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  I waited for him to catch up and turned to the side. “I wasn’t going to keep all that dough anyway. You know me. Again, look at my track record with money. You’ve seen my house, my clothes.”

  “Fair point. They do make this stuff called hair gel. You dress like a hobo too. Sorry, that’s rude to hobos,” Felix added with an awkward laugh.

  I’d quelled a potentially dangerous situation, but Burn’s big mouth had nearly gotten me into a world of trouble. The Sphinx’s quotes rang even truer right now. Quoth the Sphinx evermore.

  I riffled through my pocket and rubbed the lake crossing coin between my fingers. I knew keeping secrets hidden would be hard spending every second of the day together. Now I worried what other cans of worms would be opened on this trip. We hit the outskirts of the city and forged ahead, closing in on our next destination.

  Chapter 20

  Standing on the muddy bank of Lake Geopold, I couldn’t find a cloud in the sky. I took my hand visor down from shielding my eyes and said, “What do you mean, the weather isn’t right for us to get across the lake?”

  The stoic ferryman chewed on two blades of long grass and stared out over the rippling sapphire water, seemingly ignoring me. The hoary man was attired in dirty white robes, belted with a leather strap holding a fish scaling knife and black hip boots. His wrinkled bald head gleamed with sweat and he stared at me with icy blue and wide-open eyes. He looked like a lot of iterations I’d seen of Hades, the Greek God of the Underworld.

  It matched up with the dark vibe I was getting from him. I worried not. He wasn’t emitting any magical vines. We just needed him to get his ass off his shoulders and get us across the Lake.

  He took the green grass out of his mouth, spat and finally answered, “It’s going to storm. We go tomorrow.”

  Alayna adjusted her leather mask and said, “We’ll take our chances with the weather.”

  “Lemme see the coin.” The captain stood with his foot resting on what amounted to a large pirogue. Limber old man. The boat had no outboard motor. Only two oars were propped up against the side of the flat-bottomed vessel.

  I fished in my tight pocket for the coin as I sized up the captain. I had put the coin inside my space age suit yesterday so it wouldn’t rattle around. The short man reached out with his long arm and opened his wrinkled hand.

  I placed the silver coin in his palm. The ferryman shifted it up to his finger and thumb and held it up to the sun, squinting all the while. “This isn’t real.” He spat into the water, causing a ripple on the slow moving incoming wave.

  I growled, “The hell it isn’t. I solved the Sphinx’s riddle to get that. We can walk back and see her if you would like her to authenticate it.” I gestured with my thumb in the direction of Knelly Knell.

  The man appeared to consider my words carefully, the wrinkles on his face and bald head contorting in heavy thought. Either that or he was falling asleep because I could only see a sliver of icy blues and black pupils between his heavy eyelids. He checked out the coin a few more times before shoving it into his robes and pulling out an empty hand. He remained maddeningly silent.

  Felix stopped biting his nails, and said meekly, “It isn’t fake if you just accepted it. Right?”

  The man scanned the group a couple of times until his eyes landed on Alayna. “We leave tomorrow.” He turned and walked away.

  “Where are you going?” Burn asked, exasperated, as she paced along the shore after him. “You can’t just take the coin and leave,” she added, throwing her hands up.

  “Is this your lake?” The captain spun around with an even crazier look in his once-again wide-open eyes. “Can you control the beasts within? The beasts around?” He pointed to the sky. “I said it was going to storm because it’s going to storm. Staring up at the sky until your eyes fall out doesn’t change the fact that a storm’s on the way.”

  Burn argued, her cheeks turning red, “We said we were willing to risk it.”

  The pale ferryman concluded, “Well, I’m not. I can’t lose my boat.”

  I checked out the tiny vessel that honestly didn’t look very sturdy or worth much of anything. Was he really worried about losing this poorly crafted pile of wood? I surmised the ferryman was trying to shake us down for some more gold. Wasn’t happening, old man.

  We followed the ferryman as he walked back and forth along the banks for approximately twenty minutes, but he remained resolute in his stance.

