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The Shells

  In theory low tide gave them just as much time to cross the Drownway at night as it did during the day. In practice things were much different. The day's second low tide came after sunset and, although the moon was waxing full and the skies relatively clear, it was still difficult to move safely over the slick rocks and gravelly shoreline of the tidal path. Progress was slow.

  For Adalai it was made worse by the constant glare Verina had fixed on the back of his head. Cassian was right about how personally she'd taken his ignoring her. However that didn't make the six eyes boring holes through him any easier to deal with. He hadn't been kidding when he told Cassian earlier that the thing which really bothered him wasn't Verina and her obvious regard but rather the scrutiny of the Linnorm that was hidden behind it.

  The Invoker's Gift was one Adalai was fairly familiar with. Invokers found spirits of nature and caused them to manifest to defend the Invoker or answer questions. Or do whatever else the Invoker had in mind. The catch was the Invoker had to find a local nature spirit to Invoke. Adalai didn't know much about what local nature spirits actually did but he was pretty sure they had to stay with the local nature to do it. Dragging one all over Nerona had to be bad somehow.

  Yet neither Verina or her dragon seemed to recognize that what they were doing was incredibly unnatural. He wasn't sure what to make of that. The fact that both of them - or all three if the two heads thought independently - had some kind of fascination with him didn't help matters.

  On top of all of that, whenever the "Great" Linnorm showed itself he got a creepy feeling. That was the best way he could describe it. Creepy. Something about the yaga and her dragon rubbed him the wrong way and he didn't like it. Yet the two - or three - of them wouldn't leave him alone.

  So Adalai resolved to ignore them more than ever as they picked their way through tidepools, waterlogged slopes and wet, squishy sand. At least there was no windy tightrope to walk that time. It would have been more than he could take in the dark of night with an invisible dragon watching. In point of fact the journey was pretty unremarkable.

  How long a given stretch of coast would stay above the waves varied but at a guess Adalai figured they had about two hours of usable travel time per low tide. All things considered it wasn't a lot. Combined with the added difficulties of nighttime navigation and he estimated they covered half the distance they had that morning. They came to a halt on a low, sandy atoll that stood just a few feet above the high tide marks. The only shelter against the Gulf winds was a low stone outcropping that hung over a deep tidal pool. They hunkered down there to pass the rest of the night and early morning.

  At first Adalai thought it was a good moment for some fishing. The tide pool was presumably a closed environment and he expected the fish would be unwary. After an hour of trying he gave up. In truth, dangling bits of food into a tide pool of unknown depth that might be connected to the ocean somehow was a bad idea. He didn't appreciate how bad at the time.

  He found out three hours later when a crab the size of a horse grabbed him out of his sleeping roll and dragged him into the tide pool. This happened just as he began to doze off. His body was adjusting slowly to the diurnal schedule they were keeping so he'd taken first watch and turned in once Marta relieved him. It was just past the witching hour when the creature struck.

  Adalai was jolted awake when something yanked on his arm hard enough to cause pain. The subsequent dunking in sea water added to his confusion. If he had been alone that might very well have been the end of him. However, before the enormous crustacean could get a solid grip and drag him further down into the water the Linnorm took an interest in the proceeding.

  To Adalai, half awake and flailing under the water, it looked as if a brilliant green light suddenly appeared and slammed into a shadowy mass of twigs. The grip on his arm loosened and he twisted around in the water until his head broke the surface. He had just enough time to suck in a lungful of air before going under again. Outside of getting a better look at one of the Linnorm's heads chomping on the crab's armored body there wasn't much to see.

  Given the events of the day so far Adalai went to sleep that night with his dagger still on his waist. Even though he was groggy from sudden waking he managed to get it unsheathed in a few seconds. He rammed it's point into the joints of the claw holding him a couple of times and it let go. Adalai braced himself against the crustacean's body and shoved away from it. His head banged on the wall of the tide pool.

  Dazed, Adalai drifted for a moment, spots swimming in front of his eyes. His limbs were going limp. No matter how certain he was about his need for air a sinister lethargy had fallen on him like wet clothes, making any attempt to claw his way to the surface incredibly difficult. Worse, with his vision swimming, he couldn't be sure which way was up. He ultimately had to spend more precious air to blow some bubbles that he could follow to the surface.

  Once his head was above water again Adalai turned over on his back and gasped for air. A hand grabbed him by the shoulder and, confused, he flailed against it before he realized it was Marta dragging him back towards the shore. The crab got hold of his leg and for a brief moment Adalai saw himself getting torn in half. Then the Linnorm got a solid grip on the crustacean's body and shook it.

  The tidepool frothed like a babbling lunatic as the spirit's head churned through the water and the crab let go of Adalai a second time. This time Marta got him all the way out of the water. The enormous crab was still locked in its deathmatch with a Linnorm head but by this point it had lost a leg and one of its claws. Blue-gray blood was sizzling off the dragon's scales and splattered on the ground. Adalai was reaching for his sword, which he'd taken from the bandits and left on the ground beside his bedroll before sleep, when he heard Cassian call out, "Zalt! There's another one over here!"

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  In point of fact it turned out there were two more of the enormous crustaceans coming up out of the sea. Cassian was already fighting one, his sword and daggers jabbing ineffectively at the massive creature's armored carapace. A glance at the Linnorm assured Adalai that Verina and her spirit had the tidepool situation well in hand. Adalai scooped up his own sword and motioned Marta towards the new threats.

