Sky in the Deep(47)

I quietly climbed back down the ladder, leaving them in the dim light of the loft, and walked outside to wash the blood off my face and arms. I could hear Inge and the others arguing inside, hushed whispers working their way through the cracks in the walls.

I plunged my hands into the barrel of melted snow, cringing at the sting of it on my skin, and scrubbed until the water turned pink. My reflection wavered on its surface. Circles under my eyes and the glow of a bruise still healing across my cheek.

I could see Inge through the door, setting the saddlebags onto the table and packing. Her face was twisted into a knot, her lip sucked in between her teeth. She’d given in, and although it was what I wanted, some part of me trembled.

“I came to thank you.”

I turned, holding the edges of the barrel, the water still dripping from my hair.

The Tala stood on the path with her hands folded in front of her clean dress. Her hair was pulled up off her shoulders and her green eyes were brighter against her reddened face. The same rope burns that encircled Halvard’s neck wrapped around hers.

“Why did you help me?” She tilted her head to one side, looking me up and down. When I didn’t answer, she stepped closer. “I know you saw me that night. When Thorpe left you in the forest.”

I didn’t know what to say because I didn’t know the answer. I had no reason for helping her. I just did. And I almost wished I hadn’t. No one would have ever known if I’d left her there.

Her lips parted in a grin. “Thora has her eye on you, Aska. I could see it the first time I met you.”

“I don’t serve Thora,” I reminded her. “I don’t care about her will and I don’t want her favor.”

She smiled wider. “Neither did Iri.”

My eyes drifted back to the house. The defenses in me readied.

“Inge told me this morning.”

I felt my mouth drop open and my heart soured inside me. Inge said she wouldn’t tell anyone.

“When we returned from the forest, I could see it. When you came through the door. I feel foolish for not seeing it sooner, really. You look just like him, Eelyn.”

I tried to pick apart the tone in her voice. I tried to line it up with the calm look on her face.

“You don’t have to worry about Iri.” She waved a hand at me. “We’re beyond that now, I think. I’ll speak to Vidr. You’ve earned our trust. Now maybe we can earn yours.”

My eyes narrowed. “Why would you want my trust?”

“You’re a warrior. And something tells me we will need every warrior from here to the fjord on our side if we are going to keep the Herja from coming back here and finishing what they started.”

“The Aska?” I laughed. “On your side?”

“Depending on what you find in Hylli, there may not be two sides anymore.”

I looked over my shoulder, to the door. “How did you know I was going to Hylli?”

“They’re your people.” She looked at me, and a bit of that warmth I’d seen her give to the others, she gave to me.

I could see it in her eyes. She thought the Aska were gone. Or close to it.

“In the morning, we send the Riki souls to Frier and then we leave for the next village. If you want to go to Hylli, we can take you as far as M?or.” She reached out to me, setting her hand on my shoulder, and I tensed, looking at it.

“Fiske and Iri are taking me.” I lifted my chin.

Her eyes jumped past me, toward the house, and I wished I hadn’t said it. She rolled a thought around behind her gaze before it settled into place and her look turned knowing.

“Maybe you’ll find your way back up the mountain after you find what you’re looking for.” Her hand squeezed me gently before it dropped.

The fury reared its head inside me again. She couldn’t just give me a smile and offer me kindness and expect me to give the Riki loyalty. Or trust. I wasn’t Iri.

“Tell me.” I held her gaze. “Tell me about the dream you had.”

The sparkle ignited behind the green in her eyes again and she glanced back to the house.

“I saw you.” Her eyes squinted, considering it. “With a bear in the forest.” Her head tilted to the side again. She was trying to read me.

I kept myself still, trying to keep my face from giving anything away. Anything she may be looking for.

“You don’t know.” She reached into the neckline of her dress and pulled out a bronze pendant on a long chain. She opened her hand flat, holding it out to me. It was etched with the head of a bear, like the one on the doors of the ritual house. “The bears are sacred to Thora. Before she made her people from the melted rock of the mountain, she created them.”

I waited.

“They are her messengers.”

“If you believe Thora favors me, then why did you leave me in the forest that night? Why did you just walk away?”

She looked up to the sky, thinking. “It was the only way I’d know for sure if I was right about you. And I was. Thora preserved you.”

“Fiske saved my life, not Thora.”

She smirked. “Believe what you like, Eelyn. The bear is an omen.” The words came slowly on her thin lips. “And omens often bring change.”





THIRTY


The Riki stood together in the early morning, gathered against the bite of cold as the snow fell softly, floating down from the sky. The little flakes swayed back and forth as they made their way down, where they were eaten by the great fire that burned in front of the ritual house.