“Flee,” I said.I couldn’t let Arik near Halvar.
Yarlav’s voice lost all hint of pain.“Kaken says flee!”
Kaken.
I was captain ofThe Fearsome Beast.
Fifty
“When we are free of the king’s pursuit, where to?”Yarlav’s face was swollen, red, and blotchy.He wiped his nose on the back of his sleeve.
I blinked.The wind created by our speed was drying my eyes.Everything was so dry.
“Kaken?”
Halvar squirmed in my arms, moaning, but I continued to press him so hard against my chest that he cried.
Yarlav still had his hands on my shoulders as I trembled.I shook so much, I was scared I would drop Halvar.
Yarlav’s brow furrowed.“Kaken, we must choose a direction.”
The drums beat a smooth, fast rhythm as salty water crashed into the head of the ship.I tasted metal—the aftertaste of blood and death.Ships were still following, but each moment they seemed a little farther away, a little more like dreams than real things full of raiders and rowers and axes.
“I do not understand,” I whispered, brushing my fingers against an itch on my forehead.Then I stared at the blood on my fingers.New, red blood from my forehead.Older, crusted blood from Flojer.Yarlav’s blood was likely somewhere in the mix, too.
“What happened?”I said.
“The king’s raiders asked forKakyi.Flojer refused.”A soft-spoken man on the younger side had come forward with a damp cloth.He was moving to wipe my forehead with it, but I pulled my head back.
“Fuck!”someone shouted.“We cannot return now.”
“We can,” someone else laughed.“Only the visit will be very short, just long enough to lose our heads.”
“It is not funny!”
“It is a little.”
There was more cursing from many mouths.
“With a foreign child captain.”
“This is not so much a permanent problem.”
Yarlav stepped closer to me, shifting his shoulder in front of me.“You cannot!”
“Calm yourself, no one is going to slay her?—”
“Speak for yourself.”
My mind was made of foam.“But… Rowan and Fara…”
Yarlav turned to me.“Arik’s raiders tried to stop Fara and Kelt from returning to the ship.Fara knew something was wrong.She warned us… Rowan listened to her.He struck first.He drew them to himself.I would not have had the time to get to the king’s tent if he had not…”
I understood Yarlav’s words, but they still didn’t add up to the moment I found myself drowning in.
“I came to fetch you and Fell.Kaker told me to make sure you came back if anything went wrong.That Hyrold demanded I bring you both back… Fell and I saw the king’s raiders boardingThe Fearsome Beast.He told me to take you back to the ship as soon as it was safe.He said he would speak to the king.”
It made sense, but also it didn’t.
