Page 7 of Wolf Pack

“Ja. But we canna leave without my brother and sister.”

“I know.” Inge took a deep breath and let it out. “Come, Bodolf, we have one chance at this.”

She had sailed on ships since she was eight summers. She was now nineteen. She could do this. Not that she had ever done something like this through a narrow passage with the waves coming in, but they didn’t have a choice.

She and Bodolf climbed aboard the vessel and rowed into the mouth of the cave. They heard the gunwales scrape against rocks, and she worried they would put a hole in it either coming or going. At least the water was deep, and the keel was shallow enough that they didn’t run aground.

When they were still too many feet away, they realized they couldn’t row the ship any further for the rocks jutting out in the cave.

“I’ll get them.” Bodolf climbed into the water while she steadied the ship.

He swam to where his siblings were and then took his sister first. “Dinna flail your arms around or kick me. I will swim you to the ship.”

“I can swim,” Libby said.

All of them could at an early age. Swimming competitions, more like dunking and drowning competitions, were a favorite pastime among the Vikings. The warriors often wore their armor while they swam to prove their strength.

“But you were no’ getting in the water.” Bodolf sounded annoyed with her.

The distance was short, but it would still take a toll on the body, as cold as the water was. When Bodolf reached the ship, Isobel quickly pulled Libby into the vessel. She realized then that Bodolf had brought blankets and a bag and secured it on the bottom of the ship.

She hurried to wrap Libby up in one of the blankets.

Then Bodolf returned to get his brother. Once he swam back to the ship, his lips were blue, and his face ice white.

“Here, let me take your brother, and you climb in too. I’ll get our supplies.” Inge helped pull Drummond into the ship.

“The water is very cold, like ice,” Bodolf warned.

“I know. Which is why I’m going to get our goods.” Needing to get this done as soon as possible, she climbed into the cold water, and her teeth instantly chattered.Cold, cold, cold.

She hurried to swim to the shelf, grabbed the oilcloth bags with their supplies inside, and swam back to the ship. Bodolf took them from her and then helped her into the vessel.

His younger brother, Drummond, was born at sea during one of their mother and father’s expeditions. A water giant—his mother had named him—or a sea monster—because he’d been such a big baby and hard to deliver. He loved the sea most of all.

After they had sailed to shore, Libby had been born. It had been a wild adventure for all of them.

Drummond was wrapped in a blanket on the longship now, and all of them were shivering.

“We must row out, watching not to hit any of the rocks, and pick up Elene.” Inge’s teeth chattered.

Then they carefully rowed out of the cave’s entrance. Hearing the grinding of the ship’s hull on the rocks made her cringe. She prayed that they hadn’t dug holes anywhere into the vessel.

They finally exited the cave and beached the ship. Elene hurried to climb in.

“Bodolf, change your clothes.” Inge started to row them out.

Then they heard a man yelling. “Inge! Where are you?”

Vigge!

“I told you he would come after you.” Bodolf shook his head.

Elene immediately seized an oar and began rowing. They didn’t dare put up the sail yet, though it was dark out. The full moon was beginning to wane, but clouds covered most of it. Their clansmen wouldn’t be able to see them.

Not like Isobel and her companions could see with their wolf’s sight. Still, they didn’t want to risk hoisting it.

At least Vigge couldn’t smell their scents like a wolf could, and he couldn’t see them in the dark.

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