Page 50 of Broken Veil
Cadell was there, pulling her up by her arms and dragging her onto the grassy riverbank.
“Give me a knife, dragon!” Duncan said. “Anything you have!”
Cadell reached into his tall boot and grabbed a silver blade, flipping it toward Duncan, who caught it by the handle and dove back where Lachlan was still fighting with the water fae.
Carys lunged toward the river even as Cadell held her back. “Duncan!”
“Nêrys, the wyrm?—”
“I’m not worried about the fucking sea monster!” she screamed. Neither of the men had life vests. The unearthly creatures lurking in the Ouse would kill them both.
Only Cadell held her back.
“I can hear him,” Cadell shouted. “She has possessed his mind.”
“You’re not listening!” She wrenched her body around as Cadell held her. “There are things in the water that are going to drown Duncan and Lachlan!”
“You must trust your men to battle the water fae. They are not as powerful on this side of the gate, and that dagger has a steel core.”
Carys felt hot tears on her freezing-cold cheeks, but she choked back a sob and nodded.
“Nêrys, I can hear the wyrm’s mind.” Cadell’s eyes drilled into hers. “It is confused, unhinged, and he does not know what is happening.”
“The Morrígan has… possessed it?”
“I believe so.”
Carys looked around to see a thick fog pressing around them. “What’s happening?”
“Laura created a fog to keep any humans away,” Cadell said. “Naida is trying to call friendly water fae to help us. There are some, but they are frightened and confused.”
There was a giant splash, and Carys turned. She saw Lachlan swimming toward the edge of the river, dragging Duncan under one arm.
“Bloody massive idiot.” He grunted as she and Cadell raced over to help him pull Duncan up the slope. “Nearly got himself killed.”
“Is he breathing?” Carys ran to Duncan’s side and knelt down.
Just as she reached him, Duncan started to cough and retch, spewing river water from his mouth and nose.
Carys turned him on his side, and Duncan gripped her hand as he expelled the water from his lungs.
“How did you get away?”
Lachlan had red marks around his throat and a slice on his shoulder. “Never seen grindylows in a river before.” His shirt was half gone, and it looked like there were teeth marks in his side. “Don’t care to see them again. But they can bleed, the bloody little monsters.”
As Duncan coughed and gripped her hand, she heard splashing in the water and a low thump as the serpent hit something beneath the surface. The dense fog shrouded everything from her view, but she could see the muddy water washing up like waves on the grass.
“He’s turned at the weir,” Cadell said. “But he’s not leaving. The Morrígan is telling him to keep going.”
Lachlan pulled off the remains of his shirt and used the scraps to clean his blade before he set both down on the ground. “We have to stop it from going over that dam. It’s a meter or two at most.”
Duncan was as beaten up as Lachlan and had a red slash right across his throat, but he pointed at the river. “That monster is powerful enough to go over that dam,” he rasped. “But how the bloody hell are we supposed to stop it?”
With every turn of the serpent’s great body, another massive wave hit the riverbank. There was a muffled roar from beneath the water, and Carys knew the Morrígan was losing patience.
Flying through the fog, flocks of crows and starlings circled overhead, cawing and raining black feathers down on them.
Carys pointed upriver where she remembered the two narrow channels in front of the embankment. “The locks. The longest one is bigger than Sam. If we can get him in the lock and shut the gate, I don’t think he’ll be able to get out.”
