Daughter of Fire and Ice by Marie-Louise Jensen Page A

anxious glance back over my shoulder and thought I could make out men running down the hill towards us, blurry through the heavy sheets of rain that were falling.
    ‘Hurry!’ Erik called to Kai who was rowing. He redoubled his efforts; the boat lifted on an incoming wave and shot towards us. Erik and Grim grabbed it as soon as it came close enough and Erik threw himself over the side, and then reached out a hand to pull me in. Grim pushed us hard away from the beach, jumped in and snatched up the second pair of oars. The mist and rain were so dense now, I could barely make out my companions in the boat, let alone anyone on the shore, but they were closing fast, I could sense them.
    ‘Pull!’ shouted Grim over the rush of the waves, calling time to Kai, but a wave pushed us sideways, back onto the beach.
    I was breathing quickly with anxiety, feeling the presence of strangers close to us, drawing closer with terrifying speed. They’d been watching us all the time. Why had they waited until now? My heart was hammering in my chest in fear of this shadowy, unseen threat. I couldn’t help fearing they were part troll or ogre. We were playing hide-and-seek in the mist with evil spirits.
    Suddenly, they were no longer spirits, but men around us in the darkness with clubs and swords in their hands. They were wading out into the water, waist deep, weapons raised. I couldn’t see how many there were.
    ‘Row!’ I yelled at Grim and Kai.
    With a cry of shock, both men threw themselves at their oars and began to pull as though Fenris, the great wolf himself, was after us. But the men were closing in around us. We weren’t going to make it.
    Realizing this, Grim shipped his oars and started to pull his sword from his scabbard.
    ‘Take the oars,’ he cried to me.
    I flung myself into his seat, grasping the oars. But I couldn’t use them. I didn’t know how. Only Kai was rowing and he made little headway into the waves.
    Grim swung his sword clumsily, nearly taking my head off. I ducked. I could see he knew nothing of sword fighting. One of the men in the water hit him a blow on his shoulder with a club and it knocked him right off his feet into the bottom of the boat. Erik snatched up Grim’s long sword and swept it out in a wide arc towards the enemy. The manoeuvre was blessed with beginner’s luck. One opponent fell back with a cry of pain and a splash. His companions rushed to drag him above the waves. In those few vital instants, Kai pulled on his oars and with a few strong strokes, he pulled us beyond their reach.
    Grim lay unconscious in the bottom of the boat, but Kai stood and gave a yell of triumph. He stood precariously in the boat shaking his fist into the fog.
    ‘Misbegotten sons of trolls!’ he shouted.
    I handed my oars to Erik who’d sheathed the sword and slid onto the bench beside me. I turned, shifted out of Erik’s way and grasped Kai’s sleeve, pulling him down into his seat.
    ‘Don’t provoke them!’ I urged. ‘Help Erik row!’
    ‘We’ve nothing to fear from those cowards,’ Kai scoffed vaingloriously. ‘They’ve lost us now, and they know it.’
    I wasn’t so sure. My sense of danger was not lessening as we drew away from the beach. It was growing.
    They were waiting between us and our ships. All at once, I knew it as sure as if I could see them with my eyes. I felt my mouth drying with sudden fear. I stared into the greyness of mist and pouring rain and thought I saw a movement. A shadow. I opened my mouth to shout a warning, but it was already too late. Two boats collided with us simultaneously, one from each side. All four of us were knocked completely off balance by the collision. In the ensuing chaos, Kai dropped his sword into the sea and Erik lost his oars. All was a blur of shouts and confusion.
    Desperate, I drew out my knife. Our boat lurched wildly as someone leapt into it and I slashed wildly at him. The man drew back warily. He was watching me. I could see his eyes gleaming