The last thing she heard before the deafening sound of the swell filled her ears was Agnar calling, “We are going over!”
Eilish held onto the oars, though it felt as though Ægir himself was trying to wrestle them from her grasp. She took a deep breath as the boat turned upside down in the torrent, submerging her. Things suddenly got quieter. Eilish held onto her lungful of air and the wooden handles. She felt herself rise to the surface, and her head bumped against something hard as she gasped for another breath.
The boat was still upside down, although she was trapped in its underbelly. The waves lifted her and the faering in swells, but they did not seem capable of sinking it. Eilish grabbed onto the crossbeam of the thwart and tried to keep her face lifted into the narrow airspace available.
Where had Agnar gone? Had he drowned? Her panic made her breathe faster and faster, and she called out, “Help!”
When they capsized they’d been within sight of a beach. Maybe Agnar had swum for shore. Maybe she should try that if she could get out from under the boat.
Eilish couldn’t see below her in the water. She felt exposed, vulnerable, and she wondered if Ragna would come back to finish her off. The idea of the tentacle wrapping itself around her and pulling her under the waves was frightening. Very unlike the experience she’d had when Leif had pulled her to safety after her mock drowning.
Suddenly, she heard thumping on the hull above her head. Her breath caught in her throat. A muffled voice said, “Are you under there, Eilish?”
She could have cried in joy. He must have climbed on top of the belly of the boat. “Agnar!” she cried.
“Can you hold on?” he called.
“Yes, but how will we get to shore?”
His faint voice responded. “We must try to swim.”
The distance to the beach was farther than she’d ever gone before, even with Leif’s help. Nearly every part of her soul told her there was no hope, that she would never make it. But the voice that always won out—the ornery one—demanded she try. It pushed her to fight for her life, and who was she to ignore it?
“How do I get out from here?” she questioned.
“Take a breath and push yourself under the gunwale,” Agnar answered. “I will grab you.”
She had never done anything like this before, but Eilish told herself that it was no different than taking a breath and swimming the way she’d been taught. The only difference was that she was floating out at sea without the ground in reach. It had to be done, for she would certainly die if she remained here.
Eilish remembered to slow her breathing and took in a few long breaths before collecting a lungful and lowering her head under the surface. Her hands reached for the edge of the boat to pull herself under when something grabbed her from below. Before she could stop herself, she let out a partial scream. Bubbles released from her mouth.
She tried to kick free the tentacles that wrapped around her body, but she was no match for their pliable strength. Eilish was too frightened to open her eyes. She felt herself get dragged through the current as her chest tightened. Eilish fought the urge to gasp for another breath. It would surely kill her if she did.
Her concerns about air were forgotten when agonizing pain gripped her calf. It was as piercing as a knife cutting into her flesh. She could no longer kick her leg, but she flailed her arms, fighting against the pressure of the water, trying to pull herself to the surface, desperate to survive.
Movement caught Leif’s eye. An arrow shape cut through the ocean above him, and he recognized it immediately. He let go of the sea floor to speed upward.
He realized what he was seeing the closer he got. The faering’s silhouette had grown in size from being overturned. Legs dangled in the current. He could not tell if they belonged to Agnar or Eilish, but they were in danger of the Kraken. The giant squid wrapped its powerful arms around the human and pulled its victim behind it.
Eilish’s eyes pinched shut as the giant squid dragged her through the ocean and away from the boat. He knew his father sensed his presence, due to his quick escape. Desperation made for foolish choices, and he hoped that would be on his side. Countless traders had lost their lives to Ragna’s powerful beak and barbed tentacles, and if he didn’t employ his deadly weapons, all he had to do was keep them below the surface, drowning them.
Leif sped after his father. He had to make his attack count. He didn’t have jagged teeth or barbs lining his arms, but he did have something his father didn’t have. A paralytic poison.
