Page 209 of A Kingdom of Wild and Power
He stood on the far side of the swamp water, too close to its treacherous edge. The mire had swallowed his leg nearly to the knee. Rowan watched as the boy struggled to pull himself free, keeping his mouth tightly shut so as not to alert the witches lurking nearby.
Then the green lights appeared.
They flickered into being between the thin, crooked trunks of the witch trees—those eerie green orbs the witches used to see through the dimness of the swamp.
Edur froze.
He turned slowly, staring at the approaching glow with wide, terrified blue eyes.
Rowan knew he should stay where he was. The entire plan depended on the child distracting them. But Edur could hardly distract anyone if he was trapped in the mud.
And Rowan found he could not simply stand there, watchingthose frightened eyes.
Cursing quietly under his breath, he rushed forward.
He splashed down into the murky swamp water and waded across. Somewhere behind him he thought he heard his sister call out in warning, but he dismissed it as nothing more than his imagination.
Within seconds he had hauled himself onto the opposite bank and reached the boy.
Edur nearly jumped out of his skin when Rowan grabbed his shoulders.
‘It’s me,’ Rowan whispered quickly. ‘Rowan.’
The child relaxed at once and nodded.
Rowan moved behind him and slid his arms beneath the boy’s.
‘On three,’ he said. ‘I’ll pull you out.’
Edur nodded again.
The green lights were drawing closer now.
Rowan counted under his breath.
Three.
He pulled.
Edur came free with a wet, sucking sound but Rowan had forgotten how slight the boy was. He pulled far too hard.
The two of them toppled backwards together, crashing into the mud with a heavy splash.
Rowan cursed.
A heartbeat later a blast of magic struck them.
The force hurled them apart. Rowan crashed into the swamp water with a splash, swallowing a mouthful of the foul liquid before coughing it back out. He spat into the mud and blinked the filth from his eyes, searching for Edur.
He found him.
The boy was running.
Two witches were already chasing after him.
Rowan didn’t hesitate.
He hauled himself out of the murky water and sprinted after them, splashing through the swamp with reckless speed. With a flick of his magic he lifted several fallen branches from the ground, sending them sliding beneath the witches’ feet.
