Beyond the Sea Mist by Mary Gillgannon Read Free Book Online Page B

searching for her and left Dublin? The captain must know someone who had a warehouse near here.
    Magnus turned around to ask Sigurd, but before he could approach the captain, there was a commotion on the quay. Magnus rushed to the side of the vessel and watched in horror as a group of men surrounded the Irishwoman. She spat at her captors, and one of them grabbed her by the hair and jerked her head back. Magnus clenched his hands at his side, breathing hard. It would be so easy for this brute to kill her.
    The next moment, one of the women who had been hiding behind the nearby warehouse came rushing up, screaming in the Irish tongue. The plump, red-haired wench launched herself at the man who had grabbed the princess, and was immediately seized by one of the other warriors.
    Magnus didn’t wait to see more, but hurried to his sea chest and snatched up his swordbelt. He hadn’t even gotten it buckled when Orm was beside him. “What are you doing?” the younger man demanded.
    “I’m going to try and help her.”
    “How? There’s a half dozen men down there, all armed to the teeth. Even you can’t take on that many at once.”
    Oh, aye, I can
, some part of Magnus’s mind argued.
Right now I’m angry enough to take on a whole army
. As the image of the man jerking the Irishwoman’s head back flashed into his mind, the roaring rage inside him swelled out of control. Then he heard the hiss of a blade being drawn and was startled back to awareness.
    “I can’t let you do this,” Orm’s pale eyes regarded Magnus with determination as he brandished his sword. “You saved my life last night. Now I’m going to do the same for you.”
    Magnus scowled at him. “Step out of my way. I don’t want to hurt you.”
    “What about me?” Skulli broke in. “If you want to get off this vessel, you’ll have to fight me as well.” He also had his weapon out.
    Magnus gritted his teeth in frustration. He didn’t doubt he could defeat both these men, but the thought repelled him. Besides, by the time he got them out of the way, it would be too late to save the Irishwoman. “Put down your swords,” he told them.
    He let his own weapon hang limply from his hand as the sense of defeat swept through him. After offering to aid the princess, he’d been unable to do so. It was galling to feel so powerless, so helpless.
    But nothing compared to what the woman was enduring. Magnus made his way back to the side of the ship. He could see Croa’s lackeys leading the princess and the other women away. Where were they being taken? Back to that small storehouse? But, no, it appeared they were being escorted down the dock to another ship. Magnus recalled Bors saying he would be sailing with Croa when he left Dublin. Then he remembered Croa mentioning York.
    Hope sprang again in Magnus’s breast. Croa still had to deal with the rest of the cargo off-loaded the day before. There might still be time to rescue the woman. If he could think of a plan. And if he could get on that ship...
    Orm came up beside Magnus and punched him on the shoulder. “We’ll find you another pretty red-haired wench. I thought that one was too skinny anyway. I like my women with a little more meat on them. Something to grab onto while I’m—”
    “No one of us cares about your taste in woman, Orm,” Skulli interrupted as he joined them. Then he spoke directly to Magnus. “As for you, you have your whole life ahead of you. Don’t muck it up over a wench.”
    Magnus barely heard Skulli’s words. He was already imagining ways he might get onto Croa’s ship.
    * * *
    “Lady, are you well?” Brina whispered.
    Ailinn gazed around the dark, smelly hold of the ship and a let out sigh. “Aye, well enough, at least considering our circumstances.”
    “’Tis awful,” Brina agreed. “At least in the storage shed we had a candle to see by. But surely Croa doesn’t mean to keep us here very long.”
    “You think not?” Ailinn remarked bitterly.
    “This part of