“Njen.”I didn’t know the word, but I knew from Fell’s tone what it meant.It was the same thing I was thinking.No.This man had attacked me, mistakenly or not.He had taken me captive.Mistakenly or not.And whenever our eyes meet…The world around us felt quieter as his gaze settled on mine.Was he pitying me?No.He seemed almost like he was searching for help.You must stop looking at me, I told him in my thoughts.
His eyes went back to the king.
“The Bard King says it has been decided.Fell says he cannot.He sounds very serious—he says the king knows why he cannot.Ouu, I love a little mystery.”
King Arik sighed.
“The Bard King says it is done, and Fell says… he will name you Norsern immediately, and King Arik says… that you will have a very difficult time if this is what Fell does.That the Islish people will scorn you too, because of your birth in your home country, and anyway, he is not giving Fell a choice.”
They had been speaking quickly, staring at each other as if there was no one else in the room.Fell’s shoulders rose and settled with deep, angry breaths.
King Arik’s face was urging calm in a gentle, almost loving way… and I was confused again, because I’d thought they were arguing, and Fell had been insubordinate all evening.In my mind at that time, I figured a king would not love a subject who behaved that way.
“Fell says the king must not ask this of him.The Bard King says, ‘Would it not be better for you’—he means Fell—would it not be better for Fell to be the guardian, having seen what he’s seen?”
And then, just to make everything even less comprehensible, King Arik approached and set his hands on either side of Fell’s face, leaning in close and whispering to him as if they were the greatest of friends.Fell nodded once.Twice.
No, I thought.No, no, no.But I knew it was.Fell was agreeing to reign over me.He was obviously a heretic.He’d given me a charmed bracelet.He’d marked his skin with tattoos.He’d almost certainly slaughtered my father’s sworn swords and Loric’s.I hadn’t seen the bodies, but there was all the blood…
They embraced, and the king kissed Fell on the top of his head.
I wish he would leave forever, I thought, my breaths coming quick.
And then Fell looked over at me.He blinked once, his head tilting a little to the side.He walked out of the hall, and King Arik bid Speartooth go with him using only the nod of his head.The sea dogs in the hall seemed varying degrees of confused—many were likely too far away to have heard Fell’s responses to King Arik, though certainly they’d heard the king’s portion of the conversation because his voice sailed through the hall like a ship with the aid of favourable winds.
I looked at Jorn the Calm.The man still appeared greatly disheartened, but there was an awareness in the set of his brow that had me certain he was the only one who fully understood everything that had just happened.
Arik said something that caused a ripple of laughter through the hall, and then he came to stand by my side.“How well do you play the instrument you brought with you?”
“I…” Everyone said I played well, but what waswellto a king?“I am confused.”
The king lowered his voice.“I will explain later, but for now, would you play a song for my guests?A pretty one?”
“I will try.”
King Arik gurgled throaty words, and someone ran to fetch my lyre which I hadn’t seen since I was on the ship.
I was handed my instrument and directed to a chair pulled into the centre of the hall with a plush cushion set atop it.Not all the strings were tightened in the way I liked, leaving me sure someone had been playing with it.I twisted the bulges, strumming each string, listening for anything out of place.Dania came and sat on the floor beside me as I adjusted things.And just as my instrument became playable, and I set my hands into position, searching my mind for a song that felt close, a large man with a vibrant red beard stormed into the hall.When I say large, I don’t mean he was simply tall or broad, but he was so big it seemed as if there was something wrong with him.He spoke over the murmurs of everyone gathered.The volume had me thinking he was angry, though, if I’m being honest, all the sea dog words sounded angry to me.
The king turned and smiled at him, speaking calmly.The giant approached the king, and I felt the subtle shift in the hall.Many people had blades within reach, and my spine grew so tight my head ached.
“What’s happening?”I whispered to Dania.
“I don’t know yet… or the man who’s come, he’s demanding his captain be freed.The Bard King has him somewhere?Or no… The Bard King says he doesn’t know what the man is talking about… but that’s making the man angry, and I think… the type of laughter from The Bard King’s raiders… they’re laughinghüde—with a secret is how I would say it?”
The man yelled, and the king stayed utterly relaxed.
“He says it has been more than a half-moon—here, they count days by the moon.A full moon cycle is twenty-eight days, almost an Islish month.The tall man wants to know if his captain is being fed… The Bard King says he can join the festivities if he likes, or he may go, but he will learn nothing new about his captain in this hall.”
“The newcomer saysThe Fearsome Beast—he says it in a way I know it is a ship—will not leave Aalt without her captain.”
With that, the red-haired giant stormed back out of the hall.
King Arik looked at me as if nothing unusual had just happened.“Solemeans play.Sole.”
I took a deep breath, reaffirming to myself my need to please the king and be granted the assistance necessary to leave, and then I played the prettiest song I knew.Tears of the Mander.It was a tragic ballad about doomed young lovers, with long sections of no lyrics, just humming that was meant to be the humming of the lovers in their happiness and eventually in their grief.The sea dogs were a gentle audience, which I had not been expecting.They swayed a little as they listened and drank.
When my song was done, my gaze once more found Jorn the Calm.
