Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Carys ran down the grassy verge and listened for anything that sounded like the wolf. “Godrik?”
The ground dipped, and Carys nearly tripped into the water, which would have been a very bad thing because the green-skinned grindylows were now crawling up the banks.
Naida had stepped back, speaking to some small glowing thing that hovered around her. Laura was backing away, her arms up and holding the fog as she chanted. Duncan and Lachlan were swiping at the scaly creatures with black-stained blades, trying to hold them back.
Cadell was pacing on the edge of the river, staring into the fog and occasionally punting a grindylow’s head like a football anytime one got too close.
“You called for me?” Godrik appeared from the fog, holding what appeared to be a massive anchor. He was eyeing the grindylows. “These little bastards are stubborn.”
“I need you to close the lock gate when the snake is inside.”
He frowned. “I know nothing of your Brightlands technology, Lady Carys.”
“Can you turn a really big, heavy wheel?”
Godrik flexed his shoulders, and Carys was reminded of a bear. “Yes. I can do that.”
“Good, then come with me.”
Cadell, is he moving?
He is quite confused, but the water fae will try to guide him into the lock.
Does the Morrígan understand what is going on?
She only sees through his eyes, and he is still thinking this is a way upriver that will avoid the rocks and metal of the human weir. He knows that going over it will be painful.
Good.
“Laura!” she shouted.
A moment later, she heard a response.
“What’s up, buttercup?”
“Need a little less fog.”
“Uh… I can just do fog or no fog.”
“Tell her no fog then,” Godrik muttered. “Because this mess is as thick as pea soup. I can’t see a thing.” He stepped up to the thick iron wheel. “This is the one?”
He tested it, and Carys heard the door creak a little bit.
“Yes.” She kept her voice soft. “So when the fog lifts and you can see the serpent swim into the lock, close that gate. As soon as he’s through, close it.”
Godrik nodded. “Yes, my lady.”
Carys shouted at Laura. “Okay, Laura, let the fog go!”
Almost as soon as Carys spoke, the wind picked up and blew the heavy, low-lying clouds away. The river revealed itself, as did the full moon overhead, which glinted off the churning white water flowing over Naburn Weir and the large creature swimming in circles.
The wind didn’t clear the crows away, but the starlings seemed to have disappeared, and the crows were no longer whirling overhead but were cawing from the branches of the trees and perched on the bridges and railings all around.
“Okay, Sam.” She walked to the edge of the embankment. “Let’s see if we can get rid of your hitchhiker.”
The grindylows were still trying to crawl onto the riverbank, but as the fog cleared, they turned their eyes toward the full moon, distracted by its light.
They blinked and stared, which allowed Lachlan and Duncan to slash and kick at them, sending them back into the black water from where they had emerged.
Naida was watching blue glowing lights that darted underneath the surface, two growing to four growing to eight, and then there were so many lights they looked like fireflies swimming in circles around the great sea monster.
Slowly the snake stopped swimming in rapid circles and stilled.
He stretched his body and followed the blue lights, which led him in wide, arching whorls under the water.
The glowing water sprites teased the wyrm, drawing it one way, then another, until the creature followed them around the wide river like a dog following its master.
“There it is.” Carys watched the serpent move along the banks downstream, then upstream and toward the Naburn Locks. “There it is. Godrik?”
“I see him.”
It was impossible to miss. The serpent was riding shallow in the water, a large ridge visible on its back. She glanced around, hoping no humans were around to see the monster, but she was more focused on where the sprites were leading it.
Whatever trance the Morrígan had over the serpent, it wasn’t strong enough to combat the glowing lights and the draw of the water fae on the water serpent’s primordial brain.
They led the wyrm in a long, curling pathway downriver, upriver, and right into the longest of the Naburn Locks.
“Now!”
Godrik grunted as he turned his shoulder into the wheel, and within moments the heavy wood-and-concrete doors swung shut.
And Sam the Sea Monster was trapped in Naburn Lock.
They stood on the embankment, watching the serpent twist and roll in the locks, bashing his sides against the concrete. Sam prodded the gate with his nose, then tried to turn, but the lock was too narrow.
“We really caught a giant snake, didn’t we?” Laura grabbed her mobile phone from her pocket. “Good thing my night camera is excellent.”
“You are not taking a picture of it,” Cadell said. “Laura—”
“Relax, O fiery one.” Laura rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to post it on my dating profile or anything.” She pursed her lips. “Even though that would be the best profile pic ever.”
