“Just ahead.” She calls over her shoulder.
After she awoke him from a deep slumber with a franticness he could not ignore, she had hardly spoken two words to him until now.
“I feel the urge! Theseidr’s heartbeat is increasing.” Her giddy voice is far too awake at this time of night.
She leads them along the beach, where boulders menacingly rise out of the calm sea as a natural barrier to the shoreline.
“That one!”
He follows her arm out to the water at the most monstrous rock formation of the bunch. The stone is a faint bluish tint with streaks of reddish orange along the layers. It is also far past their ability to stand in the current.
As recently as last year, he swam these frigid waters and even climbed many of these boulders during the treacherous high tide when the white waves would inhibit any maneuvering of a shipping vessel, let alone a person.
“What are we doing out here? It is too dark to attempt swimming to the boulder.”
Excitement flashes in her eyes, and she nearly bounces on her toes. “We must reach it! My dream is clear: a jagged black crown forming from the Sacred Stones. We must unify them! Sigvid, I can feel their urgings. The gods or the Stonesneedme to reach that giant rock.”
“Do you have a plan to reach it?” He wraps his muscled arm around her shoulders. “There is no safe way to get out there.”
“Sigvid!” She squeals as the ground vibrates beneath them.
A stone walkway grinds to the water's surface, leading directly to the boulder. A faint yellow light illuminates the path along the rock veins.
“What in the name of the Briny God? I have never seen this in all my years of swimming here.” He steps to the water’s edge for a better look at the path, but the bridge slips beneath the waves. “Shit, we were not fast enough.”
“Hmm?” She considers the ripples forming where the walkway had once been. “It did rise upon our arrival. Perhaps it activates with a word or phrase? What did you say?”
He stands at the water's edge with his palms above his head. In a deep voice, he commands the stone with the words he uttered on their arrival, “How do we reach it?”
Avina wavers at his side. Her hands pressed to her mouth for warmth. When nothing happens, she glances up at him. “That was either the most brilliant thing I have ever seen or the dumbest.”
His arms fall, and he takes her hand. “Well, that was worth a try,” he says with a defeated frown.
Once more, tremors rumble under their feet as the stone path appears in all its glowing glory.
“Stop touching me!” She swats his hand away.
He releases her hand, and they both watch the stone disappear again. “Oh, I see. I adore your beautiful mind.”
She smirks as she takes his right hand and inspects the Timber Stone. “Are you wearing the Salt Stone, too?”
“Yes,” He pulls the nautilus from under his tunic. A crooked smile appears on his face. “Damn, you are brilliant.”
“If we maintain skin-to-skin contact, we can cross. Somehow, theseidrmust link through us. I wonder if it’s our Keeper and Guardian abilities or because the gods blessed us as children?” She shakes her head. “Let us move before another barrier arises.”
Sigvid interlaces his fingers with hers, grinning at the size difference. Delicately, they cross the slick stone as water washes across, threatening their footing. As they halt in front of the boulder, a thick wooden door with metal bracers appears in a burst of seawater with a lingering scent of evergreen and campfire.
“Let us see where it leads.” He grabs the handle and shoves it open to reveal a warm hearth.
They gingerly step inside.
The door slams shut behind them, the handle missing. Cooking meat and freshly baked bread makes him salivate. Several tables and chairs sit empty around a roaring fire. He stops by one with a stand full of half-drank mead horns. He sniffs one before sipping the best-tasting honey wine he has ever consumed.
Avina is far more cautious, evaluating every item as if she is preparing for a trial. “Is this another test? Must we pass a series of examinations to unite the stones?”
“You give me far too much credit, Avina Bloodstone Redwood.”
They both startle to find a stranger leaning against the frame of the next room. He is dressed in a fine indigo tunic and pearly white trousers and wears a collection of colorful rope bracelets and armbands. He is also shockingly barefoot. As Sigvid examines his jovial features, matching blue eyes, and warrior build, he realizes he has seen him before as an ethereal form.
