* * *
“W elcome, benevolent queen,” Gaia said.
“Thank you for welcoming me into your realm,” Nixie said, nodding at Gaia as if it were the most normal thing ever.
“What did I miss?” I asked.
“It is an old greeting,” Gaia said. “One that should be reserved for true royalty.”
“We need to get to Saint Charles,” I said.
“And check on Alexandra.” Nixie squeezed my hand.
“We don’t have time,” I said. “You sent her with a full company of water witches. Do you really think there’s anything they can’t handle?”
“A larger force of water witches,” Nixie said.
I grimaced, and hoped she couldn’t see the expression in the dim light of the Abyss.
“I can’t leave her to her fate,” Nixie said.
The thought of delaying a return to Saint Charles tightened the knot in my chest. But not only was Alexandra at Rivercene, so were Ashley and Beth. The words felt dry and wrong. “We need to make it fast.”
“Fine,” Nixie said. “I haven’t heard from her, and I need to know what happened.”
“Has the time of my awakening come?” Gaia asked.
“I rather hope not,” I said. “Get us there fast.”
“I warn you the jump will be unpleasant,” Gaia said. “To walk through the Abyss twice in such a short time will not do you well.”
“It can be a little disorienting,” I said in agreement.
Nixie gasped. I turned my head to find one of the mountainous beaks of the leviathan known as Croatoan.
“It’s maybe not as dead as the Old Man thinks,” I said.
“No shit,” Nixie said.
“I have a safe target for you,” Gaia said. “But I warn you it is over the river.”
“Hold on,” Nixie said, squeezing me tighter.
Gaia gave no other warning. The distant stars of the Abyss streaked around us before spiraling into chaos. We stayed silent when the portal opened on the other side, and the river rushed up to greet us.
* * *
I didn’t understand what had happened at first. I waited for the cold water, the loud splash, or for the landing Gaia had designated as safe to be significantly less than that. When I opened my eyes, I realized we were underwater. Nixie had somehow silenced our splash, and now we were racing through the shallow waters of the Missouri River.
“I can actually talk in this thing?” I said, staring around the bubble Nixie had stuck my head in.
“You don’t have much air. You can tell me all about it later. I promise I’ll act interested.”
I grinned at her translucent face above me as we rose onto the edge of the river bank. “I don’t understand how that could’ve been safe.”
“Agreed. No river is safe when it’s plagued by the queen’s witches.”
We hadn’t yet exited the river when a voice boomed, “Be still your fleshy forms, or be crushed beneath the might of…”
I blinked up at Stump’s imposing silhouette. The Green Man froze, glancing between me and Nixie. “You are not the threat we expected to see here. We have had many unwelcome guests,” Stump said as he reached down into the river.
I cursed as the Green Man plucked me from the waters and set me gently on the bank. He extended an arm to Nixie, and she leveraged herself up beside me.
“Is Alexandra here?” Nixie asked.
“She has left this place to continue her journey elsewhere, and one was must wonder what sights she will encounter. What lies beyond the borders of these rivers and woods, and how I would enjoy the sight of your oceans.”
“Is she okay?” Nixie said. “When she left, was she okay?”
Stump turned slightly, and the fading sunset revealed a pale wound on what constituted the Green Man’s right cheek. “She was well, though most distraught over her inability to commune with her sisters. With you, in fact. Not all undines left this place.”
“Cool scar,” I said.
Stump blinked and slowly raised his right arm to run across the stretch of his cheek where the bark had been stripped away. “Why does your kind compliment our injuries? You are not the first today to do so, as the one called Cornelius said much the same. The sight of one’s lifeblood spilled upon the battlefield does not seem like an event that should earn praise.”
“Who is it?” A voice shouted from just over the rise in the embankment.
“The queen and her necromancer.”
Nixie and I gave each other a bit of a double take before I cracked her a grin. “Come on, Your Majesty,” I said. “Thank you, Stump. We need to talk to the innkeeper.”
Nixie and I hurried over the hill, her muttering something about me being a pain in her ass, and the vista of Rivercene opened before us. My rapid strides stuttered as I took in the scarred landscape, and the sprawling form of one of the dark-touched harbingers.
“What happened here?” Nixie said, her voice raised as we stepped around deep furrows in the earth, and more than one shattered corpse of a water witch.
We jogged to a halt before the steps of Rivercene, the diminutive form of the innkeeper a strange contrast to her heavy presence.
“What are you doing here?” the innkeeper snapped, ignoring Nixie’s question. “Alexandra has made for Saint Charles. And she’s taken her soldiers with her.”
“Did they leave you defenseless?” Nixie asked.
The innkeeper barked out a harsh laugh. “They were not the ones to bring down the harbinger.”
“Ashley? Did she come here with Beth and Cornelius?”
The innkeeper nodded. “Most of your friends escaped. I didn’t much like them torturing people on my front lawn, but they did leave a nice new garden of statues behind. Cornelius is resting upstairs. I will watch over him while you return to your home.”
“Do you need a healer?” Nixie asked.
“We have our own ways,” the innkeeper said. She paused a moment, and then said, “But I appreciate your offer.”
“If you need us…” I said.
“Whatever Nudd has done to block the water witches’ communications has not silenced my telephone.”
I blinked at the innkeeper and suddenly felt rather stupid. A brief smile crossed her face before she snapped, “Now go. Your people need you.”
I held my hand out to Nixie, and she wrapped her hand around my forearm before I laced my fingers between Gaia’s.
“Tell the old Titan hello,” the innkeeper said. “We will see you soon.”
As Rivercene’s broken sidewalk faded from my vision, I understood why the innkeeper said they were not unguarded. The massive willow tree-like creature, which I’d once seen walking down Main Street in Boonville, shifted near the old stump in the front yard. Blood and viscera dripped from the end of its vine-like limbs. And I saw the corpses of the dark-touched at its feet.
The light returned in the Abyss faster than I was accustomed to. Gaia coalesced beside us in an instant.
I fought down nausea, as it felt like my stomach was trying to escape through the top of my skull. “The innkeeper says hello,” I muttered.
“It is always good to hear from an old friend,” Gaia said, a serene smile passing over her face.
“What’s happening?” Nixie said. She looked like she was about to double over.
“Are you okay?” I asked, worry rising in my gut.
“It feels as if the very earth beneath my feet is spinning.”
“She will recover,” Gaia said. “I do not believe the queen has experienced vertigo before.”
Nixie looked up at me in horror. “Is this how you feel when you get dizzy?”
“Kind of,” I said. “It’s usually not quite this bad, though.”
“By the gods,” she said, grimacing. “Why do you continue to live?”
“Brace yourself,” Gaia said. “This will not prove to be pleasant.”
Nixie started to protest, and the Abyss spiraled into chaos around us. I would’ve laughed at the expression on her face if I hadn’t known exactly how she felt.