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‘Worry will cause you nothing but pain,’ Greenhair whispered Her voice see crescendo to a melodic choir ‘You need only rest, silver-hair Fear for the’
‘What’s that?’ he asked, barely aware of the yawn in his question, barely aware of the iron weight of his eyelids
‘Where is it?’ she whispered, a gentle prod in his ear
‘Where’s what?’
‘The toain ‘Where is it?’
‘This,’ another voice, harsh and cold against herWe must search, not rest’
‘The Akaneeds leave nothing …’ Lenk repeated, his own tone listless
‘How does she know of the serpents? Why does she want us to sleep?’
‘You must have had it,’ Greenhair whispered ‘You have read it You knohere it is’
‘She does not know that,’ the voice growled, drowning out her whisper ‘She cannot know that’
‘How,’ Lenk muttered, ‘do you know that?’
He felt her tense beneath hihten
‘I … I do not …’ she began to sta in her voice
‘She’s in our head,’ the voice roared, echoing off his skull ‘Get out! Get out! GET OUT!’
‘OUT!’
He shot up like a spear, whirling around just as she scraet away from him Her pale, slender arm was held up in pitiful defence before a slack-jaide-eyed face full of terror He was unony in his leg That pain quickly seeped away, replaced with a chill that snaked through his body, nu him to pain, to fear
To pity
Froe, crested fin rose upon the siren’s head The same coldness that numbed his muscles now drove him forward as he leapt upon her and wrapped his hands about her throat, slas, no h his teeth, nor his eyes that stared contemptibly down upon her ‘You … betrayed us’
She choked out a plea, unheard
‘All you care about is the toes of demonic filth! Kataria … the others …’ He felt his teeth threaten to crack under the strain of his clenched jaw ‘They ainst his ars, the Akaneeds,’ he snarled, his breath a fine mist, ‘they didn’t attack immediately They didn’t act like beasts at all! Soround ‘Was it you? Did you do this to us? Did you kill Kataria?’
She drew back a hand Tiny claws extended froers, unnoticed
His next words were a startled snarl as she drew her hand up and raked the bony nails across his cheek He recoiled with a shriek and she slithered out from under him like an eel Before he even opened histo the sea In a flash of green and a spray of water, she vanished beneath the waves
‘You can’t run,’ Lenk growled as he staggered to his feet The agony in his leg made its presence knoith a decidedly rude sear of ure of the siren ‘I’ll … kill …’
A glint of viscous liquid upon his fingers, tinged with his own blood, caught his eye He brought it close, watched it swirl upon his hand even as he felt it swirl inside his cheek His eyelids fluttered, pulse pounded, body failed
‘Poison,’ the voice hissed inside his head ‘You idiot’
He roan and a
The cold, Lenk decided, when he regained consciousness, was sorely ed to realise that he had a rather i at tender flesh in search of so to devour, he also realised that his skull was on fire
Or felt like it, at the very least
He cast a look up at the sky, saw the shroud of clouds that ht that filtered through in rays that refused to be hindered seared his eyes, his flesh
Fever
He felt an itch at his leg, reached down to scratch and felthe had been out, the sun had suckled at his wound and left atears of blood-flecked pus
That would explain it
He looked around for Greenhair, wondering if perhaps she e to stem the flow He felt an itch on his cheek quickly followed by a sting of pain
Oh, right …
The urge to chase her down and beat a cure out of her was fleeting; even if she hadn’t vanished into the sea like the shark-whoring ocean-bitch she was, he couldn’t very well search the whole beach on a lied for a merciful amputation
He was so very tired
Perhaps, he reasoned, it would be better to just wait for Gevrauch’s cold hand on his shoulder Perhaps it would be better to be the final period in the Bookkeeper’s last sentence on a page ht for Gold and Were Eaten by Seagulls Big, Ugly Seagulls With Teeth’
Yes, he thought, better to die here, wait for it Wait to see the others … wait to see randfather’s words, with no voice to accompany them
‘Gevrauch loathes an adventurer,’ he had said to him once, ‘because they never knohen to die We don’t return the bodies ere loaned when the Bookkeeper asks for thenise when it’s your tiive you refusing your space in His ledger all these years’
Sound advice, he thought
His boat was likely at the botto with the fortune he had chased His co either as half-chewed corpses or long, sinewy Akaneed stool After both of those ies, the fact that he had no food or water didn’t see
He would not like to upset the Gods and be sent to hell; he had seen what came out of that place No, no, he told hi, all the pain he had experienced in his life all led up to this: a few moments of heat-stricken delirium, then off to the sea to be picked clean by crabs and eels