The Stone Heart's Lament
Unexpected Deluge

Rashari saw MadameChimera vanish under the surging waters of the river –a river that hadmaterialised out of nowhere. He lurched forward, wading into the murky water asit spread outward across the ground. The river churned with tree branches, deadleaves, chunks of undergrowth and other unidentifiable detritus. The surfacewas brown and opaque, whipped into tightly coiled eddies and whirlpools. Hecould feel the pull of the undertow catching at his knees as he pushed deeperinto the flow. He couldn’t see Madame Chimera at all. The waters surged aroundhis legs stretching outward on both sides of the bank, devouring the ground,flooding the forest. Already the water had reached the sapling where he’d leftSmith perched precariously in the highest branches. The current pushed forward,cutting a channel westward, roughly following the path of the subsumedstreambed.

Rashari looked aroundhim, trying to replace something he could use to secure himself to solid ground –or in lieu of solid ground, which was now in short supply, a sturdy tree trunk.He needed a rope or...there! Rashari grabbed hold of a trailing length ofdangling vine bobbing on the surface of the churning river. The vine was thicklike corded rope, rough to the touch and covered in short, fibrous hairs. Itdangled from the branch of a willow that had originally sat on the edge of thestream bank but was now rising out of the middle of the river. It was abouteight feet long. Rashari tugged on it as hard as he could. The vine seemedstrong and that was all Rashari really cared about. He looped it around hiswaist twice and knotted the end somewhat awkwardly before wading deeper untilthe water was up to his waist and pushing hard enough that he knew he wouldn’tkeep his balance for long.

Madame Chimera mighthave been swept further downstream. The current was fast and strong. Or shecould be trapped under the waters, caught on something below the surface, and bedrowning as he stood waist deep in the river, dithering like a bloody fool. Rasharidrew in two quick breaths to settle his nerves and then another, which he heldin his lungs, and dove into under the water.

Instantly the currenttook him. The water picked him up bodily, spun him around, whipped him headover heels until he was tumbling and tumbling around and around like a starspinning through space. He couldn’t see anything. The water was thick as mudand cold enough that the shock almost dragged a gasp out of him, which would havebeen the end of him. All he could hear was the strange liquid roar of therushing water and the pounding of his own heartbeat in his ears. He reached outwith his hands, palms scraping the bottom of the river bed. He grasped at theloose stone and sludge trying to break free of the undertow. He could feel thesharp constriction of the tether around his waist. The vine was already pulledtaut. He must have been dragged by the current far further than he realised. Itwas impossible to orientate himself; up and down were concepts that had nomeaning within the riptide. His heart hammered in his chest, which suddenlyfelt two sizes too small for his burning lungs. He kicked out against a softand tangled constriction around his ankle. It felt like weeds or grass. Hisshoulder struck something hard and solid; a stone or rock sticking out of theriver bed.

His hand, glidingover the silt, brushed against flesh. Clawed fingers caught against his reflexively.Rashari snatched at that hand, weaving his own fingers with hers. He used thatconnection as an anchor. He couldn’t see a bloody thing, but he could feel,despite the cold numbing the ends of his fingers. Her hair brushed against hischeek and her skin was supple and cool under his questing fingers. He reachedout to pull her toward him and his hands brushed against wood. A heavy log, tooheavy to float, had pinned Madame Chimera to the bottom of the river. Blindlyhe pulled at the log, his knees scouring through the thick layer of stickingmud, twigs, and plant matter gathering at the bottom of the river. Tendrils ofdead grass and drowned undergrowth twisted around his ankles and only thetether around his waist kept him from being swept away. Madame Chimera tried tohelp him push the log off her but she was weakening; every second under thewater was another second closer they both came closer to drowning.

