“That is what Ivar said?—”
“Ivar has strong senses.”
The wind surged, and the entire world swayed.My hair rushed forward toward the pool, my dress as well.
“Ha!Hyrold speaks, too!He says, ‘Get in the water already.’”
While I had no belief at all that the wind was a god named Hyrold, I had to admit that—by chance—it hadlookedlike the wind was pulling me to the spring.I am so unafraid, I thought, bewildered by the idea.Mira from five months ago would have been trembling wildly if she were so close to water.Had I grown used to the sea because of King Arik’s palace?Or was the hot pool so much less threatening than the sea that I had been gentled toward it?Was it Fell’s presence that made something so terrifying seem so sturdy?Was I under some spell?Yes to all of these, I think.And, looking back, I also think I had some of King Arik’s determination left within me after reading for him.I hadn’t yet learned how to barricade myself during readings.
And because Fell was still smiling at me, and this made me into something I wasn’t, or perhaps removed some of what I was not, so I could be more of what I was?I unlaced my boots, pulling one off and then the other, my toes attacked my the cold.
“Ah!”Fell grinned that terrible grin of his.“The goddess determines to enter the spring!”
I glared at him.“You must not call me that.It is very…illegalin my country.”
Did he like me telling him what to do?It appeared that way.
“And,” I said.“I am not coming in fully.I will just put in my legs.”
My heart pattered nervously as I edged even closer to the water, but the moment my cloak was tucked beneath me so the cold of the stones surrounding the spring wouldn’t freeze me, and my feet and legs felt the spring’s warmth, my nerves settled.
Fell swam away a little and then hovered, watching me, suddenly very serious.
I rolled my eyes, which I don’t think I’d ever done before.“What?”
“Odae asks me about you.I have so little to tell.I say to her that I think your heart is broken.”
“Well, you can also tell her that I said you do not know anything about me, so you cannot be trusted on the matter.”That was good,I told myself.Be a little mean to him always, that way he cannot know…
He laughed, and it stirred my marrow.
“Odae asks how you are finding her work.”
I didn’t say,I’ve noticed nothing, though I did feel marvellously relaxed as I had missed bathing in hot water terribly.I said, “It is too soon to know.”
“I feel her quickly, but some medicine works slow.Look—” he stood on the far side of the pool, more of his torso rising above the steaming water than I felt capable of dealing with.He rotated his arm in a wide circle, bringing it high above his head.“See?I could not do that without pain even an hour ago.My shoulder-turn, see?”He stopped.“Has Arik been teaching you medicine words?”
“Uhh…”
“The words for hidden parts of the body.He does this with his favourites.”
The king had taught me the word for the socket where the leg bone connects with the hip.The word for the trap door in the back of the throat that moves depending on whether you’re eating or breathing.The word for the passage between the nose and the mouth, where he said sickness often comes first and leaves last.
I nodded.“Some.”
“Ah, he does adore you then.”Fell lowered his body back into the water and pushed off the side of the pool, giving my mind some respite, but not much.“Arik made me learn them all before I raided with him.So if I got hurt, I could tell him exactly which part needed medicine.He would not even let me be fearless until I had.”
He was swimming closer to me, so I was only half listening.How close would he come?I was an absolute shipwreck.I need to go, I thought.But what I said was, “Fearless?”
“Yes… what I am doing now.”
“You are being unafraid right now?”
“No… or… this is an Egil-question.”He stopped swimming, grabbing a tree root to the eastern side of the pool.He grinned, and the smile quickly transformed into laughter when his eyes met mine.“I see the…yes, this is—ha!This is confusing.No need to glare at me.I did not decide how words work.”
The muscle between his neck and his shoulder held my focus, especially with his arm raised above his head, holding the tree root… I looked down at my legs.
“Fearless means being unafraid, like you have said it, but it also means what I am doing now—” he pushed off and swam to the west side of the pool.“Moving through the water, not touching the earth beneath.Understand?”
