Cleve had felt helpless in his life, many, many times, helpless and impotent, but now it was not just his need to do something to help her, it was necessary for him, she couldn’t die. She was Kiri’s second papa. By all the gods, she was also important to him. He felt fear in his guts. “What are we going to do?”
Gunleik rose. “I’ll get Rorik’s packet of medicines Mirana always sends with him. Perhaps there is something that will help.”
Gunleik was back with a large skin lined with soft linen and holding vials of creams and liquids. Rorik came in behind him. “There is nothing here that can help else I would have said something before.”
“She must wake up,” Cleve said. “She must wake up and see that I’m a man again. She’s been unconscious for nearly two days. She’ll starve to death if she doesn’t awaken.”
“Then we will pull close to shore and you can go overboard with her. Hold her in the cold water. Mayhap that’s what’s needed to shock her awake. Mirana did that once with our little boy, Ivar, and it worked.”
Cleve thought it a crazed idea, but he was desperate.
When they were within feet of the shore, Cleve lifted Chessa, held her tight against him, and jumped into the water with her. They both went under. The water was so cold it shocked the breath from him. He shoved upward, found he could stand on his feet, and kept Chessa close, the water to her neck. He held her there until suddenly she heaved and shuddered, and shoved hard at him, moaning, hitting at his chest.
“You’re killing me,” she yelled, her voice harsh and raw. “I’m dying of cold. Please, Cleve, don’t kill me. I won’t be pregnant anymore with your babe, I swear it.”
He was so relieved, so very happy, he lifted her in his arms and kissed her mouth. “I should have known the moment you woke up you’d talk about my babe. Come, let’s get you dry.”
She looked at the boat, at the men all leaning over the side, all cheering now. “This is strange. You’re no longer Isla. What’s happening? Oh, dear, where is the queen?”
Cleve just laughed and handed her up to Hafter, who hauled her into the warship. “I tried to throw her to the fish, but she wouldn’t let go of me.”
“What happened? Where are we?”
Cleve climbed over the side of the warship, shook himself like Kerzog, and said, grinning at her, “We rescued you. The queen gave you a potion. I gave Ragnor a potion. Then we made a trade. The queen didn’t want to, but she realized that you couldn’t rule the Danelaw without Ragnor as the nominal king. Unfortunately, the sweet prince never awoke before we gave him back to Kerek and the queen, else I would have enjoyed telling him that he’d fallen in love with Isla, who was really his worst nightmare, namely I, and it was Utta’s wine he was drinking. You’re safe now, Chessa. Now, let’s go get us both dry.”
“I’m very hungry, Cleve. I haven’t eaten since last night.”
“You,” Rorik said, cuffing her shoulder as he would a boy, “you haven’t eaten for at least two days.”
“Perhaps you don’t have to feed her. Just look at her, she still yells and talks,” Rorik said. “Any minute now she’ll want you to impregnate her again. How do you feel, Chessa?”
“Very cold. I shall collapse very soon since you haven’t fed me.”
“Come along,” Cleve said. “Would you like to try on my breasts? I brought them back with me. Poor Baric didn’t want to keep them. I think it would have saddened him to have them near him without me being attached to them. Ah, we did share some interesting moments together.”
“You should have let me stack up my sticks, Papa. I wouldn’t have run out this time.”
Cleve kissed Kiri, then said, “No more sticks. Now, I kept my promise to you. Here’s Chessa.”
“Papa!” Kiri jumped into Chessa’s arms and hugged her thin arms around her neck.
Chessa was laughing and kissing the little girl’s face. “Your papa—your first papa—was a great hero. Everyone in York believed he was Thor, come down with his lightning bolts to terrify the king and queen until they gave me back to him. As for you, you were wonderful, Kiri. I’m very glad you didn’t starve yourself again.”
“Aunt Laren said that since I now have two papas, I’m more important than ever. She said my papas couldn’t bear it if something happened to me. So I ate and ate.”
Chessa rubbed her palm over the little girl’s stomach. “Cleve,” she called out, laughing. “I fear we will have a very fat little creature on our hands if we leave her often. Instead of starving herself, she will cram food down her gullet until she waddles.”
Kiri laughed and pulled out of Chessa’s arms. She grinned at Cleve and Chessa then ran to Aglida to play.
“Behold our true importance,” Cleve said. He turned to Mirana. “Chessa and I will wed. I can’t hold out against her any longer. I don’t want any more gray hairs. I will send a messenger to both Duke Rollo and to King Sitric.”
“Tomorrow,” Old Alna said, and cackled. “You’ll wed tomorrow. Finally, you’ll plant a real babe in her belly. Lord Rorik, I wish you’d brought back Captain Torric. Aye, what a fine lad he was.”
That evening, both during and after a dinner of roasted pheasant, fried halibut, and Entti’s delicious rye bread, Cleve told of his adventures in York. His disguise was brought out and admired and laughed over. Everyone begged him to dress just once for them as Isla. He refused, saying his daughter would swoon from disgust and shock.
Laren asked many questions about the people at the palace in York. Cleve provided her with all the details, as did Chessa. They knew that soon Laren would weave a skald’s tale. Cleve asked her at the end of the evening, “I beg you, Laren, let me remain a man. I dread thinking of how I will be greeted in future years if you tell about how Cleve of Malverne disguised himself as a whore with big breasts and more paint on her face than a whitewashed wall in order to rescue the damsel.”
Laren punched his arm and laughed. “I will think about it. Actually, I will ask Chessa after you’ve been married for several days. If you’ve pleased her, Cleve, why then, I will let you remain the mighty Thor.”
