Path of the Whisper Woman

Ambervale's flesh rolled beneath her skin like a wave trying to break free of its confinements. Bones cracked and her wounds didn't close, the blood weeping from them changing only from red to yellow, but she didn't seem to notice. Her expression was locked in that horrible grin as her clouded eyes stared vacantly at the sky.

She grew and split and bulged until I wanted to retch at the disturbing sight. Someone behind me was. In the back of my mind, I knew we should be moving, attacking, before she got the chance to completely transform into an abomination but I couldn't bring myself to shift closer to her.

It wasn't the paralyzing fear of facing the goddess or Beloved. I wasn't awed by her strength or shocked by her stupidity. It wasn't even curiosity to see what horrible fate Ambervale had condemned herself too. Rather it was something I wasn't sure I'd ever felt to such an extent. The thing that kept someone from wanting to muck about in a latrine or put something spoiled in their mouth.

Disgust.

Viscerally, as a sickness in my gut, sweat pooling on my skin, it kept me from taking a single step towards Ambervale. Everything in me wanted to get away from her. To do absolutely nothing that would attract her attention and bring the contamination closer. Everything she was becoming was wrong. Neither human or fish, belonging to nothing and no one, and yet some horrid mixture of both.

An abomination.

I wanted her—it—gone. I didn't want to see or smell it, hear or touch it. Gagged at the thought of tasting it. Everything about the abomination was vile and repulsive and everything in me begged that it'd be destroyed, but that same instinct kept my feet rooted in place. Not even the abomination at the broken statue had affected me this way and I wasn't sure if it was because Ambervale used to be human or because the Devouring Blue's blood was involved.

It didn't matter in either case, because, either way, the abomination needed to die before every last inch of it was destroyed. No matter the disgust twisting my insides or the terrible thing Ambervale had become. Her hands and arms had split into five tentacles each and she'd doubled in height. Scales both protected her body and jutted into her skin where it pushed out in misshapen masses. Fins flapped here and there but they looked more useful at spurring nightmares than helping her swim. Her legs had fused together into a tail that whipped through the air and wriggled like it had a mind of its own. Her hair and ears were gone, swallowed by a cresting fin on the top of her head, but her clouded eyes were still entirely too human.

The fish stopped attacking her as soon as her transformation had begun. Instead, they were as frozen as we were as the monster formed in front of our eyes. That changed when the abomination opened its mouth full of jagged teeth and screeched. It sounded full of accusation and hate and it was directly squarely at all of us up on the walkway.

The ocean heaved as fish suddenly switched from trying to swim up the delta to focusing on our little spot of the shore. We still had the advantage of height, but if Ambervale came after us she'd have a significantly easier time tearing down the walkway than any of fish would climbing up. We couldn't allow them to have the territory and numbers advantage, and they'd have both if we all tumbled onto the sandbar.

Nor could we keep standing around like idiots waiting to die. Someone had to do something and I figured that if anyone could wade into the tide of fish and come out the other side it'd be me. It probably wouldn't be in one piece and Prevna wouldn't condone the thought, but I'd be alive and doing something more than staring at a threat that was only getting worse as time went on. I just had to get past the disgust that was holding me back like a physical wall. Luckily, I figured I had a solution for that.

Dragging my focus from the abomination, I pulled the flask of Knife Dancer's Revenge from my belt. Shaking it, I figured it held three good swallows before it was empty. No one had given me the amount I should drink or what might happen if I overdosed, but this wasn't the time to be picky. Besides, one swallow was a good bet when it came to potions since tribesfolk always acted like healers were trying to poison them when they were told to drink more—and that'd leave me an extra chance or two if the effects of one swallow weren't enough to last the fight.

The drink was spicier than I expected but I got it down without coughing and shoved the flask back into its place. I could already feel my focus honing in while my body simultaneously felt stronger and lighter. Disgust no longer mattered. The horde of fish became merely an obstacle. All my attention centered on my main desire: putting an end to Ambervale once and for all and getting my revenge for the trouble she caused.

It wasn't like she was human anymore and the goddess bore no ill will to those killing fish. Killing an abomination born from the Lady Blue's blood would even be more likely to gain praise than indifference. There wasn't any reason to hesitate.

I pulled my spear free and leapt from the walkway's railing. I felt the others start to react as my sudden movement broke them out of their trance, but I was already gone.

My leap carried me over the heads of the fish trying to swarm the walkway and Cascade as the snake suddenly plowed through the horde on the sandbar. Her tail snapped to the side, trying to catch Ambervale with a surprise blow, but the abomination shifted with the blow and redirected it into the air. Ambervale could never have managed such a thing when she was human, but now her strength seemed to match the snake's.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

I gritted my teeth and readied my spear as I started to drop. Even falling I wasn't likely to match the force Cascade could bring to bear, but perhaps sharp bone would succeed where blunt force had failed.

My spear head skittered off the new crest on Ambervale's head and lodged in her shoulder. She screeched again and whipped around. I was sent flying but I kept my grip on my spear. I impacted hard scales and scrambled away before the fish could register what happened. One stab to its heart and I still had more fish than I cared to count between me and the abomination.

