Page 27 of Alien Viking's Plunder

“More!” Josie screamed. “Harder!”

Bragr obliged, shaking her as if she were an umbrella that refused to open. Josie sensed she was drifting lower to the ground, until there were only three vettir left and Bragr could pull her closer to him.

She fell to the ground with his hand still clutching her ankle.

He left her on her back, finally able to swing his sword in earnest. Dead and injured vettir fell from the sky as Brisingr cut through three, four, six at a time. It rained black feathers and cold, blue blood for a while until the vettir had to give up. Those that remained screeched wordlessly, circling higher before they vanished into the darkness.

Bragr let go of Josie’s ankle and looked quickly around. Then he bent over her, white teeth lighting up his blue-stained face. “Still here?”

“Still here,” she confirmed, getting to her feet. The uniform had held and had no holes, but those beaks and claws had pinched her all over and she was sore.

“They really wanted to take you away,” the Viking chief said and picked up a dead vettir by its thin neck, running his sword through its plumage to clean the blood from it. “I suppose I can’t blame them. I did the same thing. But I succeeded.”

Josie spotted her staff and picked it up. Her hands were trembling, but thanks to the gloves it wasn’t obvious. “You succeeded in taking me away from them, too. Thank you.” Her voice was trembling, as well. But she wasn’t ashamed of it. That was the most nightmarish experience she’d ever had.

He looked up at the sky, where the stars were coming out. “Troll hour is here. Go inside the cave. I’ll follow.”

Josie could get through the crack without needing to crawl. It was cold inside, and so dark the night vision function of her headset activated by itself. It showed everything in green. The cave was much bigger inside than the crack. To her surprise there was a ring of stones on the ground, as well as a wooden box. She turned off the headset again. That night vision would burn through the battery in no time.

“The dfergir aren’t coming yet,” Bragr said, crawling inside before he could stand up. “I don’t know where they are.”

“The vettir chased them,” Josie suggested.

“Perhaps. Zhor knows they’re not friends.”

“Who is Zhor?” Josie asked, peering into the depths of the cave.

“Zhor is the god of war,” Bragr said, opening the box. “And of other things, too. Thunder, for instance. Ah, it is as I hoped.” He took some pieces of firewood out of the box and tossed them into the ring of rocks. “This cave is sometimes used by hunters, and they make sure to have stocks of firewood ready. Oh, and kindling, too. Very considerate.”

“Did they have fire ready?” Josie asked. She certainly had no way of making fire. Anything that could produce sparks was banned from theUnity. Including stun guns, lighters, electrical appliances, and certain metal items. In the oxygen-rich atmosphere on theUnity, a single spark could mean a big fire, which would be the end of the space station and everyone inside it.

Bragr prepared the fire, took his sword out, and knelt down. Rubbing the blunt side of his sword against the metal decorations on the outside of the scabbard, he produced a rain of sparks. Some of them landed on the kindling.

“Don’t worry, it’s not Brisingr that’s shedding its steel. It’s the sheath.” Bragr bent down to blow on the kindling, and soon the fire was burning merrily. The smoke rose to the top of the cave, then followed the crack out.

The fire made the cave brighter, if nothing else. Josie didn’t need a fire to stay warm. The uniform had circuits for both heating and cooling, powered by the micro-movement of the fabric itself.

Rummaging through the wooden box, Bragr came back with more firewood that he stacked by the rock wall. “Enough for one night.” He also found two pots the size of big Coke bottles. “And some drink. Remind me to find the hunters using this cave and reward them richly.”

Josie sat down with her back to the rock. It would have felt cold, but the uniform was good insulation. “Reward them richly with metals plundered from my home?”

He gave her an alien look, then opened the pots and sniffed them. “See if you like this.”

He crawled out the crack and disappeared.

Hmm.Maybe she should go easier on the accusations, at least until they were safe from those creepy vettir. For now, she should maybe go with the flow and act like a part of the team until they were safer than this. TheUnityhadn’t actually been much of a home. More like a cage.

Okay. She had to find Aretha and ideally those other girls, too. It would be better to be part of a group than alone among aliens. With her uniform, Security training, and not least the neural lace enhancement, she was probably the best placed of the abductees to do something about their situation. But she had to get out of this damned wilderness first and track down the others.

She hugged herself, not thrilled about being alone in this cave on an alien planet.

Opening one of the pots, she sniffed the contents. It was similar to the myod Bragr had given her in that cafeteria on his ship. She did need some sugar right now, too. She had used up a lot of energy, first climbing the side of the mountain and then fighting those creepy vettir.

She shuddered at the fresh memory. That had been too close. It probably would give her a mental trauma. If it hadn’t been for Bragr, grabbing her at the last possible moment, she would be dead now. Or in some kind of vettir nest, being pecked to death by those beaks…

She took a sip of the myod. She had been pinched all over, but the uniform had taken the brunt of the sharp beaks and claws. Bragr had only been wearing those pants and the belt, and he had been pecked and scratched. The blue vettir blood had mixed with his own, making violet streaks down his torso. He had to be the most protective kidnapper in the history of the universe.

If she had met him under other circumstances, she could have liked him. As in,reallyliked him. Not only was he big and powerful and ripped, he also had an easy smile and a manner so confident that she could feel it resonate deep inside her. It wasn’t fake, either — he seemed completely genuine.

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