Sky in the Deep(74)

FORTY-SIX


I pushed harder into each step and picked up my pace, pumping my arms at my sides as we flew across the valley on foot. Behind us, the Herja followed in a chaotic mass. Ahead, the Riki waited in Hylli.

Fiske and Iri waited.

I measured my breaths carefully, my eyes toward the sea. I could smell it on the wind. The smell of home. It found its way around me, driving me forward. It carried me.

The sound of the Herja grew behind us and the sword swinging from my hip was beginning to bruise my leg. But I ran faster. I pushed harder. I dug down deep and found her again. The Eelyn who had fought and survived more times than she could count.

I rooted out every memory of battle and replayed them in my mind. Iri, by my side, an axe in each hand. Myra, running before me, a roar in her throat. I reminded myself of who I was—an Aska warrior who’d lost everything. A girl with fire in her blood. I told her to keep running.

They moved in fast, gaining on us. The scorched rooftops of Hylli came into view and a whistle echoed over the hills. The Aska cut sharply right toward the cliffs where seabirds hovered, gliding on the wind. I let my head fall back, trying to find the last of my strength to take me a little farther.

We didn’t slow. We flew toward the drop-off, where the blue sky met the rock in a hard line and the water churned white foam below. The momentum of the hour’s run carried us toward it. My clansmen disappeared over the edge in front of me as I spotted heads popping up from their places in the village. Archers. The first arrows hissed through the air, soaring over us in an arc as Myra and I reached the cliff.

We counted our steps, throwing our weight forward as the ground slanted down in front of us, and I landed on my side, sliding down feet first with my hand dragging out behind me. My body glided over the loose rock until the cliff cut out from under us and then we were falling. The wind whipped around me and I straightened my body, my hand clamped down over my sword at my side, and I sucked in a breath, filling my lungs as the jeweled blue of the sea came closer.

I hit the water, the surface slamming into me hard. Bubbles raced up around me in wavering trails as more bodies fell into the water and I broke the surface, looking for Myra. She drifted toward the shore, struggling to carve through the water with one arm. I kicked toward her, my lungs burning and the cold water seizing my fatigued muscles.

I broke back through to the air, pulled in every direction by the current. Myra dragged herself onto the rocks, slumped over as more Aska slid over the cliff above and dropped into the water. In a few moments, it would be Herja coming down around us. Near the village, the dock reached out over the water and I scanned the faces, looking for Fiske and Iri. When I found them, their eyes were already on me. They stood, waiting to pick off the Herja in the water one by one. I let out a long breath at the sight of them before I ordered my thoughts back into line. The sharp corner of a rock scraped across my back as I clawed my way onto shore to where Myra was trying to get to her feet.

“Myra!” I called to her and she dropped to her knees, clutching her arm.

She looked up at me with a pale face. “It’s out. My arm.”

I knelt beside her, pulling the shield off and reaching beneath the armor vest to feel the bones in her shoulder. My fingers pressed until they found the soft indentation at the top of the arm and she cringed, moaning. She was right. It was dislocated. I pulled my knife free and cut the fasteners of the armor vest beneath her arm. There was no time. I yanked it over her head and she arched her back, crying out.

The Aska climbed up out of the water around us, headed toward the village. I sat back, fitting the heel of my boot into the ribs under her arm as the waves crashed around us.

I took her wrist into both hands, meeting her eyes, and waited for her nod. She sucked in a breath. “Go!”

I slowly leaned my weight back, carefully pulling the arm as she growled deep in her chest. I waited for the joint to slide back into place, keeping my grip on her tight and even. It popped and Myra’s eyes shot open as she gasped. She looked over me, her eyes going wider.

“Eelyn!”

I let go of her, finding my knife in the sand. A Herja woman was coming toward us, her legs kicking up the water as she ran. I sprang up from the ground and threw my body into hers, taking her down under the water. She struggled against me until I shoved the knife blade into her stomach and the water turned red around us as her blood spilled out. Her body was picked up by the next wave and I looked up to see more Herja falling over the cliff, some with arrows sticking out of them. They fell into the water like boulders, arms flailing and legs kicking.

Myra was already on her feet when I made it back to the beach. I worked fast, picking her scabbard up from the rocks before I slung it over her head and tightened it diagonally across her chest so that it held her arm in place. I shoved the sword into her other hand and we ran toward Hylli as more Herja plunged into the sea.

Another swarm of arrows soared overhead, hitting their marks behind us, and we found the smooth part of the beach that led up to the ritual house. My eyes went back to the dock. It was still covered with Riki, but I couldn’t see Fiske and Iri anymore. We moved toward the main path that led through the village and the Herja that didn’t follow us over the cliff came down the hill, just like my father had planned.

Another whistle sounded and the first line of Riki pushed toward them. They met on the slope in a loud crash and Myra and I darted through the abandoned houses, headed for the bare ground where the ritual house once stood. The Herja would push in. And we would be there to meet them.