by Eric Asher
The nearest of the water witches vanished into a pool of water, only to resurface a few feet from me. I lashed out with a soulsword, and she laughed as her arm separated from her body, reforming a moment later. The inertia of her attack was too much for her to correct. All I had to do was raise the dagger in my left hand. The thrust hit her square in the chest, and I didn’t wait to watch her turn to stone. I stepped to the side as she collapsed to the ground, and focused on the next witch.
A bellowing cry sounded from the warship, and I saw a vision of black and white Atlas moth wings diving toward the water, and lashing out with an enchanted sword. The next undine caught an arrow in the back of the head. She didn’t have time to register what had happened before she was dead, the weight of her now-stone head collapsing through the rest of her body as her entire mass became a horrifically disfigured statue. I knew the fletching of Aideen’s arrows when I saw them.
“Where’s Zola?” I shouted.
I didn’t need a response. I just needed her to know that we needed to find her. I didn’t get an answer. Instead, I caught something sharp in the back of my left shoulder. It took everything I had to keep my grip on the dagger as I spun to find another water witch with a gleaming blade covered in my blood. She didn’t gloat. She was silent and moved with a deadly grace.
I barely raised the soulsword in time to ward off another blow. The sword in her hand was imbued with enough magic to resist the power of my enchanted blade. A crackle of electric blue energy exploded between us, and she backpedaled. I scarcely registered the explosion of sound beside me, when the water witch’s head jerked to the side, and a webwork of grey stone worked its way through her head.
I didn’t hesitate. I slashed downwards with a soulsword, shattering the stone inside her, turning her into a lifeless mass of stone and water on the scarred earth.
With a glance, I found Casper staring at me. I raised my gun, aiming directly at her. I pulled the angle to the left, and she didn’t so much as flinch. The explosion of fire tore through the through the undine behind her, sending the witch flailing back into the river.
I turned as quickly as I dared, while still giving myself enough time to study the pools and eddies around me. Anything suspicious was getting stabbed with a stone dagger. Anything that moved was at least getting run through with a soulsword. It might not kill a water witch, but it would certainly slow them down.
“Where’s Rick?” I shouted, glancing back to Casper.
She shook her head and nodded. A rifle came onto her shoulder, and she moved with the compact efficiency of a trained killer.
“Stay beside me,” she said. “Some of the skeletons came into the tent as the water witches hit. We need to get back on that ship.”
“Back on the ship?” I said pointing to a puddle that moved in a suspicious wave, against the current of the rest of the water. Casper unloaded a round into it, and I won’t deny a bit of satisfaction as a webwork of stone formed underneath.
“The crew,” Casper said. “They pulled some of us up on the deck. Some of the injured tried to run. Did you see them?”
“They didn’t make it,” I said as we moved closer to the ship.
Aideen took to the skies ahead as a curl of water lashed out beside her, swinging a sword in an impossibly fast arc. The noonday sun glinted through the translucent water witch. Aideen gave one mighty push of her wings and evaded the blow as she drew an arrow. She let loose and clipped the side of the water witch’s head. Aideen shot forward, smashing into the undine’s solidifying head with her elbow and snatching her arrow from the surface of the river.
The cannons along the starboard side of Graybeard’s ship roared time and time again, lighting up the river and turning it into a boiling hellish mass. I didn’t understand what he was doing at first, until the outlines of the undines became plain to see in that orange glow beneath the waters.
“This is insane,” Casper said. “This is bloody insane.”
I caught a glimpse of a gray cloak, tattered and burned, but it moved with a familiar gait. A flood of relief washed over me as Zola raised her arms at the bow of the ship, and sent another spiraling incantation of fire into the river.
“Shit,” I muttered. Another Green Man surfaced near the Bone Sails, rearing one arm back and thrusting a series of spiked branches through one of the wooden panels on the side of Graybeard’s ship. I drew the pepperbox and leveled it at the Green Man, taking careful aim before moving my finger to the second trigger, an unlikely Fae addition. I pulled the trigger and unleashed the remaining five barrels of hellfire.
