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With changes to their plans, Ashlynn and her companions spent an entire day on preparations before setting out for the Deep Water region of the Briar.

Though the actual planning didn’t take more than a few hours, there was another component of preparation that Talauia declared vital for Ashlynn and Heila.

"You know, you know, without wings, it’s very dangerous to be in the Deep Water region.

Falling in the water is as good as falling to your death.

It doesn’t need to be a Giant Thornback Alligator to be dangerous and the water snakes will swarm anything that sinks beneath the surface so you shouldn’t, absolutely shouldn’t let yourself fall in. "

"So, either we stay on the boat, or we stay on the island we’re on," Ashlynn said with a nod. "But no wading into the water. Are there places that suddenly drop off underwater that make it so dangerous?"

Sailors approaching Blackwell City had the opposite problem when navigating into the harbor. Without good charts, a ship could find itself running aground on a sandbar hidden beneath the waves or other places where the water suddenly became much, much shallower than they thought.

In the swamp of the Briar, however, the boats were all flat-bottomed and wide so they could have a very shallow draft.

In many places, the water was so shallow that if Ashlynn had ever chosen to wade from one island to another in the complex waterways, she wouldn’t have sank deeper than her hips.

From that perspective, a sudden dropoff was surely just as dangerous in the Briar as sudden shallows were off the coast of Blackwell County.

"If there are, if there are then it doesn’t matter," Talauia said. "In the Deep Water region, the water is so deep that our poles don’t touch the bottom anymore. I can just fly if I don’t need to carry much but with all of us, we’ll have to use oars.

But if you fall in the water and one of the snakes or something else gets a hold of you, they’ll pull you down deep quicker than you can struggle. "

"You know, I wasn’t jealous when Mistress Nyrielle showed me her wings because she always scooped me up in her arms like a princess and carried me away," Ashlynn teased. "But, Tala, you’re starting to make me wish I had wings of my own."

"Don’t you know sorcery to walk on air, my lady?" Heila asked, blinking at Ashlynn in surprise.

"I do," Ashlynn admitted awkwardly. "But, since I’m leaving my sword behind, isn’t it cheating if I rely on Mistwalker Dance when we’re hunting? Big sister wants me to fight like a witch."

"It’s fine, it’s fine," Talauia said with a wide toothy grin. "If you can learn to draw on the energy of the world for your Mistwalker Dance then it’s better, but it’s fine if it’s just sorcery. But cousin Heila, I have a different one for you."

"For me?" Heila said, blinking in surprise. "What kind of witchcraft do you have for me?"

"It’s called ’Floating Leaf Steps’," Talauia said. "It’s special, extra special for you since the Willow is a water tree. You can step on the water like you were just the leaf of a tree. But if you lose your concentration while you’re doing it..."

"Then I’ll sink like a stone," Heila said, shuddering at the thought. "Should I really rely on something like this that I’ve just learned? If I don’t know it, then I won’t be tempted to try it."

"You have to learn it," Ashlynn said firmly. "But I’ll learn it with you, even though I’m not very good at water magic. Maybe you won’t be able to rely on it, but if there’s an emergency, isn’t it better to know it and try, even if you have a chance of failing?

Not knowing is as good as failing without trying and I don’t want to see you get hurt because you didn’t have another option. "

"Oh," Heila said, frowning in thought as she considered it from Ashlynn’s perspective. "Then, I guess you’re right. I’ll learn it," she said with a determined nod.

Saying it was one thing, but actually learning it was something else.

The incantation itself was simple, only two lines, just a handful of words.

Within an hour of learning, both Heila and Ashnlynn could dash across the shallow waters of the Briar near Amahle’s gardens without so much as getting their feet wet.

It was when Talauia added fighting to the running across the water that things quickly fell apart. Needing to pay attention to the Thistle Witch as she lobbed over-ripe vegetables at them from the air or flew beside them to deliver a precisely timed shove proved more than either woman could handle.

By the time their preparations were complete, both Ashlynn and Heila had fallen into the water more times than either cared to count and the silty soil from the bottom of the waterways clung to their clothing, skin, and even hair as if to remind them how many times they’d failed to keep their concentration.

They’d certainly made improvements, but neither woman harbored any illusions that they would be walking on water while fighting off hordes of enemies any time soon.

"I’m glad Aunt Amahle told us we weren’t ready for the Giant Thornback Alligator," Heila said that evening as she scrubbed away at the silt in her hair. "Like this, I’d probably just fall in its jaws."

"We’ll get there soon enough," Ashlynn said confidently from the washbasin next to Heila. She’d spent a good portion of the afternoon thinking about how she would use her Mistwalker Dance to move and fight in the Deep Water region and a plan was beginning to come together in her mind.

"I think that our goal should be to lure things to us on dry land. Or maybe even to fight the creatures that climb into the trees," Ashlynn suggested. "But after today, I’m willing to accept it if we’re unsuccessful in hunting any beasts. There are still rare herbs to collect in the Deep Water region. Let’s treat our hunt as something extra instead of our main goal.

We can always try hunting again in a month or two. "

The plan worked for both women, and both Talauia and Jacques were relieved that Ashlynn and Heila were willing to take several steps back in light of their still-developing abilities.

Both of them were certain to be powerful witches one day, but no matter how soon that day would arrive, it clearly hadn’t come yet.

In the morning, the quartet of witches ventured out in one of the largest boats in Amahle’s collection.

This one, while it was just as wide as most of the others, was more than three times as long, and it had been filled with several grass baskets to carry back the herbs they harvested along with any beasts they managed to slay.

As they exited the familiar waterways near Amahle’s home, an anticipatory silence fell over the group while everyone strained their senses for the slightest sign that something might disturb them.

In order to allow ample opportunities for Ashnlynn and Heila to hunt their prey, both witches from Amahle’s coven had drawn their thorny auras in tight, allowing fish and other creatures to swim directly under their boat, even brushing up against it without the slightest response.

Finally, after close to a quarter of an hour of navigating through unfamiliar waterways, Jacques put away the familiar pole and retrieved a long, wide paddle to begin rowing their boat into the Deep Water region.

All around them, massive cypress trees rose from the murky depths like the spires of a drowned city, their mighty trunks vanishing into darkness beneath the water’s surface while their branches wove together far overhead to create a canopy that left the waterways in perpetual twilight.

Clusters of gnarled cypress knees stood above the water like miniature islands that insects and small birds clung to while searching for food in the dim waterway.

The thick canopy and looming trunks blocked even the slightest breeze, leaving the air not only oppressively hot and humid but as still as the inside of a tomb.

The surface of the water was like black glass, disturbed only by the ripples radiating out from their boat and the occasional movement of something beneath the surface of the water.

Whatever it was that disturbed the stillness, Ashnlynn only ever glimpsed it out of the corner of her eye before it vanished beneath the surface again.

"Dere," Jacques said quietly, holding the paddle in his hands and pointing ahead with a scaly claw. In the distance, the faint greenish-blue glow of witch-moss could be seen in the dark canopy above along with the faint rustle of something moving through the branches of the canopy.

"De herbs we want, dey all grow in places de witch-moss glows," he whispered. "But where de witch-moss glows, something hungry always follows..."