Page 23 of The Girl the Sea Gave Back

Vigdis’ red face stared into the ground. “Alright.”

“But—” Jorrund’s hands lifted before him.

“You say she can see the future?” he snapped. “Then she can find the Nadhir and bring me his head. If she doesn’t, I’ll do what my brother was too weak to do.”

Jorrund stared at him wordlessly.

“I better have his head in my hands before I get to Hylli.” He turned, stalking away with Siv at his side, and I swallowed hard, my stomach turning over. The Nadhir wasn’t the only blood feud Vigdis had. He blamed me for his niece Vera’s death, and now his brother’s. Before this was finished, my head would be in his hands, too.

Gunther stared at me, his hand on his sword and Jorrund turning to ice beside him. “What are you thinking?”

“I can find him,” I said again. “You know I can find him.”

“Vigdis will kill you anyway. We need you, Tova. We need you to cast—”

“The stones? You don’t listen to the stones!” I flung a hand toward the blood-soaked glade, my voice rising. “You want to believe that you can carve fate into a river that leads where you want to go. It doesn’t work that way, Jorrund!”

He recoiled, stepping back as if the words stung, but he didn’t argue because he knew I was right. Since I was a child, he’d been trying to control everything. Bekan, me, the Spinners, the gods. It would take a lot more blood before he began to understand anything about fate.

“I know what this is about, Tova.” He narrowed his eyes at me. “I saw the Kyrr man in the forest.”

I stilled, swallowing hard. I didn’t think he’d seen him. “This isn’t about the Kyrr. It’s about keeping Vigdis from killing me.”

“That man was a raider.”

“So?”

“So, he was probably cast out of the headlands. He won’t have any more answers for you than I do.”

I tried to read the look in his eyes. They betrayed more than he thought they did. He was afraid of more than just Vigdis. At times, he was afraid ofme.And the truth was that it wasn’t just the Kyrr man. It was the Nadhir. The one who’d met my gaze and didn’t look away. The one that filled my head with the sound of a thousand waterfalls. The Spinners were saying something. They were speaking, and if I was going to hear it, I needed to find him.

“I’ll find the Nadhir. I’ll bring his head to Vigdis.”

“And then?”

“And then we find a way to keep both of us alive.”

CHAPTER TEN

HALVARD

There were already over a hundred of them.

We lay flat on our stomachs, watching the Svell army from the ridge high above the charred remains of Ljós. The village was no more than a blackened spot on the earth now, the trees that had once covered the roofs burned clean of their leaves. My brothers had described Hylli the same way after the Herja came, but it was a sight I never imagined I’d see.

Svell warriors young and old were clad in their leathers below, weapons strapped to their sides and their backs. They gathered around fires that snaked through the sparse trees of the eastern forest in a camp that was growing by the minute. In the distance, another trail of them was arriving from the west.

It was clear that Vigdis had planned the betrayal in Ljós. The warriors had already been called in from their villagesbefore we ever met Bekan in the glade. It was the only explanation for how their entire army was gathering so quickly. And if they were gathering this many, they were going to push across the valley to the fjord. This wasn’t about border territory or the divided leaders of the Svell. It never had been. Vigdis wanted to crush the Nadhir. And from the look of their army, he had everything he needed to do it.

I looked to Asmund and the same thoughts hung heavy on his face. Vigdis had never planned to make the offering of reparation. Just like Latham and Mýra said.

“How many more do you think are coming?” I whispered, staying close to the ground.

Asmund shook his head, his eyes running over their camp. “There are twelve Svell villages. From what we’ve seen of their lands, I’d say in the end they’ll be at least over eight hundred strong.”

There were eleven Nadhir villages, but most of them weren’t as big as the Svell’s. Espen had guessed we’d be able to muster only six hundred from both our territories. It wouldn’t be enough.

“And there will be many more if the Kyrr are coming.” I spoke beneath my breath.

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