Ragna slowed to hold his prey more closely when a dark cloud grew in the water. Leif could smell it almost immediately. Blood. He could not miss this time. He shot toward his father with his arms ready to wrap him in the only embrace he cared to give. Leif aimed for the Kraken’s mantle and body, prepared to deliver the vengeance that was owed.
When his tentacles found their target, Leif opened his beak and bit in, dispensing his poison. The result was immediate. Ragna released Eilish, and she floated to the surface. His father’s arms searched for him instead, but Leif had already wrapped his tentacles around his father’s long mantle, squeezing as tightly as possible.
Together they flailed at the surface of the waves, wrestling one another in a tangle of muscle until Leif sensed the poison taking its toll. Ragna’s strength lessened. His fight—the very essence of him—seemed to be draining out of him like blood flowing from an invisible wound. In that moment Leif found himself struggling to decide his next move. He almost wished his father would change back into a man and tell him he was free to live his life. That he would leave his friends in peace. But Leif knew better. Ragna would never stop.
It was all any man could ask for, to die in the throes of battle. Even if it was in a fight with your own kin. Growing old and gray, slipping away in the night without a final burst of vigor was something feared amongst warriors. If Leif didn’t end it in that moment, Ragna certainly would later, and he wouldn’t just put his son out of his misery in a duel, he would track them down and kill Agnar and Eilish before his eyes. He knew this. The silence around him was deafening as he squeezed his father’s slippery mantle tighter than ever, preparing to open his beak again. In one swift motion, he sank it deep into the squid’s supple flesh.
Leif had witnessed ocean waters glow from sunlight, but the sun was nowhere to be seen. A bright light burst from his father’s limp body, casting a strange tint in the water around them, temporarily blinding him. A current of energy rushed through his body, making him release Ragna’s now pale form. Colorless lengths of flesh moved in the current like ribbons in the wind. Large empty reflective eyes stared, unseeing.
He barely acknowledged the fact he’d changed back to his human form, or that he was sinking in the waves. He was focused on something else entirely. Never again would the Kraken claim treasure in the name of Ægir. And never again would Ragna harm Leif or the ones he loved. He thought of his mother standing alone on the shores of their homeland, watching them sail away, tears spilling from her eyes.
Never again would he see his father alive, because he had sent him away from the land of men. The moment was more painful than the need for air.
So, he was startled when something took hold of him and pulled him skyward. He questioned if he’d only imagined killing his father and if Ragna was taking his final vengeance on him. Leif’s eyes slid open. The salty burn from the water did nothing to stop him from observing the pale arms wrapped around him. Tiny bubbles swirled around them before they broke the surface.
The silence of the sea ended with a suddenness that was shocking. The roar of the waves and stormy gale filled his ears. Leif gasped for breath. Beside him Eilish held him tightly, but the waves were rough, and it seemed like it was all she could do to stay above water, too.
“Are you living?” she cried, splashing in the sea.
Leif looked about him. “Unless this is Valhalla.”
It was clear enough to him that he was still amongst the land of men. This much m
isery would be wasted otherwise. He came to his senses and righted himself in the water so he wasn’t a burden to Eilish.
Once she was relieved of the added pressure of keeping him above the surface, she coughed. “Your father—”
“Is gone,” he sputtered, trying not to inhale the waves splashing against him.
“We need to get to shore.” Eilish answered and looked around, “Where is Agnar?”
“You found her!” A voice boomed a distance away.
Leif saw his friend a distance away perched on the overturned keel as if he were riding a horse. His feet dangled into the water as he peered into the currents, holding the weapon ready.
Eilish splashed toward the boat with Leif by her side. The faering had drifted ahead and closer to the sandy beach. It wasn’t much farther to go. The waves were doing all of the hard work, casting them to the mainland. The tall swells and rough winds quickly died down, making their journey onto shore much easier.
Clouds covered the skies in a dark woolen loom as they panted with water dripping from their faces. Leif stared out at the sea his father claimed to be born of while Agnar asked, “What happened? Where is Ragna?”
