Dania began to open a door of her own.
Rowan began having sex with Fara and proceeded much more quickly than I had along the path Fell had outlined for foreigners: Norsern tattoos appeared on his fingers long before I considered my first marks.He also learned Norsern words with remarkable ease—enough that people regularly commented on how quickly he was improving.People asked if he’d been a poet back home or a scribe.
King Arik drove me mad with his particulars—the stretches he wanted me to do, the way I should eat and breathe and imagine.
And no Islish fleet arrived to war against the Norsern.
Fell and I shared more of ourselves with each other, becoming less two people and more one thing.I told him of my order and the pains of my youth.He told me of his history slowly.His mother had been unhappy with her life.His father had been a fisherman.Fell believed he owed all of who he was to Arik.There was even a night when he proved his affection: someone had come for Arik, thinking to make herself king.Fell heard the shouts and ran from our bed naked, several of Arik’s raiders rushing past in the hall.The woman had marks from nine different weapons when she died.Fell’s axe was dripping when he came back to bed.
And then, Fell told me the rest of his history very quickly, on the evening he ate Fara’s mushroom gift.He’d been having a lovely time it seemed, and then he and Fara went for a walk together, far away from the pyre we had started on the beach.I could see them sitting in the grasses faded by autumn’s touch, smoking a flute together.I knew by his posture then—he was having a serious conversation.I didn’t bother him but fell asleep at the fireside.Dania’s youngest, Layf, was curled up against me until his mother took him home.
I woke when Fell returned to the pyre and lay beside me.His cold hands found their way into my tunic, resting on my waist, and I yelped from the shock of it, before closing my arms tight against my sides to help warm him and wiggling to get even closer to him, pressing the chill tip of my nose into his chest.
“What kept you?”I said, my eyes still closed.“I am terribly cold and have had no one to hold for at least an hour.”When I opened my eyes, his face was so solemn it hurt to see.“What has happened?”
He shrugged.“I told Fara of meeting King Arik, and she has put the last stitch in my wounds.I am a little sore, but she is a powerful healer.I wanted to be ready for the child…”
My voice was the murmuring of someone half asleep.“You tell Fara before you tell me?”
He smiled so beautifully.“Once I tell you, you will love Arik as much as I do.And you will be trapped, forever beholden to him as I am.”
“You forget I am a cold foreigner,” I said.
He snorted.“It might make you sad, as well.”
I brushed his cheeks with my hands.“I want to know everything about you,” I said.
He turned to kiss one of my palms and spoke into my hand.“Ah… well… when I was maybe twelve?I do not know my true age, as you know, but this is Arik’s guess, and he is good at guessing ages?—”
“You are meandering,” I said, pulling my hands away from his face, back into the furs where they could hide from the chill.“You do not want to tell me.”
“No, I do… or I would like you to know, but maybe I would not like to tell you myself.”
I smirked.“Should I ask Arik?”
“No.He will tell it too grand and colourful.”
I huffed, and Fell laughed.
“Fine.But it is not happy until the end, hmm?”
I nodded.I’d certainly told Fell enough sad stories.
“Arik’s first order as king was about me.When you become king of the Norsern, you travel from village to village to introduce yourself and battle with anyone who wishes to challenge you, and Arik is special because he does the tour every few years.But the first year he did it, he came to my village—Gittenurg, in the mountains—I will take you one day, if you would like.It was myskaelthat I was to be put to death on the day Arik came?—”
“What?”
He laughed.“You are so impatient.I promise, I am telling the full tale.I had committed a very serious crime?—”
“But there are almost no crimes in the north?—”
“Yes, but there are some.I had killed a man?—”
“This is not a crime here.”
“Ah, not if the killing came about during a fair fight.This was not fair.I had killed him while he slept?—”
My heart started to race.I sat up.“What are you saying?”
