Born of Blood (The Valdir Chronicles Book 3) Page 10

  On the other ships were also a contingent of Talon’s men, Ethean soldiers, as well as Leif’s Valdiran force. They had left her cousin Rangvald in charge of the remainder of her army. If this show of power didn’t make the King of Askor think twice about war, then she didn’t know what would.

  Kari spent the first two days sick and retching over the side with Delisa beside her rubbing her back. Finally, she had been so fed up that she’d jumped onto Yurok’s back and flown off. Kalina had laughed, although the rolling of the deck made her nauseous as well. Her cousin scowled as she and her purple dragon skimmed out over the waves. Kalina wrapped her cloak around herself once again and went back to her cabin to read a book.

  She had shown the letter from King Blackbourne to Lord Illeron first, eager for his counsel and insight. He agreed it sounded like veiled threats hidden among what seemed like niceties. And it made her sick to her stomach to think that their trip north was all because she’d been threatened and didn’t feel she could refuse. She spent hours alone in her cabin or up on deck staring out to sea, shame and fear churning in her stomach. She was letting her people down, all of her people, Ethean and Valdir alike, by agreeing to this marriage.

  All she could do was hope that her cousin could come up with a plan, a way to get her out of this mess. She only wished she could get up the courage to talk to Leif, to make him understand why she was doing this. But he had chosen to stay on another ship, and the few times he was on hers to discuss things with Kari or Jormungand, he had all but ignored her. She knew he must be hurting inside, the same as her. She just wished he’d show it, give her some sign he cared for her. But so far, it seemed he had given up on her altogether.

  One afternoon Kalina had become fed up with the four walls of her small cabin and was sick of looking at the same faces so she’d called Maska. He’d come dropping like a stone out of the sky above as if he’d been waiting for her to call him for a ride. She tucked her cloak around her and climbed onto his back. Nodding briefly to Kari and Delisa, who stood on the deck a few paces away, she and Maska launched away from the ship and up into the low hanging clouds above. Early Spring on the open sea was a treacherous time to sail, but they had experienced captains adept at making the trip north and they stayed within sight of the coastline.

  Maska frolicked among the rain-heavy clouds for a while, Kalina’s stress melting away as she laughed at his antics. Soon his emerald green scales were coated in a layer of raindrops that glistened in the meager light that filtered through the clouds, and her own hair and cloak were damp with lingering drops of water. Maska began to descend, taking them closer and closer to the sea waves below and Kalina felt her heart sink with him. She didn’t want to get back on that ship where she felt so alone. She didn’t want to go back to being queen and marrying an Askorian prince. She wanted to fly away on Maska, Leif by her side, into the mountains to start a life together. But those were the same thoughts she’d had the previous year when she’d run away with Nash, and she knew how that had turned out.

  They weren’t in a hurry for her to re-board the ship, so Maska lazily skimmed the tops of the waves a few miles further out to sea, their ship a tiny vessel in the distance, a speck against the horizon of land. Kalina watched it for a while, the salty spray off the sea seeming to cleanse her spirit in a way the rain above hadn’t. Finally, she turned her head out to sea, searching the vast dark blue ocean for a sign of life. She would even welcome a dolphin or a shark at this point. Anything to take her mind off her own troubles.

  A blue fin broke the water a few feet away and Kalina drew in her breath. Maska snorted seafoam and flapped his wings, taking them a few feet higher. There they stayed, hovering over the waves, watching the dark waters below. A second fin broke the surface and Kalina realized it wasn’t a single fin. It was one of many, an entire ridge of fins spanning twenty feet long skimmed just below the surface, the constant undulation of the body and the waves causing the odd fin to clear the surface.

  She gasped as a serpentine head, dark blue on top, scales covered in a slimy film, broke the surface and sprayed water all over her. It lifted it’s chin slowly as it swam, inspecting her and Maska, the underside of its body a pale blue so light it looked opalescent.

  “What are you?” she breathed, one hand reaching out wonderingly towards the beast. It must have been as long as Maska, if not longer, huge fins sticking out at regular intervals along its body, stroking through the water powerfully, propelling it forward. It opened its mouth slightly, baring multiple rows of long dagger-like teeth. Kalina shuddered, withdrawing her hand. She wouldn’t want to be swallowed by that creature.

