Sky in the Deep(42)

He grabbed onto me, blood pouring from his mouth, his gnarled fingers pulling at my tunic as he fell forward onto me. Halvard ran to the door, slamming it closed, and came to help roll the man to the side. I stood, my chest heaving and his blood dripping from my hands.

I took up my axe and sword.

“You alright?” Halvard looked at me with wide eyes.

I nodded, going back to the door. The village was alight with fire, roaring up where it consumed the houses below. Across the path, Gyda’s door was still closed. The forest was dark as pitch, but I could see the tree line. I tried to think. I could run into the trees and get to the river. It was dark, but it was worth a try. No one would come after me. No one would even notice.

Terror paled Halvard’s face as he looked out over the fires burning in the homes down the path. He’d probably make it to Gyda’s. He was small and hard to see in the dark. Maybe they wouldn’t even see him. But the thought made my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth, a chill running up my spine. I growled, my hand tightening around my sword. Even if Halvard made it, Kerling couldn’t defend the others.

I couldn’t leave now.

“Come on.” I wrapped one arm around him and held him against me as I flung the door open and we ran out into the dark, swords drawn.

The firelight from the house spilled out onto the snow before us and a shadow came from the trees. I broke off from Halvard, shoving him toward the light coming from Gyda’s. I let my arm swing back and snapped it forward, bringing my sword in front of me. I drove it into the Herja, shoving her to the ground as I passed, one eye still on Halvard.

“Eelyn!” he screamed as footsteps sounded behind me.

I turned back to swing the axe around me and another woman fell into it, stumbling to the ground as the moonlight reflected off the silver armor. I pulled it free and brought it down again, into her back just as Halvard appeared, almost running into me.

He ran ahead and when another man came on our heels, I stopped short, bending low to let him fall over me. He rolled across the snow, his sword flying, and another man hit me from behind. I drove my sword behind me, catching him in the gut, but the other man was back on his feet. I didn’t have enough time.

He ran at me and I closed my eyes, curling in on myself.

But it never came. The blow. I heard him hit the ground in front of me and opened my eyes to see him facedown on the ground, a knife stuck in the back of his neck. Behind him, Halvard stood, his hand still lifted from the throw.

“Run!” I yelled, getting back to my feet.

Halvard turned as a figure knocked into him. A Herja wrapped his arms around his body, hoisting him up and running as Halvard flailed in his arms.

“Halvard!” I shouted, my feet digging into the deep snow as I ran.

But the Herja was ahead of me, moving faster. When he reached the trees, I pumped my arms harder. I was losing him in the chaos as more Herja poured into the forest, retreating.

I turned back to the village, my eyes darting from one side to the other as bodies flew past me. “Iri!” I screamed. He couldn’t possibly hear me. He couldn’t possibly be close enough. “Fiske!” I screamed again, until my lungs felt like they were bleeding.

Behind me, Halvard’s screams echoed in the dark.

Something sounded deep inside my chest. Something grinding, breaking against me, like the crack of an avalanche. Something so desperate and angry that it could tear me open.

Hands grabbed me and I turned, swinging my axe, and Fiske ducked.

I gulped in a breath, dropping the axe to the ground and grabbing hold of his armor vest. “Halvard—they have him!”

He looked down into my face, trying to understand. Trying to put it together. “No.”

I didn’t have enough breath left to explain. I pointed into the trees.

He picked up my axe and shoved it back into my hands. Without hesitation he took off, and I ran after him. We weaved in and out of the trees, the snow thinning beneath our feet as we went downhill. Behind us, no Riki were coming and I knew what that meant—that whatever was going on in the village was bad enough to let the Herja leave alive.

We came up on the last of them on light feet, staying low to the ground. Fiske threw his knife, dropping the first man as it stuck in his throat, and I took the second, sliding on the frozen ground as his blade flew over me. I reared back and stabbed him between his shoulder blades. He arched, throwing his head back, and landed on his side. When I turned around, Fiske already had another one on the ground.

We closed in on the swarm of them moving down the wooded slope a few minutes later and stayed in the thick of the trees, melting into the dark. They walked in a long line, their armor vests shining in the moonlight.

We stopped, crouching close together behind a fallen, rotting tree, and peered up over it. The Herja were pulling the captured Riki by ropes tied around their necks, like leashes. I cursed under my breath, trying to make out Halvard’s body, but there were so many Herja I couldn’t see him. A horse brayed and my eyes shot to the animal at the back of the line. Three figures were being pulled behind it, one of them limp and dragging. I lifted up onto my knees, my eyes going wide.

Fiske breathed heavily beside me. “Can you see him?”

I dug my fingers into the bark of the tree. “I think the small one behind the horse is him. I’m not sure.”

“I can’t see him.” He swallowed the words. “Maybe they…”