Page 30 of The Girl the Sea Gave Back

“Do your brothers know where you are?” Asmund asked.

“If they don’t already, then they will soon.”

He’d known Fiske and Iri as long as he’d known me, so he could guess what their reactions might be when they found out I’d gone. If I wasn’t back in Hylli by the time they got there, they’d be scouring the forests for me, their blades soaked with the blood of every Svell they found. And Fiske’s wife, Eelyn, would be with them. The only thing that burned hotter than the fury in Aghi’s daughter was her love.

I swallowed hard as her face lit in my mind. When I saw her, I’d have to tell her about Aghi, and the thought almostmade me hope that they would reach Hylli before me and that news of the glade would be there waiting for her.

Asmund cut to the right and I followed, watching the emptiness around us. He’d been quiet since we’d left his brother and I knew he was worried, even if he wouldn’t say it. Bard was the last blood that remained of their family.

“You know you don’t have to do this,” I said.

“What?”

“I can get back to Hylli on my own. I’m not your chieftain.”

“You’re my friend.”

I looked at him, but he kept his eyes ahead. After the Herja came, friends had become family because so many families were broken. But Asmund hadn’t considered himself Aska or Riki or Nadhir in a long time. “You know you can stay, don’t you?”

He looked up at me then, his brow pulling. “Stay?”

“You know you can come back to Hylli. Whenever you want.” I wasn’t giving him permission and I wasn’t asking him to fight. But I wondered if he knew. If he thought he couldn’t undo what he’d done. “There’s a place for you, if you want it.”

“I know that. But I can’t go back.”

He didn’t look at me as he kicked his heels into the horse, riding ahead. The river curved again and we moved to the right side of the water as the left side deepened. I knew what he meant. Fighting and living were two different things. But in the span of three days, everything had changed. And Iwondered if the future of the Nadhir was changing again, like it had ten years ago. Maybe we’d outwitted fate and it was coming back for us now. Maybe the gods Sigr and Thora had remembered their taste for war.

Again, the feeling of someone’s eyes on me crawled over my skin and I pulled the reins back sharply, stopping. The water rippled against the horse’s legs, moving around us like liquid moonlight, and I studied the forest with the breath held in my chest until my eyes caught sight of a figure in the dark. My hand lifted to my axe and I focused my eyes, watching it move in the shadows. It seemed to float, disappearing behind one tree and then reappearing behind another.

Kjeld stopped ahead, turning back.

“What is it?” Asmund called out.

“There.” I pointed toward the trees, trying to focus my eyes in the dim light, and my hand fell from the handle of the axe as I realized. It was a girl.

“I don’t see anything,” Asmund said, his horse splashing in the water as he made his way back to me.

My lips parted, my hand winding tighter in the reins until the leather stung against my skin. It wasn’t just a girl. It was the Kyrr girl, from the glade.

I watched her move slowly through the haze, her face cast to the ground before her and her hands hanging heavy at her sides. Like a spirit wandering. Like the undead souls from the old stories the Tala used to tell the children around the altar fire.

Where are you?

A voice whispered hot against my ear and I stilled, the chill in the air turning to a biting cold.

“Halvard?” Asmund set a hand on my arm and I flinched, blinking.

His uneasy eyes ran over my face.

And when I looked up again, she was gone.

“Nothing,” I mumbled, shaking my head. “It’s nothing.”

Asmund surveyed me for another moment before he nodded and pushed past me, leading his horse to take the front of our line.

Kjeld watched me warily, reaching for the bracelet around his wrist. The copper disc shone in the moonlight. “Alright?”

“It was nothing,” I said again, but to myself.

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