Page 23 of Alien Viking's Plunder

Josie was staring up at the sun. “That strange.”

Bragr shielded his eyes. “What is strange?”

She pointed at the sun. “That. Is two streams. It’s apulsar.”

“We call it Straum, notpulsar.”

“You call it Straum. Fair. But itisapulsar. Two streams.”

Bragr looked back at the mountain they had rolled down. Those marks stood out against the white landscape all around them. And if it was obvious to him, it would be obvious to others, too.

Indeed there were some dark shapes on the side of that mountain. They moved downwards, along the marks the ship’s bow had made. The shapes were small, but moved quickly.

“Dfergir,” he said. “We have to get away. Shall I carry you, or can you walk on your own?”

“I can walk,” Josie said quickly.

Bragr gave the dfergir another look, then started walking in the opposite direction. “Then follow.”

The snow was deep, but a finger’s width under the surface there was a frozen layer that carried them. They quickly got to the forested shore and started to climb the hill.

Bragr looked back. The dfergir were now out on the lake already, shuffling fast along the marks from the bow. He fretted at the thought of the magic dragon’s head of the legendaryKrakenfalling into their hands.

He stopped and looked back. Hecouldgo back there and let Brisingr play among the dfergir, leaving them all as small red splotches on the snow. But it was a risk. They outnumbered him bad. It would also be a waste of effort and of time. This place would be crawling with dfergir not so long from now. They were not good to eat or to use as firewood. Their axes and hammers were exquisite, but often cursed. He’d have to go on, find a village or settlement, gather a hunting party, and then come back to rescue the dragon’s head. Or what was left of it.

Josie looked the same way he was. “What are they?”

“Enemies,” he said darkly.

“What they called?”

He turned to walk on. “Dfergir. They live here.”

He had to make a plan. Josie was keeping up with him so far, but she was so small that she would struggle when the terrain got steeper and more stony. Dragging her along would also make it harder to fight off all the enemies they would attract.

It didn’t change anything. They had to get over the mountains and make their way to the fertile valleys where his people lived. It would take days. They would need food and fire to survive the nights.

“We’ll keep walking,” he told Josie. “Let me know if you feel too tired to go on.”

She nodded. “How long walk?”

“Days.”

She pointed ahead to the peak of the mountain they were climbing. “There?”

“Over the mountains, yes. Josie, how do you understand what I’m saying? And how can you speak Garda?”

She looked away. “Not hard. Easy speech.”

He gave her a searching look. He knew there had been raids going to her planet before, and perhaps those ancestors had left traces of Garda in the minds of the raided. That had happened before. But he had never heard of aliensspeakingGarda. There had to be more to Josie than met the eye—

A screech from above made them both flinch. He spotted the black shape over the treetops.

“Vettir,” he growled.

Josie drew closer to him. “Bad enemy?”

His hand found the hilt of Brisingr. “Bad enough.” One vette wasn’t much of a problem, but they never attacked singly. That screech would attract the whole swarm.

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