Chapter 16 Aura #2
Aura, Grandma Maeve’s voice, answers instead. Elemental powers are quite different from those we bless individuals with. They are crude and more powerful…
Grandma Maeve, please.
Her blood boils, and heat fills the air around them. She faces Isabel, whose hands rise, creating a pulsating air shield between them.
“No matter what abilities they grant, you cannot defeat me.” Isabel snarls.
Aura doesn’t waste time testing her new power.
Instead, she lashes out with the axe, slicing Isabel’s upper arm.
The two women dive into a fiery exchange of blows with their axes.
She can feel the sting of the blade from one of Issie’s attacks, whose air shield explodes between them as Aura overtakes her with a sneer.
“Oh no, Issie, what shall you do?” She growls while her former lover shudders in anger, slipping into a defensive position.
Edmund and Thora divvy up the remaining soldiers. Her cousin is a force of nature, spinning and slicing with precision and poise even as blood and gore spray the sides of the vessel.
Thora fights with the savagery of their father. She snarls and dismembers the warriors who can barely stand on the ice and blood that coats the hull. Through her battle, Aura observes that her saviors have wrapped coarse leather around their boots to prevent slipping on the ice.
Calder grabs Rolf by the scruff of his neck and tosses him to the stern of the ship, dodging Thora’s bodies as they fly into the sea. The younger Jarl recovers quickly to block his axe.
Aura shoves Isabel into the helm and swings for her neck. But the bitch drops and rolls out of range.
“Don’t choke like you did last time, Aurie!” The two heave their weapons at each other, blocking the other’s incoming attack. Isabel punches her side, forcing her to stumble back.
Thora and Edmund finish off Rolf’s troops, dumping their mangled bodies into the calm sea before rushing to Aura’s side.
She screams as she channels the wind seidr, and everything is engulfed in a hurricane wind, knocking everyone off balance. Wood creaks as the wind shaves away at the wood grains.
Isabel takes advantage of the chaos and blasts her into the side, shattering her focus and the devastating gusts.
“Fancy seeing you here,” Thora spits on Isabel while Edmund disarms her, tying her arms behind her back. “I have every right to call upon the blood oath you gave and slay you where you stand.”
“Only the King can claim a blood oath, Lady Commander.” Isabel’s sneer incites worry in Aura that her sister might murder her before they reach the shore.
Aura clutches Thora’s arm, needing to be the one to exact justice.
Rolf swings his mace, catching Calder’s arm.
“Enough of this.” The Iss Drengr grunts as he stomps down on Rolf’s boot. Bones snap with a sickening crunch as the Pike Hold Jarl howls. Calder seizes his mace and throws it over the side.
Thora and Edmund subdue Rolf while Calder immobilizes his lower half.
“I can’t move my legs!” He screams while attempting to escape.
Calder slaps his face so hard that it leaves a crimson outline of his hand. “I need information!”
“Why would I tell you anything, Iss Drengr?” Rolf sneers.
“Because I will kill you if you do not.”
Aura steps closer to the situation, irritated at the horror in Isabel’s gaze.
Calder grabs his arm, tearing the fabric of his shirt. Ice creeps along Rolf’s skin in tiny, jagged spikes, eliciting a hair-raising shriek. “Since you are fucking the Queen, I expect you to tell me what she is plotting.”
Isabel’s expression hardly shifts.
She already knew?
“Just because I bed her when I find myself at Nightwall Keep doesn’t mean we share our political maneuvering.”
Again, he backhands Rolf. “I understand Lavinia has informed you of her grand plan. Tell me, were my efforts in Chillbury all for not?”
Sweat trickles down the young Jarl’s temple despite the ice coating his arm like a second skin. He and Isabel share a silent connection, and she shakes her head vigorously.
“Chillbury?” He laughs nervously. “What do I know of your immorality, Iss Drengr?”
A sudden cold draft shudders against all aboard. Aura fears she will freeze in her thin crimson gown from the Farewell Feast.
“Do not lie to me.” Calder circles him like a predator tracking its prey. “Why did she lie about the prophecy? Does the Seer’s family, which originated from Pike Hold, hold any significance?”
“I-I don’t…”
Calder punches him square in the nose. Blood gushes from the center of his face, rushing down to his shirt. He barely touches Rolf’s stomach, and the seidr ice crawls from his waist to his navel.
Even Edmund turns away as Rolf's scream pierces the night.
“What did I fucking say about lying?” Calder’s growl rumbles through the ice, encasing the longship in a haunting echo. “I know you were the one to threaten her family. Tell me, Rolf, why did Lavinia mislead the country about the prophecy?”
Rolf’s thoughts betray him as he looks straight at Isabel.
Calder nods to Thora, who lets go of Rolf’s gradually freezing form and sends him to Edmund, allowing her to take the bound Isabel from Aura and pull her forward.
“I have no reason to speak with the girl.” Calder waves a dismissive hand. “Reclaim your oath, Lady Commander.”
“With pleasure!” Thora unsheathes a knife that is secured along her upper arm and traces its edge along her throat.
“Wait!” Rolf cries out. “She is with child! Please, I will tell you anything. Just spare my son.”
Bile rises in Aura’s throat.
That means she was bedding Rolf while she lay her head beside me.
