Page 81 of Rune

I was in Danmark again.

I opened my eyes slowly to dim sunlight pushing through thick clouds, casting the mountain side in hues of gray that matched Balder’s hair. My gaze split downward first. To the fjord. Except, it wasn’t the familiar view. We were over the ridge, on the other side of my clan’s mountain, where the fjord opened to sea and the boundary line for the northern clan lay.

“We are a day’s hike away from my old home,” I said, carefully adding ‘old’ to show I saw Asgard as home now. Get him to trust me enough to loosen his tongue.

His lips pulled back as if he caught what I was doing. “It is,” he admitted. “Yet what I want you to see is that way.” He pointed up. I followed the line. Near the top of the mountain, two plumes of smoke rose like black snakes reaching into the sky.

Balder, who’d acquired a walking stick, plunged it into the ground and started that way. I had to hike my knees to follow through a wild, untamed path. I wouldn’t have noted it before, but Asgard had spoiled me with smooth ways and clear passings, that now the splintered, dull trees, bowed branches, snarly roots, dead leaves, and rampant weeds made my lip turn up. An uncomfortable moisture clung to the air, seeping into my skin.

But a feeling hung in the back of my chest, waiting to be felt. And once I felt it, it consumed me.

I took a step, letting the feeling simmer.

I knew these lands. I knew the people here. The customs, the way of things, even when the rattling branches would bud again and color would sweep through the hills. I knew when the tide would rise and fall and how to not be sucked away in it. And if a creature attacked here, it wouldn’t be large enough to bite me in two with a single snap.

I took another step.

No more twisty gods or dangerous arenas. No more jravn that should have killed me.

Another step.

Wind sliced through, but this time it wasn’t as striking. It was like peeling away the cold parts of myself to take with it, leaving behind what I knew.

Two more steps, and I realized what Balder had done for me, though undoubtedly without meaning to.

I’d wondered where I belonged. Now I knew.

This was always meant to be home—goddess or not. I belonged in Danmark.

Soon, the scent of smoke came freely, and the snap of fire drifted from above. It was a controlled fire, so an altar of sort. My eyes traced downward. No blood forging a path to the sea. If they weren’t sacrificing animals to the gods, then what were they doing?

It was quiet, so whoever had set these fires was praying. I checked to Balder. He had slowed, then nodded ahead. “There.”

The red of the fire showed first. It contrasted the death of trees around us. A closer look revealed figures, six of them. No, eight. The muddied cloaks of my clan blended into the surroundings, but with each second, and as they shifted, the count grew to almost twenty.

I searched for my parents’ faces. When one stood, I found it. Mymóðirplaced herself nearest the flame, taking a moment to look over everyone who had come, then she put a hand to her chest. My heart jumped to my throat. I opened my mouth but struggled to find words. Tova should be here with me. She still faced death.

WhenMóðirhad absorbed the sight, she turned back to pray.

“They cannot see you, nor hear you,” Balder said.

I shoved my emotions away, the ones that threatened to fill my whole being until there was no room left to breathe. This was my family. No matter the snares in our relationship, I loved them, and to see them but not speak was torture as sharp as my axe. I whirled around and flung out my arms. “Then why bring me?”

“To show you what they pray for. Draw closer.”

I obeyed, more driven by curiosity than anything. That’s when I found myfaðir, feeding the flames. They’d lit the altar, I realized. My parents were asking something of the gods.

My feet were bolder than my caution, and they led me though the crowd, passing their bent faces and silent cries like I were naught but a shadow in the night unseen, waiting for the light to become real. My sisters were here as well, all four younger ones. Their cheeks were rosy and eyes wet from tears.

It was from Sigrid’s lips that the first discernable words came. “Return Tova to us.”

Now I knew, and should have guessed. They were praying she returned as the victorious champion.

“She will return,” I whispered to Sigrid, though I knew she couldn’t see me. I bent until the copper wisps of her hair were close enough to touch my own, even though they couldn’t. “I will bring her home.”

I stood. “I know how important she is to my clan. I am not going to let her die,” I told Balder. “You needn’t remind me of her value.”

He chuckled, and cast his gaze beyond me. “This isn’t what you need to see. That is.”

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