Chapter 44
Forty-Four
They were everywhere.
My arms were exhausted from parrying blow after blow, and Ivren’s back quivered against my own as he kicked at two men trying to wrangle his sword out of his hands. I’d lost track of Viljan in the chaos, but based on the screams from our attackers, he was close, killing as many as he could.
“They fucking lied.” Ivren panted as he shoved back another man before slicing open his gut, making a fourth man slip on its contents as it spilled onto the ground. “There are so many of them! Why wouldn’t the king allow us reinforcements?”
“I—” I ducked beneath a sword, driving my own up and through the man’s chest with a crack that resounded in my bones.
The man’s eyes filled with fear as he fell, and I held them until he left for the afterlife, wondering the entire time if his people had their own version of Valhalla to retreat to or if he’d go to some glacial, barren realm like Hel.
“I don’t know,” I said in a brief moment of respite. “Perhaps he wasn’t aware?”
I didn’t need Ivren’s scoff to hear the skepticism in my words.
Of course the king had known. This was another display of ownership—a reminder that we might be heirs to our chiefdoms, but he still controlled us, and our lives were his to lead wherever he saw fit.
My hand brushed my throat.
We might not wear the collar Darcke did, but we had to submit to Gustief anyway.
Another attacker lunged at me, and when I was forced backward by the power with which he swung his wooden shield, Ivren’s back was no longer at my own.
“Ivren?” I shouted as I thrust with my sword, only managing to break off a small portion of the wood and making the shield even more deadly. The man jabbed the jagged edges at me, succeeding in ripping open my jacket’s shoulder and scratching my skin.
“Over here!” He was being forced back by five hooded people, pushed through the thick trunks and wild bushes, disappearing from view as I ducked under another blow.
“Elvara!” Viljan’s voice was also farther away, and I swore loudly when the man coming for me was joined by three others, their smiles grim through the shadows of their cloaks as they separated us.
“They’re doing it on purpose!” I screamed as I slapped away a dagger aimed straight at my face. “They’re trying to get us alone!”
This time there was no answer, only more sounds of metal hitting wood and low groans of pain. Worry flitted over my skin, coating it with sweat as I stumbled when another dagger barely missed my cheek.
There was no way I could take them all down.
I shot a look over my shoulder when a fifth person joined my assailants.
The woods seemed empty enough. While I could feel Darcke fighting for his life to get back to me, his fury only fueled by the men and women he was forced to cut down, I spun on my heel and started running.
I needed to come up with a plan, and I couldn’t do that if I didn’t get a second’s break.
I’d moved fast enough to get a small head start, but soon heavy breaths and predatory steps surrounded me, joining the birdsong in an upbeat melody of death. A chill northern wind whipped my hair around my face, and I tried not to panic as I glimpsed cliffs through the trees on my left.
The thick forest made a sprint near impossible on my right. I bowed my head when I heard something whistling through the air, but the dagger still nicked my scalp, and a stream of warmth joined the sweat trickling down my back.
I felt Darcke’s roar in my blood when I jerked in pain, and everything in me wanted to turn around. But there were too many men behind me.
It felt like blood fought its way up my throat, as well, as I continued running. I needed to find somewhere to gather myself—to come up with a plan or something. Anything!
Thick, thorny bushes appeared ahead, and when the animal-trampled path swerved left, toward the cliffs, I closed my eyes.
It was my only option. It would have to work.
I repeated the words to myself as I dove into the overgrown vegetation.
My stomach surged when the bristling scrub didn’t stop my speed, the harsh landing I’d expected turning into a near free fall.
The bushes had covered a drop impossible to make out from where I’d been running.
I bit down on my arm not to scream. Not only did thorns and branches bite into my skin, but roots winding down the hill slammed into me.
My nose was struck, then my shoulder. My gut. My head again. My rib cage, where something cracked. My vision swam with tears as I tumbled down the hill’s edge, unable to do anything but hold on to my sword and fold my body to protect whatever I could from the vicious undergrowth ripping into me.
I almost laughed when I thought I might slow down but only sped up, my body tumbling into nothing when the ground disappeared.
Maybe I was heading straight down into Hel.
Darcke’s agony was the only thing stopping me from laughing. I couldn’t tell if he was hurting because I was, or if one or more of those people had gotten to him. Then I struck the ground, and my vision went dark and hazy.
I wasn’t totally out of it, though, and when the familiar sound of branches snapping reached my ears, I pressed my sword and my other hand into the ground, pushing myself to stand.
A hooded shadow came out from behind one of the trees, and I pounced, landing atop them, using my knees to hold down their arms and angling my shaking sword to their neck.
“Are there more of you?” I hissed as I used my other hand to pull off the hood.
I almost recoiled at my reflection in the girl’s green eyes. Blood coated my teeth, and my war paint was smudged, tracking down my cheeks and along my neck. My hair was full of thorny twigs, and there was an untamed sheen to my eyes when they narrowed on her.
“I—” She swallowed when the edge of my sword pricked her neck. “I… don’t…” She said something in a language I didn’t know, urgent words that were harsh to my ears but I guessed were really a plea, given the terrified look gripping her features.
“I don’t understand,” I gritted. “Are there more of you?”
I pointed to her and the woods around us, which were too quiet—too calm—after the battlefield I’d just left behind. When she didn’t respond, I did it again, leaning into my blade, the steel close to breaking her skin but not doing it. Yet.
Her eyes went between mine before she shook her head.
I frowned as I looked back at her. She looked familiar. Beautiful raven hair, big green eyes that moved between me and the blade and back again. She wasn’t from home. And I didn’t think I’d seen her at the Hird.
