Page 109 of Embrace the Serpent

I patted her on the shoulder. “It’s all right. I’ll take responsibility for what happens.”

She knelt at the edge of the lake and dipped her fingers in. A water horse rose at once, shaking its mane and splashing droplets everywhere. Its body was darker than before, as if the debris polluting the lake were affecting it.

The huntsman saddled it up and brought it to me, but there was doubt in her eyes as she helped me up.

The horse trotted to the edge of the courtyard. A tug came at my ankle. Grimney looked up at me. “Whyzzy?”

I explained, “I’m trying out bravery for a change.”

He looked pointedly at my hands shaking on the reins.

“Yes, well, I haven’t got the hang of it yet.”

“Grrzy,” he said, holding his arms up like a child.

I shook my head. “It’s safer for you here.”

He stomped over to the lake and held his little hand over the water, threatening to call a tiny horse for himself if I didn’t take him with me.

I stared him down.

He dipped his fingers in, and almost instantly, as if it was waiting for him, a miniature horse’s head rose from the water. Grimney raised his brows.

I knew when I was beaten. “Fine.”

He grinned as I scooped him up and set him on the saddle before me.

The water horse took off at my whispered command:Take me to the tents on the ridge.If there was anything worse than riding a horse on land, it was riding a horse on water.

With one hand, I held on to the reins, and with the other, I pulled the tourmaline collar from my pocket and wrapped it around my neck, hoping that my quick repair job on the clasp would hold. At once, it warmed uncomfortably. I cleared my throat, and my voice vibrated twofold.

We were fast approaching the lakeshore. The bulk of the fighting was to the east, near to the town, but there were Imperial soldiers aplenty waiting for us, their spears at the ready.

“Let me pass!” I shouted.

A bewildered look came over them, and they lowered their weapons. We barreled through them, and Grimney pelted pebbles at their heads.

I touched the collar. It was one thing to have seen Mirandel use it. Another to wear it and feel its power for myself. It finally sankin:I made this. I brought this power into the world.

Also, it hadn’t been soldered together well. That contributed to the vibration, the warmth. If I added a few cooling jewels, too, it would be perfectly comfortable to wear—but no, I would never again make something without thinking about what it could do.

I was coming around to the idea that I was every bit as powerful as Rane thought I was. If one is a giant, one must be watchful where one steps.

An arrow flew past my head. “Let me passunharmed,” I shouted again, and the warmth at my throat increased, my sweat pooling in the hollow at the base of my neck.

I paid closer attention. The soldiers within a certain radius—about ten people across—lowered their weapons immediately. But those outside that radius still pushed through, aiming their spears and arrows at me. It occurred to me that it might have been smart to don armor before coming out here.

With regular shouting, and Grimney taking over the reins, we made it past the line of Imperial soldiers. For a moment, we rode unimpeded.

The ground sloped upward, the trees growing thicker, and we came out onto the forest path that Rane and I had taken when we first entered the kingdom.

As we reached higher ground, the trees on either side grew briefly thin, and to the right, I caught a glimpse of the town.

The giant silver serpent—it was hard to think of the beast as Rane—tore through the main square, slithering across canals and onto streets, destroying bridges, homes, shops.

People fled from his path. From this distance, they seemed the size of ants. They ran from him, and from the red-gold flames that had sprung up like poppies, scrambling across the rubble of the ruined town.

The carnage turned my stomach.

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