Path of the Whisper Woman

Juniper and I paused on the edge of the fight with Ambervale to take everything in. Even though I could feel the potion's effects ebbing away from me which tempted me to rush in, going in blind at this point would likely get Juniper or one of the others hurt. Ruining the balance of the battle would only tip things in the abomination's favor.

So I kept my attention partly on the fish to make sure we weren't about to get attacked from behind and let the rest of my focus absorb everything in front of me in the time it took to draw in a long breath.

Ambervale was still stuck in the hole Hattie had made and the whisper women were doing their best to keep her busy enough that she couldn't pry herself free. Unfortunately, however, the sandbar wasn't the most sturdy of places, so the hole was collapsing in on itself with her struggles. It wasn't clear if the sandy muck sloughing over her bottom half was helping to keep her pinned in or if she'd be free to slither around at any moment. Since her default seemed to be deception I figured it would be best to prepare for the latter.

The end of her tail was also still free of the pit and she whipped it at anyone who dared step in its vicinity. Ambervale might still be blind and deaf but between that tail and her tentacles she was controlling the area around her well. Everyone fighting her were skilled but it was difficult to apply standard fighting practices to an abomination that defied logic. A nearly twelve foot monster who could change her attack at moment's notice and who had been given the training—so she knew what to expect—couldn't be an easy opponent. As time went on, the whisper women got used to fighting an abomination but Ambervale also had the chance to get used to her new body.
Still, she seemed enraged and not fighting as tactically as she could, which if it wasn't a ploy, was a point in our favor and she didn't know that Juniper and Cascade had joined the fight.

My hand dropped to the nearly empty flask of Knife Dancer's Revenge on my belt. We needed to take Ambervale down as soon as possible and for that I should be at my best, but I also didn't want to be completely useless as soon as the fight was over. I took my hand away from the flask. If I had to take that last drink in while fighting Ambervale I would, but my current dose wasn't completely gone and I might as well stretch the time I had as long as I could. Disgust wouldn't rule me.

Ingrasia's group had shifted so they were directly across from Juniper and me, only a few feet from the tip of the sandbar. I expected to see fish surging out of the waves behind them, but that part of the sea was oddly empty. Both storm birds were concentrating their efforts of picking off any fish that tried their luck there and, by and large, the horde had shifted its focus to pulling down the walkway rather than helping out the abomination that had called them. From the way the fish poured around the main fight, it seemed like the fish were avoiding it. Perhaps they sensed that only death waited there.

Or Nix was using her blessing again. She stood ankle deep in the ocean to my right. The sandbar rapidly fell off on that side, so Ambervale would have quicker access if she decided to try to swim, but she directed less attacks that way and it was even emptier of fish than the tip of the sandbar. Nix's blessing, however, was more limited on the other side. But it worked well enough that everyone opposite her didn't have to worry about getting overwhelmed from a surge of fish at their back. The fish pressed closer on that side but they were reluctant to to close the gap.

Esie, Kaylan, Hattie, and Morwen had all clumped into a group to my left. Hattie had stopped creating her holes in favor of fighting with her spear while Morwen still looked to be using her blessing to help influence the fight where she could. Esie and Kaylan fought together as if they'd done it all their lives. They both favored dodging in place of defense, but Kaylan would bait Ambervale into making a reckless attack so that Esie could finish the sequence with her own attack full of poison. Hattie swapped between offense and defense as it was needed.

The more I took in the more I realized that Ambervale had slowed and the sands around her were getting stained yellow with her blood. She was still dangerous, still strong and fast compared a regular human, but the fight wasn't as skewed in favor as it seemed initially.

Well, everyone else could keep the abomination busy since they were doing such a good job of it so far. Juniper and I had our own part to play. I told her the plan and she settled down onto the sand to prepare. Cascade grew bigger so that only Juniper's face and hands were visible between her coils. The fish avoided the snake as much or more than they kept away from Nix. As long as Cascade masked Juniper's presence she should be safe from the horde and I wouldn't put it past the snake to still have room for another fish or three in her endless stomach.

Still, I didn't like leaving Juniper alone with the horde at her back and Ambervale flailing around like a mad thing. But it had to be done. While it might have been satisfying to leap into action like I had at first, stealth would get us better results. Juniper's special ability with her water was powerful but it required positioning and that would be nearly impossible if she had to dodge across the battlefield. More so, the sandbar didn't have the natural decline she had used to direct her water on the shore. If she let it splash out of her hands as things were she'd likely just make a puddle around her feet and give away her position.

So I put my knife away and got down on my belly in the sandy muck. Given that I was already covered in the stuff I could almost convince myself that it wasn't awful. Then I set to scooping out handfuls of muck to create a channel straight for the abomination. We could turn Ambervale's own tactic against her.

As I scooted along and scooped up sandy muck in the middle of a battle I felt like a fool. Who did something so tedious in the middle of a fight? I'd thought that Juniper would have pushed back more, pointed out that Hattie could have made a giant channel with her holes or Morwen could have done it without getting her hands dirty by controlling the ground, and then I could have convinced her that Hattie's holes would have taken too long to fill and if either of their fighting changed Ambervale would likely sense it and know something was happening. I could have made sure she knew I hadn't come up with plan just to give myself something to do.

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Except that she did accept my plan after a brief moment of surprise and I had to go with it. Crawl along the ground and leave my dignity behind in the name of results. It felt like a mix of navigating the paths in the wind spirits' home and braving the storm at the end. Trying to thread my way through a narrow bit of calm air while everything around me raged and one unlucky decision would send the plan into free fall. More than once tentacles narrowly passed over my head or slammed down near my side. Once one dragged through the part of the channel I'd already dug and I had to backtrack to dig it out again.

