Chapter 26 Bjorn
“Skoll!” Harald shouted as he leaped into his drakkar. “Hati! To me!”
The Nameless who’d been aiding in the search were already climbing into Harald’s drakkar and readying the oars. I leaped into the vessel, Skade alongside me. The ropes mooring us were unfastened, and within moments we were in the Rimstrom’s swift current.
Yet for all our speed, it still felt too slow.
They’d taken her. They’d taken Freya.
“They can’t have much of a head start,” Harald shouted. “Row!”
The Nameless bent their weight into the oars, the black hoods they wore causing them to blend into the darkness as we passed out of Hrafnheim’s harbor.
The drummer pounded a rapid beat for them, but over the noise, I couldn’t hear. Wouldn’t know if Freya cried out for help.
“Silence!” I barked at him, and the hooded man’s hand stilled over his drum.
As the Rimstrom’s current tore us away from the fortress, silence fell. The only sounds were the rush of the river, the moan of the wind, and the faint splashes of the oars striking the surface of the water.
I moved to the fore of the vessel, muttering Tyr’s name to call my axe so that I might light the way. The Rimstrom was wide and deep, yet still treacherous if one did not know it well. Sharp rocks jutted out from the depths, but the navigator wove around the hazards with ease.
My eyes roved the darkness ahead, hunting for any sign of her.
Harald joined me at the fore. “If Snorri himself is here, he may already have rendered Freya a threat against us,” he said softly. “Stolen her will from her by exerting the control of the oath.”
I clenched my teeth. If I’d called her to arms and ensured she served me, this might not be happening. “Freya’s will is her own.”
“We can hope.” Harald lifted his fingers and whistled softly. Skoll and Hati wove through the Nameless and rested their large paws on the edge of the drakkar, tongues lolling.
“Our enemies have taken Freya from us,” Harald said to the wolves, and both stiffened. The runes painted on their fur allowed them to understand in some strange capacity, but it was to my father that they were bound.
Skoll’s lips peeled back and he snarled, massive teeth glimmering in the light of my axe. Hati tilted back his head and howled, the rage in the wolf’s voice echoing my own.
“Find her,” Harald ordered.
Both wolves leaped off the side of the ship and swam with ease to opposite shores. Within moments, they were racing parallel to us with their noses to the wind.
“What will you do if he has her under his control?” Harald murmured.
“Kill him.” The words came out as a growl. “Kill them all.”
He gave the slightest of nods, but I did not miss how he glanced back toward Hrafnheim. Knew he feared that if Snorri had Freya under his control that our people could be at risk.
“He doesn’t know what she can do,” I muttered. “He doesn’t know about Hel’s blood.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.” Harald rested his hands to either side of the ship’s figurehead. “Prepare for the worst.”
I would not prepare for the worst. Could not. Because it meant she was lost to me forever.
From the banks, one of the wolves howled. I lifted my axe to cast its light farther and it illuminated Skoll’s white fur. He stood next to a small vessel that had been dragged up the riverbank. Its hull was smashed, likely from an encounter with a rock. Without hesitation, I jumped into the water. It was frigid but the cold barely touched me as I swam to shore. Scrambling onto the bank, I flung myself at the vessel and turned it over.
Empty.
No, not empty. Freya’s sword and seax rested in the mud next to the vessel. I picked them up, fear boiling in my stomach, because if she’d been disarmed here, it meant they’d incapacitated her in some way.
Skoll yipped at me, then ran several paces into the woods before stopping.
“Is she alive?” I demanded, but the wolf only stared at me. Hati exploded out of the water, pausing to shake it from his black fur.
“Find her!” I commanded them and, ignoring Harald’s shout from the drakkar, I followed the wolves into the blackness of the forest.