Chapter 4 Freya
The smoke had seemed distant. Yet as we flew along the coast of rocky beaches and verdant forest, it felt only a matter of heartbeats before the black and yellow painted ships came into sight. Islunders, there was no doubt. There were three drakkar dragged onto the beach with a handful of warriors standing guard. And though we had the same number of vessels, the Nordelanders were outnumbered because all the warriors who’d normally sail in Harald’s vessel were in Helheim thanks to me. The only warriors in our drakkar were Bjorn, Tora, and Skade.
Andme.
From the flickers of lightning coming from the village, the Islunders had Unfated of their own.
Bjorn moved past me to the fore, and our elbows brushed. I shifted to the side to put space between us, hating how my body seemed to draw closer to him against my will. If Bjorn noticed, he didn’t show it, for his attention was on Tora.
“You vowed to kill Arkyn before I left for Skaland, Tora,” Bjorn said, axe already burning in his hand. “Yet from the show of light, it seems he is very much alive.”
Their familiarity turned my mouth sour. Though he’d not denied knowing Tora, he’d also allowed me to believe he saw her as an enemy when she was clearly anything but.
Tora scowled. “Arkyn has been hiding from me, so I’ve not had the chance.”
“He’s not hiding now.” Bjorn gave her a smirk that made me want to push him overboard. “Best to make good on your vow lest people start to worry your threats are more bark than bite.”
“Says the man who vowed every day of his life to kill the shield maiden and ended up fucking her instead.”
I scowled at the barb but Bjorn only shrugged. “If you envy my course, you are welcome to find a secluded spot to discover whether Arkyn’s fingers tickle as well as his lightning. I will not judge you poorly for it. Even if he is old and ugly and smells of goat.”
“How do you know what he smells like, Bjorn?” Skade gave him a sly smile.
“He fell on me during a skirmish and I nearly perished from the stink, though perhaps he has found a bath since then. Tora, you may let me know what you discover during your sojourn.”
“Enough chatter, children,” Harald interrupted, and I found myself grateful for it. I was aware that Bjorn knew these people, but I had believed it was knowledge gained as a prisoner. Not knowledge gained because they were comrades. Because they were… family.
“What do you wish to do, Freya?” Harald turned his gray eyes on me. “Will you fight for me to protect the village, or do you wish to remain in the drakkar?”
Every part of me tensed at the request, because I sensed what he desired. For me to call upon Hel to take the Islunders’ lives and souls, ending this fight with my curse so that it cost him nothing. “Fight your own battle,” I hissed. “I do not serve Nordeland, nor will I ever.”
“Islund is no friend to Skaland,” he answered. “They raid your coasts as well.”
“The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
He only shrugged. “As you like.” Raising his voice, Harald shouted, “Make ready!”
My heart raced as the Nordelander ships sped toward the beach, and the Islunders standing guard over their drakkar finally noticed our approach. Runners raced up the beach toward the burning village to warn the main war band while the others hefted their weapons, preparing to fight. Their shields were painted black and yellow, bodies clad in mail and fur, and their heads bore the elaborate helms they were known for.
“Skade,” Harald said softly. “End them.”
“Gladly, my king.” Skade’s glowing bow appearing in her hands. Drawing the string, she let the arrow loose and it shot through the air to punch through a man’s chest. Bile burned up my throat as visions of her doing the same to my mother filled my mind’s eye, but then Bjorn shouted, “Beware! The sand is wet!”
I had no understanding of why that was cause for concern, but everyone cried out in alarm and caught what handholds they could.
“Freya!” Bjorn roared. “Hold on! There’s a child of—”
Whatever he’d been about to say was drowned out by a loud moan beneath our drakkar, and then the stern of the vessel lifted out of the water. Steinunn screamed, clinging to the mast even as Skade risked another shot before flinging herself at the edge to hold on. Fear clawed my insides as we rose higher and the drakkar tipped sideways. I saw the flash of a gray shape.
Child of Njord.
There was a child of Njord among the Islunders and they’d called a whale.
I had only a heartbeat to wonder what such a person could accomplish in battle before the whale flung the drakkar over. I sucked in a mouthful of air just before I was cast into the water.
