Page 74 of Sky in the Deep
“What do you meantookhim in?” My father finally spoke, but it was twisted and strained. Rage conjured behind his eyes.
“The other boy in the trench—it was Fiske. He saved Iri’s life. They took him to Fela and made him well and…” I sighed. “I don’t know. He joined them.”
My father looked over my head, into the black of the forest.
“I found him again at the last battle and he captured me to keep the Riki from killing me. He planned to keep me with him in Fela until the thaw and then let me escape.”
His hands ran over his face and he breathed into them.
“Iri’s been living with Fiske’s family these last five years.”
He turned to the orange glow in the trees in the distance where Fiske was still sitting by the fire.
“Why didn’t he come with you? Why didn’t he come back to the Aska?” Mýra stepped in front of me.
“I told him to stay.” I looked to my feet. “I was afraid of what may happen to him if I brought him back. I wanted to tell you first.”
My father paced before me.
“Fiske’s family has become his family.” I didn’t need to see him to know what that did to him, because I remembered it too well. But I couldn’t look away. His body responded to it, going rigid from head to toe. “I don’t understand it,” I said. “But he’s become one of them.”
The sounds of the forest came up around us in the night and he looked at me for a long time before he finally looked at Mýra. And that same look passed between them, but this time Mýra’s jaw clenched, her arms tightening around the wood. The question on her face transformed into anger and she gathered up the rest of the wood, starting back toward the camp and leaving my father and me alone. I stood, waiting. I couldn’t guess what he might do.
But when his eyes looked up to me again, half hidden beneath his thick eyebrows, they glistened, his nose turning red.
“We left him.” The whisper was smothered. Suffocated.
I nodded, the tears in my eyes reflecting his. “But he’s alive.”
FORTY-ONE
Idreamed of the bear.
I stood in the path that snaked through Fela with my feet buried in the snow. The flakes came down clinging to one another in big clumps landing on the golden-brown fur that framed its face and it looked up at me, with the same wide, black eyes. They were like a starless night sky. There was no end to them.
The prickling of his stare ran over my body, making me shake as I lifted my hand and spread my fingers, reaching out to him. He looked at it, taking a small step toward me until I could feel his breath on the palm of my hand.
But then he was gone.
I turned in a circle, looking around the empty village, but the bear had vanished. His footprints were still punched into the snow before me.
I sucked in a breath, my eyes opening, and that same smell of cold that had been in my dream was all around me. I blinked, pulling my numb hands back into the furs. Fiske was lying on the other side of the fire with one arm tucked beneath his head and the tautness of his face smoothed with sleep.
The rustling of soft, slow footfalls sounded nearby and my hand reached for my knife. I stilled, opening my eyes wider so they could adjust to the dark as a shadow slid over me, onto the ground before the fire. By the time I saw it, it was too late.
Mýra was standing over Fiske’s body, her axe pulled up over her head.
“No!” I screamed, throwing the furs off of me and launching forward.
The flames licked my legs as I jumped over the fire. Fiske was already rolling out of the way. Mýra’s axe hit the ground where his head had been seconds earlier and my father came up onto his feet, his sword drawn. I threw myself between Mýra and Fiske, my knife in my hand.
Mýra’s furious stare was pinned on him. “Get out of the way!” She lifted her axe.
“Mýra.” My father’s voice was a warning behind her.
But she couldn’t hear it. It couldn’t touch her. I stepped forward and she swung the axe at me, nearly catching my chest.
Fiske rushed past me, snatching her wrist up with his hand and taking her by the throat.
