Free The Drowned Tomb (The Changeling Series Book 2) by James Fahy

bed of the lake soon fell away from under him as he swam, dropping away into cold and murky darkness below. His tutor swam the entire way beneath the surface, her arms flat at her sides, her long hair trailing like sleek silver seaweed and her legs, wrapped in the silvery dress, lashing like a mermaid’s tale. Robin on the other hand, had to occasionally come up for air and found it difficult to keep up with her. He cut through the water expertly, however, feeling bold and confident from the kraken-bile draught, and enjoying the unfamiliar and magical sensation of swimming over deep water. It felt a little like flying. Partway to the island he flipped onto his back and swam the remainder of the way staring up happily into the cloudless bright blue of the summer sky. Swallows danced and dived high above him. Robin found himself utterly content, thinking to himself that at times, there was simply no place he would rather be in all the world than here at Erlking.
    When he reached the shore, and clambered, dripping and panting a little, out onto the island’s edge, Henry and his tutor were waiting for him. Oddly, Calypso didn’t look remotely wet.
    “That worked then, didn’t it, Mer-boy,” Henry grinned, giving Robin a sneaky thumbs-up from the broken, moss-covered wall he perched on.
    “What worked?” his tutor asked lightly, as the sun dried Robin off.
    “Nothing, nothing,” Robin replied.
    “If the human child is to remain during your lesson, Scion, this is permitted,” Calypso said. “However, know that should he be injured, fatally or otherwise, it is no concern of mine. I have very little skill in healing, and I have been engaged to teach you, not to care for the severed limbs of a grinning mortal.”
    Henry looked a little offended. “Child?” he muttered. “I’m fourteen this year.”
    “Severed limbs?” Robin repeated, thinking this was perhaps the more pertinent thing.
    “Water…” the nymph said, leading them away from the water’s edge and into the middle of the ruined circular wall of the folly, which was open to the sky. “…Is dangerous. Drown, freeze, burn, crush.” Her voice was almost sing-song. “It can and will turn on you if it chooses. But it is also life, feeling and emotion, the irresistible pull of the moon moving the tides of mana throughout the Netherworlde.” She pointed back at the lake. “Water can scald and steam.” She flicked her wrist, as though shooing a fly, and some way out from the water’s edge, a tremendous geyser of steaming water erupted suddenly from the surface of the lake. The column of bubbling, boiling liquid roared high into the air, flashing in the sunlight, and making both Robin and Henry jump in surprise.
    It fell back to the surface noisily, hot rain that steamed across the lake in thick clouds.
    “An excellent barrier to repel oncoming enemies,” his tutor said, sounding quite pleased. “Or to cook a fish supper, of course.”
    She glanced at Henry, the corners of her mouth turned up a little. “Water can also … fix,” she said, flicking her fingers at him as though shaking off droplets.
    Bands of blue ice flew suddenly from her hands, mini-snowstorms which rushed towards Henry in a swift blur. They knocked the boy from his feet, and Robin watched in shock as his friend was lifted from his feet and slammed unceremoniously against the ruined folly walls, some ten feet in the air. When Calypso daintily lowered her hands, Henry had been fixed to the wall, thick and jagged bands of solid ice pinning him in place at the wrists and ankles as surely as iron manacles.
    “Hey!” Robin protested as Henry wheezed.
    “Bloody … hell,” Henry spluttered, looking furious, although his yellow swimming cap made him look rather ridiculously like a red-faced gnome. “Bit of … warning … next time … please.”
    “See,” the nymph told Robin, utterly ignoring Henry, pinned like an angry butterfly. “Water exists in many states, steam, liquid and