We glared at each other. He wore a bronze-colored tunic with an embroidered collar, dark brown pants, and small, perfectly made leather riding boots.
What in the world would he be riding? A Pomeranian?
The man blinked, studying me.
I’d managed to find a hobbit in the Caucasus Mountains. I wondered what he would do if I asked him about second breakfast.
The man opened his mouth. A string of words spilled out.
“I don’t understand,” I said in English.
He shook his head.
“Ne ponimayu.”
Another shake. Russian didn’t work either.
The man pointed to his left, waving his arms, frantic. I turned.
Something slid through the water at the far wall. Something long and sinuous that left ripples in its wake.
I flipped the knife in my hand and pressed against the wall, as close to the stone as I could.
The creature slid downward, into the water. The surface smoothed out.
Another ripple, closer. Smooth water again.
The opening bars of the theme from Jaws rolled through my head. Thanks. Just what I needed.
If I were something long and serpentine with big teeth and I was hunting for some lunch, I’d swim up from underneath my victim.
I took a deep breath and dove.
A silvery-green beast sped toward me through the clear water. Fourteen feet long, as thick as my thigh, with the body of an eel armed with a crest of long spikes, it swam straight for me, its eyes big and empty, like two yellow coins against the silver scales.
The serpent opened its mouth, a big deep hole studded with a forest of needle-thin teeth.
I pressed against the wall, my feet against the rock.
The serpent reared and struck. I launched myself from the wall, grabbed its neck, hugged it to me with every drop of strength I had, and jammed my knife into its gills. The sharp spikes sliced my fingers. The serpent coiled around me, its body a single, powerful muscle. I dragged the blade down, ripping through the fragile membranes of its gills.
The serpent contorted, churning the water. I clung to it. To let go was to die.
My lungs begged for air. I stabbed it again and again, trying to cause enough damage.
The serpent writhed, impossibly strong.
Black dots swam before my eyes. Air. Now.
I let go and kicked myself up.
The serpent lunged at my feet. The teeth clamped my boot but didn’t penetrate the thick sole. I jerked, trying to kick myself free. I could see the shiny ceiling where the air met water right above me. Another foot. Come on. I rammed my other foot into the serpent’s head.
The teeth let go. I shot up and gulped air.
The tiny man on the ledge screamed.
The silver spine broke the surface next to me. I slashed at it, trying to cut it in half. The serpent clenched my foot again. Teeth bit my ankle and yanked me down.
I kicked as hard as I could, trying to swim back up. If it dragged me down, it would be over. Magic was my only chance. I pulled it to me. Not much there—a weak magic wave.
The serpent pulled, drawing me deeper and deeper under the water. I kicked its head. One. Two . . .
The serpent let go, turned, and swept at me. I swam up like I’d never swum before in my life. My muscles threatened to tear off my bones.
I broke the water. I needed a power word. I could command it to die, but Ud, the killing word, usually failed, and when it didn’t work, the backlash crippled me with pain. The stronger the magic, the less pain, but this magic wave was weaker than most. The killing word would hurt like a sonovabitch.
I couldn’t afford to be crippled right this second or I’d end the day as fish food. The only other attack word I had was kneel. The serpent had no legs.
The serpent reared, rising from the sea, its mouth gaping. A moment and it would slam into me, like a battering ram.
The small man spat a single harsh word. “Aarh!”
A torrent of magic smashed into the serpent. It froze, completely still.
I lunged at it and thrust the knife into its spine. The serpent shuddered. I sawed through its flesh, nearly cutting it in two.
The serpent jerked and crashed backward. I kicked free.
The creature convulsed, whipping the sea into froth. I swam away from it, to the ledge, gasping for breath. The small man slumped against the stone. A small dribble of bloody spit slid from his mouth.
He’d used a power word and it worked. Thank you. Thank you, whoever you are upstairs.
I held on to the ledge. The small man leaned over and held my hand, helping me hold on.
The serpent flailed and thrashed, until finally a full minute later, it hung motionless in the water.
The man petted my hand, wiped the blood from his lips, and pointed up. Above us, about seven feet above the stone shelf, a narrow hole split the wall, a little less than a foot across. Not nearly wide enough for both of us.
