Page 112 of The War and Deceit Series omnibus

He stops chewing for a second, his confusion evident. “Sticks?”

“Yeah, he’s an imp,” I start, but stop speaking when I realise he’s not chewing the weed anymore. With a glare from me, he starts to chew again and I continue my story. “He and his friends helped me bring you here, and he told me about the nos weed.” Searching through the pack, I remove all our various items, placing everything I would need to dress his wound to one side. “They do not think very highly of high elves by the way, I had to convince him that by helping you, he would be helping me.”

I snort at that and lift the flask with the liquor, wincing when I feel how light it is now. We’re going to be out soon, possibly with the next dressing change, so I just hope the nos weed helps. I have no idea how it works, but I have to trust that Stix was right.

“He sent you to the kelpies?” Vaeril queries, and I lift my gaze from the flask, noting his incredulous look.

“Yeah, they weren’t so bad.” I shrug and return to sorting our belongings. We’re nearly out of food now, and although I’m very grateful for Stix’s gifts of berries and nuts, I find I’m missing meat.

“How did you survive?” His shocked tone catches my attention again and I turn fully to face him. Why is he so surprised by all of this?

“Stix told me to tell them something, I did, and then they listened,” I explain simply. I know they have a bad reputation from the images they showed me, and people fear them, butI was able to reason with them, so I don’t really understand his disbelief. “They have a lot of anger though.” I shudder as I remember that feeling of rage and their hunger as they dragged someone to the bottom of the lake.

Vaeril must be starting to feel better, because he pushes up with his elbows to look at me better. “Kelpies are impossible beasts to deal with, they only care about where their next meal is coming from.”

Frowning, I shake my head. “I got more than that from him when he communicated with me.”

“Those things can talk?” Astonishment colours his expression again.

“No...” Pausing, I search for the right words. “It pressed its forehead against mine and kind of sent images to me?” I explain, not sure how to describe what had happened when I’ve never experienced anything like it before.

“You should be dead.”

Shrugging again, I turn back to sorting our belongings. “I should have died many times during my life.”

He falls silent, and I go through the process of cleaning and redressing his wound, which looks worse than ever. The injury is a deep, angry red colour and is leaking a greenish pus, and the skin around it is tight and shiny. The black lines track from the wound and up his body, and a couple are dangerously close to where his heart is. Thankfully, he passes out while I’m cleaning it, and I use the last of the liquor in the process. That worry plagues me again, but I’m just finishing wrapping up his wound when a shadow falls over the waterfall and the sound of the water changes, like something has disturbed the flow.

Heart pounding, I spin around, reaching for one of the weapons Vaeril packed in the bag, not that I have any idea how to use it. Although, when I see what it is, I start to lower the weapon.

“Don’t,” Vaeril commands, his hand shooting out and grabbing my arm. “Don’t lower it.” I don’t take my eyes off our visitor, but I can see Vaeril pushing up into a sitting position.

The kelpie has his snout pushed through the water from the fall, his angry amber eyes glowing in the darkness of the cave. It glances between us, its eyes narrowing when it falls on the elf, and a deep rumbling comes from its chest. I want to know why it’s here, why it’s back, and to do that, I need to get closer. Handing the weapon over to Vaeril, I stand and slowly walk over towards the kelpie.

“Clarissa, no! It will drag you into the water, it will kill you!” he shouts, and I can hear the sounds of him trying to stand to pull me back, but from the cursing, I guess he doesn’t have the energy or strength to do that yet.

The kelpie does not like that comment, baring his teeth which, unlike a horse, are needle-like fangs held in a horrifying maw. It makes that deep rumbling sound again and I freeze as it lunges forward, snapping at the elf. I’m pretty sure it’s a warning shot, since he’s nowhere near the elf and I know that if he wanted to, he could easily reach Vaeril.

“Stay back, he doesn’t like you,” I order, hoping he’ll do as I ask. The kelpie turns back to me, his expression instantly smoothing out as he hears my voice.

“You came back, are you okay?” I ask softly, my mind spinning over why he could be here.

Is he hurt? Does he need help? Has he come to give me more nos weed? Or perhaps he’s just come for an evening snack?The questions play out in my head, but I push them aside, sure he isn’t here to hurt me.

As soon as I ask the question, he seems to pause, as if reassessing me. I even hear Vaeril’s shocked murmur behind me, but I don’t turn to see what has him so surprised. The kelpie moves a little farther into the cave so his front hooves are on thestone. Placing one out before him, he bends the other knee and bends his head, and I realise he’s bowing to me again. This time, I return the bow—I don’t know why I feel compelled to do it, but it seems right.

With a whickering noise of a horse, he rises before disappearing from the waterfall. Confused, I stand straight and begin to turn away when, as quickly as he went, he reappears with a splash. My eyes go wide when I see what he’s carrying in his mouth—the largest fish I’ve ever seen. Pushing into the cave again, he stretches his neck forward and gently drops the fish at my feet.

Glancing from the fish to the expectant creature, I realise he’s brought us something to eat. A huge smile spreads across my face, and before Vaeril can do anything to stop me, I place my hand on the kelpie’s forehead. “Thank you.”

With a nod of his head, he shoots one last death glare at Vaeril, then backs out of the cave, throwing himself into the water.

“He brought you food.” I finally turn to Vaeril, who is staring at the fish at my feet, his face dumbstruck. It’s not an expression I’m used to seeing on his face and it makes me chuckle.

“Don’t be jealous, I’ll share it with you,” I joke, before looking at the fish again and trying to decide what to do with it.

“Those creatures have an insatiable hunger, they never give away food.” He still sounds confused, like he’s trying to convince himself he isn’t hallucinating.

“Well…” I don’t know what to say to him, because the opposite of what he’s saying just happened. I also notice how he rarely calls them kelpies, but ‘creatures’ or ‘beasts,’ and that gets to me. “Have you ever stuck around to see what they might do?” I challenge gently, but that seems to snap him out of his fixation with the fish.

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