“Do I know you?” I asked.
She only blinked, her body trembling beneath me. I softened the pressure of the blade.
“Do I?” I asked.
The girl took a shaking breath as she shook her head again. “My… my… s-s—”
I felt Darcke again, his urgency in trying to find me, and I made my thumping heart calm to show him I was all right, although he could feel every cut and bruise making me shift uncomfortably as I kept my hold on the girl.
“Your what?” I asked. “Tell me or I will slit your throat right now.”
“My s-s-s—” Her rib cage rose and fell with laborious gasps.
Steps echoed around us, and I leaned my head down an inch from hers. “Tell. Me.”
“My s-s-sister,” she got out. Her accent was thick, the word cut off as if it got stuck in her throat. While it was nowhere near Darcke’s smooth, melodic accent and she looked nothing like him, something tugged at me.
“Your sister?” I ducked when shadows flickered over us. A group of hooded people sprinted by, their strange language filling the warm air. “What about her?”
She jerked her head forward as if gesturing toward me, and the lines on my forehead deepened until I stared down at my chest, where my clothing was barely holding on, shielding me as much as the dress Ottoh tricked me into.
My eyes widened. The dress. The thrall girl who’d pitied me that day.
“Your sister works at the Hird.” I kept my voice lower than a whisper, almost a breath, as another group passed.
A low, strangled laugh left the girl. “No w-w-work. F-forced.”
I twisted my lips. Thralls were supposed to come freely to Skagerik.
Another deep pull tore at my chest as understanding spread within me.
Servants hear everything. So did thralls.
The spy. It was the thrall girl.
“Yes,” I said. “Is that why you’re attacking us? Because of her?”
I removed one of my knees, and with the hand I released, the girl made a gesture like she didn’t understand.
I pointed to the woods, then slid my finger over my throat. “Is that why you’re coming for us?”
She shook her head.
I felt like ripping my hair off when Ivren’s words came back to me.
We’re on the same side.
My chest rattled with a mirthless sound. We were on the same side. We’d never captured slaves before Gustief. We’d have working thralls, yes, but those were paid, and they came willingly.
“It’s the king,” I hissed. “We don’t want this. You’re coming after the wrong people!”
Her face was blank as she shook her head again.
I released her other arm, moving to sit on the leaf-riddled ground beside her instead. “We’re killing each other when there is a common enemy! We should stand together.”
She let out another tirade in her language as she used her hands to press up.
I tensed at the same time she did when more footsteps thudded through the forest, screams following, then cutting off as Darcke’s cold voice split the air.
“Where is she? Where the fuck is she?’”
We were on our feet at the same time, and the girl’s hands came up as if she planned to fight back. As if she could do anything against my sword, which was angled to her heart.
A burning sensation filled the back of my throat as I imagined what we looked like to someone passing by. A wild Viking heir, brought up to kill and conquer, and this short, beautiful girl only wishing to free her sister from the vicious king I honored.
I placed my hand over my mouth to fight the nausea.
I lowered the sword.
The girl’s brows drew closer.
I took a step back.
Something crossed her features, and it was my turn to furrow my brows when she took a step toward me instead of running away. “I— Th-they”—she pointed to where the ruckus made the crowns of the trees shift. “For s-s-sister.”
I nodded. “I know. For your sister.”
Her hands waved frustratedly in the air. “N-no. Th-they, th-the k-ki—”
A chill wrapped around my heart when blood spluttered from her mouth, coating my face. The girl’s head whipped down to the sword sticking out of her gut, and when it vanished, her hands pressed against the wound as she fell to her knees.
“No!” I screamed, falling with her. “No!”
She stared at me for a second longer before her quickly paling face went so white I knew there was no saving her. I held on to her shoulders, my sword forgotten, as her eyes went unseeing, her body crumpling to the ground even though I tried to keep her upright.
“Over here!” Geord screamed. “She’s over here!”
The woman’s blood coated my hands, my arms—everything—as my eyes lifted to the heir.
“What did you do?” I whispered.
“Saved your fucking life. We’re on the same side, remember?” Geord smiled coldly as he wiped his sword on his trousers. “There are more of them coming, so hurry up and thank me. It’s honestly perfect you’re on your knees already—”
I didn’t bother getting to my feet before I lunged. Wrapping my arms around his legs, I got Geord onto the ground with me. As I punched him in the jaw, I managed to kick his sword out of his hands.
“What the fuck are you doing?” His hand wrapped in my hair as he tried to pull me off him. “I told you more of them are coming!”
“You would”—I punched him again, savoring the satisfactory crack of a broken nose—“fight like a child.”
Geord shifted so he got on top of me, slamming my head into the ground so stars exploded before my eyes. “I saved you!”
“Fuck you!” I screamed.
“You’re going to get us both killed,” Geord growled.
Shadows crept closer, and I heard the shift of wooden swords and metal, but I didn’t care. That girl was just trying to save her sister, and Geord had just killed her. From behind, without a fucking warning, like a damned coward.
“Elvara! For fuck’s sake! Elvara!” I heard Darcke somewhere in the distance, but when I looked up, it wasn’t his face that met me. Four hooded people stood over us. When the one closest to me lifted his shield, I tried to duck, but Geord’s hands found my arms, and he stopped the movement.
Pain exploded, and I was barely aware of my body being tossed to the side like a bone after all the meat had been scraped off it. I did feel the sharp jab of a dagger in my side, though, and it was impossible to miss Darcke’s scream when a whimper of pain fell from my lips.