Mörsugur
The Bone Month
December
When my tears subsided, I swam to the shore. The whole camp had risen to see the ethereal ship floating in the harbor. The jarl was directing her men to load the skiff with basic supplies: salt fish, skins full of fresh water, dry wood. She couldn’t spare much, but I was grateful. She’d done so much for us already. I didn’t expect Loki to consider my human needs aboard their ship. It could be days until I got the chance to hunt or fish.
Trygve brought an armful of dry clothes. He sniffled as he pressed them into my arms, then hugged me gruffly with one arm. I didn’t ask him to go with me. Trygve wasn’t a fighter, and there was no one better to watch Yarra. I knew he would look after all the children as well as he had done with me. He would tell them all stories. He would make sure that they had a childhood, no matter what had happened to them. Torstein would have his hands full with construction and organizing the new settlers. They would balance each other.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped into the skiff. I carried my battle-axe in my hand. Loki had not mentioned a fight, but it was better to be prepared. The gods’ hatred of each other was legendary. Everyone knew the prediction of the Ragnorak, when they would kill one another at last. With a hatred so deep, Heimdallr would have hidden the pieces of the dagger well. I expected them to be guarded.
I sat on a rowing bench. Heat emanated from an invisible oarsman beside me. My crew pushed the skiff off the beach, and I felt a brush of fabric against my arm. I wondered what kind of enchantment Loki had worked on the crew that kept them invisible. Perhaps the god’s ship was crewed by specters of the dead. I swallowed hard. I was going to be alone at sea, with a cruel god and a crew of ghosts. Loki had never promised that I would return from this. I blinked back tears as Trygve hugged Yarra on the beach.
The oars beside me moved. A cloud of steamy breath erupted from the invisible oarsman beside me. Did ghosts breathe? The eagle hopped onto my shoulder and pecked my ear.
Smyain burst through the assembled soldiers. Without hesitating, he plunged into the waves. He grabbed the side of the skip and hauled himself aboard. The eagle ruffled their feathers and squawked at him. Taking no notice of the bird, Smyain sat on the bench opposite me.
“What are you doing?” I demanded.
He shrugged and tugged his tunic over his head. He wrung the water from it. “We all talked. We know you need most of us here, but we decided we didn’t want you to go alone.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You talked? You all made this decision without consulting me? I am still your captain. What if I wanted to go alone?
He looked down at his hands. “Do you really? I can swim to the beach.”
“No,” I said quietly. I hadn’t been willing to ask any of them to come. It was my bargain and my responsibility. I couldn’t guarantee his safety or life. But now that he was here, visible and corporeal beside me, an earnest smile on his face, I wasn’t going to turn him away.
I laid my hand on his arm. “But you have to understand—this could take years.”
“I’ll survive,” he said with a grin. “I always do.”
The invisible oarsman rowed us across the glassy waves to Loki’s ship. When we reached the silver berth, the eagle leapt from my shoulder. Smyain ran his hand along the metal. Up close, the metal plates looked more like feathers than scales, each with delicate silver rachis. The oarsman knocked on the ship’s hull and a cyan ladder fell from above.
My legs felt like jelly as I stood. Once I boarded that ship, there was no turning back. I closed my eyes, then eased my foot onto the ladder’s first rung. I’d pledged myself to a god, and there had been no turning back from the moment I gave Loki my promise. If I put the people I planned to rule in the path of Loki’s creature, how could I be worthy of their support? If I wanted them to follow me, I had to be willing to sacrifice for them.
I stepped onto the ladder, both feet on the rung. The pressure of the air changed, became heavy, as before a storm. I stepped back onto the boat and the pressure eased. Taking a deep breath, I began climbing. This ship’s magic ran deeper than its invisible crew and strange appearance. But whatever awaited us on board, I didn’t have a choice. Unless I wanted to unleash the Sleipnir upon my home, my bargain was sealed.
A pale, white hand reached down to help me when I neared the top of the ladder. The Trickster stood on deck, cyan mist swirling at their feet. Their golden eagle feathers had transformed into a radiant sunglow gown that hugged decadent curves. Their raven hair was swept back in a long braid, with eagle feathers tied into the end. Though their face was that of a young woman, their true lips showed through the magic. Loki did not try to hide the black threads binding their mouth. They wanted me to remember our mission.
The god’s mysterious crew sat on their rowing benches; they were revealed now that I stood aboard the ship. The nearest to me was a petite woman with jet-black hair and brown skin. She wore a red silk dress and golden arm bands. Next to her was a freckled, ginger boy who wore the black robes of the Gaelic monks. Another man wore a crisp white turban. A dog the size of a wolf rested its head in his lap.
