Chapter 23 Lachlan #2
“Skadi.” I told her as much as I knew about the ice god who had taken her. “He says you’re a spy for his enemy. That you smelled of his enemy.”
“He’s enemies with Omegas? So, definitely an evil god. Let me see what I have for that.” She opened another pocket, then pulled at an internal set of laces to get to something buried even deeper. It took all I had not to ask what she might have in her cloak to kill a god. But she had misunderstood.
“Ah, no. He seemed fine with Omegas when I told him about you.”
One dark eyebrow arched. “Us, Lachlan. You’re one, too, and you should be glad or I’d have killed you a week ago.”
I sighed, feeling the truth of her words in our unwanted bond. “He said something about the stench of polluted fire.”
“Ah, hells.” Her hands went still, and she closed her eyes, breathing carefully. I could still feel the pain underlying her anger and frustration. “So not an evil god. I was kinda hoping I’d get a chance to try a new recipe out.”
She slid her hand into another pocket and pulled out a vial. Shaking, she opened it and drank. I got a whiff of what had to be whiskey of some kind. Good. That would help her pain and keep her blood moving in the cold.
She offered me the last swig, but I shook my head. “He’s not evil, but not necessarily good, Rada. He’s also hurt and hungry.”
“Hurt?”
“He broke one of his wings when he landed.”
“Well, can’t he shift and heal? I thought all magical creatures could do that.”
I considered it. “I don’t think he’s been in a mortal form before. At least, not for this long. He may not have any other forms.”
“Ugh. A weak, not evil god. Probably can’t even shift into a human form.
Even regular dragons can do that. I saw this dragon named Baltor shift into a man shape in the space of a second.
Of course, he was chasing me out of his hoard, so I didn’t get to compliment him on it, but it was really impressive.
” Her voice had gotten louder as she spoke, almost as if she were addressing someone behind me.
A blast of icy cold half-froze me from my bare ankles to my ass.
“No mere dragon is more impressive than I,” Skadi growled from only inches behind my head. “I can take any form I desire. I could become the largest human ever to walk this world.”
Rada didn’t address him, keeping her eyes on me. “Did you hear something, Lachlan? It sounded like a big bag of cold wind, bragging about things he’s never done.”
The whole world stood still, then exploded into icy rage. “You dare?! Insolent little spy!”
I curved my body around her smaller one, taking the brunt of the blast, trying to keep her protected while she… laughed?
“Woman?” I rasped in her ear as she wheezed in my arms. “Are you insane?”
“Depends who you ask,” she muttered. “What’s he doing?”
The blast had stopped, and some very unlikely noises were coming from behind me.
Slowly, I craned my neck to see. The ice dragon was gone, and in its place sat a merman, with silver scales from the waist down…
and two injured arms. One he held close to himself, like it still hurt after the shift. The other was broken.
Maybe only dislocated, I thought. It was hanging at an odd angle from the shoulder joint.
“Not a human,” Rada taunted. “Only half right. But the bottom half is making me hungry. Lachlan, can I have that tuna you caught?” I bit the inside of my cheek as the mer-god started cursing, small, sharp icicles flying from his mouth as he twisted again, and shifted.
This time, he was fully a fish, an enormous silver and blue carp twice my length. He flopped on one side, gasping, while Rada dissolved into semi-hysterical giggles. “Now I’m starving. Can you build me a fire, Lachlan? I’m no great cook, but I can pan fry fish like a—”
A swirl of snow had the fish vanishing, with a human-shaped, shaggy creature standing in its place. It didn’t make a sound, or move, but I had a feeling it was looking at us, though it was hard to tell with all the fur. Wool? He was a giant, but covered from head to toe with silver-white wool.
“What is it?” Rada whispered in my ear. A pleasant shiver joined the unpleasant ones racking my body.
“I have no idea,” I replied as quietly as I could.
“No fire,” the creature said, its jaw opening wide enough for me to see sharp teeth.
“Yes fire,” I said, noting the odd color Rada’s toes were turning.
“Her feet will blacken and fall off, if we don’t get her warm soon.
She will die, Your Eminence.” Her body went still in my arms, and I realized that her rage had been all that was keeping her conscious.
She’d fainted again, and I was terrified she might not wake this time.
“She is not allowed to die, or to lose her feet,” he grumbled, pushing some of the hair away from his face with his good arm to reveal impatient, glacier-blue eyes. “How can she be forced to stay alive?”
I started walking back to the ice house, glad for my selkie-tough feet as I made my way over the lava rock. “First, she needs to go back into the shelter. Then we need wood, food, and water. A small hole in the very top of the ice house to let the smoke out.”
“I will gather the wood,” he said, his head swiveling to focus on Rada’s slender hand that flopped as if she were reaching for him as we walked. “I can also catch the fish. I cannot give you fire.”
“I’m fairly certain she has a fire-starting kit in her cloak.” I coughed. “Or she had one. Some things seem to be missing.”
“Ah, what would the kit look like?” The hairy ice man sounded almost… sheepish? I forced myself not to laugh at my unintentional pun. His white fur was very sheeplike.
“A small metal striker, about the length of her smallest finger, a larger metal plate—” Before I could finish, he’d reached into the fur of his stomach, scratched at himself like a sheepdog, and produced a kit.
I was dying to ask, but I didn’t dare. “Thank you, Your Eminence.” I kneeled, half-dragging Rada on top of my pelt through the small tunnel.
I bundled her up in my fur and her cloak, then ran back to find the tuna I’d dropped.
A few birds were already squabbling over it, and I shooed them away, though one guillemot was slow to take wing, and I grabbed it and cracked its neck.
Scavenging a few small pieces of dry wood and a handful of dead grass, I carried everything back.
Skadi met me at the door, smiling proudly with those sharp, serrated teeth. Behind him, he dragged a fallen tree that was as long as any ship’s mast I’d seen, and at least six feet wide at the base of the trunk.
“Ah, very good, Your Eminence. I do think we’ll need smaller pieces to fit inside the house.”
He nodded and lifted his right arm, or tried to. “It is broken, or I would have retrieved a far larger piece. Why is this body so weak?”
“I believe the shoulder is dislocated,” I offered quietly. “I may be able to adjust it so you can use both arms. If you allow?”
“Do so.” He put the tree down.
I pointed to the tree trunk. “I’ll drape your arm over the trunk, then go to the other side and pull. All you must do is remain here, and stay as still as possible. Ah, and do not kill me.”
“Why would I?” He grunted as I helped him lift the useless arm onto the top of the tree. His form now was about eleven feet tall, so his armpit landed at the right spot.
I climbed over the trunk, standing on a large boulder across from him. “To be honest, this may hurt. When I had a dislocated shoulder, I yelled loud enough to be heard on the other side of the Eastern Sea.”
“Little seal man, if you were able to withstand this injury, I am certain I will—ahhhhhhh!” I ducked behind the trunk as an enormous hail of sharp-pointed icicles came sailing toward me.
“Your arm is healed, is it not?”
Silence greeted my shouted question. After a moment, I climbed back over the tree. He stood there, flexing his fist and moving the arm around gingerly. “It is. Good.”
I had a feeling that was all the thanks he would give, and the warm space in my gut was growing colder by the second. I had a more important magical creature to care for, and I left the ice god and went to care for her.
My own sharp-tongued, sweet-smelling goddess.