The branches of the willow tree exploded outward, and Snow screamed. Talia threw her knife, but a sudden wind knocked it away to clatter against the wall.
Talia leaped from the stairs, her stolen sword clutched in both hands. Across the room, Lirea was sitting up, her eyes impossibly wide. She looked like a child roused from a nightmare.
The wind slammed into Talia from behind, knocking her into the water. The damned air spirits again. She tried to push herself up from the slime-covered rubble at the bottom, but the wind was too strong. She pulled her legs beneath her, pushing harder until she was able to raise her face from the water. The wind was so strong it created a bowl-shaped impression in the water.
She managed a single breath before another wind hit her from the side, tossing her off-balance and pressing her down again. Between the pressure in her ears and the roar of the wind, she barely heard Danielle’s shouted warning.
Lirea dove from her shelter beneath the tree, swimming toward Talia. She carried a long spear, similar to the one she had used back on the
Glass Slipper
. Talia wrenched her sword around to knock the spear aside, but Lirea’s body slammed into her, knocking them both underwater.
Talia tried to stab upward, but Lirea was pressing down on her. She dragged Talia over rocks and debris until they slammed into something harder. The fallen bell. Talia braced herself against the bell and dropped the sword, reaching instead for the shaft of Lirea’s spear. She caught the end and pushed, using the spear as a lever to pry Lirea away. Her lungs were already burning from lack of air.
Lirea fought back, and Talia shifted tactics. She drove her knee into the mermaid’s side. Lirea’s grip loosened, and Talia kicked free. She gasped for breath, stepping back to give herself space to act. She dodged another thrust of Lirea’s spear, and then the air spirits struck again, slamming her into the bell.
Lirea was too fast in the water. She moved about like a demon, diving one way then another before Talia could react.
Talia barely twisted out of the way of the next attack. Lirea’s spear rang off of the bell, and then one of her tails swept beneath Talia’s legs. The other tail flipped up and around her chest, pinning her arms. Lirea fell backward, dragging Talia back beneath the water and squeezing the air from her lungs.
Talia dug her fingers between Lirea’s scales and pulled. The scales sliced her fingers, but she pulled until she felt Lirea’s skin tear. Lirea refused to give in. Talia’s vision began to sparkle, and her blood pounded in her skull. She heard shouts in the distance, and then Lirea was swimming away.
Talia pulled herself up and tried not to vomit. On one side of the room, Danielle staggered against the wind, her glass sword clutched in both hands. Lirea had recovered her spear, but it looked as though Danielle’s enchanted blade had sheared off the point.
The wind-driven spray made it hard to follow Danielle’s movements. She was backing away from Lirea. If Talia hadn’t been able to beat the mermaid, Danielle wouldn’t last long. “Where’s that magic, Snow?”
Danielle jabbed her sword toward the stairs. Most of the candles had died, but Talia could just make out Snow’s body crumpled on the steps, her legs submerged in the water. She wasn’t moving.
Danielle was trying to get past Lirea to the stairs, but Lirea clubbed her in the arm with her spear. Danielle hit the spear again, cutting it in two, and then the wind tossed her into the water.
Lirea dropped her broken weapon and retreated up the stairs, her tails shifting into legs. She pulled her knife from her harness and grabbed Snow’s hair, yanking her head up to expose the throat.
“Lirea!” Talia ducked behind the broken bell, taking shelter from the wind as she drew a knife from her belt and threw. The air spirits slapped it aside with ease, but it was enough to make Lirea jump.
Talia braced herself against the wind. She pulled both knives from her forearm sheaths and threw one left-handed. Like the first, this one flew wide. But even as that blade clattered against the wall, Talia was gauging its path and throwing the next. This time, she aimed to the right, a throw that would have gone wide . . . if the wind hadn’t altered its course.
It wasn’t a perfect throw. Not even Talia was that good. But the blade sank into Lirea’s shoulder.
Lirea screamed and dropped her own weapon. She ripped Talia’s knife from her shoulder and flung it aside. “Stay out of my mind!”
