by Resa Nelson
Good.
“I should help.” When Benzel shifted in an effort to stand up, Snip clung to him.
“No!” Snip said. “I can’t lose you, too.”
Benzel eased his arms around Snip and held her close. Her change of heart about leaving the island had surprised him, but now he understood.
She’s worried the monster will kill her husband. She thinks he’s walking into a death trap.
And she might be right.
But then Snip said something that changed his understanding.
“I wasn’t sure until today,” she whispered. “I’m pregnant. And now I have to protect my baby.”
CHAPTER 15
In the room where he’d slept surrounded by a dozen Scaldings, Benzel assessed how many remained. He saw no other men and counted five women, including Snip. They huddled and whispered on the other side of the room.
Benzel interrupted them. “Does anyone here know how to sail a ship?”
The women stopped and looked at him. One answered. “We all do.”
Snip slid out of his arms but remained sitting next to him on the floor.
“It seems to me,” Benzel said, “that anyone who comes to this island is going to be killed.”
“But this is our island,” another woman said. “We claimed it, and the law supports our claim. We can’t leave it for someone else to nab.”
“How many of you have died so far?” Benzel said.
The room fell silent.
Benzel continued. “As of yesterday, my count came to 30 killed so far. The ones killed in their sleep, the ones who went into the depths below the tower and disappeared, and the ones who went searching for them and never came back.” Benzel shook his head in dismay. “If you don’t go back to the mainland, you’ll all get killed.”
Sven stepped into the room. Blood covered his hands and clothes. “It happened just the way Benzel predicted. Everyone who slept in the second house from the tower is dead.”
One of the women cried out. “My sister’s family? The children, too?”
Sven gave a defeated nod. “The monster will kill us all.” He turned to Benzel. “My father is tending to the dead but told me to make you an offer. You came to Tower Island because Snip sent word to her family to ask for help. Your instincts about this monster are better than ours. You said you can kill man and beast alike. If you stay and kill the beast, half of this island is yours.”
“Benzel, no!” Snip said. Horrified, she shot an angry look at her husband. “Sven, how dare you?”
“It’s my father’s offer, not mine,” Sven said. “Don’t blame the messenger.”
Benzel considered the situation.
If anyone can kill the monster, it’s me. I’d have to keep my wits about me. It wouldn’t be easy.
I don’t like the Scaldings. Sven is the only one who doesn’t make my skin crawl.
I don’t like that Snip has married into this family. Would it be such a bad thing if Snip left and they stayed until they were all killed off?
“Half the island?” Benzel said. “I’ll accept that offer if you send Snip back to the mainland. If a Scalding succeeds in killing the monster, you owe me nothing. If I kill it, you give me half the island.”
Sven pondered Benzel’s words. “I’ll have to confirm it with my father, but I can accept your terms.”
While Snip argued with her husband, Benzel found someone willing to sail her back to the shores of the Northlands and then take her to Hidden Glen.
Before she left, Benzel took her aside. “I’ll look out for Sven,” he said.
“Truly?” Snip said with a huff. “And who will look out for you? If I’m leaving, you’re coming with me.”
Her response took Benzel by surprise. “What about your new family?”
“The Scaldings? Sven is a good husband, but we’re in this mess because of his family.”
Before he could think better of it, Benzel said, “What happened to ‘Where he goes, I go? Where his family lives, I live?’”
“Being pregnant changes everything. What happened last night gives all the proof I need about the Scaldings. I thought they could protect me, but they can’t even protect themselves much less an unborn child. The killings are getting too close, and now I see they’re not going to stop.” Snip let loose a deep exhale, as if blowing out all the troubles in the world. “I married into the Scalding family, but I can leave it any time I want.
“They’re Northlanders and abide by Northlander law. Sven knows I have the power to end the marriage at any time and for any reason. I love him, but I’ve known him for a short time.” She stared into Benzel’s eyes. “You and me? Maybe we’re not kin by blood, but you made us a family the day you found me in Bubblebrook. You decided we’d be brother and sister. I don’t remember that day the way you do, but I feel it every time I look at you. If I have to choose between you and him, then I choose you. But don’t you dare leave me again.”
Having spent the past few years in the Southlands, Benzel realized how much he’d missed his sister. Looking at her now, he felt the closeness with Snip that was impossible with anyone else. They were the sole survivors of berserker attacks on their villages. They’d each lost their entire families and communities.
But since the day he’d found her, Benzel and Snip knew and understood each other.
“I promise,” Benzel said. “If I’m in danger or if I think it’s impossible to find this monster and kill it, I’ll come back to you.”
“You can’t leave me alone again.”
Benzel bit back his impulse to point out that he’d never left Snip alone. He’d left her with Auntie Helga and Uncle Kjartan and their cousins and the entire village of Hidden Glen.
He knew what she meant.
“I promise,” Benzel said. “I’m never leaving you again.”
He stood on the dock and watched Snip sail away with her Scalding escort toward the Northlander shore. He didn’t look away until after he saw the ship land and its passengers go ashore.
