I walked into the river. The water was cold, and my feet and shins went numb; the cold water seeped through my leather shoes. I kept my feet moving, balancing my bag on my shoulder, my sword trailing in the water by my side. My eyes stayed on the water, trying to remember where Kara had stepped, looking out for hidden dangers. There came a point where the water deepened to the height of my knees, but I kept walking, following the same course that Kara had, and then it grew shallow again. I came to the stone patch where the others had slipped. My foot gave way, but I relaxed, and let myself slide, without falling over. I moved forward slowly, as if skating on ice, until the riverbed was softer and less slippery.
I looked up, smiling, expecting to see smiles all around.
Kara’s face was filled with fear and horror.
I turned around.
Something surged out of the water.
Turning back to my friends I ran through the shin deep water, glancing back behind me as I approached the shore.
But it was too late.
Two enormous jaws were opening and moving towards me faster than I could run.
I fell face down in the water, got back up again, sputtering, ran a few more feet. My hand went to my side and I grabbed for my sword, but there was nothing. Nothing at all.
The blade had fallen into the river.
The great water lizard was just feet away from me. I spoke a word of power, imagining my blade. Komm!
The blade surged forth from the water just a few feet away from me. The hilt was in my hand and the scabbard flew away onto the shore, just yards away.
Just in time.
The blade burned blue, blue fire that I swung down onto the creature’s snout, cleaving off the top half of its jaw. Hot blood spurted out into the cold water as the creature thrashed back and forth, snapping what was left of its jaws at my feet. I danced around it, and swung again, chopping its head clean off. The body thrashed about, and the head snapped several times, as I backed up and onto the shore.
I sighed in relief.
Too soon.
The water seethed. There were more of the creatures, and for a moment I thought they would surge into and out of the last of the shallow water and attack me.
Instead they converged on the animal I had slain, feeding on their own kin. The water frothed and then was still.
I felt Woltan at my arm and looked at him as I continued backing up. Then Kara was there too, and she handed me my scabbard. I cleaned the sword and sheathed it.
When we were a good hundred yards away from the river, we stopped on what must have been the beginning of the rest of the road. “Crocodiles,” Woltan said, then, breaking the silence. “I have read of them in our library. It is far too cold here for them to be here. I wonder if someone sent them.”
Kara shrugged. “Perhaps they have adapted magically to our cold climate.”
But then she was staring down at my legs, and I looked down as well.
There were little black wriggling shapes attached to the bare parts of our legs. “Leeches,” Kara said. “Best to remove them before they feed further.”
I reached down to pluck at them, but Kara shook her head. “They’ll leave their teeth inside and infect you.”
Without thinking, my hand moved and I spoke a word of power. Geh!
I looked down at my legs and the leeches had all fallen to the ground, where they wriggled.
Kara glared at me. “Didn’t you see how Woltan has been avoiding using magic?”
“How was I supposed to get rid of them?”
“Smoked them off, or put a stinging powder. But now that you’ve used magic, I might as well too.”
She reached down and touched her legs, and said a word so quietly I could not hear her. The leeches disappeared.