I fought my way forward. The fish were still dangerous even though most of them didn't have coral spears. Their scales afforded them some natural protection and they were all strong to an unnatural degree, but I didn't let that stop me. I was in the thick of it now and it was either fight or give up and I had no inclination to do the latter.

My time with Mishtaw had given me a fair share of experience fighting the fish and I wielded that knowledge now. I aimed for weak spots and used the fishes' simple tactics against them. It was impossible to keep from being surrounded but I was short and quick enough that I could slip past a good number of fish before they realized I was there and gang up on me. Most of them were too focused on reaching the walkway to notice the small enemy in their midst.

Ambervale, however, was not. She made my task easier by heading in the direction she'd thrown me rather than helping the fish take down the walkway. Her grudge against me held strong and even though she still couldn't see or hear she seemed to know I was the one who'd attacked her.

She flailed her tentacles every which way as she shoved her new bulk forward, not caring if she took out fish in the process. Some small part of my mind was surprised that the fish didn't turn on her for that but I didn't have time to ponder it in depth.

The others were getting in on the action as well. In the glances I spared to check on the walkway, I saw that the tribesfolk were deploying their nets and spears with ruthless efficiency against the horde. I could hear Tribe Master Toniva's shouts over the battle as she expertly directed them.

Ingrasia, Ziek, and Ana had all abandoned the walkway and were protecting each other's backs as they cut their way through the horde towards me. The two storm birds were plucking off fish as well while Cascade was rampaging through the water. Juniper looked like she was trying to recall the snake focus her fighting where we needed her and having a terrible time of it.

Yolanda and Britta were off to the side, behind the tribe members, and nothing indicated they were helping the fighting. Frustration simmered in my chest at the thought, but there was nothing I do about it. Instead, the next fish I fought got a particularly nasty jab up through its jaw and in into its brain and I nearly got pounded into the muck by another fish as I tried to pull my spear back out.

Abandoning the spear for the moment, I cut across the back of the fish's leg. It dropped as it suddenly couldn't support its weight on both sides and I knifed it in the eye before taking it out with a second thrust to the temple. My knife was better at cutting than piercing but it got the job done. I got my spear free of the first fish and then had to duck again as one of Ambervale's tentacles whipped overhead.

Ingrasia and her apprentices had nearly reached me but I didn't wait for them. I broke through the remaining fish blocking my way and into the space surrounding the abomination.

Ambervale's tail cracked into me before I could dodge and wrapped tight. She slammed me into the sandy muck even as she began to squeeze. I tried to plunge my spear into her but couldn't get the right leverage to do more than scrape against her scales. My ribs protested against the rough treatment but I ignored them in favor of reaching for my poisoner's pouch.

Esie might have lost a lot of my goodwill recently, but I couldn't deny that her knowledge of poisons was extensive and she was a decent teacher. She had built on the knowledge I learned from Rawley and expanded it. I didn't often reach for the poisons I carried because it felt uncomfortably close to the healing I was denied and Prevna already had that aspect of fighting covered. She could inject it and manage the dose in the middle of a fight much easier than I could, and I did well enough with my spear and knife. Learning poison craft was more interesting to me than using it.

Still, there were times when it was useful and I liked making use of the pouch Rawley had made me. So I had taken to carrying around some of the poisons I had learned. The simplest one only took a a few ingredients and inflamed the skin to cause a burning, itching rash. It only needed a small splash to be effective.

I threw the whole vial at Ambervale's monstrous face. It shattered and splashed oily liquid all over her front. Any worries I had that it might not be effective any longer disappeared as she screeched in pain and dropped me to use everything she could to get the liquid off, but that only succeded in spreading the poison to her tentacles and tail and she flailed. Trying in vain to stop the burning, itching pain.

I used the opportunity to draw in a full breath and dodged past her wildly waving limbs to stab her in the gut, right where the fish already got her. My spear sank deep and I twisted it around as best as I could to do more damage before I yanked it free and dropped to one knee as a tentacle nearly slapped me in the head. That didn't stop a second one from catching me in the shoulder with enough force to spin me around. I dropped my spear as my arm went numb but I caught myself before I inhaled a mouthful of sandy muck. I rolled away as tentacles slammed down a few inches behind me and I was forced to leave the spear behind.

Ambervale might be deaf and blind but once she discovered my position she was unfortunately good at predicting my next move even distracted as she was by my poison and that wouldn't last forever.

I was about to jump out of the way of the next attack when hands caught me and pulled me back. Ambervale's tail whiffed past as Ingrasia smiled down at me, and Ziek and Ana protected our flank.

"Care to share?" my mentor asked. "We're supposed to be a team after all."

The need to protest rose up habitually but I forced it back down. I was unlikely to get lucky like I had with the water snake and even hampered as Ambervale was between her injuries and punishment, she was still a threat now that she'd turned herself into a monster.

I nodded and Ingrasia patted me on the shoulder only for her smile to contort into something less pleasant as she focused on the abomination. "How vile. Let's put her out of her misery."

I pulled my knife free and got ready to fight again.