Chapter 4
The shout startled me, and I would have fallen in if Marc hadn’t jumped forward and grabbed my shoulder with one hand. He yanked me backward, and my back dropped against the bow of the boat. I whipped my head around and stared blankly at him. His face reflected his worry. Ramaro was just mad.
“You fool!” he snapped at me as his tail struck the back of his seat board. “You could have fallen in!”
I blinked at the pair. “I-I know I can’t swim, but you would have gotten me out, right?”
“And gotten ourselves in a mess of trouble with you,” Ramaro growled as he wrinkled his snout at the dark water. “There are things that follow this boat that shouldn’t be messed with.”
The color drained from my face. “What kind of things?”
He rolled his eyes. “Drowned sailors. Minor gods. Even a demonic horse or two. All very minor spirits, of course, and they’re quite useful in propelling the boat forward, but sometimes there are too many for the hairs to feed.
Those that are fed push the boat. Those that aren’t follow it, waiting for something to drop. ”
I lifted my bulging eyes to Marc. “Gods? Demonic horses?”
“The horses are demons of the deep and servants to the gods,” Marc revealed with a faint smile.
“But there are gods in your world? Like real, breathing gods?” I persisted.
Marc chuckled. “I wouldn’t say they breathe, but they do-”
The waters on our port side started to bubble.
The next moment, something burst out of the ocean and arched over our heads, drenching us in the cold water.
I found myself gaping up at the stomach of a horse, but like no horse I’d ever seen before.
Its body was the color of dark green seaweed, and its hooves were like coral shells, even with the ribbed designs on the tops.
Its eyes were a brilliant, glowing white, and its mane was made of the tides, ebbing and flowing from its body.
The creature splashed down on the other side, sending the boat rocking violently.
Too violently. My stupor had left me unprepared for the violence, and I toppled overboard.
The water was as cold as ice and blacker than the blackest night.
I flailed around trying to figure out which way was up and down.
My useless limbs propelled me in a rough circle, where I ran into something hard.
Hope sprang within me. It must be the boat. Then the water was lit up with those warning rainbow lights. My eyes widened as I found myself staring into the skeletal face of a drowned man. I let out a scream, and air bubbles escaped my mouth.
The creature lunged at me with more speed than the water should have allowed.
It wrapped its bony hands around my throat, and a stench of decay charged with it.
I gagged on both the choking and the odor, and grabbed the thing around the wrists.
My efforts to free myself came to naught.
The creature was unnaturally strong. I couldn’t make the fingers twitch.
The world began to fade as my air supply dwindled.
Panic was replaced by a quiet voice in my head.
Tim. I miss you.
My air supply was almost spent when the waters around us began to swirl into a tornado of flashing lights.
The creature tried to hold onto me, but watery tendrils shot out and wrapped around its wrists.
The thing was yanked off me and into the rainbow vortex.
An air pocket appeared around my head, and I was able to take a deep, choking breath.
That’s when I saw them. Hundreds of shadows that flitted just beyond the boundaries of the storm. I glimpsed the shapes of men with rotten cloth and strands of hair clinging to their bones. More horses flitted between them, throwing back their heads and crying out with voices I couldn’t hear.
Then there were the glowing shadows, like little children with fish tails.
They flitted the closest, and I could see their long hair that flowed behind them glistened like luminescent algae.
Their cherub-like faces showed curiosity in their brilliant blue eyes, so bright that I couldn’t see their black pupils.
Maybe they didn’t have any. A few of them had a thick antenna that stuck out of their foreheads and drooped down due to the weight of a small ball that glowed brighter than their eyes.
That brilliance attracted me more than the rainbow colors in the waters.
I had only a brief moment to stare at them before I was pushed up and to the surface.
The night air struck me as warm after my impromptu swim.
The waves lifted me, but the horrors below weren’t done with me.
Something grabbed my ankle, and I looked down to see that one of the children had grabbed me.