Talia was already wading toward the stairs. All she could see was Snow lying on the steps. In that moment, she wanted nothing more than to tear Lirea apart with her bare hands.
Lirea disappeared up the stairs, her incoherent shouts echoing throughout the tower. Talia followed into the dark room above. She leaped off of the stairs, balanced to dodge another attack, but Lirea seemed intent on escape. Her footsteps slapped against the stairs above as she fled.
“Snow’s hurt!” Danielle shouted. “We have to get her out of here.”
It was probably the only thing that could have broken Talia’s rage. She hesitated, then turned back.
“What happened?” Talia asked. Now that she had stopped running, her legs threatened to give out. “Snow started to cast her spell, and—” Her voice broke.
“The air spirits flung her against the wall.” Danielle waded through the water, searching the filth on the bottom.
Talia knelt beside Snow. Her illusions had vanished when she lost consciousness, and Talia could see the rise and fall of Snow’s chest with each slow breath. “You said you could do this. Lirea was
asleep!
You said you were strong enough, damn you!”
“Check to see if she has any other injuries,” Danielle yelled.
Blood trickled along the step from the back of Snow’s head. “Don’t do this to me,” Talia pleaded. “You’re going to be fine. Just wake up!”
“Yelling at her isn’t going to help.” Danielle reached into the water, grabbing the knife Lirea had dropped. “We have to get her out of here.”
“Her skull could be cracked,” Talia said. “Her brain might be bleeding. Snow’s the healer, not me. If we try to move her, she could die.”
“If we stay here, she will.We all will.” Danielle climbed the steps and slapped the knife into Talia’s hand. “I’ve got no way to carry it.”
Talia slid Lirea’s knife into one of her sheaths without taking her eyes off of Snow. “I can’t lose her, too.” She was babbling, but she couldn’t stop herself. “Not Snow. Danielle, I—”
Danielle punched her in the cheek. It wasn’t a strong blow, but it was enough to get Talia’s attention, as much from shock as from pain. Danielle swung a second time, and Talia automatically snapped her forearm up to block.
Danielle winced and rubbed her wrist where Talia had struck. “Help me carry her.”
Talia wondered if she had learned that tone from the queen, or if it was just a mother thing. It was a voice that held no room for argument. Talia took Snow’s arms while Danielle scooped her legs. Together they carried her up the stairs, moving carefully to keep from falling. The air spirits could have knocked them all down with ease, but the air had gone still when Lirea fled.
“She’s probably alerted the other undine by now,” Danielle said.
“We could retreat over land. They won’t be able to follow.”
Danielle shook her head. “Carry Snow across barren rock with no food or water? Where would we go? You’d mock me for weeks if I suggested something like that.”
She was right. Talia might be able to reach the mountains on her own, but she wasn’t sure about Danielle. Carrying Snow, they would all end up dead of exposure. “We can’t fight our way past all the undine.”
“Don’t worry about fighting,” Danielle said. “Just worry about carrying Snow up to the window. That’s a command, Princess.”
Talia felt like a marionette, dragged along by the strings of Danielle’s voice. She continued up the steps, her breath hissing through clenched teeth at every bump or misstep. When they reached the third story, Danielle set Snow down and circled the room, inspecting the windows. Talia pulled Snow close, cradling her like a child. “If you’d let me kill Lirea when I had the chance—”
“You think her air spirits would have let your knife reach her?” Danielle interrupted. “If you want to be angry, fine. But we have to get out of here right now. I don’t see Lirea anywhere.”
“Snow’s still bleeding.”
The rising sun painted Danielle’s face orange. “Talia, please. I know how you feel about her, but I need your help. Snow needs your help. Can you carry her and climb down at the same time?”
Talia scooped Snow into her arms and brought her to the window. Even if she had a way to secure Snow to herself, it would be a slow descent, leaving them vulnerable to the merfolk. She tightened her grip on Snow and steeled herself. “We have to jump.”
“We have to
what
?”
