Havamal extended his hand to Inkeri. She untangled herself from my grasp and placed her fragile hand in his. Havamal lifted the pale fingers to his lips and kissed them; his eyes never left Inkeri’s face. “My lady. It’s an honor.”
I almost laughed at his formality until I noticed the change in Inkeri’s expression. The corners of her lips twitched, and then a smile blossomed, lighting up her tired eyes. Havamal gestured to his guards. One by one, the men folded in graceful bows. The princess straightened, lifting her chin as their reverence gave her confidence. She needed this respect to help restore her as the queen she should have been.
“Kidnapping!” The king shouted, turning to his former guards with wild eyes. He looked at Inkeri, but didn’t seem to be able to address her. Maybe he had some sense of shame after all. Instead, he looked past the princess as if she didn’t exist to beseech Havamal, “Someone has kidnapped my sister and put her here all these years—”
“Silence,” Inkeri ordered, her voice shaky with disuse. She steadied herself on Havamal’s offered arm before continuing. “You poisoned me to keep me weak and sick, and when that failed, you brought me here and left me to rot, feeding me only enough to keep me alive so Aegir wouldn’t feel my death.”
The mermen gasped. The three who had been loyal to the king had roused in my absence, and even they looked at their sovereign with murder in their eyes.
Calder struggled, but the men held him. Snarling at his sister, he spat, “You were weak and useless. You could have never been a strong ruler.”
“No,” she said, looking from guard to guard, then back to her brother. “But maybe I’ll be a good one.”
A smile twitched at my lips. In the light of the open water, the damage to her body was even more shocking. Her bones jutted at odd angles, as if they had been broken and healed badly. The green of her scales had worn to leathery brown. She looked as though her body, starved of the sun and warmth, had already started to rot in her ice grave. But the strength of her words told me she would recover, and she would lead. And the way Havamal looked at her, as if she were a miracle despite the condition of her body, told me that he would help her, if only as a form of penance.
Havamal plucked the pearl crown from the king’s head and set it on Inkeri’s. She smiled as she adjusted it atop her patchwork hair. Then she turned to me. My heart leapt into my mouth as she held out a golden vial. “I think you dropped this.”
I wanted to sink onto the ice before her. I wanted to throw myself at her and kiss her. Relief made my body light and my head dizzy. I took the little vial and pressed it to my chest. My fingers trembled. “Thank you.”
She blinked at me. Her lashes were long, her eyes deep cerulean. She might be beautiful again, given time. “No, thank you. For whatever you had to do to achieve this.”
The princess took a firmer grip on Havamal’s arm. He gave her another half bow, then blushed all the way to his ears. “Half the glacier already knows,” he said. “They are waiting, and the others won’t support him once they see evidence of what he’s done.”
Inkeri nodded. Her eyes hardened when she looked at her brother. I saw the former king swallow hard.
“You should just let us gut him right here,” one of the guards grunted. “We could strip his scales off and give him to the humans. Let them turn him into soup. Or fry him up. They deserve something for their help, after all.”
The king went pale. He looked at his sister, then closed his eyes and bowed his head. The fight drained out of him. He was at the mercy of the girl he’d tortured for over a decade and he knew it.
“We’ll have a proper trial,” Inkeri said, brushing what remained of her hair back from her face. “I don’t want to start my rule as a tyrant. I don’t want to hide any of the details of what he’s done.”
The guards murmured their assent, and Havamal squeezed Inkeri’s arm a little tighter. I suppressed a smile. Something told me that Havamal might get his happiness after all.
“What about you?” Havamal asked, peeling his eyes off Inkeri long enough to turn to me. “Are you coming back with us?”
With a new ruler, the glacier community could put itself back together. The people could establish new laws and customs. Girls who had feared years of dank imprisonment would be free to dream again. Maybe the clan would move to a new home in warmer waters. Inkeri would need time to recover her physical strength, but her mind was still sharp, and I knew she could trust Havamal to be her support and her friend, as he’d once been for me.
I let the smile I’d been holding back blossom. It was the first time I’d been able to think about the bond Havamal and I had shared without a trace of pain. I wouldn’t begrudge either of them if he transferred his affection to the queen.
I wanted to see what my home would become. But if I stayed, Loki would always know where to find me, and I’d never get to see the world or live out my own dreams. Even if my home changed, my desire to see everything had not. With my new forms, I could see everything, go everywhere. I still had that burning wanderlust. Only now, it didn’t seem so selfish.
When I could, I’d return to see what they’d built together.
I looked up to the surface of the water, where the dark shadow of Ragna’s ship’s hull hovered above us. “Someday,” I said. Then, after Havamal took a deep breath and anxiety clouded his eyes, I amended. “Someday soon. But first, I have to help someone else get home.”
Epilogue
The salt and wind whipped through my hair as I dangled off the ship’s bow. A green coast loomed ahead, framed by jagged rocks and a beach of sparkling sand. Flowers bloomed across the landscape. Trees taller than our mast dotted the hills beyond, and a flock of miniature polar bears grazed beneath them, bleating to one another. After a lifetime spent in the monochromatic world of the arctic, the riot of color nearly stole my breath.
Ragna rode the dragon’s head behind me; a smile spread wide across her face.
“Look at that farmland!” A jubilant boy’s voice shouted from above. “Have you ever seen somewhere so green?”
I took Ragna’s hand and gave it a little squeeze. For the past few days, she’d been growing more and more restless, waiting for the sight of land. I had spent nearly every waking moment above deck, taking in sights and smells I’d never imagined, relishing the might of the waves and the beauty of the ship that could take us anywhere.
Ragna tilted her face to the wind as she took in the smell of the coast and the blast of fresh air. Her cheeks were flushed, and her eyes were brighter than I’d ever seen them. Ocean spray washed over us as the ship crested over a frothing wave. Even the sea felt better here, where the salt in the water was diluted by frequent rain. The spray was a familiar caress against my wind-chapped skin. She kissed the top my hair. I sighed with pleasure and rested against her knees.
The freedom of the open ocean embraced us.
What we had might not be forever, but it was now, and it was everything I needed.
The End
Acknowledgments