Kaylan noticed me first and it caused her to misstep. She paused when she should have kept going and Ambervale clipped her across the shoulder. Kaylan spun with the force of the blow and Esie had to abandon her attack to pull Kaylan out of the way of another tentacle. It didn't take them long to reset though and, after a bit of fast talking I noticed out of the corner of my eye, Morwen's voice spoke in my ear with a breath of wind.

"What are you doing?"

I stopped digging the channel to give all my focus to sending a wind whisper. "Helping Juniper. Keep fighting normal."

Another brief discussion, a few sidelong glances my way, but they kept the fight going like I said. I did catch Ingrasia peering around Ambervale at one point to look at me though, so the only one in fight who didn't know what I was doing was Ambervale.

That was all I needed though.

I kept myself as close to the ground as possible and set every scoopful of muck down as carefully as I could so my movements would hopefully blend into the background of slapping fins and harsh steps from the whisper women. I wasn't sure if Ambervale could sense vibration better now but I didn't want to take an unnecessary risk if I didn't have to. Even if the urge to go faster and get the whole unpleasant ordeal over with tugged at me.

I looked over my shoulder every third scoop or so to check on Juniper, but every time I only saw a coiled snake. Sitting inside Cascade's coils would have been smothering to an awful degree for me, but Juniper was taking the awkward, stifling situation well. I wasn't sure if it was because she had been stuck in Cascade's head for weeks but I was quietly glad I could still move freely.

I kept scooping. Someone cried out from Ingrasia's group but I couldn't see around the abomination to see what had happened. Ambervale's movement suddenly changed and I heard multiple rapid thuds. At the same moment a cracking sound came from the walkway and I had to clench my jaw against the urge to go faster or turn and look. I wouldn't be able to see anything from my position and I was only a body length away from Ambervale. Any wasted movement could give me away. Any wasted movement would drain what little energy I had left from the potion.

The weight of the muck on my clothes dragged on me. Everything was gritty and wet and a stabbing, grinding pain radiated up from my elbows as I dragged myself forward. The shoulder Ambervale had hit earlier wanted to give out, just rest from supporting my weight while my other arm protested against the strain of scooping sand from such an awkward position.

Everything sounded like it was turning for the worse but I had to keep doing what I was doing or it'd likely all be for naught. Being uncomfortable couldn't matter, fear and worry couldn't matter. Just that next scoop. The next bit of advancement that would allow Juniper to end this once and for all.

Disgust couldn't matter. It pressed on me like a physical thing the closer I got to the abomination and the more the potion ebbed away, but I refused to take my last drink. My willpower was stronger than Ambervale's awful appearance—and I could prove it.

Inch by inch I forced myself forward. Closer to lumpy flesh that looked like snot pasted onto an all too willing subject, unnatural scales and useless fins that flapped like hidden fish were trying to burrow into her entrails. I couldn't see her face, a small mercy, but I got too well acquainted with the section of tail right in front of my face as I scooped and scooped and scooped sandy muck.

Temptation rose like bile in the back of my throat to stab the horrendous sight in front of me and scramble away but I swallowed it down. I had a mission and I wasn't going to be the one to ruin the thing I brought Juniper down here for.

I reached forward to get one of my last handfuls and froze. Ambervale shifted back as the same moment and her bulk grazed by barely a hair from my finger. She could've felt its heat if not for the fight still going on all around us. I carefully pulled my hand back and waved at Juniper.

Ambervale's movement accomplished two things. First, and most importantly, she broke the last little barrier between my channel and her hole of watery muck. Second, it showed she wasn't nearly as restricted as she pretended.

Unfortunately for her, I was determined to make sure that whenever anyone thought of her betrayal all they could think was that she always did too little, too late. The blood crystals? Sabotaging the tribesfolk? Turning herself into a monster? The desperate acts of a mad woman who couldn't understand that all her actions only dug her deeper into her doom rather than the salvation she thought she was creating. Too little, too late.

People could wonder: what if she did this or that? What if we hadn't found the blood crystals or what if she escaped as abomination? But they'd be left with the truth. All her plans came to nothing and they came to nothing because of me and Juniper and everyone else in the delta. Ambervale was nothing but a coward. Too small minded to keep fear from ruling her.

Water rushed in and I slipped backwards. One last glance over my shoulder showed twin glows pouring off Cascade and from Juniper's forehead. Water flowed from Juniper's hands like she was the start of a raging river and I grinned with savage satisfaction as it crashed down the channel I made.

Ambervale felt the moment the water burst against her side, I saw her shift away from it, but then she hesitated, not sure if the new water was a threat or not. That hesitation cost her. The next breath she was shifting, ready to spring out of the hole to escape the new threat, but Juniper had already clasped her hands in a sphere.

"Surge!"

The water bubbled up between one blink and the next into a perfect sphere. It encased Ambervale's head and torso. Her tentacles were too long outstretched for the sphere to envelop, but Ambervale pulled one armful in and once they were in the sphere they stopped being deadly weapons. Ambervale tried to whip them forward but rather than an attack so quick it blurred the five tentacles looked like they were soggy wool strips someone left out in the rain. They weren't going anywhere quickly.

Ambervale tried to use her tail and remaining tentacles to thrash her way free but the water sphere held as the glow coming off Juniper and Cascade got brighter. In the end, Ambervale got the death she deserved. Long and drawn out enough that she had time to reflect on every step where things went wrong. Time to realize that she wasn't defeated by spears but by the very thing she had taken refuge in.

Water.

It seeped into her wounds, into her skin, and she grew bloated. The misshapen masses on her body were the first things to burst and with the amount of water Juniper was pumping into the sphere it didn't take long for everything else to follow.

Ambervale's judgment was finally complete.