Areop-Enap turned to look down at Perenelle. Eight tiny eyes were perched on the top of its eerily humanlike head. It had no nose or ears, and its mouth was a horizontal slash filled with long poisonous fangs. The savage teeth gave it a curious lisping speech. “What happened?” it asked suddenly, dropping to the ground on a gossamer thread.

Perenelle picked her way across the stone floor, trying to avoid the knotted strands of spiderweb that stuck to everything they touched. They had the consistency of chewing gum. “I was down at the water’s edge,” she said quietly. “I wanted to see how far we were from land.”

“Why?” Areop-Enap asked, stepping closer to the woman, towering over her.

“I learned a spell many years ago from an Inuit shaman. It changes the consistency of running water, turning it to something like thick sticky mud. Effectively, it allows you to walk on water. Inuits use it when they’re hunting polar bears out on ice floes. I wanted to see if it worked on warm salt water.”

“And?” Areop-Enap asked.

“I didn’t get a chance to try it.” Perenelle shook her head. Gathering her long mane of black hair in her hands, she pulled it over her shoulder. Usually, she wore it in a tight thick braid, but it hung loose now, and it was shot through with more silver and gray than even the day before. “Look.”

Areop-Enap stepped closer. Each of its legs was thicker than the woman’s torso, and tipped with a hooked spike, but it moved without making a sound.

Perenelle held out a hank of hair. A four-inch-long chunk had been neatly cut from it. “I was leaning over the water, gathering my aura to try the spell, when something came up out of the water with barely a ripple. Its jaws sliced right through my hair.”

Old Spider hissed softly. “Did you see it?”

“A glimpse, nothing more. I was too busy scrambling back up the beach.”

“A serpent?”

Perenelle reverted to the French of her youth. “No. A woman. Green-skinned, with teeth… lots of tiny teeth. I caught the flash of a fish’s tail as it dipped back into the water.” Perenelle shook her head and dropped her hair, settling it back over her shoulder, then looked up at the Elder. “Was it a mermaid? I’ve never seen one of the seafolk.”

“Unlikely,” Areop-Enap muttered. “Though it might have been one of the wilder Nereids.”

“The sea nymphs… but they are far from home.”