I was incapable of thinking.My father was dead, and I felt dreamy.Hadn’t I just been wishing I would see Dayne again?Hadn’t I been crying for fear that I wouldn’t?“They’re coming here?”
“Yes, Gentlewoman.The sea dogs will be made to pay.Keep strong.This nightmare will be over soon.”
The world spun around me as I tried to order my feelings—which emotion should come first, which second.“Rowan… listen… you mustn’t fight.Remain calm.They will?—”
“I cannot obey the heretic demons.”
“But you must obey me, yes?”There was something familiar yet novel in my voice.Was it Dayne I was mimicking?Or King Arik?“I am the closest thing to your sworn Grainkeeper, am I not?”
Rowan grimaced.
I raised my chin high.“I have been here longer than you.I understand some of it.I will cry for my father”—Already my throat seemed to be closing—“And then we will make a plan for you.If you do not hurt them, they will not hurt you.Come with me.”
Rowan did obey that, but hesitantly, his eyes flicking to those around us, to Fell, who stood far closer to me than prescription allowed.
A rower with golden hoops woven through his long braid stepped forward.“Soten, can you tell thesoterto continue to calm?He needs dry clothing, a fire, and a meal.”
I nodded.“Yes, Rowan.He asks me to tell you to keep calming.He wants you to eat and wear dry clothing.To sit by a fire.”
“He is a demon,” Rowan said.“He is tricking you.”
“No, Rowan, come, here.”I turned to the Norser who’d spoken, the one with the golden hoops woven into his hair.“He does not trust your words.I will take him to eat and?—”
“No,Soten, he is not safe.He cut Faerin’s arm off on the row.Chopped it right off.”
“She is notsoten,” Fell said.
I frowned and turned to Rowan.“Did you cut a man’s arm off?”
“Gentlewoman, let us not speak of violence?—”
“Did you?”
“They ransacked the kepen, Gentlewoman, they took me and slaughtered?—”
“The kepen?”
“Yes, Gentlewoman?—”
My mind fluttered like my head was full of birds.“I must see the king,” I managed, my body struggling suddenly to keep the air in my lungs long enough to actually breathe it.I took Rowan’s wrist, meaning to bring him with me, but the gold-hooped Norser growled.“Soten, I will keep him.He needs to be set in a room where he can do no harm.He may strike a child or burn down a home… he is a wild one.”
“She is notsoten,” Fell said again.
“He must obey me,” I said to the Norser.“It is too much to explain now.It has to do with my father and his work back in our country.He will do no harm while he is with me.”
The man shook his head.“That may be useful later, but I am his Norser.I must protect him.He could slay someone… that would make it difficult to protect?—”
“He is nosoter,” I said.“He does not wish to be.”
“That is not how it works,” the man said.
“I am friends with the king,” I said, my voice rounding as it had when I’d explained why Rowan must obey me.I took a step toward the Norser, looking up at him, performing fearlessness as I had seen so many Norsern do, even though my heart pattered in my chest.Even though nausea stirred in my stomach.“I am friends with Hallbjern the wrestler.You will regret challenging anything I say.”There was a pleasure in the words I cannot describe—to declare that I would hold firm… regardless of what may be coming… Fell was to my side—I felt his fingers twitch as he readied himself.
The man grinned.“King Arik knows as well as any Norsern, a raider must obey their captain at sea, not their king.Kaker asked for him.As many blacksmiths, fletchers, and leatherworkers dead as possible.These were his orders.I thought it a shame to kill such a strong fellow—look at the size of his arms—so I took him assoter.Maybe one day he will thank me.”
The order of emotions changed within me.I had to speak to the king, meaning I had to leave Rowan for a little time.“Where will you keep him?”
“I live in the clay district.Faller is my name.Ask anyoneSoten,and they will direct you to the house that is?—”
