The Burning Sea

by A. E. Rayne

  ‘Jump!’ came Eadmund’s scream.

  ‘Quick!’ Jael yelled to Aleksander. ‘Jump!’ And they pulled each other over the side of the pier, blood coursing down her leg and his shoulder as they hit the freezing water with a stumbling crash.

  Eadmund drew back his bow and took a deep breath, trying to see through the flames as they flickered at the tip of his arrow. He released it and watched as it flew, up and over the water, dropping with a clatter onto the thick, black sea-fire seeping across the cobblestones.

  Suddenly the entire pier exploded; angry, sparking flames shooting up into the night sky. Jaeger and Haegen could only watch from the ground as fire cloaked everything before them in an impenetrable wall.

  ‘What is happening!?’ Bayla screamed as she ran down the steps with Nicolene and Irenna. ‘Jaeger!’ she sobbed, seeing her three sons scattered about, bleeding on the stones before her.

  Haaron was there, his face purple with rage. He’d desperately tried to save his last remaining ships but to no avail. The wind had fanned the flames, and now only carcasses were burning in his harbour.

  ‘Why aren’t you doing something?!’ Bayla spat at him as she bent over her youngest son. ‘Why are you just letting them get away?!’

  ‘Stop them!’ Jaeger screamed hoarsely as his mother helped him to his feet. ‘Stop them! They have my wife!’

  Haaron could only stand and watch. He knew those flames weren’t going away in a hurry. ‘Archers!’ he cried out hopelessly. ‘Shoot over the fire!’ Some of his men were on the other side of the flames, he knew, but he didn’t imagine that any of them could have survived.

  ‘Throw down the ropes!’ Beorn called as Amma joined Axl and Gant in a wet heap on the deck, all three shivering uncontrollably, teeth chattering, but alive.

  Jael and Aleksander swam desperately for Sea Bear, the arrows in her leg and his shoulder making it slow-going.

  Gant popped his head over the gunwale, squinting into the black abyss. ‘Come on!’ he urged. ‘Swim!’

  Jael gritted her teeth, digging into the freezing water, trying to get her legs moving. She turned to Aleksander, who was slipping back. ‘Come on!’

  A volley of arrows stabbed into the water all around them.

  Jael reached back and grabbed Aleksander’s hand, dragging him towards the ship. He screamed, lunging for a rope as it swung along the hull, his shoulder completely numb, his ears ringing.

  ‘Hang on!’ Gant bellowed, leaning over to pull him up, ducking as another wave of arrows flew in.

  Jael grabbed the other rope, banging against the hull as Axl hauled her up and over the gunwale.

  ‘Pull away, Villas!’ Eadmund yelled, hurrying to grab a spare oar, nodding at Fyn to do the same. ‘We need to turn back around!’

  ‘Pull!’ Villas called to his crew. ‘Pull!’

  Ice Breaker’s men gritted their teeth and heaved, their oars squeaking and groaning with every stroke, as the arrows shot over the flames towards them.

  Morana, Varna, and Meena watched from Haaron’s balcony, shaking their wild hair in disbelief.

  As horrified as Meena was by the scene unfolding before her, a part of her couldn’t help but rejoice as she watched Jaeger’s bride sailing away behind the wall of fire.

  ‘What was the fool doing?’ Morana snorted. ‘He can’t even walk!’

  Varna grunted. What a bad day Jaeger was having.

  First, he lost the book.

  Then he lost his wife.

  She turned to Meena and smiled.

  The shields on both ships sat high along the gunwales, creating cover for the oarsmen as they dug in, the wind gusting around them. They would fly, if only they could get out of reach intact.

  Gisila sat in Ice Breaker’s wooden house, her arm wrapped around Eydis, peering through the arrow holes in the walls as Sea Bear came alongside, both sets of men grunting with the strain of such speed, an occasional burst of arrows whipping overhead.

  Then suddenly they stopped. The terrifying wail ceased and the Osslanders, arrow-threatened and exhausted, let out sighs of relief as they slipped out of the harbour and into the darkness.

  Haaron stood next to his sons, screaming helplessly into the night. Turning around to Osbert, he glared at him. ‘What happened to Lothar?’ he growled. ‘Who killed him? How?’

