The Girl the Sea Gave Back(37)

I tried to shake the vision of Fela from my mind, the village I’d grown up in on the mountain. But I could still see it so clearly. The shadowed shape of the Herja spilling in from the trees. Hands dragging me into the forest, screaming. Everything burning in the snow.

Asmund’s eyes flitted over the silent rooftops. “Maybe he didn’t make it here,” he said, almost to himself.

I was thinking the same. From the look of the fire, the Svell had attacked only an hour or two ago. Bard should have had time to warn them, but it looked as if the village wasn’t empty when they’d arrived. If Bard was here, he was probably one of the bodies lying below.

“Ready?” I waited for Asmund to meet my eyes.

He answered with a jerk of his chin and Kjeld followed, not taking his gaze from the village.

I grabbed ahold of the strap of my scabbard, wincing as I tightened it around my body. It pulled at the wound below my ribs as Asmund took the bow from Kjeld and nocked an arrow, ready to cover my trail. When he gave me a nod, I stepped out from under the cover of the forest and headed across the moonlit grass. The faint sound of a wolf howling echoed in the stillness and I pushed the breath out slowly as I sank low to the ground, trying to calm my racing heart. When I reached the gate, I crouched behind the wooden post, watching.

Asmund made his way from the trees and found a place beside me, his eyes on the main path that led through the village. The mud still glistened around the army’s footprints in the soft earth. Behind me, Kjeld began to pray under his breath and the name of Naer rolled on his voice like a song.

I whistled softly and tipped my head toward the ritual house, where a trail of white smoke was still spiraling up from the roof. As he caught sight of it, Asmund stepped into the path and Kjeld followed behind him, sword drawn.

We passed the open door of a house with a smoldering fire and I looked back to Asmund. He saw it, too. The bare feet of a dead woman lay in the path, her arms clutched around a still child. A muddy axe lay beside them, her fingertips still lightly touching the wooden handle.

I gritted my teeth and ran faster, the urge to throw my axe shooting up my arm like lightning. They’d been defenseless. Helpless. The Svell had poured in from the forest in a flood and the Nādhir hadn’t had a chance.

Asmund moved past me, stopping beside the huge door of the ritual house ahead. He pressed his back into the carved wood, scanning the village around us before he gave me another nod.

I took the knife from my belt and gently leaned into the heavy door until an amber crack of orange light cut through the darkness. I peered inside, where the benches were toppled, the altar fire gone out, but the coals still lit the room in a hazy glow, the smoke billowing up to the opening in the roof. I sucked in a breath and pushed it open, sliding inside with Asmund and Kjeld right behind me.

Pools of blood shone on the stone, bodies still lying where they’d fallen in the fight.

As soon as it was clear, Asmund looked to me. “They’re moving fast.”

“I know.”

The next village was Lund. It sat on the outskirts of Nādhir territory at the base of the mountain. But if Bard hadn’t made it to Utan, then he wasn’t headed to Lund. And there was nothing stopping the Svell army from heading up the mountain either. The only thing we could count on was that they’d come for the fjord first and the Nādhir army would be waiting.

Asmund slid his sword back into his belt, stepping over a body and picking an axe up off the ground beside him just as a soft whistle rang outside. He pulled the blade free again, meeting my eyes.

“What is it?” I watched him think before the hint of a smile lifted on his lips.

“It’s Bard,” he breathed. “It’s one of our calls.”

I went back to the door, peering out, and Asmund came to stand on the other side. But the thick smoke hovering over the ground made it impossible to see. My fingers tightened around my knife as I pushed the door open and the ear-splitting crack of an axe hitting the wall beside me made the room spin. I whirled, lifting the blade, and behind us, a Svell warrior stood in the opening of the other set of doors, his hand still lifted from the throw.

I launched forward and ran at him, closing the distance between us in only steps and bringing my axe around me so that the blunt side of the blade caught him in the jaw. The sword fell from his hand as he tumbled backward, sliding on the stone until he rolled over the threshold, landing in the mud outside.

“Halvard!” Asmund shouted my name and I turned, searching the smoke for him.

Voices echoed in the silence and I could just barely see Kjeld swinging his sword in the path ahead, its edge catching another blade with a spark that lit the darkness. The moonlight broke through the clouds and as soon as we were out of the shadows, a Svell came from behind the next house, his sword swinging. Asmund lifted his axe, stopping the man’s blow overhead, and slammed his closed fist into his face. He tilted, losing his balance, and the Svell scrambled to regain his footing before Asmund kicked him in the chest, sending him backward. But before Asmund had a chance to finish him, the man threw himself forward and the sword lifted again, ready to come down on his back.

I let the knife in my hand sink back behind my head and slung it forward, letting it fly handle over blade through the air. It hit its mark, finding the flesh between his shoulder blades, and he fell face-first into the dirt at Asmund’s feet.

A strangled sound twisted on his lips as I knelt down and dragged my axe blade across his throat. His eyes blinked, his mouth falling open as he looked at me, and I didn’t wait for him to die. I stood with my knife in my hand, searching the dark until I caught sight of another Svell running toward us, a sword arcing over his head. I tightened my grip around the axe and sank down into my feet, finding a center. I waited until he was only a few steps away before I heaved forward and plowed into him, sending the pointed blade of my axe into his side as he passed.