  After a barrage of pestering from Alayna and Burn, the old man finally snapped, “I will take you. Just stop.” He made eye contact with each of us before continuing, “Know this, if we run into foul weather, I will be safe. None of you will live. You’ve been duly warned. Do you wish to take the last ride of your life?”

  “We sure do,” I confirmed for the entire group, hoping I hadn’t just signed our collective death certificate.

  Our intrepid squad climbed carefully into the small boat. We tried to keep the weight evenly distributed until the captain hopped in like a cannonball. The boat rocked from side to side and I grabbed Burn before she fell in. The pirogue slowly steadied itself out.

  The captain made eye contact with Felix and me and gestured to the two paddles. Some captain.

  We positioned ourselves evenly with Felix in the front and me toward the rear on the opposite side. A few clouds floated in and blotted out the sun momentarily, but they weren’t gray or worrisome.

  My arms began to burn as the shore disappeared and I peered out over the open aquamarine waters.

  After at least another hour, I closed my eyes, attempting to send my mind to an exotic destination. It seemed like hours had passed, but I had no way of officially tracking time. Butterflies fluttered throughout my midsection as I opened my eyes.

  Gray clouds dominated the sky and the uneasy calm before a storm set in. On the horizon, I saw the shore so we just needed to hang on for another ten or fifteen minutes.

  Horrible shrieking sounds cut through the still air causing the hair on my nape to stand at attention. Ignoring my numb arms and better judgment, I kept paddling and raised my head. A group of harpies flew in a circle about thirty feet above us.

  The harpies had hideous female faces with nasty, knotted black hair and oxblood eyes. The aerial supernaturals made Medusa look like a supermodel. The cross-breeds had the body of an enormous golden eagle with tawny feathered wings that were flapping ferociously.

  They started singing in a language unbeknownst to me. Thunder boomed and the harpies cackled like evil witches as if they had caused it. Lightning pulsed through the dark clouds and water began dropping in buckets. Felix and I paddled for all we were worth, but the choppy waters soon seized control of the boat.

  We were at the mercy of the lake and the weather, which didn’t bode well. I caught movement out of my peripheral vision and noticed a bunch of dark heads bobbing up out of the water. They appeared to be seals with long tusks until I got a closer look. Bunyips.

  Bunyips were marsupial creatures with a tail reminiscent of a horse, flippers tipped with deadly claws and curved tusks that they used for goring victims.

  As my fellow travelers scoped out the ominous scene, I studied their faces. Fear was prevalent among all three, but Felix appeared the most terrified, crunching away at his nails. Alayna seemed to be the calmest, leaning over the edge of the boat and peering down into the water.

  The faerie let out a soft musical note that intensified as it traveled toward the water. The liquid rippled around the area where her voice had hit. I expected something amazing to happen but nothing materialized. Alayna’s ringing melody faded as the increased screeching of the harpies seemed to swallow it up.

  “Holy shit,” Felix cried out in panic, “A fucking kongamato. Is this really happening?”

  I looked up again, just in time to see the final swoop of an incoming kongamato. The pterosaur creature that looked like a giant bat had to be the size of an adult elephant. An enormous orange bill and predatory eyes closed in on us
. I braced for impact as I looked into the red eyes of the incoming beast.

  Kongamato literally translated to breaker of boats and this animal did not disappoint. It crashed its rock-hard bill into the side of our vessel. Wood splintered and flew into the water as the boat began to fill up. Another kongamato swooped down and I instinctually covered my head.

  I felt the intense wind coming from the animal’s beating wings. Just enough bravery crept back into my body to permit me to peer up. The winged creature was hovering above us and had hooked the ferryman’s robes with its claws. The kongamato lifted the old man out of the boat and started carrying him away.

  The captain made eye contact with me as the kongamato lifted him higher in the air. He smirked and mockingly waved goodbye. I was tempted to conjure some magic to knock him out of the air, but I had more pressing issues.

