Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Lungs seizing, I thrashed, pushing my arms through the muck to pull myself back to the light. There was nothing to grasp onto.
Terror spiked through me but no amount of kicking or pulling or swimming got me to the surface. And shifting into a fish would drown me in this mud.
My head went foggy and hot. The abyss of darkness never ended; direction was meaningless.
Terror tasted like pennies and regret. I was going to die here.
This was worse than drowning. This was consumption, not loss.
I’d die trapped in the mud like a fool because I’d thought I could do something I could not. Something beyond my capabilities.
Mud pushed against my nostrils, begging for entry. Seconds stretched into eternity as the internal and external pressure increased, opposite ends of a magnet seeking each other, crushing me in the middle.
Fear always left an undertone of regret behind, for the faces you’d never see again, or the future you fought so fucking hard for. Now it slipped from my fingers with the last molecule of air.
If I’m going to die anyway…shouldn’t I try to continue the magic? To save these people? This was all my fault. This was my mistake to make right.
They shouldn’t have to pay the consequences for my actions.
My body bowed forward compulsively, as far as it could, neurons firing. My fingers twitched inside earthy casings.
Thoughts flickered away under a haze of desperation.
Despite every instinct telling me to keep fighting for a way out, I drew inward.
I went deeper into myself, against the screaming of my lungs and the awful copper taste on my tongue.
The well of magic inside of me was vast, wider than it had ever been, and already the earthen, musky scent of mud had written itself on my power.
What I’d already drawn in left its signature.
Instead of pushing, I yanked, hauling the mud into me one inch at a time, like I’d done with the storm. I forced it past the gorge in my throat telling me I had seconds of air left, past the sensation of fullness begging me to stop what I was doing and inhale.
If I’m going to die anyway…
Something twitched, wiggled. The earth seeped into me and the mud encasing me like amber thinned. I tugged harder, wrapping the mud around my senses like reins with an unruly horse. I yanked and maneuvered it until my magic gave a sigh of relief and my head breached the surface of the lake.
Air shot into overworked lungs and I gulped until I coughed. Eyes pried open in time to catch a glimpse of green-blue stretching outward where there had been only sulfurous mud.
The lake. Clear. Normal.
I did it.
Another gasp filled my lungs before my legs jerked and straightened, deadened. Ponderous. I sank beneath the surface with a final inhale and a body too heavy to support by treading water.
Panic returned, bright and pulsing.
The earth I’d taken in became an anchor. It sank me toward the lakebed, water clearing, my eyes open to mark the progress. Magic took on a life of its own. The lower I sank, the clearer the water, silt disappearing and shards of sunlight stretching toward the bottom.
My nervous system was out of control despite the powerful tug of magic still doing its job. The one thing I couldn’t do was get myself back to the surface.
Or move, or breathe.
Darkness shimmered at the corners of my vision and I hit the bottom of the lake on my back. Red hair fanned out in a halo around my head, cradled by a bed of algae.
The sun.
At least I’d get to see the sun. And the water was warm. My lungs gave a final screech, an alert, past the point of no return. All this clean water, all the sunlight… There were worse ways to go.
The water parted, shifting currents across my skin. I blinked past black spots and the current parted around a humanoid face.
Scales covered the girl’s features, rippling in the sunlight like a snake’s. Diamond patterns interlocked across the curve of her cheekbones. Hair the same color as the strands of water plants crested away from her temples, woven into braids and interspersed with pebbles and shells.
Even the vision wasn’t enough to spur a reaction. Death loomed too close to do anything other than accept it.
A webbed hand waved in front of my face. Suddenly my lungs expanded, nearly exploding with the force of her magic.
Oxygen jettisoned into my body and I choked as the girl gathered me into her arms. Soothing murmurations were as soft as the waves on a lakeshore, her voice a whisper. She held me until the choking fit passed.
Aquatic hands marked with nails stroked through my hair and along my jawline. I curled in on myself, clutching my stomach, the weight in my lower limbs awkward.
My brain finally snagged on a steady rhythm of thought despite the muck in my head. I was breathing underwater!
How is this possible?
The girl floated me away with her, held steady by her hands on my shoulders. Her lips peeled up to reveal row after row of teeth like a piranha.
I used my magic to offer you a gift: underwater breathing.
She hadn’t spoken out loud. Neither had I. Her words formed somewhere between my ears and my brain.
My hands slapped against my neck. I have gills?
The girl shook her head, her chest undulating with laughter. No, you don’t have gills. We don’t either, see?
She held her neck to the side and I searched her scales but found nothing.
Once she had me upright and steadied, my gaze traveled the length of her body, past her arms toward the place where legs should be.
Instead a winding eel-like tail waved in a steady rhythm to keep us in place.
The same scale pattern covered the entirety of her tail, and scale armor protected her torso.
A holstered spear rested against her back.
She followed my gaze to her tail and the tip of her spear catching the light above.
Don’t worry. No one is going to hurt you. Not after what you’ve done for us. You stink of the mud, yet your magic is also there, a cleaner scent beneath it, like a forest.
You know what a forest smells like? The question came out of nowhere.
She showed her teeth with another laugh. We’re not trapped beneath the surface. Not anymore. The mudslide made things difficult, but our patrol route takes us to land when the need arises. As long as we return to the water, we are able to spend short spells above. It’s difficult but necessary.
