Venom and Song (7 page)

“Hurry!” Kat yelled. “Grimwarden's struggling. They're getting close to the middle.”

“Ah, got it!” Tommy cried, holding up the quiver. “I've got one arrow.”

“Give it to me,” Goldarrow demanded. Her fingers moved faster than Tommy had ever seen, and she tied a very strange-looking knot onto the very back of the arrow. She had tied one loop of the rope tight right before the fletchings, another loop right behind them on the nock, and had left a very tight, tiny ball of rope hanging loose. “There,” she said, handing the arrow to Tommy. “That ought to reduce drag from the rope somewhat. But still aim high.”

“Got it!” Tommy said, his heart jackhammering.

Jimmy coughed, spat out water, and weakly gripped Grimwarden's arm.

“I got you, lad!” Grimwarden yelled, grasping Jimmy under his shoulders and pulling him close.

He's exhausted,
thought Grimwarden. And now, holding the boy, he could not muster enough force to fight the whirlpool's massive current. They drifted with the current, Grimwarden struggling to see over the surface waves. “HERE!!” he yelled. “HERE, GOLDARROW!!”

Suddenly a new stream of flame stretched like a fiery tentacle to the roof of the cavern. Johnny had done well. Grimwarden could see much better, and that meant Goldarrow could as well. Bobbing up in the currents, Grimwarden saw a lot of movement on board his cavesurfer. It looked as if another cavesurfer was there as well. Then he saw Tommy stand . . . very tall . . . like he might be standing on the seats.

He has his bow!
Grimwarden kicked as hard as he could and raised his hand to give Tommy something to aim for. But the way the current was dragging him it was impossible to stay in one place. Grimwarden worried that Tommy would only have time for one shot.

The arrow went up.
Good lad!
Grimwarden thought.
Plenty of height
. The thin rope trailed behind the arrow without weighing it down too much. The arrow fell at last, well within Grimwarden's reach. He turned his body to avoid dunking Jimmy, and just as the current pulled him away he grabbed for the rope. . . .

To their collective horror, Grimwarden's outstretched arm fell short of grasping the rope. He and Jimmy were tugged deeper into the whirlpool and were moving much faster now.

“NO!!” shouted Goldarrow. “Everyone, take hold of the rope. Pull the arrow back! Now!! Hurry!”

The whirlpool grabbed Grimwarden and yanked him backward. He splashed and flailed. He barely had the strength to keep him and Johnny above water, much less make any progress against the cursed current. “Hold on, Jimmy!” he growled. Then he saw the arrow skipping across the concentric waves, the middle and outer bands of the whirlpool. They were pulling the rope back for another try. “Hold on! We might have one last chance!”

Jimmy let his head fall back against Grimwarden's chest and looked up. “We're going to make it, yu know,” he said.

Grimwarden's eyes opened wide. “You—you've seen it with your foresight?”

“No”—Jimmy laugh-coughed—“but I trust yu.”

Grimwarden set his jaw. “Climb onto my back, then,” he said. “I'm going to need both hands free.”

“They're slipping below the surface!” yelled Kat, jerking back fistfuls of rope as fast as she could.

“No,” Tommy shot back. “I can see them still . . . barely!”

“Yes!” she replied. “I see them now!”

Goldarrow couldn't look up. All she could think about was getting that arrow back as fast as possible. She saw it, skipping, practically flying across the black water. Just forty yards away, thirty . . . twenty, ten. “I've got it. Here, Tommy! Take it. May Ellos bless your aim!”

“I can only see Grimwarden's hands now!” said Kat. “What's he doing? He's doing something with his hands.”

Tommy nocked the arrow and leaned outward. “Steady the boat!” he yelled. “I need to see!” Tommy watched Grimwarden's arms. He had one arm outstretched and high with his palm wide, fingers spread out. With his other hand balled into a fist, he was smacking it into the palm of the first hand.
What is he doing?
And then Tommy thought he understood.

Grimwarden smacked his fist into his palm.
Come on! Take the shot! Be true!
They were out of time.

“Grimwarden!” Jimmy yelled. “We're going under!”

“NOW, TOMMY!!” Grimwarden roared. “NOWWWW!!”

Tommy lined up the shot and fired.

