The Copper Promise by Jen Williams

the terrible warriors at bay, and Wydrin had done her fair share of fighting too, judging by the thick green fluid encrusting her daggers, but she’d also taken a blow to the head, and one side of her face was slick with blood. The warriors appeared to be unending, but they seemed strangely reluctant to come near the blue lake despite the fact that it would take mere seconds to outflank the small group.
    ‘Get behind me,’ he shouted as he splashed up to them. ‘Get into the lake, there’s nothing in there to harm us now.’
    Wydrin staggered back, deflecting a series of blows from one of the soldiers almost instinctively. Her arms were trembling with the effort now.
    ‘Why should I do anything you say?’
    ‘Just do it!’
    She must have seen something in his face then, a hint of what he intended to do, because instead of arguing further she put her daggers back in their sheaths and took hold of Sebastian, dragging him deeper into the water but taking care to keep his head above it. At the sight of the knight, his tunic soaked in blood, Frith felt his stomach turn over. Marshum and the ragged Culoss followed suit, looking up at Frith with wide dark eyes.
    ‘What have you done?’ asked Marshum.
    Frith shook his head, unable to explain. The warriors advanced up to the edge of the lake and stopped.
    ‘Come and fight,’ called one of the warriors at the front. She bared long pointed teeth at Frith, running a dark green tongue over them suggestively. ‘We like the taste of your blood, little warm things.’
    ‘Not bloody likely,’ shouted Wydrin back. ‘How about you behave like good little snakes and slither back underground?’
    The warrior laughed, and reached behind her to pull a slim golden bow from her back. Amongst the scaled golden armour the bows had been well camouflaged and, as Frith watched, the whole front line began to draw them, notching short, barbed arrows.
    ‘Well, we’re dead,’ said Wydrin.
    ‘No,’ said Frith. There was something growing within him, an extension of the light and power that had been with him since he’d been submerged under the lake. He felt it building, like a kettle of stew left on the stove too long, or water surging up from a well during flood season. He held out his hands in front of him and let the sensation overtake him. ‘They are.’
    There was a tremendous flash of light and a great wave of blue fire rolled out from the palms of his hands, surging towards the crowd of green warriors. Some of them dropped their bows, others turned to run, but found only hundreds of their sisters in their way. The fire was on them in an instant and the great cavern filled with screams as their flesh melted away from their bones, and their heads lit up like torches.
    Frith laughed. The palms of his hands were itching.
    ‘How did you do that?’ asked Wydrin, her voice shrill with astonishment, and Frith tried to tell her, but she could not hear it over the screaming of the warriors. Those still alive were now retreating for the far door, swords held over their heads. And there was another sound. A deep and ominous rumble from beneath their feet.
    ‘She is stirring,’ said Marshum. ‘She is not completely free yet, I do not know …’
    Frith knelt by Sebastian and took hold of the big knight’s face between his fingers. He was as white as paper and the skin around his eyes was bruised a deep purple, but he could feel the slither of life still there, a tiny hot thread amongst all that cold.
    ‘He’s still alive, but barely.’
    ‘Then we need to get out of here.’ Wydrin looked back towards the far doors, but the snake warriors were still crowded there, watching them with yellow eyes.
They will gain their courage again soon enough
, thought Frith,
and then what?
Now that the adrenaline was fading, his legs felt weak and his head was spinning. Could he keep up the fireballs long enough to fight to the surface? Long enough for Sebastian not to lose his grip on life on the way