  Unlike their encounter with the bandits, Adalai didn't have the luxury of letting Marta get in front of him. The new crabs were too close and too dangerous if they flanked Cassian. In his heavy plate armor the man was a goner if they managed to pull him into the water. So Adalai charged the closer crustacean, doing his best to leap over its claws and legs so that he could reach its long, waving eye stalks.

  Unfortunately leaping was not something he was naturally gifted at, in the general sense or the more specific, Neronan meaning. His attempt to jump over the crab's flailing limbs didn't work and it's foremost leg got tangled with his. He went dawn in a heap. At least the creature's body was within reach. Adalai stabbed at the joint where the leg met the main body, drawing a squirt of foul smelling bluish blood.

  The creature pivoted and tried to snatch him in its claws but Marta's glowing shield popped into place long enough to deflect the blow. Adalai scrambled to his feet as the crustacean recovered, getting close enough to slash at an eye stalk as he'd originally intended. The blow missed as the crab backed away from it. The creature had apparently decided discretion was the better part of valor. It withdrew from the shore, letting its bulk sink back down into the waves with a speed that belied it's enormity.

  Marta apparently decided the creature was not coming back. There was no other conclusion to draw from the way she shifted her attention to the creature Cassian was fighting, charging headlong into its flank, striking at its churning legs. Given that the heavy striking head of her mace was designed to break armor Adalai expected great results. He found himself disappointed.

  The heavy shell of the crab was more flexible than steel armor and, although the mace left it bruised and discolored, the shell did not shatter. However the creature did not care for that kind of hit one bit. It immediately snatched at the mace with its oversized claw, grabbing the weapon and beginning an almost comical tug of war with Marta over it.

  Between Marta on the right and Cassian on the left the crab's attention was fully occupied. Adalai took the opportunity to scramble up to the creature's flank. The joints where the creature's legs met its body were larger than any of the others. He grabbed hold of one of it's middle legs and threw his whole body's weight forward, forcing the leg to extend at an unnatural angle and expose the joint. Then he placed the point of his sword there and pushed.

  The crab released a strange, high pitched screeching sound and thrashed aimlessly. It released Marta's weapon and she used it to smash the very claw that had held it over and over. Cassian's daggers plunged into the writhing creature's eye stalks. Adalai braced both hands on his sword's hilt and wrenched around in a circular motion, twisting the blade in the creature's guts. The crustacean was beginning to back away when Cassian flicked his wrist and sent his long sword flying into the creature's mouth all the way up to the hilts.

  The creature twitched and staggered a moment longer then lay still. With a groan Adalai pulled his weapon out of the corpse, watching with some envy as Cassian's weapons effortlessly pulled themselves free from the body and flew back to him. As they backed away from the crab, warily watching to make sure it was dead, the gnawed body of the first crustacean flew overhead. It crashed into the other corpse and carried both into the surf.

  Cassian sheathed his weapons with the wave of a hand and watched the waves lapping over the bodies. "Not bad work, although it will make things tricky. Everyone keep your eyes out for any hungry creatures the fresh meat attracts. Do you have anything dry to wear on hand, Carpathea?"

  "I brought a spare doublet. And fortunately I took my cloak off before bed." Adalai turned to point towards his bedding but stopped when he realized Verina was laying on the ground, breathing heavily through gritted teeth. Concerned, he put his weapon away and hurried over. "What happened? I thought the Linnorm was between you and the crab."

  "It was," she hissed through her teeth.

  The situation was even harder to explain now that he had a closer look at her. It seemed like she hadn't even gotten out of her blankets. They lay strewn about her in charred tatters. The outer layer of her skirts showed similar scorching but most strange of all was the layer of shiny, almost glass-like sand that was stuck to her left shoulder beside her tattoos. Adalai reached out to brush it off but Verina jerked herself away.

  "Don't touch," she growled. Then she pulled herself upright, twisted around until her back was to him and began rummaging through her bag. Adalai shifted from foot to foot, wondering if he should help. He was about to offer to clean up the burnt blankets when Marta gently pulled him away.

  "No one wants to be seen when they feel pathetic, Sir," Marta whispered. "Leave her be for a moment."

  "Pathetic?" He matched the woman's tone. "She just saved my life! That's hardly what I'd call pathetic. And she got hurt in the process, don't you think that's something that concerns me?"

  "Of course, Adalai, but trust me, she's not quite ready for your concern yet. Change your clothes. Dry off a bit. Then try to talk to her. She should be ready then."

  A quick glance told him Verina was in the process of applying some kind of salve to her skin. She was also pointedly ignoring the two of them. Adalai turned his scrutiny back to Marta. The Hessex woman wouldn't quite meet his gaze, her pale blue eyes skittering this way and that like pebbles in a moving cart. "You know something about this, don't you."

  "Hessex was near the Rus. Lots of Slavs came there after it disappeared. I... have some ideas about yagas but I've never heard anything of certainty. It's not my place to talk about it. If you want to know, you should ask her."

  "Fine."

  As Adalai got changed he debated the question. He had good reason to avoid building long term relationships in Nerona. He'd been promised a chance to go home one day. But to do that he had to survive the current day first and having some idea what was motivating Verina seemed more and more like a necessity to survival. So, once he was in mostly dry clothes and she had finished with her salve he made up his mind.

  Folding his blanket over one arm he went over to try talking to her again.

  Hey all! Thanks for reading. Last week I had the chance to give an interview on a book I recently published, called Have Spell, Will Travel. While it's not connected to this story in any way if you've enjoyed what you read here and you'd like to see more of my stuff consider checking it out. You can watch the interview here:

  Going Weird West with Nate Chen

  Or just check out the book here:

  Have Spell, Will Travle on Amazon

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