FLOOD

Plans for Tomorrow

When I turned back to the Jotun it was to find them all staring at me with wide eyes. At least they would listen to me now. “Eli helped save me. The one who is doing experiments…it’s his grandfather.”

            There was a low rumble of anger at this, and Eli shrunk back against the counter again.

            “Don’t,” I said sharply. “He ran away from his grandfather, he has nothing to do with the place. He was the only reason I escaped, and he helped me get here. I would never have got off that island in order to warn you all, if it hadn’t been for him.”

            Surprisingly, even Bolthur backed off a little after this, and Eli’s shoulders slumped with relief. He shot me a small smile of gratitude.

            “Gene manipulation.” Ake was stroking his chin, even though he was perfectly clean shaven, a look of contemplation in his eyes. “There have been rumours that surround the Ocean King, about the water Jotun…that humans are involved somehow. It was always nothing more than a frightening bed time story.”

            I pressed my lips together hard enough to hurt, reluctant to confess that I’d met the Ocean King, and in fact, been invited back there permanently. The others got this…look, when they talked about the Ocean King. He was half myth, I knew that. No one had seen him in several millennium. The gods were fading into stories. So how crazy would I sound when I told them I’d met him, and more than that, dined with him in his underwater kingdom?  But I needed to reveal all. The more information I gave them, the more likely they were to see how urgent this was. “I met him,” I said, and the others blinked at me blankly. “The Ocean King. Aegir. I met him, and he told me about this thing.” I gestured at myself. “The experiments. They’ve been going on for a lot longer than we can even imagine. His grandfather, I have a feeling he’s just a pawn. There’s something much older behind this.”

            “What?” Bolthur scoffed. “You mean one of the gods is organizing experiments on Jotun?”

            “Maybe not,” I shot back. “Maybe a sect of humans that’s been around for thousands of years. Whatever the case, this has been going on for longer than we know. Aegir said he met two other Water Jotun, and that was a very long time ago.” I bit the inside of my cheek, hard. There was no way I was admitting the rest of what he’d told me, that the other two Water Jotun had died. That my time might be running out too. My sense of urgency spiked.

            “So you can see why we’ve got to alert the king and queen.” My voice was hard. “Immediately.”

            The others all looked over when Bolthur laughed. Just once. A short, sharp bark of amusement. Then he shrugged. “If we believe all of this that is.”

            Ake grimaced at him. “You saw what she did with the water.”

            “Freak of nature,” Bolthur said, and he gave me a malicious smile. “The fact remains, that there’s no way the royal guard would have let something this big get by us. There’s no way we wouldn’t notice people going missing.”

            “Most of the royal guard doesn’t care about servants,” Bifky said softly.

            “And you do, because you’re taking one to bed,” Bolthur said. “What a saint you are.”

            Bifky looked wounded. “I say that because it’s true. Nobody noticed that those two servants…” He paused and looked over at me. “I’m sorry, nobody noticed you and your friend went missing, except the other servants.” He gave Bolthur a narrow look. “You wouldn’t have known unless I told you.”