Page 65 of Sky in the Deep
She didn’t answer, her face stone.
I stood again, going for the door, desperate for the air.
She came out behind me. “What are you doing with a Riki, Eelyn?”
“I need to get to Virki.”
“What ishedoing here?” She shoved me and I recoiled, hissing. “What is it?” She pulled me to her, pushing the neck of my tunic open to look at the wound that festered in my shoulder. “Arrow?”
I nodded.
She checked the back of my shoulder and her hands suddenly stilled on me. “Is that…?” Her gaze fell to the burns circling my neck. “Did they…?”
I dropped my eyes, the shame of it too overwhelming.
She pushed past me, squaring off in front of Fiske as he came out the door. Her hands pushed into him hard. “What did youdo?”
He looked down, expressionless, his frame towering over her.
“Why is he helping you, Eelyn?” She turned back toward me.
“The Herja came into the mountains.” I leaned into thetree that stood beside my home. The one Mýra and I climbed as children. “They’re everywhere.”
I watched her think. She brought her hands together, pressing her thumbs into her bottom lip.
“The Riki lost many. Too many.”
“Good,” she muttered, shooting her eyes to Fiske.
He tensed, pressing his mouth into a line.
“They’ll kill us, Mýra.Allof us. I need to get to my father.”
Her eyes were still on Fiske, who silently stood in the doorway. “What abouthim?”
“He’s coming with me.”
“No.” She shook her head, taking a step back. “I’m not taking him to Virki. He’ll come back with the rest of the Riki and finish us off!”
“No, he won’t. The Riki are weak. They can’t fight.” I swallowed. “Not on their own.”
Mýra gaped at me. “You aren’t serious. The Aska willneverfight with them. And Sigr will never allow peace with Thora.”
“Even if it means surviving? The Herja will come back. Look at this!” I flung my arms out around me to the village. “The thaw is coming, Mýra. And when it does, they’ll be back!”
“Vegr yfir fjor.”She bit down, her nostrils flaring. “We can’t trust them, Eelyn. You know that.”
I glanced at Fiske. Even if I did trust him, I would never trust his people. Not really. “I know.”
He lifted his chin, looking down at me.
“Fine. Bring him. The Aska will kill him when we get to Virki anyway.” Mýra looked at us both before she turned on her heel, slinging her bow over her head and starting down the path alone.
THIRTY-SEVEN
We walked in a single file line down the edge of the coast. The wind blew up the cliff faces in gusts, pushing us back as we moved south. I clutched my throbbing arm to my body as the blood seeped out of it and soaked into my tunic.
Hylli grew small in the distance and the trees grew thicker, turning into the coastal forest that most of the other Aska villages were nestled into. It was a trail Mýra and I had taken many times, going with my father to Utan and Lund to trade fish for things Hylli needed like timber and herbs that could only be found in the forest.
