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His nostrils flared as he let go of his leader.
“Where’s Nemo?” I glanced around the clearing. His horse and mine had taken off. Flighty creatures.
“He’ll be back,” Gill said, lifting me to my feet. “Can you walk?”
Each step I took hurt a little, but nowhere near the kind of pain I’d experienced earlier.
The accident had shaken Fin a little. I could tell by how quiet he’d become. He needed him to snap out of it. We were so close to the pearl. A little mishap was not going to deter us.
“How do we get around the traps?” I asked him.
“Er,” he said as if his mind was somewhere else.
“Set a few off, wait until the dust settles, and sneak in,” Gill suggested.
Brilliant idea. I left the mermen behind and grabbed a few fallen branches. From several feet away, I tossed them through the circle of trees. Nothing happened on the first two. But the last set off a trap. Chains rattled, then a panel in one of the trees opened, and arrows fired from it. They flicked my hair as they whizzed past me and struck the ground behind me.
My heart sank into my boots. Sea god, that was close. I rubbed my arms, lucky to still be alive.
The horses whinnied again. Gill’s mount retreated a few paces until he managed to get it to stay.
“Princess?” Fin was at my side, checking for any wounds.
“I’m fine,” I reassured him.
His concern was touching, but I didn’t want him to feel bad about what had happened before. He needed to focus on the mission.
“We need to get the horses out of here,” I said.
Fin nodded. “You take them. I don’t want you near this when more traps go off.”
That didn’t sit well with me. What if they got hurt? But someone had to do it. We only had one pouch of water left, and if one of us was injured… I had better preserve it.
Fin kissed me long and soft, like it might be our last kiss before we perished. I held on to that moment, reliving it as I drew the horses away, looking back over my shoulder several times as I left the area.
Behind me, my mermen collected rocks, logs, and more branches.
I waved from a safe distance away, my stomach rock hard with dread.
Where the hell was Nemo? He shouldn’t have been gone this long. Was he okay? I scanned the forest but found no sign of him.
Fin and Gill took turns throwing their objects into the circle. Three spears exploded at Fin’s shot, one of which barely missed him, the other two striking the ground at the edge of the tree line. The arrows buried themselves several inches into the earth, their shafts wobbling madly from the impact.
For a moment, a terrible fear rose in my heart. Quickly, I thrust it into the very farthest corner of my mind. My mermen were not going to perish here.
The sound of gears and chains upset the poor horses, and one whinnied, the other yanking at the reins.
“Shhh,” I said, stroking its long face, telling it telepathically that it would be fine, and this all would be over soon.
“Woooo!” Gill screamed, as if all the traps going off excited him. Crazy merman.
They moved to different positions around the ring of trees and threw more rocks. Spiky rows rose out of the ground when Gill took his turn. Daggers ejected and struck the ground at Fin’s feet. Had he been inside the circle, they would have stabbed him in the guts.
My insides rolled over with fear each time they activated a trap. I wanted to close my eyes and pray for it to end as fast as possible, but my mind froze with terror.
Gill’s horse chewed at the reins, as if trying to get free.
“Stop that,” I told the frightened animal, patting its neck.
