Chapter 1
I couldn’t bring myself to move away from the rail until I couldn’t see Jorvik any longer. Until I couldn’t see the people, and my parents any longer. Until I couldn’t see my home anymore. Except, it wasn’t my home anymore, and it hadn’t been since I got married to Viktor.
Viktor. Viktor was my everything. Viktor was my home now, and wherever he was, that was my home. Even if it was in the middle of a sea, starting to set sail on a three-month mission to a place called Greenland. Wherever that was.
“It’s not too late to change your mind,” Viktor whispered, his breath fanning over the shell of my ear. “We’re still close enough to turn back if you want to.”
“I don’t want you to lose your captaincy,” I said, turning around in his arms to gaze up at him. “And I don’t want to go back to Jorvik if you’re not going to be there.”
“We’ll probably be at sea for three months. Maybe longer if we get lost,” he warned, but with the way his lips were turned up at the corners as he lowered his face, gently brushing his lips against mine, I could tell that he was only teasing.
“We’ll just have to make sure we don’t get lost then,” I grinned and rose on my tiptoes to press my lips to his in a real kiss. As we were on the top deck, all the crew were here and had a front row seat to what we were doing.
“Come in,” Viktor grinned and placed one more kiss to my mouth before pulling away, but he made sure to keep his arm around my waist as he guided me around the top deck of The Serpent.
We started off at the front of the ship where the infamous Serpent was hung, proudly displayed as we cut through the water. It was various shades of dark grey, almost black. The scales looked almost real and seemed to glisten in the sunlight. The serpent twisted and turned in several curves, leading all the way up to the serpent’s scaly face, beady eyes, and slippery tongue. I had seen a countless number of times before, but this was the first time that I was actually paying attention to it.
“Do you want to sit on it?” Viktor asked from behind me.
“What?” I asked and turned to glance over my shoulder at him in surprise. When he grinned and nodded, looking awfully excited about it, I couldn’t believe it, “You cannot be serious!”
“Oh, I am,” he grinned.
“We hear you’re giving a tour,” Roscoe asked as he joined us at the rail with Manny, the both of them peering over at the serpent. “And were wondering why we weren’t invited.”
“Maybe because you’re not my wife,” Viktor snorted, but couldn’t keep the smile from his face. “Well, since you’re here, you might as well join us for the rest of it. And don’t worry. You haven’t missed much at all. In fact, I was just asking Astrid if she wanted to sit on the serpent.”
“Sit on the serpent?” Manny frowned in caution. “That’s not a thing, is it?”
“It is,” Viktor grinned and turned to Roscoe. “Care to show these two how?”
“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Roscoe returned the grin as he braced his hands on top of the rail and used his arm strength to get up over it. He sat on the edge of the rail before gently lowering himself, his bottom going on top of the serpent’s head. It was just wide enough for him to use as a chair, but I couldn’t help but fear that he would fall with every bob of the ship.
“Okay, I think that’s enough now,” I chuckled nervously, resisting the urge to reach out and grab Roscoe’s hand to pull him up over the rail once again. When Viktor and Roscoe merely laughed at my reaction, I huffed. “I just don’t want him to fall into the water.”
“I’m a good swimmer,” Roscoe grinned cockily, but it was quickly replaced by one of fear when he dipped forward, looking as if he was going to fall face first into the water. I gasped and instinctively reached out to grab him, not that I was confident that I would be able to save him all by myself, but when laughter erupted from all around me, I groaned and resisted the urge to stomp my feet.
“That wasn’t funny,” I groaned and glaring between the three of them. “I was genuinely afraid that Roscoe would fall into the water.”
“Don’t worry, Astrid,” Viktor chuckled and threw his arm over my shoulders, pulling me into him. His chest rumbled from underneath the side of my face as he laughed, and I felt him press a kiss to the top of my head. “I wouldn’t let anything happen to any of my crew. If Roscoe falls into the water, I’m going to jump right in after him.”
“Well, that’s very reassuring,” I huffed. “Now, before one of you gives me a heart attack, let’s continue with the rest of this tour.”
Once Roscoe’s feet were safely placed back on the wooden deck of the ship, we moved further down the deck, stopping at the wheel which Dagfinn was currently manning.
Dagfinn was a large, burly kind of fellow. His hair was dark and matted, as if he didn’t wash it very often, but it didn’t look dirty. He kept it longer than Viktor’s, falling halfway down his back which I had noticed he nearly always, regardless of the occasion, wore freely, Regardless of the scary, powerful stance, he had the smile of a teddy bear and I couldn’t help but return it. It was nice to feel like I belonged here even though I technically didn’t. I had all but jumped onto the ship at the last minute – just about how long it took for the immediate direction of my life to suddenly change.
“When do we get to have a go at the wheel?” Roscoe asked excitedly, looking as if his fingers itched to give it a whirl. With his jumpy mood, I couldn’t help but think that he’d sail us right into a large rock, splitting the ship right through the middle.
“We’ll be on water for a couple of months. There’s plenty of time for all of you to pick up everything,” Dagfinn chuckled and when he turned to face me, he winked.
I returned the grin, ignoring the playful way Viktor narrowed his eyes at the both of us.
