Sera had no idea how they would find a wounded man in all the gloom and murk. He could easily have sunk down into it and drowned. Swallowed whole by the mud, his body would never be found.
“In the vision, I saw him up in a tree,” Jin volunteered. Her voice remained clear and brave. Sera wished she were as confident.
“There are many trees here, Jin. We could search for a week and never find him.”
Ahead, she glimpsed a strange reflection. Something caught her crystal’s light, up in a cypress less than a hundred yards away. Too large for a spider, it was well above the waterline.
Jin squeezed her hand tighter. The pair tried to quicken their pace but the thick mud fought them for every step as they drew closer.
After cutting the distance in half, they could see the shining object was Dain’s tomahawk, driven into the tree’s trunk, fifteen feet above the swamp’s watery surface. Below the weapon a bare arm dangled off an improvised platform perched among the tree’s thick branches. Sera couldn’t see over the platform’s edge but started to rush faster toward the cypress all the same.
A deep, rumbling noise slowed her movements. She studied the dark water just beneath the towering cypress. A croc stared back. It sat low in the water directly under Dain. Little more than the tip of its snout and those red, dangerous eyes floated above the waterline and, based on the distance between them, the beast was a monster.
The croc issued a steady, low-pitched growl in warning.
Sera froze—so suddenly that Jin bumped into her from behind. For a moment she imagined herself falling forward into the angry beast’s jaws, felt the frenzied terror, then regained her balance. Jin bounced off to the side. She too gasped after catching sight of the scaled giant.
Sera studied the situation. There had to be a way to get around, or to drive the croc off. Frightening the determined predator wouldn’t be possible. This was an old father of the swamp, a master of all it surveyed. Her spell abilities, particularly casting fire or lightning, weren’t precise enough—anything she used could fly wild and possibly hit Dain or knock him down into the water, and even if she landed a hit, it might serve only to enrage the croc. His scales were thick and resistant to all but her strongest attacks. No roots or branches she grew to snare him would hold. He had to be over twenty feet long and impossibly strong.
Instead of the direct approach, Sera cast a spell to cool the water ahead. She drew down a draft of icy, dense air from above and outside the warm enchanted lands, fanning it out over the water’s surface. Crocs, she had been taught, hated cold water and ice. It thickened their blood. They would do almost anything to avoid it. Gradually, she drew down more of the cold air, leeching heat from the water and mud around the beast. Several minutes passed with little obvious effect until at last, a fine, lace-like frost formed on the thinnest cypress branches, those hanging lowest, just above the water.
Feeling the chill, the croc dipped beneath the water’s surface, searching for warmer waters. Soon a thin layer of ice crystallized in a wide radius around the tree’s trunk. Layer by layer, inch by inch, the ice thickened as Sera concentrated on her spell. A white sheet finally stretched from the tree outward to where she and Jin stood. Goosebumps rose on her arms and legs as she felt the chill on her submerged thighs.
After forming half a foot of ice, Sera stopped her casting. Cautious, she climbed up onto the frozen surface then lifted Jin up beside her. The two stood at the ice’s outer edge, waiting for any sign of the croc before moving further.
Sera didn’t hear anything, or feel any movement below.
Eager to reach Dain, she ventured out onto the slick ice toward the injured paladin. Jin trailed along behind like a shadow, mimicking her mother’s footsteps. She held the narrow rapier out before her.
Just feet short of the cypress, Sera heard and then felt the croc brush against the ice below.
“Wait,” she whispered while reaching for Jin. Her heart hammered against her ribs.
The two stood motionless for several minutes. Sera was acutely aware of her breathing and tried to calm it. She squeezed Jin’s hand to reassure her.
We will make it, she told herself. He won’t sense us if we are quiet.
Jin took a single step and, just inches behind them, the ice exploded. Slabs of frozen mud sprayed out in all directions as the croc tried to ram his way through.
“To the tree!” Sera yelled.
The beast’s head swung free. Massive jaws snapped shut behind them with a loud, sickening snap. A roar issued from deep in its throat, a great rumbling sound.
