Warrior Witch (The Malediction Trilogy #3)(56)

“It was either this way, or back out underneath your noses, so you tell me.” Another light formed over her head, then began a slow progress across the lake.

Dropping to my elbows and knees, I scuttled toward the shadow of one of the ancient pillars, using its bulk to hide from view. Seconds later, Martin joined me, the ice protesting against our combined weight. Cracks spidered out from beneath us as the guard’s light passed by, searching. Hunting.

“This is a waste of time,” one of the guards muttered. “Cursed city is full of sluag and worse, and you’ve got us chasing after some half-blood who’s decided to take up skating.”

“Catching the fool who assaulted me is an excellent use of my time,” she responded. “Go back and stand in front of the gate – I’ll deal with them myself.”

The ice moaned, and I risked peeking around the corner of the pillar. The light from the three other guards was retreating into the tunnel, but the female was making her way out toward the center of the lake. Martin plucked at my sleeve. I ignored him, suspecting that his martial talents had been exhausted in the singular blow he’d dealt to the guard’s head. But he insistently tugged at my sleeve again.

“What?” I whispered.

He pointed down through the glassy surface, and seconds later, something moved.

I could not say what the creature was – only that it was a great leviathan. Its serpentine form moved lazily beneath the ice, opalescent scales gleaming as though it were lit from within. The guard hadn’t noticed it yet, and she moved with a measured stride across the lake, her eyes roving for someone that hid above, not something that hunted beneath.

“Don’t move,” Martin whispered. “Maybe it won’t notice us.”

“We can’t stay here forever.” Already, my lack of motion was allowing the cold to take over, but I dared not ask Martin to use magic to warm me lest it draw the attention of either the troll or what I strongly suspected was a Winter creature.

A voice echoed through the cavern, a song both lovely and eerily familiar. A song being sung with my voice.

My skin prickled with tension, and I realized then that it wasn’t just my own. My spell had worn off Tristan at the worst possible moment. I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm. This was no coincidence. Somehow, she knew my spell was wearing off, and she intended to use me to draw him out.

The guard froze, head cocking as she listened. “Princess?” she called, recognizing my voice. The creature sang again, and it passed beneath us as it circled, close enough to see the feathered tendrils floating behind its neck, the crimson eye that peered at us, but did nothing. It called out, and then the troll saw it.

Her oath filled the cavern, then she was sprinting back toward the tunnel, so fast as to be almost a blur. “Go,” I hissed at Martin and we scrambled into a run toward the end of the lake, running blind in the darkness.

But not fast enough.

A streak of white light shot beneath us then exploded out of the ice, my song drifting from its lips as it reared up high, blocking our path. Water sloshed over the ice, cracks streaking across the surface as though drawn with an enormous white pen. Then with a thunderous crash, the lake surface shattered into pieces.

I shrieked, the ground moving and shifting beneath us, the frozen slabs rising and falling on waves of the fey creature’s making. I slid into Martin and we both dropped to our knees to keep from sliding off into the water. The leviathan leaned forward, its great head descending on us, maw open wide.

Then it jerked sideways, song turning into a shriek. I found myself sliding the other way, the momentum of Martin’s blow shooting us in the opposite direction. I scrabbled at the surface, but I could find no purchase.

Something silver whistled over my head, and the creature screamed in pain, diving back beneath the surface, a sword embedded in its flesh.

The slab tilted, then righted itself with a jerk as the guard landed on the far side, another blade in her hand.

“This way, this way,” Martin panted, hauling me across the magic bridging the heaving slabs.

“Where is it?” I could barely get the words out, I was so cold. “Where’s the hole?”

A dozen balls of light illuminated the paintings covering the wall, but there was no opening. Behind us, the ice exploded as the leviathan launched out of the water again. I turned in time to see the guard toppling down a massive slab, sliding toward the blackness below. But she propelled herself outwards, summersaulted in the air and landed in a crouch. She lifted her arms, and the air hummed with magic, but the creature was back beneath the surface.

“I don’t see it.” Martin said something else, but his words were drowned out as my song once again filled the cavern. Mocking. Taunting.

And thick in my head, was Tristan’s panic. Stay behind the walls, I silently pleaded, clinging to Martin’s sleeve. It’s a trick. She’s trying to lure you out. But I’d given up my only way to ensure he stayed safe.

Martin’s mouth was moving, but I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of the battle going on behind us. “He said it was here!” I screamed.

Our slab of ice slammed into the rock walls, water flooded over the edges, soaking into my clothes. “It was a trick,” I sobbed. “Nothing but a trick.”

But Martin’s face was intent, eyes examining the faces of the trolls on the wall. “The Duke,” he shouted, then, “It has to be there. Hold on.” He backed up, sprinted across the slab, and dived straight at the wall.