For some reason, Skadi growled. Lachlan chose that moment to enter, carrying long, cleaned filets of a fish with red meat.
“I always thought that part unlikely,” Lachlan said, glancing at Skadi. “That they left the Omegas there to die. Why stealone treasure, but leave a greater one?” He kneeled by the fire and began laying out the fish on the empty boards, sprinkling something that looked like rosemary and salt on the meat before he placed it close to the fire.
“I agree with the selkie.” Skadi moved to the tunnel as the fire flared. “That is a sad tale. Is it true?”
Lachlan shrugged. “No one knows exactly. When they returned and found the Omegas dead, and the plagues sweeping the land unchecked, killing even Beta women in new ferocity, the Eastern Chieftains ordered all the books and stories of Omegas—from the simplest fairy tales to every legal document that referred to them—to be burned. They wanted to hide their crime.”
Skadi left without another word. I waited for a moment, then followed the ice god out.
“Where are you going?” Lachlan asked.
“I need some privacy.” It was true. But after I’d taken care of my body’s needs, I stayed outside, spying on my captor. He’d moved a few dozen feet away and stopped at the water’s edge, his head hanging as the waves lapped at his feet.
When he walked down the shoreline, his back to me, I went to the spot where he’d stood and looked down. There, in the shallow water of the stark, black rock beach, a handful of tear-shaped gems glittered. I reached into the water to fish them out and rolled them over in my hand.
They were diamonds, but perfect ones, shaped with angular and only slightly rounded edges, like the face of the one who’d left them there.
I wondered what could make an ice god cry. But the world was full of enough sorrow for all of us. I hadn’t earned his secrets, and I hadn’t shared all of mine.
So I tucked the tears into a pocket of my cloak, left him to the wind and sea, and crawled back to the ice house and the fire just as the storm began.
GORAN
The sea poured over the edges of the sailboat, threatening to swamp the small vessel and drag Dustin and me overboard, into the Northern Sea. “Dustin! Tie down that sail!” I shouted, fighting to keep the rudder from breaking off. My stomach lurched, still tender from the dose of whatever my damned wife had managed to slip into the ale.
I’d been sick for two days, sick enough I hadn’t been able to ride. I’d sent the few men who weren’t as bad as the rest to check on the house, and they’d found that bullshit letter she’d left for Stellina. Kellin had been sleeping off his own poisoning in the house when the men arrived. He’d been back on his feet before I was, though he seemed equal parts hurt and subdued when he’d come to see me at the camp with some healing herbs in hand. He’d delivered them, then stumbled toward the shoreline, his pelt dangling from his grip like he didn’t quite know what to do with it.
I wanted to assure him this was just how my wife worked. She made you fall in love with her, then left you to wish you’d died instead of meeting the damned woman. But I tried not to lie to my friends. I’d seen a seal close to the boat a few times overthe past days, but it hadn’t approached. I wasn’t sure if it was Kellin, but if it was, he didn’t want to talk.
“Warlord!” Dustin called out. “Hold tight, big wave’s comin’.”
I nodded and wrapped a length of rope a bit more firmly around my hand, my stomach trying to leap overboard on its own. I hated sailing more than being poisoned. I hated that the only Starlakian who was both well enough to accompany me, and knowledgeable about sailing, was the one I’d thrown out of my army.
He wouldn’t stop smiling, even as the storm lashed us. I’d promised him a reassignment to the same company as his friends, if we made it to Rada safely and returned her to land.
The little shit had shocked me, and shamed me, when he’d replied, “I wouldn’t leave her for your position, Warlord. I’ve given her my vow to serve, and I wouldn’t break it even if she let me. But we all know I need more training if I’m to be of any real use. That’s why I’m going to beg her priest to teach me how to do anything she needs. If I work hard enough, maybe I’ll be worthy of a mate of my own someday. Maybe even one like my lady Warqueen.”
I wanted to warn him that mating a woman like her was the same as riding a hurricane, but who was I to give advice? I was a madman; that was the only explanation. She had driven me insane, and I was chasing her to my death.
Still, I’d admitted I’d underestimated him, and apologized. He’d been grinning ever since.
“Warlord!” His voice broke on the shout. “There’s a man!” He pointed to the bottom of the cresting wave, and I saw what he meant. Someone was clinging to a broken piece of wood—possibly a piece of a boat. I couldn’t make out much detail, but a crack of lightning lit up the slight figure, and another dark shape close beside him, pushing at the wood. A seal’s head, perhaps? Isquinted, unable to make it out. It had to be Kellin helping. But who was the man?
Wait.It couldn’t be… The lighting flashed, and my blood froze when I recognized Alexios’s illuminated face.
I had to save him, but how could I without killing myself and Dustin in the process? The next wave was going to hit us in a moment, and I needed to angle the boat to keep from capsizing. If I timed it right, I might be able to…
While I thought, Dustin had grabbed a rope and wrapped it around a fishing float the size of a wine bottle. He tied one end in a quick knot to the small mast, then flung the float out on the water. It landed only a few feet from Alexios.
I shouted, “Good man!” to Dustin, though I wasn’t sure he heard me.
Sea spray whipped my face as the wave hit, then drenched me entirely as I fought with the rudder. But when I opened my eyes, Dustin was hauling on the rope he’d thrown, and Alexios had somehow gotten to the float. Kellin—if ithadbeen him—was nowhere to be seen.
When Alexios was close enough to the edge, Dustin hauled him onboard. He lay in the bottom of the boat, spitting up half the ocean while I fought with the other half. But as if finding him had broken its back, the storm died down faster than it should have. In less than a half hour, blue sky was peeking out, with the Northern Seas glimmering like something from the far Southern Reaches.
“Dustin, get him the blanket from the dry sack,” I ordered. Dustin already had a cup of fresh water ready. Alexios sat up slowly and sipped from the cup, then shrugged out of his soggy priest’s robe and accepted the dry blanket as Dustin helped him to the bench at the front of the tiny cabin. The Beta had nothing besides the robe, and a belt with Rada’s obsidian dagger on it.
“Thank you,” he rasped, then coughed and drank another sip.