  The boat had been rendered useless at this point and rising water now crept up my calves.

  Alayna shouted, “We need to jump in and swim for shore. It’s that way.” She pointed toward land and then at Felix and me as she continued, “You two are going to have to ditch those track suits and anything that might weigh you down.”

  I ripped off the loose apparel, pulling items from the pockets and stuffing them into my skin-tight rune symbol suit, which was a difficult task to say the least. I jammed all my flasks in, causing a lumpy appearance. Felix handed Alayna a couple of pill jars of food and water.

  A terrible thought hit me and I turned to Burn. “Do you know how to swim?”

  Panic clung to Burn’s facial features and her teeth chattered as she spoke, “We’re about to find out, right?” She tried to smile, but the corners of her mouth rebelled at the last instance and her lips trembled.

  Oh no. She’d never been swimming before. It was too late for lessons as the water rose up to my knees and the boat was completely submerged.

  I grabbed Burn’s hand, trying to keep her close to me as we moved away from the boat. Everything seemed okay until something tugged at my leg and pulled me under.

  Chapter 21

  I held my breath and tried to shake loose from the grip on my right foot. I somehow wiggled free and fought to get back to the top before I sucked in some water. Was that a bunyip?

  I broke through the surface and greedily sucked in some air. The sideways spray of huge raindrops pelted my face. The dark skies and strange creatures made it impossible for me to know if I was heading in the right direction. Visibility had been obscured so much that I couldn’t find the shore anymore.

  I’d been separated from the rest of the group. The rough swirling waters made swimming difficult so I fought through it with my patented frog stroke. It was a slight variation of the breast stroke. My arms were completely numb by this point so I had to really concentrate to make sure they were paddling correctly.

  I had no idea if I was headed for the safety of land or wading farther out into the aquatic mayhem. I just paddled for all I was worth and stayed above the surface.

  Something that felt like a suction cup attached itself to my calf and dragged me under. I reached down and tried to pry it loose, but the sea creature wouldn’t let go. Without warning, my body thrashed around and the tight grip finally relinquished.

  A group of tiny hands pushed me toward the surface as I sucked in some of the salty water. I broke through, spat out the nasty liquid and pulled some sweet air into my burning lungs. As my vision came into focus, three nixies surrounded me in the tempestuous waters.

  The nixies looked like dwarf mermaids, but I couldn’t see much because they were mostly under water. Two were pale and the third had rich ebony skin. They helped me onto my back and two of them hooked their arms under mine.

  The nixies began to kick with their tails and I noticed their tails were more like a dolphin’s than a scaled fish’s. Despite their Lilliputian size, we powered through the fierce waves without much trouble. My back ran into something solid and I panicked.

  The nixies let go of me and I flipped over, ready to face the enormous beast that I was now lying on. I quickly realized that we had hit land and relief rushed through me. I crawled out of the water and onto moist land, trying to calm my heart palpitations.

  Staggering back to my feet, I tried to locate my friends. Alayna was about twenty feet away, casually draining water from her ears. I turned back to the water and two nixies were guiding Felix out of the water. So Alayna had been signaling to her fellow water spirits earlier with her sweet melody. I knew it.

  I spun around several times. Where was Burn?

  A desperate scream pierced my eardrums. It was Burn. Looking out over the angry lake, I couldn’t find her anywhere. The sounds of the crashing waves and rain distorted her voice, making it seem like finding a needle in a haystack.

  I yelled to Alayna, “Why aren’t the nixies helping her?”

  The faerie responded, “Because she is a...” She stopped short of blurting out the word demon.

  Screw this. I ran into the water and screamed, “Burn. Burn. Where are you?”

  “Over here.” Her words seemed to warp as they traveled over the waves and I still couldn’t locate her.

  The water crashed into my thighs and I finally caught a vision of her fiery hair. I jumped in and recklessly braved the raging waters again. Using a more compact frog stroke, I motored through the oncoming waves to get out to open water.

