by Alice Wilde
Ero rolls his eyes, and I can’t help but wonder if our moment in the forest ruined whatever friendship there was left between us. Roan has done his best to reign in his feelings for me, even letting Li take responsibility for carrying me.
I am surprised to find that I miss Roan’s affection. Li always does his best to make sure I’m comfortable and taken care of, but aside from the kiss we shared so long ago, Li has treated me more like a treasure to be kept safe instead of a friend. I suppose that explains why Roan doesn’t seem to mind him being so close to me.
“Wait, look over there,” Li says, pointing down to the shoreline. “Does that look like a small ship to any of you?”
We turn our heads in the direction Li is pointing.
“Appears to be,” Ero says.
“What are we waiting for?”
We carefully make our way down from the grassy ledge we’d been traversing and up the beach toward the vessel. As we get closer, we realize it isn’t quite as small of a ship as we thought. Further up the shoreline are several small boats, undoubtedly from the crew of the ship, but the beach is otherwise deserted.
“Is it common for ships this large to anchor in places like this?” I ask.
“No,” Li says. “At least not for reputable reasons.”
“It’s too quiet,” Ero says. “There should at least be noise from a crew if nothing else.”
“You’re right,” Roan says, and I notice him move slightly closer to where I’m standing. “There’s something off about this.”
“Shouldn’t we at least take a look at the boats? There might be a clue,” I say.
“Yes, but we need to tread carefully,” says Li.
We stroll up the beach toward the rowboats, checking the ground and surrounding area for any clues as to who has been here before. I notice Ero is focused on the treelined ledge, but none of us see anything. As we approach the boats, I half expect men to leap out of them, but instead, I’m hit with a powerful odor. I cover my mouth and nose with my hand as I try not to retch.
“What is that?” I ask, turning my back to the stench.
Li, Ero, and Roan share a look with each other and then turn to me.
“Stay back a moment, lass.”
I walk back several paces to put some distance between myself and the unpleasant smell as the men walk toward the boats together. They peer into the first rowboat and I can see Ero’s expression harden, then they whisper among themselves. Li gestures toward the other boats and Ero and Roan move to check them as well. Curiosity is starting to get the better of me, but I stay where I am. Roan and Ero finish inspecting the remaining boats and return to Li.
“What is it?” I call.
Li says something to Roan, who then turns and heads back toward me.
“Well?”
“They’re full of dead bodies.”
“Dead bodies?”
“Yes, it seems to mostly be those of women and children.”
I stare at him, dumbfounded. It doesn’t make any sense.
“Why…why would there be boats full of dead bodies here?”
“I don’t know, lass. But it may have something to do with the Viking invasions.”
“How do you know it was Vikings?”
“I don’t, but’s not uncommon for Vikings to steal women and children during a raid and transport them to another country for sale,” Roan says slowly. “That ship isn’t Viking, but it may be stolen as well.”
“They sell people?” I ask incredulously.
I’d read about this barbaric behavior, but this was the first time I’d encountered it in real life…aside from Damien’s men and women. I clench my jaw in fury at the thought.
“Why are they dead?”
“It’s hard to say for sure,” Roan replies. “Ero seems to think they may have been preparing to burn the bodies, perhaps from some kind of illness.”
“And what do you think?”
“I don’t think they were killed by any sickness…at least not a physical sickness.”
“Why?”
“There are no men in the boats. No tracks leading to or from them. No sign whatsoever of the perpetrators of this disgusting act,” Roan says through gritted teeth, his fists clenching.
I turn my head at the sound of Li’s and Ero’s footsteps approaching on the damp sand.
“Ero, is this how Vikings behave?” I ask.
Ero looks at me, his pale face even more pallid than normal, but his eyes are hard.
“Yes, some do, and there will likely be worse to come.”
I swallow hard. Nothing about our journey has been easy thus far, but I couldn’t imagine much worse than what we’ve already seen and experienced.
“What are we going to do now?” Roan asks.
“I think we need to clear the bodies from one of the boats,” Ero says. “Burn the rest. At the very least we can honor them in death.”
“How will burning the boats honor them?”
“I can’t be sure of what happened to them…I can’t help but feel like this wasn’t done by real Vikings. A true Viking reserves a burial at sea for only the greatest of warriors. But in this case, whomever these women and children were and whatever they suffered, I think they deserve that honor.”
“It will also kill any diseases that may have settled on them,” Li says.
“Thanks, Li,” Ero says. “I was trying not to mention that.”
“Oh.”
“What about their families?” I ask. “Won’t they wonder where they are or what happened to them? How will they ever find out if we burn the evidence?”
“I doubt they have any surviving family members to mourn for them.”
My heart aches for these people. In just a few weeks, I’ve already encountered so much unimaginable cruelty, and just when I think I’ve seen it all, it gets worse. How can a world like this exist when Damien hasn’t even finished unleashing his own dark magic? How could it possibly get worse than this?
“You don’t have to watch, lass,” Roan says, squeezing my shoulder comfortingly.
