The Girl the Sea Gave Back(28)

Bekan lifted a hand into the air and the last of the whispers faded, every eye on him. His tiny daughter was cradled in his arms, her pale sleeping face flushed pink at her cheeks. Her mother had died not long after giving birth to her and instead of handing her to a nurse to raise, Bekan had taken the task up himself. Once, she’d walked into his home with Jorrund and he’d been curled up with her, asleep. Tova had decided then that she liked the Svell chieftain, even if he didn’t seem to like her.

His voice rose above the sound of the fire at his back. “The Herja have attacked the fjord, taking the Aska villages. There is little left. They are now on the mountain, doing the same in Riki territory.”

Tova’s hands gripped the edge of the beam, leaning forward until the light from the flames below hit her face. The silence grew thin, the wind blowing against the ritual house the only sound. While some had hoped for the Aska’s destruction, no one had imagined one army could take both clans. Jorrund had told her the story of the Herja, who’d come ten years earlier and attacked the fjord before disappearing. Many thought them a myth.

“Will they come here next?” a timid voice called out.

Tova looked out over the faces but whoever had asked the question didn’t want to be seen. She could see the same thought in every Svell’s eyes, the excitement over the possibility of war now withered into something that looked much more like fear. Hands drifted absently toward weapons or clenched into fists, and the tension pulled tighter as Bekan stepped forward.

He handed the baby girl to his brother, who stood at his side, and Vigdis took her into his arms, holding her against his broad chest.

Bekan looked out over his people, waiting for the last of the murmuring to quiet. “If they do, we’ll be ready. I want every village guarded through the night. Every warrior ready to fight.”

“And H?lkn?” another voice shouted.

The leader of the nearest Svell village had died only weeks before. If war was coming, they wanted to know who would lead them.

Bekan’s eyes went to his brother. His hair was pulled back into one long, tightly woven braid, his arms wrapped protectively around his niece. “Vigdis will take leadership of H?lkn.”

Tova sighed in relief, and Vigdis’ eyes flickered up to the rafters, where Tova was perched. She pulled her knees up into her chest, wrapping her arms around them tightly. Though she was hidden in the shadows, his frightening gaze seemed to find her, peering up through the darkness.

She pressed her lips together, the feeling of his stare crawling over her skin. The chieftain’s brother hadn’t taken his attention from her since she’d arrived in Liera, but now, he would take leadership of H?lkn, the Svell village to the north. And from there, maybe his blade wouldn’t be able to find her.

Forest on the Mountain, Riki Territory

Halvard could still hear the screaming.

His numb feet dragged through the snow behind the Herja’s cart as the horses walked, pulling him behind it. The rope cut into the skin around his wrists and his arms ached, the blood trailing up into the sleeves of his torn tunic. The woman tied beside him had fallen before the moon had even risen above the treetops and her lifeless body dragged over the ground beside him.

It had taken only minutes for the village of Fela to fall to the Herja in the dead of night. They’d appeared in the dark without warning, and he hadn’t seen the man coming as he ran for the house across the path, where his mother was. He’d only felt wide arms wrap around his body as he was lifted up from the ground and then he was in the black forest. The sound of Eelyn’s screams still rang in his ears, his name bent and broken on her cracked voice.

He pinched his eyes closed, breathing through the throbbing pain in his face. The bones in his nose were broken, the taste of his own blood still sharp on his tongue. He’d searched the ground for his brothers’ bodies as the Herja pulled him into the trees, but he’d seen no sign of them. Now, he could only hope that wherever they were, they were alive. He could only hope that they weren’t in the forest looking for him.

A voice called out at the back of the line and a tall Herja woman with black furs hung over her shoulders appeared, pulling another Riki woman on a rope behind her. She stepped into the moonlight and Halvard sucked in a breath when he saw the wood-beaded necklaces draped around her neck. The village Tala’s face lit as she looked up to the sky, her hair falling down her back.

The Herja jerked her forward and whistled, signaling the horses to slow, and Halvard tried to meet her eyes as she was tied up beside him. But the Tala only looked up, to the stars gleaming overhead.

He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, her sharp gaze came down to meet his, silencing him. Her eyes cut to the Herja walking beside them and Halvard looked back to see more of them pouring in from the forest behind them. He wiped the tears from his cheeks with his shoulders as they lurched forward.

She waited for the last of them to pass before she finally leaned in to whisper, “It’s alright.”

The cart’s wheels cracked over the stones buried in the snow and he tried to keep his balance, picking up each frozen foot and setting it down again as they pushed farther from Fela. He’d only ever left their village to check the nets at the river or to hunt with his brothers. Now, he wasn’t sure there was even a village left to go back to. Behind them, the smoke from the fires lifted above the tallest pines and drifted into the sky. His foot caught the roots of a tree and he fell forward, crashing into the cart and losing his footing.