Gilka smiled, gaze lost in the past. “She loved traps, the clever troll, so I knew she’d litter the swamp with them, and I wasn’t wrong. I saw the other two captains caught, one swinging from a tree by his foot, the other at the bottom of a pit. I spotted Jhanir on this little island among the muck, just kneeling there, facing away from me, an easy kill.”
Her stare dug into Aesa again. “But I paused long enough to study her. She’d unbraided her hair, something only her bondmate had seen since she’d become a thrain. I’ll never forget it, long silver locks blowing in the wind. That’s when I knew, cub. She had no intention of fighting a final battle. She was going back to being a thrall.”
Aesa frowned. “Why?”
“That’s what I wondered at the time. I looked into her eyes, bear cub, deep. She’d lived this full life, had children, been called ja’thrain by some of the strongest warriors alive. She’d done all there was to do in the world.”
Aesa licked her lips. “And so?”
Gilka snorted a laugh. “That’s what we do, cub, we strive and push. But when it’s time to stop, we know. Jhanir knew. I’ll know one day, but I might not take the same path as her.” She leaned close. “You’re a striver, Aesa, same as the rest of us. I knew it the first time I saw you, and I know it now. You’ve got it in you to be a captain one day, maybe even a thrain. You’re under some kind of curse, or you wouldn’t even be thinking about giving that up.”
Aesa nodded, but the words didn’t warm her as much as they would have once. Maybe she was cursed, then, to be so changed.
“I’m taking you to Fernagher,” Gilka said. “You’re not to leave my side until we break this hold.” She caught Aesa’s chin. “Even if I have to slaughter everyone on that island. No one fucks with a member of my crew and lives. When we return, we’ll find your bondmate, kill the blood witch, and then you two can be content.”
Aesa’s heart turned to ice even as she strained forward into Gilka’s touch. She could let go of the turbulence inside her, go back to normal, be a warrior under the strongest woman alive. And Maeve would be there, her own confusion banished with Laret gone.
“Ja’thrain, I…” Aesa blinked away tears, too many thoughts whirling inside her to count.
Gilka nodded. “I’ll tell the crew, and we’ll get gone before Ulfrecht has the chance to gather his ships.”
Chapter Seventeen
The shed wasn’t the worst place Maeve had tried to sleep—at least it was dry—but there’d be no rest with Laret pacing in a tight circle, staring at the bare wooden walls with the desperation of a stalked animal.
Maeve rested her arms on her knees. “There’s nothing to be done until they speak with us again.”
“I know.”
“They’ll know if we use our powers, your wyrd, even your blood magic.”
“I know!”
“So, save your strength.” She glanced at the closed door, hoping Laret would take the hint. They might be able to overpower anyone who came through alone, but not if Laret exhausted herself.
Laret flopped onto the floor, fear etched into every feature as she grabbed Maeve’s hands. She had to be thinking of what Ulfrecht and his people might do if they discovered the truth of her body.
Maeve leaned close. “They won’t hurt you. It’s not like your homeland.”
“All your people can’t think like you do.”
“Even if they won’t understand, they still won’t attack you. They might…” She couldn’t say laugh, but she could picture that reaction, how much it would hurt and how much Laret wouldn’t let that hurt show. “We’ll keep it from them.”
“I just found you. I won’t let them hurt you, either, Maeve.”
“They think they need us for something. We’ll be all right. Put your trust in me.”
The door banged open. Laret tried to jump away, but Maeve held fast. She wanted their captors to see their closeness, to see how hard they’d fight for each other.
Ari stepped into the dim light, a grin on her cheeks. Maeve gasped to see Dain, Aesa’s kinsman, at Ari’s back. She stood and nearly opened her arms to greet him, but his hesitant smile stopped her. She’d forgotten that he’d joined Ulfrecht’s crew.
“Maeve,” he said, “are you well?”
“Well?” She waved at the shed. “We’re both captives.”
“Allies sounds so much nicer,” Ari said.
“Allies in what?” Laret asked.
