“Thisss was your fault,” Naga said.

  “It was not! You let her outside unescorted!” Riza replied.

  “You did not wake me up to essscort her.”

  “I wasn’t awake!”

  The two stood on the bridge where Naga last tasted Jessica’ scent in the air. The lamia folded her arms and looked up to the sky as she pondered how Jessica’s disappearance was the stinky lizard’s fault. She knew it had to be, she just needed the evidence to line up.

  “Had you not protesssted my requessst to coil her before bed, Jessssica might have ssslept through the night,” Naga said.

  Riza turned up her nose. “If I hadn’t stopped you, you would have crushed and eaten her. I know how you monsters think. You may have fooled everyone else, but you will not fool a member of the Sapikola tribe!”

  Naga smirked. “I already have fooled one. Why don’t you take a look at your face?”

  In a panic, Riza scrambled for something reflective. Failing that, she ran to a nearby guard and asked him what was on her face. The confused guard mumbled something about lizard ears and wandered off.

  Riza stormed back over. “There’s nothing on my face!”

  Naga let out one of her hissing sprinkler laughs. “It is not ssso hard to fool a member of the Sssapikola tribe, it ssseems.”

  “Jessica is missing and you’re making jokes. I knew you didn’t really care for her! Monsters are incapable of caring about others, that’s what makes them monsters.”

  The lamia stopped laughing.

  “My den took good care of one another before adventurers and their animalar petsss tore usss apart. Meanwhile, you animalar will murder anyone an adventurer tells you without a sssecond thought.”

  Riza snarled. “Your people aren’t enslaved and put up for auction to adventurers and forced to do their bidding, you slimy half-and-half!”

  Naga rose up on her coils, towering over the tiny lizard girl. “My brothers and sssisssters were hunted for sssport while I watched from a cage. Had your ancessstors sssided with the Demon King, neither of usss would have sssuffered. You animal-ears gave thisss world to the adventurers. You shall have no sssympathy from me, bug-eater. Were it not for Jessssica I would crush every bone in your body and laugh as you flopped around, trying to essscape.”

  Both fell quiet. Naga knew she’d gone too far and Riza knew she’d pushed her to it. Their bickering wasn’t helping find Jessica, but it was drawing attention from guards. Jessica warned them about the threat of Mystiferia, and while a public argument wasn’t grounds to lock them up, it didn’t help their image as harmless little helpers, least of all Naga’s loud declaration of crushing someone to death.

  “I propose a truce until we know Jessica is safe. If you hold to that, so will I,” Riza said.

  “Fine, provided you ceassse telling people I eat humans.”

  “You do eat humans,” Riza said.

  “No, I eat livessstock. I kill humans and then only if they bother me. Now, are you going to keep to your promissse to ssstop bickering ssso we can invessstigate?”

  Riza grunted and turned to scan the stone bridge. There was nothing but bare brick in every direction despite the lingering stench of chemicals and unwashed grad student that the two reptilian women associated with Jessica.

  Riza sniffed again. “I’ve made three passes and I smell nothing. You don’t think she fell off the bridge, do you? She is not the most dextrous, even for a human.”

  “No, she was kidnapped. I am sure of it. Her captors must be exceptionally ssskilled to leave no evidence and to masssk their ssscent, but no one is perfect. I will find sssomething, I assure you.”

  Riza scoffed. “If my nose can’t smell it, neither can yours.”

  “Ah, that is where you are wrong, my domesssticated friend. My ssssense of sssmell is far better than yours,” Naga replied, tilting her head back so her forked tongue could flutter in the air. “Your ancessstors gave up certain traitsss for the sssake of appearing cuter and more attractive to humans. We monsssters never did.”

  “That is a lie! No one has ever domesticated the Sapikola clan! We have resisted enslavement by humans and— I mean, until very recently.”

  Naga paused her tongue fluttering. “I do not mean enssslavement. Wild animals can be enssslaved, but Animalar chose to ssside with humans and the humans accepted those they liked. The ressst were killed.”

  “By the Demon King’s forces,” Riza said.

  Naga closed her eyes for a moment. “By monsssters, yesss. Regardlessss, my tongue is ssstronger than your nose because humans do not like forked tongues.”

  “Prove it.”

  The lamia slithered along the bridge, her tongue flitting through closed lips every few seconds as she tracked down anomalous scents. She stopped a few yards from the entrance to the north tower.

  “Here. They masssked their ssscent with sssalt water, but there is a sssubtle difference when sssalt touches ssskin. An alchemical reaction, as Jessssica would sssay. I can tassste their presence.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Against her will, Riza’s eyebrows rose. Her own nose could pick up no difference in the omnipresent sea spray. But assuming the lamia wasn’t lying, this was the only clue they had for finding Jessica.

  “Where do we go now? Your salty skin smell cannot be powerful enough to follow.”

  “To follow? No. But I did not sssmell it inssside the tower or on the other end of the bridge. Only here. Which means—”

  Riza’s eyes shot open. “They came up and down from the water!”

  “Ssso you do have more than jussst a lizard brain,” Naga said with a snicker as she slithered into the tower.

  The two made their way down to the harbor. From there they followed the ring of battlements until it merged into the bridge between the northern tower and the keep. The bridge’s supports stood on rocky islands out in the bay. Any hope of following the scent, however, was dashed against an olfactory wall of brine, rust, sailor sweat, and the outflow from the castle’s privies.

  Naga’s face wrinkled. “I do not think my tongue would be of much ussse, even if I wanted to tassste this air.”

