The Renegade Blade

Chapter 4

The water is freezing. It feels like a million needles pricking at my skin at the same time, cruel and relentless. Only after the initial shock of the temperature has passed do I realize I don't know how to swim. All the contact I've ever had with water in Marakahala has been hot baths and rachitic rivers. I clamp my mouth shut and pinch my nose with my fingers. Do not freak out, Rabyah. You can't die yet. I repeat this words over and over in my head. They are not working. The current tosses me around mercilessly, and all I can see are shadows and unknown moving beings. My lungs burn. I kick against the current but it only seems to make me sink deeper. Something grabs my ankle and I scream. Nothing but bubbles come out, but the water rushes inside my mouth immediately. I try to twist and only then I realize I'm not holding the dagger anymore. Either I left it at the shore or I released it when I jumped into the river. I guess it doesn't matter: my lungs hurt like nothing in my life has ever hurt before, and my vision is coming in and out of focus. The thing that grabbed my ankle ascends my leg and tugs harder.

Then the water around me shifts, and the thing is not holding me anymore. Something else seizes my wrist, but this time I'm not scared because through my blurring vision I can see Iara's face and feel her fingers on my skin.

She swims up towards the light, but instead of feeling like I'm being pulled, it's like something is pushing me. I look back but there's nothing except the darkness of the water. My lungs still hurt, but instead of the unrelenting burn that I felt before, it's like they're being pricked with a thousand tiny needles.

Then the world comes rushing back in. The trees outline is so defined they look like a painting, and the light is white and too bright. I'm lying on the floor on my side, and Iara is kneeling beside me, soaked and breathing hard. She rolls me to my back, pinches my nose and starts leaning in towards my face.

"Stop it," I say. My voice scraps against my throat. "Let me breathe."

She jumps back, startled, and looks at me with wide, brown eyes.

"What?" I rasp.

"You— you are okay?" says Iara, a little breathless.

I breathe in as much as I can. It hurts a bit, but I ignore it and try to calm my thumping heart. "No, I'm not," I say.

"I mean, you've been more than five minutes inside the water," she says. "There should be water in your lungs, and you should be unconscious."

I look at her, because I'm not really understanding what she's saying.

"You could breathe?" she asks.

"No, no, I— it hurt."

"But you could breathe."

"I didn't feel like I was breathing."

"Not like you do outside the water, but you were clearly breathing," repeats Iara. "You were there for a long time."

I look away and blink the water in my eyes away.

"Do you think...?" I start, but she pipes in before I can finish even formulating the thought in my mind.

"Yes."

I sigh and try to sit up. It might be true. I honestly don't know how much time I was underwater —it felt like hours to me— but I've learnt to trust Iara when it comes to time issues.

"What was that, anyway?" I ask, eyeing the river. "We should get away from here."

Iara nods and stands up, then stretches her hand to me and helps me to my feet. "It was the river snake."

I whirl around. My head hurts.

"The river snake?"

"Yes, it was larger than you said."