Beyond a Darkened Shore(36)

Nausea burned in my throat as I imagined not only his sister’s body, but Alana’s. This time, I couldn’t stop myself. I reached over and touched his arm—just once, and only for a moment. “I know what it is to endure the loss of a sister, and I understand that need to have revenge on her murderers.”

His eyes met mine. “Then you know there is nothing I wouldn’t give to stop the j?tnar.”

“So you made a pact with the Valkyrie?” I thought of the way the Morrigan had always followed me as a crow, and how she’d finally revealed herself to me. I shivered and moved closer to the fire. “How did you find them?”

“When I brought my sister’s body back to our village, I went immediately to the seer. I begged her to tell me what I could do to destroy the creatures that had done this to Finna. The seer told me I would have to cross a glacier and scale a mountain, and even then, I would have more to pay before I’d receive the power I needed to avenge my sister.” His hand curled into a fist. “I started for the cave that same day. The Valkyrie only appear during midsummer solstice, in a cave where seers receive their first visions, high on the mountain. It left me a mere three days to get there.

“I was nearly frozen and exhausted from lack of food and sleep when I finally clawed my way to the cave. A red light glowed from within, as though Hel’s fires burned in its depths, and I had to crawl inside like an animal. They weren’t ravens in the cave—they were women dressed in identical golden armor, huge black wings soaring out from their shoulder blades. There were six of them, and they stood in front of the red fire, with their faces half in shadow.”

I thought again of the Morrigan, appearing as half bird, half woman. “How terrifying it must have been to seek such creatures out.”

Leif shook his head. “It wasn’t bravery at that point. I was desperate and almost delirious from the cold and lack of food. Fear was the furthest thing from my mind.” He scoffed. “Though now I think I should have been afraid.”

“I think we’ve seen firsthand just how frightening these immortals can be,” I said as my side and head throbbed in sympathy.

He passed me the water flask. “Do you think you can eat?”

“I’d rather hear the end of your story.”

He flashed his teeth at me in a grim smile. “There’s not much more to tell. They made predictions, one of which has already come true: that I’d be forced to ally myself with my enemy.”

“Hm. We share the same prophecy, I see.”

“Did I not save you from those hounds? It seems the prophecy worked in your favor.”

“We saved ourselves,” I said, but my heart wasn’t in correcting his arrogant assumptions. “There must be more to the tale—what did the Valkyrie promise you?”

“They told me they would give me the power to defeat the j?tnar—strength, fighting ability”—he glanced down at his arm, where scratches from the hounds were already fading—“fast healing. Strength of mind so I never lose focus during battle.”

My gaze darted to his. “Is that how you resisted me? Your mind is as fortified by your goddesses’ strength as your body?”

He nodded once.

Just what had he traded the Valkyrie for such power? I tilted my head. “And I’m sure they offered to do that freely—at no cost to you.”

“There is nothing I wouldn’t do to stop the j?tnar,” Leif said, echoing the words I’d sworn to myself. “The price is high, but higher still if I fail. If the j?tnar overthrow the gods, they will enslave those who took up arms with them and slaughter the rest. The Valkyrie have also promised that if I fail, I will be denied a warrior’s death in Valhalla and be taken straight to Hel’s realm of torture.”

“And should you succeed?”

His jaw tightened, discouraging any further questions. “It was necessary, and I would do it again no matter the cost.” As I watched, a mist of foreboding seemed to creep across his features. “I’ve kept you awake for far too long. I’ll hunt something to eat, and then you should sleep.”

“Should I? I’m glad I have you to tell me when I should eat and sleep.”

He snorted as he walked away, and then I was alone with my thoughts and the fire. The day’s events had taken their toll—the Wild Hunt, the disturbing moment when I was outside my own body, and Leif’s tale of the Valkyrie—and I barely wrapped my cloak around me before I toppled over on my side to sleep. As exhausted as I was, Leif’s words haunted me. The brutal murder of his sister made his vendetta against the giants almost noble, and I hated that we had so much in common. Everything I’d ever known about the Northmen made it difficult to believe that he would go to such lengths over someone he loved. I had come to think of the Northmen as barbaric monsters who could no more love than a snake could.

There was no doubt, though: Leif loved his sister. Maybe as much I loved Alana. Enough that he would risk his own soul to avenge her.

I would do it again no matter the cost, he’d said.

Even as my eyelids drooped closed and I slipped away into sleep, one thing stuck out in my mind: the price of such power must be more terrible than I could imagine.





10





Dubhlinn, at last. The morning had revealed that we’d made camp close enough to see the river Liffey snaking through the land in the distance. It ran through the heart of Dubhlinn, so we’d known we weren’t far from the city. Even still, Leif kept Sleipnir at a much slower pace, though I’d told him repeatedly my head injury was much more bearable this morning. But now, I couldn’t help but feel a little dizzy and cover my nose with the edge of my cloak. The combined smell of animals, thick wood smoke, human waste, and refuse was so pungent—even through my cloak—that my eyes watered. The streets were narrow, pressing us close to the thatched houses made of mud, where I could hear the rise and fall of voices as we passed by. There was no privacy; I could view the entirety of their one-room houses from Sleipnir’s back. I watched a pair of young boys carrying bread back to their mother, feet clad only in woolen socks. Their poverty caused my heart to twist in my chest; their lot was such that even if I gave them every coin I had with me, they would never escape their fate of living and dying in one of those one-roomed houses.