I was about to say something about the king forcing the other princes to attend, but I decided against it. Maybe it wasn’t common knowledge, and I wasn’t supposed to discuss it. So instead I tucked the information away to be used later if necessary.
We had walked down to the deep end of the pool as we talked, leaving Vayvin behind. She had been one of the ones who raised her hand. She didn’t know how to swim.
At the deep end of the pool was the most beautiful clear blue water I had ever seen, but given that over my time on the run I had mostly seen sludgy water, I guess that wasn’t hard to accomplish. Even the river I had swum in that first time had been more grey than blue. It also stank.
I had never been certain if I had managed to lose the dogs because I was willing to jump into the river, or because they weren’t able to smell me given how bad the odors were in that area.
“Are you certain you can swim?” Batham asked, coming up to me.
“Yeah, I know how to swim,” I said.
“Prove it,” said Batham. Before I realized what he was doing, he had put his hand on my back and shoved.
I went flying into the water, alone. Nobody else had gone in; the instructor hadn’t come by yet to tell us what we were supposed to be doing.
I flailed wildly through the air, then splashed into the freezing cold mountain water. It started to swallow me up immediately.
I thought I’d bob to the surface, which is what had happened every other time I’d been in the water, but instead I just kept plunging deeper. At first there was nothing but a rushing in my ears, but I finally opened my eyes, which I had never actually done underwater before.
This time, I opened my eyes to a world of wonder.
Beneath the surface of the pool were colors I had never seen, all tinted a gorgeous blue. I looked everywhere, and at last I looked upward to where I’d come from. Somehow I had fallen tens of feet in a few short seconds, and when I looked down there was nothing below me but more water.
How deep did this pool go? I couldn’t even begin to guess.
When I looked up again there was a splash, then another and another. Fae were jumping into the water.
I saw a woman streaking toward me, her skin bluish and her red hair cascading over her shoulders. I couldn’t see her clearly, but I thought she was one of the most beautiful women I had ever laid eyes on. Her face was a fury as she slammed directly into me, knocking what little air I had left in my lungs out.
She grabbed my arm and pulled me upward. I struggled at first, then didn’t bother. Her grip was like iron, like the cuffs on my arms.
We breached the surface and I gasped. I wasn’t certain how long I had been submerged, but by the way I was breathing it must have been longer than it had seemed.
“What sort of boneheaded stupid move was that? Who the hell are you and when can you be expelled?” the woman yelled. “Anything could have killed you down there. You don’t just jump into the water the first time. You have to introduce yourself, you idiot!”
Batham was one of the ones still standing on the bank, and he looked far from amused. In fact, it looked like he had been getting yelled at since he had dumped me unceremoniously into the pond. Colly was standing next to him, arms crossed, face impassive as usual.
I had a feeling we could all get eaten by crazy sea monsters and he wouldn’t care, so long as it wasn’t his prince who was the one being eaten. His prince, meanwhile, was sitting behind him on the ground, lounging with his hands stretched behind him.
“Why aren’t they in the water?” I managed to ask. The woman raised her hand as if she was going to strike me. Down at the other end of the pond I could see my fellow students trying to swim.
“Get out of my sight,” said the woman. “Go dry off on the grass,” she suggested.
Then, pointing to the guys I had worked with that morning, she gave another order. “Get into the water. Or are you afraid for the prince’s life?”
“It’s okay, Jinelle. Just cautious,” Batham called.
So Jinelle was the teacher of this class, and she already hated me.
I paddled past Batham as he made a perfect dive into the smooth pool. Colly quickly stripped off his shirt and did the same. Rippling muscles met my gaze, but there was something else there too: a scar running along one of his shoulders, as if the whole thing had been cut open.
I quickly looked away.
The prince kept his shirt on as he got ready to jump in. “I take it the water’s warm?” he asked me.
I ignored him.
“Fine, be that way,” he said.
By the time I made it to the bank, I was so tired I just collapsed. The pond looked tranquil, but that was deceiving. Something intense had happened down there. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I had the impression that there really might be monsters lurking at the bottom. The smooth shape I had seen trickle past as I looked down at my feet was a living creature. Whatever had been starting to rise up . . . ditto.
If Jinelle hadn’t rescued me, what would have happened?
I stayed on the bank as Jinelle and the other students ignored me.
A few climbed up the waterfall, but only guys, no girls. All the girls who could swim were doing laps, politely swimming as they had been told. One or another of the guys joined them from time to time as Jinelle ran drills, ignoring me as I simply waited on the shore.
The sun warmed my face as I sat, and I told myself again that this couldn’t be so bad. I glanced around at the trees, shrubs, and rocks that surrounded the pool and noticed that it was all very still and quiet, all very comfortable.
But then I shifted in response to a subtle feeling. Something was wrong. Something dangerous was coming.
In defiance of all my superficial impressions of beauty and calm, my heart started hammering. I sat up straighter and looked around. I was increasingly sure that there was danger nearby, I just had to lay eyes on it.
