Faerie never failed to impress, I thought, just staring for a moment.
Then I did my business, washed off, and waited for Ray to come back.
There was a surprising amount of wildlife for the middle of the night. There were a few birds, brown or gray and vaguely owl-like, swooping about, chasing small animals or darting after fish. They had huge eyes that reflected the moon when the angle was just right, making them flash orange from time to time, like feathered fireflies.
The water was as active as the air. Once in a while, a silver fishtail would emerge to splash the surface before disappearing again. A large turtle slid off the embankment and into the current, like a slow-moving rock. And a small, green frog with long, red toes jumped into the spray from a nearby perch, evading one of the birds.
But nothing jumped at me.
For the first time, it felt peaceful here, in this strange new world. I realized that I did not have many memories of peace that were not also lonely. Dory needed sleep, so I could not be active for the whole of the night, and when I was awake, there was no one to talk to. Horatiu and I had had chats from time to time, but they made him feel bad. Reminded him of things he did not agree with, but could not change. I had gradually let them fall off over the years, like with so many things . . .
But I did not feel lonely here. I had talked and talked. And Ray had listened, and seemed interested, or at least entertained. It had felt strange, to open up to someone like that, like so much lately. It was exciting, almost dizzily so. I could not remember the last time I had looked at the future and not had any idea what it might hold.
That was why, as frightening as Faerie was, it was thrilling, too. And without Dory to worry about, I could . . . I could do anything. Just anything at all!
Well, anything that my body would allow. But even worry over my legs did not weigh me down that much. For the first time in memory, I felt free.
I almost did not want to sleep for the joy of it.
The wind picked up, and gooseflesh prickled my arms. I felt myself shiver, and drew further into my thick tunic, which was remarkably warm. I saw Ray start back this way, ostentatiously looking at the sky, giving me a chance to notice him.
“Dorina,” he called out. “Are you ready to—”
His voice cut off abruptly, I did not know why. Then a cascade of mental images hit me, too many and too fast to even try to process, like bubbles foaming up from the surf. And something huge stirred in the depths of the water.
Oh, I thought blankly.
That was why.
And then Ray started to run.
He was coming this way, and coming fast, or so it would have appeared to anyone looking at a photo of him. His feet were digging into the soft sand near the shoreline, his arms were in the classic running pose, and his face was snarling enough to show fang. But despite the fact that vampire speed should have had him beside me in an instant, he was barely moving.
I did not think that was his fault, however.
The disturbance in the water became more pronounced, and for a moment, I thought that the fey had found us. That one of their wooden ships was pushing up through the waves, and that we were caught or soon to be. But if it was one of their vessels, it was larger than any I had yet seen.
Quite a bit larger.
Ray was still running, but had yet to complete a single stride. Whatever was boiling toward the surface, however, was moving quickly. It broke through the waves a moment later, in a furious surge of water and a mass of spray worthy of a Yellowstone geyser.
I sank back against the rocks, hoping that they would hide me. They weren’t that much darker than the gray tunic I was wearing, especially now that it was wet again. Perhaps, if I was very still, the Svarestri would pass on by and—
That was not the Svarestri.
The water had fountained up, far into the sky, and was now coming back down again, raining hard on me and half the river. But not so much so that I could not make out what