Page 65 of The Dark, Dead, Deep

No one.

Not even an arrogant mer-king.

I spotted him near the entrance, hanging from his throat. His eyes were dazed but not lifeless; instead, he appeared trapped in a nightmare he couldn’t escape. Sympathy twanged through my chest like a discordant chime. I approached slowly, noting that the guards Cormac Illfin had brought through the Whispering Pass were as dead as the people surrounding them. Only Cormac remained. Perhaps it was because he had more magic, or maybe it was by design, but I knew I had to break the wires, though the notion filled me with dread.

I didn’t have a knife. I looked down and scoured the floor for something sharp, but there was only sand. I cursed and approached Cormac slowly, hoping that touching the merman to retrieve the trident on his back would not activate the greedy wires and ensnare me along with King Illfin.

“Here goes nothing,” I whispered, snatching the trident. The weapon came free, and the staff was warm on my hand. I pumped my fist before realizing it wasn’t the most appropriate time to celebrate.

I looked at the army of the dead that floated in the water before positioning the trident over the wire that connected Cormac to the others. I closed my eyes tight. The weapon was much heavier than I expected; I had never wielded more than a small filleting knife before. With a swing powered mainly by the weapon’s weight, I struck the wire with the tip of the trident and the three sharp blades at the top. It snapped cleanly, pinging away from the Merman and letting his body free enough to slump down and drift to the lake bed.

I ducked as one of the wires above my head snapped, and a chain reaction began to free the floating dead around me. I darted forward and grabbed Cormac, kicking my legs as I dragged his dead weight towards the exit. He was a large male, and his bulk certainly didn’t help.

“Come on, you lump!” I snarled.

Cormac groaned but didn’t wake as the snapping wires began to take chunks from the cavern wall as the tension broke them apart.

I dragged the merman through, his tail creating a line in the sand and kicking up a cloud of sediment as we reached the exit. The wires were gone, and Shay, Rainn, and Tormalugh raced forward to meet us now that the coast was clear.

Tormalugh shifted into his horse form, and Shay loaded Cormac onto his back.

Rainn craned his neck as the cavern began to crumble behind us.

“We must go if we don’t want to get buried by crumbling rock!” I shouted, racing forward and grabbing the selkie. “Now.”

As if to punctuate my words, the path behind me broke away and disappeared as the two sides of the rock walls crashed together.

The princelings didn’t need to be told twice as they raced away from the Whispering Pass, the lake bed rumbling with discontent as we left the destruction behind.

We did not stop swimming under the Whispering Pass until it, or what was left of it, was out of sight and away from the horizon. Though I worried I would hear its thunderous roar in my dreams for years to come.

Cormac Illfin had not woken, even though we were away from the weaving wires that had held him captive. However, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of intense guilt that I hadn’t tried to rescue more of the people that had undoubtedly been crushed by the falling rocks. Though, it was most likely that they were already dead.

“What do we do?” I turned back to the princelings as Rainn hovered over Cormac and tried to feel for his heartbeat.

“We go on to Tarsainn,” Shay said without a blink.

Tormalugh let out a whinny, shifting from foot to foot in his horse form, jostling Cormac on his back. The sound was one of agreement.

Rainn pulled his lip between his teeth. “Do you think that’s wise?” He grimaced. “I, for one, don’t much want to turn up to the gates of the keep with the king of the merfolk in such a sorry state.”

“On that, we can agree,” I muttered. “We all know that I’m going to be blamed for this, and I like my head on my shoulders.”

“I know where I’d like your head.” Shay’s eyes twinkled with mischief.

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Nymphs. Do you ever think of anything but sex?”

“As if you know anything of sex.” Shay chuckled before his smile dropped as he glanced at Cormac’s still form on the kelpie’s back. “We don’t have a choice. We have to soldier on to Tarsainn. They have healers and are the best chance of undoing any nefarious magics that might be underfoot.”

I placed my palms together before resting my joined hands on my lips. I took a moment to breathe, though it did nothing to calm me. “I can’t go to Tarsainn,” I murmured.

Shay and Tor exchanged glances before Rainn straightened and adjusted the coat on his belt. A habit, I had gathered, that came about when he was nervous.

“We’ll protect you.” Rainn jutted his chin.

“It seems to have escaped your notice, but you told all of your guards to meet us at Tarsainn. What if something happens between here and mer territory?” I laughed without humor, but the sound was breathy and sad. “You can’t protect me all of the time, and if anything happens to any of you, I’m the one that’s going to pay for it.”

“Let us worry about that,” Shay declared. “Besides, I’d rather be on the way to the keep and saving my friend’s life than arguing about this.”

---