  ‘They took his head,’ Osbert said blankly, his body still vibrating in shock. ‘Jael,’ he muttered, blinking, his head so fog-heavy he could barely see. ‘It must have been Jael. She murdered my father!’

  ‘What have you done?’ Bayla raged at her husband as she bent over Karsten’s still body. Nicolene was sobbing next to him. He had lost a lot of blood. ‘What have you done?’

  Haaron sighed, not ready to be blamed for everything just yet, not while his harbour was a giant-sized, burning mess. ‘He will live,’ he grumbled, turning to Haegen, who was up and limping, Irenna fussing over his wounds. ‘Get your brother inside!’ he spat. ‘He is no use. Again!’ He turned and walked away. ‘And where the fuck is Berard?’

  Jael closed her eyes, gripping the sea chest.

  ‘This will hurt.’

  Gant dug into Jael’s leg with his knife as she bit down hard on a broken arrow, her ears ringing, her eyes watering as stars danced before them.

  ‘Axl, a bit closer,’ he muttered, squinting in the flickering light of the torch Axl was holding, relieved to see that the arrow had gone through the side of her leg rather than burying itself down into the flesh. It wasn’t deep. Aleksander’s was though. That was next.

  ‘How many men have we lost? Arrrhhh!’ Jael groaned as Gant yanked out the arrowhead and nodded at Amma to press a torn piece of tunic into the gushing wound.

  ‘Here, turn around and hold it on there,’ Gant ordered as he threw the arrowhead onto the deck and grabbed a long strip of cloth to tie around her leg. ‘One or two, I think.’

  Jael let go of the cloth as he tightened the strip.

  ‘Stay still for a while,’ he suggested. ‘Not that you will.’

  ‘No, not that I will,’ Jael said faintly. ‘Help me up. I want to go out and see the men.’

  The sky was dark, and the wind was still fresh as they skipped over the waves. It was a peaceful respite from the chaos of the night. Jael held her breath as she peered around the deck, catching sight of the bodies of the two men they had lost, at the injured men gripping their wounds, bleeding, in pain.

  And all because Axl had killed Lothar.

  As soon as the sail went up, Eadmund had hurried into the house to check on Eydis, wrapping her up in his arms, sighing at the overwhelming relief that she was safe. She sobbed as he held her, overcome with emotion.

  Gisila was in agony as she sat there, her back bloody with cuts from Lothar’s belt, her entire body stiff, too shocked to move. She couldn’t stop seeing the moment when Axl had lunged for Lothar; the sheer surprise on both of their faces as Lothar’s head had come off. It didn’t feel real at all. She closed her eyes, wanting to see her mother.

  ‘Are they alright?’ Fyn wondered sleepily, popping his head in through the end of the house.

  ‘They seem to be. You?’ Eadmund wondered.

  Fyn nodded, sighing heavily, his shoulders releasing themselves at last. ‘What are we going to do now?’

  Egil helped Jaeger back to his chamber, his father’s curses and his wife’s screams echoing in his ears. His eyes drifted to the bed, stripped of all furs. The bed where his wife had been not so long ago. Where he had claimed her, broken her, made her his. He shook his head, too wild to even speak. Limping his way into a chair by the table, he reached for a goblet, his lips twisting in pain, his jaw clenched in fury.

  Egil hurried for the wine jug and filled up the goblet. ‘My lord,’ he muttered nervously. ‘What can I do for you?’

  Jaeger didn’t hear him over the screams inside his head. The memories of the catastrophe were loud and overwhelming. Why had he thought to take Amma out there? It had been like fucking a limp doll,
but still, she was his. Why hadn’t he left her in the safety of his chamber? He shook his head, tired of making mistakes.

  They had stolen his wife. He had to get her back.

  ‘Bring me the book, Egil,’ he grumbled, tipping the wine into his mouth, desperate to numb the bitter, angry, pointless rage that boiled inside him.

  ‘Of course, my lord.’ Egil bowed his head and scurried away to the far corner of the chamber. He reached under his bed and pulled out the iron chest he had brought the book safely back from Skorro in.

  Opening the chest, he looked inside to find that it had gone.

  Amma was too shocked to speak, too tired to say a word as she sat next to Axl, wrapped inside his arms. She wanted to sleep. Her eyes hurt, but she was too scared to close them; scared that she would remember Jaeger and all the things he had done to her.

