When we reached Kyton and Nissa, the blue-green horses shied away in the water. From the waist down, they looked more like dolphins than horses. They were hippocampi.

You never said one of the riders was a changeling, the biggest one said, tossing its kelp-like mane. Those things are freaky.

Eva peered down at them. You freaky. What you, horse fish?

Nissa scowled. "You never asked. Besides, you already agreed to carry four riders for four ounces of fairy blood each. Are you hippocampi of your word, or are you lying little ponies?"

The biggest hippocampus pushed itself out of the water with its enormous hooves. What's to stop us from dumping the changeling and taking the fairy's blood for ourselves?

Sparks flew off her fingers and she lowered her head to the hippocampus's level. "You have three choices. One) take us to the island--which is easy enough for big, strong hippocampi like you--and you earn a whole four ounces of blood for you and your buddies; two) I fry you here, and we use your bodies as surfboards; or three) my changeling friend bites you, and we still use your bodies as surfboards. What do you choose?"

With a nervous whinny, the hippocampus lowered itself back into the water. We'll take option one.

"Good." She straightened. "All aboard the hippocampi express."

As Nissa climbed on the back of the largest hippocampus, I leaned closer to Piper.

"Why didn't we just bargain with everything else that tried to kill us? I thought they couldn't talk or something."

She shrugged. "Some can't. Most monsters just don't care what we say, especially if they're in a big group." Lowering her voice, she added, "To be honest, hippocampi are kind of the wimps of the monster world. They usually scavenge on dead magical creatures. Don't worry about them kicking you off. They're more terrified of you than you are of them."

"I'm not afraid of them." Though, the idea of being stranded in the middle of the ocean was a bit terrifying. Okay, more than a bit. Why did the exit portal have to be on an island? Why couldn't it just be on a peninsula or something?

Piper skipped over to the water and climbed on the back of the second-largest hippocampus. She and Nissa guided their antsy mounts away from shore a little. I moved to the water's edge. The remaining two hippocampi edged away.

Rolling my eyes, I opened my mouth to ask if Kyton had any suggestions. He hopped on one of the hippocampi and rode out to the others before I could say anything. Of course. Even if I tried to take Piper's advice, it wouldn't be as easy as striking up a casual conversation. Now wasn't the time to be worrying about that. We had an exit portal to find.

I moved to the last hippocampus's side. It was fairly scrawny compared to the others, and I wasn't sure if it would be big enough to carry me. When we were running from the v'kindra, Kyton had said I weighed a ton.

"Don't move." I swung my leg over the monster's back, right behind its dorsal fin. Then I sat down.

The hippocampus squealed. It's killing me, it's killing me.

I jumped to my feet. "I'm not that heavy."

Giggling came from the others.

"You're doing it wrong," Piper called. "They're not horses. You can't sit on them directly. You have to walk with them into the water, then hold onto their dorsal fin and let them drag you behind them."

"Oh." I followed her instructions, and soon I was floating in the water half on top of and half next to the hippocampus. Holding onto its dorsal fin wasn't too hard, but I figured that it would get harder the longer I was dragged.

***

"Harder" was an understatement. My hippocampus, whose name I learned was Vish, only had two speeds--resting and racing. When he was resting, I got a chance to drape my arms over his back and stretch my fingers. When he was racing--which was most of the time--I had to suffer his tail battering my legs, water gushing in my face, and my hands cramping constantly after the first ten minutes.

After getting what felt like half an ocean squirted up my nose for the hundredth time, I was relieved when Vish and the other hippocampi took another break. Coughing, I glanced between the shore behind us and the island in front of us. We were about halfway between the two, and it felt like we'd been swimming forever.

Eva landed on my head. She's refused to ride with me so close to the rushing water, opting instead to fly.

"How long do you think we have?" I called to the others.

Chatting happily and lounging with their hippocampi, my friends seemed much less exhausted than I did. Being beaten against a rock wall and almost drowning just a little bit ago was probably why I felt so terrible, and I wasn't sure I could hold onto Vish's fin for much longer.

"We've only been riding for like ten minutes," Piper called back, glancing at her apparently waterproof watch. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." For the first time since we'd gotten to Draconia, they seemed to actually be enjoying themselves. I wasn't about to complain and ruin that. A little fun would probably make the definitely-dangerous Icorit Island less horrendous. Or at least, it would delay the horror for another ten minutes.

I thought about asking Vish to move closer to the others, but I decided against it. If I didn't try to make up with Kyton, he wouldn't want me around, but if I did, Nissa wouldn't want me around. It would be best for everyone if I just stayed where I was.

Something brushed my foot, and I jerked it up. Stupid fish. Every time we took a break, something tried to take a bite out of me. What was it this time? I peered into the water. There was definitely something down there, something big. The last time I freaked out about something "big," it turned out to be a huge school of minnows, and everyone looked at me like I was an idiot.

Tucking my feet closer to my body, I tried to ignore whatever was swimming beneath me. Unfortunately, whatever it was didn't want to be ignored. It bit my ankle. I kicked, hoping to scare off the fish. My foot impacted something that felt much too large to be a swarm of minnows. I grabbed Vish's dorsal fin in both hands, just in case we had to make a quick getaway.

Just as I ducked my head under the water, something wrapped around my ankle and squeezed tight. My first thought was a snake or a small octopus, but I could see what it really was. And I wished I couldn't.

From the waist up, it looked like a reddish-gray skinned man with a red, fleshy sack on the back of his head. From the waist down, he was a giant octopus. One of his tentacles was inching its way up my leg.

Screaming, I jerked my head out of the water and thrashed my legs. Vish startled, bucking under my grip and shooting forward. It took all my strength to hold on.

For one terrifying second, I was stuck between Vish and the octopus man. Both of them were pulling in opposite directions with equal force. I felt like a rubber band. My fingers screamed to let go, and the tentacle around my leg threatened to pull off my scales.

Then, with a tearing of scales and the ripping-off of my shoe, I jerked out of the octopus man's grip. Vish and I were a good thirty feet away from the others before I heard them shout to follow us. They quickly caught up to us. We raced through the water, faster than we'd ever gone so far. The hippocampi whinnied at the tops of their lungs. Their mental voices swarmed over each other.

Octomen, oh I hate-

How many are-

That was a big-

We're so-

I blocked them out. They weren't saying anything useful, and they were hurting my brain. Up ahead, a long red tentacle reached out of the water. Vish veered around it, and a second tentacle flew up in front of us. It zipped through the water to wrap around both of us. Struggling to breathe, I twisted around to sink my fangs into the tentacle.

It went limp. Vish took off, and the tentacle ripped away. We both yelped. My fingers were slipping. I wanted to ask Vish to go slower so I could fix my grip, but if he hesitated, we might get caught by another octoman.

We stayed at top speed all the way to the island. Vish practically beached himself when we got there. I had to pry my fingers off his dorsal fin before I could crawl onto dry land. My arms were insanely sore, and everywhere the octomen had tentacled me felt like I'd gotten a terrible sunburn.

When I stood on weak legs, I realized that I was the last one here. The other three hippocampi were laying nearby, and my friends were waiting a little ways up the beach. Kyton came down with the empty healing potion flask from earlier and a fresh wound on his arm. My stomach clenched, and I hurried past him toward the others. If I stayed, Kyton would be losing a lot more than four ounces of blood.