Chapter 13
13
FRIDA
“ I ’ve got to go.” Rune thundered over to his woodworking table and hauled an axe from the row of tools lined up along the wall.
I slowly stood. Moira weaved between my legs, clearly hoping I’d drop some more egg. “Why? What’s going on?”
“Someone’s trapped inside a fallen building in town. I’ve got to get them out.”
My heart lurched into my throat. “I’m coming with you.”
With a snarl, he paused halfway to the open door, where I spotted Valdar waiting and wringing his hands. I braced myself for Rune’s rebuke. His body practically hummed with rage, like he was seconds away from ripping off the head of the next person who annoyed him. And unfortunately, that was probably me.
“Grab that rope, a waterskin, and a towel.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder at his worktable. “And get your bow, just in case. Don’t fall behind.”
Without another word, Rune stormed outside. I swallowed the lump in my throat, then scurried through the cottage to collect the items he’d listed. By the time I made it through the door, Rune and Valdar were already vanishing through the trees. With my quiver bouncing on my back, I dashed after them.
On my way, I had to leap over shredded branches that were scattered around Rune’s garden and weave past his workshop. A larger branch had fallen against one wall, smashing a few beams. The sight of it forced my feet to slow. It would take hours to salvage—if he could even salvage it. My heart hurt for him. I’d seen the glint of pride in his eyes when he spoke about this place. He’d put so much time and effort into it, and he’d clearly crafted it with loving hands to build the home of his dreams.
I shook my head and started off again. When I caught up with Rune and Valdar, they were entombed in a stony silence. Questions tumbled around my mind, but I kept them contained. Neither of them looked like they’d welcome a volley of questions right now.
When we reached the village square, the collapsed house marred the line of buildings like a plume of smoke against a clear blue sky. A crowd hovered around it. Two elven women were sobbing, their arms flung around each other. A few other folk stalked around the perimeter and pointed at a tiny opening between the fallen planks of wood. When one of them looked our way and spotted Rune, they waved us over.
Rune led the way, marching with fierce determination.
“Glad you’re here, Rune,” the shadow demon said, his dark eyes sweeping across our group. “Helga’s trapped inside. We can’t get to her without putting her at risk of getting crushed.”
Rune grunted, then shoved past the demon. He was the minstrel I’d noticed on stage last night, though that familiar spark I swore I’d felt when I saw him was gone now. Nothing about him seemed familiar. Unlike most shadow demons I’d met, he’d shorn his hair to his scalp, which had the effect of making his curving horns look twice as large. It might have come across as intimidating if it weren’t for the tunic he wore. It was made entirely from wildflowers.
“Frida, I need your help,” Rune called over his shoulder.
He squatted beside the fallen house with his arms shoved into the gap. It was then I noticed how wet everything was. Rain had soaked the world, and condensation still clung to the patches of grass surrounding the house—right where Rune’s knees dug into the ground. Rivulets of rainwater curled down the broken planks of wood and pooled on his arms. The water hissed where it made contact, but Rune didn’t so much as flinch.
I hurried over to him, my heart leaping in my chest. “Can you reach her?”
“No. She’s too far back.”
“Then get your arms out of there,” I scolded him.
He grimaced, then gave me an almost imperceptible head tilt, like he was motioning for me to come closer. I leaned forward and tried to ignore the heat emanating from his body, a heat that urged me to draw even closer.
“I might be a bit stuck,” he murmured.
My eyes widened. “You can’t be serious.”
“Unfortunately, I’m as serious about this as you are about cheese.” A ghost of a smile flickered across his lips. “Think you could help me out?”
I knelt beside him and wrapped my hands around his biceps. A sudden tremor went through me. His face was only inches from mine—so close I could see flecks of gold in his brown eyes and catch the lingering scent of smoke from this morning’s hearth-fire. Despite the weight of the entire village’s gaze on us, it suddenly felt like we were alone, and the roaring of my heart drowned out the whispers and shuffling of feet.
