Kobal
I leapt forward to grab River, but she was already gone. A snarl tore from me as my hands clenched empty air. Water surged through the gaping hole the demon had torn into the boat. They’d dared to touch her, dared to take her fromme, and they’d taken her into theAsharúnwith the wraiths and the tahanusis.
“Kobal!” Bale shouted as I turned and dove over the side of the boat.
The warm water of the Asharún enveloped me when I plunged beneath its surface. Kicking hard, I dove deeper as I searched for any sign of River, but I couldn’t see my hands before me.
The demons wouldn’t kill her—Lucifer wanted her alive—but they would take her to him. And what he would do to her…
No. It wouldnothappen. I’d get her back before they managed to take her from here. On my right, a spark burst through the darkness before going out. I swam toward the light. River had created that spark, but the water would extinguish her flames, and the wraiths would make it difficult, if not impossible, for her to draw on her ability to wield life.
A tahanusi, angered that others had entered its water, brushed against my chest. Its scales scouring my flesh drew blood. I was their king, but they tolerated only the wraiths in the water with them. It was the reason I’d believed traveling the Asharún would be safer.
I had underestimated Lucifer’s control over these lower-level demons, if he’d somehow convinced them to brave the wrath of the tahanusis to capture River. The demons must have been hiding and waiting to see if we would come this way and slipped into the water when they heard the approach of the boats.
Another thick-skinned body abraded my flesh, and a rattle sounded through the water. If the tahanusis planned to attack me, they would have by now, but king or not, they wanted me out of their water and they were letting me know it.
I wildly searched for any sign of River in the murky water of the damned. The demons would have brought her back to the surface by now to keep her from drowning. But then, lower-level demons weren’t known for their intelligence, and they wouldn’t require oxygen as often as she did. They may not realize she would need to breathe already.
With a fierce kick, I propelled myself back to the surface. Bursting free of the water, I inhaled deeply and treaded water as I spun in search of her. Our boat no longer skimmed across the surface, but hung heavy in the water as Carion steered it sluggishly toward the shore. Now that River wasn’t within it, the demons had ceased their attack on it.
From deep within the cavern, another rattle reverberated off the walls, but this time it was followed by a low wail that the tahanusis released as one. There would be no more warnings. The tahanusis would strike to kill now.
The hounds all whimpered and moved toward the end of their boat. “Partka,” I commanded them to stay. The tahanusis would cut them down without hesitation, and they could do nothing to help in the water.
“There, Kobal!” Corson shouted and pointed fifty feet away from me, toward the other side of the cavern.
Hawk made a move to jump into the water, but Magnus and Bale both jerked him back as River broke free of the water. She gasped for air before turning and swimming toward the boat. I swam as fast as I could to get to her. She only made it ten feet before something jerked on her body, pulling her under again.
Diving beneath once more, I swam for where I’d last seen her. A burst of orange came from twenty feet ahead of me, but River’s flames were extinguished by the water.
***
River
I kicked at the demon holding my ankle, but his grip didn’t ease. My hands clawed at the water in a vain attempt to stop my downward momentum. I had no idea how deep this river was, but it seemed endless as the dark, cold depths of the Asharún became all I knew. My entire life, I’d been drawn to water; now I was certain it would be the death of me as my lungs burned for air.
It took everything I had not to open my mouth and inhale greedily. Panic growing, fire burst from my fingers only to be extinguished immediately by the water surrounding me. I tried to draw on the flow of life around me. Even if this was a place for the dead, the tahanusis still lived and thrived in this environment. Instead of life, all I felt was the chill permeating further into my bones until ice encased the marrow of them.
The wraiths.Their presence may not have affected me much when I was on the boat, but being in the water with them was an entirely different story.
I kicked against the hold on my ankle again, but the weakness seeping into my limbs and my lack of oxygen made it increasingly difficult to fight off the demon. I’d always been a strong swimmer and able to hold my breath longer than most, but I was being pushed to my limits right now.
No!I will not die like this!
The adrenaline fueling me caused another burst of fire to erupt. I almost screamed when the flame briefly illuminated the round, eel-like mouth full of piranha teeth coming straight at me. The soulless green eyes of a tahanusi filled my vision before darkness descended around me once more.
My arms flailed in the water as I tried to swim backward to avoid the course I’d seen the sea monster taking. I kept waiting for that mouth to lock on me and gulp me into its body. I’d slide down that tube-like throat as smoothly as a raw oyster. I felt on the verge of hysteria when I realized it was oddly fitting that being consumed by a water creature would be my demise considering all the fish I’d eaten in my life.
I jerked when a scaly body slid down the front of me, scraping the flesh of my collarbone as the tahanusi dove deeper into the water. I had no idea why it hadn’t eaten me, what game it was playing. Perhaps they were like boa constrictors and it intended to squeeze the life out of me before making a snack of me. My already frantic heartbeat went into overdrive at the idea of the tahanusi preparing to wrap itself around me.
Stars danced before my eyes as lack of oxygen started to affect my brain. The ridged edges of the tahanusi’s rattle brushed against my face. After the roughness of its solid body, the softness of the rattle threw me completely.
Unable to stop it anymore, my lips instinctively parted for breath as the demon’s grip on my ankle released. Water rushed into my throat and poured into my lungs as I tried to close my mouth, but once I’d inhaled, I couldn’t stop. My body convulsed as water expanded my lungs. I struggled to get my wits together enough to swim. I thought my feet kicked toward the surface, but then I realized they were barely moving at all and I was sinking deeper.
Something solid slid between my legs. Before I had time to process what it was, it propelled me upward. Water flowed so fast around me that it stung my cheeks. My hands encircled my throat when another gulping breath of the Asharún filled my lungs. The stars vanished, blackness filled my vision, and I slumped weakly against the creature.
I knew I broke free of the Asharún only because I felt the rush of air against my cheeks, but I still couldn’t see anything. Water spewed from lips as I coughed it out of my brutalized lungs.
