Amanda took her last breath and then followed Sirius down. There was a moment where she didn’t move and then suddenly she was being pulled along much faster than she knew she could swim. She counted the seconds and for the first several she decided everything was going to be just fine.

  Then they stopped. She was up to seven seconds at this point. That was good. Seven seconds to cover a third of the tunnel. She could do that.

  But the seconds kept ticking and they still weren’t moving. Had something gone wrong? She reminded herself to relax. She had to trust this was fine, had to trust that this was normal. There really wasn’t anything else she could do except count.

  She got up to 13 seconds. She might be bad at math but that was almost half of 30 and they were still only a third of the way through the tunnel. She focused on trying to figure out the total time. She found she struggled with recalculating since the seconds kept ticking up and counting and doing calculations at the same time was hard. But it didn’t matter what the numbers were. She was mostly just using them to keep her distracted from the current situation. Anything to keep herself calm.

  Finally they were moving again. Getting to the second stop seemed to take even less time. What number had she been up to? She couldn’t remember. The movement had briefly distracted her and there wasn’t much point starting over was there?

  She let out a little air to try and ease the pressure but it didn’t help. It only served to make things worse. What was taking so long? She couldn’t do this. She was going to drown.

  Then they were moving.

  Her lungs burned but she knew they were close now. Only a few more seconds. She could make it.

  Below her on the tunnel floor a face suddenly appeared all white with sunken eye sockets. A skull. A skull of someone who hadn’t made it.

  She fought the urge to panic. In her head she repeated the words ‘don’t move’ over and over and over like mantra.

  The floor of the tunnel suddenly fell away. Green-blue open ocean lay beneath her. But where was the surface?

  She let go of the last of her air. It bubbled up around her face for what felt like an eternity.

  Hands lifted her up and suddenly she could breath again. Fresh air and warm sun hit her face. Sirius loosened the ropes on her wrists all the while managing to keep her face up and out of the water. She could hear the crashing of the surf against rocks not far away. She spat out salt. They were in some sort of bay. Steep red cliffs surrounded them on three sides. There didn’t look to be any sign of the town or any easy area of land to climb up onto. She didn’t care. Right now she was just glad to be alive.

  “You alright?” Sirius asked.

  She nodded, too out of breath to talk.

  “Can you paddle for a bit? I need to get my clothes.”

  For a moment she thought about asking him to leave them. She didn’t want him to drown in that tunnel going back for his clothes, but she could see he wasn’t out of breath at all and she knew that coat was special so she nodded. She could paddle for a bit.

  He didn’t immediately dive back under. Instead he gave her a studious look.

  “I’m good,” she affirmed after a few more breaths of precious air.

  He nodded, and then he was gone again.

  She hoped she’d made the right choice to let him go this time.

  The waves jostled her about and despite her affirmation that she was good, she did find it quite tiring trying to keep afloat with her shoes on. She’d figured since they were close to land it wouldn’t matter too much, but as she scanned the nearby rocks she couldn’t find an obvious place to climb out of the water. Best case, maybe they could grip onto the rock wall but with the waves jostling as much as they were it would be difficult. They were going to have to swim a little further but the idea of swimming out of the bay and into open ocean where who knew what the currents were like or how far they’d have to go exhausted her.

  She was glad when Sirius reappeared.

  “Where do we swim to?” she called over the sound of the waves.

  “Out there. There’s a path that winds up the cliff.” He nodded toward the edge of the bay, toward a jutting out of rocks.

  Indeed, it did look like the land might slope down enough there to scramble up. It would be a steep climb though.

  She took in a deep sigh and mentally prepared for the long swim. But then she felt Sirius’s hands around her, pulling her gently on to her back.

  “Let me tow you,” he said.

  Knowing he was a far better swimmer than she would ever be, she gave in and let him pull her.

  “Shall I kick?” she asked.

  “If you want,” came his reply, and so she did.

  They made good progress. The next time she glanced back at the cliffs they’d come out below she was surprised as how far away they were. They must be almost there.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Oh, shit!” Sirius said suddenly.

  “What?” she asked, hearing the unmistakable sound of alarm in his voice.

  “Nothing,” came the reply. But it wasn’t nothing. It was a lie. She could hear it in his tone. “Just keep swimming.”

  The worry in his voice was obvious but she did as asked.

  Soon she felt Sirius’s hands twist her and lift her up onto the rocks. She scrambled up, glad to be out of the water. He pulled himself up after her.

  When she turned around to look at the sea she understood what his worry had been about. “Oh shit!” she said, repeating the same phrase he’d used.

  There were hundreds if not thousands of box-like clear jellyfish floating all around the rock they’d just climbed up. She recognised the species too.

  “Yeah.” Sirius agreed. He gave her a worried look. “Did any sting you?”

  She understood his concern. She knew what jellies these were. Sea wasps, one of the most lethal of all jellies. She shook her head in answer.

  “Are you sure?” he asked.

  She nodded. “I’d know. Those things hurt like hell if they get you.” She surveyed the sea around them. They were reasonably spread out where they’d climbed up but were clustered nearer together out toward the furthermost point of the rock, and most looked on the smaller side, which was good. Even so, their tentacles could reach up to a few metres under the water. They had been very lucky.

  She glanced at Sirius. “What about you?”

  She breathed a sigh of relief when he shook his head. He seemed fine and those jellies could kill in minutes. If he’d been stung it would have been obvious by now.

