Lind

Ignoring Selke’s protests, Lind gritted his teeth as he steadily rose to his feet. Fire burned in his legs, even with all those healing poultices applied. There were several jagged tooth marks that had pierced his flesh on the lower part of the front and back of both legs, but after Selke cleaned and wrapped them, the bleeding had stopped.

“A single day of rest is not enough to heal,” Selke snapped. “They will start bleeding again. You need to put your legs back up.”

Lind growled a response, not out of anger, but out of pain. “I understand. I just want to know what I’m capable of should the need arise. The city is in great danger, and I may be one of the only people who can help defend it.” He took a few careful steps before sitting. Selke helped him swing his legs back up onto the pillow as he laid down.

“Satisfied?” Selke asked.

“No, but I will exercise patience.”

“Wisdom.”

“So,” Lind said, shifting the topic, “who is Hallik’s father? Part of your husband’s entourage?”

“It was the other way around,” Selke said. Her green eyes glimmered as she turned her head to look out the opened balcony. Her bright blonde hair hung straight down her back, and her lightly tanned skin was radiant. Her beauty was far beyond that of any other woman Lind had known, and he could almost believe the rumors that she was part elf, or that her father was the fabled Nikan, a pseudo god of music and running water.

This was the reason people always gave for Selke’s unrivaled beauty and enchanting voice. When she sang, the whole world stopped to listen. She’d spent the night in a room two doors down from his own, but he’d heard her singing through the walls. He should have tried going to sleep, but the song kept him enraptured, heart pumping with the rhythm of her voice. Once she’d finished her song, he’d fallen into the deepest sleep of his life.

He could see where the rumors came from.

Those were only rumors of course. Or so he told himself.

“The story of Hallik’s father is not mine to tell,” Selke said. She’d told him this before, years ago after Hallik and Elowyn joined Castle Vrodr.

Lind nodded, feeling suddenly bold. “What of your story?”

She raised a sharp eyebrow at him. “What of it?”

Lind shrugged. “You’ve heard the rumors, I’m sure. Do you know much about your own parents?”

Selke laughed, a musical sound that made him smile. “I don’t often engage in conversation with the other residents of Dalstava.”

“Well, some of them claim that your father was Nikan and your mother was an elf.”

Selke’s smirk could have disarmed a troll. “They’re not completely wrong.”

“What?”

“I never met my father, but my mother always claimed he was Nikan. The rumor comes from her directly.”

Lind shook his head, flabbergasted by the idea. “How? I always thought Nikan was more likely to lure people to the water just to drown them.”

Selke nodded. “I will tell it to you as my mother told me.” She cleared her throat, and for a moment, Lind thought she would sing, but instead, she orated a story, not in song, but with a lilting, bouncy voice. “The women of my family have been singers long before the formation of Avskild. The island was once connected to the mainland before the portal shields were established. An elf settlement is now beneath the sea, but one of my ancient mothers married an elf. They were both ostracized by their respective societies. Each generation has always had a single daughter, and we’ve always been gifted with musical talent.

“My grandmother had rejoined society to some degree, but my mother was always off in the woods, singing songs, or playing instruments. It was on one such occasion that she heard other music carrying through the trees.” Selke paused and smirked. “She decided to sing even louder and danced her way toward the sound, but the sound vanished as she reached the edge of a stream. When she finished her song, she heard a fiddle playing the purest note—the same note she’d ended on—but it was so mournful. The song swelled and changed, filling her with the auditory essence of loneliness. She followed the sound upstream to a pond where the water was much deeper.

“As she drew closer and listened, words came to her. She added her voice to the sound as she stepped closer and closer to the edge of the water. When her toes were wet beside the stream, a man appeared from behind a small waterfall on the other side of the pond, strumming away on the fiddle. Half his body remained submerged as he floated towards her. Their song merged into the most terribly beautiful sound. Their eyes locked onto each other as they both neared each other, mother stepping into the water. She had walked until the water was up to her thighs when the song abruptly ended, the man’s hand clutching onto her knee. Their eyes remained fixed on each other. His eyes were the deepest, darkest blue. She couldn’t look away, but she knew what he’d just done.”

Lind was tempted to ask, but he was positive this would have been the moment he’d pull her mother beneath the surface and drown her, but clearly that hadn’t happened.

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“She knew he’d lured her here, but she also recognized that he’d enjoyed her voice. If he hadn’t, she would have already been dead. Before he could even move to drag her under, she said, ‘I will return and sing to you tomorrow.’ Without saying anything, he released her grip and let her go. That was the first of many visits. After their union, they lived together near the stream.”

Lind closed his open mouth. He was actually convinced. “And you… never met him?”

Selke shook her head. “Not to my memory. My mother says that after I was born, they took me to the pool. My father wept and played a song of such jubilation that even the trees danced, but then that was the last time she ever saw him.”

“Why? Why would he leave?”

Selke sighed. “The water has eyes and ears. My birth was an abomination. When my mother brought me to the water, it saw. It heard my father’s song, and it knew. We don’t know who my father had to answer to, but his music has since vanished from Avskild.”

“That’s… horrible, Selke,” Lind said, wishing he could reach out and grab her hand, but he was too far away. “I’m sorry.”

