Page 24

Thorn glanced up at the unicorn. Even in Estar, his white coat shone. “I miss Brier too.”

Noro sniffed, sounding bored. But Thorn knew better. “Nonsense. We’ve only been gone a little over a day.”

Was that all? Thorn’s eyes stung with fresh tears.

Noro nudged her cheek with his nose. “And I’m sure you miss the rat as well.”

That made Thorn laugh a little. “We didn’t get to say goodbye to them.”

“I’m afraid I’m not as cuddly as he is,” Noro went on, “but I will try to be—”

A scream cut through the air.

Thorn whirled around just in time to see one of the soldiers being dragged across the clearing toward the water.

It was the freckled woman with the short white hair who had snapped at Thorn to move. The woman clawed at the stone, ripping up ribbons of moss, screaming at her fellow soldiers for help.

Something had her by the ankle—a ropy, dark shape like a long-fingered hand.

Thorn’s chest clamped hard around her heart.

Theswampwas dragging the soldier.

The swamp wasalive.

Everything her parents had said about Estar was true. Thorn hadn’t wanted to believe them.

Now she had no choice.

Bartos threw himself stomach-first onto the stone. “Make a chain!”

The other soldiers jerked out of their slack-jawed terror and obeyed. The captain grabbed Bartos’s ankles, and so on, until all four soldiers lay stretched out on the rock. The last one hooked his ankles around Noro’s front legs. Noro stood fast, his head bowed and his horn aglow.

“Don’t let it get me!” shrieked the white-haired woman, now submerged up to her waist. “Kill it!Kill it!”

The swamp crawled up her body like a glistening shell, encasing her in darkness. Muffled moans slithered through the air, as if someone was enjoying a good meal with their mouth stuffed full.

“Pull harder!” Bartos shouted back at the others.

“Put everything you’ve got into it!” added the captain.

The soldiers heaved, grunting and groaning—but it was no use.

The swamp was at the woman’s chin now, crawling up her face and scalp. She screamed once more, and darkness poured into her throat. Her mouth stretched into a gaping lipless maw, covered in a thick film of sludge.

With a great sucking sound, the swamp dragged the soldier under. The water gurgled, popped, and fell silent.

The captain pulled Bartos back to safety. The other soldiers scrambled up the ridge. Thorn rushed to Noro, who aimed his horn at the water. His eyes were dark angry slits.

They all stared, waiting. Overhead, a bird swooping through the low black clouds gave a rattling caw that sounded like croaking laughter.

Then another soldier cried out. Noro reared up with a savage trumpeting cry.

Four huge glistening hands erupted from the swamp, trailing gummy, rotting strands, and raced up the ridge like scuttling spiders.

The soldiers scrambled for their bags. Shrieking and wild-eyed, the warhorses raced away from their masters, galloping clumsily through the sludgy water. More hands thrust up out of the swamp—giant hands, with dozens of fingers and sharp black claws. The hands wrapped around the horses’ bellies and yanked them beneath the water, gear and all.

Noro leaped to go after them.