His breaths came harder, his eyes going wild. It crashed over me, violent and angry. Because I’d never seen my father look at me like that.
Shouts rang against the rock and I tore my eyes from my father, trying to find Fiske. But there were only Aska in every direction, pushing in around us. I lifted up onto my toes, letting go of my father and shoving into the bodies around us as panic rose up inside of me. When I broke through the crowd, Fiske was standing with his back against the cliff face, surrounded. His hands were down by his sides, pumping into fists. I hoped the murderous instinct beneath his hardened face was invisible to the others. His eyes shot from left to right, looking for me.
My father pushed through and I reached out for him when I saw the look on his face. But he broke from my grip, going for Fiske.
“Aghi.” I ran after him, trying to stand in his path, but he was too strong. My boots slid on the sand as he pushed forward.
He took Fiske’s armor vest in his clutches, slamming him back into the wall. A growl erupted between his lips as he pulled his sword from its sheath.
I wedged myself between them, my back pushing into Fiske’s chest and my hands pressing against my father. “Don’t!”
His breath was angry in his chest, the hatred in his eyes shining.
Espen appeared behind him with his axe in his hand. “What is he doing here?”
“Listen, please,” I said, Fiske breathing against me. The tension in his body radiated out of him and bled through my armor vest. “He’s not here to fight. He helped me get off the mountain.”
My father took a step back. “What is he doing here, Eelyn?” He echoed Espen’s words, but they were bloodthirsty in my father’s mouth.
“The Riki…” I tried to get it out. But I could see in their faces they were all waiting for the chance to rip Fiske to pieces. “They’ve all been raided. Like Hylli.”
The crowd went silent, the Aska turning toward each other. Espen lowered his axe, setting it against his leg, and looked to my father. They didn’t know.
“The Herja came to Fela. The village suffered losses, but not as many as others did. I saw M?or before I came here. It’s almost gone.”
“They’ll come back to finish us.” My father turned to Espen.
His eyes were on the sand, thinking. “We’ve had scouts running to their camp. They’re at least eight hundred.”
My stomach dropped.
“They have a group raiding on the mountain. At least fifty of them after their losses.” Every head snapped up at the sound of Fiske’s voice.
Espen bit his lip. He turned and the crowd opened up to let him through. “Bring him.”
We followed, weaving through the Aska. They snarled and spit at Fiske as we passed, curses riding under their breath. When we made it out from under the overhang, I finally looked up. The cliff came over the sandy bank sharply, like a roof, and the water ran past in a fast, white-capped current. We followed the rock wall until we reached a line of huts made of bowed branches and grassy tops. Fire pits sat beside each one, dug out of the sand, and the howling wind hit the wall with the smell of mud and wet stone.
Espen stood with my father and the village leaders in front of a large wooden table at the end of the small bank, waiting.
“How many Aska are left?” I’d been dreading the answer.
My father looked as if he didn’t want to respond in front of Fiske, his eyes skipping between us. “Two hundred and ninety able to fight from all the villages. How many Riki?”
I looked at Fiske. The number was low. Too low. All those Aska. Gone.
He met my eyes. “We aren’t sure. When we left, the other village leaders hadn’t come together yet. I would say a little less than three hundred from Fela and M?or together. Maybe five hundred including the other villages’ survivors.”
My father’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“Are you speaking for the Riki then?” Espen leaned into the table.
Fiske relaxed a little, still keeping an eye on the shadows down the bank. “I am. The Riki leaders want you to join with them to fight the Herja.”
Espen and my father looked at each other.
“They are too many for you and too many for us. But together, we may be able to win.”
“And then?” Espen crossed his arms over his broad chest.
“That’s for you to figure out with the Riki. I’m not a leader.”
“Then why did they send you?” My father’s fists rested before him on the table. “How do we know we can trust you?”
“You don’t.” I stepped forward, meeting my father’s eyes. “The same way they don’t know they can trust us. But we need each other. If we don’t come together, our people are finished. Our way of life is gone.”
They were quiet.
“I saw Hylli,” I added quietly. “We don’t have a choice.”
THIRTY-NINE
The men questioned Fiske well into the night and it was a long time before they finished talking. I could see that he was uncomfortable giving them the answers they wanted, but he gave them anyway. They were things that compromised the Riki’s defense against the Aska. Things that couldn’t be unsaid.
“I’ll go.” My father was the first to agree.
But Espen looked uncertain. “We can’t send others with you, Aghi.”
“I’ll go with them.” Myra’s eyes were pinned on me, from where she stood shoulder to shoulder with my father.
Fiske still stood apart from the rest of us, keeping his back to the cliff face. He wasn’t going to give anyone the chance to catch him off guard.
“You’ll speak for the Aska, then,” Espen agreed. “And we will meet in Aurvanger.”
I ran a hand through my hair, unsettled. For generations, we’d met in Aurvanger. The Riki and the Aska. But it was to draw each other’s blood. This time, it would be to save us all. I wondered if we could be warriors fighting alongside each other. If it would make us weaker or stronger.
When they dismissed us, my father led us through the sleeping camp to a place along the cliff wall that was separated by an outcropping of rock. Down the bank, the Aska leaders continued to argue in the torchlight. Their bent, exhausted whispers rose up over the sound of the water.
“You can sleep here.” My father handed Fiske one of the rolled woven mats he was carrying. “We leave at daybreak.”
He turned to leave and I followed him around the sharp section of rock that cut into the water. “I’m staying here.” I swallowed, trying to sound sure. Calm.
He turned on his heel, facing me. “What?”
“He can’t sleep alone out here. He’ll be dead by morning.”
His eyes moved over me slowly. Reading me. He, Iri, and Myra were the only people who could do that.
“I’ve been travelling with him for days. He’s not a threat to me. And if he becomes one, I can take care of myself.”
He hesitated. “What is this, sváss?”
“We need him to get back to Fela. To meet with the Riki.” I sighed. “Trust me. Please.”
His hand reached out for me and I saw his eyes drop to the scars on my neck again before he pulled me into his arms. “Alright.”
The angry throb in my shoulder swelled as he tightened his hold. I leaned into his big frame, letting the familiar smell of him fill me. It made me think of the fighting season, hunkered down together in our tent every night in Aurvanger.
He handed me the other mat rolled beneath his arm. And then he walked into the dark, toward the huts, without looking back. He’d always trusted me completely. But I could feel that faith wavering, threatening to give way to suspicion. I came back around the outcropping and unrolled the mat on the sand. The silence that had fallen between Fiske and me since the night we stayed in Hylli was still there. Every glance and unspoken word echoed within it.
“You should go with him.”
I reached into the back of my belt and pulled his knife from where it was tucked under my tunic. I held it out to him.
He looked at it. “Am I going to need this?”