Was this death? Had the Goddess taken me to the moon? Or perhaps sent me to one of Her hells, where there was no vision or hearing, just endless, bone-deep cold.
Then the frozen, silent world exploded.
Who are you?
The voice didn’t come from outside, but from inside my skull. Each word felt like a dagger stabbing into my brain. I didn’t answer; I couldn’t. I just screamed out in my thoughts,Please stop! Too loud! Too cold! Too…
The world flipped again, and I felt an odd warmth in my body as my heart gave one sluggish beat, the first in a long moment. I sucked in a breath, coughing, and realized my skin was gone.
My fur. My sealskin wasn’t touching me; it was— I screamed as something punctured my brain again.Too noisy,the creature said.Shush, minnow.
Minnow? My eyes were still frozen, though they burned as if they were warming as well. Odd, long shapes—tentacles of ice? Claws? I couldn’t tell—waved in the periphery of my whited-out field of vision. I was connected at a spiritual level with my sealskin, though, and I knew where it was. In front of me, being pressed against something large and curious.
A vast sheet of wind moved over my naked, human form, and I barely managed to suppress another scream. My eyes thawed a little more until I could make out the shapes. Claws, definitely on the end of arms or legs as thick as any I’d ever seen. As large asa kraken. It was holding my pelt up to an incredibly large snout, sniffing it.
Who are you?
My tongue had unfrozen enough to speak, and somehow, I was able to find my voice. “I’m Lachlan, selkie prince of the Eastern Seas.” It didn’t seem enough, so I went on. “Son of Her Majesty Stellina of the Eastern Seas, the oldest and sole remaining selkie queen, brother to Kellin, the elder prince of the Eastern Seas.”
And?
There was a sharp edge to the question, as if the creature believed I was hiding something.
“And?” I felt the need to impress upon this being that I was not alone in this world. My family was not alone. “Andvasylto Warlord Goran of Starlak.”
He sniffed at my pelt again, and whatever appendage was holding me tightened. I knew of one ancient creature that might impress this one, and my family had a solid connection. Though if I chose wrongly, if this thing was an enemy of the kraken…
The grip grew excruciating, and one of my ribs shattered. “And friend to Leviathan, the Emperor of the Deep Waters, He Who Calls the Storms and Calms the Waves, and serves as primary consort to the Omega Wren.”
Omega.The word didn’t stab this time, and the grip lessened.Her daughter.
He didn’t mention the name of the kraken, one of the seven living rulers of the seas. As if he didn’t understand what that meant, or perhaps didn’t care. The grip became gentle, though the voice was more threatening when it scraped my mind this time.
Andwhoseare you?
I didn’t like that question at all.Whosewas I?
I blinked, and the ice that had covered my eyes fell away, allowing me to see what had me in its hold. It was a dragon, though not like the ones I’d seen before, living across the Northern Straits in the Svellvollr.
This creature was made of nothing but ice and frost, the center of it the deep turquoise of a glacier, but the rest white and silver and cold. Its eyes were twice as large as my head, and stared unblinkingly at me.
Something pressed on my mind again. Was it trying to read my thoughts? See my memories? I knew it could speak into my brain, if this torture could be called speech.
Whose was I? The answer mattered more than any I’d ever given, I knew that. For a moment, I thought of her. Ratter. Rada, the Warqueen. The one who vexed me and drew me in. The thief, assassin, and spy.
The one with the secret mission, whose past was shrouded in mystery. All the things Goran had told me about her over the years spilled in the front of my mind like a treasure. Like a hoard.
And the oversized dragon-thing who held me gathered them up.
Yessss….
I fought to put the thoughts of her away. I may not have wanted her, but I didn’t want her to fall prey to this thing, either. And in the end, there was really only one answer to give. Who did I belong to, after this life was over?
“The Goddess,” I replied, hoping the dragon would give my pelt back before it killed me. Thinking of the Goddess I’d prayed to, though for some reason, the silver-eyed, dark-haired Omega who had beguiled me, trapped my brother, and tormented my friend, kept appearing in my mind’s eye as I spoke. “I belong to Her.”
RADA
“So, you want to be called Rada now, is that right? I like it. A bit more dignified than your nickname, though it was oddly charming.” Stellina spooned another enormous portion of boiled potatoes on my plate, next to the citrusy asparagus, slices of venison steak, delicate, steaming filets of sole, and yeasty sourdough rolls dripping with herbed butter.
