Bile threatened to rise in my throat because I knew… I knew Arik wouldn’t say such a thing unless… “Where is he?”
“He is fine, Gentlewoman.Flojer has handed him over to my charge?—”
Something curdled inside me, and I took a step back, trembling.I whined.“No.No.I must see him now.”I wiped at my forehead.Ice-cold hands touching skin as hot as fire.“I cannot help you unless I see him.”It was where Ivar and Eydis had gone, I knew it.Flojer had asked to keep Halvar aboard.He’d known…
“Gentlewoman, calm.Do you not trust that I will do as I say?That I will keep you safe while we are away?That Halvar will?—”
There was a groan and a choke just outside the tent.A hefty thump.A grimace-sound from a voice I knew well…
My heart stopped.
The world grew slow, like in a dream.
Blood rushed into my ears, drowning out all sound except the thudding of my heart.
Thump.
Silence.
Thump.
Silence.
I turned my head in time to see King Arik draw his sword.I saw each detail—each increment of the whole movement.A man burst into the tent.
Fell.
Blood-soaked.
Eyes all rage.
Animal and grotesque and entirely unlike himself.
Ugly.
How much it confused my mind to see him seem so ugly.
Thump.
Fell pointed his blood-slick axe at Arik, screaming something I couldn’t decipher in the slowness.
Silence.
Arik shouted something back, tossing his sword to the ground, refusing to fight.
Thump.
A hand pulled on my wrist.I looked over to find Yarlav.Flojer’s son?
Silence.
Yarlav tugged me away, out the tent flap to the bright, white beach.The sun blazed into my skull, blinding me for a moment.
“No!”I shouted, but my voice didn’t come—or maybe it did, only my ears couldn’t hear it?
I tugged my arm back.“Fell!”I cried.“Go get Halvar!”
Yarlav’s mouth moved, and I knew he was yelling something at me, but I couldn’t understand it.I jerked my arm back, trying to get away.He’s taken Halvar away from me.I had to get to Halvar.
