Chapter 7
Seven
“Where are you going?” Viljan stormed after me as I hurried along the path from the forest to the longhouse. “And did you sleep in the woods?”
“Where did you think I was?” I asked as I kept my face forward, ignoring the karls turning after me as we sneaked between the tents, heading to where I could smell food—fish and bread and something else that made it easier to shut out the whispers following me. “On my way to Oenskan?”
“I don’t know, and I didn’t fucking like it,” he snarled. “It’s one thing running away from me at home, Vara, but here? It’s dangerous as it is, and I need to be by your side if I’m going to protect you.”
I halted so fast Viljan slid on the grass to do the same.
“How are you going to protect me?” My accusing tone wasn’t fair, but I hadn’t eaten since we stepped off the longship, and the shame from last night still lingered, lying heavy across my ribs.
I’d sneaked into the longhouse early in the morning, when the world was quiet, to grab my satchel, but there hadn’t been anything to eat, and when cots had creaked and yawns echoed over the smoldering pyres, I’d run off again. Like a coward.
Viljan shot out his arms. “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “But you don’t have to do this alone. I can help you.”
I blinked away frustrated tears. But as I was about to open my mouth again, I was shoved forward, and my hands took the brunt of my weight as I slammed into the grass.
“Watch where you’re going, heir,” a redheaded man snarled as the group of karls with him snickered.
“You—” Viljan started. But as I scrambled to my feet, four men surrounded him. Despite my guard landing a vicious strike to one of their throats, they were too many. “Let go of me,” he warned quietly. “You will regret it if you don’t.”
The man chuckled as his friends surrounded me, forcing my back against a tent. A group of servants passed us, but they kept their heads down, their already hushed conversations going quiet. A few other karls who’d been walking in the same direction turned on their heels, taking another path.
“She’s the one who will regret it if she doesn’t watch out,” the man said.
“I wasn’t moving, bastard.” I slid the hilt of my sword into my hands. Not that it would do much against the five axes glinting in pale sunlight. The karls knew it as well. Sneers cut across the features of the men crowding me when they caught me eyeing their weapons.
He licked his lips. “I didn’t say when you needed to watch out.”
“Leave her alone!” Viljan groaned as one of the men struck him while the other held his arms. Blood trickled down his chin, dripping into his mouth as he bared his teeth. I refused to let the dread within me surface when fear etched itself over my guard’s face once more.
“What do you want?” I asked as the men holding Viljan dragged him backward.
The men cackled when their leader drew his gaze up and down my body.
“You at the bottom of the sea sounds pretty good.” He tilted his head. “Unless you’d want to step down and stay by my side? You’re pretty enough for a chief’s wife.”
A warning sound vibrated in my throat. “I’ll remain chief myself, thanks.”
“Ah, but you’re not chief yet.” The man waved for his friends to step aside.
For the second time since we arrived yesterday, fingers wrapped around my throat.
“You think so highly of yourself, but you’re nothing.
Just a pretty girl born at the chief’s hearth.
You heard the king yesterday. The rules of the ranks are no longer. ”
My insides turned, but I refused to let him see it.
“The rules might be revoked for now, but I still have my magic,” I warned quietly. “I could crush you with one hand, and I wouldn’t even ruffle my hair.”
A wariness that had nothing to do with my poor night’s sleep, and everything to do with the lies I continued to add to each other, seized my limbs. I held back a flinch as my knees wobbled, the hand not gripping my sword seeking a steadiness the wall of the tent couldn’t provide.
The karl dragged a finger down my neck and over my collarbone. I clenched my teeth when he hooked it into my jacket. “Perhaps. But this rune won’t save you when you’re not ready.” Placing a finger beneath my chin, he tipped my head back. “I think I’d like snapping this proud neck.”
A deep voice broke in. “Geord. Always a displeasure.”
Ivren Solsken shoved two men out of his way while he strolled up to us so leisurely he might as well have been foraging for mushrooms in the forest. His mouth lifted on one side when he met my eyes, and while the handsome face framed by dark hair was all brightness and smiles, beneath his white teeth was a promise of violence.
“Solsken,” Geord said, his face still turned to me. “We have no need for you.”
“See, that’s where we have an issue, you and I. There is no we with you and my friend here.” He placed a large hand on Geord’s shoulder, his voice lowering into almost a purr—the tyga rune made his tone inviting and dominant at the same time. “Now run along, karl.”
