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

to see who had spoken. He felt the Otter stir ever so slightly, then lie very still as well.
    The rising moon was silvery bright just above the tall reeds edging the pool; bright enough for one to see very well, Douglas discovered.
    The gondola rocked slightly. Glancing over the side, he caught sight of a pair of gnarled and spindly arms and twisted, webbed fingers grasping the side of the boat.
    A moment later a pair of huge, luminous yellow-green eyes peered cautiously into the boat. They blinked slowly.
    “Gangoner, what are you going on about?” called a new voice from some distance away. “I’m coming...”
    Slowly sitting up, Douglas saw a swift-moving chevron of ripples pointed in their direction on the glassy surface. The disturbance slapped softly at the side of the gondola and a second, even more grotesque pair of hands and two wide-set, gold-glowing eyes appeared over the side near where Douglas lay. The first impression Douglas had of the night visitors was that they were giant frogs, mottled green and black with wide, toothless mouths.
    “Hello, there!” said the one called Gangoner cheerfully, if a bit hoarsely. “Welcome to Wide Marsh!”
    “Thank you,” said Douglas. “I’m afraid I fell asleep!”
    “For some, nighttime is for sleeping,” observed the creature. “But for us, it’s time to look to our tummies, you know.”
    “Not fond of Otter, are you?” asked Marbleheart, also sitting up and watching the visitors warily.
    “No, no! Fishes are best, oysters are even better, if we can find ‘em and clams. Then a salad of water-lily root and lotus buds for roughage. This night we’ve already dined, anyway.”
    The frog-creature named Gangoner introduced himself and his companion, Pad Foot, quite politely. Whatever unease their appearance initially caused, Douglas quickly put aside. Despite their lumpy ugliness and guttural voices, they seemed gentle, friendly beasts.
    He told the marsh dwellers his own name and Marbleheart’s and invited them to come aboard.
    “We’re a bit lost here, not being able to find the main river course,” he explained. “Perhaps you could help?”
    Pad Foot, the smaller and more talkative of the two, nodded his understanding as he climbed wetly aboard the gondola and perched on the forward thwart. He was, indeed, a huge amphibian, green with three yellow stripes down his flanks.
    “We’re never quite sure of the currents here ourselves. I think the tide is just beginning to rise, but ‘tis too early to show.”
    “If you’re heading upriver we probably can’t help,” considered Gangoner, scratching his belly as he joined his companion. “We’ve lived all our lives here in Backwater, you see. No desire to brave the turbulent currents and salty tides.”
    “I’ve never seen creatures quite like you before,” said Douglas, offering them bits of waybread.
    “Ummm, good!” cried Pad Foot. “We are of the race of Goblins—”
    “Goblins!” exclaimed Marbleheart. “I expect Goblins to have no interest in strangers, except as dinners.”
    “No! No! We are Hobgoblins, ” Gangoner said quickly. “We’re only distantly related to those wicked flesh-eating Great Goblins you’ve heard about. We’re true water Hobgoblins, rather. Goblins are ever so much larger and ever so much nastier.”
    “We’re hardly nasty, at all,” added Pad Foot, earnestly. “Not the least bit, in fact. No, no. We like the retired, quiet life, although it is nice to meet strangers from solid ground once in a while, you know. This bread is really quite delicious!”
    Douglas gave them both a bit more of the fairy food. Waybread is very difficult to use up. It tends to run out only when you fail to share it with every hungry thing that comes along.
    The froglike Hobgoblins chatted for a few moments longer about their reclusive lives in Backwater of Wide Marsh.
    Douglas wasn’t surprised to find they knew little of World, beyond the reed beds and hyacinth rafts. They had