“If we push off together, we should clear those rocks.” Talia was already turning around, sitting on the sill with her back exposed to the morning air. She scooted to one side to make room. “Sit beside me.”
Danielle looked past Talia, then nodded. “Will this hurt her?”
“Maybe.” Talia bowed her head. “Probably. How much depends on how serious her injuries are.”
“I’m sorry,” Danielle whispered, squeezing onto the sill beside her.
Talia bent to kiss Snow’s forehead. “So am I.”
Each of them wrapped an arm around Snow’s body, holding her close. With her other hand, Talia grabbed the back of Danielle’s belt. Danielle did the same with Talia.
“We’ll hit the water hard,” Talia said, trying not to think about what they could be doing to Snow. “Keep her close so our bodies cushion her, especially the head. We go on the count of four.”
Talia counted fast, leaving no time for fear, and then they were kicking out from the window. Snow started to slide free, but Talia dug her fingers into Snow’s skin, holding her tight.
The impact slammed the air from her lungs. They sank through the water, hitting the rocks a moment later. Talia pushed Snow and Danielle up before following. As far as she could tell, the water had protected her from broken bones, but her back would be an interesting collage of cuts and bruises.
The merfolk were already closing in, swimming through the wall and spreading out to block the moat.
“Where’s Lirea?” Danielle asked.
“Gone.” Talia picked up a rock and hurled it at the approaching warriors. It glanced off the side of a merman’s head, knocking him back. Another threw a spear, but the throw was clumsy, and the spear ricocheted off the wall behind her. Talia drew the knife they had taken from Lirea. “They’re sluggish, as Morveren said. Distracted. Get Snow and the knife away from here. Stay near shore but far enough back to avoid their spears. If . . . when Snow wakes up, she should be able to summon the
Phillipa
.”
Talia tossed Lirea’s knife onto the rocks by Danielle, then reached into the water for another fist-sized stone. The merfolk slowed. They might be tired, but they weren’t stupid. She counted at least twenty, with more likely hidden beneath the water. Even on land Talia would have been hard-pressed to fight so many, and Lirea had a literal army waiting beyond that wall. Talia threw, but this time her target twisted aside, and the rock splashed harmlessly into the water.
Three merfolk swam through the moat, weapons extended like lancers charging. Talia leaped back as the merfolk burst from the water. Talia twisted sideways, bending her legs in a sik h’adan fighting stance. She sprang between two of the merfolk, positioning herself close enough that they shouldn’t be able to spear her.
They floated low in the water, most of their bodies beneath the surface. Talia struck one with her knee, but in the deeper water she lacked the power to do much damage. Still, the blow brought the mermaid’s face up, allowing Talia to smash an elbow into her nose. She spun sideways and hit the merman behind her with the same elbow.
“Get ready,” Danielle shouted.
“I thought you were supposed to be retreating!” Talia grabbed the mermaid’s hair, twisting her around to keep her between herself and the uninjured merman.
Beyond the wall, one of the kelpies reared from the water and bellowed an enormous
Gronk!
Bowing its head, it lunged toward the large central archway of the wall.
Blocks tumbled from the arch as the kelpie burst into the moat. Waves surged ahead of its passage, tossing Talia and merfolk alike. Talia scrambled back, trying to escape from the kelpie’s path. She could see a lone rider clinging to the kelpie, pounding its neck and shouting.
“Your doing?” Talia asked.
Danielle smiled. “Could you do something about that merman on our kelpie?”
Talia’s next rock hit the rider square in the back. He yelled and dropped into the moat.
“Don’t be afraid,” Danielle shouted. She returned Lirea’s knife to Talia, then waded into the water. “We’re not going to hurt you!”
Two enormous flippers, each one longer than Talia herself, dug into the rocks as the kelpie reared back. The kelpie’s underside was pale blue, darkening into bands of brown and muddy green. Huge nostrils flapped open, snorting sour air. Its head was vaguely equine, with an elongated snout and spines along the neck. Dark ropes nested behind each of the bony ridges circling his body. Each rope was knotted with large loops for riders to cling to.