Chapter 38
Thirty-Eight
“That looks sufficiently horrible,” Ottoh said.
I could only agree. We were sailing into an inlet of ice, the cliffs towering on either side of us covered in white. Even the sky above us was silver gray, and each breath I pulled into my lungs ached, the air so cold it felt brittle, shards making their way through my throat.
I was grateful for the fur-lined jacket I’d brought, and I pulled it closer, so the fur that covered the shoulders tickled my nose, protecting my neck from the harsh cold.
“Are we sure that’s where we’re going?” Kilia asked. “It looks like Hel.”
“It’s part of Hel,” Darcke mumbled. “It’s a graveyard.”
A knot of fear filled my throat as the ship broke through the thin, almost translucent ice, sliding to a stop when we crested the frozen beach. The world was too still here, the wind too quiet and the waves too calm.
“Is it true that their bodies remain?” Vero asked in a whisper.
Ilse slipped up to my side. “Yes,” she answered. “When the battle of the North happened, it was so cold that every fallen man and woman was frozen over, each captured in time in their moment of death. They’re all sleeping here, like everything else on this island.”
“Do not wake what doesn’t wish to be woken,” I said.
Ottoh’s third shuddered. “I thought that was a children’s story to keep us away from the ice in winter.”
So did I. But there was something about this island.
Darcke stepped closer when pressure laced my chest.
“We stay together,” he ordered. “Better be more of us if we need to fight old dead guys.”
A giggle overcame me, but I quieted when Ilse shot me a wide-eyed look.
“Let’s go,” I said. “I’d like this to be over with.”
When this was done, I’d have earned wood for our people and a blade for myself, and the only thing that would remain was the reckoning by the gods. Then it was out of my hands. I’d done what I had to do to survive, and if that wasn’t enough for the gods…
My eyes tracked Darcke as he threw an anchor into the sea before swinging his legs over the railing and pushing off, landing with a crunch on the snow-covered beach.
He’d fight for my people. The man who’d lost his own would not leave another to die.
I didn’t care what my mother believed, or what Ilse and potentially others suspected. Darcke was a good man. He hid that goodness beneath a shell of assholery and cold glares and violence, but it was there.
He’d held my hand all night, and when I woke in the morning he’d been snoring softly, the gentle hum weaving through the room.
For the first time since we’d bonded there had been calm radiating from him, a warmth that I imagined had been there before he lost everything and was leashed to the man who’d caused it.
Anger rose within me, and Darcke frowned. I rolled my shoulders to try to soothe it before he asked. As I did, the other ship rounded the bend of the inlet, and urgency made my feet tap against the deck.
“The others are coming,” I said as I followed Darcke, climbing onto the railing.
I didn’t truly believe there wouldn’t be enough swords for everyone, but I wasn’t about to risk it.
Darcke reached for me, and I shouldn’t have savored his hands finding my waist, staying there a second too long before he set me down on the ground, but I did, and I drank in the smile he hid as he turned to the white landscape as well.
Kilia came next, the ice crumbling beneath his boots. While he helped Ilse down, making the girl’s cheeks even brighter crimson as he whispered something in her ear, Ottoh’s iron-bound made their way down on the other side of the ship.
Vero shook her head as she followed Darcke’s gaze. “I’m glad we decided to team up. If we need to break through all this thick ice, we’ll need your Sweengard strength. Precision probably won’t help out here.”
“Agreed.” Ottoh placed an arm around my shoulders, pretending to kiss my cheek. “Good thing we’re such great friends now.”
My blood stopped flowing in my veins at Vero’s hopeful expression, and when Kilia turned toward the ship swiftly approaching ours, it took everything in me not to let my face fall. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. It wasn’t like Ivren and Rakkel or any of the other heirs had that sort of power.
Something steely formed across Darcke’s features. “We should start walking,” he said. “Two heirs is all I can stomach today.”
While I rolled my eyes, Darcke and Ottoh took the lead, the former without looking back once as he stalked off on his stupidly long legs. Ilse and Vero fell in step on either side of me when I followed, and Kilia stalked a few steps behind us, with Ottoh’s third and fourth taking the flank.
“I didn’t think there was much that could make me miss home,” Vero said as we tried to keep up with the two men walking before us, using our hands to shield our eyes from the snow that kept blowing into our faces. “But this place is definitely worse than Sjomarks.”