  “Sea dragon. They are my kin.”

  Kalina took her eyes off the beast to stare at Maska.

  “I thought they were just a legend!”

  “They don’t usually reveal themselves to humans. But he figures you must be safe since you are with me.”

  “He speaks to you?” Kalina looked back at the sea dragon, his mouth still open in what almost looked like a hiss.

  “His voice is at a level you cannot hear, but I can hear him just fine. He asks why you ride upon my back like a land dolphin.”

  It took Kalina a moment to realize he must mean a horse.

  “She is my partner, my friend, my companion, my Queen,” Maska told the sea dragon. The creature eyed Kalina with eyes as dark as the ocean floor, no light reaching them. Finally, it stuck its head back beneath the waves and together she and Maska watched as it slipped deeper into the sea, until she could no longer make out its sinuous body.

  “Wait till I tell Arikara. I don’t think she’ll believe me!” Maska said, excitement and triumph in his voice. Kalina smiled a bit sadly at her friend, her heart both full and empty all at once. She wanted to go tell Leif, to share with him the amazement at seeing a sea dragon, but she knew he wouldn’t want to hear it because their tenuous friendship had been shattered the moment she’d read that first letter from the King of Askor.

  That night a storm hit their ships, tossing them like toys afloat on the waves. Kalina lay in her bed, Delisa beside her and Kari dozing fitfully in a chair by the door as the wind howled outside, the rain lashing the small portholes of her cabin. Delisa was cuddling with her, fear as well as the cold that seemed to permeate their bones forcing the contact. Kalina didn’t mind though since it helped to drive away the loneliness she was feeling. She hoped fervently that Maska and the other dragons had made for land and were holed up somewhere safe, out of the gale that rocked the ship so violently.

  There came a sudden BOOM that shook the cabin and made Kalina and Delisa sit bolt upright in bed. It was loud enough to startle Kari from her sleep, and she could usually sleep through anything. A figure burst through the door, rain-drenched and dripping on the floor. Kalina was out of bed in an instant, a dagger in her hand. Kari was behind the person a split second later, a dagger to his throat. When the lightning flashed again they all saw the face under the oiled cloak was Jormungand’s.

  “Kari, it’s okay. Put it away,” Kalina said, sheathing her own knife.

  Kari released Jormungand and stepped away, lowering her knife. Kalina began to pull on her leather vest and cloak. She mostly slept in her clothing these days, never quite sure of how safe she was on a ship full of men Lord Averil had helped pick.

  “Your Majesty,” Jormungand began, averting his eyes as she dressed and Delisa put on her own bodice beside Kalina. “One of the other ships has capsized in the storm. We don’t yet know how many were lost but a rescue effort has started. You are needed on deck to command.”

  Kalina swallowed, fastening her own thick cloak about her throat. She had to command because Leif was on a different ship and because she was the highest authority on the boat. But that knowledge didn’t give her confidence.

  “Lead the way, Jormungand.”

  Kari and Delisa followed them out onto the deck, the wind howling in their ears. Kalina couldn’t hear anything above the sounds of the wind, rain, and
waves. Booms crashed overhead, followed by bright flashes of lightning and in the intermittent light, Kalina could just make out a partially capsized vessel off their starboard bow. She staggered to the railing while the Sea Wyvern rolled beneath her and clutched at the railing. She felt Jormungand touch her shoulder to get her attention. He placed his mouth close to her ear so she could hear him as he yelled above the roar of the storm.

  “What should we do?”

  “Send out the skiffs, see if you can gather up any survivors,” she yelled back. He nodded, fear and determination on his face as he stepped away from her and towards where the crew was wrestling down the mainsail, tying it down tight. Kari stood at Kalina’s side, watching as another nearby ship, the one Kalina hoped that Leif was on, also deployed their smaller skiffs. She prayed to Skaldir, the Valdir’s god, and the gracious Mother that there were survivors and that they would find them alive and safe.

