to get to Cadderly, but how? If she went under the water, how could she hope to stop this approaching menace?
A scream to the side turned Danica about, to peek over the broken plank. There floundered the wounded Night Mask, the one Cadderly had hit with his spindle-disks, fighting desperately to free himself from the clutches of a long, thick constrictor - a snake about the same size as one of the boat's oars.
The man somehow broke free and began swimming with all speed toward the approaching boat. The snake slithered off in pursuit, slipping under the water as it went.
Despite the peril, Danica could not help but smile. She knew that the appearance of this snake was no natural coincidence; she knew that Cadderly, and that mysterious power, had struck again.
Danica got up to her knees. The other boat was closer now; she could see a man in the prow leveling a crossbow her way. She jerked up, as though she meant to stand, then fell flat and heard the whistle of the high-flying bolt.
Now she had time to get over the side, into the water after Cadderly. Before she moved out of the boat, though, the water churned and the Night Mask appeared, his face contorted in terror and the second snake, the second oar, wrapped about his shoulder and chest. He reached for the boat, then slapped at the water and the beast.
Then he was gone.
Again the water churned, a short distance to the side. Up came Cadderly, impossibly fast, his body breaking out of the water impossibly high.
He was standing on the water! And still wearing his hat, the holy symbol set in its front glowing furiously.
Danica nearly laughed, too amazed to react any other way. Cadderly took in a few gulps of air, seeming more surprised than Danica.
He looked back toward the approaching boat - the swimming man had just about met it by then - and saw that the crossbowman was preparing another shot.
"Get in!" Danica cried, thinking Cadderly too vulnerable standing on the water out in the open. Cadderly seemed not to hear her. He was chanting, singing actually, and waving one hand slowly to and fro.
Danica looked back to the other boat, saw the man leveling the crossbow - and saw Cadderiy standing in the open, vulnerable.
She scrambled to the side, grabbed at a piece of broken wood floating in the small pool at the bottom of her boat. She came up throwing, skimming the wood sidelong so that it spun and swerved . . . and plopped harmlessly into the water a dozen feet to the side of the approaching craft.
But the crossbowman had flinched, had looked her way.
A sudden swell erupted in the calm lake, near where Danica's wood had disappeared. The water reared up and rolled, as if aimed, toward the enemy boat. The crossbowman had set his sights on Cadderly again when the wave collided against the side of his boat. Not even bracing himself at the time, the man lurched over the side and nearly lost his weapon.
At first, Danica wondered how the little piece of wood had so disrupted the stillness of the lake. She realized it was no more than coincidence, though, and she turned to the true source of the swell. Cadderiy, still standing calmly, sung his soft song and waved his hand back and forth.
Another swell rose and crashed against the enemy boat, turning it about so that it was facing the bridge.
Cadderly smiled; another swell turned the boat so that it was feeing the shore, directly away from him.
"Come," Cadderly said to Danica, extending his hand. "Before they get their bearings."
Danica at first misunderstood, thinking that Cadderly wanted her to help him into the boat. He resisted her pull, though, beckoning her to go to him.
The assassin who had pulled Cadderh; under the water bobbed to the surface facedown. The snake that had been wrapped about him became an oar again at Cadderiy's command and floated benignly, a harmless piece of flotsam.
"Come," Cadderly reiterated, tugging Danica. She jumped onto him and wrapped herself about him.
Cadderly looked about, then ran for the island. Danica watched over his shoulder, taking note that his footsteps did not splash the water. Rather, the burdened young priest left depressions in the lake surface, which quickly reverted to the natural water shape, as though he was running across soft ground.
Behind them, the enemy boat finally straightened and the crossbowman pulled the swimmer up over the side. The oar