Page 32 of Alien Viking's Plunder

She pulled her hand away from his arm. “We don’t have trolls there, but we have stories about them. Stories that everyone knows are not true.”

“Raiders from Hjalmarheim went to your planet a long time ago,” Bragr said as he turned around and looked up at the top of the ridge. “More than once, I think. Perhaps they even stayed there for some time. They may have told your people stories about Gardr.”

The trolls vanished from sight and Josie turned around. “I suppose so. A lot of this feels familiar.”

Bragr started walking up the slope. When they got up to the ridge, he’d know if they had reached the coast or if they still had more valleys to walk across. “Your Garda has improved a great deal since yesterday, Josie.”

She looked away. “Sleeping helps when you want to learn to speak. The words and meanings can become clear.”

He became more and more convinced that there was more to Josie than met the eye. The way she fought, the way she learned so fast, the way she could move more quickly than anyone he’d seen… that couldn’t all be warrior spirit.

He glanced behind them as they climbed the steep hill. His foot was aching more than yesterday, and the vettir had really torn him up. He had a secret hope that the others from theKrakenwould have landed close by and were as unharmed as he was, so that they could get to the coast together. But it wasn’t looking promising. He could only hope that the dfergir hadn’t woken up yet. When they did, they’d follow the tracks Josie and he made. The vettir he was much less worried about — they wouldn’t follow them into a new valley, and anyway they had probably forgotten about them by now.

He stopped and turned around, waiting for Josie to catch up. “Straum is about to rise. Don’t look straight at it.”

The female turned and leaned on her spear, looking back the way they’d come. “That’s a bright sun.”

“Brighter than yours, anyway,” he agreed. “But Straum is special in every way.”

As usual, it felt like a flash going through the world when the first sliver of the sun’s disk came above the horizon and struck their eyes.

He heard Josie’s little gasp.

“Even the way it rises is special,” he said. “I’ve seen suns on many worlds, but nothing like Straum. It makes sure we know it is in charge.”

The usual dizziness went through him, and a burning sensation tracked the marks of a warrior all over his body. Right on its heels came the feeling of strength and might. He drew his sword and saw the edge sparkle.

“Bow to your earl, Hjalmarheim!” he yelled into the valley. “Bragr and Josie are here!”

His voice echoed from the mountains around the valley. Every creature must have heard it, but they were about to leave this valley and so it didn’t matter. This valley knew who owned it.

Josie clenched her hands to her ears, looking up at him with big eyes.

“I’m done,” he assured her with a grin. “Sometimes a man has to make his presence known. If only right before he’s leaving.”

“I already know you’re here,” she said, picking her spear back up. “But I get it. That sun of yours — you call it Straum?”

“That’s right.”

“Because it makes it possible for you to travel to other planets? Like sailing on a river? A stream? Or astraum?”

“That must be why it’s called that,” he agreed. “Many things come from that straum. What did you call it before?”

“Apulsar,” Josie said and shielded her eyes against the intense light. “Those two bright streams it points out into space are pure energy, and they reach very far. But I’ve never heard of one spinning this slowly.”

They turned their back to the sun and climbed the last distance to the top of the ridge.

At the top, Bragr sighed. “Another valley.”

“That’s not your home?” Josie asked, her hair being blown out behind her from the sudden breeze.

“It is my earldom, but no men live in that forest. The coast is beyond those mountains on the other side.”

“No men live there,” Josie said, “but other things do?”

“Many things do,” he said. “Wood trolls, dfergir, alfir, vettir and all kinds of creatures. As well as game. We’ll eat better in the forest than in the mountains.”

“Maybe hunters have left food and myod,” Josie suggested.

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