Page 71 of A Song of Ravens and Wolves
‘Worse?’ I clenched my fists. ‘God help me, Sigurd. I do not know how you have survived as long as you have without someone wrapping their hands around your neck.’
Sigurd laughed. ‘I do love it when you are angry.’
‘Then you can keep loving me for at least the next week!’
He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me against him. I tried to push him away but he only held me tighter. He kissed the top of my head. I was as angry as a cat in a sack.
‘What had gone before does not matter. What we have now, that is what is important.’ He stroked my hair. ‘We were thrown together by allegiance, not love.’
‘We were thrown together by a father I do not trust,’ I spat. ‘But it was all for nothing if he is to give Donada to Finnleik.’
‘We will sail to Atholl, but I do not know how much it will help.’
‘If we do not go, it would risk her certain death.’
‘Fight your foes in the field, nor be burnt in your house,’ Sigurd said. ‘We have to take this fight to them.’
Chapter 27
Sailing Home
Across the Pentland Firth, the water was still and steady. I could hear nothing but the swish of the oars and the beat of the drums. I sat behind the keel, furs about my lap and a breeze gently billowing the raven banner sails.
The Northmen laughed and roared. No storm could frighten them. They were most at home on the sea. I found my sea legs, but it took much longer than I anticipated. They seemed to navigate my intuition, travelling around our coast and then out into the sea-salted dawn. They moved as one, their grunts and calls in unison to the ores.
Sigurd sailed as helmsman and Thorkell his skipper. It was an easy rhythm. They barked their commands in Norse, a sound that I had become accustomed to and one that even now I long to hear.
In the stillness of our crossing, the vastness of the horizon stretched on for eternity. The sharp salted smell in the air stung my nostrils. I hoped Ligach was comfortable in Agda’s ship. I placed a hand over the rail, skimming the icy water. Sigurd touched my shoulder.
‘Look.’ He pointed.
Up ahead, blackfish breached its surface, blowing water like a streaming geyser. Fins stiff and solid against the unbroken sky. Huge as they were, they cut through the water as nimbly as salmon.
‘They are hunting,’ he said, crouching next to me, leaning into the carved figurehead.
‘What is it that they hunt?’ I asked. I had never seen anything so big.
‘Seal. They are as skilled as men. I have seen them when sailing in Iceland, working together to rock huge ice sheets, slipping their prey into the ocean and stunning them with their tails.’
‘Are you no afraid?’
‘Why would I be afraid? I am not a seal.’
I laughed at that. ‘Tell me, Sigurd, what else lies beneath the waves?’
‘Jörmungandr, the Great Beast is so huge that where his tail and his teeth meet, he encircles all of the world.’ He dragged two fingers through the air making a circle. I loved it when he told me his ancient stories. ‘He was the third child of Loki and the giantess Angroba. His sister is the goddess Hel and his brother Fenrir wolf. When Ragnorak arrives, Thor and Jörmungandr are destined to slay each other.’
I could have listened to him forever telling those fireside stories.
‘When we have returned home, you must promise me you will tell me more about your gods. If I am to raise our son well, he is to hear stories of both the Wolf and the Lamb and what better way to teach him than a mother who knows both.’
‘You will teach him of the White Christ?’
‘Aye, he has to understand where he came from. I will teach him how to be a pious trout and you can teach him how to worship the old gods.’
He kissed me on the cheek. ‘As you wish my queen.’
‘I am no queen.’
