Free Aquamancer (mancer series Book 2) by Don Callander Page A

he called in disgust to the Otter, “I can’t even see the way to backtrack. I’ll have to check all possible channels by sight, first, then move the boat. It’ll take days!”
    He took a long time, sitting cross-legged atop nothing, much to the Otter’s amazed delight, turning slowly about clockwise to study the lay of the wetlands in all directions.
    “That way, I think,” he decided, at last. He produced a brass pocket compass from his right sleeve and carefully noted the direction of the most promising channel. Once he dropped back into the boat there were no landmarks to tell which way to go.
    “Please, Marbleheart, swim on ahead and check the depth of the way I chose, so the boat won’t get stuck in the mud. What are the tides hereabouts, anyway?”
    “Not large,” said Marbleheart, splashing eagerly into the water. “That, a Sea Otter can tell you. It’s second nature to notice such things for us. The tide turned two hours ago and is ebbing now.”
    “Which means it’ll get shallower and shallower around here unless we find a deep channel,” sighed Douglas. He checked his compass once more and pointed out to the Otter the way to go.
    It went well but slowly for an hour while twilight stayed in the sky. At times the reeds, sand, and mud banks closed in on the narrow boat so that the Journeyman could touch the stalks at either side by spreading his arms wide. Then they would suddenly emerge from the narrows into wide, still lagoons, completely clear of vegetation. The next problem was choosing a suitable exit through the reeds on the far side of each pool.
    The Sea Otter made sure they had enough water under the gondola’s keel to remain afloat and clear of subsurface obstructions, but seeing soon became difficult even for the Otter’s night-sharp eyes.
    “It isn’t getting any deeper,” panted Marbleheart, pausing to rest a moment on a great green lily pad with upturned edges like an enormous pie plate. “On the other hand it isn’t getting any shallower, either. We can go on for another half hour or so, but could you see well enough to steer?”
    “Not really,” admitted Douglas. He allowed the gondola to coast to a standstill in the middle of one of the open pools. “Better stop for the night.”
    “There’ll be a moon later on. Maybe we can go on under moonlight,” the Otter told him.
    He went off in search of his supper while Douglas contented himself with a meat pasty and a rather wilted salad taken from the Waiters’ luncheon at Summer Palace.
    Wide Marsh came to life as full night fell. Choruses of chirps and croaks filled the air, punctuated by alligators booming, warning everyone away from their personal banks and ponds. The air hummed with the wings of hungry insects homing in on Douglas’s tender skin and warm blood.
    After some thought, Douglas conjured an insect-repellant envelope about the gondola and listened to the angry comments of tens of thousands of mosquitoes until they gave up in disgust and went whining off to find their suppers elsewhere.
    “I’ll take a short nap,” he decided when the Otter returned, smacking his lips over some undisclosed wetland delicacy.
    “I’ll just snuggle close and benefit from your bug spell,” agreed the other, and in short time they were both sound asleep in the bottom of the gondola, gently rocked by tiny wavelets.
    A thirty-foot alligator with a wickedly sharp grin glided silently into the lagoon. He nosed curiously against the mosquito shield, suspiciously eyed the frail-seeming gondola for a long moment, but moved off again, wary of the invisible blockade he had felt but couldn’t see.
    The sleepers didn’t even wake when a fight broke out between several night birds over a fish carcass floating on the glassy surface at the other end of the lagoon.
    “Pad Foot!” said a husky voice near Douglas’s right ear. “Pad Foot, come look at what I’ve found!”
    The Journeyman awoke without starting, opening his eyes just a slit