I speared a fish through the gills, pulled my weapon free and then whipped it around shove the fish back down the broken walkway. It tumbled and knocked the fish behind it into free fall too. I took the moment to check my spear and clicked my tongue. Something had felt off when I pulled my spear free and, like I had expected, the spearhead had chipped and was now loose in its binding. It wouldn’t last much longer, not that I wanted to take the risk of it breaking at the wrong moment. I whistled to get the attention of the resting tribesfolk and when I heard answering whistle I stepped back and a man took over defending my half of the walkway.

This was my second time using the maneuver. Kaylan and I had spoken to the tribesfolk in snatches while we defended the walkway and they took some much needed rest until we worked out a simple method for us all to rotate and better hold the line. Tribe Master Toniva had sent us a new group of ten to replace the exhausted group we had found, but the fighting was fierce enough that she couldn’t guarantee when or if more would be coming.

Kaylan and I fought for as long as we could, but neither of our blessings helped with fighting. Our new group of helpers were knife dancers. The man who replaced me rapidly sliced through an approaching fish on either side of its body, disabling its arm fins and ability to climb. These people had ample experience fighting the fish up close and personal, likely more so than me and Kaylan combined. They likely didn’t need our help except as another pair of hands to stymie the fish and increase the break times for the others, but I refused to leave when there was still an opening for the fish to overrun the walkways. Seeing what was at the river mouth and hearing what Kaylan had to say about the last Chosen was important, but I also didn’t want to ruin what trust the Swirling Waters tribe had placed in me.

I had long since taken off my pack as there was no reason to wear the extra weight when all of our enemies were coming from the front. I found it right where I left it, tucked against the railing and next to a tribeswoman who had her head tucked into her arms. I ignored her—as there wasn’t enough space on the walkway for any true privacy and we all had to make do with being clumped in tight—while I got to work on replacing my spearhead with the supplies from my pack.

I wasn’t sure exactly how long we had been holding the fish back for, but the day was getting later and if Juniper didn’t show up soon as the Water Frond Snake we’d be looking at fighting in the dark or figuring out another way to severe the part of the walkway reaching down into the water. For all I knew her rampage was helping hold another key point of the fight, but part of me was annoyed that she hadn’t made an appearance yet. It made me question how critical the Water Frond Snake really was if the tribe couldn’t coordinate with her—but then again they made it sound like the Water Frond Snake normally decimated whatever fish were in the delta which wouldn’t necessarily require coordination. It was only the sheer number of fish pouring into the delta this year that was causing all the problems.

The dark wouldn’t hinder me or Kaylan, but I wasn’t sure how the knife dancers would fare with reduced vision. And while I might like to think we could hold the line all night by ourselves, and I would deny that fatigue felt like a suit of stone weighing down all my limbs, it would be a true test on how far being stubborn could get me. My stamina had increased substantially since I first became Rawley’s apprentice, but I wasn’t practiced at protracted fights. Hiking all over was one thing, but now I was sore in places I never would have though of. Part of that was the awkward angle the fish were coming from, and part of it was fighting for hours. There was a quality to it that practicing and sparring couldn’t quite replicate.

I finished fixing my spear just as Kaylan’s head snapped to the side like she had heard something wholly unexpected. The next moment she whistled and the woman next me rose with a grimace before taking the whisper woman’s spot. Kaylan strode past me, jumped up to catch her hand on a thick branch that jutted over the walkway, before disappearing up into the tree. I scrambled after her.

She didn’t seem surprised in the least when I popped up out of the tree top next to her. She pointed into the distance. “That explains why Juniper is taking so long.”

I squinted to see what she was pointing at past the broad array bloated tree limbs and bramble wall that made up Bramble Watch. The flash of a bone white tail followed by two tentacles that flared above the tree line before smashing back down.

We both cocked our heads slightly to the side at the same time as Ana whispered into our ears. “Two leviathans made their way up the main channel. Juniper stopped one and is working on the other, but you will need to continue to hold the weak point.”

I frowned. I still remembered when we had been ambushed by one of those creatures when we had been hunting for the crawler on the shore. Prevna had managed to scare it off by poisoning it, but we had taken heavy damage in the meantime. My understanding was that they didn’t often try to assault the delta because the waterways were too shallow to support them, so it was more than odd that two had attacked at the same time. Another mystery to add to the pile of the fishes’ odd behavior this year.

But that didn’t fully explain the way Kaylan had reacted before she drew me up here. She might have been distracted by fighting, but surely she would have heard the fight between such large monsters before now. “Is that what got your attention?”

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

A pensive look clouded her face before she huffed out a breath. “No.” She pointed the opposite direction. “I’m needed elsewhere. Someone has learned of our plans and is protesting. Loudly.”

I stared at her in disbelief. “But—”

Kaylan clapped me on the shoulder. “You got this. Just hold off the fish like you’ve been doing until Juniper takes care of that leviathan and mops up the rest here.”