Carys couldn’t stop her smile. “The problem is, what do we do with it now?”
“Let us hope the Morrígan has a short attention span,” Cadell said.
Frida appeared with them, staring at the serpent in the lock. “She will tire of occupying his mind soon, and then I will sing a song to guide him back to the ocean.”
Sam pushed on the upstream gate, but the solid wood-and-concrete structure didn’t budge. And just as Cadell had said, the beast was smart enough to realize that pushing through the lock and destroying it would bring an avalanche of concrete and steel.
The monster’s tail whipped around behind him, but it wasn’t enough to break the downstream gate; he could not navigate the lock from either direction.
The crows surrounded the watery prison, hopping and shouting their displeasure at the unexpected turn of events.
“So we just wait?” Laura asked.
Duncan and Lachlan were both sitting on the grass, tying scraps of their bloodied shirts around various wounds.
Naida stared at the giant serpent with sad eyes. “It does not belong here.”
Duncan nodded at the lock, wrapping a red gash on his wrist. “I say we go talk to that sea god and see what he has to say for himself. This is one of his creatures, isn’t it?
The Morrígan possessed it. We trapped it.
Seems like he might owe us a favor for trapping this beastie before he reached York. ”
Frida raised her eyebrows. “I will go with you. I would like to hear what he says.”
Duncan and Frida walked back to the parking lot to find Wade, and Carys walked over to Lachlan. He was struggling to try to tie a bandage around a slice on his lower back.
“Here.” She took the strip of shirt from him and motioned him to standing. “I’ll get it. Don’t want you bleeding all over the van.”
The giant snake hissed and arched against the side of the lock. There was a shriek, a strange gurgling sound, and then silence.
Lachlan smiled a little bit and handed her the piece of shirt. “Duncan bought that van, didn’t he?”
“Yes. I kind of gave him a hard time, but considering the unexpected amount of blood on both of you, probably a good thing he didn’t go for the rental.”
“He always thinks ahead.” Lachlan nodded. “It’s good. In this world, he can give you the things that I could not.”
Carys looked up and met his familiar green eyes. “I never cared about any of that, Lachlan.”
The corner of Lachlan’s mouth lifted. “I know. I shouldn’t have said—”
“I had enough. We had enough. If you’d stayed, I never would have—”
“It wasn’t my choice to go.” His voice dropped. “You believe me, don’t you? That I was happy in Baywood. That I would have stayed with you forever.”
Carys couldn’t look away. “I don’t think it matters now, does it?”
“It matters to me.” Lachlan was staring at her, and it was like years slipped away.
It had been almost two years since she’d first encountered his brilliant green eyes, his smile that made her feel like the sun shone on her.
Do you believe in fairy tales?
Two years. And a thousand truths hidden and revealed.
Nêrys, Cadell said in her mind, the cross human and the demigod return.
Carys shook her head and touched Lachlan’s arm. “Turn around. Let’s get that wound covered before you start attracting vampires.”
Another round of hissing and thumping from the lock, but the gates both held.
“There are no vampires in Anglia.” Lachlan turned around. “Eastern Europe and India are another story.”
“India?”
“Oh yes.”
Carys placed the bandage center over the red wound. It was a red, raised welt with a slice taken from the center, as if something had peeled off a strip of Lachlan’s skin.
She winced when the bandage touched the open wound even though Lachlan didn’t move.
“Good news,” Duncan said. “Well… news anyway.”
“Wade says that I have his permission to sing this creature back to the sea.” Frida turned to Carys. “And that after that happens, you will know what you must do next.”
Carys finished wrapping Lachlan’s bandage and tied it off. “I’ll just… know what I need to do next?”
Frida nodded. “Yes.”
The crows hopping around the riverbank cackled. But then the cackling turned to squawking that turned to shrieking as the flock of birds took to the air, circling the serpent twisting in the lock. The creature let out a roar that sounded halfway between pain and rage.
It pierced Carys’s ears, and she slapped her hands over them.
“Fuck!” Laura exclaimed. Her hands were covering her ears too. “If there are any humans in a five-mile radius, they’re going to hear that shit. It’s louder than a train whistle.”
The sound went on and on until suddenly—
It died.
The beast shuddered through its whole body, and the murder of crows screamed and took to the air, disappearing into the night.
Cadell stared at the sea serpent. “She is gone.”
Carys and Naida ran to the side of the lock, and the sea serpent named Sam was still as death.