darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,99

you do, but you’ll be miserable. And if you do fall in and can’t get back aboard on the quick, the hunters in the deep will take you. They love to come up to the surface when it gets nasty. Oh, and I wouldn’t run by daylight if I was you. These little beauties draw the wrong kinds of attention.”

“Not a problem we’ll have,” said Kelos.

“Somehow I didn’t think it would be. And now, if’n you don’t mind, I’m off to see a lady about replacing a couple of boats.”

“You won’t mention where these two went,” said Kelos, and it wasn’t anything even close to a question.

“She won’t ask and I won’t say. Building, buying, or using—these are the sort of fancies nobody talks about or admits to seeing. You’ve paid me more than fair instead of slitting my throat, which is what I feared you might do when first you showed up all dark and scary like there at the end of my little dock. As far as I’m concerned, you was never born and these here boats weren’t ever made. Good enough?”

“Good enough,” said Kelos, but as soon as the man was out of sight, he shook his head. “It would have been safer if you’d let me kill him.”

“I have no doubt of it,” I agreed. “That doesn’t change my mind. Let’s go.”

Our meager gear went into the cargo bins in practically no time at all with room to spare, and we’d launched within minutes of the smuggler’s departure. That first night we’d left Lake Evinduin behind quickly enough, but made slower work of moving downstream toward Leivas.

The boats took some getting used to, and we nearly capsized both of them more than once despite their relative stability. We’d also decided to put in well before dawn because we weren’t sure about how tough it would be to hide the boats. But they were easy to pull out of the water and stow under the whorled dark green tarps provided for the purpose.

The second night we’d gone farther and faster. By the time we reached Leivas and that sea full of stars late on the third night, we’d had plenty of practice at managing the runners, both in the water and ashore. Slipping quietly past the watch at Emain Tarn on the river’s mouth had been almost childishly easy—the Shades working together gave our little boats nearly as thorough a cover as they could give us individually.

Our plan for the lake was to hug the southern shore and put in each day a bit before dawn, but we wanted to start out by swinging wide to the north to avoid the most heavily populated section of the Varyan bank of the lake. That meant driving straight out from the river’s mouth initially.

Aral, Triss sent about a quarter of an hour after we left the river, I think you might want to look over at the other boat.

Why? I glanced to my right but didn’t see anything special.

It has two wakes.

What? I looked again, and this time I saw what Triss meant. In addition to the faint white line the keel of the little boat was drawing through the water, there was a thick silvery thread following along behind and beneath.

I noticed it because it changes the way the light comes off the water, and . . . Triss trailed off as the silver line suddenly vanished. I suspect that we are about to find out what is going on.

You are indeed, Dragonshadow. The mental voice was strong and sharp, like an axe blade, yet distinctly feminine. Kumi startled in the other boat when it began to speak, which made it clear that whoever was talking, she wanted all of us to hear her.

A moment later, an enormous whiskered head broke the surface silently between the two boats. I am Shallowshunter. Mudlight asked me to look after you while you travel across our waters.

I blinked a couple of times. Thank you, Shallowshunter. I had no idea that your people could speak lake to lake, or that Mudlight even knew we were coming this way.

Shallowshunter flicked the short barbels on her upper lip and sent a little mental chuckle our way. Lake to lake would be a long reach indeed, but an unnecessary one. Mudlight swam beneath you on the water-road as you traveled from his lake to ours. He sent for me as you neared our waters, and only turned back for home once I had arrived to