Interesting. My heart lifted the longer I stared at the woman, her tail whipping the water to a frenzy around us.
My name is Eri. I saw what you did and how you nearly killed yourself to clean the water. Our queen will wish to speak with you to thank you properly.
I shook my head and my hair floated like an aura of blood in the water. I’m Tavi. And thanks isn’t necessary.
Not when I was the one to blame for the mudslide in the first place.
Eri grabbed my wrist. Come.
She wasn’t taking no for an answer. With another flick of her tail, Eri cut a swath through the currents, pulling me effortlessly beside her.
Her spell pumped fresh water into my lungs, now equipped to keep me alive despite the stretch of water around us. She drew us further from shore toward the center of the lake and paused only long enough to let my body acclimate to the pressure.
We never bring humans here. Do you understand? This is not a situation we intend to repeat. Then again, these are strange times, she said. The currents of life are changing. Not only the temperature of our home but the circumstances above it, the great movement of life.
My head spun and lightened with an old familiar panic. Too much water, too much distance between me and the sunlight, the air.
Pressure compressed my organs but Eri refused to let go of my hand as she swam deeper. I braced for darkness, but the closer we got to the silty bottom of the center of Lake Wone, the easier it was to see. Small stones and shells had been hollowed out to hold a comforting turquoise glow.
This is Crahlish, Eri explained the closer we got to the glow.
Twin sentinels of carved stone marked the entrance to the Encantados’ underwater city. Nestled into a crater-like depression, the shape of the city itself was eerily similar to Eahsea, the king’s jewel.
A stone palace marked the center of the crater, with buildings spreading in spokes away from it. Eri swam past snug one-story dwellings in her haste to get us to her queen.
And I was freaking out.
Guards with the same eel-like tails as Eri drifted aside to allow us entry to the palace. I caught a glimpse of their surprised expressions before stone closed over my head and a trail of bubbles pushed past my lips.
Intricate spirals of sand had made up the castle in Areia. Crahlish spread out, hardy and solid, making use of the contour of the lake bed, with rooms hewn from whatever made up the crater. Any small crevice had been utilized.
Eri flicked her tail and stopped us at the curved entrance to one of the smaller rooms. Your nerves show on your face, Tavi. Let the queen see none of it. You are a hero. Act as one.
She didn’t wait for me to protest. Didn’t wait for me to voice any of the anxiety taking me back under the suffocating mud.
Warriors wearing the same armor as Eri lined the room, and the ceiling was taller than the rest of the palace. Made of panels of wavy glass, it showed the movement of plant life above.
No sunlight made it this deep but it was strange how none of the Encantado in this room felt the wave of my magic. Only Eri.
Rather than wait for us at the end of the room, on a throne marking her as ruler, the Encantado queen swam from the middle of the crowd of soldiers.
Her hair took on a greenish hue in the gleam of the trapped lights, strands braided together with kelp and decorated with pearls and polished stone marbles. A simple string of sea plants stretched across her forehead, a mark of rank.
You’re late to the guard’s meeting, niece, the queen began, her voice a rich thrum of sound like thunder rolling out over an ocean.
Because I’ve brought with me the woman who has saved our lives. The mud is gone. Eri swam steadily and met the blistering gaze of her queen, her family. She’s cleared the water. There’s no trace of destruction left.
You brought a Seelie Fae into our home? Water boiled around the queen.
I dipped my head under the full weight of her attention. Better, because I wasn’t sure where to look.
The mud—
Gone, Eri interrupted. The lake is clear and this Fae is to thank. I found her on my patrol and watched the whole thing.
You granted her the gift of breath. Unless I missed my mark, the queen sounded irritated.
Eri snarled, her tail flicking in agitated swipes. She deserves it for what she’s done. And if you’d pay attention to me instead of to your ill-advised courtesans, the warriors who would rather barter with their position and their pride, then you’d see it for yourself.
Eri was a badass, no doubt. My stomach dropped, however, because in my experience rulers didn’t take too kindly to anyone talking back to them, not even family.
Especially not family.
To my surprise, the queen’s face broke into a smile. She closed her eyes for a heartbeat, and the water around us settled into warmth. A shockwave burst through me and out of the room—water magic—and she opened her eyes again.
Then you have our gratitude, Fae woman.
Tavi, Eri corrected.
Let her speak for herself.
“Tavi Alderidge,” I replied.
I’m Queen Ffion. And you are welcome here.
The Encantado threw a feast in celebration, as though giving my name somehow made me an honorary member of their civilization.
The more I saw of the underwater city of Crahlish, the more I liked it. The more I liked Eri and her aunt Ffion, who’d taken the crown and the kingdom with blade and blood.
The Encantado were warriors with water-based magic. Another race of fighters.
We ate and drank, and for a while I forgot about Poppy and the world outside the water. Platters of fish higher than the pyramid on the fish monger’s stall decorated the table.
Throughout the feast, they called me a goddess. They offered up anything I needed in return for what I’d done.
And when I requested an alliance for the coming war, it was given. Immediately. Queen Ffion beat her eel-like tail, slammed her fist down on a table of driftwood somehow preserved from rot, and roused a roar of agreement from her people.
How strange, how absolutely and extremely odd, that the two cultures I’d had to help so far were not only diametrically opposed, but warriors.
Like I’d become.