Sacrifice: The First Book of the Fey (36 page)

NOT INVITED. GO, OTHER. GO.

I
will leave if you guide me through the mouth, through the channel, past the Stone Guardians.

NOT INVITED. GO NOW. GO.

The water was murky at this level. The light that filtered through was dim. He got a sense of rocks at the bottom, which probably interested the Ze, and other fish swimming by. Two bottom feeders were nibbling at the refuse along the sand between the rocks. Ahead he saw a bigger shape, probably a creature he didn’t know.

The
last
time I spoke with one of you, he told me all about the fish around him, as well as guiding me through the Stone Guardians.

ZE DIE. GO, OTHER. GO NOW.

Ze have died? Because of what? Because of us?

Emaque!
Kapad’s voice sent an urgency.
We haven’t time. Find something else.

ZE TAKE OTHER THROUGH FLOW. THEN DARK FALLS. BODIES. BREAK SURFACE. LEAK DARK. BRING EER.
Ze
DIE.

Eer. He cast back in his memory to the conversation he had had with the first Ze. He had seen one Eer. It was four times the size of the Ze, with a wide mouth filled with jagged teeth, puny eyes, and razor-sharp scales. Drawn, according to that Ze, to any destruction of life, the Eer would continue that destruction, killing and eating everything in its path.

He could say nothing. The Ze’s fear was legitimate.

Find something
else, then!
Kapad commanded, voice as firm as before.

What about Imatar?

Imatar is not your concern.

Emaque felt the urgency then. He didn’t know how he felt it: before, he had always been separate from the creature, his consciousness, and himself. But if Kapad wasn’t answering questions about Imatar, then Imatar had found nothing either.

He knew the Ze couldn’t hear Kapad, and he wasn’t sure the Ze felt the same urgency he did.

GO NOW. NOW.

Wait.
Emaque directed his thoughts to the Ze.
Even
if
I
leave you, we will be in these waters. Without your help, we will be in them longer. Chances are there will be more bodies to attract the Eer without your help.

BEFORE NO EER. TOO MANY. NOW. GO.

That’s not
true,
Emaque said.
There were Eer before. Your people knew what Eer were. There just weren’t as many chances for an Eer to go crazy. Whether you help me or not, the Eer will go crazy in this area soon. You’re better in the sea. Take me with you. Escape the Eer and help me at the same time.

The Ze swam in small confused circles for a moment, then stopped and nibbled some weed off a rock. Then it pointed itself toward the mouth of the river.

QUICK, THEN. BEFORE EER.

The Ze jutted forward, its tail flapping, its small body straining. It kept to the bottom, maneuvering around the rocks as if searching for food. It took Emaque a minute to realize the Ze was keeping close to find a hiding place.

How
are the currents up top?
he asked, knowing that while the Ze was giving them a path, it wasn’t completely helping the ship.

SEA STRONG.
This Ze wasn’t as talkative as the first Ze had been, and if other Sailors hadn’t had the same experiences with Zes, Emaque would have thought his first experience odd.

This Ze was terrified. The carnage in the area must have been horrible.

And
when do we get to the Stone Guardians?

CIRCLES. MUCH DANGER. EVEN ZE DIE IN CIRCLE WATERS.

Great,
Kapad sent to him.
We pick a day with currents so strong, they kill fish.

Emaque ignored him.
Is
there any way around the Stone Guardians that is safe?

SOMETIMES. DURING SPAWNING.

When do Ze spawn?
Kapad asked.

How
the hell should I know?
Emaque sent back to him. He watched out of the fish’s eyes and saw other Ze flanking them like a protective force. They knew so little about Zes. Did they have their own version of telepathic powers? He worked so hard at discovering routes, he didn’t know the rest. The lack of knowledge made him uneasy. He occupied the mind of the creature without welcome and didn’t even know what the creature was.

The rocks grew darker. Smaller fish darted among them. The weeds waved in the current as if pointing the way for them. Emaque wished that the Ze would look up; he wanted to see the position of the ship’s hull above them. The bottom curved downward, and the water took on a life of its own, tumbling in an underwater fall. Even though Emaque could not see the Stone Guardians, he figured the Ze had taken him to the mouth of the river.

Ships
, Kapad warned. Emaque thought he could hear fear in Kapad’s mental voice.

We need to go as quickly as we can. There will be fighting on the surface, and maybe dark waters and more bodies.

HIDE. GO NOW, NOT INVITED. HIDE.

The Ze started to head for the rocks. Emaque wished for more than mental power.
No! They’ll find you here. Get us out of the Stone Guardians while there’s still time.

HIDE, the Ze said again.

No! We’ll all die!

