“I am Taya. And I want off this island.”

“And?” Bjorn asked.

“And what? I want off island. You can help, no?” Taya asked.

“What would give you that impression?”

“Well, I know that all you Ascommani are taught from young age to build longship,” Taya shrugged.

Bjorn didn’t react.

“And let’s say I maybe see tree stump or two...Or fallen log after storm is missing...it’s not hard to put together when you spend most of your time in forest,” Taya said.

Bjorn tensed up, “Why would that be indicative of anything? It’s just some missing wood.”

“You know, you almost broke my legs once because of ‘missing wood’. You should really be more considerate of those who prefer jumping through forest canopy to walking,” Taya pursed her full lips.

The Sklavenis liked to climb and traverse the forest by jumping and swinging along trees. Branch-Walkers, they were sometimes called.

“Maybe you should just pay more attention to where you’re going,” Bjorn said.

“Then...maybe I should just take giant hull in middle of forest and use it myself. If no one else is using it…” Taya said.

Bjorn’s nostrils flared with alarm before the calm look on Taya’s face made him sigh, “You better not have breathed a word of it to anyone.”

“Of course not,” she said.

Bjorn hesitated. She could rat him out to the guards at any time. But...something about her put him under the impression she was truly interested in helping him. And the extra hands would be useful.

“If you cross me…” Bjorn warned.

“I swear I will not betray. On blood of my forefathers,” Taya swore. With the way she said it, that oath must’ve been important in her culture. Still, there were many benefits for her to gain by turning him over, so he wasn’t fully convinced.

“I...I don’t know,” Bjorn muttered.

“You are not sick, Bjorn.” Taya said. Bjorn’s eyes snapped up. “Neither am I. This Plague isn’t sickness. I know you know that. We don’t belong here.”

Bjorn took a deep breath and nodded, “Alright. I just need to rivet some things and tie some knots. Can you row?”

“Of course I can row. Who in hell do you think I am? Some Sarfan woman with hollow bones of bird?” Taya chuckled.

Bjorn set down his bowl and stood, “Right. Let’s not waste time before nightfall, then.”

Ever since he got here, Bjorn had been working each night on his mini longship. It was a toy boat in comparison to the warboats his people were taught to build. But at least it could get him off the island.

Each time he looked at it, he questioned why he bothered. But hope of escape was the only thing that kept him going, no matter how ultimately unfeasible it seemed. Part of him felt guilty for getting this girl he didn’t even know involved in this frankly impossible scheme, but the rest of him had stopped feeling guilty full stop months ago. Besides, Taya seemed like she knew what she was getting into.

Bjorn had used rags he’d looted off dead bodies to stitch a sail together and wove rope from plant fibers near the beach.

The boat was held up on three wooden stands in the middle of a clearing in the forest. Had the Sklaveni not been so attached to the woods, it would’ve gone unnoticed by anyone.

Bjorn took a few minutes to pound in the last of the riveting he’d scavenged and traded for before tying the ropes up and finishing the ship off. He stood back to examine his months of work. The ship was a dinky little thing, but when scavenging was all he could do, it wouldn’t have been wise to ask for more.

“So how exactly are we going to get it down?” Taya asked.

“We’re going to carry it,” Bjorn said.

“Carry?” Taya raised an eyebrow. She seemed more mildly surprised than shocked as though carrying the ship would be no big deal to her.

“It’s not as heavy as it looks,” Bjorn placed his hand on the front stand. “I’ll kick this stand away and carry the front. You do the same to the back. When we stand up, the third should just fall away.”

Taya nodded, “Alright. Let’s not delay.”

Bjorn kicked over the first wooden stand and positioned himself under the boat, knees bent and hands latching into the overlapping planks that formed the hull.

“I have back!” Taya said.

“Lift!” Bjorn grunted as he pushed up.

After nearly tipping the boat over, they一well, actually just Bjorn, since Taya wasn’t the one who stumbled一stabilized, keeping the boat above their heads.

Now was the hard part.

Slowly and methodically, Bjorn and Taya maneuvered around the forest, the longship just thin enough to pass through the tight spaces.

After the sun had set, they finally made it out onto a beach far from the view of any guards. At Bjorn’s instruction, they set the boat down in the sand.

