Warrior of the Wild(56)

With that done, he kicks for the surface once more. I motion Soren after him.

It will take two of them to hoist Iric’s prize toward the lake’s edge.





CHAPTER


16


The boys groan from the weight of the hyggja, but I can barely hear it over the sounds of my own breathing. That last round in the water had to have been at least a couple minutes. Either my eyes are watering or the lake water runs down from my hair.

The beast is only halfway out of the water, its right side exposed to the air, while the left is buried in the lake. Without the buoyancy of the water aiding us, the hyggja becomes far too heavy to manage.

I turn my body around, holding the jaw closed while getting my feet on the ground in front of it and pushing.

But it doesn’t make a difference. The hyggja isn’t going anywhere.

The beast tries to wriggle from side to side. I don’t let go. If the snout gets free, it will still be lethal.

Iric and Soren stare at me.

“Do something!” I snap.

An airy growl spits out between the hyggja’s nostrils, and I look pointedly at Iric.

He retrieves his ax from the cliff, where he left it with his armor, hoists it over one shoulder, and treads for the hyggja. With Soren at the tail and me at the head, we attempt to hold the beast steady as Iric’s ax hovers over the beast’s neck.

He swings.

The neck is so thick, it takes him three tries to cut through the width of it. Each swing sends red-brown water flying through the air, drenching me all over again.

But I’m finally able to let go. I sprawl onto the ground and just breathe. Nothing else in the world is so important as breathing. Though my limbs are exhausted, triumph pulses under the surface, and I relish the feeling.

Iric did it.

And so did I.

I’m that much closer to defeating Peruxolo.

I let out a scream of victory, and Soren joins me, the two of us whooping into the air. When Iric doesn’t join us, we go silent, eyes fixed on him.

“What the hell was that, Soren?” he demands.

“What?” Soren asks.

“What was the one rule? Do not go in the water. Soren! I thought you were dead!”

So quiet, I can barely hear it, Soren says, “You said not to let go. I listened.”

“I didn’t mean to let yourself get dragged into the water! Why would you do that?”

“I owed you. I got you banished. I hoped I could help make things right between us again.”

“You didn’t need to put yourself in danger for that. Soren—” His voice drops. “Rasmira was right all along. You were not to blame for my banishment. I was, and I knew it. It was so much easier to be angry with you rather than myself, but I’ve already forgiven you.” Iric reaches over and puts a hand on Soren’s shoulder. “You didn’t need to prove yourself to me or make up for anything that happened in the past. We’re good, brother. We’re good.”

By the look on Soren’s face, I think he might be ready to cry. Instead he coughs. “Thank you.”

“So don’t do anything that stupid again or else I’ll take off your head just as I did that beast’s!” Iric says.

“Do me a favor and manage it in one swing, won’t you?”

“I’d like to see you hack through that mass in one swing!”

Soren grins, and the boys fall silent, too exhausted for words again.

I bask in the feeling of utter exhaustion, yet utter triumph. I wonder what my father would think if he saw me now. If he saw how I pointed these boys in the right direction, encouraged them to complete their mattugrs, and even helped to take out the fearsome hyggja.

And what would my fellow trainees think?

I’m surprised by the sudden desire I have to see them. Those who don’t openly hate me still kept their distance from the girl who would lead them one day. They barely tolerated me.

But I’ve learned so much, and this feeling I have right now, of accomplishment, of reveling in another’s success, I want to experience it again with the men back home. I want to be this kind of leader for them.

I want to go home and make things right.

After several minutes, my skin grows itchy from drying in the sun. I roll over and find Iric staring confusedly at the severed head.

“You did it,” I say. “You can go home. Why do you look so troubled?”

“It doesn’t feel any different,” Iric says.

“You just did something amazing,” I say. “You made these weapons and came up with this plan. You dealt the killing blow. You earned this. You don’t feel accomplished?”

“It’s not that,” he says. “I am proud of what I did and so grateful to you two for helping me achieve it. But I thought I would feel different. I lost my honor, my place in Rexasena’s Paradise the day I was banished. And the only way I could reclaim it was to kill the hyggja or die trying.

“But it doesn’t make any sense. Nothing about me has changed. I’m the same person I was an hour ago. All I did was kill this thing. How does that act suddenly redeem me?”

“But—I thought you didn’t believe in the goddess,” I say.

“It’s easier to choose unbelief when the alternative is eternal damnation.”

Soren offers, “You failed your warrior’s test. You had to prove yourself as a warrior. You have done that now. You’ve proven your skill and redeemed yourself.”