“Seems like someone’s jealous,” Dagfinn grinned. “But you don’t have anything to worry about, captain. I couldn’t be in love with my life more if I tried. Thankfully, she loves me back just as much, though that might have something to do with the third leg that I walked around with in my breeches.”
I gasped and laughed at his crude words. Roscoe and Viktor matched my expression while Manny looked extremely uncomfortably, shifting from foot to foot every few seconds.
“And that’s Dagfinn,” Viktor chuckled as he led us away from Dagfin and the wheel. “He’s got bit of a loose tongue and tends to overshare information. If you offend easily, you probably won’t be very comfortable around Dagfinn, but he has a good heart.”
Next up on the tour was sails and the mast of the ship which appeared to be Garth’s speciality. I had watched him align them earlier and ever since then, he seemed to always be glancing at them from the corner of his eye.
“This is Garth’s area of expertise,” Viktor told us. “He changes the sails
“I’m not as young and as nimble as I used to be, so I whenever someone needs to go up the mast, I usually get Caspian or Laurence to go up for me. They’re young and won’t die or break all the bones in their body if they accidentally fall,” Gustav grinned, laughing at himself. “But since we’ve now got you two strapping lads,” he sent a pointed look to Manny and Roscoe. “Next time I need one of them changing, I’ll call for you.” And as if he suddenly remembered something, Gustav turned to me with a large, friendly grin. “Of course, Astrid, if you fancy climbing the mast, I’m more than happy to call for you as well.”
“I think I’ll pass,” I chuckled. “But thanks for the offer, Gustav.”
“Don’t worry,” Viktor smiled softly. “We’ll find something for you to do.”
Moving away from Gustav and his mast, Viktor pointed out the stairs which led down to the second level deck, and from there you could go to the third level deck. Behind that little part, there was Gustav and a few of the men who sat around a small mountain of stones and the tripod bowl where the fire would usually go. The single pan on top of it meant that the cooking process was slow, and probably kept Gustav busy most of the day. Today, or for at least the first half of the day, he wouldn’t need to cook. Not since we had the bread and cheese that I had packed for the crew. I was now grateful that I had packed a little more than I usually would have for twelve people, otherwise there wouldn’t have been enough for me.
We skipped the second deck for now and went directly down to the third level. Traditionally, this was where the entire crew would have been, physically rowing the boat to keep it sailing through the water. As Chip had put in some fancy mechanism where the only thing the person steering the ship needed to do was keep their foot down on the button to keep the rows automatically moving, this meant that the purpose of this deck had changed. It had now turned into somewhat of a storage area, not just for the dried foods which we had taken from Jorvik to keep us going for the estimated length of the mission, but for the weapons and other goods which we intended to trade at all the islands we would be trading at before moving onto the real meat of it all.
“As you can see, there’s nothing much to see down here,” Viktor told us. “There are barrels of water and apple cider in those two corners over there,” he said, pointing toward the left where the entire wall was lined up with large barrels. “That and the barrels of dried food on the other side is what’s keeping us alive for the next couple of months.”
“What about fish?” I asked, curious.
“We’re try to catch fish every day, but in some parts of the ocean, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to catch any. Maybe because the fish swim deeper in that particular area, or maybe it’s just densely populated because they’re being eaten by a shark or something,” Viktor explained before turning around to face us. “Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s head back up the second level. That’s where we have our rooms and the bathrooms.”
I listened carefully as Viktor guided us through the rooms. It was a pretty large ship. There were ten bedrooms in total, as well as two bathrooms.
“Usually we get a room each, but there’s more of us this time, that means that two rooms will have to be shared,” Viktor told us as he came to a stop in front of the first room. “Manny and Roscoe, you can take this one, and Astrid,” he grinned as he turned to face me. “You’ll be sharing with me.”
We left Manny and Roscoe get acquainted with their living quarters for the next couple of months, and Viktor led us to our room which was the very last one at the end of the hallway. It was the furthest away from the set of stairs which led up to the top deck, but closest to the ones which led to the deck below.
“I’ve been dying to get you alone all morning,” Viktor groaned in wanton desire, pulling me into his arms as soon as he closed the door behind you. “What does a man have to do to get a moment alone with his wife?”
“Maybe he could start off by actually telling his wife that,” I grinned and reached my arms up to loop them around his neck, pulling his face closer to mine.
“I’m sorry for not speaking to you about this earlier,” Viktor whispered against my lips, his eyes fluttered closed. “I know that I should have asked if you wanted to join me on the ship, but I promise you that the next few months will pass by quickly and we’ll be back in Jorvik before you know it.”
“You don’t need to apologise.” I was quick to stop him. “It came as a surprise, sure, but I’m so happy I’m here. I’m so grateful that we don’t have to spend such a long time away from each other. I would have missed you so much.”
“You make me so happy,” Viktor exhaled and pressed his lips harder against mine, forcing me against his chest by applying pressure on the hand splayed against the small of my back.
His words warmed my heart, and as he kissed me, gently stroking my tongue with his in slow, sensual strokes, I was tempted what I had been contemplating for a few days now. I would have spoken my heart this morning, but then we were interrupted when he needed to head down to the shore to leave.
Just like how we were interrupted now.
“Viktor! Astrid!” We heard Gustav suddenly call for us somewhere from above. “Lunch!”
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Layla Knight
19.12.2021