Dain licked his lips. “How much did Aesa tell you about where she’s been raiding?”
Maeve shrugged, not wanting to reveal anything. “She said it was a secret.”
“A secret she shouldn’t be playing with,” Ari said. “The island that Gilka has uncovered is Fernagher, a source of fae magic, a power Ulfrecht doesn’t want awakened.”
“Fernagher?” Maeve asked. “The lost island?”
“Hidden inside the Mists of Murin, but Gilka figured out how to break in before Ulfrecht did.”
Maeve nodded slowly. “That’s why Ulfrecht pretended to ally with Gilka in the first place.”
“Oh, he would have been more than happy to stay her ally, had she listened to him.”
Maeve thought for a moment, nodding. “Is Aesa here?”
“Gilka set sail,” Dain said, “and our watchers say she’s taken Aesa with her. The best plan is for all of us to go to Fernagher and make sure Gilka doesn’t awaken anything that should stay buried.”
A mad scheme, but if it would get Aesa back… She glanced at Ari. “Why didn’t you mention any of this when we met?”
“I was looking for any fae artifacts that Aesa or any of Gilka’s crew might have brought home. At the time, I thought you’d naturally side with Aesa and through her, Gilka.”
Maeve lifted an eyebrow. “You will not turn me against Aesa, not now or ever.”
“Of course not,” Dain said. “But we must join forces against Gilka. She must have thought you two could thwart her somehow, or she wouldn’t have attacked you in the woods. Now is your chance to help us stop her.”
Maeve stayed quiet for a moment, thinking. “And if we say yes?”
Dain smirked. “Once you get Aesa, you plan to leave Ulfrecht and Gilka to fight it out, don’t you?”
“You’re her kin. Aren’t you worried for her?”
He looked away, a bit of color in his cheeks. “There’s more at stake than just one person. Ulfrecht’s been seeking fae artifacts for a long time. It was practically a race between him and Gilka, but unlike her, he stopped to think about his actions.”
“Say there are fae artifacts on Fernagher,” Maeve said, “how do you know there are also living fae?”
“We’ve visited a cave,” Ari said, “far to the west, on the borders of our lands. Mostly collapsed, it can only be entered at low tide. Carved into the stone inside is a city, the doors tall enough for people nearly three times our height.”
Just like the tales said. Maeve shuddered.
Ari smiled slowly. “We found a set of tablets, drawings of a plan to leave these shores and settle a new land, living beneath it, waiting, maybe, for who knows what?”
“And you think some vague drawings in a cave somewhere are reason enough to attack your own countrymen?” Laret asked.
Dain shrugged. “If we’re right, we can do no less.”
Laret sighed. “Does Ulfrecht wish to kill Gilka?”
“Why would you care if she lives or dies?” Dain asked.
“I don’t, but Aesa does.”
Maeve nodded. “How can I tell my bondmate we helped slay her hero?”
“You’d rather the fae awaken? You’ve heard tales of how humans had to band together against them, the losses they suffered. You taught some of those songs to me!”
“That was a long time ago, if the legends are even correct,” Laret said. “People have come a long way from animals who live in caves, scratching at the walls and fearing the dark.”
“We can’t take that chance,” Ari said.
<
br /> Laret held up a hand. “What if stopping Gilka isn’t the only answer? What if we find a way to rebuild the barrier, these Mists of Murin, and make it stronger? Gilka lives, but she can never return to Fernagher, and the houri are trapped on one side whether they awaken or not.”
Maeve grinned. “Yes! And then Aesa…” Her smile faltered. Aesa could what? Move on from her dreams?
Dain nodded, rubbing his chin. “Not a bad idea. But we’d still have to force Gilka out.”
Maeve supposed that might be the best answer they were going to get. She would free Aesa first. Everything else was secondary. “We can’t be your allies and your prisoners.”
Ari gave her a wry look. “Trust is earned.”
