The water in the hull was now past my ankles. I released a shaky breath as Da’s strong hands slipped under my arms and pulled me into his boat.
“Are you mad, child? What are you doing out here?” Da gave me a little shake. The jarring was nothing compared to the waves created by the serpent and its attacker.
“Finding Liss for you.” I tilted my chin up, and he simply gaped. “Some things are worth braving the water for.”
Da wrapped me in a tight embrace, then picked up his paddles. “I never knew we had another sailor in the family. Now let’s get away from that damned thing.” He jerked his head toward the snarling brawl taking place so near the boat.
As Da made for shore, I peered over the side for a glimpse of our savior. The rain slowed as I raised the lantern, allowing me a clearer view of the creature harassing the serpent. The glashtyn’s stallion head and dolphin tail were painfully familiar. He bared a set of impressive teeth at the agitated monster.
“Fynn!” Though he couldn’t possibly see or hear me, I stretched my arms toward him. “Get away from there! We’ll be fine, we’ll—” The words died in my throat.
The serpent rolled its good eye, apparently tired of Fynn’s taunting. It surged forward with lightning speed, snapping its jaws around his middle. The monster jerked from side to side in a celebratory dance, with Fynn flopping in its jaws.
I tried to scream, but couldn’t get enough air. There was so much red in the water, spreading from the spot where Fynn and the serpent were struggling. There wasn’t even that much blood in my body. I hoped the grisly sight meant Fynn had wounded the serpent.
At last, I found my voice. “That’s Fynn!” I grabbed Da’s arm and pointed to the spot where the serpent threw my dark-haired lad around like a child’s toy. “It’s Fynn! We have to help him!” I attempted to wrest the paddles from Da.
His grip was unyielding, but he spared a glance for the fight. “That’s not Fynn! It’s a horse-seal-dolphin—Hell, I don’t know what that thing is, but it’s no lad!”
“It’s him.” I patted my Bollan Cross and swung my leg over the side of the boat. There wasn’t time to convince Da. I would have to jump in, and trust the cross to help me ride the waves to Fynn. I took a deep breath, preparing to swing my other leg over.
Da seized my arms. “Look,” he commanded hoarsely.
There was no longer a glashtyn dangling from the serpent’s mouth. Fynn, with his shaggy hair and tanned skin, was human once again, but still caught in the monster’s teeth. His chest rose and fell shallowly.
Liss gasped, raising her brows at the sight.
“Merciful angels,” Da breathed. He changed direction, paddling back toward the fight.
I leaned over the side of the boat, holding the lantern aloft for Da. “We’re coming!”
The serpent shot around our boat and rose into the sky. Da hesitated, torn between helping Fynn and fleeing to protect his daughters. I elbowed him in the ribs, urging him to keep rowing to Fynn’s aid.
The serpent hadn’t yet spotted us. Fynn was now awake, and he was clawing at the monster’s remaining eye.
“We’re down here!” I yelled. “Jump! Hurry!”
Fynn’s exhausted gaze met mine, and he shook his head. “Bridey,” he coughed. Then he twisted in the serpent’s jaws, digging his fingers deep into the rim of the monster’s eye. The serpent thrashed and howled, but Fynn gouged the eye with a sickening pop.
A deafening wail forced Da, Liss and me to cover our ears. With a bone-chilling screech, the blind serpent dived beneath a swell, Fynn still trapped in its mouth. Water from their violent descent smacked me in the face, masking my tears.
Da moved cautiously toward the spot where the monsters had vanished, paddles cutting through the reddened sea. We sat for several minutes, the boat bobbing on the storm-charged waves in the darkness, but neither Fynn nor the serpent resurfaced. The only sound other than my sobs was the mournful keening of the wind.
“Where is he? Where’s the serpent?” A woman’s rough voice called from a distance. “And the glashtyn boy?”
A blurry speck of light, another lantern hanging from someone else’s boat, headed toward us. Morag, no illusion with her sodden clothes and sea-foam eyes, feebly dug a paddle into the angry sea. In her other hand, she clutched a shining spear.
“What happened?” she demanded, pulling her boat alongside ours. “Fynn—?”
“He’s gone.” Da hung his head. “Whatever he was, he’s with the angels now.” I sobbed harder, and Liss draped an arm across my shoulders.
“And the serpent?”
“It’s down there somewhere.” Da waved a hand at the red stain over the water. “Blind, though, if it’s even still alive.”