“He feeds her himself. Goes there alone.”
Havamal swore. He swam back and forth, nearly growling. “That’s where he goes… every afternoon the king ‘retreats’… he won’t let any of us accompany him. He says he needs to clear his head. When I first started, I used to argue, because we’re kept to guard him. What is the point if he just wanders away? He had me whipped the second time I asked about it.”
“And no one has ever followed him?” I demanded. “He’s been doing this for ten years. Not one of you has ever—”
“Once,” Havamal interrupted. His eyes hardened as he recollected. “One of the guards did. Rala.”
“The super quiet one with the black scales?” I remembered Rala. He usually stood by the door during the midday meals. He always stood with his arms crossed and remained silent while his sharp eyes took in everything.
“He has no tongue,” Havamal said, swallowing hard. “He’s so quiet because he has no tongue. The king cut it out. I don’t even think he saw anything. There never was a trial.”
“That’s vile.” I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering. Going up against King Calder would have to be planned carefully. Given what he had done to his own sister, I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to destroy us if we ever gave him the upper hand. “Loki said that the king has been building the ice wall thicker by the year. I’m not sure how we can break it. We’d need more heat than any of us could possibly generate with our scales. They said we’d need human fire.”
A crooked grin appeared on Havamal’s face. This time his eyes sparkled too. “My surprise might be able to help with that.”
*
Despite my protests, Havamal refused to give me any details as he led me to his waiting surprise. He ripped a long, flexible strip of kelp from one of the stalks as we swam over it. When he started to tie it around my eyes, I crossed my arms over my chest but didn’t make a move to stop him. After the blindfold was secured, calm settled over me. Havamal couldn’t see my eyes now, couldn’t read all the conflicting thoughts and feelings behind them.
The idea of a gift or a surprise scratched my already raw emotions, which were barely kept in check. It reminded me of things he’d done a hundred times when we were children, and the nostalgia hurt when it should have brought me joy. Through the kelp blindfold, I could see only the barest hint of shadows. Havamal took my hand to guide me.
When we stopped swimming, Havamal lifted my hand above my head. With my heart racing, I felt around until my fingers rested on something solid. I touched wood that had been blasted smooth by waves and salt. A film of algae covered a hull, which felt thin and grainy, suggesting the ship had sailed in colder waters for quite some time.
I sighed and reached behind my head to undo the blindfold. “Did you bring me back to a wreck? I told you, I want to move forward, but I’m going to need some time… dredging up old memories isn’t going to work.”
Grunting, Havamal snatched the blindfold. I blinked and looked up. A great ship floated above us, swaying gently on the waves. An iron anchor attached by a long, rusting chain kept the giant in place. Havamal surfaced, and I followed, wide-eyed. Why had the ship dropped its anchor? I couldn’t see any holes in the bottom, and, with the drifting icebergs all around, it didn’t seem like a good idea for the humans to linger.
I kept my head low in the water, surveying the vessel. I could tell that it was a different type of ship than the titans the humans used to hunt whales. It had a shallower hold and a narrower frame. The side rails and interior rested just five or six feet above the surface of the ocean, and dozens of oars extended from the deck. Brightly colored sigils depicting beasts I’d never seen or imagined were painted atop the rails.
Havamal knocked on the side of the hull; he drummed a distinct rhythm that no one would ever mistake for a shark or whale. Feet, slow to move, shuffled on the deck, and a groggy female voice commanded, “Check what’s over the starboard.”
A ginger head peered over the edge of the ship. The man scowled; a broken tooth jutted between his lips. Then he turned and shouted over his shoulder. “It’s that merman again. The one with the silver tail.”
Heavy footfalls clattered across the deck. Elegantly, the female swung her leg over the side of the ship and sat on the rail. Blonde hair whipped in the gusting wind and wild eyes bore into Havamal, as if the girl were getting ready to thrust a spear into his side.
For a moment, my heart stopped. Suddenly I didn’t know whether to burst into tears or laughter.
Ragna’s skeletal frame had filled out, her cheeks were flushed, and her body had grown solid with muscle. Metal weapons were strapped to every inch of her: a pair of crossed swords over her chest, blades peeking from her boots, a quiver of arrows slung over her shoulder. But it was the gleaming silver hook extending from her stump of an arm that drew my attention. One of her delicate, long-fingered hands was gone, and jagged scars ran up her slender arm, overlaying her moving tattoos.
She brandished the hook at Havamal. “I told you that if you came back here, I’d put this through your cheek and drag you behind the boat like a tuna fish.”
Havamal folded his arms over his broad chest and gestured to me. I was still barely peeking out of the water, hardly daring to look up. I knew my lapis hair made me difficult to spot against the sunlit waves. Ragna squinted, then stiffened, her intact hand gripping the edge of the ship so hard her knuckles went white.
I kicked my tail harder, raising myself from the water a bit more. Ragna’s eyes softened. Her lips curved into a smile. I felt light enough to fly. She came back. She actually came back. The ice grip on my heart started to thaw.
Gripping the little vial, I said the invocation to the trickster and shifted back into my monstrous form. As I formed the words, a little punch went through my gut; I hated what I had to say in order to use this beautiful and terrible power. But all I wanted was to get to Ragna in the ship. I didn’t care what she saw as long as I could reach her. The mouths on my tentacles gripped the ship’s sturdy side, and I climbed aboard with ease.
As I scuttled onto the deck, men jumped from their benches. Fear was evident on their faces, though they looked like seasoned warriors and all carried an assortment of lethal weapons. Most of them had visible scars covering bodies lean with hard muscle. Each of them looked as war-ready as the ship. I wondered where Ragna had found this crew and what had happened to her while we’d been apart, what had left her both maimed and in power.