  "There might be physical evidence,” Riza said.

  She looked around and found a suitable rowboat for getting over to the bridge-supporting islands. After some sweet-talking (and hypnotizing) from Naga, the harbormaster approved them to take it out.

  “I am an expert seawoman. Perhaps the best in my tribe,” Riza said as they returned to the boat. “I have traveled the length of the Ingmark River for hundreds of miles in my kayak, so it would be best if I were to pilot.”

  “If you wish to pilot our hundred foot trip, by all means,” Naga said.

  She would never confess this to the impudent lizard, but Naga hated water. She had no problem leaving the rowing to Riza. Unfortunately for both, rowing a boat full of snake was not an easy task.

  “It is not a—ugh—problem, I can simply push—erk—harder!”

  Riza leaned over the side until she was half out of the boat and pulled with the oar. The boat moved an inch to the left. She tried again on the other side and only succeeded in pushing the boat back to the right.

  “I can ssstay on land and wait for you to return,” Naga said, shifting to one side and nearly capsizing the boat.

  Riza stared for a second and then, with the sighing resignation of someone condemned to death, said, “I think I would rather have you looking too. We do not want to miss anything.”

  “Then you will have to find a way to move the boat, missss expert ssseawoman.”

  Riza ignored the sarcasm and stepped out of the boat to appraise it from the outside. The main issue was the water displacement. Naga’s three thousand pound body pushed the tub to the limits of its buoyancy. If Riza had weighed much more than her own 85lbs, they would be underwater. Meanwhile, she lacked the strength to pull fast enough with the oar to overcome intertia. What they needed was either a bigger oar, or a stronger rower.

  “I have an idea, but you may not like it,” Riza said, hopping back in the boat.

  “Ssspeak, lizard. We have no time to wassste.”

  “If you were to row with your tail we would have no problem making it to the island.”

  Naga grimaced. “In thisss water? Filled with muck and filth and who knows what micro-demons?”

  “Do we have time to wassssste or not?” Riza said, doing an exaggerated version of Naga’s lisp.

  “You will clean my tail when thisss is done,” Naga said.

  “Absolutely not! Would you abandon Jessica because of a dirty tail!?”

  The lamia turned her nose up. “Would you?”

  Riza’s hands balled into trembling fists. The vile snake knew she was bound to Jessica by oath and was forcing her hand.

  “You selfish little serpent! Fine! After we find Jessica I will… will clean your tail.”

  To Riza’s immense relief, Naga did not rub this triumph in her face but straight away dipped her tail into the harbor and swished it back and forth. Water spilled onto the deck as the boat bobbed side-to-side, but it slowly accelerated until they were making undeniable progress toward the island. Throughout the journey Naga had an expression of pure disgust.

  “You don’t like water, I take it?” Riza asked.

  “I do not,” the lamia replied, eyes fixed on their destination.

  “Do all lamia dislike the water?”

  “No.”

  “So how come—”

  “Be quiet, lizard. Unnecessssary conversssation was not part of our agreement.”

  There was something visceral in the lamia’s reaction that reminded Riza of her own fear of sleeping on her back. It wasn’t until the third night in Jessica’s bed she’d been comfortable falling asleep face-up. Based on her brief conversations with Naga, it wasn’t hard to guess why the lamia hated water.

  “Were you caught in the water?” Riza asked.

  Naga hissed. “Keep talking and I will have to rethink my policy of not eating humanoids.”

  “Whatever you may think of me, I am not a hypocrite. I do not think less of you for getting captured no matter how it happened. And if you are making me clean that fat, lumpy tail, I expect to know why.”

  For almost a minute there was no reaction from Naga. Riza was about to relent and let the matter drop when the lamia finally opened her mouth.

  “I have… disssliked the water sssince I was young. My brothers and sssisssters would go down to the creek by our den to play and I would find sssomething else to do. Then, when our den was attacked by adventurers, I fled. I should have ssstayed to defend my younger sssiblings but I was a coward. I tried to essscape acrossss that sssame creek…”

  “And you couldn’t swim,” Riza said.

  “Not well. They caught me halfway, my tail ssstuck between two rocksss. I thought they would kill me, but then that… delightful little creature, Mystiferiax told her men to cage me because they needed a monssster for adventurers to kill later. Ssstill sssoaking wet, I watched them cut down the ressst of my den because they didn’t need them. Is your mind at ease, lizard, now that you know why I don’t like water?”

  “I’m sorry…” Riza said.

  Naga slowed their approach to the island until the boat gently bumped against its shores. The island had looked bigger from the harbor. They could now see it was barely large enough to hold the pier of the bridge above. Riza scrambled onto the rocks and looked back apologetically having made the lamia come for nothing.

  “It’sss fine. I will do a lap and look for anything we might missss from shore,” Naga said.

  Riza searched the six foot wide island three times over until she was certain she had seen and smelled every inch of it. There was no sign anyone had ever set foot on it, let alone a kidnapper a few hours prior. In the time it took her to search, Naga had paddled around to the back of the island. Riza stifled a laugh at the sight of the puttering lamia. The last thing she wanted was to offend her after Naga trusted her with the source of her aquaphobia.

  “Oho! What have we here?” Naga announced.

  “What? What did you find?”

  “Give me a sssecond. I will be right around.”

  A couple minutes later, Naga paddled into view holding up a tuft of white fur.

  “Animalar fur. I found it caught between sssome rocksss.”

  Riza frowned. "Adventurers."