“Obviously!The child will be a friend of the king.Of course, there were will be strong people around.”
“Yes Jorn, tell us more.The good stuff.The drama!”chimed Hrund.
“All children are important.This one is no exception.They are important for many reasons, but there is one act they will commit that will tie together looseskaels… the last piece in a great plan of the gods…”
Tie together, I thought, enjoying the phrase.Enjoying the idea that this child may have tied me and Fell together.Perhaps I would have been strong enough to leave him and go home.But now…
“I want stone in your answer!Not mist!”
Jorn sighed.“There is something that many people desire.Great, strong people.Mostly masculine people in the group I see.But somehow, this thing becomes lost.They look for years—or maybe they are already looking now.I cannot see that… but it will be this child who finds it.They will succeed where many powerful people have failed.”
I could tell by the fervour in King Arik’s voice that his eyes were shiny with enthusiasm.“Is it a treasure?Who are the seekers?”
Jorn shifted in his chair, the wood squeaking a little.“Some will call it a treasure, others a curse.I do not recognize the seekers, apart from one.”
I studied Jorn’s face, trying to discern what I heard in his voice.He looked uninterested.
The king smirked.“One of them is me?”
Jorn nodded.
Fell was grinning, but he hardened his voice.“Jorn, stop throwing wood on the fire!Look at him!He is almost rabid.No more talk of treasure.”
“Yes,” I said.“No more.You need only say, ‘This will be a quiet child.One who listens to their parents.’”
Jorn looked almost irritated that I’d spoken.
I narrowed my eyes, trying to understand his expression, but I couldn’t.I’d done nothing…
“Jorn ismood-filledas of late,” I said to Fell when we were alone in his chamber.In Islish, there was the wordmoody,which implied darker moods, but Norsern didn’t have a word for this, so I’d gotten creative.
Fell shrugged, pulling his tunic off over his head, his tattooed chest still a marvel to me.“Jorn is allowed to be mood-filled.”
“Yes, but it is annoying, no?”It wasn’t just Jorn who had me irritated.Fell’s chamber was beginning to fill with gifts from King Arik’s courtiers, most of which we hadn’t yet explored or discussed.The disorder was getting to me.I didn’t want so many loose things stacked against the walls.I wanted the clean, dim space I’d found the night Fell and I were together for the first time.
But the wind chimescan stay,I thought.Fell had hung them before the open window, and the sound was perfect to my ears.
“It is understandable,” Fell said, flopping onto the bed.
“Is it?Everyone else has been pleasant enough?—”
“You have been named Norsen, right in front of his face.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”I climbed onto the bed with him, so tired I couldn’t imagine our conversation going on for more than a few phrases.
“He is stillsoter.He has been in the Land of the Northernmost Star for years.You are now more free than he is.If he feels annoyed, it is his right.”Fell also sounded exhausted.His eyes were closed and his breath slow.How I loved the tide of his breathing.
We chatted a little more, saying half of what we meant in tiredness before Fell was deeply asleep.
I, however, couldn’t sleep.I couldn’t stop thinking of Jorn.Beingvaneruigkhad my emotions storming.He feels trapped in his life, I decided.It was a pain I knew well, one that stirred me.In my inability to sleep, I grew thirsty (because my condition had me endlessly thirsty), and when I’d finished all the tea set beside the bed, I rose to seek more.
Fell woke instantly.“You need something?”
“No,” I whispered, realizing I was hungry as well as thirsty.“I will just have a little broth, I think.”
I pulled woollen socks on in the dark and wrapped myself in one of the many lovely blankets we’d been gifted, stepping into the hall and shutting the door behind me as quietly as I could.Gerd was curled up on a large cushion in an alcove in the hall.
“Are you hungry?”she stirred, her eyes barely open.
