Page 41 of Into the Isle

Chapter 13

Sven

“THAT’S HER, BROTHER,” said a voice to my left.

Dorymir Hall was emptying, a bustle of stampeding initiates making their way up the stairs to the top hall and outside. I stayed sitting, peering at faces, looking for familiar ones and new ones alike.

I didn’t need to be here, but I enjoyed listening to Gothi Sigmund give his orientation speech. It was a good opportunity to size up the competition, and rekindle old alliances since returning from the summer months off. Who will try the Torfen pack this year, hmm?

“Sven, did you hear me?”

I glanced over lazily, frowning at my younger brother, who was nervously jutting his chin past me and down a few aisles.

“Yes, Ulf, I heard you,” I said, leaning back in my seat. “Yet I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”

“The girl from the Wraith! The one I told you about last night.”

I frowned. “You mean the one who humiliated you in front of your peers?”

Ulf’s lips twitched. His eyes bulged. “I wasn’t—”

“Quit looking so goblin-eyed, you toad. You’re embarrassing the rest of us.”

Ulf’s shoulders slumped and he sat back, bowing his head.

The stupid cub needed to be taught a lesson in dignity, and I was the surest one to give it to him, being the closest in age to him. He was fresh meat. We didn’t need him bringing our family name a poor reputation.

I caught my older brother, Olaf, a third-year cadet, nodding along to my words. Our eldest sister, Edda, a Drengr, also snorted when I reprimanded Ulf.

Feeling a twinge of remorse at seeing my younger brother shrink like a shriveled flower, I sighed and threw an arm around him. It wasn’t often I showed remorse, so it caught Ulf’s attention, and his head lifted.

I squeezed his shoulder. “You should be happy we’re all here at last, Ulf. Together. The four Torfen siblings, all in a row.”

Olaf grunted at me. “Father would be proud.”

Edda stood from her seat. She was a tall, strong woman in her last year at Vikingrune Academy. “Father is proud, you dolt. You talk of him as if he’s dead.”

Ulf mumbled, “Practically is when we’re this far from Skarth.”

I slapped him lightly across the cheek. He perked up when I pointed at him. “I’ll hear none of that whining, brother. You didn’t come here to wallow, you came here to prove yourself. So, show me again, where is the big bad girl who embarrassed you on the Wraith?”

He pointed again with his chin, inconspicuously this time. I followed his gaze. My eyes blew wide for a moment as I landed on the young woman I’d locked eyes with when she first sat down.

There was something that had drawn me to her when she sat—the silver hair, perhaps, which was so odd and unlike other whelps here. Sure, the elders and Hersirs had grayhairs and salty beards, yet nothing as luminous as this one.

She faced forward, down at the stage, evidently deep in thought. From the profile angle I had of her, I noticed how beautiful she was. Pretty face with a strong, angular jaw, shoulders that looked like they could lift a man overhead. The girl seemed to be contemplating existence sitting there. Perhaps she had same idea I’d had, and wanted to let the crowd thin before leaving the hall.

Unlike me, she wasn’t looking around tactfully, trying to gauge potential opponents and allies. She seemed lost in her own world. A stargazer. Perhaps a bit mad, or antisocial.

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