Chapter 19 #2
But then my eyes traveled to where Geord walked toward a ledge about sixty feet above us, his steps assured but his face betraying him—tension making its way through his every feature.
The world muted when he stepped onto the rocky shelf, and his steps faltered as he walked closer to the edge, like a shadow with only the dark sky and bright stars shining behind him.
The music stopped first. Then the conversations, which had been loud and boisterous, shifted, turning into hushed, excited whispers.
The wind that had wrapped so gently around us died down until my staggering heartbeat felt as if it could be heard over the water, which was the only thing still roaring in the night.
My breath caught in my throat.
“He’s jumping,” I whispered.
“No.”
I spun when Viljan spoke.
“Fuck no,” my guard said again. “You’re not doing that.”
“I thought she’d left you behind. Haven’t seen you two whispering to each other lately.” Ottoh joined us, waving to the crowd like he was a damned chieftain already, eliciting loud cheers from some of the groups beneath us.
“Say that a—” Viljan snarled, but quieted when I held up my hand.
“It’s not worth it,” I said quietly.
It wasn’t. Not when the choosing was tomorrow.
“So you do have some control over him,” Ottoh sneered. “I wondered. Is he not your lover, then? He doesn’t seem like someone who likes orders when you fuck, but he also doesn’t seem to like Ivren coming close to you.”
My cheeks lit on fire.
“Watch it,” I warned quietly.
Ottoh took a step toward me at the same time Viljan did.
“Stop it!” Rakkel ordered. “Can you idiots just stop!” Her hands trembled by her sides as she turned to Ivren. “Why? Why this?”
Ivren shrugged, although he wasn’t entirely unfazed when his eyes darted toward the steep drop. “They voted.” He gestured toward the karls. “It was this or fighting one of the Morkskog bears. I guess they couldn’t capture one in time.”
A shocked breath flew from Rakkel’s lips. “Bears? I thought this was some simple tradition where we showed off our magic or something?”
I don’t know if I’d ever felt colder. My cheeks strained as I pursed my lips to not let fear sweep over my features. Ivren moved closer to me, but thankfully he was so subtle I doubted anyone saw.
“The karls get to choose what we do,” Ivren replied, his hard eyes contrasting with his bright smile. “We’ve spent weeks evaluating them, and tonight they get to evaluate us. It’s only fair, since their lives will literally be in our hands.”
“They can’t deny us if we choose them,” Ottoh added, his fingers trailing the tattoo that snaked its way over his shoulder, up his neck.
“But you don’t want an iron-bound who is hesitant.
If they die, so do you. This is the final chance for them to see who of us they are open to bonding with. And… who they aren’t.”
I bared my teeth at the smirk on his face. He bared his right back.
“Vara,” Viljan started, but I whirled, and the look on my face was enough to silence him.
Rakkel shuddered. “Or it’s their final chance to kill one of us.”
“There is that too. And I have a feeling who they’re after.”
I wanted to punch Ottoh’s face so fucking bad, but I clasped my hands behind my back instead.
He isn’t worth it.
He isn’t worth it.
I repeated the mantra in my mind.
“What happens if we don’t do this?” Rakkel asked.
“Technically nothing.” Ivren shrugged. “But they’ll mock you for it forever.”
I kept my gaze on my boots. I didn’t need more of that.
Geord still stood by the edge, his face ghostly white in the moonlight as he stared down toward the lake.
Drops of water splashed him, staining the leather sitting over the shoulders he’d hiked up toward his ears.
Half his face was shadowed by another ledge towering another thirty feet or so above him.
So the Palsjo heir was afraid of something.
I wasn’t usually affected by heights, but as I bent my neck and realized how tall the mountain towered over the ledge Geord had claimed, a burn began at the back of my throat.
We were hundreds of feet up into the air, and beneath us the dark water swirled eerily around the glistening rocks peeking through the mirrored surface. Anything could be hiding in its depths.
“What are you waiting for?”
“How long can it take to jump?”
Cold sweat spread from my neck down my back when the karls beneath started shouting, taunting us with their cries. When Ottoh laughed in response to the mocking shouts, the sound wrapped itself around my bones.
Survive. I only need to survive.
But this was also an opportunity to show them I did more than hide in trees, refuse to fight, and nearly fall to my death in thunderstorms. After a shallow breath, I inched closer to the steep drop instead of backward.
Viljan followed, even if I could hear from his dragging steps he wanted nothing more than to tug me back. Thankfully he kept his large hands to himself as I started up the trail leading to the first ledge, where Geord still hovered.
