Page 43 of Alien Viking's Passion

“Huskven Eira fought a great battle against cowardly enemies,” the man called Karangr said slowly, clenching his jaw in obvious grief, “and just as great was her victory. She knew that such victories bear both rich rewards and high prices to pay. We, her friends, must pay that price with longing in our hearts for the rest of our lives. For the valkyries came to claim her and Eira Einherjar is now rejoicing in Valhalla, rewarded for her bravery, feasting among the most magnificent warriors who ever lived. Her pyre has been built and will be lit next sunset.”

Aretha couldn’t stop the tears. Eira was dead, having made sure Aretha would escape.

“Then let us go to her pyre,” she managed, the words sore in her raw throat. “I owe her my life.”

“As do many of us,” Karangr said darkly. “We shall reach the pyre well before it’s lit, even though we can no longer use shortships.”

“Have they all lost their power?” Craxon asked. “Ours did, but I thought perhaps it was the doing of the trolls and their clubs.”

“All shortships and longships in the land are now powerless and dead, Your Highness,” Valtyrr said. “The Big Shine keeps making life harder for us. But by Mjolnir, I’m happy to see you, my prince!”

They started walking down the hill and through the woods, and soon the first lights of Hjalmarheim came out far below them. Aretha was glad she didn’t know exactly when they passed the spot where Eira’s battle had taken place. She had no need to see that right now.

But perhaps the battle had left its mark on the woods. Since they had met the two warriors, there had been a strange smell in the air, reminding her of rotting fish. Well, perhaps that was the ashes from the burned skrymtir.

“Skrymtir and trolls came to attack from the land,” Valtyrr told them. “These were not Gornt’s skrymtir, but strange ones, dripping with water and overgrown with barnacles. Long dead sailors, we deemed them, used by some dark and evil power. We fought them, repelling them. Many ships and fishing boats are missing from the Hjalmarheim coast, and there are tales of krakens taking them.”

“Horrifying times indeed,” Craxon rumbled. “It is well known that krakens rarely attack Hjalmarheim. I fear to think of thelives that must have been lost these two days. Any news of the ship Earl Bragr in his kindness is having built for me?”

“Little work has been done on the ship, Your Highness,” Karangr said. “Everyone has been fighting the enemies. But now they have retreated, work will go on. It is well known that you greatly desire to return to your land, Prince Craxon.”

Aretha noticed that Craxon had returned to his distant, formal way of speaking. Fine, he had an image to uphold among other Vikings. Hopefully he’d still be himself when she was alone with him next time. If that would even happen.

Meeting the two other warriors had felt like a bubble popping. On the island, Craxon and she had been in a world of their own, far from other people and able to indulge in sweet fantasies.

Now, with Eira dead and enemies attacking, they were back to a hard reality where Craxon was needed in his homeland and Aretha was determined to go back to Earth.

That determination was much weaker now. A life without Craxon… she didn’t want to think about it. If her life had felt like a prison before, it was like he had opened a door and let her out into the world, where there was light and colors and poetry and love.

Maybe they could make it work. If it wasreal, it would work in therealworld. Not just inside a bubble.

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“You are not here, Huskven Eira,” Bragr rumbled, his voice strong. “You can’t hear us or see us. You’re feasting with the gods now, as is right and proper.But we shall see you again! We shall see you when we also reach Valhalla. And we shall rejoice! Daughter of Hjalmarheim, much can and will be say about you. Now I will say only one thing: you were a herjer.” He set a lit torch to the pyre. The huge pile of wood had been drenched in oil, and it all caught with a softwhooshat the exact same time Straum set with the usual flash of otherworldly light.

The Viking crowd watched in silence as the flames grew and engulfed the pyre. At the very top was Eira’s body, dressed in battle armor, with her ax resting by her side. Her loose blonde hair was dancing in the twisting wind that rose from the heat of the flames.

Aretha wiped her tears off her cheek. She was too tired to feel much. And she hadn’t known Eira all her life, the way most of these people had.

Josie came over and grabbed her hand. “They don’t need us for this. They’ll get drunk and reminisce about her.” She led Aretha away and into the Earth girls’ house, sat her down, and got them both drinking horns of myod. “You okay?”

Aretha cradled the horn. “More or less. It’s been a long day. Well, two days and a night. Walking most of the time.”

The girls had welcomed her with hugs and questions, and she’d answered them as well as she could while skirting around the topic of Craxon. The girls had had a pretty tough time themselves, locked in their house, closely guarded, while small battles raged all over Hjalmarheim and the small coastal islands. Not a lot of Vikings had died in those battles, but many fishermen were missing after their boats had gone down without a trace.

“Yeah,” Josie sighed, “they lost the only modern form of transportation they had. Now it’s all pack animals and thoseestrthey can ride on. Sailing is pretty much out, too, because of the krakens.”

“It’s crazy,” Aretha said with feeling as she took a sip of the myod. “Vikings and trolls and krakens. All because of that pulsar in the sky.”

“It’s like being in a fairy tale, a fantasy movie and a history book at the same time. And a horror movie.”

“Any progress made on the longships? Probably not, right?”

Josie shrugged. “Not as far as I know. They’re looking for the one guy they think can help, but he seems to have gone into hiding. And they’ve all been busy fighting monsters.”

“Oh, I’m not criticizing anyone. There’s got to be a limited number of things they can try with those ships. They’re practically magical.”

“Speaking of magical, what is our strange prince like as a travel companion?”

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