The Girl the Sea Gave Back(22)

I turned, looking for Jorrund, but he was watching the glade, his face pale and his mouth puckered like he was going to be sick. The sound of Vigdis’ wailing echoed out around us in the silence. He sat at the edge of the trees with his brother’s body in his arms, hunched over and weeping as the Svell warriors walked through the tall grass, collecting weapons and armor before dragging their own fallen clansmen into the trees to burn.

The Nādhir warriors lay in the sun, their still bodies beginning to rot. All except one.

I looked back to the trees where the young Nādhir had disappeared with the Kyrr man, his hand pressed to his side and his skin draining white. Maybe he’d be lying dead somewhere soon, too.

The blue sky where the nighthawk had appeared was now empty, not a single cloud hovering over the glade. The All Seer had seen what lay inside the heart of Vigdis and had come in warning. But the Svell didn’t know the language of the future the way I did. They didn’t understand that there was no such thing as a secret. The truth was everywhere. It was in everything. You only had to open your eyes to see it. The Spinners sat beneath the Tree of Urer, watching. Listening. Weaving away at the web of fate.

Bekan’s death was a punishment for Vigdis’ treachery. It was a burden for him to carry for the rest of his days. Jorrund, too.

Beside me, he prayed under his breath, his eyes closed. But it didn’t matter what words were spoken or what requests of their god they made. They could sacrifice a hundred oxen and fill the valley with blood. Still, they had been wrong. They’d betrayed their chieftain for their own hunger for war and there was a price to be paid for it.

The warriors looked on as Vigdis and another man carried Bekan’s body into the forest with the others. The seat of chieftain now fell to him, which was perhaps what he’d always wanted. But passing the leadership of the Svell to Vigdis meant taking power away from Jorrund. And without power, there would be nothing the Tala could do to protect me. What little safety I had was now gone, and that thought terrified me.

Siv stood at Vigdis’ side, waiting. She would become his second in command and the other village leaders would follow. They had to. War was coming and for the first time since the Nādhir made peace, the Svell would be forced to unify. But it would be on the battlefield.

When the Svell they’d sent out after the riders finally appeared in the trees across the clearing, the Nādhir wasn’t with them. They’d lost whatever trail had been left behind and at the sight of them, Vigdis’ furious stare searched the glade. “Where is she?” His voice roared and I flinched, stepping backward as his eyes found me. “Where’s the Truthtongue?”

“Stay back,” Jorrund whispered, stepping in front of me. “Don’t say a word.”

I had no choice but to listen. My hand instinctively reached up for my bow, but it wasn’t there.

Vigdis stormed toward us across the grass, his hands covered in his brother’s blood. His eyes set on me and the pulse beneath my skin raced, my heart coming up into my throat. “You!” he screamed, shoving Jorrund aside and snatching up my arm. He threw me back and I hit the ground hard before he came over me, taking a handful of my hair into his fist. Then I was moving, being dragged over the brittle grass. I screamed, holding onto his wrist as I skidded on the dirt behind him and the dust kicked up into the air, making me choke.

“Fire-steel! Torch!” he called out over his shoulder, and from the corner of my eye I could see Siv moving to follow the order.

“Vigdis!” Jorrund shouted behind us, but he wasn’t listening.

He dropped me back on the ground and I curled into a ball, covering my head as more figures came to stand over me. A Svell man held an unlit torch before him and Vigdis struck the fire-steel. I blinked, the breath leaving my lungs as I realized what he was doing.

He was going to set me on fire.

I cried out, pulling my skirt up into my arms and running for the trees. But two hands caught hold of me, throwing me back down. “Don’t!” I screamed as the fire swallowed the torch in a tangle of orange flames. “Please!”

Vigdis’ fists coiled in my tunic and he pulled me to sit up, his reddened eyes leveling to mine. “You did this,” he sputtered between heaving, ragged breaths. “First, Vera. Now, Bekan.”

“Vigdis, please,” Jorrund pleaded, his voice shaking in terror.

“Eydis has punished Bekan for not killing you when Jorrund brought you through the gates of Liera!” He shook me. “I won’t make the same mistake.”

“We need to gather our warriors and meet with the village leaders.” Jorrund tried to speak calmly, but his hands were trembling before him. He thought better of saying the words, but he was thinking the same thing I was. Vigdis had started the fight in the glade against Bekan’s wishes. It was his own fault his brother was lying dead behind him.

“Not until I’ve pulled that Nādhir’s lungs from his body.” He glared at Jorrund, insulted.

“Their chieftain is dead and so is ours. We have to ready for war,” Siv said, beside him. “This is what we wanted, Vigdis.”

He dropped me, whirling on her. “This is not what I wanted!”

She stepped back, flinching.

Vigdis might have disagreed with Bekan, but it was apparent to anyone who knew him that he loved his brother. In his own foolishness, he hadn’t accounted for losing him if he betrayed the Nādhir.