Geord’s face twitched, but as magic twisted in the morning air, his hand dropped from my face, and he sighed through a closed jaw while he waved for his friends to follow.
As soon as Viljan was released, he flew to my side, although he managed to land a hard kick to two of the men’s backs, which had them stumbling before landing face-first into the grass.
The three of us—Viljan, Ivren, and I—all straightened, our weapons lifted, when the group flipped around to face us again. Geord sucked his teeth for a long second before turning his back once more. “We’ll get her another time,” he said loudly. “Perhaps we’ll come for the Solsken heir too.”
Ivren’s eyes shot to the sky before he turned to me. “I was warned they were going to be cocky, but I didn’t realize they’d try anything in daylight.” He sheathed his sword when I did, but as I was to thank him and start walking again, he pulled me close, eyeing my neck.
“That’s exactly how I want a man to look at me,” I joked when his worried blue eyes rose. “Admiring all my bruises and cuts.”
“Elvara,” Viljan said. “This is serious. That could have gone really badly.”
As if I didn’t know that. As if my gut wasn’t twisted into a million knots. As if one of my eyes wasn’t following the men as they retreated.
“I am serious,” I said instead of the thoughts racing through my mind. “I used to be in love with Ivren when I was ten. I would have fainted back then if he looked at me like this.”
As Viljan sighed, a single dimple deepened in Ivren’s cheek as he tried not to laugh.
It was true. Ivren had been one of Lika’s best friends, and when our parents met at the tings, I’d been hopelessly, desperately in love with him. He’d known it, too, and he’d always been kind to me.
The boy he’d once been peeked through all that muscle and those angled features—the one who’d been running across the fields, chasing me around whenever Lika didn’t force him to play battle and war.
“Are you all right?” he asked as he stepped back. “That was a lot.”
“I’m fine.” I moved my hair away from my damp neck. “That was… fine.”
“That wasn’t fine.” My brother’s friend shook his head. “But you pissed a lot of people off yesterday.” His forehead creased. “Didn’t seem like you, unless the past ten years have changed everything about you.”
I grimaced before I could help it. The last ten years might not have changed me entirely, but the past ten days had.
I hadn’t been the innocent young girl Ivren knew for a long time—after seeing battle and death and the darkness of the world, I couldn’t be—but when I left my home, any last remaining traces of her had been erased.
There was an understanding in Ivren’s gaze I didn’t like, so I quickly switched the subject as we began walking toward the food tent. “What are you doing here? I thought your sister was inheriting the Solsken throne.”
Ivren’s smile was a thin, sad line.
“A sickness claimed my sister’s strength a handful of moons ago,” he said quietly. “The burden of the Solsken rule has fallen to me.”
“I’m sorry.” I tugged the collar of my jacket. “She was always kind.”
“She’s alive.” Ivren shrugged. “That’s all my family can ask for.”
I took a fast inhale at the sharpness winding its way through my chest, which made Viljan shift his weight. I needed to redirect this conversation before I did something stupid.
Like cry and tell Ivren everything.
“Well…” I nodded to Ivren’s tall frame. “Those muscles should help you during the trials. You didn’t have those back when we’d play on the muddy beaches of Gotravik.”
A laugh burst from his lips. “Is that a compliment?”
Heat crept up my neck.
“Don’t get shy on me now.” Ivren chuckled. “You grew up as well, Elvara Sweengard.” He gave me an appreciative look. “You really grew up.”
Viljan made a sound that should have made the hairs on Ivren’s body stand on end, but that only made the Solsken heir laugh harder.
“Come on.” He waved toward me. “You might be her guard, but you have eyes. Beauty isn’t only for the hands, is it?”
“Enough,” I said as Viljan’s growl shook the ground beneath my feet. “Save your silver tongue for someone else.”
“But I was only getting started,” Ivren teased. “Lika didn’t tell me his sister had become so beautiful. I need to have a word with him.”
I cocked my head, swallowing the knives jabbing at my throat. “Do these lines ever work for you?”
“When I’m lucky.” He grinned. “But you’re too clever for me, aren’t you?”
“I fucking hope so,” Viljan snarled softly.
I rolled my eyes. “He’s only joking, Viljan.”
“Mostly.” Ivren threw a look over his shoulder, toward the longhouse where initiates were spilling out from the double doors. “Speaking of your brother. Is he coming to support you? I’m surprised he would give up his spot as heir. When we spoke a few moons ago, he was set on being here.”
It was like taking an axe to the heart, but I pulled my lips into the widest smile I could muster.