us, content to eat. The men arm themselves and carry light packs—all except Aron, who watches them with a lofty expression on his face.
Vitar steps onto the raft first. It dips into the water around his feet, but doesn’t flood, and reminds me of a blanket somehow floating atop the surface. How is that going to hold us? All of us? But I look at Aron and he nods. Vitar holds his hand out to Yulenna, who quickly joins him, looking down in wonder. “It is like stepping atop a cloud,” she calls out to me.
“Goody. I can’t wait.” I watch as the other soldiers step on, Kerren and Markos holding tent poles for some reason.
Then it’s my turn, and Solat—the last one on the raft—holds his hand out to me. Aron growls, and I see Solat blanch.
I slap Aron’s arm. “Stop it already. He’s the one closest to the edge. Everyone knows I belong to you.” I take Solat’s hand and step onto the “raft.” It’s like Yulenna said—it feels spongy but solid. A cloud on the water.
Aron is the last one on and he pulls me close the moment he steps away from the shore. Then, we’re all on the raft, standing around and looking at each other. Slowly, it begins to inch toward the far end of the lake, where the distant pale tower is now ringed by a low-hanging cloud.
Vitar sticks his pole in the water and grunts. “It’s not deep.” He pushes against the pole and we surge forward. Markos does the same, and then we’re moving at a decent rate as they push us forward, stroke by stroke. I notice the poles sinking deeper into the water the farther we move out, but so far, they’re still able to hit the bottom.
We’re close to halfway when something ripples under the raft.
Markos frowns at his pole, stabbing a little harder toward the bottom. “I thought I felt something.”
“In the legends, there is always a test before speaking to the gods,” Vitar tells us solemnly. “Perhaps we are about to be tested.”
Aron blows out an impatient breath. “You are speaking to me, aren’t you? I am a god. Nothing here is being tested but my patience.”
“Oooh, burn,” I whisper.
The others look worried. I notice that Kerren and Solat exchange looks from behind us, and I worry. Are they right? Is this a test?
Vitar pushes his pole deep into the water, silent, then shakes his head. “I don’t mean to be rude, my lord of storms, but you were exiled. They live here. That is different. They could have guardians—”
His pole gives a jerk, and there’s just enough time to see the surprised look on Vitar’s face before it surges forward and sucks him into the water.
The raft ripples in response.
Yulenna screams.
58
“Vitar!” Solat yells, even as he surges forward. Then, Kerren and Markos pull their swords, Markos’s pole slipping into the water.
I lean over and reach for it, because we need oars. I do it without thinking, and just as I grab the end of the pole, I see something pale and snakelike slither under the raft. It pushes up against the center of the raft, and the entire thing capsizes underneath us.
A moment later, I hit the water, and it shocks the breath out of me with how cold it is. It feels wrong, too, thick and heavy, and I claw at my surroundings, trying to find the surface. I’m utterly terrified, my mind full of anacondas and crocodiles and whatever else this world can cook up that will eat us. I can’t breathe, either. I can’t find the surface, and I swivel helplessly in the murky depths, looking for light.
There’s a bright spot below me, and I realize I’m flipped upside down. I turn over in the water, then surge toward the light. I hit the surface and cough, gasping and choking as I suck in lungfuls of air. Confused, disoriented, I squint, wiping water from my eyes. My traveling robes are heavy and with water soaking them, I’m dangerously close to being pulled under again. It’s cold as hell, and my teeth chatter.
I don’t see anyone, though.”
“F-Faith?”
Behind me, I hear Yulenna’s voice. Oh. I turn around and there she is, clinging to the side of the capsized raft. I swim toward her, even as I hear Markos yell something and Solat responds. I move to the raft and hold onto it. “Where is everyone?”
She shivers and just huddles against the raft, not answering.