Page 2 of The Shipwreck
Avril narrowed her eyes at the wood bobbing in the water.What was it?Though one end appeared to be splintered, the other sides were finished.Maybe it was a broken chest or a table.
“Mama!Look what I found!”
“In a moment!”she called back, studying the piece as it was tossed by the current.
“Mama!It’s my da!”
That got her attention.Avril whipped her head around and peered down the shoreline to where Kimbery was squatting beside a furry bulk on the sand.
It looked like a dead seal.
“See, Mama?”
Of course, Avril realized—Kimbery was pretending she was a selkie, so the dead seal must be her da.The lass had a vivid imagination.“I see!”A seal was indeed a good find.If it was freshly killed, its meat could keep their bellies full a long while.And she could make coats and slippers out of its fur.“I’ll be right there!Don’t touch it!”
A few more yards and she’d get a good look at whatever was floating off the point.If it wasn’t worth salvaging, she’d leave it be and see what she could get off the dead seal.
A broad wave caught the wood and turned it on its side.The instant she saw the design, her heart dropped to the pit of her stomach.A great round knob rose above the water.Painted on its surface in hues of red and blue was the face of a snarling dragon.It was the masthead of a longship.
Time slowed as she dropped her basket and turned toward Kimbery.
“Nay!”she screamed.
She picked up her skirts and tried to race across the beach, but the air suddenly felt heavy, and the sand dragged at her heels.Kimbery seemed impossibly distant and far too close to the body that Avril could see now was not a dead seal, but the remains of a man.
The bloody images of the berserker attack were as clear and fresh as that day five years ago…
Wild-eyed, axe-wielding giants bursting through the gates of Rivenloch, roaring and foaming at the mouth, hacking at everything in their path, smashing pottery, splitting furniture, slicing flesh…
The hounds’ yelps, cut off abruptly as their throats were slit…
The steward falling as his legs were cut out from under him…
A shrieking serving woman losing her arm…
One fleeing child axed in the back while another was trampled beneath heavy boots…
A young lass, frozen with fear, snatched up and carried off, never to be seen again…
It was happening again.The Northmen had returned.Avril staggered onto one knee.
Then she looked up at Kimbery, still yards away, and bit out a curse.She wouldn’t let the bastards have her daughter.She was no longer the innocent lass she’d been five years ago who’d become a victim of rape.She was prepared for them this time.Clenching her jaw in determination, she scrambled to her feet again and hurtled forward across the sand.
At last she reached Kimbery, sweeping her into her arms and clutching her so tightly that the wee lass squealed in complaint.
“Shh!”She spun, searching the boulders and clumps of sea grass lining the shore.The longship must have crashed in the storm.But what had become of its crew?Where were the dead man’s shipmates?
Everything seemed normal, undisturbed.Waves lapped at the beach, leaving arcs of foam.Gulls screed and soared overhead.Crabs skittered over the rocks.No strange footprints marred the virgin stretch of sand.
“Mama,” Kimbery whimpered impatiently.“Put me down.”
“Hush.”Avril scoured the beach once more.The Vikings had come again.There was no mistaking the origin of the carved dragon’s head.But they weren’t here now.Either they’d bypassed her cottage and moved inland already, or their dead bodies would be washing ashore soon.But for now at least, it appeared she and Kimbery were safe.
“Maaaamaaa,” Kimbery whined.
She let Kimbery slip to the ground.The lass immediately skipped over to the dead man.
“Don’t touch him,” Avril repeated.
