Completely Intact

Rocky Mount was exactly what the name said. A rock with a few houses on it. The rock was the most impressive thing about the town, striped and large, with a lighthouse on top. Otherwise, the sea dominated. It crashed onto shore, massive white-capped waves visible in the distance. It made me nauseous just to look at. As we’d traveled west and north, the rain had changed to snow, and the ground had gone from muddy and slushy to the white of ice and snow. It was real winter, now.

I shuddered. From here, we could still book a ship south, to where they drank out of pineapples and lay on beaches in the sun. Wouldn’t that be nice, Andrena? A little vacation?

She didn’t respond.

“I wonder why the Beetle isn’t paying for the northern Temple anymore,” said Apis. He was staring out at the ocean, too, looking north and frowning. From here, you couldn’t see any of the Northern Fjords or bays. Just the endless gray sea.

“Not our business,” I said. “Duran, don’t even think about it.”

He pulled his hand back from the boat rental pamphlet. “It looks like fun!”

“Not in this weather, it isn’t. Every time we get close to the sea I end up chasing after you, and I bet this time I’d lose you for good.”

Once I was sure we had everyone, we made a beeline to one of the few houses with lights on and smoke coming out of the chimney. It was just as small and run-down as the rest of Rocky Mount, but it did have a small window in the front. The ticketing office.

“What do you want?”

The woman opening the window was about my age. She raised an eyebrow at the three of us and looked supremely unimpressed when I told her we wanted to go north. “In this weather? You want to die?”

“I just need to go north. Can you make it happen or not?”

She stared down at my sword, then sighed and pulled back from the window. We were forced to stare for a long few minutes as she muttered, running her hand along a long logbook before finally emerging again. “There’s one ship docking in two days,” she said. “They’re private, though. Not taking passengers. Otherwise, no one’s going north.”

“But-”

“It’s not the time of year to go north,” she said. “Have you ever seen ice the width of your hand around a mast? That’s the kind of weather you get. Not to mention the beasts.”

“It’s business for the gods,” I snapped, before she could continue. “Is there anyone we could hire?”

That stopped her for a moment, at least. She leaned a little further forward. She stared first at my sword, then at me. Then she stared at my sword again. “I didn’t think we had paladins anymore,” she said.

“Can we hire anyone, or not?”

Instead of responding to that, she jumped off of her chair and walked away from the window. I watched as she walked over and opened the door, stepping out into the light snow. A faint wind had started blowing, pulling hair out of her braid and into her face. She batted it away, irritated. “Well? What are you waiting for? Follow me.”

Even though Rocky Mount overlooked the sea, it was a sinuous, long path to actually get down to the rocks. I had to go down several sets of wet stairs, nearly tripping the entire way. It turned out that the seaside in winter was a horrible, icy place.

“So,” the woman said, as I was trying not to fall on my face, “How does one become a Paladin? Ursus just chose you?”

“Not Ursus,” I said, fumbling for the railing. “Andrena.”

She didn’t have a response to that. I managed to stay upright long enough to start walking down the dock. Below us, a wide rocky beach was scattered with boulders that must have fallen from the cliff, some striped like the giant one that stood above Rocky Mount.

It was another long, slippery ramp down to get to where the boats were tied. Below us were a few different vessels. It looked like this dock had a larger capacity than it currently held. Maybe people took their boats out for the winter. Now, only two were there. One was called the Quicksilver, a smaller ship that had smoke puffing out of a smokestack and the sails tied down. The other was a ship that looked almost slapped together, with planks overlapping and a long, tall sail. There was no name painted on the side.

The woman gestured to it. “If you want to go north, I’ll take you. But we’ll have to leave tonight, while the weather’s good.”

I glanced up at the sky. Snow was coming down in fat flakes, the wind was picking up, and the waves looked high. “This is good weather?”

“Do you want to do it or not?”

I gave the ship a skeptical glance. If I knew more about ships, maybe I could assess it better. I didn’t know how I felt, giving up control of my life to a ship that could be a complete mess. Especially in northern waters. But…

“You’re sure this ship is seaworthy? In this weather?”

“It’s made the trip before, and it will again. If a beast doesn’t get us, that is. ” she said. Something about her made me confident. Maybe it was the way she held herself. “Well?”

“We’ll do it,” I said. “Ah, what will I owe you?” Unfortunately, being a Paladin still didn’t pay well. I had been depending on selling the mare for a little extra spending gold.

She stared at me for a long moment. “What is it you’re doing up there?”

Before I could respond, my hand heated, the sword underneath coursing through my veins. Andrena- moving through me. The traitor!

“Fixing what’s gone wrong,” she said, using my own vocal chords against me. As if she couldn’t conjure her own image for it!

As soon as she disappeared from my body, I coughed violently, trying to get her out. It was just insulting. If you want to possess me, you could tell me where they are, you know.

All she would say about the other two gods, the ones I had to free to get out of this bargain, was that they were North. Nothing more specific.

I was fairly sure she wasn’t willing to give more information because she didn’t know. Of course, there was always the chance she was lying because she liked to keep me under her thumb.

I didn’t like thinking about that possiblity.

The captain stared at me for a moment, then nodded. She held out a hand. “For you, then, it’s free. I’m Astra. Let’s hope the waves treat us well.”

~*~

The waves were not treating us well. After a half-hearted attempt to help, Astra and her crew had chased Apis, Duran and I off the deck, declaring us hazards to safety. That was fair. I didn’t know aft from stern, and all of the lines just tripped me up. In this weather, the entire deck was slick, covered in ice and snow.

That didn’t mean staying belowdecks was any better. There was the lurching feeling of the waves rising beneath us, my gut not knowing which way was up. That was bad enough. Worse, though, was the crash of the fall. We would thud, the whole boat shaking as if it was going to come apart. It felt like we’d hit hard bottom, even though I knew we’d just tipped off of the top of another wave.

What felt like hours into our ordeal, Apis and I tucked into the cabin and trying not to groan, Astra had poked her head in to check in on us. “Having fun yet?”

It was bizarre. As if the sea itself had possessed her, as soon as we’d pulled anchor she’d become a beaming ray of sunshine. I wished the same had happened to me. All I wanted was solid ground. Dirt, sweet dirt. I would never doubt it again.

“Please tell me the weather will get better,” I muttered, from where I was keeping my face in my knees, trying not to vomit.

“Better? These are the calm parts,” she said. “If you need to, you can come on deck and look at the horizon. Just try not to fall off. We can tie you to the mast.”

On that note, she’d disappeared. I was left to say words better not repeated to Andrena.

As usual, she didn’t respond. I didn’t know what I’d expected. Andrena was the goddess of the Spring, not the goddess of the Sea. As an afterthought, I gave Teuthida a few notes, too. She didn’t respond either.

At least Duran wasn’t suffering. He was bouncing off of the walls of the cabin, full of energy. I should have let him up on deck, but I was leery. He was, after all, still Duran.

“Please,” I muttered, into my knees. “Just promise not to fall off.”

“I won’t! I just want to look for beasts!”

“Don’t get eaten by a beast either.”

“I won’t get eaten by a beast!”

The ship gave another lurch. My gut flipped unpleasantly. I heard Apis groan from the corner. I was too old for this. Why hadn’t Andrena chosen some spry young thing to be her Paladin? Someone with sea legs?

“I expect you back here completely intact,” I muttered. “Now please get out.”

Before I had even finished the sentence, the door slammed shut. Kids. No sense of loyalty.