A Queen for the Frost Giant (Legends of Rahasia Book 0)

Chapter Thirty-One

            "Get up! Get up you load of troll dung!" Quinn nudges Lord Kazmer onto his back with her boot. Fell is already up, his mortal form hunched in on itself, knees to his chest.

Leif rubs the back of his head, getting clumsily to his knees, then pushing himself into a staggered stance. "What in the name of Helheim do you want then? You didn't have to kick me in the rib."

"If you prefer freezing to death in this water, then be my guest." She reaches down and tosses an old bucket to me. Leif and Fell get old helmets, long ago forgotten, but the metalwork so fine that they've survived the test of time. As I awaken, the cold seeps in then, freezing water swirling about my ankles. Lapping at my veins.

"There's a leak in the boat." The words slur out of my sleep-addled brain as though drunk. "Where's the hole?"

"Fish. Big fish or..." Quinn quiets. "Some creatures smacked the edge of the boat. If I wasn't on watch, we might've..." Quinn stares down into the murky water at the bottom of the boat. "We might be sleeping forever. But it ain't a matter now. We need to empty the boat, get unstuck from the rocks, and set off again."

Unstuck from the rocks? What...

I peer over the edge of the boat and find that the ship's dragon-headed front is lodged in an outcropping of rocks, standing eerily still in the choppy waters like skeletons from beneath. The shadows are figures against the Northern Lights of Fell's magic, watching us with stone-filled eyes. Taunting our impossible mission.

Like clockwork, I reach down and fill the bucket with the freezing water, tossing it to the side. Fell throws his cloak over my shoulders. "Take it." He tells me, his voice quite small. "Mortal or no, I don't much feel cold anyways." His blue lips tell me another story, but I allow him the small deed. Let him keep his bravery if the gods won't let him have his jötunn form.

"What'd we hit, do you think?" Leif next, the young lord tossing his belt and scimitar onto a higher ledge, to move about more quickly, emptying the boat of the water lodged in it. "A big fish, is that what you said, soldier?"

"Legionnaire captain to you, mate." Quinn scowls, tossing her plaits over her shoulder. She's removed her heavier furs, tossing them with Leif's weapons. Blue-ink tattoos line her arms, marks of old gods mingling with design like silverwork in her skin. "I don't know sea life. Ask the jötunn for that."

Fell peers into the water beneath, reaching his hand into the icy waves. "Selkies..." He murmurs. "Come. Come see."

We glance at each other for a moment, our feet all damp and freezing. We join him then, his tall, lanky frame peering out the edge of the water. At first, all I can see is gray-blue water, thick and cold. There's a song at its bottom, like a washbasin echoing, maidenly voices. They burble and chirp, joyous almost. Laughing.

And then, a hand followed by the view of a beautiful woman, stout with long, dark hair and gray skin. A seal fur winds over her head and past her shoulders. She's followed by a man tinged green, a big, soft belly with the same seal fur on his back, with deep brown eyes. More of their kin join them. In the water, they glide as seals, but soon as they clamber onto the rocks...

"I'll be damned and damned again." Leif laughs. "Selkies, real selkies."

The boat shakes and quavers as a giant fish, hvalr, a whale larger than the whole fleet of old Idriola put together, rides closer to the boat, a wave of water drenching us through our skin. Chattering and slightly terrified, we all huddle closer together. Quinn adopts her fighting stance alongside Lord Kazmer, though both are tilted due to the rocking waves.