Ran begged him now. He nodded and pointed down to the floor below them. She turned and led the way. Once they stood facing each other, silence filled the space between them. He watched as she struggled with what to say and how to say it. Soren understood that she did not trust him and worried over sharing too much with him.
Mayhap if he began first, told her the truth now, she would begin to . . . Nay, she would never forgive him. He went on even realizing that.
“I saw you come from the sea,” he admitted quietly to her. “I saw you change from water to the flesh and blood that you are now.” She startled with each admission. He tugged his sleeve up, exposing the mark there. “I, too, am marked.”
Her gaze moved over his arm and then she lifted hers and pulled her sleeve up until it was uncovered. Two waves burned into her skin, they moved like waves did in the sea. Peaking, falling and rising again. Over and over, they moved as he watched. Ran reached out to touch his and hissed when she did.
“Lightning?” she asked. “What does it mean?”
“I can call the storm. I can make the winds blow,” he said, lifting his arm and watching as the bolt there flashed and another outside the tower answered. “I can command the lightning.”
Her green eyes widened at his words. “And I can call the sea.” She shook her head. “But why, Soren? Why us? Why can we do these things?”
“I think my grandfather knew about all of this,” he said. He reached inside his tunic and took out the three parchments sheets. “He left these for me.”
“What are they?” she asked, opening one.
“Ander translated it for me. Einar wrote it in Latin, backward, to make it difficult.”
“More likely he did not wish it to fall into the wrong hands,” Ran said, examining it closely. “So you told Ander about all this?”
“Nay,” he explained, walking to her side after retrieving the wooden box from where he’d placed it. “I only gave him the one. No one has seen the others.” Soren knelt then and held out his hand to her.
Ran knelt and placed the paper carefully on the floor, smoothing it out flat. A frown filled her brow as she studied the words.
“It tells a story about ancient gods who defeated an evil one and left behind their descendants to protect mankind.” Soren waited as she read the Latin version. “If you lift it to the light, you can read it through from the other side.” She did as he said and shook her head.
“This is written in Einar’s style. How did he write it backward?” Ran asked.
“My grandfather had talents I knew not of,” Soren answered. “And knowledge of many things forbidden and heretical.”
“Ander could not be happy about seeing such as this.” Ran held it out to him after she read it.
“I used his curiosity to overcome whatever objections he might have.”
Soren folded it and opened the map. Ran stood and took it to the window. Turning, she matched the map with the sketches and marked locations. “Do you know what these squares and circles are?” She paused, studying it. “I can see the circles are those made of stones near Loch Stenness, but the squares near there?”
“I planned to travel there and see what he drew.”
Ran faced him and held out the map to him. “I must find out what this is all about.”
“What happened? You were frightened when you came in.”
“My father is in danger, Soren. He is being held by a man . . . a man like us.”
He wanted to ignore the fact that Svein might be in danger. That man’s death would make his life safer. But, Ran knew nothing of that. “How is this man like us? Is he from Orkney or an outlander?” he asked.
“He glows, as you do,” she said. Her words startled him. “But with the hues of fire, not the silver that outlines your form. Yours is silver, like the lightning. Or like the storm clouds that build and layer in shades of silver and gray.”
“You are surrounded by turquoise, the color of the water where the ocean and the sea meet around the islands.” Soren needed to stop looking at her. He glanced away for a moment and then back. “This man has some power? You could tell?”
“I could feel it,” she said, rubbing her hands up and down her arms as though chilled. “He said it, too. Said that he has fire in his blood. And that he could answer my questions.”
“How did you see this?”
“I have worried over my father’s absence. He should have returned almost a week ago and there’s been no word. So, I asked the sea if it knew where he was. The next thing I knew, I was there, in the water, watching this man as he killed one of my father’s crew to force him to help in some way. He’s looking for something. Stones or ruins. Somewhere here in Orkney.”
“Your father is probably safe for now,” Soren said. “If this man needs something from him, he will keep him alive.”
