Page 33 of A Shield Maiden's Earl
“’Tis not a good day for this,” I had warned Leif before we set sail, eyeing the red skies. Nothing good ever came of seeing such before sailing, as it usually preceded bad weather.
“I agree,” Leif replied. “But ’tis the king’s orders.” He shrugged and grinned at me. “I cannot see it being much worse than what we faced sailing around Scotland, and we survived.”
“True,” I conceded, never one to worry overmuch about a storm, but the air felt different, and the winds shifted too much, making navigation tricky when we set out. Lowering our sails, we took to rowing against choppy waters and higher waves than I would have liked.
The king had decided he wanted us to go ashore tonight under the cloak of darkness to scope things out. He and his fleet would join us the next day.
By the time we arrived, the wind had picked up considerably, and the waves were too big to make it safely past the breakers. Even dropping anchor might prove perilous, but we had little choice.
Thunder boomed, white hot lightning flashed, raging waves battered our hulls, and icy rain sliced down as we tried to keep our ships afloat. It eventually got so bad I could no longer make out the other boats in the rapid lightning flashes, and my heart sank.
“Where did they go?” one of my men roared, trying to be heard over the violent storm.
Shaking my head, I ordered them to tie off or hold onto anything they could because the anchor was doing no good, any more than I suspected it had for the other ships.
A lightning flash later proved it.
“Hell, streð mik,” I cursed.
Teetering dangerously on its side, one of the other boats was being dragged to shore by angry waves. I wiped rain from my eyes and tried to keep it in sight, but moments later, a wavecrashed into our boat, so high that it lolled heavily to one side. Heart pounding, I wrapped my arm around the slick mast and held on tight, thinking only of Freya and our child. I envisioned her luminous amber gaze and the feel of her warmth in my arms while trying to grab one of my men before he went over, but it was too late.
For all of us, it turned out, because the next thing I knew, my ship rolled and I was underneath the frigid water. Pushing off the mast, I dove down and swam with all my might to get clear of my boat as waves kept tossing it closer to the shore. All I could do after that was attempt to make it to shore, too, without drowning in the merciless, raging, wrathful sea.
Finally, and with the gods’ help, I found and broke the surface of the water where I struggled to breathe around mouthfuls of salt water. Still, I needed to figure out which way was which in the cloying darkness. Between the rain and the sea, water came at me from every direction, and I lost all sense of bearing until I swore I heard Freya’s voice on the howling winds telling me to look for her wolf.
Look for Largs.
It took me a moment to realize she must be speaking of Largs, Scotland. As if to confirm my thoughts, her familiar warmth spread through me, and wolf eyes appeared in the darkness.
“I see it,” I gasped.
Finding a fresh burst of strength, I headed in that direction, unwilling to give up. Unwilling to die tonight and never meet my child. Never see my beloved wife again. So, I swam and struggled, and by the grace of the gods, I finally made it to shore, as did many of my and Leif’s men.
Better still, despite being battered, all four boats.
When I spied someone struggling to tread water nearby, then slipping beneath the sea, I dove back in and grabbed him.He was older and dressed like a merchantman, no doubt from another ship that must have gotten caught in the storm. His skin was turning blue, telling me he had taken in too much water and wasn’t breathing, so I turned him on his side and slammed my hand against his back, hard, glad when he coughed out a mouthful of water.
“Are you all right?” I yelled, trying to be heard over the booming storm. Although he gasped and sputtered, his color was returning.
When he noddedyes, I resumed helping as many men as I could, urging everyone to take shelter beneath the trees. We would try to pull the ships ashore once the weather settled. Scanning the coast for Leif, I was relieved to see him stumbling onto the rocky terrain nearby.
There was no sign of Freya’s wolf, but then why would there be when it would have been impossible for him to be here? Somehow, if only in spirit, she had sent him to see me safely to shore. I was sure of it.
Not just me, either, as it turned out.
When I spoke with my men as we waited out the storm, they claimed they, too, had been led to shore by a wolf. Although I could tell they thought it odd, stranger tales had come out of seafarers, and in this case, it saved them.
“Let’s see what we can salvage of our boats,” I said grimly once the weather finally improved. It was doubtful they were seaworthy anymore, leaving us in a particularly vulnerable position. Scanning the area around us, I saw no immediate threat, so we headed that way.
“Where do you think we landed?” Leif wondered.
“Luckily enough, precisely where King Hákon wanted us to, in Largs, Scotland,” I said, continuing to take in our surrounding area and how suited to a battle it might be.
Leif’s eyebrows swept up. “How can you be so certain?”
I winked at him. “Because I’m married to a seer, my friend.” Grinning, I gestured out to sea and the Norwegian ships on the horizon. “And there you have it. She was right, and we will soon have backup.”
“’Tis good, too,” one of my men warned, evidently spotting trouble seconds before an arrow whizzed by Leif’s head. “Because we have company.”
