They were starting north along the west shore of the peninsula on which all the northern kingdoms were located.
The coast on their right was dark and rocky, and to the left stretched unmeasured miles of open ocean, flashing green and silver in the sun.
“I can barely remember the last ten years, now that we’re underway at last,” said Hadros, grinning into the wind.
“How could I have spent so long at peace?
This is the real life for a man—feeling the waves, hearing the creak of the mast, chasing down an enemy in a fast ship with good warriors on board and good seamen at the oars.”
Kardan looked away, pretending he had not heard.
He had no intention of becoming nostalgic for a war he had lost, and he would not let the other king goad him into a reply.
At the same time ten years ago that Kardan had sworn on steel and rowan to pay the tribute, Hadros had sworn to treat Karin as his own daughter—as long as the tribute was paid.
He had been happy then to accept the black-bearded king’s word.
But should he have done so?
Had Hadros already enjoyed the princess’s embraces many times, perhaps beginning when she was still a little girl?
Had she then been passed to Valmar to teach him the ways of manhood, and had young Dag recently begun to take his turn as well?
Kardan closed his eyes and gritted his teeth.
He reminded himself that when Karin returned home she had not seemed coarsened or abased.
Hadros’s offer for her to marry his heir suggested that he still considered her a woman worthy of a king’s son, a maid who could command a fine bride-price rather than a discarded concubine.
But she had never seemed completely happy to be home again, and especially in the few days before she disappeared her moods had been wild.
She had denied any feeling for Valmar, although Hadros had said she had spent the night with him at least once, and she had kept it from her father when Roric arrived.
He had to conclude bitterly that he just did not know his daughter—and if they did not find her he never would.
“I was thinking about Dag,” said Hadros beside him.
Kardan opened his eyes, startled as though the other king had read some of his thoughts.
“If Roric doubles back, I hope Dag will be able to direct the castle’s defenses himself.
I even have doubts he’ll be able to manage the breaking of the yearling colts.
It should have been Valmar left in charge.
Well, I
have
thought a few times that my sons might use the toughening of war!
And the boy may be right; it is possible that Roric would talk to him when he wouldn’t to anyone else.”
Hadros glanced toward the bow of the ship where Gizor One-hand reclined in front of the mast.
“When
he
insisted on accompanying us,” he added in a lower tone, “I had no one else but Dag to put in authority.
Roric knows all too well exactly how many warriors I have, and just what to do to spread them to maximum thinness.”
Queen Arane stood a few feet away, easily balancing herself against the ship’s motion with a hand on the rail, following their conversation with a faintly ironic smile on her lips.
Hadros turned to look again at Kardan.
“You look terrible,” he said with another grin.
“Not a good sailor, is that it?
Is that why your own ship had not been made ready?”
Kardan shook his head hard.
He did feel queasy, but this ship’s rising and falling through the waves had only a little to do with it.
Besides thinking about Karin, he kept being reminded of his oldest son, dead so short a time, whose ship had risen and fallen through waves like these until it had smashed against the rocks and all had drowned.
He had thought then that he had nothing left to live for, having neither wife nor child, and a kingdom his only at Hadros’s whim.
Karin, restored to him, had abruptly given his life purpose again, but she had also given him a whole new array of events to fear.
“Worried about the lass?” Hadros added, this time without the grin.
“I am too.
Did she tell you she took over the direction of my household when my queen died?
As soon as I returned from the All-Gemot without her, I knew the castle would never be the same.
I just wish she had the sense to stay with Valmar!
Women,” he added in a mutter.
Kardan turned from him and tried watching the waves, rising higher than the ship before they fell, their tips edged in white, then decided it would be even better not to watch them.
But Hadros was not done.
“Roric won’t hurt her, but neither of them can have any idea what they will find in the northern mountains.
There are creatures of voima there that are worse than even those in the tales told late at night when the youngsters are asleep.
I’ve been in those mountains—I know.”
Kardan seized him by the arm.
He immediately tried to make it seem that he was just trying to keep his balance, but there was more to it.
Without knowing Karin’s mind now that she was a grown woman, without being able to see her fate, he desperately needed an ally.
As much as he considered Hadros his enemy the other king kept appearing the only ally he had.
“When I encouraged Roric to go north,” added Hadros almost apologetically, “I had no idea he would take her with him.
He’ll find plenty there—men and creatures of voima both!—for his restless spirit.
I do hope he survives the adventure, however.
For one thing, I personally want to wring his neck.”
They put in that evening at a cove King Hadros said he knew of old.
He took the helm himself to guide them in between rocky islets, thick with brush, to a sheltered harbor as smooth as a pond.
“We should be safe here,” he told Kardan.