That stopped the Ze. Emaque was afraid that it would swim in circles again, but it didn’t. It started swimming toward the surface. Above them, and a bit to the back, Emaque saw the hull of the
Uehe.
Other things blocked the opaque surface light all around, but the Ze’s eyes weren’t that good.

The water had cold pockets as it fed into the Infrin. The current pulled at the Ze’s body, and the little fish swam higher as if to get away from them. The
Uehe
was following them: did that mean Imatar had not found a spark? or that his spark was even more reluctant than Emaque’s?

Do these circle currents reach the surface?

SOME. FAST. MOVE FAST. ONLY SAFETY.

It took him a moment to understand that. The only safety was in moving fast. He hoped the
Uehe
was moving as fast as it could.

The other shapes blocking the darkness seemed closer. Below, an Eer played in the swirling waters. The Ze swam even faster, its companions fanning out like a decoy force. Had he hit an important Ze? Or did they all know something was happening? He had never seen fish act this way. If he survived, he promised himself he would learn more about the creatures he invaded.

Muck floated in the water: bits of seaweed and fish dung, plus garbage from the surface, leaves and grass and dead bugs. They were very close to the surface now. Through the fish’s eyes he could see the other shapes more clearly.

Hulls. But not Fey. Small boats.

Islander.

They’re around you!
he sent to Kapad.

Keep going,
Kapad sent back.
Let us handle the surface.

But the boats are small.
He knew that small boats sometimes got lost in a crew’s zeal for finding larger ships.

The Stone Guardians are ahead.

Emaque couldn’t see them. The debris in the water continued to churn. The Ze kept looking down, apparently watching for the Eer.

It swam over several small whirlpools. They felt like tugs against its body.

Are we going through the Guardians near the surface?
Emaque asked.

BOTTOM SHARP ROCKS. NO SAFETY. ONLY SAFETY NEAR AIR.

No wonder the Zes had been good choices in the past. They had a fear of the current dashing them against the rocks.

Powers!
Kapad’s thought was sharp and sudden.

What happened?
Emaque asked, but he got no answering response.
Kapad! Kapad!

Finally, faintly,
Keep swimming. We’re almost free
—

And then nothing. But he couldn’t be dead. If one man died while linked, the other died too. Kapad was still alive, but not communicating. Maybe he needed all his effort to filter both Imatar’s and Emaque’s perceptions.

The Stone Guardians loomed, craggy and ominous in the water. They were really one stone with a lot of jagged edges, as well as caves and carvings through the center. One Ze had tried to lead the ships through a cave on the way in: the Sailor had to pull out at the last minute and find another host to prevent disaster.

Weed grew along the rock’s porous surface. Some tendrils were long as hair and just as fine. The Ze barely looked at them in its panic.

DARK!
it cried.
DARK!

At first Emaque thought it meant the Guardians, and then he understood. The water was turning dark around them, as if the rain on the surface had turned to blood.

Emaque fought the urge to pull up, back into himself. No. They had reached the Guardians. They were almost free of this horrid place. Almost.

The Ze swam even more quickly toward the rocks. It went so near the surface, the spines on its back cleared the water. The air felt as heavy and suffocating as water did when Emaque was in his own body. The Ze headed toward an opening between the Guardians that the Ze on Emaque’s previous trip had warned him against.

EER! EER!

Emaque didn’t see the Eer but knew it had to be wallowing in the blood.

No,
Kapad cried.
The channel is too narrow. It will sheer the ship.

Is there another way?

NO TIME! EER!

I
don’t see the Eer. Please, can we find another way?

OTHER SAFE FAR AWAY. ONLY ESCAPE FROM EER.

Please
—Emaque thought.

NO! And the Ze plunged into the space between the Guardians. For a moment Emaque hung on and then realized the futility. He would be too far to return to his own shell.

You’ll have to trust Imatar,
he sent, and pulled out of the Ze.

The sudden blindness shocked him. He scanned the area around him and saw no sparks at all. Then he remembered to look outside the water.

His consciousness zoomed back into his own body, and immediately he became aware of two things: his left side had fallen asleep all the way to his arm, and sharp pains shot through his back. He was drenched, his hair plastered to his face, his clothing stuck to his skin. The ship had stopped moving, though, and so the spray did not catch him in the front.

He opened his eyes. The water below him was laced with blood, and already bodies floated on the surface. He stood slowly, not sure what the pains in his back were, and found that he was alone.

The girl had left him. He didn’t see her or her body on the rain-and blood-slicked deck. He squinted and scanned the horizon. The small ships were returning to Blue Isle. The
Uehe
was still heading for the Stone Guardians, being drawn by the current.