Page 147 of Wind Rider

Mariah’s piercing yelp of agony exploded across the lake.

“Nik! Help!” Mari shouted at the same moment Cammy began barking ferociously. The little Terrier leaped up and ran the length of the arm of the ballast. Still barking and snarling, he launched himself from the boat, hurling himself at the tentacle. Catching it in his jaws, he shook his head mightily, severing the thick, snakelike thing as easily as he could break a rabbit’s back, forcing the Mouth to release Mariah’s tail.

“Cammy! Get back to the boat!” Davis screamed.

“Keep paddling! I’ve got this!” Nik yelled.

But Nik didn’t have it. He couldn’t. Cammy still had the tentacle in his mouth and he was half swimming, half standing on top of the huge fish’s head.

“Cammy! Move! I can’t get a shot with you there!”

The brave Terrier instantly let loose the tentacle and jumped from the fish’s back to paddle to the boat, but the Mouth was now focused on him—and two uninjured tentacles slithered around Cammy’s rear legs, pulling him back toward the ravenous maw that opened like a cave just under the surface.

“Cammy!” Davis cried, dropping his paddle and leaning out of the boat, trying to grab the little Terrier. But he wasn’t close enough. He’d never reach his Companion in time.

With a ferocious growl, Rigel leaped from his ballast and began swimming for the Mouth. From the ballast on the other side of their boat, Laru stood, barking frantically as their canoe dipped and tilted, trying to find its balance.

“Nik!” Mari shrieked.

“Laru, do not get in that water—you can’t help! Rigel, get back! I can’t get a clear shot!”

When tentacles wrapped around Rigel’s neck, Mari didn’t stop to think—she acted. She stood, gathering sunfire to herself, and lifted herhand to throw it like a ball at the fish—but Rigel was now at the Mouth’s head, joining Cammy, who was being pulled into the beast’s enormous, hook-toothed maw.

“No, you cannot have my Rigel or Cammyman!” Mari shouted as she grabbed a flint-tipped arrow from Nik’s stash and then, moving swiftly, crawled on her hands and knees out on the ballast arm until the Mouth was directly below her.

“Mari! What are you—”

Mari let loose of the ballast arm, dropping to land on top of the gigantic fish. She straddled it like it was a slippery log. The fish bucked and began sinking, pulling Cammy and Rigel under with it. Like it was a spear, Mari raised the arrow and then with all of her strength plunged it down into the water and began stabbing the beast directly in its saucer-like black eye, over and over again.

The creature bucked and writhed in pain as the water was filled with blood and gore. It knocked Mari off its back at the same time it released Cammy and Rigel.

“Move! Move!” Nik shouted.

Mari, thanking the Goddess that they’d all practiced swimming, stroked quickly to the boat, with Rigel and Cammy beside her.

“Monkeys coming with more Mouths!” Davis yelled, pointing.

“Get in the boat! Get in the boat!” Claudia screamed.

Mari gripped the side of her boat. “Dove! Lean to your left!”

Dove did so, and Mari was able to pull against the boat and lift first herself in, and then she helped Rigel scramble aboard before reaching down and hefting a soggy, bleeding Cammyman into the boat as well.

“Rigel! Are you hurt?” Mari yelled at her Shepherd as she grabbed the paddle and rushed to her seat while the boat tilted and tipped precariously.

Rigel’s answer was to lick her face in reassurance.

Mari kissed his nose and then told him, “Get back on your ballast before we capsize!” Rigel barked and then raced back along the ballast arm, and the little boat righted itself.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!Nik’s arrows sang as they picked off twoMonkeys and one more big-eyed Mouth whose tentacles were reaching for Mariah again.

The water frothed scarlet, drawing every Mouth and Monkey nearby.

“We need to get out of here!” Mari shouted.

While the Mouths and Monkeys devoured their own, Nik took the paddle from Dove and Davis sat as well, taking over for a sweating Rose.

“Stroke! Stroke! Stroke!” Mari called cadence, and the two boats shot forward together, catching the rest of the Pack.