by Quinn Loftis
“Would they help us if he was dead?” Dayna asked.
“I am the Oracle of my clan, held in high regard. Without Magnus, they would probably follow my command until we were back with the rest of the clan.”
“Probably?” I asked.
“Life is nothing but a series of educated gambles. We will have to take our chance when it presents itself.”
“But as it stands, there’s nothing we can do at the moment,” I said, resigned to the fact. “I hate just sitting, unable to help.” The words got stuck in my throat as I felt the pull of my magic.
There was commotion at the door in the ceiling that led to the upper deck. I heard men shouting, but it was hard to make out what anyone was saying. Then one voice stood out above the others.
“Stand back, or you will meet the sharp end of my axe,” Magnus snarled.
“Jarl, she can help,” a deep voice responded. “Some of us saw what she did to Torben. She’s a healer. She can help Faulkner.”
“If he was foolish enough to cut himself in the first place, then he doesn’t deserve healing,” Magnus snapped back.
I was up and moving without even thinking about it. I grabbed the handle and jerked the door open. It hadn’t been locked. Magnus was obviously confident we wouldn’t attempt to escape; we’d end up as fish food if we tried.
The creaking of the door hinges, no doubt corroded from all the salty sea air, grabbed everyone’s attention, and suddenly, many sets of eyes were focused on me. Swallowing my fear, I looked at the man directly across from Magnus. “Where is the injured man?” I asked.
His eyebrows shot up. “You would heal him?”
“Isn’t that why you were coming to get me?”
He nodded. “But I didn’t think you’d be willing. I figured we’d have to threaten you, or maybe bribe you.”
The pull inside of me was becoming painful, and I fought the need to push past all of them and find the one who was injured. I waved off his words. “I need neither threats nor bribery. I am a healer, it is what I do. Now, take me to him.”
“You are not the jarl of this clan,” Magnus bellowed as he rounded on me.
“That’s good of you to notice,” I said calmly, though I was anything but calm on the inside. I wanted to strike out like a rabid animal at the man in front of me, but I wouldn’t let him see that. “Since you are the jarl, and no doubt wise in your leadership, I’m sure you would want the injured man healed immediately. Otherwise, he might end up with a sickness that could spread to the rest of the crew.” I had no idea if what I was saying was accurate—I wasn’t exactly a palace-trained physician—but the Viking leader didn’t know that.
“What sickness?” he asked.
I thought back on what I’d heard the medicinal healer tell her patients and tried to recite her words. I was certain I’d not get it completely accurate, but the idea came across well enough. “Wounds can become infected. An infection will make the man very ill, and the infection can be catching. Just being near the infected person could cause others to become sick. Being stuck on this vessel out in the middle of the sea with no way to put a safe distance between us and an infected man could be a death sentence for all of us. You brought me here because I am a healer, so let me do what it is I am supposed to do.”
All eyes were on Magnus as we waited for his verdict. I felt as though my spirit were going to crawl out of my body and go to the injured man without my physical form. The feeling was getting more and more intense, this need to heal.
“Fine,” he finally huffed. “You may heal the man to keep him from getting an infection.” Turning to his men, he said, “Step aside.”
“Take me to him,” I told the man who had been the one to seek me out.
“I go where she goes,” I heard Dayna say behind me and then felt her hand on my back, silent reassurance that she was there with me and would fight with me if need be.
“And I go where I want to, so get out of my way,” Hilda added.
I tried not to smirk when the men grumbled, shifting to get out of her path.
We were led across the ship, and, as we walked, I understood more fully why it was called a longship. The blasted thing was long.
“He’s over there,” the man said as he stepped aside.
“Finally,” Dayna groaned. “Next time, bring the injured to her, not the other way around.”
“What if it’s his legs that are injured?” the Viking asked her.
I glanced back at Dayna, who was giving the man a look that clearly said she thought he was a straw shy of a haystack. “Are this man’s legs injured?”
“No.”
“Then you should have had him walk the thousand yards to the healer.”
“Dayna, leave the boy alone and give me a hand,” I called as I reached the man who was slumped over, clutching his arm to his chest. “I am a healer,” I said gently. “I need to see the wound.”
His face lifted up to me, his eyes full of not only pain but mistrust as well.
“I can help,” I said when he made no move to extend his arm.
“She can heal you,” said the other Viking, the one who’d led us over.
“You’re not of my clan,” the injured one responded through clenched teeth.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Faulk,” he answered.
“Nice to meet you, Faulk. My name is Allete. Do you breathe air?”
He frowned but nodded.
“Good. As do I. Do you walk on two feet?”
He nodded again.
“As do I. Since I can see that you’re bleeding like a freshly gutted pig, I know that you bleed red, just as I do. Now, do you eat food by chewing it and swallowing it?”
“Yes,” he answered with words instead of the nod.
“So, you’re telling me that you do all the same things I do? That we’re both human beings?”
“I suppose so.”
“Why, exactly, does it matter if I wasn’t born into your clan on your island? I was born just the same as you, simply somewhere else. Are we not equals? Are we really so different that we can’t possibly be allies?”
