“Relax,” she mumbled, her lips so close to his ear while he sat in a chair, which did nothing to help him loosen. He did not enjoy his enemy so close, so intimate. He found himself wrapped in her spice, a mixture of scents simultaneously earthy and floral. “It is really a quick process, but it will hurt. A lot. I will countdown so you can prepare.” She covered the arch of his shoulder with her palm and folded his arm into a sharp angle with the other. “All right, brace yourself in three—”
In a simple motion she pulled his arm midline and the bone snapped into place, shooting stars across his vision and a pain through the joint worse than the original blow. But the agony ceased as quickly as it began, leaving him only time to yelp.
“Why didn’t you count?” he gingerly rolled the sore muscles in his shoulder to return his arm back to its former function.
She scoffed and walked back to where the wolf was still standing against the shroud, his skin still cold where she touched him. “Because I hate you.”
“You’re a healer?” he asked, ignoring her insult and how matter of fact she phrased it.
She sighed, growing frustrated with him. Making it plain she had no interest in small talk with her family’s killer. “I own—used to own an apothecary. When your entire family descends from shieldmages, you find plenty of opportunities to mend the body in creative ways.”
She turned her back to him and stared across the sea. The sun was rising over the eastern horizon, bruising the sky with deep blues and magentas, piercing the darkness with the first rays of morning. Taking the hint from her posture, he stood and strode down the steps leading to the main deck, ending all further conversation.
He would need to make it a point to avoid her. The woman would soon be brought to the gods, and she would most likely die to unbind the power latching itself to her soul. He could not allow himself to pity her or her situation. She had done this to herself, and he had a job to do.
“Vali.” Seela stepped in his path. “I would like to speak with you about the girl.”
“Her name is Ailsa, Commander. Might as well say her name, she’s going to be with us for a while. What about her?”
Seela’s face betrayed a flash of irritation before returning to its passive coolness. “You let her walk all over you. If she is the Tether as you said, and I do not doubt your claim, then shouldn’t we keep her locked away? What right does she have to be making demands?”
Vali stepped closer to his commander to private their conversation. “Ailsa nearly blasted me apart on the shores of Drakame. Surely you saw the power inside her from the ship?” The commander nodded. “Some of those heathens had magic, but not like the one we witnessed. It is better to keep her happy, to let her feel like a guest instead of a prisoner. If she loses control for a moment, if we anger or frustrate her, the power inside her could be unleashed and bind itself to her permanently. And what then? Whether we like it or not, she has the upper hand right now.”
Seela jutted her chin higher. “I will not serve the woman who tried to kill you.”
Vali shook his head and laid his hands on her shoulders. “You serve me, and me alone. You have been brilliantly loyal for so long, Seela, and we will all be rewarded soon enough. This is a test like all the other trials we have faced together, and we will find a way to endure like we always have. But until we reach Alfheim, keep your eyes on the water. I have a feeling the way home won’t be as easy as when we left.”
She bowed her head. “As you wish.”
He squeezed her delicate shoulders and continued toward his quarters that lay in the back of the ship, desperate to get a few hours of sleep and unwind this night from his mind like a tangled thread wrapped around a spool.
* * *
Vali slept the morning away.By the time his eyes opened, the sun was high above the world, heating his cabin into a furnace. He threw on a loose linen shirt over the light leather breeches that stuck to his skin and popped open a new bottle of mead they had scavenged from the island. His tongue felt as heavy as his thoughts, and he needed something strong enough to tend to them both.
There was a doubt that corrupted any sense of satisfaction at finally discovering the Tether. He had been searching for the past half century, yet only recently had the wraiths spoken to him. The fates did not weave their threads into a meaningless pattern. There were motives for their methods, a way for each present of a story to line up seamlessly with the past. This seemingly unexceptional woman had been sent the Tether, the power had to have chosen her for a reason.And if it wasn’t a divine intervention, he didn’t know what else it could be.
His own destiny had been woven into the tapestry of time from the beginning of his life. He was bred for this purpose, and this purpose alone. To deliver the Tether to Odin and save his world in the process. This power was tied to his fate as much as it was tethered to Ailsa’s soul. As much as he hated to admit it in his mind, their destinies were woven together, each sewn into the same embroidered fate, each from entirely different spools of stringing.
His men were hard at work manning the mast now inflated with air, angled in such a way to catch the northern breeze and sail them against the wind to the Edge of the World. He fell effortlessly into their rhythm, assisting the soldiers turned sailors with the strength of his magic freshly restored and eager to help. The labor took his mind off the state of everything, a much-needed distraction from the woman who had taken room and board inside his head.
“Sorrin,” he called to one of his officers. The male with pure white hair pulled low behind his head stopped his work and nodded in acknowledgement. “Did our guests recluse to a cabin for the day?”
“Just the wolven, sir. She’s in my old cabin. I moved in with the mates below.”
Vali chewed his cheek in consideration. “And the other woman?”
Sorrin pointed above their heads. He followed his gesture to the peak of the main mast. “She’s in the nest. Been up there all morning. We were just about to send someone to check on her, but no one is willing. We… don’t heal as quickly as you do.”
“Don’t bother yourselves,” he muttered, rubbing the sore spot on his rib. “I’ll do it.”
The sky was cloudless, a flawless blue stretching as far as her eye could see and beneath it the same endless stretch of waves leaping and receding like bobbing mountains made of ocean spray. She peered through the gilded spyglass, trying to catch a glimpse of their destination, but the Great Sea spanned the entire width of the realm, lining the world in a cerulean frame.
Ivor retreated inside their cabin, finding the motion of the boat too disorienting to remain on deck, and Ailsa could hardly stand the sounds of her retching to remain in the cabin. So instead she climbed to the tallest mast and stared at the sea, finding a piece of comfort in being someplace other than her longhouse or the Aelderwood. Even if it was with a bunch of outlanders.
Her black gown attracted the sun. The coarse cloth was hot to the touch, sending a trickle of sweat beading beneath her smock. She brushed the thick wave of hair hanging low down her back over her shoulder, letting her skin breathe and the sun dry her neck.
“What are you doing up here?”