* * *
After the bodies of those most recently killed had been cleared from the house where they’d been found and burned, Benzel met with the rest of the Scaldings in the building located farthest from the tower.
“If you keep doing the same thing,” Benzel told them, “then you’ll keep dying.”
Sven’s father paced. Every step made his boots squeak against the straw covering the floor. “We’d be fools to relinquish this island to a monster.”
“You’d be alive,” Benzel pointed out. “But if you won’t leave, then at least consider a different tactic. Sleeping inside your own houses will get you killed.”
Sven chewed on a piece of straw he picked up from the floor. “What do you suggest?”
Benzel reminded himself to talk as if there were a monster, not a group of berserkers, behind the attacks. “If you refuse to send your children away from this island, then have them sleep here tonight with their mothers.”
Sven’s mother spoke up. “I can fight as well as any man. If the children will be safe here, they won’t need me.”
Benzel considered the woman. Despite her gray hair, she stood as tall and fit as her husband. She looked spry and strong enough to defeat any man. “I see. If any mothers are willing to supervise the children, they should stay here with them tonight.”
“And the rest of us?” Sven said.
“We’ll stay inside the tower.”
The Scaldings protested.
“You contradict yourself,” Sven’s father said to Benzel. “First you say we’ll be killed if we keep doing the same thing, and then you say we should do the same thing that already killed our brothers and nephews.”
“There will be more of us,” Benzel explained. “We’ll all be armed and alert when the monster strikes.” He counted the number of adults crammed inside the house. “No monster can annihilate a few dozen of us at once.”
Not even the berserkers can do that.
And if it is
the berserkers—not a monster—killing the Scaldings, then the Scaldings will help me get rid of the berserkers tonight. With the Scaldings by my side, we can kill the berserkers.
“All of us won’t fit in any of the rooms inside the tower,” Sven said.
“We won’t wait in the rooms,” Benzel said. “We’ll be in the open at the bottom of the staircase that winds to the top of the tower. There’s enough room for everyone there.”
Benzel considered his real plan. Because two groups of men had taken the stairs leading below ground and never returned, it made sense that the berserkers must be hiding in an underground cavern below the tower. The berserkers hid during the day and then emerged at night to attack.
It all makes sense. All the berserkers had to do was climb to the main floor of the tower at night, kill people sleeping in the tower rooms, and then slip back down the stairs. It explains why they’re now attacking the homes closest to the tower—that way, it’s less likely they’ll run into anyone who can stop them.
“You’re saying we’ll be an army lying in wait,” Sven’s mother said. “And our army is big enough to defeat any monster.”
“Exactly,” Benzel said. “We’ll barricade it from the inside. That way, if something goes wrong and the monster kills us all, it will be obvious. If the members of your family who sleep outside the tower can’t open its door tomorrow morning, they’ll know to leave the island at once.”
Benzel didn’t believe a monster would kill them, but he considered the berserkers might outnumber the Scaldings. While Benzel would put any Scalding’s life at risk for the sake of protecting Snip, he didn’t like the idea of putting children in harm’s way. Barricading the door to the tower might be enough to give them time to escape or dissuade the berserkers from taking their mayhem outside.
“You’re saying we should barricade the entrance to the tower,” Sven said. “Should we barricade the door to the downstairs, as well?”
The room turned so still that Benzel became aware of the sound of everyone’s breath.
They’re thinking about all of their men, who entered the staircase leading below the tower and never returned. They think a monster lives there. I’m the only one who realizes it’s where the berserkers must be hiding.
“Yes,” Benzel said. “If we barricade the downstairs door, the monster can’t open it easily. The sound he makes while trying to open the door will alert us. It’ll give us time to get ready to fight the monster.”
“Does that mean you’ll be part of our army?” Sven said.
“I will be your secret weapon.” Benzel had put much thought into his plan before presenting it to the Scaldings.
“Secret weapon?” Sven’s father said. He stopped pacing and stared at Benzel. “What does that mean?”
Benzel smiled. “A secret weapon is most effective when it’s kept secret.”
CHAPTER 16
While the Scaldings prepared themselves for battle, Benzel made sure no one saw him slip inside the tower.
Prior to leaving the Scaldings, Benzel had taken Sven aside and convinced him to stay with the children by arguing that Snip couldn’t afford to lose both her husband and her brother if tonight’s battle went awry. Sven had protested, and Benzel understood his brother-in-law’s pride was at risk. Benzel had countered by explaining that if the monster slaughtered everyone inside the tower, the few Scaldings who survived would need Sven to be their leader. That point swayed Sven into agreement.
The tower floor of warm brown stones felt bumpy and rough as Benzel walked across it. Wind whistled from the soaring height of the staircase curving up through the tower and echoed against its stone walls. The stench of recent death still lingered.
First, Benzel checked the door to the stairs leading below ground to make sure its barricade held strong. He then checked every room in which Scaldings had already been killed to make sure no berserker lurked inside.
