Page 49 of Sky in the Deep
He grabbed one leg and I wiped my face before I grabbed the other. We dragged him through the forest, the Tala and Halvard walking ahead.
“They’ve been to the fjord.” I grunted against the Herja’s weight, my legs weak.
“Maybe.”
Before I could answer, the sound of Fela reached us through the trees.
The first of the morning light rose up over the mountain, turning the village the deep purple of a day-old bruise. Smoke trailed up from some of the homes still burning and bodies were strung out along the main path. Every few steps, the snow was spattered red.
The Tala looked over her shoulder to Fiske, her lips parting.
We dragged the Herja until we neared the house and I swallowed hard. It was quiet and I didn’t know what that meant. What it might do to me. The sky and the earth were both pulling at every piece of me, making me feel thin. Like I was going to rip in two.
I dropped the leg of the Herja and pushed through the door. Inge’s scream broke the silence. She lunged forward, catching Halvard in her arms and sinking to the floor, her face so twisted and broken I almost couldn’t recognize her.
My eyes darted around the room until they found him.
Iri.
Standing at the end of the table, his face red. His eyes wet. Hair sticking to the side of his face.
A sob broke loose from my chest and I ran to him. I fell into his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around me, lifting my feet from the ground. I tried to breathe, taking the air in slowly and willing my heart to calm.
He let me go, reaching for Fiske and kissing the side of his face. The air in his chest hissed out as he pulled him into his arms. “I thought… we thought…” He shook his head. “We couldn’t find your bodies.”
Behind him, Runa leaned against the wall, her knees pulled up into her chest. She stared into the fire blankly, a trail of tears striping her soot-covered face.
Inge still sat on the floor, her arms wrapped around Halvard and crying into his hair. She whispered into his ear, holding him close, and he nodded against her, sniffing back the tears. The dried blood crusted down beneath his nose and a ring of raw skin encircled his neck where the rope had been. When she pulled back from him, she looked at it, pressing on each side of his nose with her thumbs as he looked up at the ceiling. A dark bruise had already bloomed under both eyes.
“What is this?” Iri looked down to the Herja lying outside the door.
Inge gasped, pulling Halvard closer.
I ran a hand through my hair, my fingernails scratching against my shorn scalp. “They’ve been to the Aska.”
His face went slack and his eyes widened, filling withwhatever had been there when I came through the door. Asking the question that I couldn’t answer.
I leaned into the table, rubbing my face with my rough, blistered hands, and looked around the room, my muscles jumping around my bones. My blood still running fast. It was the way my body slowly calmed after battle. The way my mind raced in a million directions, trying to find something to latch onto. As my breaths grew longer, the pain began to surface in my shoulder again. I pulled my armor vest aside to look at it.
“Let me see.” Inge finally let Halvard go and rose to her feet.
Runa still sat against the wall, silent.
“Her father.” Inge met my eyes, speaking lowly.
My stomach roiled, my mind hovering over the only thought in my head.Myfather. The Aska.
Fiske set a hand on Inge’s shoulder. “You should go up to the ritual house. The wounded will be there.”
My eyes were still on the Herja’s boots in the doorway.
Inge nodded, looking to Runa. “You’re right.”
Runa stood, still empty in the eyes. She went for the basket on the table and pulled it onto her arm, waiting for Inge with a blank stare falling on the door. But Inge didn’t move until I looked at her. She waited for my eyes to lift and when they did, she took my face into her hands and pressed her warm cheek against mine, her breath running over the side of my face. She held me, folding her arms around me and pulling me tightly against her.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
And the glacier inside of me cracked. It roared as it broke and fell into the icy waters around my heart. “You’re welcome.”
