GoG final draft by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-27T03:46:38+00:00

-11-

The King of the Sirens

Rygal hadn’t even had time to take a breath. Now water pressed down on him, and his lungs screamed for air. The Siren had his arm in a tight grip, pulling him through the water. Rygal could see nothing except the blur of dark green around him. He thrashed desperately, but it was useless.

Then, suddenly, he felt himself dragged up on cold stone. Air reached his lips, and he inhaled deeply, then coughed. He was in a large stone cavern set just below the surface. The upper part of it was above water, but the entrance was under – like a beaver dam. Soaking wet and shivering, he pulled himself to a sitting position and looked around. There were Sirens everywhere – all of them smiling.

A Siren surfaced behind him, dragging Dusty up behind it. Rygal rushed to her. The Wildkid girl was very pale, and she didn’t even seem to be breathing.

“Dusty,” Rygal whispered hoarsely, horrified at the thought of losing his friend.

Then Dusty’s eyes flew open, and she began coughing up all the swamp water she had swallowed. When she had caught her breath, she huddled next to Rygal. “Are you all right?” she whispered hoarsely.

“I’m fine,” Rygal replied softly. “Don’t be afraid. Iriam will come help us.” He held her close, trying to warm both of them up.

The Siren that had pulled Rygal under now stretched luxuriously and yawned, showing its fangs. It was the first time Rygal had seen its whole body. It looked a little like a very large newt, with a long body and short legs, but it had a frill going down the length of its back, and its neck was longer. Its eyes held a calculating intelligence as it studied the two captives. Its paws looked like human hands, although they only had four fingers, and in between the fingers was webbing. Its rear paws looked much the same, but longer and flatter than the front paws. The Siren studied them for a moment, then spoke, its voice quite humanlike, though with a gentle rasp.

“Why come you?” it asked. Judging from its voice, it was male. Rygal saw that its frill was thick under its chin, like a beard, while some of the sirens just had frills on their heads. So those must be females, and the male sirens had full frills, he decided.

“We had to get to Elimar,” Dusty said, glaring at the Siren.

“Why not main road?” the Siren inquired. Its Common Speech was broken and slow, and the slight accent confirmed Rygal’s guess that the Sirens used their own language.

“We’re being chased by Hazes,” he said. “They’re guarding the main road – that’s why we had to go through your territory.”

The assembled Sirens let out low, angry hisses at the mention of Hazes. That was a good sign – if they hated Kado too, maybe they would help.

“We’re not here to fight you,” Dusty added. “Please – will you please let us go?”

The Siren who had spoked turned and spoke briefly with the others in a swift, chattering language.

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