“Aaland isn’t much better,” Ilse replied.
I turned to the light-haired girl. “I didn’t realize you were from Geord’s island.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s his island yet.” Ilse stared straight ahead. “And hopefully it never will be. Adrion might not have been strong enough for the gods, but he was at least kind. His parents have tried to do what they can to make life better for all of us.”
“What’s happening on Aaland?” Vero asked over the whistling wind.
“Same as for you, I’d assume.” Ilse jerked her head toward the water.
“The sea keeps rising, and so our forests are shrinking and animals are leaving. We haven’t had enough to eat for a while because of the trade being cut off with most of the nations we used to barter with.
Geord’s family has been pretty pissed about Adrion’s parents sharing their food with the people instead of keeping it for the jarls. ”
More snow whipped at us, and it was impossible to keep up the conversation. We continued the walk with bent necks and our hands stuffed in our armpits to protect them.
My head rang by the time it became too white to see more than a glimpse of Darcke and Ottoh, and I was grateful when Darcke screamed over the storm, “There is shelter ahead.”
The snow reached my thighs by the time we made it to the cave Darcke had spotted. Ottoh had to pull Vero out when she nearly collapsed by the entrance, her twisted foot giving up after the exertion.
Ilse and I didn’t go far inside before we found a somewhat dry spot to sit. Pulling up my legs, I rested my chin against my knees while the rest of the group scrambled inside.
“Fuck, it’s so cold,” Ottoh cursed as he guided Vero to the spot beside Ilse and then sat himself down beside her. Kilia squeezed his body between me and Ilse, although I had to shuffle to the side for him to fit.
“Should we try to light a fire?” Vero asked.
Apprehension ran through Darcke, even though he didn’t show it as he leaned against the cave wall by the entrance, peering out into the storm.
At first I thought he had seen something, and my nerves began firing, but as Ottoh’s third and fourth joined us, making the space cramped and hard to navigate, the memory of our bonding overtook my thoughts.
He never went close to fires. Not once in the past weeks had he been around when they’d been lit, apart from when I forced him to at the choosing. My teeth chattered, but I still shook my head. “I don’t think that’s wise. There is a reason everything is frozen here.”
Darcke shot me a look, and I mouthed, “You’re welcome.”
His face only darkened.
Impossible. He was truly fucking impossible.
“I’ll go see if there is somewhere warmer farther in,” Darcke grumbled. “Or maybe there will be eight swords lying around and we can escape this Hel.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said.
His scowl made my blood boil. “I don’t need a guard.”
“Great, because I’m your heir,” I replied, irritated that we were back to this.
“And as such, you should—”
“Just fucking go, both of you,” Kilia snapped. “You’re making my headache worse.”
Ottoh’s and Vero’s coughs sounded suspiciously close to laughter, and even Ilse turned her head down to avoid my glare. I refused to let my stiff legs slow me down as I swept past Darcke and made my way into the dark cave.
“Are we in a race I didn’t know of?” Darcke growled.
“Are we in a fight I didn’t know of?” I ducked beneath glittering stalactites that looked sharp enough to pierce through the top of my skull if they fell.
“Exactly,” I said when he didn’t reply.
Darcke’s hand found mine. I tried to free myself, but he firmed his grip, forcing me to a stop. It was almost impossible to make out his face—only his dark eyes glistened in the little light trickling in from the snow outside as he towered over me.
“I have never met someone who makes me as crazy as you do,” Darcke rasped.
“Happy to be of service,” I mumbled, still trying to step back.
“You don’t get it,” he continued angrily, a hint of that wild edge that set me on fire a few nights ago flashing in his eyes.
“Sometimes I can’t tell if I want to kiss you to silence you or because your wicked little mouth is the only thing I see when I shut my eyes.
” He raked his other hand through his hair.
“You make me want to reach for your throat and capture your lips in the same breath. Fuck! I didn’t know it was possible for one person to be so consistently, infuriatingly alluring and irritating at the same time. ”
“Is this… Do you want me to thank you?” My quip fell flat, because despite what I tried to convey, I felt his words in my bones, and my frozen toes curled in my boots. I couldn’t even breathe as he leaned in, his nose brushing mine with a featherlight touch.