The Girl the Sea Gave Back(72)

“Kjeld?” My eyes widened. “The Kyrr with the raiders?”

“Yes. He thought he could change your fate. And when you died, we didn’t only lose you. We lost him, too. But the Spinners are much wiser than we are. They are expert weavers. And when the time was right, they brought you back to him so that he could keep his promise to us.” She lifted a hand, catching a tear at the tip of my chin. “We gave you to the sea, Tova. But the sea gave you back.”

I tried to make sense of it, looking for the pattern in my mind. But it was too knotted up. Too tangled. Something had turned the current that day. Something had woken me from death. All I thought I had understood about the Spinners and the runes was like the trickle of water from the whole of the sea. It was only now that I realized how little I knew.

But one thing was clear. It was as sharp in my mind as the sight of my mother sitting before me. I’d made a promise to the Spinners and to myself to protect Halvard and his people. And even if it meant going against the Kyrr, I’d keep it.

“What will you do now?” I asked.

She rested her head on the wall at our backs, looking down at me. “Ah, that’s for the stones to decide.”

“What?” The knot in my stomach tightened. If the Kyrr wanted the fjord, all they had to do was reach out and take it.

“Every moment is a possibility. The Spinners brought us here to find you. But we don’t know yet what other purpose they have for us. We won’t know until they tell us.”

“Purpose?”

“Mortals and gods cannot be trusted to obey the warnings of the Spinners. The Nādhir should know that.” Her voice trailed off.

“What do you mean?”

She sat up, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees as the firelight caught her eyes. “What do you know of the Herja, sváss?”

“That they were a demon army.” The sound of the bones knocking above the gate returned to me.

“They are darker than demons, Tova. The Spinners warned Sigr and Thora that the time had come to end their blood feud. But they did not listen. So the Spinners rewrote the fate of their people on the Tree of Urer with their blood.”

The truth of it sank deep in my gut, making me feel like I was going to be sick. The Herja had almost wiped the Aska and the Riki from the earth. They’d filled the land and the water with the dead. I’d known the Spinners to be ruthless, but I had never imagined this.

“So, you’ll cast the stones,” I whispered.

“You will cast them,” she said, standing.

I stared up at her, my lips parting to speak before the heavy doors creaked open and Kjeld appeared. His hair was combed back, and the sharp edges of his face looked like Svanhild’s in the low light. Again, that feeling of remembering lit in the center of my chest. I’d been alone for so long, and suddenly, an entire family surrounded me.

“What is it?” The sunlight coming through the door fell on Svanhild’s face.

Halvard stepped in behind him and I stood without meaning to, my fingers tightening around the small stone in my hand.

“Their chieftain wants to speak with you.” Kjeld looked to Halvard.

Svanhild tilted her head to the side, eyeing him as he moved toward us. “You’re quite young to be chieftain.”

Halvard didn’t respond, coming around Kjeld to stand before us. I waited for his eyes to meet mine but they didn’t. “I want to know what you plan to do with the Svell you captured in the forest.”

She picked up the bucket and poured the water into the corner of the fire pit, sending up a cloud of steam. “You want to kill them.”

“I want you to release them,” he said.

Her eyes snapped up, studying him, and Halvard returned my mother’s gaze with an unreadable expression.

“Release them? When we set foot onto this shore, they were trying to kill you. They were trying to kill my daughter.”

“They’re our enemy. I’ll decide what’s to be done with them.”

Svanhild looked amused, a bit of wonder curling on her lips. “Why would you let them live?”

“I’m not going to kill warriors with their hands tied behind their backs,” he said, simply.

“Then what will you do with them?”

His chin lifted. “Let them go.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ve seen what blood feuds do. Generations of our people gave their lives for one.” He paused. “That’s not how we live anymore.”

I watched his face, the feeling of pride blooming in the center of my chest.

She thought for a moment before she looked to Kjeld. “Let him do what he wants with his prisoners. The rest is up to the Spinners.”

Kjeld nodded in answer and Svanhild touched my arm softly before she slipped outside with Kjeld behind her. The door closed, the sunlight gone, leaving Halvard and me standing beside the fire.

“You need those closed up.” His eyes fell to the cuts on my arms and the pain of them suddenly returned, coiling around me until I was trembling.

I pulled the sleeves of my tunic down to cover them. “I need to ask you something.”

“What is it?” He looked apprehensive, his hand drifting to the hilt of his sword.

“There’s a body in the forest that I want to burn.”