Jin and Sera reached the trunk and then bounded around it to place the tree between themselves and the monster. The wily predator pumped its stubby forearms, trying to haul itself up onto the ice. The frozen surface creaked and groaned under his weight, but refused to crack or break outright. The croc’s claws carved deep grooves, but the ice was too slick for any real traction and it slipped back down, disappearing again beneath the thick brown water. Sera thanked the Light the ice had grown thicker closer to the tree. Too thick for the beast to break through, she prayed.
As if answering her prayer, she heard and felt the croc ramming at the ice from below. It groaned, then popped, but held fast against him.
Before she and Jin had time to gather themselves, the beast returned to the hole, surging out again onto the frozen mud. This time, it lunged far enough to snap its jaws around the tree trunk as Jin and Sera huddled in its shelter. It tore at the cypress, sliding long, ivory teeth up and down the trunk in a frenzy. Bark and slivers of wood showered all around the terrified pair, and their ears rang with the beast’s bellowing. They smelled its foul, rotted breath each time a roar escaped its massive jaws.
Quick as a lightning blast, Jin flashed out with her sword, slashing repeatedly at the inside of the croc’s mouth. Scarcely wounded, the animal growled still louder and thrashed with an even greater fury.
“Jin!” Sera cried, but the girl then tried driving the rapier through the bottom of its mouth. She buried eight inches of forged steel in the creature’s tongue. The pain seemed to slow its attacks and thick, dark blood flowed freely from the wound and coated the tree trunk. The thrashing paused. The croc slipped back.
“Jin, what were you—”
With a sudden jerk, the beast surged upward again and resumed thrashing around the cypress with its powerful jaws. Jin screamed, and Sera swore as she ducked further behind the tree, her arm around Jin’s waist, as the croc’s teeth filed against the tree like some great saw. It was louder now, angrier, and its deafening roars nearly brought her to tears.
For her part, Jin had started screaming out in rage and defiance, stabbing the croc’s mouth repeatedly, but the crazed beast refused to relent.
Finally the beast stopped, its grip on the tree lessoned, and it slid back to the hole in the ice. Knees shaking and sweat dripping down into her eyes, Sera peered around the now barkless cypress, trying to decide on her next move. In a desperate bid to gain some form of advantage over the beast, she sent a fireblast straight at the croc’s open mouth, grunting with the effort. Her aim was true, but little real harm was done to the armored reptile. Fire had never been her strongest ability, and even the insides of its mouth were thick. From the hole in the ice it glared at the elves with hateful red eyes.
Suddenly, she heard a noise from above. With the rustle and crack of branches and leaves, Dain plunged down from the tree, directly over the croc. He fell sword first, crashed, and drove the weapon’s point through the back of the beast’s skull, aiming to puncture its brain. The croc, wounded seriously for the first time, whipped itself from side to side, trying to throw him off, but Dain gripped his sword hilt tight and twisted it around, driving the point deeper.
The beast’s movements started to slow and its breathing became more ragged and shallow. Blood dripped from each nostril, running thin, red trails out onto the ice. It took its last breath, shuddered, and then died. Dain remained on its back, clutching the sw
ord with both hands, and collapsed atop the dead animal.
“DAIN!” Jin yelled.
She and Sera rushed to his side and dragged him free of the croc’s carcass onto the ice.
Sera rolled him over onto his back and examined him. Blood oozed from a partially healed wound in his leg that must have been torn back open in the struggle. More poured from his injured shoulder. Hands shaking, she placed healing spells onto his shoulder first, trying to stop up the more serious wound there. Once she sealed it up, she started working on his leg. The flesh around it showed the angry red lines of infection. Exhausted from the long run and then the fight with the croc, she lacked the strength to purge it completely, so she poured one of her flasks down his throat to help his own body in the fight against the inflammation.
He couldn’t stay here. The swamp was filthy and there might be other crocs or worse looking for an easy meal. H needed to be moved out of the water where he could recover properly.
