Barb Hendee - Through Stone and Sea

Wynn mouthed the word "staff" and turned her back to him.

Chane untied it, and she leaned it against the tunnel wall. But how was he going to keep Shade afloat? They could not have the dog treading water.

Wynn placed her pack behind her head, atop her shoulders, and backed up to pin it against the tunnel wall. Her lips quivered again as she mouthed, Shade , and held out her arms.

Chane carefully glided the dog into Wynn's grip. Shade sank a bit in Wynn's arms, struggling for an instant. Once the dog settled, Chane pulled the pry bar off his belt.

Shade twisted sharply and growled.

Her sudden splashing made Chane stiffen. Wynn struggled to keep Shade still, but the dog kept wrestling to get free. He reached instinctively to grab Shade's snout but stopped.

Shade looked down the tunnel and snarled again.

The water's surface rolled, nearly churned, as if the tide had suddenly surged up the tunnel.

A grip latched around both Chane's ankles. He heard Wynn suck a loud breath as his feet were pulled from under him.

Chane lost sight of Wynn as he was jerked beneath the water.

Wynn's hold on Shade broke as the dog thrashed around. Shade clawed the tunnel's side wall as she tried to put herself between Wynn and the churning water. Wynn's breath came hard and fast.

"Chane!"

She pinned the pack to the wall with one hand and groped wildly beneath the surface for Chane. Shade snarled and snapped, but she was struggling to remain afloat. Something light-colored stretched out beneath the water's surface.

Wynn tried to grab for it, but it broke the surface beyond reach, and it wasn't Chane.

A barbed spearhead rose.

She snatched her hand back. The spearhead was nearly white, like Chein'âs metal. Water erupted beyond it as Chane thrashed to the surface.

Shade pushed off the wall, treading water as she moved in front of Wynn.

Wynn barely caught a glimpse of a dim form behind Chane, holding on to one of his packs. She heard another splash behind her, but she reached out wildly for Chane.

"Chuillyon!"

Wynn flinched at that scream from beyond the gate but kept her attention on Chane.

His features twisted in rage, and his eyes had lost all color. He swung back at his attacker as another set of hands rose from the water and latched around his waist.

Chane vanished beneath the surface in a splash.

"Let him go!" Wynn shouted, and reached behind her back, pulling Magiere's old dagger.

Shade suddenly sank with a yelp, and Wynn let the pack drop as she lunged for the dog.

Another spearhead thrust up, driving straight for her face. She toppled backward, pushing with slipping feet, and her back hit the gate's bars. The spearhead on its long shaft halted, level with her throat.

Two slender arms shot out through the bars behind her.

"No, Frey!" someone shouted behind her. "Get back!"

The arms latched around Wynn, pinning her against the bars.

Trapped by the hovering spearhead, she didn't dare try to slash herself free with the dagger. A third arm reached past her head and a small, delicate hand snatched her wrist.

"Release the blade … now ," someone commanded.

Harsh as the voice was, it was clearly a woman's, though the arms around Wynn's chest were those of a man. Wynn slowly opened her hand and felt the dagger being ripped away.

Shade splashed to the surface, hacking and coughing. She paddled to the tunnel's wall, clawing for any grip to anchor herself.

"Please," Wynn begged. "Let me help her!"

"Silence!" the hidden woman snapped.

The spear's shaft before Wynn tilted as water rolled around it. Its wielder began to rise. The first of it that she saw was a row of pale spikes.

Slowly breaking the surface, webbing followed at their bases, stretched in a crest over a bald scalp. Black-orb eyes, fully round and too large to be human, watched Wynn. Translucent membranes in place of lids nictitated over them.

The being was covered in slick, smooth skin tinged blue or perhaps more teal. Its face appeared distended, making the orb eyes look slightly pushed to either side of the hairless head. Its nose was only two vertical slits. When its lipless mouth parted, Wynn saw needle-sharp opalescent teeth like those of a sea predator.

When it—he—stood to full height, he was long and slender, but as solid as a full-grown male elf. More web-separated spikes ran along the outside of his forearms to match those cresting his skull. Wynn's breath caught as three slits on each side of his throat flexed like gills beneath a long jawline.

The strong hands and arms that held her suddenly slackened.

"Frey, please," the woman whispered, and then cried out, "Chuillyon, Tristan … help me!"

Wynn didn't know who held her. With the spear aimed at her throat, she couldn't twist her head to look.

"We're coming!" someone called, and more splashes came from the pool's chamber.

Chane erupted from the water again, just beyond Shade.

Before cascading droplets settled, three teal-skinned beings burst up and were on him. With a grating hiss, he shouldered one into the tunnel's wall. Shade twisted back, lunging and snapping at the first being's forearm. That one turned at the dog's assault, and his spear wavered.

Wynn jerked free and spun partway, groping for her staff. Then her gaze caught on a man's face pressed hard between the gate's bars.

The anguish there made her falter.

His half-mad eyes might've shed tears, but any such were obscured by water running down his face from his drenched dark-blond hair. His mouth gaped as he stared into the tunnel, but not at her. He looked only at the teal-skinned being holding off Shade with a spear.

Wynn had seen that expression, or ones so similar.

It showed on the faces of peasants in the worst corners of this world, such as Leesil's birthplace in the Warlands. Starving, dying of thirst, or beaten down, for them hope had become a lie. Worse, the man looked at the teal-skinned being as if his relief dangled tauntingly just beyond his reach.

The woman's voice shouted, "Chuillyon! Get the gate open!"

A woman had her arm wrapped over the madman's shoulder and across his chest, pulling on him to no effect. When she turned her head back from crying out, Wynn looked into the panicked face of Duchess Reine.

"Frey, stop it!" the duchess ordered.

"Wynn … get away from them!" Chane rasped.

He slapped away his assailant's spear. Shade clawed along the tunnel wall, floundering as she tried to get around her own opponent. With two companions desperate for help, Wynn could only try for the closest. She took a step to grab for Shade.

The point of a long, narrow blade struck the tunnel wall before her eyes.

Wynn's feet slipped as she tried to duck. She toppled against the curved wall to keep from sinking. The long blade levered in, and its edge set against her throat.

Duchess Reine had her arm thrust through the gate, pinning Wynn in place with a saber.

Shade let out a wild snarl, and then all sounds of struggle quickly lessened.

The duchess's enraged eyes turned away.

Wynn could barely move with the sharp edge at her throat, but she followed that gaze to Chane.

"Yield or she's dead!" the duchess commanded.

Chane froze in place, surrounded by the trio of strange beings, while a fourth held Shade off with its spear.

Wynn nodded once at Chane and turned only her eyes toward the gate.

As the duchess withdrew her saber, the white-robed elf tried to pull the wild-eyed man away. The captain, sword in hand, jerked the gate open, forcing both to retreat a little.

"Inside," he ordered, leveling his long sword at Wynn.

Wynn hesitated. Amid the confusion, her pack had sunk. She wasn't sure she'd be allowed to fish it out, but she wasn't leaving the sun crystal's staff behind. She reached for it.