“If it goes wrong, blame me,” he said. “Blame me for everything if you want. I know I blame myself.”
The same guilt I felt, which twisted my stomach into knots, dripped from his voice. He exhaled sharply and sent a stream of bubbles to the surface. “I wish we could plan everything down to the last detail, but we won’t know how to work with Inkeri until we see her. Anyone has to be better than Calder, though.”
“Will you be able to convince him to go with you?” I asked. “To the bay, when it’s time?”
Havamal nodded. “He trusts me again. It took him a while, but he thinks my intentions about making you my mate were good. Plus, he will never turn down the chance to hunt blue tuna.”
I ran my fingers across the row of missing scales on his stomach. His hand found the exposed patch on my back. We’d suffered enough at the king’s hands, directed by his cruel laws. Everyone in the glacier had endured his maliciousness for too long, and it was time to take our freedom back.
Six
I rode on the ship with Ragna and stood at the prow alongside her second in command as the crew rowed the vessel into the bay. Ragna paced back and forth. A line of tar barrels stood ready on the deck, and the crew’s two archers had their arrows nocked.
“I hope you know what you’re doing,” the huge mountain of a man said, rubbing the beard at his chin. “This bay is dangerous, and if we hit the ice…”
He didn’t have to say it. I knew what the icebergs did to ships.
The man shook his head slowly as he watched Ragna pace. “The crew resents her, but she cares for them. She would blame herself if anything happened.”
I nodded, knowing how that felt.
“That man she told you about,” the big man hesitated and rubbed the back of his head, stealing a glance toward Ragna as if to confirm she couldn’t hear him. “The one we threw overboard. She didn’t tell you he slit a night sentry’s throat and tried to dump the water supply in the ocean in order to further his mutiny. He was a bad egg who would have killed us all to get what he wanted. The rest of the crew will come around.”
I didn’t know why Ragna’s lieutenant chose to tell me about the man she’d killed, but when I looked at her again, something in me softened.
We coasted into the bay, and I studied the north point. The ice mountain was twice the size of our fortress, with sharp ledges and high peaks. Its sides were so slippery that no land animals made their home atop it. Even the polar bears were afraid of the mountain. It was the perfect place for the king to have hidden Inkeri for all these years.
Using signs and sketches, Havamal had drawn more information from Rala. They had already scouted the area. Although they couldn’t see the princess, Havamal had found a long shaft under the water where food could be lowered. Ragna’s archers would have to aim for the ice above. Then we would somehow have to get the princess out through the fissure.
I swallowed, praying hard that Ragna’s men were as good with weapons as she was. The operation was becoming too complicated, with too many opportunities for things to go wrong. Part of me wanted to tell Ragna to turn the ship around. Then we could sail away together, and I could see the world as I’d always wanted to. But if I left, everyone Havamal brought with him would be at the mercy of the king. If he thought Havamal had betrayed him, Calder wouldn’t stop at cutting out his tongue. If I turned around now, I would be the same coward I’d been before Loki entrapped me, thinking only of myself.
Ragna directed the ship to the other side of the north point. When Havamal lured King Calder to the bay, I wanted the human ship to be out of sight. If the king grew suspicious, he could flee to the safety of the glacier and those who supported him. Havamal had said there were plenty who were on our side, but were afraid. Without the princess, how many would back Havamal?
As we drew closer to the glacier, I crawled over the edge of the bow. Using the suction in my tentacles, I balanced on the side of the ship right above the water. From this vantage point, I’d be able to see the ice under the waves and signal Ragna. The ice had claimed many ships, ripping their hulls apart with its jagged underwater peaks. We wanted to hide in the shadow of the glacier without sinking the boat.
On the deck, I heard Ragna’s boots drumming as she continued to pace. I wondered if she’d chosen the pair to sound imposing. Given the image she seemed to want to project to her men, such a conscious choice wouldn’t surprise me.
The ship turned the final corner, hugging tight to the berg. For the first time, I really surveyed the craft. Where the whaling ships coasted low in the water, this ship skimmed the surface, as agile on the waves as a porpoise. It passed easily over the sharp ice, and the oarsmen stopped their furious rowing as someone dropped a heavy anchor into the ocean. I nearly fell as the ship heaved back when the anchor’s chain forced it to stop.
Ragna’s face appeared over the ledge. She leaned down, and I climbed just high enough to brush my hand against hers.
“You’ll be ready for my signal?” I asked.
She nodded, then beckoned to me. I pulled myself up alongside her. Her fingers dug into my hair and yanked my face to hers. “In case you don’t make it back.”
A sob welled in me, and I fought to keep it down. If she kissed me, I knew I would cry, so as Ragna lowered her lips to mine, I sank my teeth into her neck. I didn’t break the skin, but she yelped nonetheless and stood up.
“What was that for? I mean, I admit, under another circumstance and accompanying…” she blushed and trailed off. “Is that a mermaid thing?”
I smirked, arming myself with a bravado I didn’t feel. “Now we have unfinished business. So I have to come back.”
I didn’t wait for her to argue. Instead, I pushed off the ship with all my strength and dove into the sea.
I attached myself to the underside of the point and waited in the dark for Havamal and the rest of King Calder’s hunting party to appear. A pair of great white sharks swam laps around the iceberg’s base, rooting in the crevices for fish. The bolder of the two sharks approached me. He swished his tail and looked at the strong tentacles that kept me attached to the glacier like a turquoise barnacle while he tasted the water for my smell.