hundreds of miles, alone, back to the Southern Trough? Without Dela, there would be a war he’d have no choice but to fight in. His tales of a Dragonsayer, and that dragons were still alive, might be good around a campfire at night, but they wouldn’t change anything.
Without Dela ... He couldn’t bring himself to comprehend such a thing. The world would be a far worse place without her, and his entire chest felt as though it were crushing beneath the pain of the possibility. No, he hadn’t given up on her. She was strong. She would have survived.
He rounded the small cove to spot a figure folded over one of the poles, bobbing up and down in the shallows. Warsgra broke into a run, leaping through the waves. Long black hair moved with the flow of the water. Orergon. He reached the Moerian and grabbed him by the tops of his arms and pulled him onto the shore. Orergon coughed, and he half sat, his hand covering his mouth.
“Dela,” the Moerian managed to croak.
Warsgra awkwardly patted him on the back. “I haven’t found her yet. Do you think you can walk?”
He nodded. “Yes. What about Vehel?”
“I haven’t seen him either.”
“You don’t think—”
“No.” Warsgra cut him off. He didn’t want anyone giving voice to the heartbreaking possibility that one of them didn’t make it.
Warsgra was only a little taller than Orergon, though Orergon was of a slighter build, so he was able to support the Moerian while they kept moving, allowing Orergon to slowly regain his strength. He kept going, moving around the coastline, watching out to sea for any sign of Dela and Vehel. He had no idea if he was even going in the right direction. What if they’d been swept along the other side of the coast, and were dying right now, while he walked the wrong way? Orergon seemed to grow stronger as they walked, until the Moerian untangled himself from Warsgra’s arm.
“I’m okay,” he said. “I can walk.”
Warsgra cupped his hands to his mouth. “Dela! Vehel!”
Orergon joined the shouting. They took it in turns, calling out and then listening for a reply.
They could be drowned, or taken by the sea serpent to feed to its young.
“There!” Orergon clutched Warsgra’s forearm to get his attention to where he pointed.
“Vehel!”
The Elvish prince was a sodden bundle of sand and seaweed. But as they ran, feet pounding on the sand, he coughed and began to sit up.
“You’re okay,” Warsgra said in relief.
Vehel nodded. “Yes, I think so. Where’s Dela?”
They looked between them. None of them knew, and none of them wanted to give voice to the worst possibility of all.
That they’d lost her for good this time.
Chapter 13
Dela
A volley of coughing erupted from her lungs, catapulting her from unconscious to conscious. Dela automatically moved to cover her mouth with her hand, but found she couldn’t.
Something was on her. Something holding her down. No, not something. Lots of somethings, like a hundred tiny hands.
She blinked open her eyes, which streamed from the saltwater and the bright sunlight. She tried to piece together what had happened. The raft. The sea serpent. The ocean. She couldn’t remember anything after that, but she heard waves crashing on shore, and beneath her body felt scratchy, as though she was lying on sand.
Her vision cleared as she blinked the tears away furiously, and she was able to look around.
Dela stifled a scream. Numerous little furry faces peered down at her, their brown eyes inquisitive and bright with intelligence. Their noses were completely flat—their nostrils two black holes in their faces—and when they pulled their lips back, they revealed pointed, yellowed teeth. There were at least twenty of them—small primates, each about the size of a small dog—standing on their hind legs. Their little hands had hold of her, small fingers wrapped around her arms and legs, and even supporting the back of her head.
Fear shot through her, and she let out a shriek. She struggled, flailing both her arms and legs, trying to dislodge the animals, but they chattered to each other in a strange kind of language, and instead of letting go and running away, they lifted her.
Panic increased her struggles, her whole body a writhing mess of thrashing arms and legs, but there were too many of them. If she managed to shake off one or two, another couple of creatures took their places. Their little hands were all over her, strangely human against her skin, as though she were being carried by twenty tiny, furry children.
Dela opened her mouth and screamed, praying the others were nearby and would come to her rescue. But she didn’t even know what had happened to them after she’d been thrown in the water. She thought she’d caught glimpses of the raft coming apart, but what happened after that, she had no idea. What if the worst had happened and now she was completely alone? There would be no one who could help her.
The monkeys carried her away from the beach and into the jungle at the center of the island. She remembered the large granite outcropping that rose from the very middle. Was that where they were taking her?
What did these creatures want with her? They hadn’t hurt her, and didn’t seem vicious, but they definitely had plans.
Dela screamed and struggled, though it did no good. Her throat hurt from the seawater she must have swallowed, and she’d already been exhausted from the paddling and the subsequent near drowning. She wanted to keep fighting, but her body didn’t comply. With the initial burst of adrenaline now fading away, replaced with a deep-seated exhaustion that made her want to sleep for a week, she eventually gave up her struggles and allowed the creatures to carry her. Her fighting wasn’t doing any good, anyway, and she should reserve her strength in case a new opportunity for escape arose wherever it was they were taking her.
“Who are you?” she croaked at them. “What do you want?”
It felt crazy to talk to animals, but she figured it was worth a go. The monkey closest to her head looked down into her face and gibbered in response, pulling its lips back from their teeth and exposing the white points in a strange kind of grin.
They were moving higher into the island. Her back bumped against rock, sending pain jolting through her spine, and she sucked air in over her teeth. Her instincts had been correct when she’d thought they were bringing her to the rocky outcropping in the center. The creatures had to adjust their hold on her as they pulled her higher, needing to lift her in some places, chattering to each oth
er in their strange language, as one tried to organize the others.
“You can always put me down,” she suggested to them, though she had no idea if they could even understand her. “I can walk from here.”
But she only received an angry chatter from the one who appeared to be doing the organizing. It looked as though she just had to put up with the bumps and jolts as they carried her higher and higher, climbing the rocky face. Eventually, she was able to twist her head enough to catch sight of the tops of the trees surrounding them—a sea of green—and beyond that lay the ocean, and, farther still, the mainland where they’d come from.
Her heart tightened with grief. Where were the others? She missed them as though someone had cut off a limb. She deeply regretted their attempt to get across the ocean now. They should have stayed right where they were, together and safe. In that moment, she didn’t even care that the rest of Xantearos was going to be at war. She didn’t care about all the thousands of lives that would be lost. She wanted to be selfish and keep Vehel and Orergon and Warsgra to herself. They could have been happy, the four of them, creating a new life for themselves up here. But she knew that could never have been in their future. At some point, the real world would have intruded, and what would a human be doing with a Norc, a Moerian, and an Elvish prince? It would never have been allowed.
Not that it mattered now. She was probably about to be given to some monkey God as a sacrifice, and Vehel, Orergon, and Warsgra might be lost at the bottom of the ocean or eaten by a sea serpent.
Finally, they reached the top, and to her surprise, the monkeys released their hold on her. She hit the ground with a thud. She could still feel the press of tiny fingers against her skin, an imprint she thought she’d probably relive in her nightmares, too.
Not wasting any time, she scrambled to her feet and then away from the creatures. But there was a drop behind her, and she barely caught herself before she toppled back over it, her arms pin-wheeling to keep her balance. She managed to throw herself forward, her hands hitting the rock. Her pulse raced, her breath leaving her lungs in small snatches. That had been close.
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