Something about her statement rubbed me the wrong way, but I didn’t get the chance to protest again before she disappeared among the branches. Kaylan was very good at making herself scarce when she bothered to put in the effort. Though I couldn’t say that she was leaving all the hard work to me since I still wasn’t sure what plans she was referring to.

Unease twisted in my gut as I glanced at the sky. If Juniper had taken hours to defeat the first leviathan then we would definitely be fighting in the dark. Continuing to do what we had all day wouldn’t work if the knife dancers struggled to hit their target. We’d need torches, or some other light source, at the very least.

I shifted my position in the tree and took in the scene below from a new angle to see if it gave me any new ideas. Which was how I noticed that the fish joining the tumultuous ball at the bottom of the broken pathway weren’t coming from the two waterways that joined nearby. Instead there was movement underneath the bramble pathways that the tribesfolk had made. Normally, the tribesfolk would still be able to see under their own pathways, at least in the areas where they had their killing fields and multiple paths connecting, as they could look from one to under the other, and the fish would have no reason to hide under the pathways because they tended to run next to the waterways and it was much easier for the fish to be stealthy under the water than out.

However, the main pathway Kaylan and I had been following had been built for speed to the outer perimeter around Bramble Watch. It crossed waterways and vegetation filled patches in equal measure so reinforcements could come and go as quickly as possible. From what I understood, the spot where we were now was just far enough from the outer perimeter that eyes weren’t constantly on it but also far enough from Bramble Watch that scouts there wouldn’t be able spot that something was wrong right away.

From my higher vantage point, I could see where fish after fish slipped from what was supposed to be a nest of mud and tree roots and into the pool of water without so much as a squelch. It looked like some effort had been made to conceal the spot with vegetation—and I hadn’t glanced twice at it down on the pathway—but now I could see between the concealing bushes and the bramble pathway over it. The ice and snow also helped to hide where the channel met the waterway. The spot was on the opposite side of the waterway, not far from where the path had broken free.

At the sight of it, a reckless but true thought filled my mind. If the fish couldn’t travel through whatever hidden pathway they had, then whatever hole was in the perimeter would be fixed and we wouldn’t need to continually defend the broken path from new invaders. We could handle the ones that had already gotten here and then take the time we needed to take care of the broken path. All that had to be done first was stop the one by one fish parade.

I dropped back down to path I had been defending, swung my pack into place on my back, made sure my spear was secure, and then told the leader of the knife dancers to keep defending while I went off to fix the issue of fish reinforcements to the area. She looked like she wanted to protest, but I followed Kaylan’s lead and left before she could form a proper sentence.

Thankfully, I had some experience scaling trees and traveling across their branches so it wasn’t terribly difficult to get from one side of the waterway to the other, despite the broken pathway. After that I continued on the path where I could, but I noticed the fish’s hidden path often moved away from areas that would likely see more foot traffic or would use an actual waterway when it was available. That made it harder to track, but as long as I went in the general direction of the perimeter it was easy enough to pick up again. That, and once I knew what I was looking for, it became easier to spot the fishes’ wiggling from random wildlife.

The hidden path was a narrow channel that wove among the mud and roots and such, so rather than having to struggle through the natural defenses they could slip around them with some water to ease their way. The entire thing was at odds with how the fish had been acting. This wasn’t some brutal assault where exhaustion and sheer numbers won the day for the horde, but something more akin to what I originally would have thought in line with the Lady Blue’s tactics. Something full of subterfuge and misdirection. I wasn’t sure what to think of the dichotomy.

It was…interesting to sneak above the fish while they thought they were sneaking by undetected in the mud and muck. Part of me was tempted to drop down and take them down as they came but if I did that I might as well have stayed back to defend the broken pathway. So I used the bramble paths where I could and used the false pines where I couldn’t as the sounds of fighting and the presence of tribesfolk increased until I finally found where the fish were sneaking in at.

The spot was similar to the end point I first spotted. A narrow channel covered by vegetation away from where the tribesfolk would normally look. However, not all the fish in the area were going for the channel. Most still followed the major waterways which would lead them into the choke points the Swirling Waters tribe had set up. It was only those that strayed closer to where the channel was that would suddenly veer off and head down it.

I needed something to block it or fill it up. Ideally, something more robust than uprooted plants or mud, but that seemed unlikely in the delta. Something that would be difficult or unpleasant enough that the fish would find their secret passage impassable, but I couldn’t do anything as drastic as bringing down another tree now that I knew the goddess was paying more attention than I would like. If the broken walkway was cut free then it could be used to block the other end, but I didn’t want to leave this end open. I glared at the channel but when a boulder failed to appear at its entrance I knew I was either going to have to get creative or give in and do some time consuming mud work while fending off fish—and if I didn’t want the knife dancers to fight in the dark then I was going to have to come up with the former sooner than later.