Then I saw it: a dark figure, covered all in black, slipping through the trees and into the reeds on the opposite bank, at the one little spot in the world where the sunshine didn’t penetrate.
I tried to get a good look at who it was. All I could see was that he was moving toward the water.
I stood up to point out what I’d seen and yell out to the others, but by now Jinelle and the students were in the middle of a drill, and they neither saw nor heard me. They weren’t looking my way, not one of them.
I yelled again.
There was no way I would get to the figure in time to do anything useful; he was on the far side of the water from me. But I had to try. I started to step right, then left. I didn’t know which way to go. At least the prince was still flanked by Colly and Batham, so he’d be protected. One of the other princes had gone back inside and the third couldn’t swim, so he was down at the other end.
No, this intruder was making for Prince Reidar. There was nothing else for it. Without a second thought I dove into the water.
I skimmed along, my muscles bunched as I pushed across the large expanse of the pond.
And now Jinelle did see me.
If she was angry before, she looked like she was going to kill me now. I was sure that if she got her hands around my neck, she would just squeeze until she had choked me to death. I tried to point over her shoulder, but she didn’t catch the meaning of the gesture. She thought I was waving her away, which only enraged her further.
The only one who seemed to understand what I was trying to signal was Colly. When he turned to look, the assassin was already slipping into the water and out of sight. But Colly caught enough of a glimpse of him to sound the alarm, and he quickly walked his arm around his prince’s shoulders and started to pull him away. He said something to Batham at the same time, but I couldn’t hear it because Jinelle was on me again, growling something about having me expelled.
She now came right over to me and shoved my head under the water. I wasn’t prepared for the aggressive move, so I choked as I breathed water i
nto my lungs. But lucky me, something must have made Jinelle stop, because all of a sudden she let me go. Maybe she heard the yelling from Colly and the others, but whatever it was, I was grateful.
When I resurfaced, the other students were trying frantically to get to the bank. In the short time I had been underwater, clouds had rolled in and the sky had darkened remarkably. Jinelle was suddenly urging everyone out of the water, her focus drawn away from me by a danger to the other students.
I started to swim, paddling in the direction of the prince and his guards. Someone tried to stop me, but I ignored them.
They were trying to get Prince Reidar out of the water, but it was slow going because they had to watch his back at the same time. He also wasn’t that good a swimmer.
I was still far away when I realized that they weren’t heading for the bank, they were heading for a large rock that jutted upward from the middle of the pond. It was big enough for twenty fae to stand on, and it was closer to them than the bank.
They just wanted to get him out of the water.
Fast, before the murky depths swallowed him.
Chapter Fourteen
Whatever had entered the water had transformed. The dark figure I’d seen on the bank had changed into something that was causing the water to roll and churn and bubble under the surface at the far end of the lake.
At the far end of the pond, where the beginners were learning how to swim, Curlo and any student who knew the tiniest bit about what they were doing in the water were helping the ones who couldn’t swim get out.
“Get out, get out get out of the water!” came a frantic yell. There were only two individuals who weren’t listening, Colly and Batham. Well, three if you counted me.
Colly had turned as he tried to guard his prince’s back. His eyes were now on the spot where the creature had started to transform. The water was changing below the surface, and Colly had lost track of everything else. His broad shoulders heaved as he took in great gulps of air.
I watched in awe as Colly prepared to do battle. He shifted position as the prince and Batham finally reached the rock.
Batham tried to get the prince to the point on the rock that was farthest away from the bubbling water, but it was difficult. The prince resisted, glaring back at the monster, refusing to scramble away. But at least he was safe for now.
Colly turned his back on the creature and swam for his life to the rock. When he reached it he hauled himself up.
Now I was the only student left in the water.
Suddenly, something black and massive exploded out of the smooth surface. Through the bubbles, a giant serpent appeared. It screamed bloody death, then slammed back into the water. I heard distant yells from students on the bank just as my vision started to blur. Then same thing that had happened yesterday happened again.
My sense shifted.
I could feel this creature’s presence. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was there. I looked toward Colly and saw him draw two knives out of sheaths that must have been hidden under his arms. The long black blades glittered in the sunlight that was still peeking out through the thickening sky.
Batham stood up now, trying to shield the prince from the thing that was coming for him, but the serpent was too big. At least fifty feet long, it was now only breaths away from the rock.
I glanced around to make sure all the other students had made it out of the lake. They had, and no one was paying any attention to me at this point. All eyes were focused on Colly as he prepared to fight the creature.
I closed my eyes. Get out of the water, I whispered, get out of the water. But somehow my body wasn’t listening to me. Instead it was propelling me forward, taking me toward the creature and not away from it.
Suddenly the creature moved, faster than I would have imagined possible. It had seemed fast before, but that hadn’t been close to this furious speed. Yet somehow Colly was ready for it. He actually looked just as fast as he leapt to meet the creature in midair.
Just as he jumped, he hauled back both knives and tried to plunge them into the creature’s exposed neck. But the creature swerved at the last moment and Colly hit him lower down on his torso.