Sera looked toward Jin, who was wide-eyed but calm. “Climb up and get his axe, darling.”
Jin nodded, sheathed her sword, and scrambled up the cypress, moving quickly from branch to branch.
“Careful, don’t fall,” Sera said while watching from below. “Bring it here,” she asked as Jin descended.
Using the axe, Sera chopped the ice around Dain free, sparing an extra foot on either side. Then she flipped the weapon over and used its narrow spike to punch two holes in the ice beside his head. From Jin’s pack she took a lengthy coil of rope. She tied it around a long piece of driftwood floating nearby before looping it through the first hole. Once she had brought the rope through the second hole, Sera tied it around the driftwood’s opposite end.
“What are you doing?” Jin asked, observing the process.
“If I tie the rope directly through the hole it will quickly saw through, but in tying it first to the wood then putting the wood underneath and bringing the rope up through the holes, it will not pull through as easily,” Sera explained. “Now, lead us out. Back the way we came and I will float the raft behind.”
“What if the ice melts and he falls through?”
“That is why we are going to hurry, Jin. Here, take my crystal. Draw on the life around and within you, like we have practiced, and push a little into it to make it glow for you,” Sera said.
The light glowed dimly at first, then flared brighter as Jin focused her will on it. Instead of a cool blue, it was yellow in color. Sera had never seen one glow yellow—blues and greens were common—but couldn’t allow herself to think about what that meant now. They had to save Dain.
“Good, now hold it up high and lead us out.”
Jin turned and started back through the cypress trees, shining crystal in one hand, black rapier in the other, leading them through the dark swamp. In that moment, she seemed such a child and yet wise and strong beyond her years. Sera put the rope around her waist and followed.
After two long hours slogging through the muck the pair finally reached the shore, coming out slightly east of where they had entered. Jin helped Sera roll the still-unconscious Dain up onto solid ground, just managing to keep him from slipping down into the water. Together, they dragged him beside a small pine.
“Stay here, I’ll see what I can find for shelter,” Sera told Jin.
Rain began to fall. If Dain got any colder, his condition would worsen. He needed to be out of the weather, warm and dry. Sera searched for an overhang or natural shelter but couldn’t find any nearby. Finally, after deciding to build one herself, she returned and took the tomahawk and chopped several limbs into poles, then cut a large pile of leaf-covered branches. The poles she lashed together into a rough lean-to shelter just large enough for the three of them. Then she piled most of the branches on top to waterproof the roof, saving back a few for padding the floor.
Jin studied all of this in silence. She’s always been inquisitive, Sera thought, but it’s not just me she watches anymore. She…we need him. Please come back to us, Dain, she prayed.
“Help me pull him inside,” Sera said. “Did you pack a cover or blanket? He’s freezing from the ice and the rain.”
“There’s a couple in my pack.”
Sera removed one and wrapped it around Dain. Then she gathered several of the driest branches and large stones. She formed a ring with the stones and piled the branches inside. By casting a tiny fireblast into the pile she ignited it instantly.
“Will you show me how to do that? Build a little house like this, I mean.”
“Someday I will. It’s called a lean-to. Your grandfather showed me how to make one,” Sera answered with a slight smile.
Teldrain and Selasa had taken her south to the great temple once. The trip was long, days in fact, and it had rained several times on going there and back. They’d slept in shelters just like this. Sera remembered how safe and warm she had felt. It had been a long time since she’d felt that way.
“I was afraid of that croc. Were you?” Jin asked.
“Yes. Afraid for all of us.”
“That was a big one, wasn’t it? The biggest in the whole swamp.”
“The biggest in the whole swamp,” Sera agreed.
“But Dain saved us and killed it. The biggest one in the whole swamp and he killed it with his sword while he was hurt.”
Sera smiled. “Yes, he did.”
Jin held up her own sword and stared at it.
“Someday, I’ll be a great swordsman and fighter like him.”