  ‘Here,’ Jael said as she limped into the house. ‘I have some spare tunics and trousers.’ She handed them around, smiling at Aleksander who lay on his side, grimacing as Gant finished wrapping his shoulder in long strips of cloth.

  Amma blushed, suddenly aware that she was wearing her nightdress, wet and clinging to her as it was. Embarrassed, she glanced at Jael.

  ‘We’ll make them all turn around,’ Jael said wearily. ‘Don’t worry.’ Amma looked traumatised, she thought to herself, amazed that they had managed to rescue her.

  That Axl had.

  But at what cost? The whole of Brekka and Hest would unite against them now. ‘We need to get to Rexon,’ Jael muttered to Gant as he stood and removed his wet tunic, ignoring the cuts across his chest and arms. ‘Get some supplies, tell him what happened.’

  Gant nodded.

  ‘But first, we need to go to Skorro. We have to destroy their ships. Perhaps take a couple back to Oss?’ She pulled off her wet trousers which were stuck to her legs.

  She couldn’t stop shivering.

  Edela had finally fallen asleep.

  Entorp was curled up in Eadmund’s chair by the fire and Biddy could hear him snoring. But she couldn’t sleep. She sat on Edela’s bed, holding her hand, still tasting the bitter char of smoke on her tongue, the stink of it in her nostrils.

  Ido and Vella lay on either side of Edela, looking for comfort from the storm as it continued to hammer Oss.

  Edela had been so scared by what she had felt, certain that it meant death, convinced that someone would die. Biddy felt sick, wondering who it was, praying that Edela had been wrong.

  She sighed, squeezing Edela’s hand, hoping that she would be alright in the morning.

  There was silence.

  Cold darkness and silence.

  Edela walked down the steps onto an enormous square. It was wide and flat, cobblestoned and dark. It was the place she had found Jael in her dream. But there was no one here now.

  No one at all.

  She couldn’t hear her boots as she padded forward, uncertain, shivering.

  ‘You think you have won, Edela?’ boomed the angry voice as a wall of flames exploded before her. ‘Oh, Edela, but you have no idea what I have planned. No idea at all...’

  47

  Jaeger had remained in his chamber for an entire day, ignoring everyone, even Berard, who had banged on his door, begging to be let in, guilt-stricken, embarrassed that he had slept through the whole catastrophe.

  He’d slept through the book being stolen, through Jaeger’s wife being ripped away from him.

  Through Karsten’s and Haegen’s injuries.

  Through the flaming of the square, the destruction of their entire fleet.

  And through their father’s screaming curses.

  Not even Egil would open the door to him. Eventually, Berard had given up and gone away.

  Jaeger stretched out his leg as he stood, holding onto the table, pushing his weight down onto his foot. The pain shot up his leg but he gritted his teeth, ignoring it, sending the sharp agony to another part of him; the part of him that felt nothing.

  That part was growing bigger by the day.

  He pressed his bare foot onto the flagstones, enjoying the coolness against his burning heel. Letting go of the table, he felt the pressure of all his weight as his leg started to buckle. His eyes watered, his breath puffing from his nose as he stepped forward slowly, one foot after the other, grunting at the sheer torture of it, but doing it none the less.

  Jaeger walked all the way to the bed and back to the table, his head throbbing with all the pain his body was absorbing, his hands gripping the table, shaking in desperation. But he had done it.

  He was strong enough.

  He was ready.

  It never felt good to fire a ship and Jael could feel Beorn squirming beside her, but he’d picked the best two to take back to Oss. The rest were aflame on the beach in front of Skorro’s fort. Jael knew that they would probably have to send men to Andala and do the same.

  ‘Are you ready?’ Eadmund wondered wearily as he nodded towards the last of the men clambering into Sea Bear. ‘We need to get through the Widow’s Peak before nightfall.’

  Beorn nodded eagerly beside him. The wind was strong today, and he was not looking forward to navigating those towering spears in such white-capped waves.

  ‘Do we have everything?’ Jael asked Fyn as he hurried past.

  ‘Mmmm,’ he mumbled, chewing on a tough piece of salt fish. ‘All the weapons are loaded onto the ships.’