  It felt like hours passed as the boats deployed and made their laborious way across the ever-shifting seas, the rain lashing down making it hard to navigate. More than a few men were lost overboard as the storm raged on around them. The ship beneath her continued to pitch and sway and it took every ounce of her strength to keep holding onto the railing. She saw Kari beside her, both hands on the railing around Delisa as her friend crouched, her eyes squeezed shut. Kalina opened her mouth to yell at them to go back inside when a shout rose over the sound of the storm. Kalina turned just in time to see a huge wave crash over the deck on the opposite side of the ship and sweep towards them. She barely had enough time to suck in a breath before her hands were ripped from the railing and she was pitched overboard with the force of the freezing water.

  For a few dizzying seconds she spun under the churning waters of the storm-tossed sea, and she couldn’t tell which was way up. But another bright flash of lightning showed her the surface and she kicked out strongly towards it, her lungs burning for air. When she broke the surface she sucked in a lung full of air only to be plunged under again and spun around by a second wave crashing over her head. Once again, just as she was about to give up and suck in a breath of seawater, she managed to surface and suck in air, coughing and choking on the salty brine of the ocean. The waves continued to tumble her until she was utterly spent, her muscles exhausted from swimming, her lungs aching and screaming for air, her head dizzy, her eyes burning.

  The only thoughts spinning through her head were those of survival. And regret. She was going to die here, in this ocean. And what a useless death it would be. She wished she could see Maska one last time, to tell him she loved him, to fly with him one last time. She wished she could see Leif one last time, to tell him she loved him, that she had since the moment she’d first looked into his grey eyes. She wished for a lot of things. But she was so tired. Too tired to keep going, keep swimming.

  This time when the waves plunged her under she didn’t struggle, she let the ocean take her where it wanted, the burning of her lungs an almost distant annoyance as she drifted beneath the surface, staring into the empty inky depths. But they weren’t as empty as she’d originally thought. An undulating, sinuous body was swimming right for her, something shiny clutched in its massive jaws. Before she could even let out an underwater scream, she was swept up, her hands clutching at spiny ridges and soon, the welcome chill of fresh air hit her face and she gulped in deep breaths of the salt-laden air.

  But that was all she remembered for a time, her mind slipping in and out of consciousness as the creature beneath her moved through the waves. She didn’t fully open her eyes until she was laid gently on soft sand, the feeling of solid land beneath her making her stomach roil. She sat up. Above her was the great head of a massive creature and in the next flash of lightning, Kalina saw that it was the sea dragon, its large-scaled head dripping seawater, seaweed hanging from one large horn.

  “Thank you,” she croaked out, her throat raw from swallowing so much seawater, from dragging in breaths of cold air, from screaming. The dragon lowered its head, looking at her with those big dark eyes before it slowly slipped back into the crashing surf and into the dark ocean beyond.

  Chapter 18

  Kalina watched the sea dragon disappear before rolling onto her side to vomit up what felt like buckets full of salty water, it searing her throat as it exited her body. When she finally felt empty, her lungs and stomach feeling blessedly hollow, she lay back on the sand and closed her eyes, slipping into a deep sleep.

  The next morning the sun rose over calm waters and Kalina sat on the beach, awaiting rescue. She had awoken, alone on a small spit of land a few miles out to sea. Something sparkled beside her and she reached out, digging her own silver and blue dragon scale crown out of the sand. She rinsed it off in the ocean and placed it back onto her already tangled and salt-encrusted silver locks. As the sun glinted off the small waves that lapped the sandy spit of land she occupied, a shadow passed overhead. She shielded her eyes and looked up to see sunlight on green scales as Maska descended to land on the sand beside her.

  “They thought you were drowned. I told them you were alive and safe somewhere,” he said as he approached her, his head lowered so she could collapse against him in a tight embrace. She wrapped her arms as far as they would go around his head, her own resting between his eyes.

  “I thought I was drowned, too. But the sea dragon saved me.”

  “I saw him in the waves as I flew here. He pointed the way.”