The child’s eyes twinkled, and a hideous smile stretched its face unnaturally wide.
Two rows of sharp teeth glistened in the glow of the cold waters.
A cry came from the boat, and its eyes were blotted out by a tiny, squirming body.
The swatting tail was familiar, and I grabbed it as I felt the creature lose its grip on me.
We were both yanked away from the danger and deposited onto the bottom of the boat.
I landed on my back, a bedraggled mess of myself, with my agama friend on top of me.
Ramaro slumped atop my heaving stomach and belted out a mouthful of water. A few gurgling words left him. “We have to teach you how to swim. . .”
I managed a smile. “I’d settle for being tied to the boat.”
Marc leaned over with a smile on his face, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes. There was worry in their depths. “I might consider strapping you to a leash attached to my belt. Another careless episode like that, and I promise I’ll do it.”
I shifted and winced. “Another episode like that and I’ll be begging for it myself.”
His eyebrows shot up, and a crooked smile slipped onto his lips. “I might consider throwing you over myself.”
Ramaro clutched onto me and glared at the captain. “I’m not throwing myself over again to stop those wretched mariseth!”
I blinked at him. “You mean those kids?”
He scoffed. “Kids, nothing! Those fiends are older than even me, and they spend most of their time trying to lure people away so they can play with them until they get bored with them.”
“And then what?”
He shrugged. “Then they toss them back on land when they’re looking for a new toy. The only trouble is, the land almost always is some place far from where they were plucked. I’ve met many people who had to travel for years to get home.”
“I’d just settle for getting to the capital,” I mused as I tried to sit up.
My wobbly arms and damp, heavy clothing meant I collapsed back onto the bottom of the boat, or would have if Marc hadn’t slid down and looped his arm behind the center of my back.
He lifted me away from the hard floor and against his hard chest. I liked the difference. My blushing cheeks gave that away.
“We’ll get there in good time without any more interruptions,” he teased as he lifted his eyes to the silent thing with the pole.
The cloaked figure dipped their pole deeper into the black waters, and the boat resumed its voyage.
A horrible thought made me swallow hard. It tasted like ocean bile. “The pilot won’t throw us overboard for what I did, will he?”
Ramaro jerked his head toward the cloaked figure. “Pilot? You don’t think that bag of bones moves this thing, do you? He’s just the pilot.”
“Would you like to try steering through this mist?” Marc suggested.
The agama flicked his tongue out. “I would if my hands could hold that pole. Then you’d see some impressive driving.”
Marc smiled down at me. “Our friend’s bragging aside, the Wraithcourier will get us where we need to go.”
I squinted into the mist, but saw nothing but white fog. “Where in the city are we landing?”
Marc nodded at our pilot. “That’s a question only he knows.”
I blinked at him. “What do you mean?”
“The authorities know about the Wraithcourier and his passengers. They can even see his fog come in during clearer nights,” Marc mused as he adjusted his hold on me.
“To avoid a greeting and time in the clanger, the Wraithcourier lands at a different spot every time. I’ve never landed in the same spot twice myself. ”
“And you’ve used it plenty of times. . .” Ramaro muttered.
The captain grinned at him. “The city is worth visiting.”
I patted one of Marc’s arms. “You know, I think you can let go of me now. I can get up on my own.”
I felt his arms tighten around me. “Why take chances? Besides, you’re soaked. I’ll use my own heat to keep you warm.”
“Just don’t get too hot that you forget that I don’t want to see anything,” Ramaro growled.
“You can shut your eyes.”
The agama scoffed. “And miss the landing? He practically crashed us into the shore, and I almost fell off the boat.” He leaned over and wrinkled his snout at the dark waters. “And we all know these things are just itching to get a hold of anybody, especially someone as handsome as me.”
“Nothing’s going to happen,” I promised him as I tilted my head back and looked up at Marc. “Right?”
My captor chuckled. “That isn’t a promise I’ll ever make.” He lifted his gaze to the way ahead of us. “But we’re almost there.”