Sky in the Deep(75)

The sky grayed with clouds rolling in over us and I kept my eyes on Myra. She ran with her arm pinned to her side, carrying her sword in her left hand, and when we reached our mark among the other Aska, she sunk down onto her heels, breathing through the pain.

I pushed through the bodies and came down beside her. “Alright?”

She nodded with gritted teeth. “I’m fine.”

I looked behind us, down the beach to the cove I knew lay tucked behind the rock.

When I turned back to her, she glared at me, her eyes hot as coals. “Don’t you dare say it,” she barked.

She would never forgive me for telling her to hide. I knew because I’d feel the same way. She would never retreat. Especially if I was still fighting. I pulled her up by her left arm and helped her stand beside me. She straightened, pulling in a steadying breath and steeling herself.

The Riki were tangled with the Herja on the beach. A swarm of fighting warriors covered almost every inch of ground, blades flying over heads and screams roaring up over the sound of the waves. As bodies parted, I could see the Tala, spinning around with an axe overhead. She swung, years of battle evident in the way she moved. She came over a fallen Herja and held his head up by his hair so she could slit his throat. As she stood, she flicked the blood from the blade, looking for the next one.

I held my place, waiting, and when another group of Herja came over the slope above the village, we leaned into the wind and ran for them.

I matched Myra’s pace and found my first mark. A fair-haired Herja with the deep grooves of a sword blade etched into the silver armor on his chest. When he saw me, he locked his eyes on mine, adjusting his course to collide with me. I ran straight for him, grunting as my feet hit the ground and then I pivoted, letting my axe swing over my head to propel me to the side. My feet lifted off the ground and I curled my arms in, the blade finding his hip, and then I hit the ground and rolled.

A boot caught me in the shoulder and I cried out. When I spotted him, he was lying on his back with his arms out to his sides, looking at the sky as feet ran past. I came over him, pulling my axe from his flesh, and the blood ran freely, pulling the light from his eyes.

Myra freed her sword from a body nearby, hobbling with her right side sinking. Two more warriors were headed for us. I took the shield off a body on the ground and sank into my heels, lifting my axe. I waited for the first woman to come close and crouched, toppling her. She flew over the shield and I swung my arm, my axe driving into her back.

Myra was on the ground below the other Herja. He was about to bring his sword down on her.

“No!” The panic ignited in me like the earth breaking open under us.

I jumped over the woman bleeding out on the ground and dropped the shield on top of Myra. She curled up under it and I turned to face the Herja. His sword came down between us and I lifted my axe to stop it. It caught the blade with a force that made my axe slip through my fingers, falling to the ground beside me.

The knife in his other hand swiped toward me and I tried to slide back, but the blade cut into my side, below my ribs. I looked up from the blood pouring out from beneath my vest and took my arms out wide, tackling him at the waist. We rolled until the sword left his hand. When I fell onto my back, Myra was standing over us with the shield. She lifted it up and brought it down on the man’s head with a guttural scream. His bones crunched beneath the weight of it and his body went limp next to me before I crawled to my axe.

The warriors left standing were headed to the beach, where the last group of the Herja were pinned on the rocks between the village and the water. We headed toward them. I ignored the sting at my side, the blood pumping through my body so hard that I could barely feel it. Myra took the first Herja in our way and I took the second, my eyes landing on the water, where bodies were floating, knocking into each other in an ocean of red.

Aska. Herja. A tall, broad Riki with dark hair pulled back into an unraveling knot.

The howling wind of a hole opened up inside of me and I ran into the water, grasping hold of the body and turning it over. But it wasn’t him.

I reached for another.

And another.

My heart stopped beating in my chest and I forgot the sound of the fighting around me. I forgot the smell of blood soaked into my armor. I searched frantically, turning bodies over in the water around me until a sob broke from my chest.

Myra pushed her way toward me.

“I can’t find him,” I stammered. A Herja came into view behind her and I wiped at my face to clear my vision. “Down!”

She obeyed and I pulled the knife from my belt and threw it. The blade sank into his neck. I pushed through the water and left him clutching at his throat.

“Eelyn!”

I heard his voice and everything stopped. The water. The fighting. The wind. I looked to the beach, trying to find him, but saw Iri first. He brought his axe down in an arc, landing on a Herja on the beach.

“Eelyn!”

And then I found him. Fiske stood at the water’s edge, looking at me, his chest heaving up and down. His sword hung at his side heavily, the glittering red of wet Herja blood dripping from its edge. His eyes met mine and my sword sank to my side in the water. My body suddenly felt weak. Heavy. The relief unwound every straining, aching muscle. And then his eyes changed. His lips parted, his face twisting. And I knew that look. I remembered it. From the day we saw Halvard tied to the horse, blood running from his nose.