“Get the fuck back,” the heir warned, waving his shaking hand for me to stop. “This one is mine.”
As I turned my head over my shoulder, understanding heated in my stomach, then spread through my limbs.
“We can’t jump from the same one?” Rakkel asked shakily.
“What’s the fun in that?” Ottoh asked as he passed her. None of us had time to react before Ottoh shoved Viljan to the side, gave me an infuriating wink, and then overtook me on the narrow path, sprinting to the ledge above Geord’s.
I had to move to stand in Viljan’s way when his eyes went black.
“Don’t test me right now, Vara,” Viljan snarled. “You’ve pissed me off enough today.”
“Don’t test me,” I hissed as Geord inched closer to the drop while Ottoh climbed onto the ledge above him. “You need to control yourself. It’s the final night. After the choosing tomorrow, I’ll listen to you all you want.”
Viljan’s face tightened. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You’re such a bastard, Ottoh,” Ivren called from behind Rakkel.
He really was. A smug fucking bastard now making his way to the end of his platform.
Geord still hadn’t jumped, and based on how the trembling in his hands now racked his entire body, I wasn’t sure he would. There was no fear in Ottoh’s stride, though, as he stalked out on the ledge.
A groan escaped me when I craned my neck, the muscles jumping in protest as I took in the scale of the hill.
I would have to jump from one of the ledges above the two heirs.
Rakkel and Ivren had come to the same conclusion, because when I spun to face them, they stared nervously from me to each other and back again.
“Well, fuck,” I blurted out.
Ivren’s laugh echoed across the water until I had to fight my lips’ twitching.
“I—” Rakkel started, but she was interrupted by Ottoh’s call.
“See you down there!”
We quieted as he backed up a few steps.
Every single one of the hundred or so karls went silent as well, and Ottoh’s steps against the dark stone reverberated over the waterfall, through the forest behind us, and across the clearing where the crowd now stood still, waiting for the heir to jump.
My heart thumped in rhythm with Ottoh’s stride as he sprinted toward the end of his ledge, and it leaped when he did—a feeling like it might escape my throat when he threw himself off crashing through me.
It felt like minutes passed while he tumbled through the air like the waterfall behind him, and I held my breath until Ottoh split the calm surface with a splash. Some of the karls erupted in cheers, many running up to the beach along the lake.
As the moments stretched on and the rings on the lake grew and grew until they vanished, those cheers died down one by one. If it had been quiet before, it was nothing against the thick silence that swallowed us when the lake became a blank mirror reflecting the starry sky above it.
“Did he…” Rakkel trailed off.
“No way,” Ivren muttered. “He’s too fucking stubborn.”
I wasn’t so sure of that, because after a minute passed where I counted every breath going in and out of my lungs, Ottoh still hadn’t come up.
Hushed whispers drifted from the people in the field, worry and glee mingling in the darkness.
My stomach, which had continuously surged, twisted into a knot so strong it might hold an entire ship.
I turned to Viljan, but just as I opened my mouth, a soft slosh sounded. We all blinked in unison when Ottoh flew out of the water, throwing his wet hair back, before he turned a triumphant grin our way and began treading water. “Top that, assholes!”
The cheers were deafening.
“Next heir.”
“Next heir.”
“Next heir.”
The rhythmic chanting resounded in my bones.
Geord was no closer to jumping. Instead, he had backed up further. Mumbling something under his breath, he continued shaking his head, his hands restlessly opening and closing.
“Come on, Geord,” Ottoh called. “You’ve been so fucking cocky so far. Time to show off why the king selected you to take Adrion’s place.”
Geord retreated further. The urge to pull him off the ledge and jump from the lower one myself made me take a stumbling step forward.
But then my mother’s disappointed eyes flashed in my mind.
Next were my father’s and Lika’s faces as I imagined them at the feast in Valhalla. My sisters’ innocent smiles.
I’d brought enough dishonor to our family.
Ivren chuckled when I rolled back on my heels, although his laugh wasn’t especially contagious. Only nerves filled the sound when he walked up to Rakkel and me. The other female heir stood as frozen as her guard, and Ivren smiled weakly again as he waved a hand in front of her face.
“Come on,” he said. “We’ll draw sticks.”
I stared at him blankly.
“Are you jumping?” Rakkel asked as she rubbed the tattoo of her father’s rune on her shoulder. “This is crazy! It’s supposed to be a fun initiation, but this is dangerous. I didn’t sign up for this.” She took a step back.
I bit back the weariness trying to etch itself into my heart.
Think of your people. Think of your duty. Think of your honor.