“All is well,” she said, slapping her knees before she stood to her feet. “Such is the curse of my fathers—to love, but not live. We even have a song about it that goes back a hundred years.”

“I’m sure you do,” Lind said, rubbing his forehead. “Thank you.” He dipped his head at her. “For sharing that. I know you didn’t have to, but I appreciate it all the same.”

Selke smiled. “I figured it would be good to put rumors to rest by affirming them.”

Lind chuckled, but his laughing stopped when a bird appeared on the balcony. It was a familiar raven. It landed on Lind’s cot and cocked its head at him. There was something metal glistening in its mouth, and he already knew what it was before it set it down in Lind’s lap.

It was the iron necklace of a Watcher insignia, an encircled eye. This was Serena, Mikel Vigsen’s companion.

Delivering the token could only mean one thing. It was another confirmation that the army was defeated. Something needed to be done. He’d already wasted enough time. He needed to recover quickly.

Serena bobbed her head at him before flying back out through the balcony door.

A soft knock came at the door.

Selke got up to answer it as Lind picked up Mikel’s chainless necklace. There was still blood on the surface of the metal, and he ran his fingers over it.

“I was hoping to have a word with Master Hjordis,” a voice told Selke. He recognized it as Skelldwyn, one of the castle servants. It had been a long time since anybody had called Lind by his surname.

“Come in, Skelldwyn,” Lind called behind him. Skelldwyn was perhaps just the lad Lind needed right now.

“Master Hjordis,” Skelldwyn said, hurrying over to kneel on one knee beside Lind’s cot. The lad had always called Lind by his given name, but the change suggested more than Lind wanted to admit. Perhaps it meant that word had gotten out, and Lind was perhaps the highest ranking Grimnir in the city. With the royal family dead, and the army exterminated, that left very few leaders left.

Skelldwyn didn’t wait for Lind to respond, but hurried to say more, words spilling out. “I know I have not trained with the students, and I have done little more than carry water and run messages, but I want to pledge myself to the cause. I will do whatever you wish to keep the city safe.” He kept his head bowed but looked up at Lind expectantly.

The lad was young, though probably in his early twenties. He had a thin, wispy excuse of a beard and short brown hair, mostly shaved off up the back of his neck to the crown of his head. He was quite lean, but if he’d been running the water, there’d be strength in him. He’d been serving at the castle for the last five or six years, and Lind, regretfully, hadn’t really given much thought to the lad before.

“Right now, I need to get word out,” Lind said. “We need to round up any remaining Grimnir in the city. I don’t think we can easily notify the villages, but they might be at the greatest risk. We’ll need to get word out to all settlements to send delegates or perhaps bunker down. Can you get some others to help spread the word for me? We can try to gather people here at Castle Vrodr.”

Skelldwyn shot to his feet and nodded. “I can do that. Should I head to the guardhouse at the docks then? We can involve the militia and get word out to the settlements faster by boat.”

Lind eyed the lad anew. He was sharp. Perhaps he should have taken note of him sooner. He was often so focused on his lessons with the students that he didn’t notice others often enough. “Aye. See to it.”

Skelldwyn gave another quick nod before leaving. “I won’t let you down, Master Hjordis.”

Selke held the door open for him as Skelldwyn practically sprinted out. “He’s… eager,” she said.

“We could use a bit of enthusiasm,” Lind said. “But I need to rally every Grimnir. I’m hoping we still have a decent number left who weren’t part of the assault team. Then I’ll need to start drilling the militia. If we can’t secure Vanalf, then the world itself is lost.”

“We still have a chance,” Selke said.

“Through Hallik’s mysterious father?”

“He is a resourceful man, but I do feel unsure about that woman accompanying them.”

“Lorelai?”

“Yes, she was lying to us if you didn’t notice. I’m concerned she has ill intent.”

Lind, in fact, hadn’t noticed. “Erm. What did she lie about?”

“Well, the dagger she held belonged to the king. For some reason, she ran over right next to this monster and grabbed it. Of all the things to do before fleeing the room, that was the action she took. She’s not a fool. There was a purpose to it.”

Lind scratched at his beard. If the king was truly mad enough to kill all the Voyagers, and Lorelai was his attendant, then perhaps she could even try continuing his objectives. They could have very well sent Hallik and Elowyn off with their would-be assassin. Though perhaps they would only be in trouble after going through Vanalf if one of them became a Voyager.

“They’ll be fine,” Selke said, reading Lind’s expression. “I’ll send for a meal to be prepared. We can’t have you making these big decisions on an empty stomach.” She departed the room, leaving Lind alone with his thoughts for a moment.

The task that was set out before them was practically impossible. Even if he rallied all the remaining Grimnirs on the island, there may only be twenty of them, and he doubted their ability to regain Vanalf with so few. For all he knew, the troll army would be marching on Dalstava next. They could be here today. How long would they be able to hold the walls against an army of trolls?

Then, even if they were able to get a few students into Vanalf, the cave itself would be far more dangerous than it was when he’d gone through it. Unless Hallik’s father knew some way to restore the shield or perhaps make everyone invincible, then their fate was likely sealed.

That didn’t mean he wouldn’t keep trying.

He only hoped that Elowyn and Hallik were still alive.