Heart of Black Ice

CHAPTER 45

Out on the open sea, the Norukai grew restless, boisterous. They pounded on their shields and stomped on the deck, as if their raid on Ildakar had somehow been a victory instead of a defeat. As the sun set, they began chanting, “Serpent god! Serpent god needs blood.”

Chalk waved his hands in the air. “Serpent god will save us, but serpent god is hungry.” He ran to cling to King Grieve. “Serpent god needs blood, my king, my Grieve.”

The king frowned down at him. “You’re sure the serpent god will save us? You’ve seen it in a vision?”

“Serpent god will save some of us.” Chalk cackled. “But I won’t tell which ones! A secret.”

King Grieve scanned the huddling slaves chained to the deck, and his eyes lit on the weakest, most exhausted captive. “Take that one. We’ll whet the serpent god’s appetite.”

The slave wailed and struggled while the others crouched against the sideboards, as if they could become invisible. Bannon pulled on his chain, straining to break free, though he had no idea how he could help the poor man. Lila glared daggers at the king, straining against her bonds until her wrists bled.

For good measure, Grieve cuffed Bannon on the side of the head, then ignored him. The scrawny, doomed slave struggled, but to no avail. He was shirtless, and his sunburned back was blistered and peeling. Ages ago, it seemed, the man had been a minor noble from Ildakar.

The raiders went to the side of the ship and hammered on the wood with their spear shafts, their war mallets, and the hilts of their swords in a resounding call to some monster beneath the surface.

“Serpent god is deep,” Chalk cried. “But serpent god is hungry! Serpent god will save us.” He suddenly whimpered and cringed. “But not all of us.”

The Norukai performed no ceremony. Grieve simply dragged the captive to the rail and leaned him out over the water. With a vicious slash, he drew his dagger across the man’s throat, cutting deep. The victim’s blood fountained out, and Grieve dangled him by the waist of his pants over the waves so the blood ran down the hull and into the sea.

The Norukai kept pounding on the deck in anticipation, while the captives groaned in terror.

“Serpent god is deep,” Chalk said, “but he will eat.”

When the blood had drained, Grieve heaved the body overboard into the waves. The dead man drifted behind the three ships and slowly sank, but no serpent god appeared, even though they waited in tense silence for many minutes. The Norukai grumbled with disappointment.

Bannon felt sick anger for the loss of one of his comrades, and Lila seethed in silence as she watched the sacrifice. Surreptitiously, she kept working, twisting, scraping her hands against the ropes, but even if she freed her wrists, the chain still anchored her to the deck.

The serpent ships sailed on during the night while the Norukai navigated by the stars. Bannon lay bound under the dim lantern light, unable to sleep. Lila lay like a coiled spring ready to be released, and her mere presence offered him some comfort. The dark sails were invisible against the night sky except for where they blocked out the stars. He listened to the stirring waves that caressed the hull.

Chalk curled up on the deck and slept, then woke up and scuttled to a new resting place, where he slept again. He seemed nervous.

Bannon knew that even if he and Lila managed to break free, they had nowhere to go. They were in the middle of the ocean and would never survive long enough to reach land. He lay on deck grinding his teeth. Lila was so silent he couldn’t tell whether she was asleep or awake. His pulse ticked off the seconds of his captivity, appreciating every moment he remained alive. Once the serpent ships reached the Norukai islands, though, the situation would be even worse.

As he listened to the breeze, the creaking canvas and wood, the whisper of waves and the snores of the Norukai, he heard a different sound, a wet scuffling, as of something slithering up the hull. Next to him, Lila became instantly alert. She twisted herself upright and strained against the ropes around her wrists.

Bannon felt an icy trickle of terror when he saw a shadow appear at the rail, slip over, and drop to the deck. Another silhouette followed a moment later.

Sudden shouts of alarm erupted from the two nearby ships. From their decks he heard the ring of steel and hard blows, the clamor of fighting. Bannon lurched to his feet and tugged on his chain. Lila stood close to him like a cornered guard dog.

The Norukai roused themselves and grabbed their weapons, ready for battle. Bannon saw a third scaly figure climb over the side and land on the deck, moving as swiftly as a flash of minnows darting away in a stream. Five other creatures appeared, their bodies glistening with water and slime. They had large eyes and wide mouths full of needle-sharp teeth, and gill slits like wet wounds along their necks. Their webbed hands were tipped with powerful claws.

“Selka…” Bannon’s stomach twisted, and then he yelled at the top of his lungs, “The selka!” The chain burned his ankle, and he wrestled with the ropes on his wrists. He snapped at the scrambling Norukai. “Free us! I don’t want to die here like a gutted fish. Let me at least fight them!” He knew what the selka would do.

Lila grimaced as she twisted her wrists and more blood flowed down her forearms. “I won’t let them kill you, boy, at least not without a fight.”

Roused, the raiders grabbed battle-axes, war hammers, and curved swords as the selka swarmed the ship. The sea people were greenish gray, but their fins had splashes of color, some with jagged stripes, others with a tinge of blue. They flung themselves in among the Norukai, slashing with claws, ripping open broad chests.

One selka grasped a Norukai woman’s forearm and bit down viciously. The fangs crunched through the skin and bone, severing the hand so that the woman’s sword clattered to the deck. As if she didn’t even feel the pain, the Norukai swung back her arm and punched the bloody stump into the selka’s face, gouging out its slitted eye with the jagged end of bone.

Three at a time, the selka fell upon individual raiders and ripped them to pieces, slashing out throats, yanking off scarred jaws, cracking open chests to feed on red quivering hearts. But the Norukai killed many selka as well. King Grieve swung his war axe, decapitating two creatures in a single stroke. The wide mouths gaped on the rolling heads like fish drying under the sun.

