Jos gestured her forward, silently urging her off the ramparts.
Gods. “I can’t.” She mouthed silently.
Jos gestured more urgently.
“I c-can’t let go,” she whispered as quietly as she could, shuddering with cold. “Keely’s hurt. And the ch-chain….”
Jos turned in the darkness to murmur, “Captain….”
Before Tristan could reply, a dark shape swam in close beside them.
“Give Keely to me.” It was Tor.
Nim shivered helplessly. Her body was exhausted, and she knew she was in shock. Too much had happened. Too much fear, too much grief.
And now Tor was there, and she didn’t know how she felt. Frightened of him? Or was she frightened because he reminded her of Grendel? She still felt sick when she thought of him standing beside Tristan in the great hall, pointing her out to Grendel. But had he genuinely betrayed them? He was helping, wasn’t he? She didn’t know.
Her whole body shuddered as she clung helplessly to the rock wall, one arm hooked around Keely’s waist, the other woman slumped against the slimy, wet battlement beside her.
“Nim,” Tor’s voice was gentle, “can you pass her to me?”
She closed her eyes and tried to think. This was a man who had sacrificed himself for an unknown woman in the marketplace. Everything else, she didn’t understand.
Tristan said that Tor wouldn’t hurt them. And she trusted Tristan.
“C-can y-you help me?” she whispered through her frozen lips. “I’m trying, but I c-can’t let go.”
Big hands reached out through the water, and Tor took hold of Keely, holding her cradled against his chest in the water. Jos put his arm around Nim and supported her, just enough, that she was able to force her fingers slowly open.
He was warm and strong and keeping her safe. But he still wasn’t right. Wasn’t who she wanted. “T-tris?”
“He’s helping Val. Come now.” Jos’s warm body buoyed hers as the two men helped her and Keely cross the short stretch of water, the chain tight between them, to a large rowboat. The men boosted them up together to fall noisily into a shivering puddle at the bottom, beneath the heavy tarpaulin being held up by Reece while Jeremiel and Garet manned the oars.
A loud cry went up on the battlements, and there was a flurry of activity. Was the king there? Or had they seen the boat?
More bodies fell into the boat in a heap of limbs and armor; someone groaned in agony.
Was it Val? She couldn’t move under the pile of people. And she couldn’t see him in the dark chaos.
And then they were moving, bodies sorting themselves into a rough order. Oars dipping and pulling. Whispered commands.
The tarpaulin was pushed away, and she knew they must have made it to open water, out of reach of the archers.
Jos pulled her and Keely to sit at the bottom of the boat, Val unconscious beside them. She lifted his head into her lap and leaned back against the wooden hull, staying out of the way as they flew down the dark river.
Everything became a blur. Time passed, but she didn’t know how much. Her shivering was out of control, and her lips felt completely numb. Val had stopped shivering, and somewhere in the recess of her brain, she knew that that was worse. She lay down over his body, trying desperately to keep him warm.
Eventually they stopped at a small jetty, and she and Keely were lifted out, shaking with cold, by Jos and Tor, and carried up a small beach to a treelined path. Everything around them was soft in purple and gray as the sun slowly rose, lightening the darkness.
They made their way, side by side, to a low shed where Jos and Tor placed them gently on the ground. Nim felt her legs wobble with exhaustion, and she allowed herself to fold slowly, going onto her knees.
“Wait here a moment,” Jos said quietly before moving into the shed.
She leaned her head against the wall behind her and waited, her chained arm held up beside her to where Tor stood, cradling Keely.
Within a few minutes, Jos was back with a large ax. He directed her to run their chain over a nearby rock and to cover her eyes as he swung. There was a loud clang, and then another, and suddenly the tension released as the chain snapped. She fell back, sitting in a heap, and then simply stayed where she was. She was vaguely aware of Keely groaning and Tor lifting her to carry her inside, but she didn’t have the energy to follow. Days of exhaustion and terror had suddenly become too much.
She shivered slowly and let her cheek rest on her bent knees, the remaining few links of the chain dragging down from the manacle still around her wrist.
