Page 58 of Alien Viking's Plunder

“Their tattoos. Their Marks all over their bodies. They were the same. Yours are different.”

“They’re not siblings,” Bragr said unsteadily. “They’re Karestir. A man and woman the gods wanted to be together. They came out of the Trials with the same Marks. It’s the ultimate sign of their fate as mates. It’s more than soulmates, deeper than just love. Most of us don’t have a Karest, or we never find them. But Siv and Sigurdr were Karestir, and they had already found each other. They’ve been married since the day after they passed their Trials. Always together. Always loving each other. Always fighting as one. I was proud to have them as part of my crew on theKraken.”

“So now she… she’s just going to…” Josie couldn’t form the words.

Bragr turned around and embraced her tightly, pulling her into his chest. “It’s our way. She wouldn’t survive long anyway, without her Karest. This is a mercy for her — she won’t have to go through the weeks and months of a slow death because of a broken heart and soul.”

“They can’t live without each other? For real?”

“I wish it wasn’t real,” the Viking chief said, sounding brittle. “I can sorely afford to lose two of my best warriors now that the other crew members of theKrakenare almost certainly dead. I was hoping they had all been saved by clinging to the stern and keel of the ship. But it looks like only Siv and Sigurdr survived the fall.”

“Gornt killed your crew,” Josie summed up. “But he didn’t killyou. Which was probably his plan.”

“He has to go,” Bragr said darkly. “It wasn’t enough to banish him. My advisors were right. He has to die.”

“He’s your father,” Josie carefully reminded him. “Nobody should have to kill their own father. It may not be necessary. I mean, you have those ships. Can’t you tie him up and send him to another planet?”

17

- Bragr -

“My people wouldn’t understand it,” he said. “He’s done too much damage.”

Josie looked at the door, and he followed her gaze. Out there, Siv was freezing to death on purpose. It wasn’t going to be a good night.

“Not the best end to a wonderful day,” Bragr rasped. “But I’m grateful that you’re here with me, my love.”

“Me too,” Josie said, and her simple words made his heart glow like an ember in a block of ice.

He sat her down and urged her to eat some grilled meat and drink a cup of myod. Getting the stack of pots from before, he put one in her hands. “This is sweet and gives us energy. Eat it all.”

Josie dipped a fingertip into the syrup and sucked on it. “Very sweet. Thank you.” She quickly finished the bowl.

“I will tell you about them,” he said as he sat down behind her and cradled her in his arms. “You should go to sleep, there’s no dishonor in that. Now, it was five years ago that I asked Siv to join the crew of theKraken…”

He noticed that Josie tried to stay awake, or maybe the unpleasant arrival and death of his two warriors made it hard for her to relax. But about midnight she was breathing regularly and he stayed still, knowing that she needed the rest and loving being able to finally hold her tight.

The night passed with impossible slowness. He kept hoping for a knock on the door, or the sounds of someone dragging themselves through the tunnel. But everything was quiet except for the crackling from the fire. When he saw the first sign of light from the small crystals in the wall, he carefully laid Josie down on the furs and put two of the softest over her.

He crawled out. It had snowed, and Siv’s still-kneeling shape had a dusting of white all over it. Sigurdr’s body was barely visible. Bragr went over and pulled Siv’s ice cold ax from her belt.

“You want me to use your ax for this, I’m sure,” he muttered, feeling weird touching someone else’s weapon. “You don’t need it anymore in Valhalla, and Brisingr is a battle sword and not an ax.”

He got busy cutting down trees for the pyre, anger filling him with each chop. This was Gornt’s doing. “He has to go. He has to go. He has to go!”

He piled the wood up as far from the hut as he could, then dragged the stiff corpses of Siv and Sigurdr over. He threw them onto the pile, having to use his entire strength because they had fused together.

Searching the foundations of the hut, he found an old barrel of pine needle oil. It was something they sometimes did in the old days, preparing for their own pyre. It was an act of humility, meant to discourage the gods from killing you from spite. It said ‘look at this, I’m preparing for my own death, I know I’m not one of you immortals’.

He poured the oil over his dead crew members and set it alight just as Straum was showing the first sliver of its disk over the horizon. There was the sudden flash of light and strength that meant morning was there.

Bragr watched them burn, lifting his arm to put it around Josie when she came out of the hut and walked over to embrace him without a word.

“You had no reason to love any of them,” he said, wiping fluid off his face. “Siv least of all. It’s kind of you to be here. It does them great honor.”

“They were your friends,” she said simply.

He looked down at her. “I love you.”

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