Finally they managedto dislodge the log and Madame Chimera weakly kicked herself loose of thebottom of the river, grabbing for Rashari and hooking one arm around his neckand shoulders from behind. For his part Rashari grabbed the vine, turninghimself around and using it to make sure he was facing up. He kicked toward thesurface. The water seemed to drag at his limbs, weighing him down. His legsached, his head felt ready to explode, and he was sure his chest had alreadycaved in against the pressure. Mdame Chimera hung from his back like deadweight. He surged upward, or at least he hoped he was headed up, but it didn’tseem to matter. It didn’t feel like he was moving at all. He could see lightsin the darkness; angry explosions of red and yellow. His chest felt like it wasfull of liquid lead. His limbs twitched, jerking. There was an excruciatingpain in his muscles, a burning tension, as if all of a sudden his tendons hadshrunk and were no longer the right length for his bones. (So this was whatdrowning felt like. He didn’t much like it.)

Something struck himin the side of the head, a glancing blow, and instinctively he grabbed for theoffending object. He flailed out with an arm, striking a log floating on thesurface of the water. (The surface!)He grabbed the log and wrapped one arm around it. His head broke the surface aninstant later. Air, sweet, wondrous oxygen –how he had missed it. Rashariclutched the log as a buoyancy aid, mouth open like the proverbial landed fish(although the situation was actually the reverse. Unlike a fish Rashari wasinordinately pleased to no longer be submerged. So, in retrospect the similemight not be all that apt).

He heard MadameChimera take her first gulp of air into starved lungs, her noisy gasps ringingin his ear. Her nails dug into his shoulders, pinching chilled flesh throughhis heavy sopping coat. His limbs felt at once indescribably heavy andstrangely loose jointed. The cold gnawed at him, slowing his thoughts, weighingdown his eyelids. His eyelashes were clumped together with thick droplets ofdirty water. His first glimpse of the surface world since taking his littleswim was therefore blurred and fractured, like looking through the lens of akaleidoscope; he saw colour and motion and a shifting tumble of indistinctshapes.

Madame Chimerashifted against him letting go of his shoulders to grab the log. He caught aglimpse of her face. Strands of her pale hair, almost colourless when wet,plastered her head and face, but her eyes, a rich shade of amber like a cat’s,flashed with urgency. One of her hands moved to his waist, under the water. Helooked at her in confusion too tired to even try and unclench his chatteringteeth long enough to ask what she was doing. A second later he felt thetightness around his mid-rift lessen. It wasn’t until he saw the severed end ofthe vine tether race down stream that he understood. Madame Chimera stared athim, trying to impart a message, or some manner of instruction. She really didhave incredibly expressive eyes. Numb to the bone and feeling more than alittle slow Rashari managed to nod, not even sure what he was agreeing to, buttrusting that if the Madame had some plan in play it was probably a good ideato follow her lead.

Madame Chimeragrabbed his shoulder, prying his arms loose of the log. Immediately the currentswept them forward, but this time they stayed just about afloat. They clung toeach other, half swimming and half floating. The river stretched impossiblywide, more like a sprawling lake or a miniature sea. Lonely trees stood toattention in the middle of the current, cut adrift in the deluge. Others werenot so lucky; uprooted trunks bobbed and crashed along on the surface. Fantelpulled him along, grabbing hold of those logs to hitch rides. Rashari didn’tknow what her true intentions were – the current was far too strong to try andswim to either bank – but as he still had enough wits about him not to want todrown he decided that it really wasn’t too much trouble to let her drag himalong in her wake.

The body of animmature oak swept toward them; one spindling branch rising upward like themast of a ship. Smith perched on the top, purple eye beam fixed dead ahead, allhe needed was a tricorn hat and Rashari would hail him captain of the flood. Hurry, Smith commanded. Get on. The forest is drowning. Theyeach grabbed hold of the trunk as it passed. Small branches and twigs scratchedand clawed at Rashari’s numbed flesh as he hauled himself up onto the trunk. MadameChimera climbed up in front of him. They rode the dead tree down the river.

