Page 74 of Of Blood & Stone

Elnok followed her as she scraped her nail along the glowing object stuck in the floor. It was too bright to tell, but she could feel it reverberate through her skin as she touched it. It had to be the compass. She dug her fingers into its sides, loosening it from the floor.

Suddenly, something slimy brushed her leg. She twisted, but saw nothing. Elnok was on the opposite side of her, so it couldn’t have been him. She shook her head. No fish lived in this pool. More than likely, she was still recovering from the great willow: hallucinating. As she turned back, Elnok successfully popped the object out of the tile.

Confusion pulled at her chest as a black liquid dispersed from the tiles. Elnok batted it away as he shot up to the surface. She followed his lead, the black substance must’ve been algae built up from centuries.

“Well?” Sylzenya said as she reached the surface, “Is it the compa?—?”

Fingers wrapped around her throat, slamming her into the side of the pool. All the air rushed out of her lungs, her back erupting in pain as she yelled. Panic rushed through her body like dark adrenaline as she clawed at the hand tightening around her neck.

“Why, human, are you immune to my toxins?” a gravelly voice echoed in her ears.

Choking, Sylzenya peeled her eyes open, terror lighting her stomach as Elnok’s green eyes pierced hers; his arm muscles pulsed as his grip on her throat tightened.

“El— El—” she tried.

He tilted his head. Confusion pulled at every corner of her mind.

“Centuries have passed, and yet no one has been immune. Why you?” he asked, the gravelly voice nothing like Elnok’s.

Was this the plan all along? Find the compass and then… dispose of her?

“Answer me, human!”

Human?

Something was wrong.

The Dynameis who approached her and Nyla the day of the banquet—Marlo and Westley. They’d talked about a monster in a pond… what had they droned on about? An icurus? An icythanthium?

Ichthys.

Elnok’s green eyes disappeared, clouding with white and black mist.

The ichthys secretes a toxin into the water, and you don’t even have to drink it to be infected. If it gets in your mouth, eyes, what have you, then the ichthys has control over your whole self. Mind, body—even soul.

No, it wasn’t possible.

Monsters lived in the forest, not in Estea.

“Answer or you die!”

“I— I don’t know—”she choked.

“Worthless pieces of fecal matter,” he hissed.

She sucked in as much air as she could, still clawing at his hands, digging into his flesh, his blood dripping into the water.

“Are you—” she said, “Are you an ichthys?”

“You know my species,” it grated. “Is that how you’re able to withstand my poison?”

She shook at its response. So it was true: a monster lived in thetemple.

And it had Elnok under its control.

“Please, let us go,” she begged. “We just need the compass and we’ll be gone.”

“I’ve been this object’s guardian for centuries. I’ve done as I’ve been told—stayed hidden, misdirected as needed—but thenyou come along and refuse to obey my demands. And now you think I’m going to let a small insignificanthumantake my treasure fromme?” His grip tightened further as he unsheathed a dagger and held it to her throat. The sharp tip dug into her skin, a warm drop of blood dripping down her neck. “Now tell me your secrets so I may prevent this from happening again.”

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