“Shoot him again,” Nessie ordered.“And grab the woman before she escapes.”
Davina had wisely chosen to run.Alas, she didn’t make it far.Red Caps emerged from the mist to trap her while others fired more darts into me.
The numbness of my muscles meant I could do nothing as a pair of kelpies emerged from the water, their weedy manes streaming water, their webbed hooves clomping ashore.A Red Cap vaulted onto the back of one of the water horses, leaving room for Davina to be tossed over the back.Nessie’s minion twined one fist in the brackish mane while the other held Davina in place.Off they galloped, hooves splashing as they entered the loch and, in a few strides, submerged.
I was helpless to stop it.I couldn’t even save myself from being slung over the back of a second kelpie, and only barely managed to close my eyes and mouth before water covered my head.
ChapterFifteen
The definition of terrified?Being dragged underwater by a mythical kelpie because of a trap Nessie set to catch Alistair.Turned out, this entire time, I’d just been bait.
Unexpected.Scary.Deadly, because what if Nessie realized Alistair couldn’t care less what happened to me?He’d said dragons had no emotions.I didn’t entirely believe that, but Alistair seemed convinced, and quite honestly, if it came to my life versus him doing something unpalatable, I didn’t see myself faring well.
To think I’d been so excited to meet Nessie.I should have heeded the warnings by Alistair and Oliver.In my defense, I’d grown up on her legends.Stories that painted her as a gentle giant.The reality?She was a cold-blooded reptile who shouted in my head the moment she fully appeared, “Be quiet, human.”
I had no choice.Unlike with Alistair, I couldn’t seem to ignore the command.All I could do was watch, listen, and come to the realization I should have never come to Loch Ness.
Forget an obituary mentioning my stupidity because no one would even know I’d died.My body would likely never be recovered.Eventually, the university would notice I’d disappeared, my few friends and colleagues as well, but no one would look very hard.No one would care for more than a few minutes.How depressing.
Too depressing.
I couldn’t give up.Not yet.While I lived, there had to be a way out of this mess.And what of Alistair?Sure, he’d been drugged, but he was a mighty dragon.If anyone could get us out of this mess alive, it would be him.
My flitting thoughts kept me distracted as the kelpie upon which I’d been slung like a sack of potatoes plunged into the loch, going down, down, down, where even the scant daylight didn’t penetrate.Somehow, I didn’t drown.A bubble of some sort encased my body, allowing me to breathe, but it did nothing to help with my hyperventilating terror or stop the penetrating chill.A good thing I wore layers.
As we descended, my ears popped from the pressure, unpleasant and a reminder that I wouldn’t be able to swim myself to safety.Not only did I lack scuba equipment, Loch Ness, with a depth of over two hundred meters, would require a slow ascent and decompression.
Would this be where my writing journey, my adventure, my dreams, and my life ended?At least my last moments would be interesting, but I feared they would end up painful, too.
My first hint we’d arrived at our destination?An approaching glow.The kelpie aimed for the beacon of light and charged through a membrane.
Pop.
The water horse penetrated a barrier, and immediately the invisible cocoon encasing me disappeared and warm air rushed in.Before I had a chance to get my bearings, the Red Cap that held me in place during the journey pushed me off the kelpie’s back, dumping me on the floor of a rocky-walled chamber.
Thudand ouch.That would leave a bruise.The pain at least reminded that I lived.
I’d landed on stone, smoothed and clean but for a few damp spots likely caused by our entry into the room that appeared to be some kind of loading dock.As I braced my hands on the floor and pushed myself into a sitting position, I noticed empty wooden skids stacked against a stone wall.A few crates were neatly piled atop a dolly.I noticed a boat slip, or so I assumed given the hitches used for tethering water-faring vessels.
The illumination for the space came from suspended round globes emitting a soft white light.No wires appeared to connect them, and I didn’t detect the hum of electricity, either.Maybe the spheres held some kind of gas?Or, given what I’d experienced these past few days, it could even be magic.
Pop.The odd noise turned my head in time to see the hooves of a second kelpie striking the floor as it shoved past the barrier holding back the water.A membrane that I didn’t understand and hoped held, otherwise I’d be drowning.That fear, however, didn’t get a chance to take root, as I saw who the water horse held.
I scrambled to my feet, yelling, “Alistair!”
He didn’t reply.Given his closed eyes and the fact tufted darts peppered his body, I assumed—and really hoped—he simply slept.The Red Cap holding Alistair in place didn’t rudely fling him to the floor but rather handed him off to a pair of blue-skinned men with green-hued beards and gray faces.
It hit me then.I beheld the Blue Men of the Minch, another legend that many called storm kelpies.It was said they could create storms strong enough to sink ships.Apparently, they also obeyed Nessie.Coerced, I assumed like the Red Caps because I didn’t see all these mythical creatures A) getting along and B) obeying without some kind of threat or, in Nessie’s case, mental manipulation.
As if thinking of the dragon conjured it, Nessie’s head popped through the barrier, her cranium extending far into the room on that long neck.I found my gaze caught by a chain around her neck, the links finely wrought despite their size and seemingly made of gold.The pendant hanging on it seemed to be made of thin mesh wrapped around a white rock.Not the nicest piece of jewelry I’d ever seen.
The water dragon snarled, “What are you waiting for?Get Shamash inside the cage.Those drugs could wear off any moment.”
I should be so lucky.It hit me that she’d called Alistair by another name.Shamash.Likely his original appellation before he chose to live among the humans.
“Aye, mistress,” grunted the blue minion who had Alistair slung over his shoulder.
“Bring the woman to my throne room as well.Put her on the leash.”
