Page 84 of Alien Viking's Plunder

When they came out of the building at the top of the hill, it was twilight.

But there were dark, moving shadows all around them. They were alarmingly big and moved like predators, dozens of yellow eyes staring at them.

Bragr drew Brisingr again, weary of the fighting but needing Josie safe. “Gornt left things to slow us down.”

“No,” Josie said and pointed. “There’s his ship. And there is Gornt.”

The former earl was on the ground, arms and legs spread out. His robe and the snow under him was red with blood and he stared emptily up at the sky. Someone had ripped his throat out.

A six-legged shape came up to Josie, so calmly that Bragr was able to restrain himself and not get between them.

She reached out to it and stroked its head. “You guys had enough of him, too?”

Ninja nuzzled her hand, then sauntered away along with his pack.

“I wondered how he got his injury in the woods. It must have been Gornt’s skrymtir.”

“It did look like a wound from a blade. I think this is the last we’ll see of him,” Bragr said and sheathed Brisingr.

Josie took his hand. “He is wild, and that’s the way it should be.”

Bragr looked over at the body of his father. “I’m grateful for them doing the job I should have done when I deposed him.”

Josie put a small hand on his chest. “Others may say you should have killed your father back then. You couldn’t do it, because that’s not who you are. And I love you for it.”

He bent down to kiss her, and she threw her arms around his neck to return the kiss with a passion.

Prince Craxon had cut the ropes binding Aretha’s hands, and now he walked over to Gornt’s body. When he returned, he was carrying a sword, a knife and a silver chain.

“This is Sjelbrand,” he said and examined the sword. “Perhaps it would be better if it were to only hang on a wall from now on.”

“I agree, Your Highness,” Bragr said. “Gornt’s sword will never fight again.”

“I don’t know the name of this,” the prince said and held out a small knife. “Nor whose it is. But it was stuck in Gornt’s shoulder to the hilt, so I doubt it was his.”

Josie reached out and took the knife from his hand. “It has no name yet. I stole it from theKraken.”

Bragr stared in disbelief. “Youstabbed him?!”

Josie gingerly held the knife between two fingers. “Right before I started fighting that huge alien skrymt. I wanted to stab Gornt in the heart and kill him, so that you wouldn’t have to. But at the last moment I realized I couldn’t kill him.”

“That was the scream we heard, then,” Prince Craxon said. “Well done, Meistr Josie.”

Bragr squeezed her shoulders, moved that she had wanted to relieve him of that burden. “Thank you.”

Josie gently freed herself from his embrace and walked fast over to Aretha. They hugged for a long time and talked in their language.

Bragr heard sniffling, so he let them have some time alone.

The prince let a silver chain hang from his hand. “King Bragr, I think this belongs to you.”

Bragr frowned. “Your Highness, I’m not a king. Hjalmarheim is not a kingdom.”

The prince grinned and handed him the chain with the black gem hanging from it. “I have reason to believe that your subjects feel differently about it. And while Gornt was never recognized as a king, I’d wager that you will be. With acclaim. You will get used to it, Your Majesty.” He bowed, then smirked and walked towards his spaceship.

Looking down on Gornt’s dead body, he closed his father’s eyes and tried to feel grief. But there was nothing, only gratitude that he hadn’t had to do it himself.

Josie came back, while Aretha was sashaying quickly after Prince Craxon, who was waiting by his ship.

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