  Thankfully, I noticed the kongamato and harpies were gone. Not being able to see under water, I could only hope that the bunyips wouldn’t come back.

  I made it to about twenty feet from Burn when an enormous breaker crashed into her, burying her beneath the blue water. Treading the choppy lake, I searched for her head to bob back over the surface, but nothing appeared. Where were those lovely red locks?

  The reason I’d jumped in without thinking was because I knew Burn would risk her life for me. We’d met less than a week ago, but the magic game precipitates strange bedfellows. Literally and figuratively. The high stakes game of life and death revealed true character too, and hers was as pure as twenty-four karat gold.

  Kicking up over the surface, I angled my body and dove into the treacherous aqua abyss. Visibility was terrible due to a high salinity content. I used my hands to fish around in a giant body of water, searching for a one-hundred-and-ten-pound girl.

  My head banged into something hard and a vision of red appeared in front of me. Burn. I hooked my arms around her lifeless body and kicked for the surface. My entire body was numb and on fire at the same time, but I wasn’t giving up.

  Just as my lungs felt like they were going to say fuck this and give up, we broke through the waves. I breathed in some air and checked out Burn. She was unconscious. The wave had knocked her out or she’d drank too much lake water. My heart raced in terror as I positioned myself behind her.

  Keeping Burn’s head above the water, I gave her the Heimlich maneuver. The thrashing waves didn’t make it easy to perform this act. I kept trying, assuming she had swallowed too much water. We floated up to the crest of a wave and I pulled back my fists quickly.

  Burn choked and puked up a whole mess of the nasty salt water. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. She was breathing again and opened her eyes.

  “Holy shit. I thought we lost you.” My chest heaved in relief.

  I took a few moments helping her stay afloat, waiting for her to regain her faculties. “Get onto your back and I will hook your arm. We can fight through the waves much easier like this.”

  We got into position and headed for the shore of the lake. We struggled mightily at first and I feared we hadn’t made much progress. Just as I was ready to give up, the big land monster attacked me again. Burn and I crawled out of the waves and collapsed on firm land.

  As I rolled around swearing to my lungs that I would never abuse them like that again, I noticed that Felix was limping on his left leg.

  I checked myself out. Other than pure unadulterated exhaustion, I presumed I was no worse
for wear.

  Alayna rushed over to Burn and me. The faerie said, “Are you crazy? I can’t believe you jumped back in there.”

  I lay on my back and looked up at the cloudless sky. Son of a bitch. The raging storm had cleared out within a minute. “I had to jump in or Burn would have drowned. Since your friends wouldn’t help her out.”

  She glanced around and spoke softly, “I explained why they wouldn’t help.”

  “What about me?” I wondered aloud. “They helped me, no problem. If I’m related to Merlin...I mean didn’t he have some of that blood in him too?” I beat around the bush even though nobody was in the vicinity.

  Alayna sat down next to me and whispered, “That is so far down the line it is probably imperceptible by now. Her blood is a lot stronger in that regard.”

  Felix hobbled over, forcing me to stop thinking about the nixies. The mage winced, and said, “Guys, I’m fucked up. I jacked up my knee pretty bad. I’m not sure I can go on like this.” He collapsed faced down next to Burn, who put her hand on his back to presumably comfort the injured young man.

  I wanted to tell him to suck it up. Instead, I went with firm compassion, or as much as I was going to give him. “Let’s settle down for a few moments and then take stock of how we are feeling. After that craziness, it’s a little too soon to be proclaiming injuries.”

  We recovered in mostly silence other than buzzing insects, which worried me because a vast forest was only thirty yards away. I wondered if a group in the shadows was plotting our deaths.

  One sound kept making me jump in reaction. Felix constantly biting his nails. I had a hunch that he wasn’t really injured. He was scared. I didn’t judge him for it. This was a nasty place. Although if he ditched out on us now, it could certainly hamper our safety in the wild.

  As we recovered on the muddy banks of Lake Geopold, I heard heavy breathing. It wasn’t coming from any of my friends. Was it coming from underground?