Beyond a Darkened Shore(71)


“You will stay,” Leif said, and Arin glared at his elder brother.

Erik and Oleif dismounted and strode toward the castle. It wasn’t long before they returned, each dragging a man in chains behind them.

Erik approached first with his captive, yanking him forward viciously, until the man stumbled and fell before Sleipnir. My horse’s ears immediately shot back. When he bared his sharp teeth threateningly, I placed a single hand on his neck.

Pale-faced and filthy, the man scurried backward out of the reach of Sleipnir, only to be forcefully stopped by Erik’s foot.

“Enough,” I said to both Erik and Sleipnir, who each seemed to wish harm upon the prisoner. I turned to the captive in the dirt. “Erik has brought you before me to give you a choice: swear fealty to me and join my army, or be executed for your attack against my allies.”

Shakily, the man stood and bowed his head. “I will gladly serve you, my queen.”

“I accept your fealty,” I said, “but as your queen, I must know, what part did you play in Sigtrygg’s attack on Mide?”

At the dark look in my eyes, the man began to shake anew. “I was only supposed to help the others take down Leif’s men here in the city,” he said, his eyes casting about as though unsure what the correct answer was. “We tried to ambush them, but they still defeated us.”

“And you never left Dubhlinn?”

“No, my queen,” he said, glancing back and forth fearfully between Leif and me.

“Remove his chains,” I said to Erik. “He will sail north with us.”

The man dropped forward with relief, and I waved the next captive forward. Unlike the first, this man did not shake or show fear of any kind. He was as tall as Leif and even bigger around. He met my gaze with defiance. I despised him on sight.

“Tell me of your involvement in Sigtrygg’s attack on Mide,” I said, my tone sharp.

“I killed people,” he said with a grin that was more the bearing of teeth.

Oleif strode forward and shoved the man in the back of the head so hard I could practically hear his neck snap. “Answer your queen properly.”

The captive narrowed his eyes. “I killed your people. Burned their church to the ground because they were too stupid to get out.”

As the sudden rage within me nearly took my breath away, there was a strange stirring behind me. The undead warriors had shifted as one, their focus now on the captive. My father moved toward him, his expression fierce.

“What was Sigtrygg’s plan?” Leif asked before I could respond.

His eye still warily on my father, the captive answered, “King Sigtrygg pretended to want a treaty with the king of Mide, and it was your father who invited us to his kingdom. But then, he didn’t expect us to arrive on the Lord’s day,” he said with a nasty sneer. “They were as easy to slaughter as lambs. Your father included,” he added, boldly meeting my gaze.

“Brave words for a man who is about to die,” I said, relaxing my hold on Sleipnir. He stalked forward menacingly. I drew my sword. “You have confessed to killing my clansmen, and for this, I will have justice.”

He stood unblinkingly before me, his eyes cold and unafraid. Had he worn the same unfeeling expression as he killed my family? Movement caught my attention, and I halted Sleipnir. My father had drawn level with me. He glanced up at me and freed his sword, determination evident in the set of his shoulders.

I would execute the man quickly by beheading, but I doubted any punishment my father had in mind would be as swift. As I looked at the condemned man, I could hear the screams of the two hundred dying men, burned alive.

“He is yours to do with as you will,” I said to my father.

There was no hesitation. He sped forward so quickly his movement was blurred, and I could only see the result: the captive’s entrails pooled at his feet. Beside me, Arin leaned over and was sick, and even my own stomach churned.

Even more disturbing was the silence that this gruesome display was carried out in. My father had uttered not a single sound, and he returned to his place among the other warriors just as quietly.

Based on my father’s reaction, it was clear the man had been the one to behead him, and some of my disgust was tempered by righteous anger. He deserved to die, and I would seek out every single one of the men who were instrumental in killing my clansmen.

As the blood continued to spill around the executed captive, I said grimly, “Bring forth the others.”

Four more men were executed, and twenty-two were added to our army. It seemed Sigtrygg had taken a small band of men to Mide, but it was only the first man who produced such a reaction in my father. I killed the rest myself, ending them swiftly. I couldn’t prevent Sleipnir from devouring their corpses, his unnatural behavior too disturbing even for Leif’s battle-hardened men. None had become sick at the sight like poor Arin, but they had left in a hurry, with the excuse that they needed to make final preparations on the ships. By the end, I wished I could escape the gruesome scene.

After our macabre tasks were done, I’d ordered the people who had been taken as slaves from my kingdom be found. Some were, but many had already been sold and taken far away. Each loss made me want to kill Sigtrygg all over again.

With so much to be done, darkness came much too soon and not soon enough. I was exhausted and longed for my bed at home in Mide with its warm furs and downy pillows. Here I would receive no such luxury. I spent my first night as queen bedded down in the stables. Though it was only the throne room and surrounding halls that had burned, the smell of smoke lingered, strong enough to cause our eyes to water ceaselessly. In contrast, the stall was warm, and the hay smelled sweet. In the past, I would’ve slept in the same stall as Sleipnir. But now not even I was willing to lose myself in vulnerable sleep beside a creature whose eyes glowed red in the darkness.

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