My boots collided with the stone, and the force of it snapped my teeth together. A few feet down the bank, Gregor guffawed, clearly taking pleasure in my clumsy dismount. I turned to give him a piece of my mind, but Rivelin tossed me the rope that would keep the boat anchored to me.
“Hold on to this,” he said, turning toward the bank, but then he paused for a moment to catch my gaze. “Don’t rise to his bait.”
And then he was off, moving so fast that he was nothing more than a blur of silver amidst the dense woods. As soon as he was out of sight, I tightened my hold on the rope and settled down on the rock cross-legged. I could feel four pairs of eyes on me, and I could only imagine what the other contestants must be thinking.
Daella, the intruder from Fafnir sent here by the horrid emperor, had completely ruined any chance Rivelin had of winning this challenge. They would probably all clap me on the back when this was over and thank me for my service, because I’d pretty much handed one of them a win—if they could manage to catch up to Viggo.
But out of all of them, I felt Gregor’s stare the most, like his eyes were made of the lake water itself, and he was trying to burn two holes right through my skin. Rivelin’s words echoed in my mind. Don’t rise to his bait.
Shifting my attention to the woods, I blocked him out, hoping against all hopes that Rivelin would beat the others back. In the canopy overhead, songbirds danced and chirped out a tune that sounded like an ancient song I’d heard all my life—a call to those above who watched down on us all. The Old Gods. The warm and earthy scents of birch and cedar curled toward me on a soft breeze that ruffled the ends of my ponytail hanging across the back of my neck. It was so soothing, so peaceful here.
Of course Gregor had to ruin it.
“Say, Kari,” he barked out so loudly it made me jolt. “You and your assistant, you were the first boat here after me, weren’t you?”
“Yes…” Kari said, frowning. “What’s your point?”
“That means he’s the most likely runner to return next, don’t you think?”
“No, that’s probably your assistant. You lot got here first. So he has a head start,” Kari said. I watched the exchange out of the corner of my eye, careful not to let Gregor see I was paying attention. Kari was clever, Rivelin had said, and I could tell she was choosing her words carefully, all the while trying to sound calm.
Unfortunately, her white-knuckled grip on her oar and her flattened lips caught Gregor’s attention just as they did mine. Clever but not good at masking her emotions, it turned out. Gregor’s boat creaked as he shifted forward. “Something wrong, Kari?”
“Nothing’s wrong. Just leave me out of whatever it is you’re plotting,” she said tightly.
There was a flash of movement in the corner of my eye. Water splashed.
I finally turned toward them. Gregor had launched into the water and was wading through the marshy grass toward Kari’s smaller boat. He had an oar in his hands. So did Kari. Weapons, I realized.
The two other boats had been quietly and slowly easing away from the rest of us. They were both sliding behind a cluster of weeds that would hide them from view until the others returned. Smart move. I, on the other hand, knew that if I slid onto the raft, it would be like setting off an explosion. Even as Gregor sloshed toward Kari, I swore he was keeping one eye locked on me.
“Just stay back, Gregor,” Kari said. “I don’t want to fight you. I never have.”
“Oh yeah? What are you going to ask the island to give you if you win?”
Kari didn’t answer. Only the continued slosh of water kept an unbearable silence at bay, but that wouldn’t last much longer. In another moment or two, Gregor would reach Kari’s boat.
“No need to answer,” Gregor snarled. “I already know you want to ask it to get rid of me.”
Kari’s hands trembled as she gripped her oar tighter. “I can’t do that. No harm to anyone else, eh? That’s one of the island’s rules. Even if I want to get rid of you—and I’ve never said I do—it wouldn’t give me that.”
“Get rid of.” He moved forward. Slosh. “Not kill.” Another slosh. “I bet it would give it to you. The island hates me.”
“I don’t think an island can hate someone.”
“Well, maybe that’s just you.” He grinned. “Since I made your sister fall madly in love with me. Too bad redheads aren’t my type.”
Kari growled and swung her oar at Gregor’s head. Gregor whirled to respond with a blow of his own, as if he’d anticipated the move. He dodged to the left and swung down and to the right before bringing the paddle up to slam into Kari’s face. Blood sprayed; Kari’s gurgling scream rent the peaceful quiet.
She fell, her back punching the water. Shouts of anger echoed from the far shore, where spectators were watching.
I jumped to my feet. “What the fuck? You can’t do that. It’s against the rules.”
“She came for me first. I was just defending myself, now wasn’t I?” he asked with a sneer, wiping the blood spray off his face with the back of his sleeve. “Now sit back down, orc. Or I’ll defend myself from you next.”
“Yeah? Go on, then. Let’s see how you fare against someone who actually knows how to fight.” I spread my lips into a wicked smile, flashing my elongated canines. I didn’t have tusks, but close enough.
He narrowed his gaze as I stood to my full height, throwing back my shoulders. I knew I looked absolutely ridiculous wearing all this oilcloth on a hot, humid day, but I didn’t care much about appearances right now. Let him underestimate me. It would only make his defeat that much sweeter.
He must have read the deadly glint in my eye and realized going up against Isveig’s “infamous murk” would only end in pain—his pain—because he started sloshing his way back over to his boat.
“Go on and attack me if you want,” he called over his shoulder, “but you’ll only get Rivelin disqualified since I didn’t provoke you. Something tells me that’s the last thing you want.”
I snarled at his back, then eyed the water. Kari still hadn’t resurfaced yet, and blood spilled across the lake like red paint. My heart kicked my ribs.
“She’s going to die if you don’t do something,” I said.
Gregor shrugged and launched himself into his boat, water jetting onto his seat. I dropped the rope and pinched the bridge of my nose.
“Fine. Someone else?” I called out to the others hidden behind the weeds, but they were too far away now to do a damn thing.
No, you can’t! my mind screamed at me.
But no matter how many Draugr I’d tracked down, no matter how many throats I’d cut over the years, and no matter how many monsters I’d slain for the empire, I’d never harmed or turned away from an innocent when they needed help. Even if I suspected some of the people in this village of dealing in dragon magic, I didn’t have proof. There was no way to be certain they were all involved. And Kari did not smell of dragon.
I closed my eyes. “Fuck.”
And then I jumped.
The first thing I felt was the cold and the way it squeezed the air in my lungs like a fist was wrapped tight around my chest. For a brief moment, I opened my eyes and peered through the crystal blue, marvelling at the lush green of the cattails and the reeds, the coating of algae along the lake bed, and the schools of orange fish darting away from the disturbance.