Bjorn squinted, looking out into the night sky. The moon was nowhere to be found, but there were no big winds aside from the usual coastal gale.

“Hm...We should be good to head out. The sky was completely clear before the sun set.” Bjorn said, “Can you swim?”

Taya shook her head, “I would like to. Can’t really learn to swim when deepest part of river you live near doesn’t go past your chest.”

“Then get in. I’ll shove it off,” Bjorn said.

Taya hopped in the boat and just before Bjorn was about to push off, his eye was drawn to something.

A raven sat on a nearby washed up branch. It stared at him with eyes that he swore glowed blue. A raven? This far south?

“What’s hold up?” Taya peered over the deck, but was silenced as her eyes landed on the bird. She audibly gulped as the raven cawed and flew into the air, wisps of bright azure light trailing its wings. “Follow it, Stormtamer.”

“What?”

“I heard no Ascomanni takes message of raven lightly. One with glowing body must be of high significance. Follow it,” Taya insisted.

Bjorn looked back at the raven and despite his own mind telling him to get on the boat, followed it.

A trail of light followed the bird through the trees as Bjorn chased after it, into the forest, running through the brush and vegetation.

Bjorn burst through the greenery and stumbled onto another beach, where the raven circled overhead in slow, lazy rounds.

He narrowed his eyes as he caught sight of a ship a few yards down the coast.

It looked like a Nikan junk, hailing from the largest empire to the east. Bjorn’s people had been there once or twice and the explorers had come back with tall tales of mountains shaped by human hands and cities made of metal and stone.

Actually, there was another vessel behind it. And another behind that. Bjorn got closer and counted a total of ten ships.

Why would they arrive at night? Moreover, the ships appeared to be empty. This wasn’t a random drop off of the infected.

Bjorn slowly turned to face the forest and the orange glow that emanated through the treeline told him all he needed to know.

This was a raid.

Bjorn sprinted back to his ship as fast as he could.

“Taya!” He shouted as he approached the boat, “We need to leave! Now!”

Taya readied their oars as Bjorn pushed all his weight against the boat, moving it from partially in the water to all the way in. Bjorn hopped into the boat and grabbed an oar as Taya tossed it to him. Bjorn sat on the left side and started rowing as Taya did the same on the right.

As they started to row away from the shore, Bjorn spotted a few figures burst from the tree line. They were armored Nikan soldiers. One of them held a large metal cylinder and pointed the hollow opening at the ship.

“What...What are they doing?” Bjorn asked.

“Oh shit!” Taya hissed. Before Bjorn could say another word, Taya tackled him and threw the both of them off the ship’s side. A blast louder than anything Bjorn had ever imagined rippled through the water, shaking his bones, as his boat erupted into flames.

Bjorn grabbed onto Taya as she struggled in the water and pushed them up to the surface. He took a deep breath and pulled them back to where they could reach the ocean floor.

“What the hell! What the hell!” Bjorn gasped as he crawled ashore, staring at his water-steed as it burned like a funeral pyre.

“Bjorn!” Taya snapped, getting his attention. “Leave it! Come, we need weapons!”

Taya pushed herself up and ran onto shore, where the soldiers were. There were four of them. Taya was going to get surrounded if she tried to take them on. Unarmed, no less.

“Wait!” Bjorn tried to call out for her, but his voice was ragged. He pulled himself out of the tide and ran after her.

But to his amazement, she launched off the sand at the soldiers like she was flying. Taya spun through the air and released a deafening boom of wind as her bare foot collided with a breastplate. The armored man was the one who was sent flying through the treeline.

She grabbed the speartips of two soldiers as they tried to attack her and snapped them off their weapons before skewering their wielders necks with them.

She approached the man with the cylinder and socked him in the jaw so hard his head flew off his neck.

Bjorn watched in bewilderment, his eyes looking at the Plague Scars on her thigh that glowed with violet light. He braced for what was coming.

But...the glow just faded.

Taya returned to him, covered in blood splatters. She offered a hand. He took it and was pulled to his feet.

“What...What was that?” Bjorn murmured.

“Only two things ever come out of getting Scars, Bjorn. Sickness is the most common one. But a rare few gain something much more favorable: power of gods.”