Leif stood in silence, knowing the cause of the Kraken’s disappearance. He didn’t wish to discuss it. He only wanted to speak of it once and be done with it. “He lost his fight. Maybe he has finally made it to Ægir’s glorious halls.”
Agnar and Eilish blinked at him like posts sunk in the shore. He knew they had questions, and was thankful they didn’t voice them. He pointed up the rocky beach to a sandy slope the tides didn’t appear to reach and gave Eilish his arm as she limped there.
Eilish’s wound stopped bleeding, and Agnar went to look for wood. They might have avoided death by the hand of Ragna, but the world was still a very dangerous place. Survival was a challenge even when the odds were in your favor.
Once he knew Eilish was safe for the moment, Leif muttered something about finding their lost belongings as an excuse to return to the ocean so he could have some time to himself. He waded into the water feeling strangely numb. He’d spent so much of his life hating and being ashamed of his father, and so often he’d imagined being free of him that he couldn’t really accept that time had finally come.
Leif stared out at the gray horizon, watching streaks of blue break free from the clouds. A strange sensation came over him, and his vision blurred. A similar scene formed in his mind, like a memory, though he was sure it wasn’t his. He recognized the lush fjord near his childhood farm, and it seized him with longing to see it again.
“Will you go search for him?”
Her voice made his breath catch in his throat. Leif had recalled her wisdom and words so many times, but never so clearly, so vividly.
He pinched his eyes shut so that nothing would distract him from observing the pictures in his mind. The view turned to include his mother. Her dark hair was parted into two braids covered by a linen hood. Her green eyes were focused on the still waters of the fjord, and her brow was creased in concern.
“He will come—you will see,” Ragna’s voice answered.
Chills raised goose bumps on Leif’s skin. Though he didn’t understand what was happening, he believed this to be his father’s memory. The magic that allowed him to take the shape of an animal must have linked him with Ragna in his final moments. The way of the gods did not always make sense to mere men.
“Why must you do this?” his mother, Brita, asked without looking at him.
Ragna sighed. “It is my responsibility to bring power and wealth to our kin.”
Leif’s mother pushed further. “But why must you take him?”
“He is my greatest pride. It is for him I do it.”
“I will not go. I will never leave the soil of my birth.”
Ragna crossed his arms and continued to look out at the fjord. “It is for the best.”
Brita turned from the lookout, and Leif could hear her footsteps lead away. For some time Ragna stood there, waiting for a sign when finally, ripples appeared in the water. His father’s thoughts echoed in his mind, I knew he would return. He does better than I expected.
Before he was ready for it to end, the vision faded to black, and Leif opened his eyes to the dispersing clouds. His fingers had clenched into tight fists, and he felt like screaming. Instead, he channeled his emotion into returning to his body to the form that had meant so much to his father. The form that had been used for so much violence.
Though he’d already changed his shape a few times already, he found he had enough energy to slip beneath the waves as an octopus. His tentacles clung to the rocky sea floor, and he scurried along without purpose, his thoughts swirling in a torrent in his mind. He couldn’t understand how it had happened, but he believed it to be true. It was possibly the only time he’d heard such honesty come from a man he’d learned to distrust.
It was a hard thing to grasp, accepting that his father, at one point, had been proud of him. Such words had never been spoken aloud. In fact, his pride had only manifested in the form of a slap to the side of the head if he didn’t do what his father expected of him. Ragna’s purpose must have twisted and changed with time; the pride in his son must have corrupted into resentment and jealousy. This realization sat uncomfortably in his chest, like he’d swallowed a rock that had gotten stuck on the way down.
As he moved blindly along the sea floor, he noticed a blocky shape nearby. He’d found Agnar’s trunk—the reason he’d returned to the ocean. He wrapped his tentacles around the wooden chest and lifted it with some struggle. Leif set his mind to it, exhausted himself taking it near the shallows of the beach, and then floated higher in the current until he breached the surface near the overturned boat. Since the winds had died down, it had pushed closer to shore and was snagged on a tower of barnacle-encrusted rocks.
