Page 37 of A Serpent in the Garden

As soon as the wood swallowed up all traces of Blathilde’s cottage, the fogs began to waft toward us, impish as ever, though they continued to ignore Serich as thoroughly as if he were but an impediment to drift around. It shifted uneasily as I let a misty ribbon of fog scale my arm and weave around it like an adder.

What? I said, at that nervous shuffle of claws. It’s not as if I have a choice if it wants to play with me. You never said it was dangerous.

It’s not dangerous. I’m suspicious anyway. I don’t like how it prefers you.

But fog couldn’t be dissuaded or swatted at so I let it have its fun until the temperature rose and it finally floated away, sucked back down into the earth.

How many centuries of trees and wooded dells did we move through, in a nimble careering weave, those first few hours? We met nothing but the occasional snapping violet that was too slow to nip at our quick heels. Moss and wet earth muffled our every step, our flesh pearled with sweat and mist, and though the alcerin didn’t like it, I eventually forced myself to stop in a small clearing, tugging on Serich’s sweat-soaked shirt to stop him, too.

Go slow with that, It cautioned when we drank from our waterskins, the alcerin itching to keep us moving. You need to avoid the water here, at least for a few more hours until you can get further south.

Why should the water be avoided?

Because something lives on it, It said, as though I’d asked something dense.

Lives ON it?

It moves from pond to puddle. It sleeps in daylight but it’ll wake if you get too close. Its water will blind you as soon as you swallow, and you’d never get your sight back. As long as you don’t disturb any of the water, you’ll be fine. Even if we’re right in front of it, even if it senses you and knows you’re there, it can’t touch you if you don’t touch the water.

I couldn’t help glancing around anxiously after that, looking out for the shimmer of liquid, though for all my effort, all I spied was crystalline beads of dew on leaves.

“It says the water here is dangerous,” I told Serich in a routine sort of way, trying not to sound frightened so my fear wouldn’t inflame his. “We’ll be fine so long as we take care not to disturb any of it.”

Through the undergrowth, I saw something twitch. Something that seemed made of shadow, there and gone in the time it took me to blink. My neck prickled. I took a step backward, right into a solid mass, and realized it was Serich’s torso when his hand found my waist to steady me.

“What is it?”

I felt the effects of the alcerin through the beat of his heart, wild and impetuous. “Did you see that?” I clapped a hand to my own frantic heart as if hoping to still it.

“No.”

The light plays with your eyes here, It said, though I heard a thread of unease in his voice. Keep moving.

So we gave the alcerin what it wanted and pressed on. The terrain grew thornier, tousled with vines and low-hanging branches, tree trunks wide as dinner tables, rotted logs we had to vault over, yet no more water than what clung to ragged blades of grass.

Serich grabbed my hand to help me stay upright as I dropped down the backside of a particularly massive fallen log, but he didn’t release it as we resumed hiking. The alcerin didn’t appreciate the lag in pace. I don’t think It did either, but he restricted himself to a cross little snort and kept his words to himself.

“I’m glad we didn’t have to stay in that cottage another night.” Serich squeezed my hand, our slick palms pressed together. “I was worried she’d grow too used to your skin and decide she’d like to keep it.”

I hadn’t mistrusted Blathilde. I wondered if that made me stupid or naïve or both, and I expected It to chime in with an answer as Serich and I climbed up and over another colossal fallen log, but he didn’t. All he said was, Has the alcerin made you blind? Watch out for that puddle, when my feet hit the earth.

I lurched back against the wet log like I’d been scalded. Serich and I were suddenly surrounded by tiny ponds of molten silver, still as glass, rimmed in earth and moss. They looked like starlight made liquid or melted-down diamonds, and offered no reflection as we skirted them. The hair on my arms bristled as I surveyed a metallic horizon glittering with water.

Just avoid them, It said in a monotonous lull that I supposed was intended to soothe me. Keep going, just avoid them.

We moved slower now, our pace more deliberate. I charted my course a few steps at a time and made a game of it, the way Livvy and I skirted the rain buckets clogging Lord Fletcher’s dim hallways. Just something we had to do to get where we were going. Did she miss me the way I missed her? I missed whispering to her in the dark of our bedroom when the howls kept us up at night; I missed how safe her hugs felt, how seen her unwavering gazes made me feel. I missed helping her with her hair in the mornings, listening to her invent stories for her little siblings. How she’d make me laugh with her impressions of Mary scolding us for something silly in the kitchens. I wanted to tell her how strange it was, having a man as a constant companion. How they smelled different, moved differently, how I sometimes felt Serich’s eyes like hands on my body. I wanted to make sure she and her family were okay, that they hadn’t been punished in my absence for the crime of sharing houseroom with me. I hoped she hadn’t tried to protect me at risk to herself. I hoped she knew how much I loved her because I had the horrible suspicion I hadn’t told her enough. I felt sick at the thought of never being able to tell her again.

And I said none of that aloud, but my mind wasn’t my own. It cleared his black throat and said I’m sure she’s fine. She’s done nothing wrong. And she knows you love her. You never made a secret of it.

Soon the puddles grew larger, burgeoning into impassive ponds.

I planted my steps more carefully, Serich a few paces behind me. Looked left, right. Listened to the wood, which gave up no sound. Kept my eyes on the best route around the maze of puddled water. Did it have its eyes on me, too? I was afraid of what might be beneath its enigmatic, nonreflective surface, though nothing could lurk within it; the depth was too shallow. There was no conceivable way…

There’s nothing in the water, It said. It’s just an obstacle to move around.

The distance between each pond shrank. In a few instances, it was no larger than the width of my foot. I stopped, when there was enough room to plant both my boots, to check Serich’s progress. His feet were much larger than mine; he was forced to take a shaky leap to avoid twin ponds set too closely together, and for one horrible moment, I thought the toe of his shoe had kissed the water. But then he landed beside me, the pond behind us serene as ever.

I grabbed the satchel slung across my back, twisting it around to dig through its pockets. The alcerin made us quick, not agile. Wulfsnare might lend dexterity to our feet.