“No, I want to help,” I say. “If I’m to be queen, I need to be part of it all…good and bad.”
“So you say,” Ero says as he strides back toward the rowboats. “You better prepare yourself.”
“Are you sure?” Li asks.
“Yes.”
Li looks at Roan, who shrugs.
“You heard my wife, let her help.”
“You’ll probably need this,” Li says, tearing a strip of cloth from the bottom of his shirt.
I want to stop him from ruining his clothes, but it’s already too late and I accept it graciously, tying it behind my head so it covers my mouth and nose. I breathe in through the cloth and I’m amazed to find that it smells pleasantly of lilac, a scent I hadn’t noticed on Li before. Not that any of the men ever smell bad, even when they were rough from a week’s journey. I’ll have to pay closer attention next time I’m near enough to the other two…and not surrounded by death.
I follow Roan and Li back to the boats where Ero is already inspecting each of them in turn.
“I think the fifth boat down is in the best shape,” Ero says, pointing toward it. “The others will float just as well, but it’s the cleanest.”
I don’t want to know what he means by that, but I soon find out as I slowly approach the nearest boat and peer inside. It takes every ounce of strength to keep myself being sick and turning away, but I manage to stand firmly in place.
It’s not the first time I’ve seen death, but somehow it manages to be different every time. When I agreed to help, I thought they’d look like they were sleeping, but unfortunately, this isn’t the case.
“You don’t have to do this, lass,” Roan says from the other side of the boat, startling me.
“I…I said I would help. Why do they look like that?”
“They’ve likely been dead at least a few days,” says Li. “A dead body will start to release gasses, which causes them to…change.”
“I don’t think we should touch them,” I say.
“Probably not, but we’ll have to empty at least one of the boats.”
It’s only now that it dawns on me what they mean.
“Are we going to board the ship?”
“That’s the plan,” Ero calls from where he’s already busy clearing the dead from the boat he designated earlier.
“But what if the killers are onboard?” I ask anxiously.
“I highly doubt it,” Li says. “For some reason, they didn’t finish what they set out to do with the dead, and they didn’t set sail after sending the dead to shore. If there are any people on board, there are likely too few of them to be much trouble.”
I can’t help but feel a pit in my stomach over the plan, but I bite my tongue.
“Done,” Ero says as he finishes clearing the rowboat. “We’re going to need materials to start a fire, and it wouldn’t be a bad idea to check the other boats for anything valuable.”
“I’ll check the boats,” Li says.
“Guess I’ll start a fire,” says Roan.
Before I can ask to join him, there’s a loud splash and I turn just in time to see Ero emerge from the ocean. I wouldn’t have believed it possible, but he’s somehow even more attractive thoroughly drenched, his clothes plastered to his body in such a way that he might as well not be wearing them.
“Are you going to stare or join me?”
“There’s absolutely no way I’m going swimming,” I snort. “It’s too cold!”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Ero says with a grin and dives once again beneath the waves.
I roll my eyes and turn back to discover Roan’s already left and out of sight, so I assist Li in checking the boats, but there’s nothing of use or value in any of them.
Ero joins us on the beach, upwind from the bodies, as we wait for Roan to return.
“Shouldn’t Roan be back by now?” Ero asks, shaking water from his hair like a dog.
Just then, we hear a shout from across the beach and turn to see Roan racing toward us. I can’t quite hear what he’s saying, but then we see them, a group of men on horseback charging over the grassy ledge in full pursuit of Roan.
“Get in the boat!”
Li and Ero leap into action, dragging the only empty rowboat down to the water’s edge.
“Annalise, get in,” Li orders.
“What about Roan?”
“He can take care of himself,” Ero says, plucking me off the ground before I can argue any further and tossing me into the boat as he and Li pull it out into the water. Li jumps in to join me just as Ero shoves the dinghy hard and swings himself aboard in one quick movement.
I cling to the edge of the boat as Li and Ero begin to row with ferocious speed.
“Please, Roan, don’t leave me,” I breathe to myself as I look back toward the shore scarcely in time to see Roan shift into his leopard form just as one of the men on horseback swings a sword where his human head had been only a moment before.
My stomach twists as I watch Roan bound out of reach of the men and into the ocean. The horses rear up and whinny, stopping just short of the water as the men shout and curse at us from the shore.
I gasp as my lungs suddenly draw breath. Roan is safe. We are all safe…at least for the present.
Five
Annalise
Roan swims alongside our rowboat until we reach the ship and manage to pull up alongside it.
It isn’t the largest ship I’ve ever seen, but it certainly isn’t small, and it is more ship than just a few men should be able to sail.
A rope ladder is dangling over the side, which Ero grabs hold of to keep us held against the side of the boat and to allow Roan to climb aboard without capsizing us.
“I think I should go first,” Li says, “to make sure the coast is clear, or at least safe enough for the rest of you to board the ship.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” says Ero.
