Awakened by Magic (The Four Kings Book 1) by Katy Haye (11)

Chapter Eleven

The water was so cold my skin numbed immediately, the breath in my lungs constricting so I had to fight the instinct to turn back to safety, to surge out of the frigid water to the secure shore.

My head broke the surface and I trod water until the need to escape eased. The water was cold, colder than it should be in summer, but I’d dealt with worse. Essa and I had half-frozen when we were on the run, huddling together in ditches overnight, bodies pressed close to hoard what little warmth we had.

This was easy by comparison. My shivering body settled, becoming one with the cold, a part of the lake. I looked up at the citadel, and then I pushed off, swimming as strongly as I could towards my sister.

I struck out towards the grey edifice in the middle of the lake. The water was cool, but swimming would keep me warm. I glanced up at the forbidding walls, trying to see whether there were guards posted at the top. I didn’t want to be spotted breaking into the citadel or shot from the ramparts before I even arrived.

Fortunately, nothing moved. If I hadn’t just seen Essa and the guards go inside I could believe the entire place were deserted.

The shore soon slipped away, but the citadel remained a long way away. The lake was vast, more so than it had seemed when I’d dived in.

“Can you go any quicker?” Rey asked.

I coughed. “Hardly.” I glanced back since I could see nothing amiss at the citadel. “Is there a problem?”

“I, er, I don’t think you’re the only thing in the lake.” Rey’s words barely had time to alarm me before a ripple stirred the water ahead of me. I came to an abrupt stop, watching as the ripple became an eddy. A dark, serpentine body broke the surface and I gulped, watching as the dark, shining loop slipped through the water.

“Get to land,” Vashri urged.

That was easy for him to say. I trod water, trying to assess where the creature was as its body slipped back below the surface. The problem was, I didn’t know how large it was. Nor where its head might be.

Then, I didn’t want to know.

A huge head lifted out of the water a couple of arm-spans away from me. Water flooded down its massive neck, dripping off the jagged teeth that had caught my terrified attention. It wasn’t big enough to swallow me whole, but I was sure it could relieve me of a limb or two with one bit of those jaws.

I ducked down as it turned a vast, unblinking eye on me. I gulped. Too late to dive. Its blade-sharp teeth clacked together, and it surged through the water towards me.

Its jaws opened wide enough to snap my head from my neck. Panic surged through me. It was moving towards me faster than I could get out of its way. The creature was perfectly created to move under water. Two rows of sharp teeth gleamed, water dripping from them. It was deadly. And determined.

My heart boomed, shaking my ribs. “Any suggestions?”

“We’ll do what we can,” the kings promised.

I blinked water from my eyelashes as the creature surged forward, poised to try a desperate push aside when it lunged for me. I wondered what the kings had up their magical sleeves. Its jaws opened so wide all I could see were those teeth, and a greyish-pink tongue beyond. Any further and I’d be in the creature’s stomach.

A gust of wind pushed against the serpent, Vashri delivering on his promise. The serpent slowed, shaking its head as though it couldn’t understand where the sudden wind had come from. But it still had me in its sights.

I cast a desperate glance to either side, but I was too far from both the shore and the citadel to hope to reach either. I had to stop the creature or it would stop me. By eating me.

It surged for me again, its stinking breath sweeping over me as its jaws opened wide enough to swallow my head. I kicked to the side, hoping to slide over its back, but it just turned its head, keeping me in its sights. I had no weapon to drive it away. I did the only thing I could think of. I swam to meet it, aiming slightly to its side. When I was close enough, I jammed my fist into the corner of its mouth, driving my knuckles into the hinge of its jaw so those deadly teeth couldn’t close together.

The serpent blinked and pushed forward again. It was as though it couldn’t understand why it wasn’t now crunching on my skull.

“Kyann,” Axxon’s voice echoed. “Take this.”

Something touched my free hand and I twitched automatically, fearing some new monstrosity from the lake. Then I realised it was just a stone, lifted from the bed of the lake by the king of earth.

“It’s hungry, so feed the beast,” he told me.

I took the rock and lifted my hand out of the water, tossing my burden into the back of the monster’s mouth. With my fist still holding its jaws apart it couldn’t bite into the morsel, so it just swallowed it down.

“And another,” Axxon suggested.

Another rock appeared beside my fingers. I snatched it up and sent it after the first. The snake swallowed it down. It seemed to be calming – it really thought it was being given food.

