The men broke off pieces of the sinking ship. A few roped together makeshift rafts and drifted into the water. Others climbed to the top of the mast or dangled from the ropes that suspended the sails. The orcas chattered, ducking their heads together like old mermen hunching over a gaming board. I bit my lip. I didn’t have to understand their language to know what they were planning.
With a cry, one of the men fell from the mast. He was a large-framed fellow, with shoulder-length golden hair and green boots that looked as if they were woven from fish scales. His gold curls reminded me of Ragna. Before the orcas could close in, I pushed off from the ice and swam to him. Snatching him under the armpits, I dragged him toward the ice shelf. He tried to scream, swallowed cold water, and sent a flurry of bubbles to the surface. One of the orcas trilled at me reproachfully. The man kicked at my sides, trying to free himself, but I held fast. He could be the only opportunity I would get.
We surfaced as the water around us turned pink. Tendrils of red snaked into the sea, and color exploded in the artic grayness. The man in my grasp stilled, and I thought I could hear him moaning over the screams, the splashes, and the crunch of bones.
Although it was summer, the water was only a few degrees warmer than the ice. I shivered, but forced warmth up through my scales. I needed to keep this man warm enough to survive. Any of the others the orcas didn’t slaughter would freeze to death or drown.
Using my tentacles, I lifted the sailor onto the edge of the ice. He scooted away from the edge and shook as the frigid air bit into his wet body. Rubbing the salt water from his eyes, he looked over my head at the scene, the one-sided battle between the whales and their victims. I’d already seen enough.
Bracing himself on his hands, the sailor vomited into the sea. Then he brought a shaking hand up to cover his mouth.
“I don’t mean to harm you,” I said.
“Are you from Aegir?” he whispered, coughing seawater into his sleeve. “I’ve always prayed to him. Every day. Maybe I did something in a past life to please him… My brother… please, my brother is back there.”
I met his eyes, even though the pain in them made me want to drop my gaze to the ice. “Your brother will be gone by now. I’m sorry.”
“There are a lot of men there,” he protested. “You don’t know… please. He has ginger hair and a scarf—”
I held up my hand to stop him. My soul ached for him. I knew what it was like to lose family. But I had to be firm. “Even if the whales haven’t gotten him, the water is freezing. By the time I get to him and bring him here, he’ll be too frozen to recover.”
“But—”
“I’m not from Aegir,” I said, cutting him off. “I made a deal with Loki. I want to make one with you, too.”
The sailor bit his lip. “You made a deal with the trickster? But everyone knows… everyone knows how dangerous that is.”
“I know that now.” My voice was flat. I didn’t want to elaborate. I didn’t want to tell this man just how deeply I regretted dealing with Loki, because just saying the words might rip me in half.
He closed his eyes and took a deep, ragged breath. Pain frosted his voice when he spoke, “And now, I suppose, in order to live, I have to make a deal with Loki as well.”
I tried to sound nonchalant and keep the desperation in my voice at bay. I hoped he would ask for something straightforward, something easy that Loki couldn’t manipulate. “I already saved you. I’m hardly going to push you back in the water.”
He shrugged. “I’ll freeze to death here unless another ship comes by. I want to live to see my family again.”
“Others have survived,” I snapped.
The sailor turned his head from side to side, studying the barren landscape. He rubbed the back of his head and gave a hollow laugh. “They either had help or fins.”
I pursed my lips. I couldn’t sit here and talk about Ragna and life on the ice with him. The longer we spoke, the harder my task would get. Even if I saved him from the ocean and the whales, I still needed to use him. I pulled one of the enchanted vials from the string around my neck. My hand rested on the cork as I pondered how Loki might distort this man’s request.
The sailor looked at me in hopeful terror. He knew the legends. I imagined Loki transforming him into a seagull or a pelican, able to soar above the waves and fly back to his homeland, but cursed to look at his family from above. He’d be able to watch them from afar, to nest in their roof, but never interact with them.
“I need your voice.” My own voice almost died as I fought to get the words out. Somehow, I would find a way to get this man home in his human form. He would see his family. He would hold them again.
His trembling hand went to his throat. “You’ll send me home a mute?”
“In exchange, I promise I will keep you safe and fed until the next ship comes. Your deal will be with me. Loki will not have to grant you anything. I will keep you alive.”
“My daughter is blind.”
Suddenly I couldn’t speak. Grief and guilt threatened to swallow me. How could I do that to him? To his little girl? But if I didn’t, I could be trapped like this forever.
“She won’t know me,” the man continued, shattering me again and again with every word. “She won’t even know that I came back.”
“She’ll know you by other things, by the feel of your face, your smell,” I said, even as guilt threatened to strangle me. I hoped that was true. I needed to believe it was true. Human senses were different from ours; perhaps they relied on vision where we did not.
His eyes scanned the length of my body, from my hair to the tips of my tentacles. “You need this, don’t you?”
I nodded.
“What were you, before?”
I sighed, bracing myself for disbelief. “A mermaid.”
He smiled although sadness lingered in his dark eyes. “Well, your top still looks the same, and I bet you were beautiful. How many favors did you bestow? Break many sailors’ hearts?”
I tossed my hair over my shoulder and tried to keep my voice light. “All the time.”
We sat in silence. His teeth chattered, and he rubbed his hands together and blew into his palms. I wrapped two of my tentacles around his back and forced more heat to the surface of my scales. He sighed as the heat penetrated his wet furs.
Brushing a lock of wet hair from his face, he closed his eyes and pried the vial from my locked fingers. “You saved me. I repay my debts. Somehow, I will find a way to convince my girl I’m still there for her. Without you, that’s a promise I couldn’t keep.” He pulled out the vial’s cork with his teeth. Fingers shaking, he raised the little bottle in a mocking toast as liquid silver frothed from his lips.
When it was over, his great shoulders shook, and tears fell in rivers down his cheeks, but not a sound passed his lips.