The man held his hands together, as if praying, and looked at me.
“Okay,” I told him. No reason for both of us to be trapped.
I moved along the ledge to its widest point. A whole six inches of space to work with. Oh boy. It took me four tries to crawl up onto it—my feet kept slipping—but I finally managed and hugged the wall.
The man grabbed my shirt and pulled himself up. Feet stomped on my shoulders. Forget thirty pounds, he was more like fifty. He should’ve weighed one third of that at his size. Maybe he was made of rocks.
The man stood on my shoulders. I locked my hands and raised my arms flat against the wall. He stepped on my palms and kicked off.
I slipped and fell backward into the water. I broke the surface just in time to see him scramble into the hole and vanish.
I was all alone. Just me and fourteen feet of fresh sushi bopping on the waves. I was so tired. My arms felt like wet cotton.
Maybe I’d hallucinated the whole hobbit episode. I’d hit the water hard, ended up with a concussion, and started seeing small magic men in riding boots.
I forced myself to swim. Hanging in the water didn’t accomplish anything, and I was too exhausted to keep it up for long. Another trip around the cavern confirmed what I already knew—no escape. Sitting here waiting to be rescued was a losing proposition. Even if Aunt B and Keira did somehow manage to find me, I’d spend hours waiting for them to get a rope long enough get me out. The chances of the small man returning with a detachment of Pomeranian cavalry to liberate me were even slimmer.
The serpent had to have come from somewhere. There simply weren’t enough fish in this small cavern to keep it alive, and unless they fed it a steady diet of Abkhazian hobbits, it had to move freely between the cavern and the sea.
I swam to the wall where I’d first seen it and dove deep down through the crystal-clear water. Fifteen feet down, the mountain ended and a ten-foot-wide tunnel stretched before me, leading out. I had no idea how long it was.
To dive into an underwater tunnel of unknown length, possibly drowning, or to stay in the cavern until I wore myself out, possibly drowning? Sometimes life just didn’t offer good choices.
I breathed deep, trying to saturate my lungs with oxygen, and dove under. The tunnel rolled out in front of me, narrowing until it was barely four feet wide. I kept going, kicking off the walls. I once heard it was a good idea to not think about holding my breath while holding it. Yeah. That’s like not looking down while crossing over a cliff. Once someone says, “Don’t look down,” you’re going to look.
The walls were closing in on me.
What if I swam out into the nest of sea serpents?
My heart hammered in my chest. I’d run out of air. I swam, frantic, desperate, fighting the water for my life.
The ocean was turning dark. I was drowning.
The tunnel’s walls opened abruptly, and above me translucent blue spread. I flailed, heading straight up.
My face broke the surface. A bright beautiful sky stretched overhead. I gulped in the air. Oh wow. I lay on my back for a long second, breathing. I wasn’t ready to kick the bucket. Not just yet.
Hanging in the water was lovely and all, but if more sea serpents were floating about, I had to get the hell out of the water. I straightened up. I was in the open sea. The shore—a solid vertical cliff—towered before me. The mountain was nearly sheer. Climbing it right now was beyond me.
I turned in the water. A vast indigo sea stretched around me, a constant field of blue except for a tiny island about twenty-five yards away. Only twenty feet across, it was more like a rock than an island, but right now even the runt of the island litter would do.
I swam to it. The warm water, crystal clear, slid against my skin, caressing me gently. I was so happy to be alive.
I reached the rock, climbed up its mussel-studded side, and landed on my ass. Solid ground. Beautiful, wonderful, immobile solid ground. I love you.
I lay on my back. I could probably find my way to the city once I’d rested. I’d just have to move along the shore until I reached civilization, but right now moving wasn’t an option. Hanging out on this rock sounded like a really good idea. I could sit right here on this little island and think about the choices that resulted in my ending up in this place, half-drowned, exhausted, with my ankle bleeding, and a possible concussion causing hobbit hallucinations.
The warm sun heated my skin. I flipped over on my stomach, rested my forehead on my arm to keep my face from being cooked, and closed my eyes. My imagination painted a scaled monster crawling out of the sea to chew on me. I shoved the thought aside. I was safe enough here, and I was too tired to move.