Once satisfied that the ground floor of the tower stood safe, Benzel climbed up the stairs toward a large round globe hanging high on the tower wall like a goiter on an old man's neck. A narrow hallway branched from a stairway landing. Instead of walls, waist-high handrails kept the hallway open, like a trail carved into the side of a mountain. Benzel followed the hallway and the steps leading to the sphere. Inside, its round walls and ceiling looked polished and reflected Benzel’s image.
He stood in the open doorway. Because the steps and hallway leading to this peculiar room were so narrow, Benzel had no problem peering over the low handrails to see the main floor below and the barricaded door. One step back would allow Benzel to hide inside the round room.
The Scaldings believed Benzel would be hiding in a place where he could come to their aid if needed, but he warned them not to seek him out.
“If you know where I am,” he’d told the Scaldings, “then so will the monster. I can’t do any good if the monster knows where I am. He might kill me first.”
Benzel smiled, satisfied the Scaldings believed him and wouldn’t try to find him.
Stepping back inside the sphere, he discovered a curved door built into the wall that he closed shut. It blended so seamlessly into the doorway that he had to examine the wall to find the faint trace of the door. Benzel imagined that the exterior of the sphere now looked solid and that no one who hadn’t already been in this room would know it existed.
And from what I can tell, no Scalding has been here.
Benzel discovered that lying on the floor, which looked as polished as the rest of the room’s interior, was surprisingly comfortable. Despite his intent to sit and wait for the sound of the Scaldings to enter the tower, he fell asleep instead.
* * *
Benzel awoke in total darkness with a start at the sharp sound of wind whistling through the tower. His heart thumped hard against his chest, and he climbed to his feet after reaching out and finding the wall nearby. He listened for screams but heard none.
Wishing he’d brought a torch, Benzel instead ran his fingertips along the wall’s smooth surface until he found the outline of its door. He found that by pressing its edges, the door slid open with a soft click.
Benzel held his breath and listened. Dim light stood beyond the narrow and open hallway that had led him here.
The Scaldings. They’re here. And night has fallen.
But are any of them still alive?
Benzel stepped close enough to peer over the railing and down to the main floor far below. He saw a small crackling fire bound to turn to embers in the next hour. Its weak flames illuminated three dozen Scalding men and women lying on the stone floor.
The fire also showed the downstairs door still barricaded.
A loud snore rumbled through the still air.
Benzel relaxed, certain every Scalding still lived, although their failure to keep a guard awake astonished his sensibilities.
The flames became taut and stretched as high as a man’s shoulders. The light brightened the main floor, but Benzel saw nothing unusual until the stones forming the floor shifted up and aside. The scent of freshly-turned earth drifted up through the tower.
A creature the size of a dragon ascended from the disheveled stones and the dirt beneath them. It stood on two legs like a man, but dark scales covered its body. Its arms looked huge and powerful, and the long, curved claws on its fingers gleamed in the firelight.
Benzel stared in astonishment.
That’s not a berserker.
The sight of a beast that Benzel had never seen before stunned him speechless. He tried to shout out a warning but couldn’t move or make a sound. He felt as if he’d been bound and gagged by the shock of seeing something unpredictable and horrific.
Without a sound, the scaled creature used its claws like swords. It swung its arms at the sleeping Scaldings surrounding it. Single swipes decapitated Scaldings or sliced them open, killing them in an instant.
By the time a few Scaldings came awake and reached for their weapons, half of them were dead.
&n
bsp; Benzel stared at the bloody mayhem below, struggling to make sense of what he saw. Snapping to his senses, he ran for the tower staircase.
The creature on the main floor below turned its attention to Benzel. It roared at the stairs.
The stairstep in front of Benzel shot up and expanded to form a wall in front of him.
Benzel’s momentum slammed him into that wall, and he crumpled in front of it, barely conscious. He pulled himself up and stared over the staircase rail at the horror far below.
The Scaldings who still lived and had the presence of mind to find their weapons charged the dragon-like monster. They slashed at it with swords and stabbed with daggers, but every blow glanced off its armor-like scales. The Scaldings screamed while the monster swung its heavy arms and ripped them apart.
Sven’s mother rushed at the beast and reached up to stab at its knee, but the creature batted her away like a bug. The force of the blow slammed her against the tower wall, and she fell dead on the floor. Her husband sprinted toward the door leading out of the tower, but sharp claws impaled the shrieking man.
Benzel tried to regain his footing, only to collapse again. The stairstep he faced still formed a wall rising high in the air. Benzel pounded his fists against the wall and yelled.
It took moments for the beast to complete its massacre. Bloody bodies surrounded it. The creature turned slowly in place and examined its work.
Benzel shouted from behind the wall formed by the expanded stairstep. “Stop! Face me, you coward!”
Distant footsteps plodded up the spiral staircase.
Benzel heard his own ragged breath. He gripped his only weapon, a dagger.
The heavy footsteps dragged upward, seemingly in no hurry. The plodding became louder and louder until the footsteps halted.
Benzel held his breath, acutely aware of the sweat drenching his shirt. He smelled his own stink.
Snip is safe. I saw her walk onto the Northlands shore. Snip will live.
Not knowing whether he would live or die, Benzel made peace with the possibility of the latter because he had succeeded in saving Snip’s life twice.