The Girl the Sea Gave Back(64)

I looked past him to see Tova, standing with her bow lifted and her fingers curled around the next arrow’s fletching. She snatched the knife from the belt of the fallen Svell at her feet, tossing it into the air, and the blade sank into the ground beside me. I rolled to the side, taking the knife into my hands, and drove it back to catch the Svell swinging at Fiske. He cried out, falling forward, and I rolled back up onto my knees, sinking the blade into his side.

When I looked back over my shoulder, Tova was gone.

Another body bolted in my direction as I yanked the blade free and I fell onto my back, lifting the knife as he came down, and it cut into him, finding the soft place below his breastbone. He landed on top of me and I looked up as two shadows slid over the ground. Fiske and Eelyn stood over me, fighting back to back. I shoved the body off of me and got to my feet. The forest was covered in fighting clansmen, their screaming muted by the roar of the storm above us.

Iri tossed my axe into the air and I caught it, using the momentum of his throw to catch a Svell woman in the arm as she reared back for a blow with her sword. She stumbled to the side and I came back with the other hand, cutting into the opening of her armor vest with the knife.

She fell as Myra appeared behind her, blood smeared across her face like war paint. She jerked her chin to the right and I turned with the axe lifted, snapping it back before sinking it into another man’s chest.

Behind him, Vigdis was pulling his sword from the body of a Nādhir, his pale face dripping cold rain.

I threw my weight forward, running as I pulled the Svell sword from my sheath. He pivoted as the blade came down and the blow missed, catching the handle instead. I flung it back, swinging again, and the corner grazed his neck. A trail of blood spilled down over his throat, soaking into his tunic. He pressed the heel of one hand into it to stanch the bleeding and brought the sword back up, charging toward me. I caught hold of his arm, swinging him around me, and we both fell, slamming into the wide trunk of a tree.

The sword left my hand and I scrambled to my feet, coming over him before he could stand. I kicked into his side and he fell back down, groaning as he rocked onto his back, panting.

He looked up at me, his hand still pressed to the bleeding wound.

I picked up the axe, looking into his eyes. I wanted him to know it was me. I wanted him to take the memory with him to the afterlife. For the shame of it to follow him for eternity. I lifted the axe over my head, ready to bring it down, and as I pulled the breath into my chest, I froze.

The sound of a scream cut through the chaos, finding me. A voice I knew.

Eelyn.

I spun around, searching the tangle of bodies for her. She was on the ground, a Svell woman bringing her sword up with both hands.

“No!” I screamed, running as every light in the forest flickered out, only the sound of Eelyn’s cries echoing in my head.

The sword came down as Eelyn bucked and it sank into her shoulder, piercing through her flesh and finding the earth. She howled, taking the woman’s hair into her fist as she lifted the sword again. I took a wide step, raising the axe above my head, and threw it, my fingers sliding from the wet handle with my heart in my throat.

The sword dropped from her hand as she lurched backward and she looked down with wide eyes at the axe buried in her chest.

Eelyn sat up, taking the knife from the grass behind her and driving it into her side.

The woman dropped, sliding in the mud, and I got down onto my knees, pulling Eelyn into me.

“I’m alright,” she said, but the words were broken on the growl in her throat. The opening in her shoulder was wide, the blood flowing in a steady stream down her armor. Her face was already going white.

Her arms wrapped around my neck as I lifted her from the ground and I set her back on her feet before I shoved her forward, toward an opening in the line. Behind us, Fiske and Iri were taking down a Svell and Myra was running back into the fray.

I turned in a circle, searching for the Nādhir leathers. The ground was already covered in bodies, the Svell scattered in every direction. The clearing was illuminated with lightning behind us, where the rest of our warriors waited.

But when I turned back, Vigdis was gone.





CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE


TOVA


A crack of lightning lit the sky as I pulled the bow from my shoulders and ran. The deep groan of the storm rolling in from the sea unleashed the rain and it fell in thick sheets as everyone took off.

I threw one foot in front of the other as warriors passed me, their weapons raised in the air, and I pulled an arrow from my back, nocking it in one motion. I found the first Svell in my sights in the distance and let it fly. My feet slid to a stop and the Nādhir ran around me like a stone in the river. I watched the arrow pull up into the air before it tipped back down and struck the woman in the chest. She fell back, the sword flying from her hand, and the two men behind her crashed to the earth.

I turned in a circle, searching for Halvard, but he was gone, lost in the horde that filled the forest.

Everything blurred and smeared in the haze as I wiped the rain from my eyes, the sound of war cries exploding in every direction. The storm billowed in from the sea, stronger every second. When I spotted an outcropping of boulders in the distance, I ran for it. My boots splashed in the mud as I wound around tangled clansmen, headed for the buried, moss-covered rocks. A man locked eyes with me as I passed, lunging for me, and I swung the bow back, catching him in the jaw with its end. His head whipped to the side and he faltered before a Nādhir barreled into him and they both fell, skidding over the pine needles.