*
Laret had long avoided the sea, never any greenery and no room for privacy. She and Maeve would have to escape from Ulfrecht soon, or her secret would show upon her face. By the way Maeve watched their captors, she was thinking the same thing, though Laret thought she was determined to get to Fernagher first. She tried to keep in mind what Maeve had told her, that her people wouldn’t care about her gender, but she’d been hiding it for so long. Fears couldn’t just be banished by a few comforting words.
As they approached the sheltered beach where Ulfrecht had hidden his ships, Laret’s heart continued to sink. A little voice suggested that she could escape on her own, maybe go to Fernagher to aid Maeve once she’d secured some genuine allies. But who? Jontur, whose child and bondmate Maeve had saved? He was a farmer, not a warrior. Laret almost laughed at the thought. All her talk of ordinary people deserving their own songs, and here she was lamenting that she didn’t have a few more warriors to call upon.
“We need a moment before we board,” Maeve said.
Ari glanced at her. “For what?”
“What do you think?” Maeve put her hands on her hips. “And we’re not squatting out here in front of everyone.”
Ari rolled her eyes. “You can’t go alone.”
“Just keep your distance.”
Ari, a witch named Rafnir, and a warrior followed them into the trees that dotted the coast. Maeve led Laret into a dense group of bushes, ignoring Ari’s call of, “Do you two do everything together?”
Once hidden from prying eyes, Maeve pulled Laret into a crouch and whispered, “Can you do anything else to hide yourself?”
Laret scanned the ground for useful plants. “I thought you said they wouldn’t care.”
“You obviously care.”
“Well, I doubt they’d let us stay in here long enough for me to shave. I’ve already had my concoction this week.”
“You could get away.”
Shame burned in Laret’s temples, and she couldn’t admit thinking the same thing. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Maeve kissed her cheek and pulled her in for a hug. “I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Are you taking a piss or fucking?” Ari called.
“Crude,” Laret spat. Under one of the bushes, she spotted some red clover. Lucky for her, it was rampant in the area. She stuffed some in her pocket and chewed the rest. “This should help.”
They stood together, and Ari gave them a grin. “Shall we?”
Ari crammed them into the bow of one of Ulfrecht’s longboats, and with nowhere to run, they were left to sit. At least they didn’t have to row.
“How do they think we can help them?” Maeve whispered. “They don’t even trust us to relieve ourselves on our own. Maybe they think that when we meet Gilka we won’t have a choice, that we’ll choose the side that’s not trying to kill us.”
“If we find Aesa and escape both Ulfrecht and Gilka, how will we get back here?”
Maeve held her gaze for a long moment. “You’d rather join Ulfrecht?”
Laret had to laugh, but she felt no humor in it. “You owe Gilka nothing, or have you forgotten?”
Maeve frowned hard, fidgeting. “The bonds of warrior to thrain are hard to ignore, and I’m bound through Aesa. I was hoping we could avoid the fighting, but you’re right.”
Laret nodded, but before she had a chance to speak, Ari called, “Someone should carve your likenesses, call you the gods of secrets.”
“Hopefully not to share the same fate as the rest of the gods,” Maeve said.
Ari shrugged. “That’s up to you.”
Once they put up the sails, Ulfrecht’s ships skimmed over the water, and by the time night fell, Ari told them they were close. Throughout the journey, Maeve’s hands stayed in Laret’s, their bodies pressed together. No matter what, they would stay with each other. Laret had never been more grateful that she was barely involved in the conflict to come. It left her room to choose whichever side Maeve chose.
Of course, if she’d never gotten involved with Maeve…
Laret chuckled at the thought. “Involved with” was one of her mother’s favorite phrases. It usually meant someone was pregnant. Even with all that had happened, Laret couldn’t regret meeting Maeve, liking her, loving her. They’d known each other such a short time, and there were far larger oceans that Laret would cross to stay by her side.
Even with Aesa as part of the deal? Laret had to smile. Yes, even then. They were coming to Aesa’s rescue, but it felt as if Aesa and Maeve had already parted. Their relationship had changed, and not just because of Laret and this woman Ell. From what Maeve had told her, they’d been parting slowly ever since Aesa had sailed away.
