Chapter 43

I take advantage of their shock and leap out of the barrel. My footing is all wrong due to my legs staying cramped, but I weather through it, pulling a whip of water and blasting the ones nearest to us.

"Sphinxe!" someone yells, face white. "Get them!"

Umber scampers out of the barrel and we start to make a run for it. Wind blast into our faces as we curve down to the gangplank. When more feet pound toward us, I veer right, contemplating the rails.

"Over there!"

Sucking in a breath, I look to Umber. "On three," I rush. "One, two--"

We launch over the rails with identical screams. Once we slam down on a low wooden bridge, the people lounging by the bank draw stiff. They sight the large men banding for us and pandemonium erupts. The people take to their heels. We struggle to our feet on the weirdly rocky beach (there is little sand!), then we race toward their distancing forms, hoping to get lost in the fray.

But we are stopped on