  ‘Well, then, yes,’ Jael sighed, deciding that they could do no more. ‘Let’s head for Saala, and then we can go home.’

  Fyn looked relieved as he loped after Beorn.

  ‘Eadmund!’ Jael grabbed his arm, hoping to see something familiar in his eyes, but when he turned to her, they were lifeless. Still.

  His eyebrows rose questioningly as he stared at her. Through her.

  He was there but not there at all.

  Jael shook her head sadly. ‘Thank you,’ she smiled. ‘You saved my life again.’

  He shrugged, looked at her quickly, then turned away. ‘I’ll see you in Saala.’

  She watched him go, walking towards his ship, his head forward, never once turning around.

  ‘I’m fine,’ Edela insisted as Biddy reached for the door handle. ‘You go. I shall probably just stay in this chair and be drooled on by the puppies until you return.’

  Biddy’s face told her just what she thought of the likelihood of that happening. ‘Well, stay warm. You need more rest. I mean it, Edela, you couldn’t even get out of bed yesterday! Don’t expect to suddenly be able to hop around the island.’

  ‘I’m not sure I’ve ever hopped anywhere in my life!’ Edela laughed as Biddy turned to leave. ‘See if you can find me some of those figs again!’ she called. ‘They were so wonderfully sweet.’

  Biddy nodded, smiling, as she shut the door behind her.

  Edela listened as Biddy chatted to Askel, waiting for her footsteps to disappear. She eased herself out of the chair and hurried to put on her cloak, her body aching with every movement. A day spent in bed might have helped restore her strength after the dream walk, but every single part of her felt as though she’d been in a battle. Well, perhaps Jael would disagree with that, she smiled to herself.

  Jael.

  Jael was coming. She could feel it.

  ‘Where is it?!’ Jaeger snarled, his large hand pinning Varna to the dripping stone wall of her chamber. Her sagging throat pulsed beneath his fingers but he didn’t release the pressure as she gagged and spat before him, desperately trying to breathe, her yellowed eyes bulging at the look in his own. ‘Where is my book?’

  They were alone.

  He had waited for Meena to leave, not wanting her interference; certain that she would wail and cause a horrific, head-tapping fuss.

  Jaeger’s nostrils flared as Varna refused to answer. She stunk. Her whole room stunk. He slammed her head back against the wall.

  ‘Aaarrrhhh,’ Varna gargled. ‘I... you... the book is not meant for you!’

  ‘What?!’ Jaeger sne
ered. ‘The book is mine! I found it. I am a Dragos. Why shouldn’t it belong to me?’ He released his fingers to allow her to speak.

  Varna’s head was ringing as she sucked in a welcome breath. ‘Dangerous,’ she gasped. ‘Too dangerous.’

  Jaeger shook his head crossly, his hand tightening around her throat again. ‘Give it to me, Varna!’ he demanded through bared teeth. ‘Give my book back, or I will slit your throat!’

  ‘You, you... need me,’ she rasped. ‘To... read it.’

  Jaeger frowned, snarling. It was true, of course. ‘You? You think I need you? You who knew what would happen on Skorro? Who had my father send me there anyway? Why do I need you? You want me dead!’ he growled. ‘I’ve always known that!’ He pressed his fingers deeper into her neck, feeling her thick veins, watching her eyeballs pop.

  ‘I... read... book...’ Varna spluttered.

  He wanted her to be wrong, but she wasn’t. ‘Tell me where the book is then, and I will let you live,’ he promised. ‘Just tell me! Now!’

  ‘She is not the only one who can read the book,’ said a voice behind him.

  Edela couldn’t stop thinking about Eadmund as she hurried towards Entorp’s house. She had felt it herself; he was definitely under Evaine’s control again. She hoped that Entorp would be able to help her find another way to stop that evil girl.

  ‘Edela!’ Thorgils smiled as he wandered down the alley towards her. He squinted as he got closer. ‘You look terrible! Is something wrong?’ He reached out and grabbed her arm. ‘Shall I help you back to the house?’

  Edela laughed and shook her head. ‘I can’t look that bad, can I? Not if I can still walk about on my own!’ She was pale, wobbling slightly as she said that, but determined. There was fire in her eyes.