Page 17 of I Summon the Sea

I shudder. A Reversal is a cataclysmic event. It causes a lot of death and suffering. Nobody in their right mind would want to experience it.

Kneeling near the center of the deck, I stare up at the sky as we inch downriver. It’s full of colors as the morning blooms, and the black cracks seem to throb in time to my heart.

“Watch out!” someone cries, and I reluctantly glance down from the sky. “Nokke!Nokke nearby! Take heed!”

Also called calpa by some, or kelpy, the nokke are watersprights that take the shape of horses, their nature evident in the fanciful colors of their coats—as rainbow-hued as draks, as lithe as colts, with long, beautiful manes and tails that almost reach the ground.

They stare at us from the riverbank, not even pretending to graze. Pretty as they are, one should avoid them, because they like to drag human and fae alike into the water and devour them. Like everything magical, they are both terrifying and lovely, their mouths full of black, sharp teeth, their jaw unhinging like a snake’s, allowing them to swallow big prey.

“Beware of beauty, little human lady.”

We float by the knot of nokke, the punters shoving their poles into the bottom of the river faster, pushing us forward. The nokke lift their equine heads, nostrils flaring, their tails lashing back and forth. One of them turns and slips back into the river,but the guards are ready, waiting with the spears lifted, in case it surfaces near us.

It’s warmer here, near the Pillar, and the guards have been sweating in their leather armor. They also seemed to have relaxed a little. We are within sight of the Sea Palace, nearly at our destination. They chat among themselves, and the occasional peal of laughter reaches me.

A female guard keeps glancing at me. I don’t think she likes me hogging the deck.

On cue, she says, “Why is this one allowed here? She should be in one of the cages with her fellow humans.”

But the other guards are gathering and pointing at the starboard side and everyone’s attention is redirected there. I get up to see, as I’d rather not be caught off guard by whatever rises from the river.

It’s not a nokke, as I’d feared, but nymphs. They are gathered in a pool in the shallows, combing their hair, watching us pass. They don’t sing or come after us. I feel their gazes on me, and I do my best to gaze straight ahead until we pass them.

With no mountains or hills to stop it, the breeze has turned into a steady wind. My hair keeps winding about my head in white sheets and tassels, getting into my mouth. I spit it out for the hundredth time as the puntershoy-ahoyat each other and shove us away from what seems like rocky shallows.

“Come here,” one of the guards says, a huge fae with long dark hair spilling under his helmet and over his breastplate.

I point at my chest.Me?

“Yeah, you. We have an argument we want you to settle,” he says.

Wary, I take three steps in their direction. The guards have ranged from indifferent to kind toward me so far, so I have no reason to refuse.

But his gaze hardens when I’m close enough to touch. “Varna here is right.” He nods at the female guard who’s observing me with a smirk on her face. “Who said you’re allowed to be on the first barge with us?”

Holy Wights.I shove my hand into the folds of my skirt, palming the hilt of my dagger. I grew complacent and lazy, thinking nobody in this convoy would attack me, but not even superstition can prevent people from seeking sick entertainment.

“Who said you could travel with us?” Varna demands, reaching for me. “By all rights, you should have drowned and saved us the trouble. No reply, huh? Nothing to say? Or do you want me to believe that you are actually mute? Think it’s a funny game to play?”

No, it’s certainly not funny. To get out of her reach, I step back, close to the edge of the deck—and something snags my skirt andyanks.

My breath stutters. Twisting about, I find a long, equine face leering at me, teeth like daggers, huge black eyes. Those teeth snap at my long dress again, shredding the hem as I jerk backward…

… and come short. He’s still got me.

It’s a nokke. Probably the one that had dived earlier into the river—had it latched onto our barge?—or perhaps another. It’s not like there’s any shortage of monsters in the water.

The teeth snag deeper in my hem, and it shakes its head, this time yanking me to the very edge of the barge.

My mouth opens to scream, but no sound comes out as I grab for something to hold onto, anything to keep from falling into the river and the jaws of the monster.

The guards start toward me, then hesitate, and I’m falling, tumbling down the side of the barge.

The air rushes past my ears, my cheeks, my arms, but my lungs can’t draw it in. The light slants and splinters.

Time slows, and all I can think of is that I need to grab the boat’s edge, but my hands are closing on air?—

A snake wraps around me, a rope, a snare, stopping my fall. It tightens around my waist and yanks me back up, higher and higher, finally releasing me in mid-air.

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