Thatsmile could dazzle the lightning.His fingers were locked roundCai’s arm, a hold that would never grow tired.“You came afterme.”
“What?”
Cairepeated it, yelling through the spray.“You came after me.In astorm.”
“Call this a storm?Torleik babies sail their coracles throughworse than this.”Again, that flash of a grin.“Having said that,grab the rope.We might get the chance at one run.”
“To shore?”
“No.We’ll never make it.That island, the long, low one to theeast.”
Caishielded his eyes to look.Another wave tipped the boat through theheight of its mast, but Fen rode out the lurching movement easily,holding Cai fast.By harsh copper light he made out the shape onthe horizon.“Not there.That’s East Fara.There’s no safeanchorage—just rocks.”
“Maybe not for fishermanmonks.”Fen tossed him the rope that would haul up the boat’sragged sail.“I am a Viking.And we have no choice.”
He was right.Cai backed off with therope.The boat’s next lurch knocked his feet out from under him,and the sail unfurled as he slithered aft, instantly snappingbelly-tight with air.Fen ran back to join him, and together theywrenched the canvas round far enough to reap the gale withoutcapsizing, to find and ride the angle of the wind.The boat jerkedforwards twice, like Eldra impatient of her harness, then shotthrough a gap in the waves.
Fen roared with laughter.Cai joinedin.Fear fell away from him, dirty old clothes he had no use foranymore.Fen had come out for him, out through the storm, and theupshot of it all—life or death, the future Cai had spent all hislife grabbing after, striving to control—didn’t matter.He was herein Fen’s moment, tearing through the lightning, and all would bewell.
All would be well.Belief sprang up inhim.It was nothing like the faith he had been taught.Wild andhot, it had as much to do with the sea as his salvation from it.Depended on nothing—held no God outside himself accountable.Hedidn’t have to reach for it at all.It was simply here, like theseals and the birds and the storm.Like Fen.It burned and hurt,then leapt up high like fire and made him laugh still louder,hauling on the rope, his hands working so close to Fen’s that whenthe flicker of sheet lightning came, he couldn’t tell which pairwas his own.
It sustained him even when the boat’skeel struck off the rocks that guarded East Fara.A stretch ofbeach he hadn’t known was there gleamed briefly beyond them, and hejoined frantically with Fen’s efforts to guide them there, to flythem to it while the wind ripped the sail from the mast and theboat heeled over.All would be well… The words were ringing in hishead when the boat ran aground, smashing to a halt, pitching himover her prow into the dark.
“Caius.Cai!”
Hands were shaking his shoulders.Hewas propped against a rock.Every bone in his body felt bruised,and it was easier to stay under.To sleep.One of the hands—and heknew them, was beginning to know their touch better than hisown—delivered a smart slap to the side of his face.Fen.Caisurfaced, gasping, ready to hit him back.
He was waist-deep in water.Fen musthave dragged him this far ashore, far enough out of the roaringsurf to set him down.The black rocks rose all round him like ajagged, burned-out forest.Waves were crashing to oblivion on theirspines, rushing between them.A huge foam-topped crest heaved upout of the dark as he watched, the tempest hungry for their liveseven now.Fen hadn’t seen it.He was leaning over Cai, holding himout of the water.Cai didn’t bother to try and warn him.He got hisfeet beneath him—surged up, grabbed Fen and shoved him ahead of himup the beach.
Neither had much running left in him.Up ahead was a crescent of rocks whose outer edge was turned to thestorm-driven tide.A wave broke over it just as Cai and Fen fellinto its sheltering curve, but it would do.The wind howled alittle less fiercely there.The sea still stretched out its paws,but couldn’t drag them back.Sand was piled up here, strangerippled structures marked with kelp and a million fracturedshells.
Cai pulled Fen out of the storm.Theydropped to their knees, huddling against the rock.This time whenFen’s mouth sought his, he turned to him with a cry of joy andrelief.Fen had been right—his blood was singing already, so loudthe angels must hear.His skull banged off stone, and he reached upthrough exploding stars to grab anything he could of the Viking’shot muscle and bone.Fen resisted him, tearing back to arm’slength, far enough to see him.“Caius.”
“My wolf from thesea.”
“Yes.”
“You came forme.”
“Well, none of your otherlily-arsed brethren would do it.They saw you, and they ran aroundlike headless chickens, but…”
“They’re not sailors.They’renot…”Notyou,Caiwanted to finish, but his throat had seized up.
“Not pirates.Notvikingr.”
Cai nodded.Like their shelter,it would have to do.Another wave broke, spray arcing high, landingwith a seething crackle all around.Fen’s mouth was salty with itwhen it next landed on Cai’s, and he moved like the thunder,bearing Cai down onto the sand.But Cai was full of newborn faithand certainty.He rolled on top, pinning him, and Fen looked up andwhispered, “Thereyou are,” as if in recognition.As if at the end of a long,lonely wait.
Cai shuddered.He straddled Fen’sthighs and ran a hand down over his stomach, over the hard planethat rippled and arched to find his touch.Fen was erect beneaththe leather thong of his leggings.He moaned when Cai freed him,sea-chilled fingers clumsy on the lace.His cock lifted stiff andfull into Cai’s grasp, a vision seared into Cai’s brain by thelightning.In the green-flashing darkness that followed, Caiplunged down on him, shifting to allow him access in return.Heburied his face on the side of Fen’s neck.That great, strong handwas on him now, between their bodies, undoing him.
There—flesh to flesh, Fen letting goonly long enough to grab him by the backside, hauling him intoplace.Bucking up as if he meant to dislodge him, at the same timeholding him tight enough to keep him there forever.Gasping, Caithrust back, for the first time in his life with all his strength.Leof would have broken beneath him.Fen only shouted in pleasureand rose up to meet him again.After one more kiss and shove of histongue beneath Fen’s ear, Cai sat up to get his back into therhythm, laying hold of both of them.He fastened a fierce grasp onFen’s shoulders.The heated length trapped against his bellyhardened still further, summoning his own to one last deliciousstretch, a storm to match the tempest around him gathering in hisspine.
“Fen!”he yelled, and inthe next lightning flash saw him, face wild with consummation, allthe amber in his vulpine stare turned silver.Climax started, asurge too huge to sustain, and Cai let go, surrendering to theinner leap.
Fen curled up from beneath him andseized him tight into his arms.They thudded down together onto thesand, wrestling in feral joy.The wind shrieked unheard.High abovethem in the tormented night, the moon sailed clear out of theclouds.
Pater Noster, qui es incaelis…
Cai twitched and stirred.His face wasburied deep in Fen’s shirt, and if that was Abbot Aelfric, theywere both in trouble now.
