The Prize in the Game by Jo Walton Read Free Book Online Page A

fighting the coils with a spear. Leary wasn't far from him, also with a spear. This made Ferdia remember that he ought to have a spear himself. He looked around for one. There was a spear stuck hard in the smooth coil, though it was not bleeding. The spear was quivering slightly and stuck quite far in. Ferdia wondered if he had put it there, though it looked as if it had been thrown there. He stretched his arm to see if he could reach it, and found his arm encircled with another loop, a thinner one. People were shouting, but the sound of thrashing water drowned out their words.
    What was this thing anyway? It was like a snake, but everyone knew there were no snakes in Tir Isarnagiri.
    And where was its head? He looked up and saw nothing but sky. He was starting to feel faint from lack of breath. The coil seemed to be moving him downwards towards the water. There was a huge splash and he was immersed in the mud and water again. He struggled, but the harder he struggled the more the loop squeezed him. Just as he was about to give up and try to breathe water, someone rolled him over. He just lay there for a moment, breathing.
    Breathing was wonderful. He was on his back in quite shallow water. Close above him were Conal and Emer, laughing. They both held big knives, or maybe funny little swords, and were soaked and muddy.
    Ferdia sat up gasping and saw Darag, still holding a spear, looking concerned. "Are you all right?" Darag asked. There was nothing behind him but Leary and Nid, muddy and dripping, both their spears running with water.
    "Where did it go?" Ferdia asked and coughed painfully.
    "We killed it," Emer said, then amended herself. "Conal killed it."
    "Emer killed it," Conal said, bowing. "You're a true warrior, not a charioteer."
    "I'd much rather be your charioteer," she muttered.
    "If you killed it, where's the body?" Laig interrupted. Ferdia looked to the bank. Laig was standing there dry and clean, holding the traces of both chariots.
    "It melted away when we killed it," Emer said.
    "What was it?" Ferdia asked. "Was it a snake?"
    "It may have been," Conal said. "I've never seen one, but it was like the way they are in songs."
    He leaned down and offered his empty hand to Ferdia and pulled him to his feet. The water wasn't even up to his knees here. Now that he could breathe again, he felt chilled all through. He took a step toward the bank and stubbed his toe on something hard. He saw a gleam through the murky water and bent for it. It was his spear. He pulled it out and leaned on it.
    "I didn't know they were so big," Nid said. She looked cold as well, her teeth were chattering.
    "And I didn't know about the wings. I thought it was like a huge swan."
    "What wings?" Ferdia asked, puzzled.
    "I didn't see any wings. It had scales like snakes are supposed to, but I think it was a great big fish," Leary said.
    Ferdia looked about for the dead swan he had come into the water for. There was no sign of it.
    There was no sign of any life at all, except for one solitary moorhen cowering in the reeds.
    "It wasn't a swan or a fish or a snake, and we didn't kill it," Darag said. If it hadn't been impossible, Ferdia would have thought there were tears in his voice. He must have swallowed some of the water. "She was the
    Guardian of the Creatures of the Island of Tir Isarnagiri, and it's all my fault and I nearly got you killed, Ferdia.
    I shouldn't have killed the swan, I knew it was out of season."
    "The swan was flying," objected Leary. "You're allowed to spear swans in the sky all year
    'round."
    "But he was coming down, and he fell in the water," Darag said.
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    "If it was the Beastrnother, and I do not for one moment concede that it was," Conal said, his voice like sharpened ice, "then how is it that you know this and we do not?"
    "It's just how things are," Darag said. He ran his wet hand through his wet hair. "I know you won't believe I
    don't do this sort of thing on purpose, Con, but if I could be free of it, I