The plan was working.
For several breaths.
Then the plan began to fail.
The first sign was the viper's tail. It stopped following the false trail fully and pressed into the damp stone instead. A subtle pulse traveled through the wall, into the narrow water channel, and down through the ravine floor. It was not loud. It did not need to be. Celia felt it before she saw anything respond.
The water below shifted against the current.
A crack on the opposite wall widened by a finger's width.
Farther ahead, a patch of stone flexed inward and returned.
Another shape moved beneath the water, long and smooth, gone before the eye could settle on it.
Celia's voice tightened. "It is communicating."
Liam already knew.
The ravine had been full of them all along.