A breath later and Grimwarden's hand felt as if a red-hot iron poker drove into his palm. He looked up to see an arrow shaft lodged halfway through his hand and blood pouring down his wrist. He grimaced and grunted, focusing on closing his fingers around the arrow. His arm jerked, elbow snapping, and he struggled to reach the arrow with his free hand. Then the current took them down.

“Did you . . . ?” Goldarrow's voice trailed off.

“I don't know,” Tommy said. “They're gone! Pull!”

No sooner had the command gone out than the rope nearly pulled free from their hands. “Kat, hold on! Flet soldiers! GET THE ROPE AND PULL!”

The flet soldiers in the other craft took hold of some of the loose coils and added their might to the effort.

“They're . . . ah . . . they're still under!” yelled Kat. “Ah!”

“We don't have enough!” Tommy grunted, his arms burning. He felt as if he were engaged in a tug-of-war against an entire football team.

“We are fighting the teeth of the current,” said Goldarrow. “But we will prevail! Endurance and Victory!”

Spluttering and puffing for air, Grimwarden and Jimmy broke the surface. Fresh blood pulsed out between the fingers of Grimwarden's hands. The pain was excruciating, but he clutched the arrow and the rope even tighter. They were moving, slowly—oh so slowly—but they were moving against the current. And they were alive.

“I-I-I told you,” whispered Jimmy, slumped on Grimwarden's back.

Goldarrow, Tommy, Kat, and five flet soldiers heaved the rope with all their might. “Come on!” Goldarrow urged. “Pull harder! They're halfway now! Grimwarden, can you hear me?”

“Yes.” His reply was audible but weak.

“You're hurt?”

“Thanks to that blessed archer of ours, yes,” said Grimwarden. “Hurt . . . and alive.”

Goldarrow saw the blood leaking out into the water. “Faster!” she demanded. “Let's get them in!”

Kat had never felt such a burn in her muscles, not even in gymnastics when she'd had to hang from the uneven bars until her coach said to drop.
Oh no!
she thought.
No, not now with everyone watching. No
. But it was too late. The pain was that intense. She could feel it building. Then she did it.
Squeak!

“What was that?” Tommy asked.

“What was what?” Kat asked, fighting off another.
Squeak!

“There it is again,” said Tommy. “I heard a squeak.”

“Get focused, both of you!” Goldarrow warned, the edge to her voice sword sharp.

“I'm sorry,” said Kat. “It's just—” She never finished her apology.

“Aieee!” yelled one of the flet soldiers. “Razorfish!”

Grimwarden turned just in time. A glistening gray shape rose out of the water, a fin, curved and membraned like a bat's wing. Grimwarden saw their peril immediately. He lifted his fists so that the fin could slide under the rope. He knew razorfish were quite blind, but they felt changes in water current, water temperature, and they could smell blood. The creatures didn't need to know exactly where their prey was, so long as they could bump some part of their fins against it. That dorsal fin could bite through leather armor, even light metal . . . to say nothing of what it could do to a man. It missed on its first pass, but Grimwarden knew it would be back. If it cut the rope before they were free of the whirlpool, then all had been for naught.

“There's another!” Goldarrow called out. “Behind you!”

Grimwarden spun around so that it couldn't hit Jimmy. The bulbous fish slid right alongside Grimwarden, its fin just inches away from his face. “Get us out of here!” he yelled.

Goldarrow and the others pulled in the rope, but it grew suddenly harder as if the current had intensified. “Come on!”

“They're both coming right for you!” one of the flet soldiers yelled.

“No, they aren't,” said Tommy. His bow sang twice.

Pierced by Tommy's arrows, the two razorfish erupted in frantic thrashing. Their efforts were in vain.

Tommy dropped his bow and went back to helping the others pull Grimwarden and Jimmy toward the craft.

“Where'd you get the other arrows?” Kat asked.

“The flet soldier behind you,” he said. “I reached between the boats and he gave me two arrows.”

“That's good shooting,” Kat said.

“Thanks,” Tommy replied, feeling awkward and strangely happy.

Once completely free of the whirlpool's current, Grimwarden handed a sodden Jimmy up to Goldarrow and Tommy.

Kat thought Jimmy looked like a squirrel that had fallen out of a tree and drowned in a pond. “Is he going to be okay?” she asked.