“That doesn’t make any sense,” Bjorn argued. “What could Bodil have possibly had to gain from such an alliance? And why would Ylva give you up when she’s sacrificed so much to achieve my father’s destiny?”
“Because she’s lost her nerve for it! You saw her face when your father wished to abandon Halsar in favor of ambushing Harald when he left Fjalltindr. Her distress when we returned to find it burned and her anger when your father refused to rebuild. Her fear when she listened to Steinunn’s song. Ylva wants no more of this, and what better way to put an end to it than to give us both over to Harald?”
“You must have hit your head when I knocked you down,” Bjorn snapped. “It makes no sense to hand you over to her enemy. A better answer would be poison in both our cups. Ylva is no ally of Harald’s.”
“Then who? Because we know there is someone in our midst who is a traitor!”
Before Bjorn could answer, a flurry of motion on Selvegr’s docks caught our attention. Skade had returned to her drakkar, and my stomach sank as half the warriors climbed out onto the dock, following the man Skade had been speaking to into the village.
And exiting out the other side.
My skin turned to ice as I realized the direction they were walking, where the man was leading them. “My mother.”
Bjorn grimaced. “She might just question her, Freya. It’s you Harald has sent her to find, else Selvegr and all its people would be dead or dying.”
“Are you certain?” I demanded, my pulse roaring. “You clearly know Skade from your time in Nordeland. If my mother won’t help her, are you certain that Skade won’t kill her out of spite?”
Bjorn stood, pulling me up with him and then drawing me back to the horses. “Do you honestly think your mother won’t tell her everything she wishes to know?”
I bit my lip, tears threatening. “That’s not what I asked.”
“Skade’s a killer,” Bjorn answered. “But she’s loyal to Harald and won’t go against his orders.”
“Bjorn…” Tears trickled down my cheeks because I was the reason Skade was here. I was the reason my mother was in danger. “Will Skade hurt her?”
“I don’t know.” Bjorn kicked a rock. “This…I don’t know what he intends, only that if we go after them, we’ll be giving him exactly what he wants.”
I’d told my mother that I was through with her. It’s time you made your own way in the world.
A lie, because I refused to abandon her.
Catching my horse’s reins, I swung onto the mare’s back. “Are you coming with me, or do I need to do this alone?”
Bjorn swung into his own saddle. “Where you go, I go, Born-in-Fire. Even if it’s to the gates of Valhalla.”
I dug in my heels, taking the lead, for I knew this ground by memory. We swung wide of Selvegr so that those left with the drakkar wouldn’t catch sight of us, then down the narrow tracks and game trails that would take us to the rear of my mother’s farm. We dismounted, leaving the horses and hurrying through the trees, the hunting skills my father had taught me serving well and Bjorn making almost no sound, despite his size.
“Skade does not miss,” he said softly. “Her arrow is no more made of wood than my axe is of steel. The only way to kill her is to catch her unaware, but her instincts are second to none.”
“But my magic can block her arrow,” I said, tightening my grip on my shield. “Just as it blocks your axe and Thor’s lightning.”
“Her arrow doesn’t travel as a mortal’s does,” Bjorn answered. “Skade might appear to aim at your face but be aiming at your back. Kill her before she shoots or die where you stand.”
Reaching the edge of the tree line, we dropped low, keeping behind brush and scrub as we pressed closer to my family home. My mother stood in the field, grazing goats around her. Birger was on the roof, likely repairing the leak my mother had complained about. I opened my mouth to shout a warning when he abruptly stiffened, and I gasped at the sight of a glowing green brand jutting out the back of his head. It disappeared almost immediately, and Birger fell backward, rolling off the roof to land with a heavy thud.
My mother heard the sound and started, eyes searching, but Birger had fallen out of her line of sight. I moved to rise, to defend her, but Bjorn pulled me down a heartbeat before Skade appeared from the trees on the other side of the clearing.
“Who are you?” my mother demanded, pulling out the seax she wore, the short blade glittering. “Birger! Birger!”
“I am known as Skade,” she answered, her voice carrying the accent of Nordeland. The same accent as Bjorn’s did. “I am King Harald of Nordeland’s warlord.”
My mother took a step back, but Skade’s warriors were encircling the clearing, leaving nowhere to run. I held my breath as two passed only a few paces from the brush behind which we hid. Which meant there was no chance of us getting close enough to attack Skade before she killed one of us.
Sweat poured down my back, my fingers icy cold where they gripped the handle of my shield and the hilt of my sword. Please, I prayed to Hlin, protect her.
“You are Kelda. The mother of Freya, Erik’s daughter, yes? Also known as Freya Born-in-Fire, child of Hlin?”
My mother didn’t answer.
“We know it is so,” Skade said. “Your clansman brought us to you.”
Traitorous bastard, I wanted to scream, but at the same time, I understood why he’d chosen to help her. He’d smelled the danger and chosen to protect himself and his own.
“Has your daughter come to see you?” Skade asked. “It was her intent.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“I don’t,” Skade answered. “King Harald does. So you’d be well to give me the answers he seeks, else meet the fate of Snorri’s man.” She smirked. “He died with a fist full of thatch, so I think he is not on his way to Valhalla.”
Tell her the truth, I willed my mother. Tell her what she wants to know so that she leaves you alive.
My mother hesitated, then said, “She came. Left an hour past.”
Next to me, Bjorn’s hands tightened around a handful of dirt, his knuckles turning white.
Skade didn’t answer, only tilted her head.
“On horseback,” my mother swiftly added. “The jarl’s son, Bjorn, known as the Firehand, was with her.”
“Just the two of them?”
“That I saw,” my mother answered. “There could have been more waiting elsewhere. She didn’t say where she was going, but I expect back to Grindill. If you hurry, you might catch them.”
Good, I silently told my mother even as Bjorn seethed next to me. Clever thinking.
Skade nodded slowly, then glanced sideways. “The house is searched, yes?”
“There’s no one in there,” a man’s voice called. “And the hoof tracks in the mud tell the same story. Two horses came and went, heading in the direction of the fjord. Do you wish us to take horses from the village and pursue?”
Skade tilted her head, her eyes distant as though what she saw was not what was before her. “No. I think we have the answers we seek.” She inclined her head to my mother. “You have been most helpful.”
She turned to walk away, her warriors following her. I slumped, breathing a sigh of relief because there could be no better outcome. My mother was safe. Skade did not intend to pursue. And we knew now with certainty that Harald plotted to try to take me again.
But when Skade reached the tree line on the far side of the clearing, she paused, her voice loud and clear as she said, “Only a cowardly bitch betrays her child.” A glowing bow of gold appeared in her hand as she turned, along with an arrow, green from fletching to tip. Before I could move, before I could call to Hlin to protect me, so I could protect my mother, the arrow was loosed.
It flew through the air, punching through my mother’s heart.
Bjorn clamped a hand over my mouth to silence my scream as she dropped slowly to the ground, the arrow disappearing from her chest.