It was a lively rideto say the least. They careened along at the crest of a crashing wave. Chasingthe surge was an avalanche of uprooted trees, undergrowth, and gods only knewwhat else. The wave crashed through the depths of the forest, smashing intoanything that stood in its path. The forest collapsed in on itself, folding flatlike a picture in a child’s pop-up book. Trees tumbled down one into the otherand the ground fell away under the weight of the water. Clefts and drops formednumerous precipices along its ceaseless, relentless path, which they crasheddown one after the other. The forest was gone. The surging waters erasing anytrace of what had been. Not that Rashari had much chance to marvel at the totaldestruction happening all around him. No, all Rashari’s attention was focusedon clinging on to the tree trunk as it rushed heedlessly along, borne by thefurious current.

The waters wereclogged with uprooted trees, like a logging flume. The carcasses of once proudoaks and pines rolled and tumbled alongside their makeshift raft. They were indanger of being capsized. Foot long chunks of sod, still covered in wildflowers,swept by like moving islands on the frothing surf. Rashari, his cheek pressedagainst the smooth bark of the sapling, thought he caught a glimpse of whippingtendrils and the unmistakable flash of orange flowers as an uprooted alraunewas dragged down under the surface of the river. The water gained furthermomentum, whipped into a roiling mass of white frilled waves and deadlywhirlpools. The river crashed downward, leaving fangs of rock exposed. Thedagger rocks made instant kindling out of the trees crashing past. Theirsapling raced along bouncing on the current, swerving around each new obstacle,ricocheting from one uprooted tree to another, and through it all Rashari clungon, eyes squeezed closed, his hands locked around the broken ends of brancheslike handlebars, his knees squeezing the trunk so tightly he knew he’d bebruised black and blue (not that he wasn’t already). Still there was a tinypart of his brain, the part not completely preoccupied with clinging on fordear life, that was already worrying about how they were going to get off thislittle displeasure cruise.

Smith? He sent the thought outward and immediatelysensed his friend close by, still perched atop the mast-branch. Land ho? The surging waters showed nosign of abating but surely it would have to stop somewhere. Even in Battlan araging river sprung from nowhere must still end somewhere. It couldn’t just go on and on. The thought that he andFantel might be forced to cling on to the sapling while the entire steppe wasconsumed by an inland sea was not a happy one.

Smith? He called again, daring to lift his head andopen his eyes.

Abandon ship! Abandon Ship! Smith yelped, leapingdown from his perch and into Madame Chimera’s arms. Ahead of them the rushingwaters crashed down a sharp drop. Rashari grabbed hold of Madame Chimera aroundthe waist and threw them both off the side of the log. The current swept themover the edge. There was a moment of weightlessness before the swooping lurchof gravity hauled them down. In the fall Rashari clung tight to Madame Chimera.

He hit the waterhard; crashing down through the nothingness of the fall and into the cold,hard, unforgiving embrace of the water below. The impact knocked him senseless.He might have drowned, buried under a mountain of falling logs if it wasn’t forMadame Chimera. He came too as they broke the surface of a deep pool, shards ofwood bumping his shoulders and chest. Belated survival reflex kicked in and hestarted to tread water. Madame Chimera held him from behind, one arm lockedaround his chest, there positions somehow reversed in the fall or itsaftermath. Strands of her hair stuck to his cheek, the water gluing them together.They were swimming in a bath of giant matchsticks. Rashari looked up at thedirty, mud clogged waterfall tumbling down into the pool. Logs and trunkscrashed over the edge, causing large waves to ripple the surface, which in turnpushed the larger pieces of debris toward the edge. Breaking gently free of MadameChimera’s hold Rashari turned around to face her. It was then that he spottedSmith, quivering miserably on the top of one of the larger pieces of woodfloating bobbing on the surface.

“We’re alive,”Rashari gasped through chattering teeth. “Bugger me. We actually survived.” Hemight have laughed, if his teeth hadn’t been jittering together so hard hisjaws clattered. Madame Chimera blinked at him, her amber eyes large and alittle dazed. She seemed just as surprised as he was. Maybe their blasted luckwas actually beginning to turn after all.