Everyone was quick to obey—Rowan, Fara, and Fell.This was the way of seafaring in the north—a captain’s breath was law—but I didn’t know that then.Before I could also obey, Arik reached his hands out to me.
“I will hold Halvar a moment more.Before we part for the journey?—”
“You are not coming with us?’
“No,” said Arik, looking a little offended that I’d even asked.“No, it is not a good omen to switch ships.Most Norsern will row on only one their whole lives.Someone will take it as a sign that my reign is coming to an end.Someone will interpret it as an invitation to try for my crown.”
Halvar stopped fussing the moment he was in Arik’s arms as Arik’s face lit up with the warmth of every brazier in Aalt.
“But Fell is switching ships, no?”
Arik paid me no heed.His entire mind was with Halvar.“We are parting for just a short journey,” Arik explained to the child.“I know you will miss me, but I am a busy man, I have many duties to attend to.You will be with your mother and father and a very skilled captain, and if you look just across the water a little ways, you will see the ship I am on.I will cast for you from there…”
It was as if our previous argument had not happened at all.Was it truly out of the king’s mind or was he simply good at hiding it?Regardless, his frustrations with me did not extend to Halvar.He walked away from me, Halvar nuzzled into the crook of his arm as he rambled to the babe.
Quickly, those who’d stopped to witness the king’s debate with his captain found their way to ship or task.
Jorn set a hand on my shoulder, and I turned to see his steady, sorrowful face.“I have wished to tell you… Every time we have spoken, I have wished to say that sometimes a cage feels impossible to escape, but often this is a trick of the mind.There is always a path if one is looking.If one is listening.”
I had no idea how to respond to that.Eventually, I said, “You must not say so many cryptic things if you wish me not to use the wordcryptic.”
He laughed softly, but his hands were moving too much for me to believe he was truly enjoying himself.
“I know…” I looked to where Arik had wandered off with Halvar, wanting to know the king couldn’t hear us over the din of the busy docks.“I know you have done me more…” What was I trying to say, and how did it work in Norsern?“I know you have done more for me than I am aware of.”I couldn’t forget how highly the stones thought of Jorn.Protector.
The man’s black eyes hardened, leaving me wondering if I had offended him or chosen my words poorly.
“Jorn!Up to your usual tricks, I see!”Flojer took one long stride and was beside us.
Immediately, Jorn’s demeanour shifted.He smirked.“You know me well, but not so well as you think, Kaker.”
Flojer grinned, his eyes darting to me.“It is not custom to keep a captain waiting.”
I pointed at Arik, who had taken Halvar to the dock’s edge and was exclaiming something about the sea to him.“I cannot leave until the king gives me back my baby.”
Flojer snorted.“A fair argument if I have ever heard one.How many moons is he?”
“Uhh, four or…” I was truly terrible at expressing numerical values in my second language.
“Nearly five moons,” Jorn completed for me.
Flojer’s eyes settled on me.Clear and cutting.“You are not recovered from the birth then?”
I wasn’t.I honestly felt I never would be.But I had no idea howheknew that.
The captain’s face grew stern.“I have an excellent healer on board.It is almost as if he can see into the body without making a cut.Do you have everything you need for a voyage with a child?”
I huffed.“I think so… I mean, apart from having any sense of how long we will be gone or where we are really going…”
“No one has that, though,” Flojer said.“Not truly.”
“Ah,” said Jorn.“I enjoy your mind.Why do we not spend more of our time together?”
“Because neither of us likes to think we are competitive,” said Flojer.“And if we kept company too long, we would become caught up in out-perceiving the other.We would be unable to avoid the truth of ourselves.”
Jorn laughed and then grew somber once more.“Take care of this one.”He nodded to me.
It embarrassed me to have someone express fondness for me so openly.I told you.Men’s feelings have always been a difficulty of mine.