A white-orange light filled the air and the scent of brimstone tore at my lungs. The Green Man roared when that beam of fire cut into his back, sending a tower of burning flesh up to its head. Graybeard shouted orders on the deck, as he swept his sword toward the burning Green Man. One of the smaller cannons near the bow swiveled around and took aim. The Green Man reared back again. Another boom thundered across the river, and the Green Man’s head splintered. He fell backward like freshly cut timber, splashing into the diminishing waters.
The water swelled and crashed against the side of Graybeard’s ship, the strange movement revealing the twisted drowned tanks now laying on their sides and upside down in the shallows of the river. Those men had never had a chance, no chance in hell.
Two more Green Men burst from the waters, and I stared in awful fascination as they closed on Graybeard’s ship. They were bigger than the last, their arms looking more like oak trees than the whip-like saplings of the previous arms. The first lunged at the ship, only to be blocked by the sudden appearance of a stone wall. His fist shattered, only to regrow a moment later, with the fresh greens of a new sapling.
Aeros formed from that stone wall, flying out of it with a fury, even as the stones rearranged themselves into his body. The first blow fell on the Green Man’s face before the creature could so much as raise its arms to defend itself. I imagined tons of stone crashing into a tree would have had much the same effect. The face splintered, and sap oozed from an exploded eye.
“Men of peace!” Aeros roared. “This day you have murdered the helpless. And for that, you die.”
Aeros smashed the Green Man into the muddy banks with a two-fisted overhead blow. Graybeard’s cannons fired on the other side of the ship.
And while I wasn’t sure what they’d hit, the enormous wave began to recede. Graybeard wheeled the ship around, careful not to run aground in the shallows. The Bone Sails floated back to us, a bit scarred, a bit bloody, but victorious all the same.
I took in the sights around us, glancing back to see a line of soldiers along the side streets of Main. I couldn’t see their expressions, but it didn’t take much to imagine them. I suspected they didn’t look much different than Casper’s.
“Come on,” I said. “It’s over. For now.”
Casper shook and watched the water recede upriver. What had been a titanic wave was now barely a swell in the retreating waters.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Graybeard didn’t bother guiding his warship back toward the docks. Of course, from the angle we were at, I couldn’t tell if the docks were still there. Instead, the pirate spun the bone wheel, and the ship glided toward the shore. The edge of the bank had been cut away in the raging waters, forming a natural dock. Graybeard dropped a massive anchor, and the Bone Sails slowed to a stop.
I walked with Casper, still eyeing with suspicion any puddle larger than a cup of water. A few I stabbed with a stone dagger just to be safe. The plank settled onto the bank of the river as we reached the worst of the erosion. Graybeard and Zola waited at the top of the bone ramp.
Casper hesitated, eyeing that plank with some trepidation. A rattling clack echoed out from the Bone Sails, and Casper’s face split into a grin.
“What did they say?” I asked.
“That if I was scared of a little bone, I shouldn’t stand so close to a dick.”
I guffawed. “Are you serious? Did they just
call me a dick in Morse code?”
“Pretty sure they did,” Casper said as she took her first step onto the plank, and started up onto the deck. I followed her, feeling the strange give of the bone and sinew beneath my boots. The water had made some parts slick, but our issues with sliding and catching our balance ended when we set foot on the deck of bones.
“Thank you,” I said.
The parrot ruffled its wings before settling down onto the skeleton’s shoulder. “I thought we were here to deter water witches, not to engage an entire army of them.”
“Surprises all around,” I said.
“Lass,” Graybeard said. He gestured toward the far side of the ship. “You’ll find what crew we could rescue waiting for you.”
