Page 78 of Beneath the Veil of Tides
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” the woman replied sweetly, red lipstick smeared across her lips.
My jaw ticked. I leaned in, our faces near inches apart. My voice dropped to a cold, controlled whisper that made even the air freeze.
“Don’t test me.Youdon’t get to be careless withmypatience.”
I had never been in control of my emotions, especially when Caelyn was involved.
“The ferryman is close and requires the Toll of Bells,” the woman cheerily said, spinning around me as she spoke.
Her legs will be the first to go.
Jun didn’t tell me of the Toll of Bells. Nor did we discuss the woman before me… or the rats.
“Explain,” I demanded.
“Every full moon—”
The woman smiled and gestured toward the sky, where a full moon hung impossibly bright, as if she had conjured it there herself, just for that moment. I blinked, certain it wasn’t the night of a full moon.
“—the bells of the swamp ring. One for each of the souls the ferryman has claimed in defamation.”
Grisenweld once stood as a refuge for the Devotees, followers of the Living Flame, an ancient tradition where elderly or sick were burned alive to send their souls to peace in the Otherrealm. The ferryman was the only living person that was a follower—per Jun.
“Defamation? His nameshouldbe spoken with scorn,” I deadpanned.
The woman’s face distorted in fury. Her lips curled in a snarl instantly, brows downturned, eyes wide.
“NO. IT. SHOULDN’T!” she bellowed at me. Quickly recovering her cheery facade, she cleared her throat sweetly. “They claimed he is mad… savage… a murderer. But who else was there to see those souls safely ferried across the waters as they burned? He was there with them. And only him.”
“I am the God of Forsaken souls. I am the decider of those souls, not him,” I replied coolly. The woman began to slip, and I was going to play into it. “So, yes, he was mad. Still is, from what I have heard.” I did not truly have any say in where souls arrived and lived out their eternities, only the finder of lost ones.
The woman hummed. “And what exactly have you heard?”
“That the ferryman burned this entire village with everyone in it to the ground when he lost control of his own mind. When the Devotees tried to banish him, he snapped. Claimed it was for their own good. Thattheywere sick mentally.” I calmly inspected my nails. “That’s just what I’ve heard, but I would love to be proven wrong.”
The woman’s eye twitched.Perfect.
“The Bell Toll, then, is how you pay the debt to see him.” Her singing voice creaked under the frustration. “Find the bell of the sunken chapel within the swamp, ring it above the waters, and he is said to appear.”
The woodrats scurried, squeezing into the crevices of the beaten, dilapidated path. I lunged immediately for the woman, but she spun and took off into the trees.
I took off after her, shoving branches out of the way as thorns stabbed into my skin. She was gone, and I was left in a desolate, dense forest searching for the swamp of a murderousmadman.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The guard yanked Laziel from the vent, his fist slamming into the mer’s face. Somehow, Laziel’s shove backwards concealed me enough that the guard never noticed me hiding behind him. Punch after punch, the mer shoved into Laziel, each blow rushing the air through his gills. I was a coward, hiding in the tunnel, watching from within the vent.
“There’s no justifiable reason for our colonel to be in the thermal vent,” the male seethed in Laziel’s face, shoving him into the stone wall of the room. “They’re looking for you. Only took the patrolling front-line to speak to the Lockwarden to know that you are atraitor.”
Gods. Wait. Colonel?I didn’t know what to do or how to help.How did I not question his thorough understanding of the prison’s layout?
I could faintly make out the small office, dimly lit by mage torches and cracks within the architecture to the outside. The guard dragged Laziel through the water with ease, his hand gripping tightly around the traitor mer’s throat. He accepted every hit, every snarl, every remark about his guiltiness.
But I couldn’t take it any longer. I couldn’t hide in the shadows and watch the mer be beaten to a pulp.
The guard shoved his elbow into Laziel’s chest, cracking his clavicle with the hit. The water around surged in the combat,throwing them both against the stone wall. Laziel roared in agony, but he did not spill any information.
I took advantage of the distraction and pounced. Instant relief flooded me as I threw myself from the vent, spearing the guard to the ground. He was thrown off balance, and we both flipped in the water, crashing into the nearby rocky desk.
