Sky in the Deep(61)

My father pushed through and I reached out for him when I saw the look on his face. But he broke from my grip, going for Fiske.

“Aghi.” I ran after him, trying to stand in his path, but he was too strong. My boots slid on the sand as he pushed forward.

He took Fiske’s armor vest in his clutches, slamming him back into the wall. A growl erupted between his lips as he pulled his sword from its sheath.

I wedged myself between them, my back pushing into Fiske’s chest and my hands pressing against my father. “Don’t!”

His breath was angry in his chest, the hatred in his eyes shining.

Espen appeared behind him with his axe in his hand. “What is he doing here?”

“Listen, please,” I said, Fiske breathing against me. The tension in his body radiated out of him and bled through my armor vest. “He’s not here to fight. He helped me get off the mountain.”

My father took a step back. “What is he doing here, Eelyn?” He echoed Espen’s words, but they were bloodthirsty in my father’s mouth.

“The Riki…” I tried to get it out. But I could see in their faces they were all waiting for the chance to rip Fiske to pieces. “They’ve all been raided. Like Hylli.”

The crowd went silent, the Aska turning toward each other. Espen lowered his axe, setting it against his leg, and looked to my father. They didn’t know.

“The Herja came to Fela. The village suffered losses, but not as many as others did. I saw M?or before I came here. It’s almost gone.”

“They’ll come back to finish us.” My father turned to Espen.

His eyes were on the sand, thinking. “We’ve had scouts running to their camp. They’re at least eight hundred.”

My stomach dropped.

“They have a group raiding on the mountain. At least fifty of them after their losses.” Every head snapped up at the sound of Fiske’s voice.

Espen bit his lip. He turned and the crowd opened up to let him through. “Bring him.”

We followed, weaving through the Aska. They snarled and spit at Fiske as we passed, curses riding under their breath. When we made it out from under the overhang, I finally looked up. The cliff came over the sandy bank sharply, like a roof, and the water ran past in a fast, white-capped current. We followed the rock wall until we reached a line of huts made of bowed branches and grassy tops. Fire pits sat beside each one, dug out of the sand, and the howling wind hit the wall with the smell of mud and wet stone.

Espen stood with my father and the village leaders in front of a large wooden table at the end of the small bank, waiting.

“How many Aska are left?” I’d been dreading the answer.

My father looked as if he didn’t want to respond in front of Fiske, his eyes skipping between us. “Two hundred and ninety able to fight from all the villages. How many Riki?”

I looked at Fiske. The number was low. Too low. All those Aska. Gone.

He met my eyes. “We aren’t sure. When we left, the other village leaders hadn’t come together yet. I would say a little less than three hundred from Fela and M?or together. Maybe five hundred including the other villages’ survivors.”

My father’s eyebrows lifted in surprise.

“Are you speaking for the Riki then?” Espen leaned into the table.

Fiske relaxed a little, still keeping an eye on the shadows down the bank. “I am. The Riki leaders want you to join with them to fight the Herja.”

Espen and my father looked at each other.

“They are too many for you and too many for us. But together, we may be able to win.”

“And then?” Espen crossed his arms over his broad chest.

“That’s for you to figure out with the Riki. I’m not a leader.”

“Then why did they send you?” My father’s fists rested before him on the table. “How do we know we can trust you?”

“You don’t.” I stepped forward, meeting my father’s eyes. “The same way they don’t know they can trust us. But we need each other. If we don’t come together, our people are finished. Our way of life is gone.”

They were quiet.

“I saw Hylli,” I added quietly. “We don’t have a choice.”





THIRTY-NINE


The men questioned Fiske well into the night and it was a long time before they finished talking. I could see that he was uncomfortable giving them the answers they wanted, but he gave them anyway. They were things that compromised the Riki’s defense against the Aska. Things that couldn’t be unsaid.

“I’ll go.” My father was the first to agree.

But Espen looked uncertain. “We can’t send others with you, Aghi.”

“I’ll go with them.” Myra’s eyes were pinned on me, from where she stood shoulder to shoulder with my father.

Fiske still stood apart from the rest of us, keeping his back to the cliff face. He wasn’t going to give anyone the chance to catch him off guard.

“You’ll speak for the Aska, then,” Espen agreed. “And we will meet in Aurvanger.”

I ran a hand through my hair, unsettled. For generations, we’d met in Aurvanger. The Riki and the Aska. But it was to draw each other’s blood. This time, it would be to save us all. I wondered if we could be warriors fighting alongside each other. If it would make us weaker or stronger.