Li grabs hold of the ladder and begins climbing as I watch after him anxiously. I may not know him very well compared to Roan, but I can’t deny that he’s always been brave. Roan shakes water from his coat, and I realize he hasn’t shifted back into his human form yet.
“Roan, you can shift in front of me. We are married,” I say.
Roan’s leopard looks at me but then shakes his head furiously, water droplets flying everywhere.
“Fine, suit yourself,” I say, covering my face with my hands in a desperate attempt to shield myself.
Li pulls himself over the edge of the ship, disappearing from view. I wait with bated breath for him to let us know what’s going on. A few minutes later, he leans back over the railing, looking down at us.
“There’s no one,” he calls. “Climb aboard.”
“After you, princess.”
I grab hold of the ladder and start climbing, only to realize it’s much more complicated than Li had made it look. The ladder sways with every step, the ropes bending and changing with each movement, and my skirts make the process that much more frustrating. Ero tries to hold it as steady as possible from his place in the rowboat, but there’s only so much he can do against the ebb and flow of the waves.
Li reaches out to me as I finally get close to the top of the ladder. I reach out for his hand, but just as I do, my foot catches on my dress. Time seems to slow as I feel my feet slip from the rung and my heart stops in my chest. But before I can plunge into the ocean below, Li’s hand is clasped tightly around my still outstretched wrist, holding me fast. He’d swung over the edge of the boat, dropping several feet before grabbing the rope ladder in one hand and me in the other.
“That was close,” I gasp in relief.
“No,” Li says, “this was merely a precaution on my part. Check your other hand.”
Looking, I find that while my feet may have slipped, one of my hands is still clenched tightly around the rope.
“You’re stronger than you think, but we may have to make some adjustments to your dress.”
Li pulls me high enough that I can slip my feet back onto the rungs and then replaces the hand he’s holding back onto the ropes. I’m still trembling slightly from the rush of falling, but I finish the climb on my own, Li following close behind.
The ship is completely empty, almost as if there was never any crew at all.
“Did you check down below?”
“Of course.”
Ero joins us on deck. “Roan won’t come up until we toss him something to wear,” Ero says.
“I don’t know that we’ll find much here,” I say.
Li walks over to one of the masts, checking the sail.
“Don’t rip the sail,” says Ero, anticipating Li’s next move. “I’ll have a look around first.”
Ero disappears below deck and reappears a few minutes later carrying a bit of fabric.
“I have no idea what this was used for, but it’ll have to work.”
Ero tosses the material over the side of the boat and Roan joins us a few minutes later, the fabric knotted around his waist. His body glistens with sweat and salt water, his red curls even more wild than usual.
“What happened back there?” asks Ero.
“Nothing,” answers Roan. “I know what it is.”
We all look at him curiously.
“I stumbled on that group of men in the forest. They’d apparently been camped out there for a number of days. They were the ones responsible for what we saw on the beach.”
“What exactly did you overhear?” Li asks.
“They murdered everyone in a nearby village and arranged that scene to make it appear as though Vikings had done it,” Roan says. “They were hoping to lure some real Vikings in to make it look more authentic, but instead it was us.”
“Why would they do such an appalling thing?” I ask.
“They seemed to believe that something like this would help them gain more support from other territories to wage war against the Vikings.”
“By ki
lling their own people?”
“I didn’t say their plan made much sense.”
“So why did they chase you?”
“I may have walked straight into their camp with a thing or two to say,” Roan says uneasily.
“Roan, you could have been killed!”
“I know, but I wasn’t—and now we know what happened.”
“How is that information going to help us?”
“I don’t know that it does,” says Li thoughtfully. “Unless we can use this to help garner support from real Vikings. I doubt they would take too kindly to people trying to frame them for this. What do you think, Ero?”
Ero walks over to the railing and looks out toward the beach.
“I don’t know. I suppose it would depend on the Viking. Some may revel in the idea that others were doing the dirty work for them and making them seem all the more ferocious.”
“So, now we’re trapped on an empty ship with no plan and murderous people on land,” I say. “What good was any of this? If we couldn’t get Roan’s family to help, how are we supposed to get help from the Vikings?”
“We’ll find a way,” Li says. “One step at a time.”
“My family will help, I’ll make sure of that. Besides, we’re not trapped on this ship,” says Roan.
“What do you mean?”
“Ero,” Roan says turning to face him, “you’re going to have to figure out whatever you did on the ship we took from France and get this thing moving.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Ero says. “I have no idea how to control whatever that magic was. I don’t even know how I did it.”
“Roan might be on to something,” Li says. “We might be able to sail this ship to some extent without a crew, but if you were controlling the sea and wind, we’d be able to reach Scandinavia in no time.”
“You’re insane,” Ero growls. “Do you have any idea how risky this idea is? How would you even manage to set course and sail in the right direction? And if I can’t control it, what then?”
“It’s better than sitting around and doing nothing,” says Roan.
“Sure, until we end up dead.”
“At least we’d die trying,” Roan says.
Ero glares furiously at Roan and then storms below deck.
