“We should have listened to Indra from the start,” Elden said.
"Yes, you should have,” Indra said. “We are going in wrong direction. I told you that.”
"This slave girl doesn't know what she's talking about,” Durs snapped. “The map is very clear.”
"Don't you call her that again," Elden snapped, turning to Durs, reddening. "Indra saved all of our lives back there, lest you forget.”
Durs fell silent, and it was the first time Thor had ever seen him back down to anyone. Then again, Elden was bigger and broader, despite his age, and it didn't appear that Durs wanted a confrontation. Elden was also more heated than Thor had ever seen, and in that moment, Thor could tell that Elden had really fallen for her.
"The point is," Dross said, "we know where they are taking the Sword. This map leads us there. And this channel of water is the only way. We just have to stick to the course.”
"I will tell you where these waters take us," Indra said darkly. "These waters will bring us to the Land of the Undead. An evil and uninviting land; a place of the deepest gloom and death. Those who enter never come out. Ever. That is for certain. Haven't you noticed the tides?” she asked, looking down. “They have grown stronger. They pull us in one direction: to the great waterfall. Once we go down it, there is no turning back. This is your last chance: turn back now.”
They looked at each other with apprehension.
"And go where?" Reece asked.
"Back to where we began,” she replied.
There came a collective groan from the three brothers.
"All the way back to the beginning?" Dross asked.
"So you would have us fight these tides, all the way back, start over again, without a map, without anything to go on except for your word?" Drake asked.
"And who's to say you don't have an agenda of your own?" Durs added. "You are not one of us. Are we to put our lives into the hand of a wild slave girl, a professed thief?”
"You already have,” Indra remarked, “and you came out alive.”
“I would trust her with my life before I would you," Elden said, sneering back at Durs.
The group fell into a tense silence.
Drake sighed.
“So then what would you have us do?” Drake asked, turning to Thor. "Since you are leader of this mission. Would you have us all start again, follow this slave girl’s word, this stranger who we don't even know, and ignore this map from the Ring?”
Thor sat there, feeling all the eyes on him, and debated. Some part of him, deep down, felt as if something was not right with where they were going. But at the same time, he wasn't getting a clear feeling. Something was obscured. He did not know why—and that frightened him. He did not know for sure that going back was the best route. And even if they wanted to, the currents had become too strong, and they were all too tired. He didn't see how that was even a possibility. At least the three brothers had a map, a destination, a plan. Plus, they couldn’t risk losing more valuable time in searching for the Sword.
"We’ll give your map a chance," Thor said to them. "Until tomorrow. If we don't have progress by then, some concrete lead, then we will turn back around and follow Indra’s way.”
Everyone nodded, seeming content, and they all went back to paddling.
"Assuming we all live to see tomorrow," Indra said ominously, as they all fell back into silence, the only sound in the world that of the lapping of the water beneath their oars.
*
They paddled so long that Thor felt his arms would fall off his body. The second sun sank low in the sky, and just as Thor felt he couldn’t lift the paddle one more time, the wide body of water shrank into a narrow channel. Land came into view on either side of them—a vast, desolate land made of a black, craggy soil, stretching as far as the eye could see. It looked like endless fields of upturned dirt, and it felt as if they had come to a place where nothing lived—as if they had come to the very end of the earth.
"The Wastelands," Indra said softly, ominously. "The falls aren’t far now.”
Thor began to hear the distant sound of running water, growing stronger, as the current, too, grew stronger, pulling them down what was becoming a river. Soon they all lifted their paddles, no longer needing to use them, as the water carried them its way.
There came a bend in the river, and as they turned, the sound of rushing water grew louder; Thor’s heart sank as in the distance he spied foaming water, a drop-off. He could begin to feel the spray, the moisture in the air, even from here. Indra was right: waterfalls.
They all looked at each other ominously.
“Looks like you’re wrong again,” Reece said, turning to Drake.
"You better be right about this map," Elden said threateningly.
"Those falls will kill us!" O'Connor cried.
“How deep is the drop?” Conval asked.
Now they all looked to Indra for answers.
"I don’t know," she answered. "But if we survive it, I assure you, the falls will be the least of our problems.”
The current became too fast, the noise and the spray stronger, and Thor and the others clutched the sides of the boat firmly.
"We have to turn around!" Conven said, trying to back-paddle..
"It’s too late!" Thor yelled. "The current is too strong! Brace yourselves!”
The boat rushed downstream, faster and faster, and Thor’s eyes opened wide as the falls came into view. It was a wall of white water, gushing down. Beside Thor, Krohn started to whine, and Thor reached around with one arm and held him tight.
"It's okay, Krohn,” he said. “Just stay close. And if you fall in the water, swim back to us.”
Krohn whined again, as if in response, and a moment later, Thor’s stomach began to drop as their boat was beginning to tip over the edge.
Thor looked down over the edge and saw a tremendous drop, at least fifty feet. It was a wall of white water, and there was no time left to react.
The boat went over the edge and as one they all screamed, plummeting straight down through the air.
Thor found himself immersed in a wall of water, falling from the boat, flying through the air, flailing. He became lost in a world of rushing water, as he was flipped end over end, water washing all over him.