Chalk darted about the deck, a pale scarecrow in the starlight. He flailed his hands. “Fish people. Fish people! I don’t want to be eaten by fish!”

With a sweep of his massive arm, Grieve pushed the shaman back toward the water barrels near the bow. “Protect yourself, Chalk. Stay behind me.”

The slaves ducked into shelter wherever they could find it, rattling their chains, desperate to get free. Bannon yanked his leg, and the anchor bolt wobbled in the wood, but he couldn’t pull the leg iron loose.

One female selka looked more majestic than the others, with a spatter of leopard spots on her golden-green scales. She flashed her bright gaze across the Norukai as if a banquet had just been served. Bannon recognized the selka queen.

A Norukai warrior ran toward her, swinging a spiked mace, but the queen hooked a sharp claw under his chin like a fisherman snagging a carp. She lifted him bodily off the deck and flung him overboard as if she were discarding garbage.

Closer to Bannon and Lila, one brawny male selka stalked up to the captives, extending claws in his webbed hands. Seeing them bound and struggling, the selka closed in to kill them.

With a cry of effort, Lila at last freed her wrists and flung the rope away. As the male selka prowled closer, she seized the chain at her ankle and hauled with all her might. The bolt came free of the deck with a splintering crack. She uprooted the chain just as the selka charged at them, and that was all the weapon she needed. She swung the rattling links to smash the sharp bolted end into the creature’s face. He clapped webbed hands against his mangled mouth, snarling and burbling. Lila whipped the chain again into the side of his head, crushing his temple. The selka fell in a pool of slime and blood at her feet.

Glancing around, she dropped to her knees next to Bannon. Lila worked at the bindings at his wrists, clawing the thick knot until her fingernails were bloody, and finally the rope came free. He flexed his arms, ready to use his fists if nothing else, but the anchor bolt still held his chain to the deck.

Three more selka approached, snarling and ready to kill Lila to avenge the selka she had just slain. Bannon jerked against the bolt, ignoring the rush of pain that raced through his ankle and up his leg. The heavy pin began to wobble loose.

With the selka closing in on her, Lila spun, holding her own chain to defend Bannon. He tugged at the loose links, rocking the bolt, feeling the wood splinter. “Almost … almost!”

As Lila swung the chain back and forth, the bolt whistled through the air and the selka recoiled. With a mighty heave, Bannon finally uprooted his chain, and he was so surprised that he stumbled to his knees.

Now the selka turned to him as well.

Unexpectedly, the selka queen glided closer, sleek and strangely beautiful. She let out a scolding hiss and snapped orders to her followers. “Not this one.” She fixed her golden eyes on Bannon and insisted, “Not this one.” She extended one clawed forefinger toward him and added, “I remember.”

The three selka warriors cowered, backing away, while the queen bounded toward the Norukai. The rest of the selka left the bound slaves alone, satisfied with many other victims to kill.

King Grieve roared as he hacked at the attackers with his war axe. He continued to fight, drenched with blood and slime. Dead sea people lay all around the deck. Chalk huddled among the barrels and crates near the front of the serpent ship. “My Grieve, King Grieve! I will grieve!”

Gnashing her teeth, clacking her jaws, a Norukai woman bounded forward to intercept the queen. “I will gut you, bitch!” She strode past the slaves as if they didn’t exist at all.

Bannon lashed out with his uprooted chain, caught the Norukai woman around her thick leg, and drove her to the deck. She writhed in astonishment and lunged for Bannon, but he swung the chain and caught her on the side of the head, caving in her skull. She grunted, then wilted to the deck as blood leaked from her ears and mouth.

The selka queen saw what he had done and let out a hiss that might have been appreciation. Lila also noticed. “Don’t flirt with her, boy.”

The selka queen chose the brawny Norukai king as her next target. She prowled forward with feral beauty, as graceful as death. When Grieve saw her, he also recognized his main opponent. With a heavy swing, he buried his axe in the chest of a nearby selka. The curved blade dug deep, cracked bone, and Grieve pressed his boot on the creature’s chest to rip his weapon free.

He faced the queen. Four selka warriors flanked her, pressing closer, and Grieve made his stand near the confined wedge of the bow. The serpent god figurehead stared out into the darkness.

All along the deck, selka and Norukai fought and killed and died, turning the scrubbed boards into a bloody quagmire. Grieve snapped his scarred jaws and glared at the selka queen. She, in turn, splayed a webbed handful of claws, and crouched, unafraid of his great axe. All of the selka prepared to spring at the same time, and they would tear the king apart. Grieve cocked back his massive arm to fight to the death.

Suddenly, a pale figure streaked between them. Chalk yelled, waving his hands. Tears streaked his white face. “No, no! You can’t have my Grieve. My king!” He threw himself in front of the selka queen, unarmed, defenseless.

With a quick slash, she hooked her claws into Chalk’s abdomen below the navel, then in a flash tugged brutally upward, laying him open from his groin to his breastbone like a gutted fish. Chalk’s entrails and organs slithered out of the wide wound, and he dropped to his knobby knees, gurgling, “My Grieve…”

The Norukai king’s scarred mouth dropped open in utter disbelief. “Chalk!”

Bannon felt sickened and horrified. He loathed the scarred albino, but even so …

With a second gesture, the selka queen ripped out Chalk’s throat, and she hurled him to the deck like a bloody white rag.

“No!” The word was ripped from Grieve’s throat and heart as if his entire universe had just ended. “Nooo!”

In a mindless blood rage, he lunged forward, and the surviving Norukai joined him, redoubling their efforts to fight.