Glissa jumped off the diver to the sea floor and sank up to her ankles in muck. Slobad dropped beside her, but his wide feet kept him from sinking as far. Glissa tried to lift her legs, but her feet were stuck fast. She pushed her hands down into the muck to pull them free. An invisible claw skewered her boot and scraped her leg as she struggled. When she finally pulled that foot free, Glissa could see her hands again. The muck had coated them. She pulled her other foot free, then drew her sword and spread mud on the blade.
She turned toward Bosh. He was almost completely covered in thick eels. They didn’t seem bothered at all by the air surrounding the golem. They writhed around him. Glissa could see his entire shape now. Those eels caught swimming when the wave of air expanded now slithered across the seabed toward the golem.
Slobad stood staring at his hands. Glissa couldn’t tell what he was doing until a jet of fire sprang forth from his fist. His fire tube was invisible as well, but she could see the flame.
Slobad fiddled with the tube until flame turned into a bright white blade of fire, then moved up to an eel slithering on the ground and jabbed it with the flame-blade. The thin flame sliced through the eel, cutting it in half. The heat from the flame scarred and blackened the edges of each half as it cut. The two halves flopped uncontrollably. The blackness spread along the silvery eel’s body. After a moment, there was nothing left but a pile of ash atop the muck.
Glissa moved in slowly behind the goblin, walking on her toes to keep from getting stuck again. “Use your fire on the eels covering Bosh,” cried Glissa. “I’ll keep the others off you.”
Glissa stabbed an eel slithering toward the goblin’s foot, slicing it in half. She skewered a second and third eel as Slobad burned away the writhing mass attached to Bosh. She glanced at Bosh and Slobad. The goblin had cleared off most of the golem’s legs, which were covered in ash. The rest of the eels continued to squirm around Bosh. They bulged around his torso, as if Bosh was trying to break free from the inside.
Glissa scanned the surrounding quicksilver to see if any more eels might swim into the air bubble. She saw a few eel heads poke through the silver curtain, but they disappeared a moment later. The elf looked back toward the diver to check behind them. She saw the wriggling halves of the eels she cut inching their way across the muck. Each half had grown a new end. Where there had been three eels, Glissa now had six to contend with.
Several more creatures poked their heads from the quicksilver behind the diver. They didn’t push all the way through, yet Glissa noticed the ones trapped in the air pocket with them continued to attack. It was odd. They must react on instinct, thought Glissa. They could survive in the air, at least for a time, but they weren’t willing to leave the quicksilver on their own. Glissa stepped up to the first half-eel and kicked it toward the side of the bubble. It landed short of the quicksilver wall but bounced into it. Once it hit the quicksilver, the eel retreated into the liquid and didn’t return.
Glissa kicked three more times, sending the eels flying through the air bubble into the quicksilver wall. It was sort of fun. Two left. She turned. The last two merged back into one large eel. She kicked at it anyway. But it had enough mass and length to collapse around her foot. When the two ends met behind her ankle, the eel began to constrict. Her foot went numb as blood stopped flowing past her ankle. She fell down into the muck. She couldn’t cut the eel for fear of slicing her own leg. The creature’s mouth opened up and snapped at her hands as she tried to grab it. She needed Slobad.
“Glissa!” called Slobad.
“What?”
“We got problem, huh?”
Glissa glanced over her shoulder at Slobad and Bosh. The goblin had burned most of the eels off of Bosh. The golem’s ash-covered hands pulled at the remaining eels wrapped around his head. Glissa couldn’t see what had spooked Slobad. Then she saw the quicksilver beyond Bosh move towards them. She thought Bruenna was losing her concentration until the mass of quicksilver grew tentacles.
“What the flare is that?” cried Glissa.
She had no time to deal with the eel on her leg now. Glissa reached down. When the eel snapped at her, she slammed her fist down its throat. The eel slammed its jaws shut, digging its teeth into the invisible metal of Glissa’s forearm. She spread her claws inside the beast, puncturing through its neck. Gritting her teeth against the pain, Glissa pulled her arm up and away from her legs. The eel ripped apart, but the mouth continued to chew on her arm. Glissa scrambled to her feet and kicked the squirming mass at her feet into the quicksilver wall. She ran toward Bosh, half an eel still attached to her arm.
The quicksilver monster loomed in front of Bosh. It was a huge blob of silver at least ten feet tall with tentacles waving out in front of it. She could see Bosh and Slobad reflected in the silvery skin of the creature’s body. The ends of the tentacles disappeared as it moved forward. The air must extend past the invisibility bubble, thought Glissa. She’d better attack it before it disappeared completely. She slogged through the muck as fast as she could.
Slobad wavered behind Bosh. He looked as if he wanted to run, but he wouldn’t leave the golem’s side-his self-preservation at odds with his love for Bosh.
“Slobad,” she called. “Come here.” She moved forward, waving her eel-clad arm at the goblin. “Burn this off and I’ll take care of that thing.”
As she approached, the monster lashed out with its tentacle arms. Bosh was still pulling at the eels wrapped around his head. He didn’t see the attack coming. Neither could Glissa. The tentacles disappeared before they reached the golem. But the tentacles didn’t retract. Glissa saw Bosh’s ash-covered arms pulled away from his head. Then the golem was moving forward, only his legs weren’t moving. Bosh dug his feet into the muck and tried to pull back.
Glissa screamed. She looked down to see Slobad burning away the remains of the eel attached to her arm. Ash mixed with blood from dozens of puncture wounds on her invisible arm. More tentacles snapped out from the quicksilver beast and disappeared into the invisible air surrounding Bosh. Glissa slogged forward to attack, but the monster stepped back through the silver curtain and from the air bubble.
A moment later, the beast pulled Bosh out of the area covered by the invisibility spell. He was completely wrapped up in tentacles. They encircled the golem’s torso like the leather rope that tied Bosh to the diver. The golem waved his bound arms, trying to free them, but more quicksilver poured into the tentacles, thickening the ropes around the golem. Before Glissa could even scream, the tentacles pulled the golem through the quicksilver wall, leaving a furrow in the muck behind him.
Glissa looked down at Slobad. He had followed her and was now staring up at her. She could see tears streaming down his cheek.
“I couldn’t save him,” said the goblin dully. “I saw it, and I couldn’t move, huh?”
“I know,” said Glissa. She looked at the wall of silver. “I’ll get him.”
“How?” asked Slobad. “Can’t see in there, huh? Can’t even breathe. How you survive?”
Glissa pulled the vial of serum from her boot sheath. “This will help me see.” She uncorked the vial.
“You need serum, huh?” said Slobad. “Need it for Learning Pool.”
Glissa smiled. “Bosh is more important.”
“How you breathe, huh?”
“I’ll hold my breath,” said Glissa.
“How long you hold breath, huh? How long?”
“Long enough.”
Glissa brought the vial to her lips and poured the thick, blue liquid into her mouth. It tasted sweet, salty, bitter, and sour all at once. The serum activated all of her taste buds as it spread through her mouth. She felt the liquid seep down her throat, coating and burning like a smooth hot drink.
As the heat spread through her body, it seemed to coat every inch of her in a warm embrace. Glissa became acutely aware of everything around her. She could feel Slobad standing next to her, his heart beating quickly, his breath shallow in the compressed air of Bruenna’s bubble. She could sense the mage in the diver behind them. Her hands continued their intricate rhythmic dance, but sweat poured down her face. The area just outside the bubble teemed with eels squirming around each other. Ahead of her, Glissa could “see” Bosh and the monster, just outside the bubble. The quicksilver monster had completely enveloped the golem.