Blackbird Crowned (The Witch King's Crown #3) - Keri Arthur Page 0,18

blocking at least some of the wind even if the rain still pelted my body and assaulted my face. I trudged on, peering through the gloom, waiting for a response from the lake to the ring’s presence, but not seeing anything other than an old post-and-wire fence that ran out into the stormy waters and disappeared.

I was beginning to suspect I might have to do the same thing.

I stopped at the water’s edge. Waves struck at my feet and splashed up my legs, but there was no sense of welcome. No sense of power. Which wasn’t unexpected, given Vivienne no longer resided in this lake, but if the sword did, why was there no response?

I glanced at Mo. “What the hell do we do now?”

“A connection to the water has always been needed when interacting with the Lady of the Lake,” she replied. “It may well be the same when it comes to her artifacts.”

I squatted and pressed my hand into the icy water. For several heartbeats, nothing happened, then a ribbon of light burst from the heart of the ring and arced across the lake. It hit the surface at a point beyond the old fence and dove under.

Nothing else happened. Not for several minutes. Then an odd rumbling filled the air, and the ground shook. A heartbeat later, a larger than normal wave crashed into my body and drove me back onto my butt. I grunted and scanned the choppy lake, looking for whatever had displaced such a large volume of water.

There was nothing out there—nothing visible anyway.

Even the arc of light was being fragmented and blown away by the wind.

The ring, however, now pointed to the spot where its light ribbon had plunged into the water.

I glanced up at Mo. “I’m guessing I’ll have to wade out.”

“Vivienne never did like to make things easy, but do please be careful. I’m too old to be swimming out into icy water to rescue you.”

“You’re a mage—I imagine you could simply command the water to spit me out.” I paused thoughtfully. “In fact, why can’t you just make the water part so I can just walk out there?”

“Because my name is Mo not Moses. Besides, control over large bodies of water such as this was never my forte. Earth and storms are my comfort zones.”

Which didn’t mean she couldn’t command the elements of water or even fire if the need rose. “What about the other two mages? Do they have specialties?”

“Gwendydd is the botanist of the group—she can draw on and manipulate the energy of the living world. Mryddin is the spell caster, with a sideline in refashioning rocks and metal.” She pointed to the slate-gray sky. “The storm is only going to get worse, you know.”

I took off my wellies and socks, handed her my knives, then rose and cautiously stepped into the water, inching my way forward in an effort to avoid tripping over whatever rubbish might lie on the lake’s floor.

Slowly but surely I walked deeper into the choppy water. I did my best to ignore the ice leaching ever further up the inside of my pants, but a gasp nevertheless escaped when the water hit my nether regions.

I alternated between cursing the water, the weather, and the old goddess, and continued on, following the old fence line until it dove under the water. The water was just over chest-deep now, and I really wasn’t seeing anything more than the choppy white-topped waves that crashed over my head with monotonous regularity.

And yet … something was out there.

It was a presence that felt vaguely familiar and yet totally alien. It held no life and yet spoke of thunder and lightning, of the sky and the earth, and the energy that soared between them.

My heart began beating a whole lot faster, and an odd mix of trepidation and excitement ran through me. I raised the hand on which the ring sat; a beam of light shot from the ruby and plunged into the water just over ten feet ahead.

The sword was close.

So damn close.

I took a deep breath and then pushed on, only to discover the hard way that the ground dropped sharply. I unbalanced and went under, momentarily panicking as water rushed up my nose and down my throat. I kicked back to the ledge, coughing and spluttering as I tried to regain my composure.

The sword might be down there, but I’d have to dive to grab it—not something I’d ever been good at. I was definitely a