Page 78 of Alien Viking's Plunder

“Josie has a spear,” Bragr said unnecessarily, seeing that the injury didn’t fit with a sword or an ax. It was an incredibly accurate hit, in the exactly middle of the triangle of eyes.

“Just so,” Heidran said and sped up. “We are getting closer. Ah, there is another speared skrymt.”

They passed several skrymtir with spear wounds before the tunnel widened.

“Stay back, Chief,” Heidran said. “This is where the power of Straum is the strongest in the caves. You don’t need Marks, you already have them.”

A cold shiver went down Bragr’s spine. He remembered the end of his Trials, sent into the Ice Caves to get his Marks, like any warrior. The tunnel had widened, just like this, there had been a dome-shaped room, and he had known this was the place. He had walked slowly through the middle of the room.

Then it was as if lightning had struck him and he had been burned from the inside out, falling to the ground. From then on, he’d had his Marks all over him. And everyone knew he had passed the Trials and survived. Not everyone was that lucky.

Heidran turned a corner and stopped. “Oh…”

Bragr hurried past him. “Josie!”

There she was, in the middle of the dome, sitting hunched over on the stone, not wearing a shred of clothing.

As Bragr ran to her, jumping from crystal to crystal, she slowly raised her head. “Bragr?”

He reached her and crouched down, touching her cheeks with a trembling hand. “My love! Are you all right?”

“No,” she said hoarsely. “I was burned.”

He saw that she had Marks all over her except the face, from her fingertips to her toes, from her neck to her heels, all down her front and her back. They were golden with a purple sheen. And there was something familiar about them.

He scooped Josie up in his arms and held her tight to his chest, burying his face in her hair. “My love, my love…”

Heidran gasped behind him. “Chief… your Marks! They are the same!”

“I know,” Bragr managed, his voice hoarse. “Our Marks are identical. We’re Karestir, Josie and I. We are fated by the gods to be together always.”

“Did you…suspectit, Chief?!” Heidran was astonished.

“I’ve never felt such love, Heidran. I was just scared…” his voice cracked, and he tried again. “Scared that her love for me wasn’t as strong.”

“I’m still here,” Josie piped up, her voice weak but clear. “Talktome, notaboutme.”

“I love you.” Bragr laughed through tears. “And you survived the Marks! Thank Zhor! How do you feel?”

“I feel weak and hungry and burned. And cold. And I love you too. Why am I naked?”

Heidran bent down and picked up the singed rags that remained of her clothing, holding them up.

“The power of Straum burns everything,” Bragr told her, trying to control his emotions. “It burns us clean, on the outside and the inside. Heidran, find her spear.”

The shaman bent down again and picked up Tornado as well as a small knife. “No burn damage to these, Chief. I recommend we leave and get her somewhere warm. Take this.” He shrugged off his shaman’s robe and draped it clumsily over Josie’s bare body while averting his eyes.

“Aretha,” Josie said and arranged the robe better. “Where is she?”

“Was she here?” Bragr asked as he walked on, itching to get out of the caves forever.

“She was here. Gornt was here, putting power into his skrymtir. He has a black gemstone. We have to get her, Bragr.”

“And we shall, my love. I promise. We just need to get you some clothes.”

She curled against his chest, putting her arms around his neck. “They’re going to the oracle, I think. Does that make sense?”

“It does,” he said, stepping over a dead skrymt. “It is our most important site. We’ll go there and defeat Gornt.”

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