Outlanders

Chapter 11: Words for water

DUVAL

CHERNY FOREST

OLD REPUBLIC

From my position across the river I can almost feel the moment she senses me watching. I sink lower into the water, my eyes barely above the current as she turns around, searching around her. Oddly enough, she doesn't turn to her left, toward her bank of the river, but directly to her right, to the water as if she can already sense my presence. I can't see her face in the darkness, but I know exactly when her eyes find mine. I should have dived under the moment she turned her head, held my breath, waited for her searching eyes to pass over. I should be more careful, more cautious, like Sedar - but Sedar would never find himself half naked in a river in enemy territory and without backup in the first place. In for a penny, in for a pound, I almost smile as I remember my gramma's words. Usually she used the expression to justify eating one more gizzada when they were fresh from the oven, not to justify taking one more risk. I'm not sure what's gotten into me, maybe it's the extended camp in the Cherny forest with only Sedar for company, or the voice of the girl, singing of my island, but something has me leaving caution behind.

She holds my eyes for a second before she begins to turn, and then her movement changes and I realize she's falling. Her fall is not without grace, but the water meets her violently, with a loud splash breaking the sounds of night.

For a moment I am frozen in place, holding my breath as if I'm the one under the water, waiting for her to resurface. When she does not, I find myself pushing off the river bottom, long strokes of my arms bringing me to her side of the river. I whisper all of my magewords for sight and water just before diving underneath the surface. At first I see nothing but darkness, but then I submerge myself into the sea of tongues I've extracted, cracking its frozen surface, silently seeking out the magewords I need amongst their brethren. Water is always close to the surface, as it is for any Jemya. Sight, mine extracted from the Armic tongue, is more of a struggle but I find it and drag it out with me, forcing it to accept my will. My vision gradually changes and the night river becomes as clear as the turquoise waters off of Morant Bay. The colors have not changed- the seemingly infinite shades of darkness have just become distinct from each other, offering up their secrets and revealing a hidden world.

I traverse the current underwater, looking from side to side for a trace of the girl. I am surprised to recognize the texture of sandstone on the river bottom with my maged sight, along with the ragged remains of last autumn's leaves, slowly turning into sediment in the depths of the Elbe. Just when my lungs start to protest and I know I must resurface, I see her ahead of me moving downriver with the current, unconscious and powerless against it. I hold my magewords for water, all five of them, the Jemya strongest, anchoring myself in the current, bringing myself to her. I feel the current turn to me, pushing me forward with its terrible strength and have to remind myself that it is only doing as I asked. I am in control here, not the Elbe.

Once I am close enough I reach out, albeit ungracefully, and grab onto her ankle, this time commanding the current to push her toward me. The push is slower this time as the current is going against its natural course, but it comes all the same. I reach her shoulders, grasp onto each forearm, and kick up with all of my failing strength. I call the current to us once more, demanding it to push up this time.

I need air immediately. I hold onto my magewords for water, controlling the current, but lose control of sight, plunging myself into instant darkness. There is no logic in drowning. I know there is no air to be had under the water, and yet I know that soon I will try to breathe it in anyway. When I am only instants from breathing in the dark water I break the surface, the strange girl in my arms. I breathe deeply into my abused lungs, burning from the effort. The girl is still unconscious. I drag the current to us and push to my bank of the river, relieved to feel the muddy bottom beneath my feet when we reach the edge. I let go of the current and it resumes its natural course with a vengeance. I pity the next human unlucky enough to enter the Elbe tonight. I've demanded much of its currents, and now they seek to remind me that they are a force to be reckoned with.