“More,” I murmured to the kings.

I thought Axxon and Rey were working together, the king of earth finding the rocks, while the king of water sent them to the surface to reach me. I threw half a dozen rocks into the serpent’s gaping mouth, then carefully removed my hand to see whether the creature was appeased by its meal.

As soon as its jaws closed, its nostrils flared, scenting the air. It turned to me, jaw opening – and Axxon and Rey sent a flurry of stones, Vashri helping to pitch them into the creature’s maw.

More and more stones disappeared into the creature. I started to think it was bottomless, enchanted by the Stalwart Emperor to eat and eat without pause. But then its jaws closed, so suddenly that the rock I was in the process of throwing thudded against the creature’s snout before bouncing off and splashing into the lake. The serpent twisted, sending waves washing over me. It opened its mouth again but didn’t seem to be searching for food. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d suppose it had bellyache. And well deserved.

A roar of wind echoed out of the creature as it burped, the noise so loud I winced. Satisfied at last, it slithered under the waves. I ducked beneath the surface and watched as it retreated into the murky water, its glinting eye the last thing I saw before it faded into the darkness at the bottom of the lake.

“Don’t waste time watching it, Kyann,” was Rey’s recommendation.

I kicked off, swimming as fast as I could towards the citadel. “What was that?” I demanded.

Vashri sighed. “I fear it might not be only us kings who are waking up.”

“What does that mean?”

“The Stalwart Emperor may have found a way to awaken creatures of the Underworld to help him.”

Creatures from the legends of old were waking? “We have to stop him,” I said.

“We will,” Vashri promised. “But we’ll need all of us to do so. Be very careful, Kyann. Just find your sister and get out.”

“Oh, that’s all I want.” I had no intention of messing with Emperors who could turn things like that into their pets. I needed to track Essa down before the Emperor hurt her, and then we’d be out of there.

I splashed my way to the shore of the island with a sigh of relief, then frowned. I couldn’t wait to get Essa out of the citadel – but I had to find a way in, first. The walls of the citadel met the edge of the island it was built on. There seemed no way in. I trod water while I considered. I could swim around the island until I found the entrance Essa had used. But the official gates would have guards. There had to be a back door I could use.

I swam to the side and felt a pressure against my legs. A current flowed fast, away from the citadel. I ducked under the surface of the water to find the source, finally tracking down a drainage pipe as wide as my shoulders that cut beneath the surface. An outflow from the citadel.

The pipe was barely wider than my body. A moment of misgiving gripped me, but I either faced this, or faced the Emperor’s guards at the gate.

“I’ll be with you,” Rey promised.

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me, took a breath and gripped the inside of the pipe, half-pulling, half-kicking myself inside. The pipe went level a short way, then curved up. I followed the angle, my feet finding the bottom. I straightened, pleased that the flow of water didn’t fill the pipe. By angling my head down, I could breathe as I edged my way up.

I was grateful, too, that the water dripping and flowing down the pipe beside me seemed to be rain run-off. It was dirty, and spotted with leaves and grit, but it was no worse than that.

Glad that I wasn’t having to find my way through sewage, I braced my back against the pipe, hitched my hands and knees against the other side, and shuffled my way up.

Ten minutes later, I reached the top of the pipe. The water was swept into it by a drain, wide but squat. I tried to peer through, but I could see nothing in the dim light beyond. Pausing, I listened instead, tuning out the sound of the water to establish whether there was anything dangerous on the other side. I didn’t want to come face to face with a guard, or a savage dog.

Nothing.

I braced my hands on the edge, ducked my head and struggled through. The gutter led into a narrow alleyway. It was dim because the citadel’s walls rose so high as to nearly shut out the sun overhead. As well as being dark, the narrow, cobbled way was also utterly deserted.

I rose to my feet, water dripping from my dangling fingers and squelching from my feet, my sodden clothing sticking to me and my hair dangling in rat tails around my face. I shivered, but a surge of satisfaction lifted a smile onto my face. I had beaten the Emperor’s enchantments. A small victory, maybe, but a significant one: I was exactly where I wanted to be.

I was now inside the most dangerous place in the kingdom, where the Stalwart Emperor wielded his power, where he was most to be dreaded. Also, where Essa was. I was here, ready to rescue her – and most importantly, now I knew the citadel’s secrets I could get us both back out once I’d freed her from the Emperor’s clutches.