“Allies do not harm one another,” he said.
“Fantastic. I mean you no harm. I am simply a human being wanting to help another human being.”
After several heartbeats, Faulk finally held out his arm to me. He’d flayed it open nearly from elbow to wrist. It was no wonder he was so pale; the idiot was nearly bled dry. I laid my hand over the large wound and closed my eyes. The magic inside me rose up as it searched for the injury. The words, which always seemed to automatically find their way into my head, began to flow out of my mouth.
“Damaged flesh and jagged wound,
feel my power flow deep inside.
Mend and heal before the waning moon,
By my command you must abide.
I give this freely with no debt,
I give this willingly to preserve this life.
I hold not this man my magic’s met,
Reverse the damage from the knife.”
I opened my eyes, pulled my hand away, and was unable to hide the surprise I knew was written across my face. I had expected to find bright pink, freshly healed skin. Instead, I found an arm that looked as though it had never been wounded in the first place. There was not a single indication there had ever been a cut, much less the large gash that Faulk had sustained.
“Well that’s sort of new,” Dayna whispered from behind me.
I didn’t have time to respond as I felt a hand on my arm, jerking me from where I knelt.
“She will need to rest now, Magnus,” Hilda said as she began to pull me away from the astonished crowd. “You know how much a healing can take out of one such as her.”
I glanced over my shoulder at the stunned jarl, and my stomach twisted at the glint in his eyes. There was longing there, something more than just the power a healer could bring. There was a lust there for things I dared not think about. The idea of
being anything to Magnus was disgusting, but the idea of being his lover, that was a completely different magnitude of loathing.
Hilda continued to pull me until we were once again descending the ladder to the cabin below. I could hear Dayna behind me muttering under her breath about men and their ridiculous fascination with all things female. If possible, her mouth had become even fowler since boarding the longship.
“Is there a reason you rushed me out of there like the hounds of hell were nipping at our girdles?” I asked, finding a seat on the empty bench we’d earlier occupied. I was still nauseated, but it was no longer because of the movement of the ship.
“You saw his face,” Hilda snapped. “Before he only had suspicions of your power. Now he knows how completely gifted you are. You are no longer simply a tool to prolong his life. He’s fascinated with you. Your power, which is well beyond mine, has called to the man inside of him, not just the monster.”
“Eww,” Dayna gagged. “I’ll gut him from groin to sternum if he attempts to lay his meaty paws on my sister.”
Hilda sighed dramatically. “Yes, I’m sure all one hundred pounds and five foot nothing of you would easily best a hardened warrior such as Jarl Magnus. He may be mad, but he is still a fierce fighter and leader, probably even more now than when he had all his faculties.”
“So now I have to worry about my virtue in addition to the life force I’ll lose when I heal him?” I asked.
Hilda shrugged. “Hopefully, you needn’t have to worry too much longer. Unless you just enjoy hanging around the jarl?”
Dayna rubbed her hands together and grinned. “I smell an escape plan brewing in your old, yet knowledgeable, head.”
Hilda shot me a dry look. “How has she survived all these years?”
I laughed. “She had my father’s guards watching over her.”
“And how did she keep them from killing her?”
Dayna chuckled. “They were honored to have the job. I’m a delight once you get to know me. Plus, they knew better than to cross me. It only took one to wake up with turpentine in his underpants to realize that.”
I shook my head at the Oracle. “You don’t want to know the extent of depravity that lives inside my sister’s mind. I’ve learned to just pretend she’s a nice, agreeable young woman with a pleasant disposition.”
“So, you lie to yourself on a daily basis?” Hilda asked.
I shook my head. “No, I lie to myself on a minute-to-minute basis.”
“Ha, ha,” Dayna retorted. “You’re a riot, sister. Let’s not forget who helped you escape the captain more than once.”
I dipped my head to her. “Touché,” I conceded. “Her depravity does occasionally have its uses,” I said glancing at Hilda.
“Well,” she sighed, “as long as she has at least one use, I guess I can put up with her eccentricities.”
“That’s very kind of you,” I said wryly.
“If you two are done raking me across the proverbial coals, could we please get back to the escape plan?” Dayna asked as she took a seat next to me.
“As I was saying earlier,” Hilda began, “I’m sure Magnus is not taking us back to Clan Hakon. He will take us somewhere to hide us, at least for a little while, in hopes that King Cathal, your parents, and my son, grow weary of searching for you and give up.”
“But he thinks Torben is dead,” I said.
“Maybe,” she responded, “but he probably has some doubt as to that. He won’t rest easy unless he puts Torben on the funeral pyre himself.”
“Our parents will never give up,” Dayna said slamming her fist against the bench. “They will die trying to find us.”
“As will my son,” Hilda agreed. “For all intents and purposes, you are Torben’s bride. Maybe you have not said the vows, but you belong to each other and he will not let you go.”
I closed my eyes as I pictured his rugged, handsome face in my mind. It had only been hours since I’d seen him last, and already I ached to see him again, touch him, and hear his voice.