It took little energy to change back to his human form. There wasn’t time to lose his bravery now. He had choices to make and people to protect. In the absence of a proper leader, someone needed to step up. His strong sense of right and wrong presented him with a clear path. The courage he’d needed to defy Ragna had changed his soul. He’d done the impossible. He’d overcome the man who’d domineered him his whole life, and now he knew what he must do.
Leif called onto the beach for Agnar’s help. Together they lifted the chest that contained the silver from the water, and then they took a closer look at the faering’s hull. A diamond-shaped hole was cut into one of the boards, and a crack extended away from it. They exchanged a worried glance before Agnar pointed to the mainland. “There is a pine grove a walk away—I can look for resin.”
Leif nodded. “Good.”
They worked to roll the boat onto its keel, careful not to damage it any further, though when it was upright, they discovered the mast had split. Leif looked at what was still attached to the boat. “We have three oars and the sail. The wool and sap can patch the hole so we might get to Bo and his kin. He is not far down the coast. It is a safe place for Eilish to recover while I return home.”
Agnar tilted his head sideways as he stared at his friend. “You would leave me behind again?”
“I trust none other to keep her safe. I must do this alone. It is my duty to put right my father’s wrongs,” Leif answered, staring up the beach at the woman huddled in her cloak. “But first, I must have a talk with Eilish.”
The pain in Eilish’s leg began to subside. During their swim to shore following the Kraken’s attack, her legs had kicked as hard as possible to get her from harm’s way, and when she’d dragged herself on land, the wound stung. Burning had set into her calf immediately once blood stopped flowing. Although the rest of her body was chilled to the bone from dampness and the remaining breeze, the flesh on her leg began to burn. She knew she would need to treat the wound soon, or Ragna’s last blow could drag her from this world.
Eilish watched the men flex with effort as they shuffled up the beach with the waterlogged sailboat. The mast was br
oken. The loud crack she’d heard through the windy gale while the monster’s arms wrapped her against the boat still echoed in her mind. Knowing Ragna was gone was a relief, but there would be many challenges ahead.
She arranged the driftwood beside her, hoping Agnar had a strike-a-light, for she needed to dry off. It did not take long before the men returned to her side, and her wishes were granted when they deposited a wooden chest near the firewood. Agnar unlocked it and pulled out just the thing they needed. He worked on getting a fire started while Leif pulled on the extra pair of trousers he was handed and sat down beside Eilish to stare at the ocean. After Agnar produced a hot flame, he hurried over the hills muttering something about finding water and sap.
“He is really gone,” Leif muttered. “I never thought he would leave this world without taking me too. A man who lived loud died so quietly, as if he were no more important than a fish.”
She leaned over to rest the side of her head against his shoulder. “I am thankful he left you behind.”
She noticed that he remained rigid against her, and she questioned whether his feelings for her had changed now that his future was open to him. Now that his father was gone, why would he want anything to do with a Gael? Eilish glanced up to his face to read his expression, but she couldn’t.
She thought of the time she’d revealed her wish to fly in search of her father and asked, “What would you do if you were a bird?”
Eilish knew it was absurd, but it masked a deeper question. Leif could turn into a bird. She knew this. He could leave her there to do what he wished. He was free to do anything, more unfettered than any man she knew. Her question seemed to take him by surprise, and his green eyes frowned down at her.
Leif answered, “I will deliver you and Agnar to Bo so you may recover while I fly home.”
She swallowed, waiting for what came next.
He continued, “I intend to give freedom to the thralls. All are welcome to join me as freemen to seek a land where we make our own mark on the world, farming and raising families in a place where the sun shines.”
Tides (Time of Myths: Shapeshifter Sagas Book 3) Page 19