  She sat down on the rock feeling a range of emotions. But it wasn’t over yet.

  “Come on,” Sirius said as he looked up the hill. “We should get back to the boat before they realise we’re missing.”

  She frowned. “Don’t you mean we should go rescue Ghost?” Even after everything that had happened she couldn’t just leave the pegasus to whatever fate Sirena had in store for him.

  Sirius nodded. “We’ll need help from the others.”

  Amanda felt tension leaving her body. She’d been so sure he was going to argue. She hadn’t been prepared for him to continue to go along with her plan. “Wouldn’t it be better with less of us?” she asked.

  Sirius shook his head. “I mean, yes but better with specific people okay. Your last attempt at getting the pegasus back got you stuck out at sea. We may not be thieves now but many of the crew were once before, so maybe leave this to a professional okay.”

  She nodded. If they were actually going to help she’d happily do it their way. She got to her feet and followed him up the steep and rocky track. She wasn’t sure if it was a real track or just something an animal had made. Either way, it seemed to be leading them the right way.

  “Thank you,” she said as they climbed. “For getting me out of there.”

  He glanced back and nodded. Then she heard him sigh. “It was admirable, what you did or tried to do, defending that man, but it was also stupid. You basically attacked a government official with fire in a town that’s at war with a group of firestarters.”

  “They can’t all be firestarters.”

  “No but enough of them are and the ones that aren’t are reasonably well practiced with fire infusements and they use it to make their points. Just like how most of the Scarlett royal family are water elementals. Add to the mix a couple of infusers and several schools that focus on water elemental magic and you get a lot of water magic here. Water focused festivals are a large part of their culture just as fire festivals are on the fire islands. Maybe I’ll show you the local fountains later if we haven’t been arrested again by then.”

  “What are they fighting over?”

  Sirius shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. All sorts of things. The fire islands are known slave traders but that’s not even the half of it and it’s much more complicated than that. Point is, it’s much bigger than you or I and getting in the middle of it like you did does nothing to help. You should’ve just walked on by.”

  Amanda snorted. “The guy was being water boarded in public. I wasn’t going to just walk right past that and do nothing.”

  “And he’d probably get water boarded again at some point in the future after we’ve left. Or were you planning on staying here and trying to end a war that’s been going on for decades and which you know nothing about?”

  Amanda opened her mouth and then closed it again.

  Sirius glanced back at her.

  “Maybe I can’t end a war but I won’t stand for injustice when I see it in front of me,” she replied defiantly.

  She heard Sirius sigh but he said no more and they climbed up the bank in silence.

  Upon reaching the top of the hill they found they were not alone.

  There at the top of the hill stood a woman with dark hair and dark eyes wearing blue and black silk finery.

  “Bravo! Bravo!” She clapped her hands together. “That was a fine escape, although I must admit, given the rumours I thought you might boil the sea and escape that way.”

  As she finished her sentence the woman raised her hands and suddenly a giant wave of water was coming right for them.

  Amanda evaporated it just as she had the prince’s attack from earlier.

  As the steam cleared the woman clapped her hands again and giggled.

  Amanda readied herself for another attack. She considered taking things further, acting before the woman did, but she didn’t want to burn someone alive if she didn’t have to. She could still remember the smell of the ones she’d burnt from The Slicer. People whose names she hadn’t even known. It had been necessary but still she couldn’t shake the memory of them. They’d sneak up on her sometimes when she’d least expect it. Each time she’d consciously replace them with the faces of the ones who were still alive, the ones who had been saved, a reminder of the necessity of it.

  She wasn’t yet sure if attacking this woman would be necessary and given her clothing matched that of the Prince of Scarlett, it was possible that doing so would have far more consequences than just taking a life. Still, she remained at the ready.

  But the woman did not attack again. Instead she smiled and said, “Oh, don’t worry, I’m not here to fight. I just had to come and see for myself the one who bested my brother in public. How very entertaining.” She clapped her hands again. Her face was full of sparkle. Then suddenly she got serious and narrowed her eyes. “You’re not from the fire islands are you?”

  Sirius answered. “No.”

  Her smiled returned. “Ah, good. I didn’t think so, None of them would be foolish enough to do such a silly thing. And your accents are different.”

  “How do you know what we sound like?” Amanda asked. She hadn’t yet said anything in front of the woman, only Sirius had and that was just the one word.

  The woman smiled a secretive sort of smile and clasped her hands up to her mouth. “I’ve been watching.” She beat her fingers together like they were little spider legs then she took them away from her mouth and eyed them with curiosity. “So why are you here?”

  “We’re traders,” Sirius answered again.

  Amanda figured it was probably best to let him do most of the talking since he seemed to know a lot more about the culture here.

  “From where?”

  Sirius opened his mouth but was then quiet long enough that Amanda answered for him. “Little Rock.”

  “Oh, so far.” Another smile. “Well, you don’t need to worry. I just wanted to see your power for myself. They’re speaking in the taverns of a woman who can burn the whole ocean. I suggest you tread carefully while you’re here with powers like that.”

  “We won’t be staying long,” Sirius replied.

  The woman stepped to the side and bowed her head politely, although her dark eyes never left them. “Well, I’ll let you be on your way then.”

  Feeling like they’d just escaped an entirely different kind of trap, Amanda followed Sirius past the woman and the rest of the way up the hill.