“There is nothing you can offer me,” Ragan said.“To put my crew at such a risk.”
“Not even?—”
“On land you are my king, but at sea, I am your captain.I will have no questioning this.”
“It is a short journey,” Arik protested.
“It will drive the crew mad, and they will be dull when they should be sharp, and I will have to explain to their mothers that I did not bring them all home again because a baby had kept them awake the evening before they were to raid.”
Arik was almost pouting like a child.“I have not said we are raiding, and he is relatively quiet for a baby?—”
This was a complete lie.I knew it and, if everyone else didn’t, they soon figured it out because Halvar began crying at that very moment.
Arik’s captain pressed his lips together firmly with his brows raised as Halvar made his point for him.
The king glared at me as if I had any say in how loudly Halvar wailed.I was bouncing him as he liked, but that day he didn’t like it enough it seemed.And honestly, I was rather hoping Arik would simply sigh and say, “Fine!”and leave without us.Instead, he said, “Hemring—you will take them.”
A man with skin as dark as night and hair white as the moon, laughed one short burst and then said.“Absolutely not.Not just one recentlysotern,” he pointed at me and then Rowan, “But two?You are trying to sink my ship.”
“How can he tell?”Rowan said, frowning.
“Oh, do not think on it,” Fara said, laughingaefl, the way Norsern did when they were protecting someone they love from a truth that person wouldn’t like.
“Truly, I would like to know?—”
Several Norsern laughed.
“Valya?”Arik’s eyes darted through the crowd for the woman I only vaguely remembered from my fever all those moons ago.
“Sorry, Arik.We are full up.”
“You are not.”
“We are.We have taken three first-timers.I cannot have anyone else who needs close watching.”
Halvar screeched as the summer sun beat down on the docks.This was the longest I had left him out in direct sun, and I was worried he was too hot.He felt sticky.
Many in the crowd were laughing at the obvious outcome of the debate.But from among the rumble came a voice.“You are some of the strongest raiders from across the Land of the Northernmost Star, yet you fear the cry of a babe!”
Heads turned.
I remembered the voice but couldn’t place it for a moment, not until the crowd parted for the red-haired man with gleaming yellow-green eyes.“I will take them, Arik.I have room for a few more.”
“Flojer!”Arik tossed his hands up into the air.“You beautiful, thirsty bastard!”He rushed forward and took Flojer’s face in both his hands and kissed him.“You never fail to amaze me.”
“I will remind you of that next time you are annoyed with me.”
“You will have your pick of raiding spots when the next raid occurs.I swear it before all my raiders, the crew I row with, my own captain, and the many other captains here.Flojer Cairnminded is a true Norser, a true captain, a true friend to the king!”
Flojer scrunched his nose.“I am servant to Hyrold.Nothing more or less.”
“And Hyrold wants my will done?”Arik grinned playfully.
Flojer nodded.“He appreciates grand thinking.”
Though I had only experienced a few moments with Hyrold, I felt certain Flojer’s words were perfectly true.They described a quality to the voice I had felt but hadn’t been able to name.Hyrold did love grand thinking, grand acting… even grand wishing.And the statement left me certain that Flojer had encountered Hyrold before in the way that I had.Not just paying close attention to the wind as other Norsern did—but he’d heard Hyrold’s voice or felt it or something of the sort.That made us somewhat the same.
Captain Flojer glanced over at me then.His eyes widened playfully, and his smile grew more mischievous.“On board then with the lot of you.I will not be the last ship to leave port.”
