The twins didn't look over their shoulder as the slow current guided their makoro deeper into the swamp. Malek used the steersman’s long pole to push the boat away from pockets of algae or floating branches that snarled them. Shadows stretched everywhere through the swamp, and the twins shivered at every sound of overhead wings and splashes from the banks.
It felt like the current took them the opposite direction from the sea, but the twins bit their lips rather than voice doubt in Glennis’s advice. The smell of rotting vegetation filled their nostrils. Strange, glowing wisps rose from the waters, and the brothers prayed such lights were the ghosts of many a llungruel victim arising to bless their journey’s outset. They dared not let their imaginations consider far darker omens that village elders often told the spirits of the departed were known to bring.
For the first several hours, the currents leisurely pulled the brothers through the swamp, and the glowing wisps of oranges and greens appeared the most pressing hazard. But the swamp’s vegetation soon turned thick. The layer of surface algae grew deeper and tighter, bogging the makoro and forcing Malek to push against the submerged bottom with the long steersman’s pole, his legs shuddering to keep balance. The twins’ stomachs tightened in anxiety as their vessel shook from the effort. Strange animal calls fell from the thick canopy. Hisses and growls spilled from the shore’s thick grasses whenever the makoro squeezed through a narrow waterway.
“You getting tired with the pole?” Elloch asked as the trees inched closer.
Malek ducked a branch and sent a shiver through the makoro. “My arms are feeling the effort, but I don’t trust my legs well enough to try to change places.”
Leaves rustled overhead followed by a screech. Malek and Elloch didn’t have time to move as an electik, its brilliant, purple plumage cackling arcs of electricity, dove upon the makoro. The electik’s claws raked across the boat in a blink, leaving the twins’ vision dazzled from the bird’s brightness in the swamp’s dim shade. Yet the electik was not of the fearful size of which Glennis warned, and the electric bird swooped again into the canopy’s cover upon discovering Elloch and Malek too large for possible prey.
The twins held their breath.
“You alright?” Malek’s whisper was hardly audible.
“Just a little scratch on my shoulder,” Elloch’s fingers prodded his arms for other hurts. “It’s going to sting a while with the shock’s burn.”
“We were lucky,” and Malek nodded towards the makoro’s side.
Elloch carefully leaned his neck over the craft’s edge to look at the long, burned scar where one of the electic’s claws had cut into the makoro’s wood. The varnished wood had turned to black where the claw had scraped, and the twins smelled the smoke rising from the attack.
The brothers shared not a word more as the makoro pushed further into the swamp. The bugs swarmed where their boat moved most slowly. They did their best to ignore the irritating bites those insects delivered, afraid that flaying at the insects and scratching at their swelling bites might tip them into the dangers unseen in the waters. They watched, wide-eyed, as snakes slithered atop the waters less than an arm’s width from their craft. A bump beneath the makoro raced their hearts.
The mosses and algae covering the swamp thinned as the canopy withdrew to allow the late afternoon’s light to chase away a handful of the lingering shadows and haunting wisps. The currents’ pull grew stronger and Malek’s tired legs and arms were afforded a seat behind Elloch. The twins were content to drift wherever the waters carried them, and they appreciated the progress that allowed them to keep all their limbs well within the makoro.
“The sea’s just ahead,” Elloch pointed at the bow as the banks retreated from the boat’s sides.
Malek smiled. “The open waters look calm.”
“Good luck for us,” Elloch winked. “Which direction do we need to take?”
Malek opened the box around his neck and gazed at the needle. “Old Glennis took us through the swamp for a reason other than just sneaking past the outsiders. We’re pointed right at the island. All we have to do is steer our craft straight. The worse dangers are behind us.”
Elloch refrained from responding. Malek deserved to feel proud of his balance and his navigation through the swamp. Only, Elloch did not believe the danger retreated. The sea stretched limitlessly in front of them and outsider device or not, they searched for a small island amid such vastness.
Elloch swallowed his anxiety. They could not turn back from the journey that was begun. The llengruel’s fever remained with them both, and its heat would not dissipate until the waters took their course.