“We’re still too far south for any of the dangerous creatures of voima, and there never used to be any human settlements nearby.”
He sent several warriors ashore anyway to check for danger and to refill the water barrels.
Gizor insisted on leading the party even though he had to be helped into the skiff.
Queen Arane went with them, saying she wanted to stretch her legs after the day’s journey.
The two kings stayed on board as the sailors rigged the awnings, then ate some of the smoked meat they had brought along while waiting for the shore party to return.
“Why do you think the queen insisted on coming along with two widowers looking for their heirs?” Kardan asked.
“It seemed like more than a woman’s whim.”
The sun had dipped low in the sky, its light glowing on the dark pines on the shore.
For a brief half hour the two kings were alone, the only sounds the quiet conversation of sailors and warriors at the other end of the ship and the steady ripple of tiny waves against the hull.
Hadros, sitting with his stiff leg stretched out in front of him, shot Kardan a sharp glance but answered casually.
“You were the one who seemed to think she had become friendly with Karin.”
“But why, since Karin had not fled to her court after all, should the queen have any further interest in our affairs?”
“Arane and I have been friends for years,” the black-bearded king said with a shrug.
“I expect she just wanted a change from that court of hers—I certainly couldn’t stand it there for more than a week.”
But he gave a sudden fierce smile then.
“Maybe she wants to keep the peace between us.
You notice she’s already made it clear, my friend, that her warriors will spell the difference if you and I start fighting, so she may hope that as long as we aren’t sure which side she’d support we won’t start fighting at all.
Or maybe she thinks she can keep me from killing Roric once we find him!
Not that I really would, or at least not in cold blood,” he added thoughtfully.
“It takes a while to raise up young men, even if we do run out of time before we run out of fury and wounded pride.
But do not let Arane’s sweet demeanor fool you.
Underneath she is as tough as any old warrior.”
“Is there any reason you know why she should be concerned about Roric?” asked Kardan.
Here at last might be some clue to this mysterious man whom his daughter apparently loved.
“I would have thought she had never even met him.
Could her concern for Karin and thus for the man Karin apparently loves be enough to bring her on a dangerous journey with two old widowers?”
“Well,” said Hadros slowly, “and well.
She keeps her own counsel, Arane does.
Your daughter will not be a bad queen if she takes her for a model.”
He sat for a moment with his hands on his knees and frowning, as though trying to decide whether or not to say something, then leaned back again.
“Arane had a sweet maid once, years ago,” he added irrelevantly and with a smile.
The rippling against the hull had become louder.
Kardan stared at the dark water.
Something dark was swimming just below the surface, something like a very large fish.
It was behind Hadros as he sat leaning against the rail, and he did not seem to hear it.
“I did the queen a favor once, over twenty years ago,” he continued.
But Kardan was no longer listening.
As he watched, the fish broke the surface right next to the ship.
But it was not a fish.
It was a woman.
As Kardan watched in astonishment, a head of curly black hair emerged from the waves.
Eyes bright as mirrors, she reached for the railing and pulled herself up.
The water streamed from her naked body.
Hadros heard her then and turned his head abruptly.
Kardan could see now that it was not a woman after all.
From her waist down she was not human but fish, scales glittering as bright in the evening light as her eyes.
Hadros started to speak, but the siren did not give him a chance.
She flashed Kardan a grin that showed a line of sharp little white teeth, then threw her arms around Hadros’s neck from behind.
He gave a startled cry, half-choking, as he tried to jump to his feet.
She bent his head slowly backwards while his hand grasped for the sword he had unbuckled and laid at his feet.
But it was too late.
As his fingers found his knife instead, the siren gave a hard jerk.
Hadros’s back slammed against the rail, and his kicking legs rose into the air.
The knife flew from his hand, but it reached the waves only a second before he did.
With a splash, the siren and the king were gone.
Kardan leaped up, kicking off his boots and tossing away his cloak.
The sailors had realized at last that something was happening, but he was closest.
His sword in his hand, he took a deep breath and sprang over the railing, going fast before he could change his mind.
The water was even colder than he expected.
He almost gasped with the shock but managed to keep his mouth closed.
He clung desperately to his sword, kicking his way downwards after a thin stream of bubbles.
Tiny startled fish swam before him.
The salt stung his eyes as he swam, his clothes dragging at him.
But he could see the siren now on the rocky bottom, her long sinuous tail wrapped around Hadros’s motionless form.
She grinned again and held up a hand as though to warn him off.
Kardan thrust at her with his sword, the motion seeming unbearably slow and reaching nowhere near her.
But the siren frowned and loosened her tail from around Hadros.
His body slumped, the head tilted sideways.