Page 101 of The Merciless Ones

“Prepare for battle. Your Nuru commands it! NOW!” I snap.

The guard immediately darts away. “SOUND THE ALARMS,” she calls. “WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! SOUND THE ALARMS!”

As the guards start rushing to and fro, I turn to Ixa, who’s breathing so heavily, his sides nearly rattle from the force of his breaths. You all right, Ixa? I ask.

He manages a nod.

Change to kitten form and hide until you regain your strength. Can you do that?

He nods again, already shrinking. The moment he pads off to hide in the foliage, I rush after my friends, who are at the banks of the lake, where the water bridge is forming, its planks and railings already taking shape. I rush towards it, eager to be on my way. But then it collapses. Shocked, I stop, step closer to the water again. Nothing. The water’s surface doesn’t even stir.

A chill rushes over me. The water bridge forms only for those loyal to the goddesses.

Britta turns to me, nods. “I’ll try it,” she says. She steps in front of the water.

The bridge begins to build, but then just as swiftly collapses. It’s almost as if it were unsure, as if it changed its mind at the last moment.

“Let me,” Adwapa says, pushing forward.

She marches in front of the bridge. Nothing. The bridge doesn’t even try to rise.

The silence is so tense now, we can’t even look at each other’s eyes.

“The bridge isn’t rising,” Britta whispers, horrified. “Why isn’t the bridge rising?”

“You know why.” Belcalis’s eyes flit over the rest of the group. “We all know why.”

Because we questioned them…

By now, I’m aware of the guards staring, aware that everyone around us is watching. I turn defiantly towards the others. “I don’t know anything. All I know is, I have to get to the mothers.”

Bridge or no bridge, I must find my way across—

A ripple forms in the lake’s centre and I gasp. The Ababa! I’d forgotten that it was there, quietly wandering the depths. I tap the water in the pattern I saw Anok make, relief spreading over me when a responding ripple travels across the water. I stare at that ripple, a sudden suspicion coiling through me. Could this be why Anok showed me how to summon the Ababa in the first place? Did she expect what is now happening? I push the thought away as a low rumbling reverberates through the air, iron-grey scales parting the water, a massive reptilian head emerging from the depths.

The Ababa. It’s coming.

“Baba Dorie’s balls, what in the name of all creation is that?” Li gasps.

“The Ababa,” I say, smiling when the gigantic creature rests its head on the shore. I walk over, pet a tip of a monstrous nostril. “Hello there,” I say in greeting.

The Ababa huffs out, covering me in a gust of warm, moist air that smells vaguely of fish.

“I have a favour to ask.”

Another huff of warm air. It seems the Ababa is listening.

“Can you carry me and my friends across?” I gesture to the others.

Reptilian yellow eyes blink their slow consent.

I turn to the others. “Get on.”

Everyone moves towards the creature except for Britta, whose face has turned pale. “No. No. This is where I draw the line.”

I frown. “I don’t understand. You were just on Ixa.”

“Exactly. I was just on Ixa. I love ye, Deka, but I refuse. I’ve already been high up in the sky, which, by the way, is unnatural – unnatural – and now ye want me to ride that thing with a jaw ten times the size of my entire body, which I’ve never so much as had a conversation with. And we all know wha happens to people who fall into this lake – the ones the water bridge doesn’t shape itself for. No, I can’t. I refuse.”