And then I blinked, and everything came rushing back in around us.
I swallowed. “Right. I’m going to pull really hard. I need you to brace yourself. Are you ready?”
Rune nodded.
“On the count of three.” I tightened my grip on his arm. “Three. Two. One—”
With a very unladylike groan, I put every ounce of strength into yanking at his arm. For a moment, I thought nothing would happen, that his arm would never budge. But then something gave way, and his arm scraped free of the broken wood. Blood bubbled from the line of scratches along his arm, but it was nothing compared to the dozen welts scattered amongst them. I hissed between clenched teeth, but Rune barely seemed to notice the pain. He shifted sideways, angling his body just so, and pulled the other arm out of the gap. Angry red consumed that arm, too.
The sound of muffled sobs drifted toward us, and tension tightened Rune’s face.
“Helga, it’s all right,” he called out. “Don’t you worry. We’re going to get you out of there.”
Her sobs quietened.
Ignoring the wounds, Rune grabbed the edge of the beam and shook it, testing the weight of it. “I need you and Valdar to hold this piece up while I try going inside again.”
I squinted at him. “That’s a completely nonsensical idea. Let me go instead. I think I can actually fit through without tossing beams around and making the whole thing collapse.”
“You want to go in there instead?” He jerked his head my way, looking genuinely surprised. I tried not to take it as an insult.
“ Yes . I sometimes explored the forest caves back home, and this gap is perfectly suitable for someone my size.”
He got that look on his face again. The one that was nearly impossible to read but told me a flurry of thoughts was going through his mind. Eventually, he shook his head and stood.
“All right, but I’m going to hold up this plank, just in case,” he said.
I thought about telling him to tend to his wounds instead, but I knew he’d ignore that as surely as I’d ignore an attempt to talk me out of crawling inside the building. Besides, now was not the time to get into a bickering match with my mark. A rustling sounded from within the house. Helga was clearly panicked and attempting to escape her confinement. If someone didn’t get to her soon, I worried she’d cause the building to collapse even further.
I shrugged off my quiver and piled it on top of the blanket, nodding at Rune to let him know I was ready. Clenching his jaw, he strained against the plank of wood, and the gap into the house slightly widened.
I crawled forward into the shadows. Something sharp pierced my trousers, and a painful scrape went through my left knee. Gritting my teeth, I continued forward, mud smearing across my palms. A beam knocked my head, and I winced. Through the haze, I spotted the flaming red hair of the dwarven woman I’d seen flirting with Valdar last night. She squirmed where she’d been trapped by a ceiling beam.
“Hey there,” I said, inching toward her. She’d gotten pinned into place on her side, her elbow and cheek smashed against the ground. Up close, I could see it was only her foot stuck beneath the beam, though there was a bright, hot pain flickering in her eyes.
She sucked a sharp breath in through her nose, peering up at me. “You’re Rune’s new assistant.”
“That’s right. And I’m going to get you out of here. I just need you to tell me what hurts.”
“My foot. I think it’s broken.”
I nodded and crawled closer to her foot, ignoring another flash of pain in my knee. The sturdy leather boot hit her mid-calf, but it was wide at the top. “I’m going to do something, and you’re probably going to hate me for it.”
“Let me guess,” she said dryly. “You want me to pull my foot out of my boot.”
“I’ll be the one to pull it out of there, but yes. It’s the best way to free you without risking the stability of the house.”
Helga’s laugh was low, rough. “Pretty sure the Elding already took care of the stability of this house.”
“Will you let me do it?” I asked.
She closed her eyes. “I don’t suppose I have another option.”
“What’s your drink of choice?”
“Oh, I love a good sparkling wine from the Kingdom of Edda, especially this time of year when the sun invites the world to lounge beneath its warmth. On a blanket. With a book. Or a good man. Ideally, both, but you can’t be too picky around here. Valdar’s nice, though.” She sighed.
