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The Sea King's Return Part VII |
Posted by: jasonzavoda
on Monday, April 03, 2006 - 05:14 PM
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Part VII
He sank beneath the waves, the Warwolf had thrown him from its deck, the rudder snapping back and forth like a banner in the wind. Halfdan had held on till the storm yanked the smooth worn wood from his blistered hands.
Halfdan fell backwards, flung into the air, he saw the mast give way and tare from its broken base before the water swallowed him. Then all he saw was a greenish blue and a stream of bubbles rising from his mouth up to the surface. As he struck the sea it grabbed him and squeezed, his lungs were emptied, his limbs felt like stones that dragged him down.
There was sand beneath his back and a stone beneath his head, stars danced before him till darkness hid them. The greenish blue of the water disappeared. Halfdan saw no more till morning chased away the storm.
* * *
A touch, light as a drifting feather, slid across his brow. The stone was gone, a soft pillow now beneath his head and the scent of flowers all around. Halfdan opened his eyes and looked into a face sweet as the first warm breath of spring.
The woman smiled at him, eyes green and bright, hair white as snow, lips tinted blue but lighter than the water that had drowned him.
Halfdan gave a start. He shuddered, the feeling of water burning in his lungs, filling him, it was more than a memory. Halfdan strained for air, he rolled from the woman's lap and scrambled to his feet.
He stood on hard earth near to the wet sand of a beach. Waves broke in endless lines and the water stretched out to the horizon's edge. To his left there was a stony rise, a hill of rock along the shore, one finger of boulders disappearing into the sea. Halfdan turned and to his right he could see the wall of a village made from the boles of trees.
Men and women were busy repairing a large break where thewall had collapsed, others worked to straighten boles which had shifted from their footings buried deep beneath the sand. The line went from the rise of land, down along the beach and out into the sea till the trunks, sharpened to a rough point at top, sank beneath the water.
"My home." the woman said.
Halfdan looked back at her, surprised. "You speak the north tongue?"
She laughed, "I speak the true tongue, but I have shared your dreams while you slept, now my words seem as yours and your words are mine."
"You are a priestess..." Halfdan said and inched away.
"I am Grainne, daughter of Pebin, who is eldest of our clan." she told him. "I know only the little magics which all maidens know."
"Little magics." Halfdan said with wonder. "Only the priests and skalds can do such things. Little magics," he shook his head, "was I slain? Grainne the sea had hold of me, I felt the Sea god's hand."
"He did not take you." said Grainne, she reached out and held his arm then placed her hand against his bearded cheek. "I found you first. You settled near the stables of the clan."
"Stables? Grainne, I drowned, I felt the sandy bottom of the sea and the water above me, the Sea god's hand pushing me down and inside my chest."
"I am not as you, though my people remember yours." she bowed her head then looked smiling up into his eyes. "We are the Danann. We are the children of the Sea god."
"What do you say?" Halfdan asked not understanding.
"My home is both beneath the waters and above, the Sea god's hand and the Wind god both dwell within the Danann." she inhaled deeply. "I feel the Wind god inside of me, and out there beneath the waves, then the Sea god is within."
"The Mer, you are the one of the Mer." Halfdan said with wonder. "You are only legend in the north. Oh Aelfred, what land have you brought us to."
"No legend." Grainne said. She stood upon her toes and placed her lips to his.
Halfdan kissed her back, gently at first, tentative, but then he placed his arms around her and almost lifted her from her feet. With both hands at her side he set her down and drew a deep breath, she did the same.
"You might drown me this time with your kiss." he said.
"Do not fear," she said, "I will not let you go."
* * *
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