The Girl the Sea Gave Back(40)

I looked up into his face, realizing that was what I was doing. I was helping him. Because it was one life I could save. I was suddenly overcome with a desperate need to be sure he didn’t die. “Go,” I whispered.

He looked at me for a long moment, swallowing hard. And in the next breath, he turned, disappearing into the trees.

I faced the village, stilling the shaking of my hands as I marched back through the gate, to the path. I searched the bodies on the ground until I found a man in a Nādhir armor vest lying facedown with long, dark hair. I took a deep breath before I rolled him over, looking down into his face. He was older than Halvard, but he’d have to do. I was out of choices. I was out of time.

I planted my feet before him, pushing every thought from my mind, the weight of the cool axe blade heavy in my open hand. The careful rendering of a yew tree branch was engraved into the shining steel and it glimmered in the faint light of the fires still burning. I pulled in a breath, my eyes fixed on the night sky. And when I lifted the axe over my head, I conjured every dark shadow within me. Every withered thing within my perishing soul. I gave myself over to that darkness. And with the cold, unbeating heart of the dead heavy in my chest, I brought the blade down.





2 YEARS AGO



Village of Liera, Svell Territory

Tova made it to Bekan’s home on the hill only moments before the sun rose over the village of Liera. Her cloak was heavy and damp with the mist that whirled through the air as she’d walked the paths of the forest. But it was the uneasy ache in her stomach that made her steps falter. It had been six days since Bekan’s daughter, Vera, had been bedridden with fever. And if Jorrund had summoned Tova, she must have taken a turn for the worse in the night.

She stopped before the door and drew a steadying breath before she lifted her hand to knock. Footsteps hit the floorboards inside as shadows reached across the ground in the amber light. The latch lifted and Jorrund’s face appeared as the door opened, but the look on his face already held the answer she’d been called to give.

Tova lifted up onto her toes to peer over his shoulder, where Vera was tucked onto a cot beside the fire. Her gaunt face left her eyes looking hollow, one small hand set on top of the furs. Tova couldn’t help but think of the tiny baby girl who’d spent her days cradled in Bekan’s arms and the memory brought the sting of hot tears to her eyes.

She wound a finger around the string beneath the tunic and pulled, feeling the bite at the back of her neck. Bekan stood over his daughter, his armor gone and his clothes wrinkled. Even his braids were unraveling down his back, the darkness clinging beneath his eyes. He hadn’t slept in days.

Jorrund took hold of Tova’s arm and pulled her inside without a word, clearing the table and unrolling the pelt. Bekan didn’t look up at her as she took the rune stones from around her neck and opened the purse. Vera’s eyes weren’t quite closed, only slits of reflection lighting in them. But her mouth hung open, her chest rising and falling with a slow but labored breath.

Tova didn’t need to cast the stones to know what fate was carved into the Tree of Urer for her. And she couldn’t help but think again that the Spinners were cruel. Bekan had already lost his wife and now he would lose his only child.

Jorrund set a bundle of herbs into the fire pit and the smoke billowed as the healer sank down beside the cot, wiping at Vera’s face. Her blond, straight hair was slicked back, falling over the edge of the cot like a curtain.

Tova clenched her hands to keep them from shaking before she poured the stones into her palm. Vera had been one of the only souls in Liera to be kind to her. One of the only Svell to not mutter threats as she passed or leave cursed charms at her door. And now, the Spinners would take even that from her.

She whispered the words on a hoarse breath, the pain in her stomach sharpening.

“Eye of the gods, give me sight.”

The words rolled off her tongue as she closed her eyes, finding Vera’s face in the center of her mind. Her elk-skin armor perfectly smooth, the shine of her sword at her hip. The vision felt real, and Tova wondered if it was Vera’s spirit, already pulling away from her weak body. Her gray eyes looked back at Tova, the neat braids tightly pleated against her scalp.

The stones dropped to the pelt from Tova’s slick fingers and she suddenly felt Bekan’s gaze on her. When she looked back at him, she saw something new in his eyes. The emptiness that sank into the shadows of Vera’s had found its way into Bekan’s and the flicker of light made him look like a corpse. His stare bored into her, dead and brittle, and beneath it, she could see that he hated her. That he was disgusted by her. Because just as Tova didn’t need to look at the stones to know, he didn’t need to hear her say it.

And Tova lost not one ally that night, but two.

Village of Hylli, Nādhir Territory

Halvard stood over the deer, pulling the arrow from where it had struck between its ribs. Its black, shining eye looked up at him, reflecting the sky overhead, and he ran a hand down the arch of its neck, over its shoulder as he muttered a prayer of thanks.

It had taken hours to stalk the deer, and he’d spent most of the night crouched in the tall reeds that encircled the meadow, but he’d finally been able to take the single shot before the sun rose up over the trees. The light caught the dew on the blades of grass as he took it up onto his shoulders and started the walk back toward Hylli.