“If you let me free your foot, I’ll make sure you get all those things,” I told her.
“Deal,” she said without hesitating.
“Everything all right in there?” Rune gruffly called from outside.
I raised my voice so he could hear me. “Yes, we’re just sorting out a plan.”
“The plan is to get her out of there as soon as possible. I won’t be able to hold up this plank for much longer.”
Helga snorted, rolling her eyes. “I hope he’s not the man you plan to put on my reading blanket. Because I don’t think that’d be too relaxing, truth be told.”
An unexpected emotion swelled in my chest—an odd combination of protectiveness and…well, it wasn’t jealousy . Because that would be ridiculous. Who was I to care if Rune courted someone while I was here? It had nothing to do with me. He was my mark, and I had to steal a dragon from him.
But I still felt a flicker of something , and it was uncomfortable, like a splinter stuck in my toe.
“He’s definitely not who I had in mind,” I assured her.
“Then the deal’s still on,” she said. “Let’s get this over with.”
I wound my hands around her leg, trying my best to steady my racing heart. “Here we go.”
W hen Helga and I crawled out of the broken building with mud crusting our clothes, exuberant applause drummed the air, like the beat of an upbeat tavern song. The crowd rushed forward, surrounding Helga and fussing over her broken foot. Soon, they carried her away and lifted her into the air like a queen. Valdar trotted after the procession with relief shining in his eyes.
Rune’s attention, however, stayed on me. He looked me over, examining a few scrapes along my arms. When he noticed blood on my trouser knee, his brow furrowed and he scooped me up into his arms.
“That’s hardly necessary,” I said with a laugh.
Ignoring my protests, he motioned at Arvid, who hovered a few feet away. “You mind grabbing Frida’s things and bringing them back to my cottage?”
“My pleasure,” said Arvid.
Rune took off after Arvid’s confirmation. His purposeful strides were long and quick, making me realize he’d been slowing his pace significantly whenever I’d walked with him. We were halfway back to the cottage before I seized control of my thoughts. It was difficult to think straight with his powerful arms wrapped possessively around my body and the scent of him filling my head. Where our skin made contact, it felt like a thousand tiny butterflies were fluttering against me. It made little sense.
Maybe I was just delirious from crawling into a fallen building.
I cleared my throat, trying to focus on anything other than the thrumming of his heartbeat in his neck. “You can put me down, Rune. I’m sure I can walk the rest of the way to your cottage.”
“Your knee is bleeding,” he said gruffly.
“All right, but it barely hurts. I’m sure it’s just a little scratch.”
“Let me take care of you, Frida. The way you took care of me when I was wounded.”
“Says the orc who is currently sporting twice as many welts as he had last night.”
He grunted and tightened his arms around me. “I’m carrying you home and seeing to your wounds, then we’ll worry about me.”
Guilt spread through me, like a particularly nasty plague. I clenched my jaw and looked away. I had no right to accept help from Rune, knowing what I’d come here to do. Sure, it was only thieving, which was nothing compared to what Erik could have ordered, but the thought of doing anything that might cause him grief churned in my gut like a pint of poison.
Poison that had been in my veins from the first moment I’d breathed the air of this world. I’d tried to escape it, but a snake couldn’t shed its fangs any more than a born assassin could.
Rune’s cottage appeared through the trees, and as he carried me over the fallen branches, a wild thought came to me. It was like the sprouting of a seed I hadn’t realized I’d buried until now. But deep down I knew it had been there since the moment I’d met Rune and he’d shown kindness to me.
Maybe I just wouldn’t do it.
I could leave without taking his dragon.
As soon as the thought poked up, I shoved it down. I couldn’t even consider it as an option. Because it wasn’t one. Erik and my father had made their orders clear. If I failed this assignment, I’d never join the guild, which meant I’d never see my family again.
And so I did the only thing I could: I buried the thought beneath ten feet of dirt.