When the Mists of Murin finally came into view, all else faded in the wake of Laret’s curiosity. This was magic she’d never encountered before, and she had to admit it intrigued her. The witch of Sanaan’s tales of houri had never interested Laret much because she was certain the houri were dead and buried. This swirling wall of shimmering gray sat as solid-looking as a curtain upon the dark ocean.
The mists were closed against them. “If Gilka is here, she’s taken her stones with her as she went.” Ari leaned against the rail at Laret’s side. “Fear not, sister. You’re not the only thing we took from Skellis.”
“I’m not your sister,” Laret said, but Ari was already unwrapping something from a layer of sealskin, a black wooden staff.
“Is that…” Maeve asked as she moved closer.
“Easy enough to sneak out of Gilka’s longhouse with no one to guard it.” She winked. “A wonderful piece of magic, of art, really, if someone hadn’t taken a chunk out of the end.”
She turned to the mist and raised the staff overhead. Laret tugged Maeve toward the rear of the ship. The magic itself might have interested her, but she didn’t want to be right next to any experiments.
Ari closed her eyes, and Laret felt her spirit focus through the staff, as Laret had once done through the woodchip. No black streaks came from the end, but Laret felt a flare of power.
The mist seemed to feel it, too. It peeled back like the skin of a fruit, and as more of Ari’s spirit flowed through, more of the mist crawled away, enough so that all of Ulfrecht’s ships could pass.
“Don’t touch the mist,” Dain whispered as the crew rowed the ship forward.
“Never crossed my thoughts,” Laret said.
Maeve laughed a little breathlessly. “Aren’t you curious?”
“To touch the eerie, unmoving, magical mist? No.” She clutched Maeve’s fingers.
Maeve gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’m curious, not stupid.”
Thankfully, it wasn’t long until the mist parted completely, and the shores of Fernagher opened before them.
Chapter Eighteen
Aesa had watched Fernagher come closer with a thrill running through her. Despite all the other thoughts swirling in her head, she’d been drowning in visions of Ell running toward her with eyes and mind wide open, ready for new ideas, ready to embrace her. Had Maeve been right? Was she in love? Aesa didn’t think so, not love, not really, but she could picture herself falling there.
Or maybe Gilka was right, and this place had done some
thing to her.
She barely noticed the beach, the field of wildflowers just as they were before. As they entered the sparse forest along the edges of the meadow, Hilfey clapped her on the shoulder. “Don’t fret, bear cub. It’ll be over soon.”
The crew had taken to Gilka’s explanation of Aesa’s curse with pity and horror. They’d agreed that she’d been different on the last voyage. They’d shared stories of how she’d bonded with each of them, giving her credit for jokes or deeds she hadn’t even been present for. Then, they’d said, she’d turned strange, distant, never mind that she’d always been quieter than everyone else. They’d pledged to fix her, though. Even Otama treated her carefully. She’d related their conversation about preferring death to slavery, only now she claimed it was Aesa’s spirit calling for help.
When they’d landed, Hilfey had given Aesa a bow. Runa balked, saying, “We don’t know what she’ll do with it!”
“She wouldn’t hurt us,” Hilfey said.
Otama stepped nearly to Runa’s face. “You can’t shame her like this.”
“What if she needs to defend herself?” Velka added.
Runa waved their arguments away. “She’ll have her belt knife.”
They’d fallen over each other arguing, reminding Runa that no one went on a raid without a proper weapon, without being able to defend the rest of the crew. At last, Gilka had stepped forward, and everyone had fallen silent.
Gilka had looked into Aesa’s eyes and smiled. “She won’t shoot us in the back.”
Runa’s lips had pressed together, and Aesa knew she’d be watched.
They marched all day, forced to camp before they’d arrived at the last village they’d sacked. Aesa sat at a campfire and listened to everyone trying to cheer her, repeating over and over that she’d be all right soon, laughing too loudly at jokes that weren’t funny. They meant well, but Aesa couldn’t stop doubting, couldn’t smile along with them and share in their certainty.
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