“Thank you,” Casper said as she hurried past Graybeard. One of the smaller skeletons, clad in leather shorts, gave Casper a slap on the back as she passed. She flashed the skeleton a grin, and I was fairly certain that was probably the skeleton who had called me a dick.
“Foster and Aideen?” I asked.
Graybeard’s skeleton lifted its chin, and I followed the gesture up to the crow’s nest. One of the skeleton crew gestured wildly to the two fairies standing on the edge of the nest.
“We were lucky,” Zola said.
“Lucky?” I said. “Half the damn soldiers down there drowned.”
“And imagine if we hadn’t been there,” Zola said. “In the time it would’ve taken to reach the riverfront from the shop, this engagement would’ve been over.”
I hadn’t thought of our timing as anything remotely like luck—more like our timing was just damn close to getting us killed, and watching our allies drown.
“They targeted you all, they did,” Graybeard said. “You may not have seen the shifting of the waters from down below. But from here, I could see every bend those witches took. They circled around you like a Titan come to swallow you all.”
“Swallow us like a sheet iron cracker that got stuck in their throat,” Zola snapped.
I remembered the waters closing around us, crashing against our shields; the soldiers dragged down to the grasses under the waves while the undines sucked away their last breaths.
“Yeah, maybe we are lucky to be here.”
“The witches thought to neutralize us beneath the waters,” Zola said, raising an eyebrow. “Ah would’ve thought our reputations required a larger attack.”
A mournful, pained cry sounded from the huddle of soldiers across the ship. Casper had her arms wrapped around one of the younger privates, a man who couldn’t have been more than eighteen or nineteen. I didn’t need to hear the conversation to understand what had happened. That pained howl, the uncontrolled sob that told only of the loss of friends or family.
“They did enough damage,” I said.
“Aye,” Graybeard said. “But they could’ve done more.”
I turned to Zola. “And where the hell was Alexandra? Nixie said she was coming back this way with support.”
Zola frowned. “It is unlike Alexandra to be late. Ah wonder if the undines did not merely strike on one front.”
Her words sent a frisson of anxiety tearing through my chest. I cursed and pulled the backpack off my shoulders. “We need to talk to Nixie. We need to talk to Falias.”
“Foster!” Graybeard shouted.
The fairy perked up on the crow’s nest, said something to Aideen, and then swooped down toward us.
“What is it?” Foster asked as he glided onto Zola’s shoulder.
“Have you spoken to Falias?” the parrot asked. “Any of Nixie’s troops?”
He shook his head. “We just got done not dying. Why?”
“Because the water witches could’ve crushed you here,” Graybeard said, “and yet they didn’t.”
Aideen followed Foster down. She landed on Graybeard’s shoulder, opposite the parrot. “The queen is not known for subtleties. She is ruthless and murderous, and blunt though her tactics may be, they are deadly.”
I already had the blue obsidian disc in my hand before Aideen finished speaking. I gave the fairy a nod, and started down the bone ramp, catching myself once when my boots threatened to lose traction. The cry of one of Casper’s soldiers echoed out around me, and rage kindled in my gut.
I didn’t bother to look for a smooth entry into the water; most of the sloping shore had been cut away by the raging river. I hopped down, keeping one arm on the bank, while I sank to my waist in the river. The old discs weren’t the most secure communications we had. We had to be cautious about what went across them, but in an emergency, they were one of the best tools we had for reaching Falias.
The disc pulsed beneath my fingers, and I waited. The water rippled and shivered around me, and I began to question the sanity of hopping into the river when I had just seen a legion of water witches in those same waters. But the ripple did not become a deadly adversary. The ripple became a voice.
“Damian? What is it?”
“They struck Saint Charles.”
“No,” she said, a bald urgency in her voice. “That’s impossible. They struck Rivercene. Ashley and Beth and Cornelius …” She hesitated.
“Are they okay?” I was ready to fish the hand of Gaia out of the backpack and charge to Rivercene.