It might have been in his midsection, but who knew? Given that his lower body was hidden under the water, I had no idea how long the creature was.
When it screamed again, Batham tensed on the rock. I knew he wanted to help his fellow guard, and it was painful watching him try to decide what he should do next.
I reached the rock just as Batham made a decision. Both the creature and Colly had plunged into the freezing water. All that was left was froth and bubbles. Batham swore and said something to the prince, and the prince argued back.
I couldn’t imagine what they had to argue about right now, but then Batham moved, edging into the water just as I hauled myself onto the rock. I first the prince didn’t realize who I was and turned to move away, but then he recognized me.
“You just can’t stay out of it, can you?” he asked, exasperated.
I gasped for air. Water pooled around me as I looked over my shoulder toward where Batham was now disappearing. “Wouldn’t want to be bored,” I said.
“They’ll be fine,” said the prince, with not as much conviction as I would have liked to hear.
“Sure they will,” I breathed. The next instant the creature appeared again, this time with the two guards hanging off him and his eyes locked on the prince. He screamed at the prince and made another attempt to reach him.
Just as he did so, Batham plunged his own knife into the creature’s body. It screamed again, and then I saw teachers running. Curlo and Jinelle were making for the water, carrying a large golden net between them. I gasped as I saw them plunge into the lake.
I darted a look at the prince, who was still standing on the rock, looking deeply displeased to be there.
“I don’t know if this was a good idea,” he said.
“What? Not dying?” I asked. “Seems fine to me.”
“Yeah, something like that,” he said.
I glanced away and wondered what exactly he was talking about. Then I looked back at the battle and saw that the situation was becoming contained.
“We need to get out of here,” I said to the prince.
“I’m not going until I know he’s okay,” he said.
“You mean them?” I asked.
“It would be unforgivable,” he said cryptically.
“Sure thing,” I said, wondering what exactly he meant by that. This prince seemed to issue a steady stream of veiled, mysterious utterances.
He jumped into the water, and I jumped in after him. We were careful to do it on the opposite side of the rock from the monster, but just as I jumped I heard the creature scream. Then the net flared and went dark.
The wounded creature shot into the air again, a twisting black serpent, making for the prince one last time.
For me, something changed even as I hit the cold water. A searing pain exploded in the cuffs around my hands, which felt like they had been burned off. My feet felt just as bad.
I cried out and plunged, no longer able to keep myself afloat. Something like an explosion took place around me, and the lake was suddenly filled with deafening waves of sound. I couldn’t see or hear. I didn’t know what was happening. All I knew was that I was plunging lower and lower and there was no air in my lungs. I went so far below the surface that I started to lose consciousness.
My eyes open, I stared up at the sky through the rippling and frothing light. Just before I blacked out, I saw a dark-haired figure plunging after me. For a second I thought it was Colly, then I realized it was the prince himself. A glint from his insignia told me as much.
I didn’t remember anything after that.
I woke up in my dorm, lying in bed. There was no one else there.
My whole body hurt. I examined my cuffs, but my hands and feet were so swollen I couldn’t move them, or even see them very well. I also couldn’t lift my head
, not that I really wanted to. My mouth felt bone dry. I closed my eyes and fell back into a deep sleep.
When I woke again it was to two voices whispering harshly. Wayllin’s was one of them, but I didn’t recognize the other one. It might have been Clouda or Lisa, I wasn’t certain.
“She broke the cuffs. She broke her own binding. I’ve never seen anything like it before in all my years. She put her own life in danger and that called the magic out of her. The magic that has been leashed for all these years is now free. There’s no telling what’s going to happen next, except that she’s a danger. Clearly.”
I decided it was Wayllin.
“You should have seen her fight. It was incredible,” said the other voice.
I decided it was Clouda.
“I am sure it was. I’ve never seen anything like her. A mixture of street training and raw power has made her deadly. Here in a place where everything is planned for and every move is known, she’s an unknown quantity. I don’t like it,” said Wayllin.
“That will probably make her a target for the assassin,” said Clouda.
“It might, except the assassin has plenty of targets already. Look at how hard he’s going after this prince. Do you have any idea why?” Wayllin asked.
Clouda dropped her voice, but she was standing so close to me that I heard what she said anyhow. “It seems obvious. Of the three princes left, Reidar has the best chance to succeed King Deffy, although to be honest, he isn’t what everyone expected. When he was a little boy he was thought to have magical powers beyond measure. There’s no evidence of that anymore. Anyway, Orlando is pathetic, and Connor is strong, but a bit shallow. After these three princes it gets ugly in terms of succession. The king really needs one of these three to succeed,” she said.
“You’d think he’d keep them in a safer place than here,” said Wayllin.
“There’s no telling who the assassin is after. For all we knew until he made for the prince yesterday, he could have given up. Besides, I’ve never seen stronger warriors than the prince’s two guards. He seems like he’s in good hands,” said Clouda.
Noble Fae Academy: Year One Page 10