  Kalina’s heart was immeasurably full, despite her close call with death. She felt calm inside like the storm had somehow washed her clean. She was eager to see Kari, Delisa, Leif, Talon, and Jormungand again, but she also was happy to spend a few more moments alone on a sun-warmed beach with her dragon.

  “I’ve missed you, Maska,” she whispered into his scales. He rumbled a purring growl of agreement. “I wish we could just stay here, not forever, but just for a while.” She let out a long sigh before breaking away from him. “But I must get back to reality.”

  “One day we will go for a flight into the mountains and stay. One day we will have peace,” he said, nudging her in empathy.

  She smiled and nodded at him before climbing into his saddle. He launched them into the sky, a spray of sand stinging her cheeks as he flew back out to sea and the waiting ships that were small specks on the horizon to the north.

  When she slid off of Maska’s back onto the Sea Wyvern’s deck she was almost bowled over by Delisa as she ran into her, hugging her fiercely.

  “I’m alright, Delisa,” she said, letting out a small laugh that was choked off when Delisa squeezed tighter.

  “I thought you were dead. I thought you were gone.” Delisa’s voice came out as a small sob. Kalina was taken aback. Growing up, Delisa had been her only friend, and she had certainly missed her when she’d left the abbey behind in search of the Valdir, but she hadn’t truly known how much she’d meant to her childhood friend until just now. She squeezed Delisa right back.

  “I know. But I didn’t. I’m here.”

  Someone cleared their throat and they broke apart, Delisa and Kalina both wiping tears from their eyes.

  “We are happy you are alive and unharmed, your Majesty.” Lord Illeron bowed low, and when he straightened, he made eye contact with Kalina. There was relief in his eyes. She could tell he’d been worried for her too. She was surprised how much that meant to her.

  “Yes, we are very happy you have returned to us.” Lord Averil beamed at her, but his smile didn’t reach his eyes. Kalina would have bet money he would have been happy to see her dead.

  “Thank you. I am lucky that a sea dragon saw fit to save me.”

  Murmurs flew around the gathered crowd of crew and nobles. Soon, the gathered Valdir began chanting, their words a quiet susurration of sound that sent a chill down her spine.

  “Valdira, Valdira, Valdira.”

  “Valdira? What does that mean?” Delisa said beside her. Kalina shook her head.

  “I have no idea.”

/>   Lord Illeron and Lord Averil began dissipating the crowd, sending sailors back to their posts and guards back to their ships. Kalina glanced over at the scattering group of Valdir and saw Leif standing amidst them, his grey eyes intense as he watched her. She turned away from him, unable to hold his gaze. He had gone weeks with barely looking at her, and now he couldn’t tear his eyes away? She didn’t know what she was supposed to feel anymore.

  “I need a bath,” she said to Delisa who led her to her cabin. At the door, she turned and looked back once more at Leif. He hadn’t moved, his eyes still tracking her.

  Kari came into the cabin as Kalina undressed behind a screen while Delisa poured some freshwater into a large bucket. A proper bath would have to wait but at least Kalina could wash and get the salt from her hair. Kari sat in the chair by the door and began digging under her nails with her dagger.

  “Kari,” Kalina said as she began to wash behind the screen.

  “What?”

  “What does Valdira mean?” It was a term she had heard before, something she’d read maybe among the scrolls of the Valdir when she’d spent time studying at the mountain with her aunt Eira. But she couldn’t quite remember its significance.

  “It’s just a term of endearment,” Kari said offhand. But Kalina knew it was anything but a casual nickname. She stuck her head around the screen and scowled at her cousin.

  “Kari,” she reprimanded.

  “Fine. Valdira is a myth, a legend told by our people. Valdira was a Valdir maiden long ago who caught the attention of our god Skaldir. He thought she was the bravest fighter and the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. So he came down to seduce her. But Valdira was already betrothed to a young Valdir warrior. She wouldn’t be swayed. Skaldir is known for his jealousy and anger, so he turned her betrothed into a sea dragon and banished him to the Emerald Sea. He thought that would keep Valdira from her love, but she refused him again and flew her own dragon to the sea, where she swam among the waves with her love, the sea dragon, forever.”