“They survived. But they only survived because Alexandra and our detachment showed up to help them.”
“How many?” I asked.
She didn’t answer.
I cursed and spat a string of profanity.
Nixie’s voice came back, and whatever calm had been there shattered. “The queen is here!”
The transmission cut off, and the waters around me returned to their natural flow.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
I tried to scramble out of the river, but the bank collapsed beneath my fingernails. It didn’t stop me. I just dug my nails in deeper, and slowly pulled myself out of the mud and muck. I had the hand of Gaia out before I reached the ramp again. “Zola! The queen is in Falias! And the walls of the Obsidian Inn are unguarded!”
“Go with Gaia,” Zola shouted. “We’ll follow with who we can.”
I shook my head. “No, we can’t leave our home undefended.”
“You’re not going out there alone, boy,” Zola said. “You don’t know what’s waiting for you.”
Zola was right, and I knew she was right. Nixie had sent half her army to Rivercene. If she thought the attack was happening there, then what the hell did she think was happening here? What had she thought was coming for the Obsidian Inn?
“Get in touch with the innkeeper, Alexandra, anyone in Rivercene. Find out if they need you first!”
“Damian, no!” Zola shouted.
By the time her words reached my ears, I’d already wrapped my fingers into Gaia’s and stepped into the Abyss. I walked blindly as Gaia formed beside me, the golden motes of light joining together, as the distant stars of the Abyss slowly swam into my vision.
“Falias. I need to get to Falias, and the Obsidian Inn.”
“There is a great deal of power there,” Gaia said, her voice echoing from nowhere and everywhere as her face grew more defined.
“The queen of the water witches has attacked them. I have to get there now.”
“You should not.”
I hesitated at Gaia’s words. But she didn’t understand, this was Nixie. This was Mike and the Old Man and Dell and the werewolves. I couldn’t leave them. I couldn’t abandon them to a wave like what had hit Saint Charles.
“I have to.”
“You should not,” Gaia said, a moment before she doubled over, releasing a thunderous shout as pain tore through her.
“Gaia!” I shouted. “What is it?”
“I have disobeyed,” she said, her voice strained.
“No, you haven’t. We’re just having a conversation.”
“It is not your word I disobeyed. It is the compulsion laid up on my hand. I will not send you to your death,” Gaia snarled. “I do not care what this com
pulsion costs me.”
“It’s my choice,” I said. “You can’t keep me away. One way or another, I’m getting to Nixie. Put me somewhere close, but away from whatever threat you sense.”
Gaia slowly straightened, the strain leaving her voice. “That would be a reasonable solution.”
I eyed the Titan, horrified at the pain that had wracked her body simply for disagreeing with me, and terrified at what power she might have sensed.
“As close as you can get me, yet still believe me to be safe.”
She narrowed her eyes and stared at the darkness around us. “I do not know if any place I put you will be safe. But I could do my best to keep you away from the largest of the powers.”
“Do it,” I said, “and no need for a soft landing. I need to be there yesterday.”
I began to regret the phrasing of my request when the lights of the Abyss turned into stretched-out lines as Gaia whipped us through nothing. Gaia’s hand started slipping away a moment before our connection severed entirely, and darkness became an explosion of daylight.
I slammed into the grass, rolling a few times before the inertia faded and I crashed to a stop. My backpack dug into my shoulder, and I grunted as I shifted it to redistribute the weight. I crawled up to my knees and tried to figure out where Gaia had dropped me. I pulled my phone from my pocket, before remembering that it had been underwater, more than once. There was no coming back from that.
A sound grew in the distance, an unmistakable crash. The battle cries of an army, charging another force. The earth shook beneath my feet. And the cries grew ever louder.
I turned slowly, orienting myself to the lay of the field Gaia had dropped me in. I tried to understand what I was looking at, and it didn’t take long before dust in the distance told me which way the sound was coming from. The voice that sounded behind me nearly gave me a heart attack.
