darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,91

the floor of the lake, but you must eat them quickly or lose the best meat—the currents scrub the flesh from their bones if they’re exposed to it for long.

You eat them? I was appalled. Doesn’t that make you ill?

Our kind began as bottom-feeders. We have grown much since those days, and we have learned to hunt for fresher prey, but the old ways are good, too. Horrible your risen are and steeped in evil, but delicious as well. The magic in them makes a fine sauce to go with well-aged flesh for such as we. But, come, we have stopped here too long already. I was supposed to see to it that you arrive at the gullet first. I must make haste if I am not to fail in my charge.

I thought that we had been traveling fast before, but now . . . The enormous eel-like fish tucked me in tight against its side and flew through water like a stooping gryphon. In a matter of minutes he had brought me around to the far side of the island and down almost to the bottom of the lake. There, he aimed directly for a jagged rock ledge without slowing.

For a brief moment I thought we would collide with it to our ruin. But then, what had looked like a band of dark rock turned out to be a deeply shaded and overhung rift in the stone. Before I had time for more than the briefest flash of panic, we were through and into a column of incredibly clear water with bright stars shining down from somewhere above.

Where are we? I asked.

My initial thought was that it reminded me of the sacred pool, but we were about halfway around the island from where it ought to be, if I’d kept anything of my bearings. More importantly, there was something decidedly wrong with the sky, though at first I couldn’t think of what. It was only as we climbed higher in the water column that I realized the moon had vanished and taken all the familiar constellations with it. I repeated my question about our whereabouts, as Mudlight hadn’t yet answered.

This is Namara’s hallow, her abode in the mortal world.

What’s wrong with the sky? asked Triss, his mental voice querulous. Those aren’t the stars as I know them. They are too dim, and some of them move. . . .

They what? As we got closer, I could see that he was right. Some of what I had taken to be stars were moving slowly and seemingly randomly across the dome of the . . . heavens? Sky? The color of the “stars” was wrong, too, a green-tinged blue that exhibited none of the variation I was used to seeing above me. I don’t understand.

They are no stars, sent Mudlight. Nor is that the sky. The goddess did not wish to be observed here. Neither by mortal eyes or divine, or so our ancient legends tell us. She made this cave under the heart of her island and she hallowed it and sealed it against all scrying and prying. But she missed the stars, for she was a goddess who loved the night.

So, he continued, she made her own stars from what she had to hand—tiny worms that hunt in the dark. She gave them light to comfort her, but she was a wise goddess and made sure that it would serve them as well, by drawing the gnats and flies that are their prey.

I felt a stirring then in the waters beneath us. But when I looked down, I could see nothing but blackness. Even my night-trained vision couldn’t penetrate the darkness below without more light than worms could provide.

Tailnipper has joined us, sent Mudlight. He brings Mythkiller, and Deepdiver comes behind bearing Ghostwind. I will take you to the surface and then get out of the way. This well can only hold a few of our kind, and there will be much coming and going as we deliver your young. Call for me if you need me anywhere within the bounds of our realm. I will come as quick as I can.

Mudlight’s head broke the surface as he finished sending that last, and he deftly swung me over to the shore. I have made the transition from water-breathing to air-breathing a dozen or more times, and it is never a graceful one. I spent the next several seconds coughing water out of my lungs. By the time I was