She immediately went back to work, pulling out the leather bindings again and hammering the iron stake into the opposite side of the bank. Then she pulled the rope taut, so it was visibly hanging over the torrents of water and ice before she tied it to the other stake in the same way she had the first.

“I know I’m not one to talk,” Seppo said, “but that’s unnatural. She’s not even bothered at all.”

“Magic,” Rose replied, “really messes with people.”

“Remind me never to piss off Diaval in the future, will you?” Soren asked.

“I’ll try my best but … you do have a very special skill when it comes to pissing people off,” Rose said.

Soren turned to look at the two men, then back at me. “If I ever piss her off, are you going to protect me, Janneke?”

He had that stupid smirk on his face as if he already knew the answer. Which, he might’ve. “Whatever she does to you, you’ll probably deserve.”

“Oi!” Diaval yelled from across the river. “We can play ‘house’ later! Get in the bloody water!” The three goblins cringed.

“I’m going to put this out there,” Soren said, “but I really hate this idea.”

“It’s either this or having to fight the giant wolf that guards the other gate of Hel!” Diaval shouted from across the river. “You don’t want to fight the wolf, believe me!”

“I’m with Soren,” Rosamund said. “I kinda prefer taking my chances with the giant wolf.”

“Where’s your sense of adventure?” Seppo grinned, eyeing the river like any other challenge.

“Honey,” Rose said, “I think what you call a sense of adventure is what most people would call ‘poking a dragon with a stick to see what it does when it wakes up’ or ‘jumping down a random chasm to see where it leads after hearing a strange noise from it.’ So, believe me when I say that I love you, but your idea of an adventure is pretty much suicide.” He crossed his arms. “That being said, where you go, I go.”

I looked over at Soren, who was staring transfixed at the water. “Do you see the faces?”

“Faces?” I asked. “What faces?”

Soren shook his head. “It’s the ice floes playing with my head. Don’t worry about it. Let’s get this over with. Single file, everyone. Can everyone here at least swim?”

“Well, obviously you know the answer for me and Seppo,” I said.

Soren rolled his eyes.

“I can swim,” Rosamund said. “I’m not going to be winning any competitions any time soon, but I can swim.”