Page 53 of Rune

I CHANGED FROM the dress and back into the drab tunic I’d been wearing when Balder brought me here. I couldn’t uncut my hair or coat my body in dirt like it used to be, but I could do this to make myself appear like a Viking again before Tova showed up at my doorstep.

It felt more foreign than it ought to. Even the simple tunics I’d been wearing were finer than this, and I found myself cringing at the rough way the fabric lay over my body.

Goddess wasn’t the right term for me. But I was becoming less Viking the longer I stayed here. To think, I thought I’d escape the first night I arrived. Back before dinner, I’d imagined. Yet here I remained, and now here my sister was.

I took the broadswords off my back and traded them for my axe again. Having the weight behind me—that felt Viking enough.

When I hung my swords back in the wardrobe, my fingers brushed against the thin edge of parchment. A note had been pinned there with a brass clip.

I pried it off the spoke and checked for a seal. There was none, only a thin cerulean ribbon holding a tiny, furled note. The ribbon fell open easily when tugged upon, and it slid to my feet. I opened it.

I didn’t know anyone’s handwriting here, so I checked for the name at the bottom first.

Balder.

I can’t image what you are thinking upon seeing your sister as one of the Champions. But from how you reacted, I imagine you want to protect her. Gods are not meant to interfere, but they always do, pulling the strings behind the matches to benefit their favorites. I cannot do much, but I will place an iron spear with a wooden hilt amongst the other weapons—appearing simple, but she will know it by the small emerald at the handle. It is fortified to never break and never fall from the hand that holds it. If Tova uses it, she will win.

My eyes scoured the page twice to realize the significance of what Balder had done for me. Tova would still need to make it through the second round, but she would survive the first. My lungs soaked in a huge breath of air. She had a chance. I pressed the paper to my chest. I could figure something out for the second round, but she would survive long enough to see that day.

Horses whinnied outside. Tova was here.

I stashed the parchment back in the wardrobe and locked the doors. Then I ran down the stairs to fling open the doors to a gentle evening light.

Tova was brought by the gruff guard in a chariot, her hands bound and a ball and chain attached to her foot as if she’d have any ideawhere to run if she could. She didn’t look when I opened the door, but inspected Hitta Haven with a calculated curiosity I knew well. She was assessing her surroundings, finding a way to use them to her advantage. Likely ready to run if the opportunity presented itself.

It wouldn’t. I’d been looking for the opportunity for days and hadn’t found it, and I wasn’t chained like a criminal.

The guard lifted the iron ball from the chariot and dropped it in the courtyard with little difficulty.

“One hour,” he said. He gave me a hard look that told me not to make him regret this. Then he rode away, leaving a trail of dust behind him.

As soon as he’d gone, I wanted to collapse into Tova’s arms and feel her embrace again. I wanted to hold her close and promise everything would be okay. I wanted to hear her promise the same thing to me.

But I stayed planted on the stairs.

Seeing her again reminded me why I left home. Before I embraced her, I needed to understand where we stood. “Did you know?” I asked, my voice filling the space between us.

Tova’s earlier anger was gone, and she almost appeared at ease as she finished taking in my new home. Finally, at the sound of my voice, her attention settled on me. “That I’d be brought here? I didn’t know until they took me this morning.”

I swallowed. I was frightened of the answer, but the question came out anyway. “Did you know if Trig intended to marry you the whole time?”

Her expression dipped slightly. From across the courtyard, I could see a storm ignite in her eyes. “No,” she said with a forceful tone like she needed me to believe it. “I had no idea until Sigrid came running downthe hill to tell us. I’d only spoken to Trig a handful of times before that, I swear it.”

I very badly wanted to believe the betrayal had been Trig’s alone. “There was no secret relationship between you two?”

She stepped to the foot of the stairs, as far as she could before the chain held her back. She tilted her chin to look up at me. “No, and now there will never be a relationship at all.”

A sliver of anger simmered there, and it drew me back.

She went on. “We should have been married by now. But now I’m going to die here.”

“You won’t die,” I said. I started down the stairs. Closer, I could see the terror in her eyes. They burned with desperation. Her hair was unkempt, falling from her two braids to frame her face with wild whisps, and her tunic was bloodied to tell that her attempt to find me hadn’t been a kind one. “You didn’t have to chase after me.”

She laughed like it was a bitter joke. “What was I supposed to do? I knew Trig chased after you, then he returned all solemn and bloodied and wouldn’t talk about it. You were my best friend, and you were hurting. Of course I had to find you. I gave up everything to search for you, and I’ve probably lost the love of my life and the chance to lead the clan, trying to save you. Meanwhile, you’ve been here, living as a goddess and gallivanting around Asgard with a handsome god on your arm like you’ve forgotten all about us back home.”

I should be sympathetic. But her words struck me like a fist.

Gallivanting around Asgard.I’d barely breathed in between the moments I’d been trying to get home. I’d been scared out of my mind here. I’d thought of home more times than I could count.

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