The Runestone Saga: Bane of Asgard by Cinda Williams Chima

Author:Cinda Williams Chima
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers
Published: 2024-08-24T00:00:00+00:00

38

Kraken

AND THEN NAIMA WAS THERE, lifting Reginn’s head and shoulders out of the water, alternately swearing at her and shouting for help.

Who knew there were so many ways to say stupid?

Reginn reached up and found the shaft of the arrow protruding from her chest. She measured the length of it with her fingers, from the sticky mouth of the wound to the fletching.

“Naima.”

“What is it? What do you need?”

“Go find cover or you’re going to get shot.”

“They’re not shooting at us anymore,” Naima said.

It was true. They were no longer taking fire from the other ship. Maybe the enemy commander was waiting for a flag of surrender before they pressed on. Arrows don’t grow on trees, after all. Well, they sort of do. . . .

“Reginn!” Naima shouted, unnecessarily loud, as if Reginn might already be crossing the borderlands. “Don’t you die on me.”

“It’s unlikely I am dying,” Reginn said, always more comfortable in the role of healer than as a patient. “The arrow didn’t go that deep.”

“Let me get some help and we’ll carry you into your tent, so—”

“I can’t fight a war from inside my tent,” Reginn said. All right, fine—it’s a war. “Now, please, fetch my remedy bag.”

“That’s the first thing you’ve said that makes sense.” Naima disappeared.

When Naima reappeared with the remedy bag, Reginn dug around to find the right runestone. When she found what she was looking for, she slid her hand under her tunic and tucked the stone into an inside pocket.

At once, the pain eased. She took another long breath, released it. It would do for now.

“Help me sit up so I can see what’s going on. Drag over that sea chest, and I’ll sit on that and lean on the gunwale.”

“We’ve got to get that arrow out of you,” Naima said stubbornly.

Reginn shook her head. “It’s not bleeding now, but if we start fooling with it, it will. We need to wait until we have time to deal with it properly.”

Naima glared at her, frustrated, but Reginn stood her ground. She knew it was likely she’d be dead or a captive before the day was out, so they might not have to deal with it at all.

It might be a very short war for Naglfar and her crew.

Grumbling, Naima helped Reginn sit up on the sea chest so that she was out of the water. Wet and shivering, but out of the water.

Propping herself against the gunwale, Reginn looked for her army midships. It wasn’t there. She scanned the entire deck and saw only Svend’s soldiers and some of the fisker crew.

Had they abandoned ship when they saw her go down?

“Where’d everybody go?” Reginn said. “The Risen, I mean. I told them to stay put.”

Naima hesitated, then pointed at the enemy ship. “They’re over there.”

Reginn looked again and saw what she hadn’t before. The other ship’s deck was a battlefield, swarming with soldiers, most of them hers, though soldiers in red uniform tunics carpeted the deck. As she watched, one of the issvargr tore a man in half.

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