It was a crew from all over the world. Some appeared to be from ancient times. A blonde thegn sat on the bench farthest from me with his eyes trained on the deck. He wore a rich blue tunic with a white trout emblazoned on the front. It was the sigil of the legendary King Forkbeard, who had been dead for over two hundred years. The warrior lifted his eyes to meet mine. Though his face was young, his eyes held a resigned heaviness, as if he had seen too much.
“Who are all these people?” I asked.
“Travellers,” said Loki. “People who wished to escape their worlds for a while. I borrowed this ship from the Norns. Everyone on this crew has made their own pact with Skuld or Verðandi. As have I.”
The Norns, deities of fate and time, mitigators of debt and sin. They controlled destiny itself. In their hands, time was as malleable as fresh clay. Skuld was the goddess of future and debt. Owe something to her, and one’s life became her payment. Verðandi commanded the present time. It was her gift to bestow, and she could take it away. Their sister Urðr commanded fate itself.
Suddenly, I was glad that my bargain was with Loki. The idea that the gods bargained with each other, and were themselves constrained by oath, was new to me. In the politics of the divine, I wondered who owed what and how the economy of promises worked. To get this ship, what had Loki had to bargain? And what had been promised in return?
I ran to the ship’s bow. The waves beneath us were barely moving, cresting in slow-motion. On the beach, the people appeared as statues. A bird flew overhead, flying so slowly it was as if it swam in the air. I reached into my pocket and drew out a coin. I threw it into the sea. It moved off my palm in slow motion: a tiny, golden star suspended below the rail.
Loki came to stand beside me, and we watched the coin slowly descend. They laughed as the coin crawled to the sea.
“Time’s grasp is more tenuous here in the Neverlands,” they said. “We could be gone weeks or years, and, to the people you leave behind, it may seem only days.” Their hand moved to my head, and they lifted a strand of my blond hair. Under the sun’s glare, it appeared white. “For you, though, you will age with the ship. When you return, you will be different.”
“Will I return?” I asked, biting my lip.
The god shrugged. “I guess that depends on your skills. Steer us well, and you’ll be back before you turn gray.”
They took me by the shoulders and marched me toward the crew. Smyain had taken a seat on the rowing bench beside the man in the turban. The wolf licked his open palm.
“What happens to my crewman?” I asked. “If we run into trouble, I want him to be safe.”
Loki frowned. “I did not invite him aboard this ship nor expect him to be here. But he is not bound by any oath. He can leave at any time.”
“You don’t own his life. If it comes to that, I want your word that he survives.”
Loki sighed. “Agreed.”
“And you must allow me to command as I see fit. You are a passenger. We are allies.” My mouth was dry, and my heart pounded. Loki was a god, but if I didn’t establish my position from our first day, they would rule over me. I wanted to lead. If they didn’t respect me, Loki would try to trap me in an endless string of deals. If they lost their temper and killed me where I stood, death would end our bargain, and my town would still be safe. I would take my chances.
“We are allies,” the god intoned with a roll of their eyes.
“My crew will take breaks. When we are on land, we will hunt and we will feast.” I raised my chin, daring them to disagree with me.
Loki stared at me. Their jaw clenched. They turned away from me and barked to the crew. “Line up and meet your new captain.”
I hid a smile behind my hand.
Abandoning their oars, the crew scrambled to form a line. I braced my hand on my hip and made a show of inspecting them. I paced between the benches. Smyain gave me an encouraging nod.
I rolled up my sleeves. The woman nearest to me gasped; her eyes were trained on my hook. She winced in what I could only interpret as pity. Once, I might have hidden the hook behind my back. But after everything I had gone through, it was a badge of survival. It was part of me. The woman could pity me if she wanted to. She would learn better soon enough.
I whispered to the markings on my forearm. My toes and fingers went numb. The blood inside me seemed to cool. Even though I could still see my island home and the people lingering on the beach, my tattoos shifted. They showed open ocean before the ship’s bow and a path leading to a continent I had never seen on any map.
Loki peered over my shoulder. They traced the path with a long finger.
I pulled my arm against my chest and slowly walked to the ship’s bow. Pointing toward the coast, I said, “We sail.”
The crew picked up their oars. Loki walked to the stern and raised the black anchor. The sail above us blew taut as a gale of north wind broke through the timespell. We coasted for the stretch of beach ahead. I called directions to the rowers, angling our ship so that we would run aground north of the people still standing on the beach.
My markings still showed only ocean ahead. I had trusted my magic this far, and it was my connection to Heimdallr. Loki’s magic had hidden my town in a place that Heimdallr could never find. Maybe my maps showed the world as the god-guardian saw it. If the Norns could build a ship ungoverned by time, what else could it do?
“Are you sure about this?” Smyain called as we neared the coast.
I nodded. The sea breeze rustled through my hair. I stood on the prow and gripped the rail. Would this be the second time I’d steered a ship to disaster? I closed my eyes. A jubilant cheer went up from the crew, as the ship ghosted over the sand.
The End