Page 98 of Knight's End
I blasted all of them with a little surge of peace. “Now focus.” I wasn’t certain if my power or my order did the trick, but they all grew quiet as we made our way down the steep ridge that was the continental rise. The water grew around us; first it became a tall blue wall, then a blue tower, then a black sky pierced only by the thin column of air and light that stretched directly above us.
I stared up in awe, heart pounding as the delicacy of our situation—the precarious line we walked—manifested before my eyes.
Ryan changed tactics. Instead of an entire path, he reduced water and multiplied air in a rotating pillar that kept pace with us. It moved as we did, swirling air funneling all the way to the ocean’s surface.
Declan talked him through every step of the way and insisted that the column was safer than just forming a bubble within the water around us. Dec’s nerves meant he spouted out calculations about how this was safer. I didn’t listen, my eyes and ears were alert for attack. But the gist of it was that if Ryan lost control, my giant would try to at least focus above us, letting the water flood below our feet and the pressure propel us upward through the column and spray us out the top, much like a whale’s blow hole.
Whatever their strategy, the glimpse at life under the water was fascinating. If we were going to die, it would be surrounded by beauty. (I ignored the undead that tromped thirty feet away through the water. I could hardly see them. And so they didn’t ruin the view.)
The water swirled around us like liquid wind. It made little rushing and rustling noises. We walked carefully, avoiding purple crabs that scuttled out of our air pocket, picking our way around bright peach clusters of stinging coral, and traipsing through the vast deserted nothingness that stretched as far as the eye could see (which was mere feet through the water). We walked by a broken shipwreck and Declan trailed his finger along the rotted planks before he turned to me, a look of wonder in his bright blue eyes.
“Think of how many questions could be answered if we could only study these ships.”
My chest tightened. The scholar in him couldn’t help but be excited. He was so adorably himself. And moments like this drew me to him. I stepped closer and latched hands with his. “Let’s end this war, then maybe Ryan can—”
“Bullshite,” Ryan called out, from where he was heaving, sweat dripping freely down his forehead as he placed his cane and took another slow step forward, concentrating on moving water taller than ten stacked castles. “I am not doing this again.”
“Fair enough,” I kissed Declan’s hand and went back to put an arm around my giant’s waist. He didn’t necessarily need me, but I wanted to be with him. And I shot him a bit of peace as we moved.
I heard a moan go through the water. And our column wavered.
I saw the undead troops duck in slow motion, the water impeding their movements. Our gargoyles simply stopped walking and sat, little clouds of sea dirt swirling around their feet.
“Something’s coming!” I shouted.
Just then, a school of silver fish swam right into our column of air. Fish after slimy fish smacked me in the face. As soon as they hit our air pocket, they flopped onto the ground. Declan tripped on a few and went sprawling, his face plunging into the water. Blue yanked him back and Declan sputtered and coughed, his face cherry red.
“Quick, quick, chequered retreat!” Ryan urged us backward in a diagonal, away from the massive swarm of fish.
We stumbled backward, holding onto one another and ducking, as if that would somehow help protect us from fish that went from swimming one moment to falling through our tunnel of air the next. The fish fell like rain, splattering us.
“Well, this bodes well for our battle plan,” Blue snarked.
“Shut. Your. Mouth.” Declan spat, still clearing his lungs.
Quinn sent an instant reply of Declan tripping and falling on the fish. He looped the image in his mind, until we all laughed.
“Ryan, you kept the column of air. Great work,” Connor said over the spat that was erupting.
I grabbed my giant knight’s arm proudly. “You did. Even while leading us to retreat. Great work, Ry.”
Ryan nodded briskly. “Quinn’s right though. We can’t fight swarms of fish. Next time we go past, see if you can blast them with peace or something.”
“On it.”
Blue took it upon himself to point out fish for me. I blasted them as we walked, lighting their silver bodies up with a green glow. Their eyes grew wide and they stopped swimming, just floated upward, blinking.
Blue high-fived me. “Fish down. I repeat. Fish down.”
A low rock wall and a glowing glass castle appeared in the distance; it sparkled with different colors, as enticing as fairy lights. As we drew closer, it seemed like the water around us grew even darker, more shadowed. The air in our column grew colder. Goosebumps rose on my arms and I flexed my fingers to keep them from growing stiff.
A shark burst into our air pocket with no warning, all rows of teeth snapping at my face. Blue yanked me to the floor as the knights ducked. All but Ryan, who kept his eyes on the shark and blasted it with yellow light. A second later, a bird flapped in its place, opening and shutting its beak, flapping its wings and squawking, getting used to this new body.
“That poor shark,” Blue stared up, watching the bird fly up our column until it disappeared into the sky. “It stinks to be a bird.”
After that, Connor went over and encased Ryan in pink light. My giant looked ready to fall over from exhaustion.
I pushed a little peace magic into him, hoping that between Connor’s healing and my peace, he might feel a bit better.
