they were almost falling, straight toward the water in front of the demon, and then a hard wind caught their backs and shoved them forward, forward, until they bounced into one of the eyes and began sliding down its slippery surface.
“Hold tight!” Aerax shouted, still gripping the sail and using it like a rope between them to drag Lizzan back up to his side. “This eye?”
“Might as well try!” She drew a sword, the blade already streaked with the blood of a Kothan who’d volunteered theirs, and stabbed downward.
Fetid fumes poured out. A shudder ran through the demon that jiggled like custard through the eye, so that Lizzan had to cling to Aerax again for balance.
“It hurt it!” she cried happily—then screamed as their orientation abruptly changed, rising sharply as the demon stood up.
As if it had been crawling on its belly before. Sword buried deep in the jelly of the eye, Lizzan clung to the handle—and with her other hand desperately gripped the sail as Aerax slid down, his boots slipping on the smooth rounded surface that had seemed once at the top of the demon’s head but was now at the back, and suddenly there was no eye beneath him and he dangled from the sail over the churning lake below.
“Climb up!” she shouted, then shook her head wildly when she saw his gaze go to her sword, which was slowly slicing through the jelly of the eye, drawn down by the weight upon it. “Climb up!”
He met her eyes. “I will come for you.”
“Aerax!” she screamed as he let go, dropping straight down. With sobs catching at her throat, she watched him plunge into the water, then didn’t breathe again until he surfaced, striking hard away from the demon, and a relieved laugh broke through the terror.
She’d always loved how well he could swim.
Gritting her teeth, she pulled herself up, using her second sword to stab deep and climb even higher. Two swords she had, and a spear at her back—the axe had fallen with Aerax. Each stab only pierced jelly, yet as she neared the reddened pupil, a pulsating mass she could see below it.
Gagging against the stench that poured out, she pierced the pupil and then sheathed the sword, reaching for her spear.
That she shoved deep, and a horrid screech ripped open the air. Faster the demon seemed to move through the lake, though she was so close to it no true view did she have of anything else—only the impression of too many arms and too many legs. With her foot, she rammed the spear deeper and cried out in horror as a mass of red worms sprouted through the bottom of the eye from the pulsating mass below. Like vines, they wrapped around her leg, tiny teeth trying to bite but skating across her charmed skin. Again she slammed her heel into the butt of the spear, hammering it in like a nail.
All went still and quiet. Then there was the sensation of falling forward, cushioned by the jelly in the eye, but still the demon’s impact against the surface of the lake bounced her around, tearing her sword from her grip. Desperately she began to claw her way up as the water surrounded her, pulling against the worms that still wrapped from her ankle to her knee.
She gulped air as the sinking demon dragged her under, and then she curled downward, ripping at the worms with her fingers. So many there were, and her lungs were burning and heaving as she fought not to take panicked breaths.
So many worms.
Spots flared in front of her eyes. Her chest ached so badly, but Aerax would come for her. He’d come for her. She coughed and panic took her for an endless thrashing moment, choking on water, desperately fighting to reach the surface. Then no more did it hurt and she went still, marveling that the ache was gone from her chest, entranced by the pale streaming of sunlight through the clear water.
And there was Aerax, diving for her. Coming as he’d promised. Swimming closer, and a scream boiled through his clenched teeth as his gaze met her eyes. She tried to shake her head, to let him know that all was fine, but she could not move at all. Still trapped by the worms.
His warm hands caught her cheeks, his face utterly stricken, his kiss broken by another deep scream in his throat. Then he dove deeper, and she felt the tug and slash