“I’m coming for you.” His voice filled my head and made my heart ache even more.
“I think I’m hallucinating,” I said as I pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Hallucinating?” Hilda said, sitting up and a bit more alert. “What do you mean?”
“I mean that this longing inside of me is growing, and now I’m hearing his voice in my head. It’s like I’m conjuring him up because my soul misses him so badly.”
“Ach, woman,” she ground out. “Do you not remember what I told you about soul speaking? You aren’t hallucinating, you daft female.”
“Hey, no need for insults, you crystal ball-reading hag,” Dayna huffed.
Hilda paid her no mind. “His soul is reaching out to yours. He’s calling for you. Answer him.”
“How? Do I just speak back?” Okay, so that sounded really stupid when I said it out loud.
“Close your eyes and think of him. Your soul will do the rest,” she instructed. Then she turned to my sister. “I will give you points for creativity on your insults. If they get mediocre or lazy, I’ll not be so tolerant.”
“Can I add weird to your description?” Dayna asked.
“The way I see it, if you’re going to go into battle, be it physically or verbally, then you should charge full speed. Don’t be a half-arsed ninny.”
Dayna rolled her eyes at the Oracle. “Damn it all, I don’t want to like you. But then you go and say something brilliant like that, and I nearly beg you to be my mentor. Be gone, demon-tongued woman.” She waved her hand at Hilda as if that would suddenly make her disappear.
Hilda laughed. “If nothing else, she is amusing.”
I shook my head at the pair before I closed my eyes once again and focused on the man my heart and soul longed for.
“Torben?” I asked hesitantly. There was no response, and I felt the momentary spark of hope dwindle. How could we have just found one another, just accepted what we were to one another, only to be ripped apart? Was life really that cruel? I snorted inwardly. Yes, you fool, it is. The fact that I had been betrothed to a monster like Cathal was proof that life was a cruel joke at times. It dangled bits of tasty fruits in front of your face that, when you snatched them from the air like a famished horse, you discovered were rotten and putrid.
“It’s not so bad, love.”
His voice once again filled my head, and I felt my heartbeat begin to race. It pounded painfully in my chest as I waited, scared that I’d only imagined him.
“I need to hear your voice, too. Speak to me, Princess.”
“It’s really you? You’re not just a figment of my imagination?”
“That depends, is your imagining of me better than the real thing?”
“Nothing beats having you before me, breathing, flesh and blood. But if this is all I can have for now, then I will take it,” I admitted without shame.
“I am real, Allete. Our bond is strong. I refuse to give you up.”
I smiled to myself. “Your mother said something similar about you.”
“She knows me well. How are you, my love? Has he hurt you?” The words came out in a husky growl.
“No, he hasn’t touched me. Not yet, anyway,” I added before I could censor myself.
“What do you mean, not yet?” His voice was a deadly whisper.
Okay, so I probably shouldn’t have mentioned that.
“Allete,” he warned.
“Well, you see, there was this warrior that needed my help,”
“ACCH! You healed one of his men?”
“Don’t sound betrayed, Torben. It’s not like I lifted my petticoat and flashed the man.”
“Thank you for that image, Princess,” he said dryly.
“I’m a healer, Torben. You know I cannot ignore the call of my magic.”
“And how did Magnus respond?” he asked, sounding very much like he didn’t really want to hear the answer.
“Your mother seemed to think that his int
erest in me has grown. She said he no longer sees me as just a healer, but as a woman, a potential lover,” I admitted slowly. I could feel the anger and worry inside of him. It was like lava building inside a mountain, growing hotter and more volatile by the minute.
“He won’t touch me,” I said, attempting to reassure him. “I’ll cut off his hands before I let him, and Dayna has threatened to gut him like a fish.”
“You must be careful about insulting him, Allete. There are worse things than death. I need you to survive, but… I’ve seen Magnus do unspeakable things, even to his own men. And that’s nothing to what he does to his enemies.
“I will survive, but you need not worry that it will be at the expense of him getting anywhere near me.” I didn’t have to say that I would die before I let Magnus violate me; it was understood in the tone of my voice.
“I love you,” Torben said suddenly. The longing that filled his voice matched my own. “I never thought I could feel this way about someone, but I do. I want the chance to know you more, to have a life with you. I want to see you swollen with my children and tired from being up all night nursing. I want to hear your laughter at my bad jokes and to taste your kiss after years of togetherness.”
If someone had told me, a few short months ago when I met Torben, that he would say such moving words to me, I would have laughed. But here we were, destined for one another yet unable to be together. Here he was, my Viking, whispering words of love in my mind, yet I could not touch him.
“We will have those things and many more,” I said finally after several minutes of silence. “It’s worth fighting for, Torben. I will fight to the death for you. I love you.”
I heard the sigh he breathed out as if he were standing there beside me. I could nearly feel his warmth, and I couldn’t decide if it was a gift or a curse.
Hilda’s voice intruded on the blissful moment. “The expression on your face suggests we are witnessing something no mother should ever witness between her son and his bride.”
