The shadow above us moved faster now, and I desperately pulled on Kilia’s arm as I used my free hand to move us upward, closing my eyes against the exertion.
I listened to the waters, tried to remember how they sang to our ships when we sailed them—tried to hear the hum of my father’s wood as it cleaved the waves. But the sea was as silent as the ship had been loud in its decision not to help me, and the vessel above us started to distance itself. My eyes hunted the dark for any shred of salvation—a floating timber, a shallow reef—but the deep offered nothing but suffocating quiet.
A silent curse took the rest of the breaths inside me. For every moment that passed, darkness crept in at the corner of my eyes. My blinks slowed, and every time I closed my eyes, those I loved took the sea’s place.
My father. Lika. My siblings. My people.
A melody started in my mind as the ship’s shadow grew, its speed changing yet again—slower now. A low, guttural thrum like the vibration of a war horn wrapped around me, and the pain was replaced by a strange euphoria—one it would be so easy to give in to. One face after another appeared with increasing haste, and I gritted my teeth when Kilia’s limp body tugged at my aching arm.
My father’s harsh, weather-beaten face moved back and forth.
I could hear his voice so clearly in my mind.
Protect your people, Elvara. Above all, protect your people.
He smiled at me before his familiar features gave way to unknown blank faces, but ones that felt as much like home as he did.
My people.
I needed to protect them. I needed to stay alive for them.
My free arm started moving again as drums joined the melody,each thump squeezing my heart and pushing me to try—to fight. It shouldn’t be possible. Even with my muddled mind, I knew that. But as I clawed at the water as if it were solid earth, trying to drag my weight and Kilia’s against the crushing deep, the underbelly of the ship grew. And grew. Until I reached a rope trailing the vessel—one of the ones that had tethered it to Nordoen.
My fingers were stiff as they wrapped around hemp, and a huff left me when the speed of the ship made us fly forward faster than I expected. A scream reverberated inside my mind, but still that song played. Iron exploded across my tongue, but the drumming in my veins still pushed me forward.
As I kicked my legs and used the rope to drag us up, we moved, slowly but steadily, toward the light that flickered around the hull. I shattered the surface with a gasp, flinging my head back as I heaved Kilia upward with me. Fighting the deep until I managed to level his weight, I forced Kilia’s limp form to crest the swell as water erupted from his lungs and he gasped.
Pulling several deep breaths myself, I blinked against the fierce light.
As the melody in my mind faded, sounds that belonged to neither a ship nor the sea battered my eardrums. Shrieks, horns, and the telltale cries of battle tore through the air.
I dragged Kilia with me as I spun in the water, my lips parting at the scene unfolding before the ship we floated beside.Crimson stained the water, and several initiates came swimming toward us, their eyes bloodshot and their strokes urgent as they whipped their heads around as they tried to escape.
Behind them, others were fighting through the water, attempting to get to the stony beach to escape the wrath of men and women with streaks of blood covering their foreheads and eyes.
The war paint was the only thing that was Viking about these enemies.
While gaunt and pale, these captives—because these were King Gustief’s enemies from his travels—were armed. Largejagged bludgeons swung against heads and sharpened driftwood pierced skin whenever they found it, and there were even some with knives in their hands, jabbing at whoever dared get too close.
Ivren stood on the rocky beach to my left, his chest heaving while the man tied to him pressed a palm against a deep wound in his forehead. Behind him, Viljan swore at Rakkel’s guard, his eyes fierce as they flew across the water. Ottoh and Adrion and Rakkel were nowhere to be seen.
I cursed silently at the many bodies floating face down in the dark waves, using my hands to stop them from bumping into me. Swimming toward my friends, I used the ship to keep Kilia and me shielded until my feet found a carpet of splintered rock.
I had risen and gone to take a step when Viljan found me, and his face relaxed for a second before blanching as he took a step toward me, dragging Stefen with him.
“Watch out!” My guard’s scream pierced my bones and I spun, ready to meet the wrath of a foreign captive.
“You!” Kilia spat as he threw himself at me.
The back of my head slammed into stone as he pummeled me into the water, and my mind spun as I spluttered and choked, my jaw tight as I battled the salt water that hungered for my lungs.
There was no air to be found as Kilia’s hands came around my neck. My limbs moved with a mind of their own, driven by a frantic urge for survival.
He was wobbly as well, and it didn’t matter that I wasn’t as strong as I’d been a fortnight ago. I slammed a fist into his throat, aiming for the knot bobbing there.
As he gagged, I drove the heel of my palm into his nose. I felt the bone snap like dry kindling, and the force of the blow buckled his knees, sending him crashing down atop me. His hands loosened their grip enough for me to wrangle out from beneath him, and I had picked up a rock to strike him with when his hands found my wrists.
With a cut-off cry, he dragged me down again. I splashed water in his face, but although his eyes shut, he didn’t let go. Afurious shriek left me as he pulled me to him, and fear chilled my guts when my kicks did little to deter him.
