The Sea Thief

Chapter II

That was her spear. Tora just knew it. She would have recognised the golden hilt anywhere, as well as the mane of curled seaweed around the blade.

Her parents had spent months making it for her. She was not going to let some scamp use it against her.

Especially if that scamp happened to be Emil Blacach.

"Where have you been, Tora?" Emil asked, twirling the spear. "I didn't see you at the hunt today."

Tora rolled her eyes. "You obviously weren't looking carefully enough."

"In fact, I haven't seen you at the hunt for the past six years."

His words sliced the air as he said them, and Tora couldn't help but risk a glance at the huts around her. With only the dim moonlight filtering through the waterfall and into the cavern, she could hardly see the silver barnacles along the walls, nor could she see the twisted oaks and seaweed along the roofs.

To her relief, though, she couldn't see any shadows passing by the windows either. Which meant that everyone was still asleep.

Tora didn't waste another second. She lunged for the spear.

Emil was a second too quick. Just as Tora's fingers brushed against his tapa skirts, she felt him slip out of her grasp. He threw the spear to the ground and Tora scrambled for it, but it was too late. Pain exploded over her face and light washed from one side of her head to the other as Emil shoved her against the stone wall.

The next blow broke across her back. Tora dropped to her knees, pain searing through her skin. She desperately tried to crawl away, but Emil kept kicking her, his feet bouncing off her neck, her shoulders, her lower back-

She doubled over as she felt blood leak into her mouth.

Suddenly, Tora didn't want to fight. She didn't even want her spear back. She just wanted the pain to end. She just wanted the blood to stop.

"What do you want?" she hissed.

Emil took one glance at the blood along her lips and grinned. "You're not still scared of blood, are you?"

Tora didn't say anything. She couldn't say anything. It was as if her blood itself had turned to ice, as if her bones had turned to stone.

Her silence was enough to make Emil hoot. "You are scared, aren't you? No wonder you haven't been at the hunt."

Finally, Tora forced herself to roll onto her back. She could see him clearly, then; he had a strip of snake skin coiled around his neck, his dark hair was sprawled all over his face, and he reeked of blood and poison, of fish and fire.

"I can't believe it," he was saying. "How have you been hunting? How have you been eating?"

Tora ignored him. She sunk her nails into his stomach and threw her head forwards clumsily. She missed Emil, but he still reeled back and howled loudly enough to rattle the stone walls around them. With shaking hands, Tora wrenched herself out of his grasp and shoved Emil to the ground.

"That is none of your business," she whispered into his ear. "If you ever try to make it your business again, I will rip your seal coat to shreds."

Emil made a sound that was too cold to be a laugh. "If I remember correctly, you couldn't even hunt a fish. I bet you couldn't even catch a Lavellan."

"Don't be ridiculous. Anyone could hunt a Lavellan."

"Have you, though?"

The thick, heavy silence was enough to make Tora bow her head in shame.

No, she hadn't caught a Lavellan before. It was yet another thing she had failed to do six years ago. It had just been a stupid, grey rat with large ears and scruffy fur, and she still hadn't been able to sink her spear into its tail.

Emil's whole body shook with laughter as he pushed Tora away from him.

"I was going to your parents' forge to tell them that I found your spear on the human land," he said. "I was also going to tell them that you've been abandoning the hunt."

Tora tried desperately to keep her face still. Already, she could feel her stomach churning and roiling at the thought of her parents learning the truth, learning that their daughter was nothing but a liar, a fraud, a failure.

If they found out – if her sisters found out-

"I change my mind, though," Emil suddenly said. "I'm sure your parents have bigger things to worry about than a girl who can't even catch a rat."

His words were like a slap to Tora's face.

Even as Emil pulled himself to his feet and turned on his heel, Tora couldn't help but stare after him.

She was going to show that scamp.

Anyone could catch a Lavellan.

And that included her.