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My heart rate picked up. Had I made it to the center already? That seemed too easy. And how could others have died when no one could see them clearly?
Stomach fluttering, I pushed forward, and some of my sight came back to me. After fifty more crawling steps, the fog thinned and revealed a blurry person standing before me.
I stood up, shaking, and took a huge gulp of hot, dry air while leaning the sword against my legs. I rubbed my eyes. If this person was a threat, I had to defend myself, but I needed to see to fight them.
“Princess Alina, please help me,” Moire begged.
When I opened my eyes, my vision cleared, and my throat ached.
The person was Moire, and even though she was standing, the ground appeared to be swallowing her. She was hip-deep and sinking fast. If I didn’t help her, she’d be gone.
Chapter Twenty-One
Ididn’t have any time to think. Moire gritted her teeth, crying as she struggled to get free of what appeared to be quicksand.
“Stop fighting,” I said urgently, which only caused her to shriek and yank harder. I sheathed my sword, readying to help her.
She sank deeper, the sand at her waist.
Stan had warned me about the perilous situations he’d been in; he’d had to exude calm when he didn’t feel it because he was the commanding officer. I’d never imagined that his war stories would become as relevant as they had since I’d arrived in Talamh.
Taking a deep breath, I hurried to the edge of where the dirt gave way between two willowy trees. The pathway’s edges were fine, but not in the center where most of us would travel. She must have gotten stuck and tried to turn around to head back in this direction.
Still, she was about five feet away from me, and I couldn’t reach her without falling in myself. I inhaled and forced my voice to come out measured. “Moire, if this is anything like quicksand back home, fighting it and trying to get out will only make you sink faster.”
“What?” She froze. “This is gainmheach luath? I’d only heard about it in nighttime terrors from when the ponds formed a long time ago. The sand that eats you whole.” She jerked harder, trying to free herself.
I wasn’t sure if it was true here, but I could speak to how it worked on Earth. “In my world, it’s not the sand eating you. It’s sand that gets disrupted somehow and mixes with air and water. My mentor, Stan, used to tell me stories about his time in war, and one of them involved quicksand.” I racked my brain to remember everything he’s said. At the time, I’d only halfway listened, thinking this information would never be helpful.
Her bottom lip quivered. “It doesn’t eat you there?”
For someone her age, she reminded me of a young girl. “It doesn’t, so maybe it’s the same here. If you don’t know how to get out of it, it does look like it’s eating you.” I could only hope that some of the rules applied here. “The number one rule is to stop fighting it. It causes you to sink faster.”
“I’m supposed to stand here and let it take me under?” Moire’s mouth dropped. “And here I thought you were going to save me, not let me drown or be eaten.”
That was like a punch in the gut, but I held in the pain. She was scared, and her fear was talking.
“I am trying to save you, Moire,” I said clearly, wanting her to hear I wasn’t lying. “From the gainmheach luath,” I added, attempting to make it clear that I was being specific so she didn’t think I was twisting my words. Not fighting against being pulled downward didn’t make sense, but that was what it took … at least on Earth. I was putting a whole lot of hope that things here worked the same way, but even with two moons and magic, there was a similarity to gravity, the seasons, and daylight and darkness—the fundamentals.
She chewed on her bottom lip before huffing. “Fine, but I don’t see how that’s going to get me out of here.”
That was the catch. If she was having a hard time staying still, she wouldn’t like what I suggested next. “Have you ever swum in water?” I tried not to flinch, but hell, I didn’t know how things worked here.
“What?” She stared at me as if I had two heads. “Of course. I’ve swum in the ponds and under the waterfalls.”
Waterfalls? That sounded badass. I wanted to see them. I could only imagine how beautiful they were here.
My heart dropped. I wouldn’t make it out of this trial alive whether I died by the screaming things or at the hands of Curry and his minions. For now, I needed to focus on helping Moire while I could. I was certain Curry and the others would soon be behind us. “When I was younger, I liked to lean back and float. That’s what I need you to do.”
“But I can’t use my wings.” She shook her head. “I’ll be eliminated.”
Technically, the High Council said no flying, but I didn’t want to argue semantics. “Take a deep breath and lean back. You don’t need your wings to float. Humans do it all the time.”
Her mouth dropped. “They do?”
“Don’t the non–High Fae swim here?” They’d have to float using the same methods.
Moire pursed her lips. “I … I’ve never seen them swim before, so I’m not sure.”
