Chapter Two #2
Skadi shook her head, but thought better of it when she saw the concern in her daughter’s eyes.
‘Just a little, to take away the redness. Brenna, can you take a seat by the door? I will need you to wake and dress me when Oddmund comes for the second watch… Then I want you to rest beside Astra for the rest of the night…’ She gave her a meaningful look and Brenna nodded with understanding.
They were taking it in turns to guard the Princess. Brenna had been her servant and friend since they were children, there was no one she trusted more to look after her child.
She kissed the snowy top of Astra’s head before settling down to sleep herself. Exhausted by the days of preparation and training, despite her fears, it didn’t take her long to drift off.
* * *
‘Your Highness!’ Brenna’s terrified scream woke her with a jerk.
Sitting up, while simultaneously comforting the startled Astra, Skadi watched Brenna as she flew into the chamber and slammed the door behind her, desperately struggling to pull down the bar across the door.
‘Agnar’s attacked! The eastern wall was breached!
They came from the mountain side! They’re fighting at the doors! ’
Several things ran through Skadi’s mind in a single blink.
If Agnar was here and he’d come from the east, it meant his ships had landed on the other side of the island.
The sneaky trickster had climbed over a mountain to attack them from behind—a feat she would have thought impossible until tonight.
The majority of her men were placed at the front of the settlement.
On the port and gate turrets, it would take them time to turn and reach the hall.
Shouts and screams of pain came from beyond the bedchamber doors and she knew that Agnar had already breached the Great Hall.
Skadi leapt from the bed and ran to help Brenna. But before she even made it halfway across the chamber, the door was kicked open, throwing Brenna several feet away. She screamed as she hit the ground and skidded a couple more feet to land beside her.
Skadi grabbed her sword and shield, then strode towards their attackers with a roar.
The first man trying to enter was forced back into the hall and received a slash to the gut for his trouble.
The second stumbled over the falling body of his companion and she was able to slice his arm.
He howled in pain, but then came back with a fiery rage, battering her shield with heavy blows of his axe.
Get them out! her mind screamed and, with a grit of her teeth, she angled her body to better brace against the rain of his attack.
More men were coming down the hallway. A red-haired warrior was battling two of her guards.
She took a step forward, pushing her shield forward with all of her might, and her attacker grunted and faltered.
Surprise widened his eyes and then narrowed with anger.
His gaze lowered to her bare feet and a cruel smile revealed rotten teeth.
The crunch of his boot as it slammed into her foot made her yelp with pain and she stumbled back.
She cursed and tried to recover her position, but the man with the rotten teeth surged forward through the door and the red-haired warrior followed closely behind.
They then both stopped, hesitating as if unsure of what to do next, now that they had broken in.
Glancing behind her, Skadi was relieved to see that Brenna had had the wisdom to pull a large sea chest out. She was now crouched behind its open lid with Astra, fumbling to string a bow and arrow.
It was a good defensive position, but Skadi knew she wasn’t trained with the weapon and was unlikely to hit anything with it.
She imagined she was using it more as a deterrent than anything else.
Which was proven correct when she raised it awkwardly towards the red-haired warrior who was trying to approach her from the side.
He immediately brought his shield to the front of his head and upper body. ‘Think very carefully before letting that arrow fly—you could hurt yourself!’ he said calmly and the man with the rotten teeth laughed nastily.
Brenna’s hand trembled a little, but with a glare she spat back, ‘And you should think very carefully before coming another step closer! I might not hit your heart, but there are plenty of other parts I may strike—especially at this range!’ For emphasis she pulled the string of the bow tighter.
Skadi positioned herself further back, so that she was closer to her daughter and Brenna. There was no point trying to get them out now. She had to pray that the rest of her warriors would arrive in time to save them.
‘Put down your weapons and beg for mercy!’ snarled Rotten Teeth with a wicked smile and Skadi’s back stiffened. He seemed familiar. Perhaps he was one of the group of men she’d banished from Thrudheim for stealing from the mines… It made sense that such a wretch would return with Agnar.
‘I am the Queen of Thrudheim and I kneel for no man!’ she replied, keeping her tone heavy and calm.
She lunged forward and smacked his sword with a mighty blow that made him stumble back a few steps with a curse.
But she dared not risk following him to take advantage of her blow, in case it put Astra in danger from the redhead.
She kept her gaze sweeping between them and her voice steady. ‘When my warriors arrive, which they will…you will be the ones begging for mercy. Now, either come and fight or accept defeat. I grow tired of your cowardice!’
The redhead sighed, unbothered by her goading, but Rotten Teeth spat on the ground and began to walk forward.
‘No,’ snapped the redhead. ‘Agnar’s orders…we wait.’
Rotten Teeth paused and glared at him, before lifting his bleeding arm. ‘The bitch cut my arm and she killed Gro!’
The redhead shrugged before repeating, ‘We wait. Besides…you cut her, too. I cannot wait for Agnar to see that!’ The redhead’s eyes twinkled with amusement and Rotten Teeth made a bad-tempered huffing sound.
Agnar probably wants to kill me himself.
Skadi’s thundering heart slowed, and she took another step back, wondering if it would be worth trying to kill them and escape out of one of the shuttered windows.
The redhead seemed less keen on fighting, but he was also closer to Brenna and Astra. If she attacked and killed Rotten Teeth, she might be able to charge the redhead in time, or Brenna might wound him with her arrow… Still, it was a terrible risk.
Warmth trickled down her leg and the pain that had been muffled by shock lanced through her.
She glanced down to realise that Rotten Teeth had managed to slice her thigh—that must have been what the redhead was referring to.
It wasn’t a deep wound; the brute had merely been lucky enough to catch her in a low sweeping strike.
In her armour it wouldn’t have even pierced her skin.
Heavy boots beat down the hall towards them and Skadi’s heart began to thunder once again, preparing for a fight. She took another step back, as a group of men entered led by a scarred, half-naked giant with long dark hair and piercing green eyes.
Agnar!
His sword was stained with blood and it dripped on to the stone floor in thick crimson drops, reminding her of the last time she’d seen him. Except the man who entered was no longer a child.
Agnar was now a fully grown man, handsome but with ugly scars all over his face, arms and bare chest. A wolfskin was draped over his head and shoulders.
The beast’s muzzle snarled over his head with glass eyes that matched its owner’s in colour.
She read the runes that were branded on his chest and shivered—Hagalaz and Nauthiz, wrath and endurance, promises of vengeance burned on his skin by his own hand.
She swallowed down the cloying fear that had gathered in her throat. He took one look at her with those narrowed serpent eyes and she knew immediately that she was in danger.
He hates me…