Counting on his ears as much as his eyes to guide him through the dark, Caelym started forward. As they made their way along the narrow track, the sounds of domestic life—the lowing of cattle and barking of dogs—dwindled and were replaced by the sounds of owls hooting, nighthawks screeching, and frogs croaking.
A lot of frogs.
Their chorus grew louder and was almost deafening, swelling up on both sides of the path and directly in front of them.
Caelym stopped mid-stride. His staff made a splash as it came down ahead of him and a sucking sound as he stepped back and pulled it out of the mire.
Arddwn, who’d been following on Caelym’s heels, bumped into him.
Aleswina, still carrying Lliem, bumped into Arddwn. Annwr, who’d been hurrying to keep up, bumped into Aleswina.
“What is it?” she hissed and was about to step around to see what the problem was when Caelym hissed back, “Do not move!”
Crushed together, Annwr, Aleswina, and Arddwn stood wobbling in place.
Keeping his weight on his left foot, Caelym slid his right out to the side and felt it hit water almost at once. He eased his foot back, shifted his weight, and slipped his left foot out to the side—water lapped there as close, or closer.
He could already feel himself sinking as the ground beneath him was turning to mush, and water was beginning to creep over the top of his weight-bearing foot.
“What’s wrong, Ta? Why aren’t we going?” His tone wavering between crankiness and apprehension, Arddwn added, “My boots are getting wet!”
Caelym had made it a rule never to lie to his children, but at the moment the only truth that mattered was that they must not panic and flounder in the dark, so he affected a merry tone of voice as he answered, “Nothing is wrong, Arddwn, only now we are going to play a game, and the first part of the game is that we will turn around.”
There was some shuffling and, more worrisome, some squishing sounds, as they did.
Still speaking cheerfully—and quite calmly, given that his right foot was sinking steadily lower, but he didn’t dare shift his weight to his left before he was actually ready to start forward— Caelym said, “Now, then, Aleswina will put Lliem down just in front of her.”
“Who is Aleswina?” Arddwn asked.
“Aleswina is the name we are calling Codric in our game.”
“My boots will get wet!” Lliem whimpered
“My boots are already wet, and they’re getting wetter, Ta!” Arddwn was tired of his little brother getting all the attention.
“I will dry your boots for you after we have played our game, but remember the rule that we all do exactly what I say, and what I say is that Annwr will take Lliem’s hand, and Lliem will take Aleswina’s hand, and Aleswina will take Arddwn’s hand, and Arddwn will take my hand, and we will all hold on and not let go. Have we all taken hands now?”
Four “yeses” came in a single voice.
“That is excellent! Now the last part of our game is that Annwr will pull us back the way we came . . . exactly the way we came, not going off the path even a little bit.”
By then Annwr understood their predicament. She reached back to take hold of Lliem’s wrist and started steadily pacing exactly the way she’d come. Once she started, she didn’t stop. Moving as much by the feel of the brush on either side of her skirt as by the dim sight of the gap they’d come through, she pulled Lliem who pulled Aleswina who pulled Arddwn who pulled Caelym.
Until that moment, Caelym wasn’t sure whether the extra tug would be enough—or if he’d have to let go and order them on without him.
But it was, and with his right foot freed from the swamp’s grasp, he lurched forward and followed the others back to dry ground.
“Is the game over? Do we get a prize?” Arddwn had distant memories of playing games with his father and his cousins, and as he recalled, there were always prizes when they finished.
Annwr—to Caelym’s surprise and gratitude—said nothing about how close he’d come to drowning them all, leaving him to answer Arddwn’s question as he wished.
“This part of the game is over, Arddwn, and the prize is that I will pretend I am a horse and will carry you on my back from here to the forest.”
Forgetting he’d refused to be carried before, Arddwn practically leaped into place and waved triumphantly as Caelym pranced in a circle and neighed.
Lliem looked wide-eyed at their display, then turned his face up to Aleswina. Aleswina turned to Annwr, who helped with lifting him up. Once he was secure, she managed a few awkward hops and even tried to imitate Caelym’s horse noises, making what Caelym would joke later was a “whiney whinny.” Lliem joined in with a gaspy, giggly sound—his first laughter in two years.
Caelym might have made a longer romp of it, only Annwr pointed to the silvery glow that was spreading upward above the eastern horizon. Seeing that, Caelym gave a horse-like shake of his head, declared, “We must ride swiftly now in search of our stable for the night!” and set off down the road.