Page 47 of Shared By the Vikings

“I had to.”

“I thought it was every man for himself in those situations.”

“Except you weren’t a man.”

“You didn’t know that then.”

“What I mean is you were a boy. I had an inkling you’d lied about your age.”

“How?”

He chuckled, his chest shifting against her back. “You’ll never be complimented on a fine beard now, will you?”

“Oh, I guess not.”

“And there’s something else.”

“What.”

He was quiet for a moment, then, “A long time ago I went to the seer.”

“In Ravndal?”

“No, north of my village. He told me something.”

“What?” Now she was really curious.

“He said to me that I must protect a boy from the swallow of the ocean.”

“Oh.”

“I had no idea what he meant, despite remembering it for years. It wasn’t until I saw that mast crack down on your head, then the boat lurch, flinging you overboard that I felt compelled to fulfill my destiny. Follow the path the gods had told me to track in the words of the ancient one.”

“So you jumped into the waves and grabbed me?”

“I half jumped, was also half flung, along with the rest of the men. Only the gods know where they are now.” He sighed. “So many went to feast in Valhalla that night.”

She thought of Raud, hoping guilt wouldn’t block out any other thought. Luckily it didn’t and she checked inside her heart and believed she could still feel his energy on soil. She hoped he was alive somewhere and their paths would cross again... soon. Haps even the next day, on the southward beach.

“Thank you,” she said. “For grabbing me, for swimming to shore with me.”

“It wasn’t easy, we were under the water a lot. I thought you’d drowned several times. And I had to rid you of your pants; they caught on some rope and rigging and were pulling you down.”

“That can’t have been easy.”

He said naught.

“Neither could it have been easy to hold me up.”

“You are not heavy.”

“But the ocean is strong.”

“So am I.” He tightened his embrace around her, as if demonstrating his power. “There was something else the seer said.”

“What?”

“If I saved the boy from the swallow of the ocean my heart would be changed forever in this life and the next.”

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