I plunged deep and could not see anything but froth and darkness, my body flipping end over end as a wave rolled. It was impossible to tell which way was up. Which way was air.
Water surged, instinct screaming at me to move just before a massive fin swept before me. Then lashed back again, barely missing me a second time.
I kicked hard and broke the surface in time to watch the massive gray whale overturn another of the drakkar. Warriors spilled into the sea, and the whale disappeared into the depths.
It was chaos, made worse by the third drakkar having reached the beach only to encounter dozens of Islunders waiting, including the infamous Arkyn. Lightning flew from his fingers, blasting holes clean through Nordelander warriors and spraying smoking blood across the beach. At his side stood a man whose gaze was fixed in concentration, whatever plans he had for those of us in the water far from finished.
Something bumped my arm and I thrashed only to find Tora floating limp in the water next tome.
“Freya!” Bjorn shouted. “Swim!”
His eyes were on something farther out to sea.
Turning in the water, my stomach lurched at the sight of a black fin shooting through the water toward Tora andme.
Many black fins, and unlike the gray whale, these whales had teeth.
Terror filled me but as I turned to swim for shore, Tora jerked and coughed. Still alive but clearly addled from a blow to the head, blood streaming down her cheek.
Leave her, my anger whispered. She killed Bodil.
The fins were closer now. Bigger than I’d realized.
There is no honor to be had in this death, my conscience answered, the first I’d heard from it in a very long time. But it had power over me still, and I reached for Tora even as I called Hlin’s name. Magic bloomed from my fingers to cover Tora’s body and my own.
A black-and-white shape attacked, mouth opened wide to reveal sharp white teeth, and I screamed.
Yet it was magic the teeth bit down upon, not Tora’s body, and the whale was flung back with incredible violence.
But more cameon.
An entire pod of whales attacking one after another, from all sides. Teeth flashing and biting. Water from their thrashing fins sending Tora and me twisting and spiraling, all of my strength needed to keep hold of her. They couldn’t break through my magic but neither could I escape.
Tora was half again my size and I struggled to keep our heads above water as the whales came on and on. Drowning us in water and fear. Through it, my fury blazed hot because these creatures were being used in a way that was against their nature. The child of Njord on the beach was no better than Vragi. No better than my dead husband who had used the lives of innocent creatures to tormentme.
A wave washed over me, and though my magic flung it back in a burst of spray, we still sank in the water. I gasped for breath and twisted, trying to see over the attacking whales to the beach where the monster who controlled them lurked.
My heart lurched. We’d drifted far out to sea, the figures fighting on the beach now tiny in the distance. The whales didn’t need to kill us, because the water would do the work for them.
“Tora!” I choked on a mouth of salty water. “Wake up! Swim!”
She blinked at me. Then her eyes sharpened and a shriek tore from her lips as a whale struck.
It had a mouth large enough to cut a grown man in half and swallow one of those halves whole, with teeth longer than my fingers.
Teeth that clamped down on her outstretched arm—only for the whale to be flung through the air to land with an explosion of water that set the ocean to rolling.
Tora thrashed, lost in fear and trying to get away. I clung to her like a barnacle, fingers latched around her chest and my legs around her waist.
Unable to swim, we sank beneath the surface.
Desperate to breathe, I caught hold of her face and met her eyes. Willed her to understand what was happening as we slipped deeper.
Fins and bubbles roared around us. But Tora was a warrior and before my eyes, she mastered her fear and nodded once.
I released my legs from around her waist, and holding hands to keep my magic in place, we kicked our way to the surface.
To discover we’d been pushed even farther from the shore.
“They’re going to drown us,” Tora gasped, flinching as another whale attempted to close its jaws around my legs only to be cast aside, waves surging. “We have to kill them!”
“No!” I choked on a mouthful of water. “It’s not their fault! He’s making them do this!”
“Then we’re going to die!”
Tora jerked her hand free, and the glow of my magic disappeared. I grabbed her shoulder, and in a heartbeat she was once again aglow. She pressed her palms together and then cursed. “I need your magic off my hands!”
I shook my head. “You can’t. You can’t kill them.”
“We’ve no choice!”
She was right. It was the whales’ lives or ours.
Tears ran down my cheeks, and knowing I’d never forgive myself for this moment, I withdrew my magic from Tora’s hands.