“You have my word.” Even in the dark, she can see Calder’s jaw clenching.
“I will not kill Isabel Kilton while she bears your child.” He withdraws a worn hunting knife and slices the top of his arm, bleeding onto one of Rolf’s open wounds in a shared blood oath.
“In exchange, you will honestly answer my questions.”
“No, Rolf! No! My life isn’t worth this!” Isabel shrieks.
“He promised we would bear a son. The one promised to sit on the throne of Treland.”
Aura’s nausea intensifies.
What Seer is dispensing prophecies to Manchineels?
“Were my efforts in Chillbury in vain?” Calder’s firm, commanding tone draws the attention back to him and Rolf.
Isabel screams as Rolf twists his head to peer up at Calder. “Yes.”
Ice crystals form in the air and rain down upon the deck. The Iss Drengr’s hands clench, and he grinds his teeth. He punches Rolf in the chest with a snap, followed by more cries from the Pike Hold Jarl.
“Why did Lavinia mislead the country about the prophecy?”
“We shall thrive under the control of Makt.” He rasps.
When will anyone tell her of this prophecy?
“What is her plan?”
“It ends with the death of your soul.”
Calder freezes Rolf’s hands to his legs and throws him over the side. He leans against the railing, watching the Jarl struggle to keep his head above the water.
Aura and the others rush to the side as Rolf drowns beneath the icy saltwater.
“Rolf!” Isabel cries. “I love you!”
Gods, I want to punch her in the fucking face.
Thora kicks Isabel in the back of the knee, knocking her on her back on the deck. “So sorry. I didn’t see you there.”
“Everyone back to the Wyvern.” Calder commands.
Thora roughly maneuvers Isabel into the longship while Edmund digs through the pockets of the dead warriors, collecting coins that he stuffs into a pouch hanging around his belt.
“Need gold?” Calder questions as her cousin undresses a soldier and pockets the gems embedded in the dagger's hilt.
“My lifestyle isn’t cheap.” He pats his stomach and moves on to the next corpse.
“Calder?” Aura interrupts him before he can snatch a bag of supplies. Her hand stretches out to touch his forearm, but recoils as she recalls his command to stay away. “Thank you for saving me. Although now I wonder if our meeting was not so coincidental?”
Why are you not also delivering me to the Queen?
“Not now, Princess. We will talk when we reach land.” He rubs her shoulder.
Once they are all aboard the Wicked Wyvern, Calder gestures behind them. “Settle in. We return to Treland.”
Everyone implodes as morale evaporates. Even bound Isabel joins in their shouts of frustration.
Edmund’s voice rises above the rest, and the women quiet their complaints. “I am supposed to be in Pradacia in a Temple to Gullveig, serving as a Gothi. Instead, I am a companion to the Iss Drengr!”
“After this cunt,” Thora jabs a finger at Isabel, “turned out to be a Manchineel and tried to kill Aura, I thought Uncle Sig would revoke my Commander title. Can you imagine how he’ll feel when I show up with an alive Isabel? Not to mention how much I know about your little affair with my sister.”
Damn, did everyone know about us except Pops?
Aura crosses her arms. “This is my life! If I am prophesied to save Skalor, then it is my duty to venture there.”
She pulls her back straight, rolling her shoulders. As she strides up to Calder, she senses her knees quivering under his hardened gaze. Irritation builds at his unamused expression.
He slams his fist against the side, glancing up at the sky as if seeking strength from the heavens. His focus hardens like a torrent of cold rain assailing her. Her broken nails bite into her palms to keep from flinching under his intensity.
Calder lowers until he is at her level. His gaze searches hers, forcing her to swallow hard. “We sail for Skalor.” His guttural growl shakes her bones.
While the others scurry about, setting sail from the wreckage of the other longships, Aura remains at his side. She understands that he will not provide all the answers she deserves. But there are two non-negotiables she must have answered.
“What is the prophecy? The full version?”
He hesitates, and ice shoots out from his fist, resting on the side of the ship.
“Skalor’s salvation requires two. Liberation bleeds at the hands of the god-born child. To make equal upon a field of sunless roses, a willing sacrifice must be taken. Only when Salt melts Ice will peace descend upon the realm.”
She blinks back the confusion of the words. She mutters them under her breath, knowing she must hear them ten more times before committing the prophecy to memory.
“Who is Makt?” She whispers.
Calder grunts at the question. “The reason I lie awake at night hearing the ghosts of my people.”
“Father said you destroyed him.” She shivers, hoping she misheard his interrogation of Rolf.
Calder stares at her. “There is no turning back, Princess. If you join me, it is to kill a god.”
With her chin raised, she withdraws her father’s axe from her belt. Following two failed kidnapping attempts, Aura’s hands quiver as the adrenaline leaves her system and exhaustion replaces it.
Her father's fate may still be unclear, and her emotions waver under the uncertainty of this choice. But three things are certain.
One. There is no turning back. She is not returning to Treland.
Two. She must save Skalor.
And three, Calder must help her accomplish it.
She slices along the inside of her arm in an act that cannot be undone.
He must honor the blood oath.
“I, Aura Sigvidsson-Redwood, swear fealty, even in death, to my Jarl Calder Avardsson.” Her haughty gaze meets his own unflinching stare.