Days ago, Sera had been frightened at the thought—frightened and horrified. She had fought with Dain bitterly over the mere suggestion. Now, though, after everything that had happened today and in the past, she felt that she might be willing to agree with him. Perhaps Jin did need training on how to defend herself. She’d always been brave. Perhaps this was her path.
“Mama, he’s shaking and he’s cold,” Jin said, her words pulling Sera from her reverie. The girl had placed a delicate hand on Dain’s forehead. His teeth chattered loudly and his whole body shivered.
If they didn’t act he would die tonight, Sera knew. Even with her potion, his body couldn’t handle both the damp cold and the infection.
“He is still chilled. We have to get him warmed up faster,” she said. “He needs out of these wet clothes. Go get me more firewood, but don’t go far, Jin.”
While Jin searched for more wood, Sera stripped Dain out of his wet clothing and wrapped him in the second blanket. She moved him closer to the fire and drove sticks into the ground behind it to reflect more heat into the lean-to.
Able to do nothing more, she settled down next to him. The full weight of the night’s events fell on her.
If he died, it would be at her family’s hand. Sera’s brother had almost killed the savior of their people. The man who already saved both her father and daughter. The man who was fighting, not for himself, and, she believed, not for wealth but for honor. And then while she and Jin tried to return the favor and save him, he had rescued both of them from certain death. Sera held no illusions—only his sword had stopped the furious croc.
Gently, she reached out and ran her fingers through his dark hair. The thought of losing him now, after everything they’d been through, was too much to contemplate.
“Is he going to be alright?” Jin said quietly, returning with a double armload of wood.
“We will not know until morning,” Sera answered. “But there is nothing more we can do for him tonight.”
She and Jin each sat on opposite sides of the wounded paladin and stared into the hungry orange flames. Sera removed a small loaf of bread from the pack, along with a flask of clean water, and shared a silent meal with her daughter.
Outside the lean-to, the fireflies danced.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Dain opened his heavy eyes with difficulty. His body felt weak, as if he hadn’t slept at all. Someone had wrapped him in warm blanket, and the orange embers of a small fire glowed in front of him. The fire’s hot coals
hissed and sizzled as they greedily devoured dewdrops that fell from above. Gazing farther out, he could see leaves, tufts of grass, towering tree trunks.
“How do you feel?”
The voice was smooth, concerned. Feminine.
“Sera,” he rasped.
“‘Sera’ is not a feeling,” the voice said, and he heard a smile there.
Dain rolled over in his blanket and faced her. She lay close by, wrapped in her own wool blanket with Jin. The child remained asleep, mouth open, snoring slightly. Seeing her, he chuckled.
“Seems like we’ve been here before,” he said.
“It is getting to be a habit of yours,” Sera replied.
“Funny. I don’t remember saving anyone this time. In fact, I don’t remember much at all after the ambush.”
“It is…complicated.”
“Was there a giant croc involved?” he asked.
“Yes, you remember that much at least,” Sera answered, the corners of her mouth rose further. Her eyes looked red and puffy, like she’d been crying, and her black hair was disheveled, but she was still the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. He ached to reach out and draw her to him. Instead he stretched his limbs experimentally, wincing almost immediately at the sharp shocks of pain.
“I remember little else,” he groaned, flexing his injured leg. “Just falling out of a tree after seeing it. A damn fool thing to do.”
“You killed the beast, before it ate Jin and I.”
Dain ducked his head. “Maybe I was wondering what croc would taste like. I’m hungry enough to eat one whole.”
“No croc on the menu, I’m afraid,” she responded, “but Jin did pack some supplies. Hopefully she brought real food and not just sweetcakes.”
Sera crawled out of the blanket she shared with Jin then gently drew it tighter around the snoring child. She wore the same leather skirt and green blouse from the evening they had first met. Dain couldn’t help but admire her graceful movements while she rummaged through a pack lying nearby. His stomach rumbled as she removed a leather waterskin along with a small loaf of bread and a hunk of cheese.
Kingdom's Forge: Book 01 - Paladin's Redemption Page 24