Trail of the Gods_ The Morcyth Saga Book Four - Brian S. Pratt [83]
From up ahead, he can hear the sound of the water begin to change. Another strike against the side and he hears a crack from the rear of the boat and suddenly his feet are drenched as water fills the boat rapidly.
“James!” cries out Jiron as the sound ahead of them gains in volume.
“Just hold on!” he cries. “This is going to be rough!”
Suddenly, they’re airborne as they’re propelled over the waterfall. James holds his breath in anticipation of striking the water. When they do, the boat completely disintegrates.
A piece of the destroyed boat stabs him in the arm as he’s thrown into the water. The iciness of it takes his breath away as he breaks the surface, gasping for air. The pain in his arm is tremendous and when he feels with his other hand, finds a piece of wood has completely passed through and is sticking an inch out both sides.
“James!” he hears in the dark, his orb having disappeared when he hit the water and broke concentration.
“Over here!” he hollers as he treads water. Another orb springs into being and he sees Jiron swimming toward him. Not far off is half of the boat floating upside down in the water. He starts swimming as best he can with one arm toward it.
Jiron sees what he’s making for and angles his way over to reach it. He reaches the remnant of the boat first and takes hold of the side as he begins bringing it to James. When he meets up with him, he holds it steady as James works himself up onto it. “What happened to you?” he asks when he sees the piece of wood sticking out of his arm.
“Piece of the boat got me when we hit the water back there,” he explains. Legs still submerged in the water, he at last has a secure hold on the boat with his good arm and isn’t likely to sink again into the water.
“Let me look at it,” Jiron tells him. James winces in pain as he inspects where his left arm near the shoulder has been punctured. “Doesn’t look like it hit the bone, just went through the muscle.” He looks James in the eye and says, “You know it needs to come out. If you move around too much with it in there it’s going to do more damage to the muscle.”
“Okay, do it,” he says as he grits his teeth.
Jiron takes the piece of wood and slides it back out the way it had come in. James cries out from the pain and almost slips off the overturned boat before Jiron grabs him and steadies him.
When the piece of wood is out, he throws it into the water and then tears off a piece of James’ shirt which he ties tightly around the wound to prevent anymore blood loss. “You should be fine, it came out cleanly,” he tells him.
James can only nod as he becomes nauseous from the pain. Now weak and shaky, it’s all he can do just to hang onto the boat with his one good arm.
“How do we get out of here?” Jiron asks. The light from James’ orb doesn’t illuminate very far and all he sees is water.
“If we move away from the waterfall behind us,” he explains, “we’ll eventually come to where the water leaves the cavern and flows to the river outside.”
“How far is that?” he asks.
“I don’t remember exactly,” he replies.
“Just hold on and we’ll get there,” he tells him.
Nodding, James holds on tighter as Jiron begins kicking with his feet, moving them further away from the crashing of the waterfall.
When they’ve progressed enough that the sound of the waterfall begins to diminish behind them, Jiron hears the sound of teeth chattering beside him. Glancing over to James, he can see that he’s shivering badly from being in the cold water. “You okay?”
“N-n-n-o-oo,” he says, trying to control his chattering teeth. “J-just c-c-c-old.”
Cold himself, he’s even more worried about his friend. He at least has the benefit of moving to keep his body temperature up. “Kick your feet,” he suggests. “That might help keep you a little warmer.”
Shortly, splashing can be heard from where James begins kicking his feet. Suddenly, he cries out as he loses his one armed grip on the remnants of the boat