Page 75 of Alien Viking's Plunder

There was a muffled voice in the headset, clearly Aretha trying to speak while gagged or silenced in some other way. Josie couldn’t understand it.

A deep chasm opened right in front of her feet, and she came to an unsteady stop. In the blinding light, she hadn’t spotted it until she was right up to it.

“That’s a pity,” Gornt said. “I was hoping you’d walk right into it. For your own sake, you understand. It might have been an easier end for you.”

“What do you want?” Josie said in the Viking language, hoping to distract him while she worked out how to get to Aretha now. The only way seemed to be right through the middle of the dome, right where Gornt was standing.. “Let Aretha and the girls go, and we will go back home without bothering you.”

“Oh, you’re no bother, alien witch. You are as far below me as a blood-sucking insect. I just want you gone. And of course your death will hurt someone we both know.”

“Bragr?” Josie said. “That would be unlikely. He wants me gone, too.”

“Yes, but for other reasons. Don’t you think I saw what’s going on with you two wretches? But never mind that. You want to fight me, don’t you?”

“I want Aretha to come with me away from Gardr,” Josie said sincerely, directing her way towards the middle of the dome. “I’m not a fighter.”

“And yet you have defeated several of my skrymtir. In a most unusual way, too. I know it, I saw glimpses through their eyes. You can move really fast when you want.”

Josie carefully put her feet on one sharp piece of crystalline rock, then another, keeping her balance and getting closer to the middle of the dome, where Gornt was standing.

He was alive, as opposed to the skrymtir. So she knew she couldn’t kill him in cold blood, despite him threatening her life. But she had fought the dfergir without killing them, and this guy was kind of asking for a whack or two.

He was now only ten feet away, and Josie would have to get past him to get to Aretha. If she lunged at him, she could reach him with Tornado. She changed her grip on it to be better able to swing it without the sharp tip hitting him. But if he swung his sword at her, she couldn’t afford that kind of care. It would be a real fight to the death.

“What will happen now,” Gornt said calmly, “is that I will cause you to die. It amuses me to tell you what happens after that. I will take your friend with me to the only place in my kingdom that’s more sacred than this. Your friend here will help me see the future, and then I will know how to defeat my enemies. And then the oracle will show me how to best take my kingdom into space. Because why are we raiding when we could bedestroying?”

“Your son will stop you,” Josie said, gauging the distance to Gornt. He had put his sword in its sheath and was standing still with his hands on his hips. Behind him were a handful of alien zombie monsters, surrounding Aretha and holding her in place.

Josie’s plan was to give Gornt a whack on the ear and hopefully bring him off balance, which on this treacherous ground of sharp crystals would be a real problem for him and could cause him to fall. Then she would fight the skrymtir and defeat them, get Aretha, and then get the hell out of this cave.

“Son? I have no son,” Gornt said flatly. “The only one I had turned on me and thus showed himself completely unworthy of being a part of my family. Indeed, random alien witches are more dear to him now than his former father ever was.”

Josie inched forwards, getting as good a foothold as she could and planning where she’d place her feet after she’d lunged at Gornt. “It’s not too late. You can still be a family. He didn’t kill you, although everyone begged him to.”

Gornt scoffed. “That only shows his cruelty! I wish he had killed me! Instead I had to suffer the humiliation of being banished from Hjalmarheim by my own son, who proclaimed himself earl instead of me!”

“Oh, but that’s not—” Josie pounced mid-sentence, drawing Tornado back to hit Gornt’s side.

There was a blinding flash and Josie was frozen in mid-pounce and mid-air. A searing pain went slowly through her, from her feet and spreading out through her body. A bolt of lightning was burning her from the inside. She wanted to scream, but she’d lost all control of her body.

Strange images passed in front of her eyes, reminding her of the time when the neural lace had been settling into her brain. But now she saw it all through the eyes of an adult, not a scared child. She saw many things, some about the world and some about herself. One of those things gave her a jolt of happiness, despite the excruciating pain that coursed through her and kept getting worse.

She smelled burning and knew it was her. She heard a scream of horror and knew it was Aretha.

When she finally hit the sharp crystals below her, she barely noticed. The world was pulling away from her, and she welcomed the blackness that was coming.

“Such a pretty way to go,” she heard Gornt say as if from a great distance. “But not a pleasant one.”

Everything went dark.

23

- Bragr -

A warrior drenched with green alien blood and yellow goo fought his way over and gave a shallow bow. “The enemy are pushing us back everywhere, Chief. I recommend that we withdraw.”

Bragr gave the warrior a quick glance. It was a lendmann, a high-ranked commander. “I can see the way it’s going, lendmann. We shall withdraw slowly when I order it.”

“Yes, Chief.” The officer slapped the hilt of his sword and walked fast back to his men.

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