Chapter 5
Svanhild woke suddenly, and for a moment saw only blackness. She fought free, and realised with relief that she saw the darkness of Aleks’s tunic. She'd somehow ended up sleeping with her face pressed against his chest. Fighting back a red flush of embarrassment she pulled herself away from him and sat up against the wall.
He began to stir a moment later, his eyelids flickering open to give her a glimpse of those bright blue eyes.
A sudden noise came from outside, soft but distinct. Someone else must be in the old palace with them. The noise must have woken her up, and surely Aleks too. She glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, afraid to move. He raised one finger to his lips and slipped towards the doorway, his movements as fluid as the water around him. Shaking the last of the sleep from her eyes, Svanhild followed him.
They crossed the threshold of their temporary sleep room and scanned the expanse that had once been the main hall of the palace. Empty. Aleks jerked his head towards the tumbledown wall separating them from the seaweed forest. He and Svanhild moved slowly towards it, keeping close together. Whether a shark or a Wildling, Svanhild would not let anything hurt her – or Aleks.
Aleks slipped around the remains of the old wall first, his knife in his hand. Svanhild pulled her own tiny knife from her belt, wishing there had been more time for sword lessons. Her heart boomed so loudly in her ears that she could barely hear the rustling of the water through the seaweed.
“Stop right there!” Aleks shouted, leaping forward, slashing a path through the dense seaweed. Svanhild flew after him, fronds of weed battering her in the face, her hair tangling in the plants all around her.
She caught up with Aleks as he pinned another man to the ground, both of them breathing hard.
“Who are you?” Svanhild demanded, standing close to Aleks's shoulder to look down at the other man. He tried to gasp out an answer, but Aleks had him too tightly by the throat.
“Let him speak, Aleks,” Svanhild said, laying one hand lightly on Aleks's shoulder. He looked up at her, meeting her eyes for a moment, then nodded and eased his grip on the man beneath him.
“I mean no harm, I swear,” the man said. “I've come from Per, to bring you a message. He thought you would probably be here.”
“I'm not sure I trust you,” Aleks growled, his knife now held to the man's throat.
“He reminds you that he is no friend of Harald and says that, if sides are to be chosen, he chooses yours.”
Of course. That was the half-forgotten undercurrent that had unsettled her in the presence of both Harald and Per. It was no secret that Per had inherited only because his older brother had been killed in a duel – with Harald. Not a warlike man, despite his high status, Per had no doubt tried to settle the matter peacefully. But no selkie under the sea would reject an opportunity for revenge that drifted through their own doorway.
“We may be willing to work with your lord,” Svanhild said. “But you will need to tell us more.”
The envoy shook his head. “I will only speak to you alone,” he said.
Aleks shook his head firmly, brandishing the knife again. “You think I'll trust her alone with you, just because you claim to come from her cousin?”
“I mean what I say.” The envoy's face was as set and determined as Aleks's.
“Tie him up so he can't hurt me,” Svanhild suggested. Aleks paused for a moment, looking at her, his eyes unreadable. Finally, he nodded. He unravelled some of the ropes wrapped around his waist, and tied the envoy's hands and feet firmly. The knots looked a little too tight, but they would hold the man even if he shifted into his seal shape.
Aleks left them alone, but he didn't go far, and Svanhild could feel his eyes on her through the thickness of the seaweed forest.
“You can talk now,” she said to the envoy.
“My lord offers you a deal,” the envoy said. “He sees the opportunity to right more than one wrong.”
“I know he wants revenge on Harald,” said Svanhild. “What else?”
“Your guard. Years ago, your people raided into our lands. That blond madman killed the captain of our guard. Per wants him dead.”
Svanhild felt a little dizzy, strange shapes dancing at the edge of her vision. “He can hardly claim vengeance from a man who was acting on someone else's orders.” Her voice seemed to be coming from a very long way away.
The envoy shrugged as much as his ropes let him.
“Klaus will be your vengeance. Per wants his own.”
In one fluid movement, Svanhild launched herself forward, her knife flashing in her hand. She cut through the ropes as quickly as she could, the rough fibres burning the skin of her palms.
“Leave,” she told the envoy, hating the shake in her voice. “Aleks is my man now, and I will defend him. If my cousin will not accept that, then I will find my allies elsewhere.”
The envoy didn't move, just looking up at her in bewilderment.
“Leave!” Svanhild screamed, throwing the full force of her magic behind the command. The man shot backwards, scrabbling at the sandy soil beneath him. Throwing one terrified glance back at her, he swam away, crashing through the seaweed so loudly that Svanhild half worried he would bring the Wildlings down upon them.
“What happened?”
Aleks appeared beside her, his arms around her shoulders for a brief second before he pulled away.
Svanhild told him what the envoy had said, her words short and sharp.
Aleks looked away, wiping one hand across his forehead. She tried to read his face, but shadows lay deeply across him.
“I'll leave now,” he said after a moment. ”Per seems like a man who would at least give me a fair fight.”
No.
“You're not going. I need you here. Alive.”
“Don't be a fool. You need Per's support more than you need me. I can keep you alive. He could make you a queen.”
“You're exaggerating,” Svanhild snapped. “If you're my man, you do as I tell you. I won't just hand you over to someone else, however wealthy and powerful they are.”
“You're sacrificing your cause for nothing!” Aleks shouted, his face dangerously close to hers. “I deserve whatever punishment they want to give me - Per, Harald, the lot of them. I earned it. I don't deserve your protection.”
“I don't care what you think you deserve!” Svanhild shouted back, feeling her hair swirl and crackle with magic. “I won't sacrifice you for anything, Aleks, no matter what you say!”
She pushed past him, sending the water rippling madly as she shoved her way back through the seaweed towards their temporary home. Just the thought of Aleks gone - dead - felt so sickening that she couldn't look at him. Her whole body ached with the thought of losing him.
How could she find an ally when everyone wanted her to abandon Aleks? Would they spend the rest of their lives living in these dark, sea-swirled ruins?