Page 8 of Rune

This time I laughed. “I’ll do no such thing,” I said, making fun of her words.

Tova unclipped the braces around her forearms, letting the damp leather drop to the sand as she stretched out her back. Her hair, woven into twenty thin braids reaching her shoulder blades, had gotten caught in the laces of her gray tunic. I always liked that tunic on her, as itmatched her tattoos coating one arm where dashes of red ran through both in subtle traces.

I had only one tattoo, the blade of an axe stretching along my back, though I planned for more soon. There was a small strip of hair above my ears I’d shaved on both sides, and it made the perfect place for new ink. Tova and I would get matching ones, as soon as we earned our shields. If we earned them together. I brought my eyes to my weapon, its blunt end still buried in Tova’s shield, and pried it free.

“In five years, I bet you’ll beat me,” Tova said. She’d sat down on the sand to watch the waves coming in with a lithe smile on her face.

“Five years?” I feigned insult. “I beat you now.”

“You cracked my shield. I was poised to crack your skull.”

“I would have survived.” I sat in the sand beside her. Across the fjord where the forest ran deep and the trees grew thick, the seer’s home nestled into the overgrowth, facing the north. He owned an odd collection of animal bones hanging outside his door, and they caught on the wind that came in suddenly, bringing the chill that the day had worked so hard to resist. Once the first breeze hit, my skin felt nothing but the chill. Goosebumps rose on my skin, and I wrapped my arms around my knees to rest my head on them. “You think we’ll still be here in five years?”

Tova kept her gaze on the sea. “Where else would you go? Think the Valley Clan would want you?”

I scoffed. “They’d be so lucky.” I swallowed, working up my courage. “I think I might not live at home though.”

She glanced at me. “Do you plan to live a hermit’s life?”

“I plan to live with a man,” I said bluntly, then clamped my teeth together to hear her response.

Tova didn’t answer right away. Her brows pinched together and her lower lip drew in, like the prospect of me marrying was a great puzzle that needed sorting. “Do you have a man in mind?”

“Trig.”

She sucked in her breath. “The chieftain’s son?” There was an edge of surprise there that I didn’t love.

“Yes, him. Why do you say it like that? He has a heart of gold and is chiseled like a god. I could have picked worse.”

“No, I understand liking him. He’d be a great catch.”

“Then why…” I shifted away. She dropped her eyes, but not before they gave away her thoughts, and certainly not before they could sink into me with a bitter feeling. I dared to say them out loud. “You weren’t surprised I like him. You’d be surprised if he likes me.” She might as well have said not a chance, and it’d sting just as much.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Your face did. It’s very readable. You should work on that.” I stood, and she stood after me.

“Has he told you he likes you?”

I sighed, turning back to her slowly. “Yes. Many times. We’ve been sneaking out to see each other the past month.”

Apparently she took my earlier advice to heart, because her face masked, like a veil was pulled over it, and I couldn’t see the other side no matter how hard I tried. All I had to pick through was the forced way in which she said, “I’m happy for you.”

“Thank you,” I said with considerably more honesty.

I shifted with intent to gather my weapons and help with the evening chores, but the veil slipped, and I got the barest hint of the emotion underneath. It made me stop. Tova was many things: brave, fierce, strong-willed, and so unbelievably certain you’d think she alreadylived once and knew exactly what to expect from life. But she wasn’t vulnerable. There was a tinge there, something in how her eyelids angled down compared with the fumbling of her fingers against each other, that made my gut drop.

“You fancy him?”

She laughed, and just like that, the expression was gone. All that remained was undying support for me like she’d always had, until I couldn’t be certain if anything else had been there at all. “You said it yourself. He’s chiseled like a god, and he’s going to become the next chieftain. Who wouldn’t fancy him? But truly, I’m happy for you. You deserve a good man.” She took a few steps past me then stopped. “Sigrid is coming.”

I tried to sort how deep her affection for Trig ran, but she glanced back at me as if the topic was already forgotten. “Honestly, Sigrid scares me a little. That child is tougher than a bear. You know, I caught her sleeping with a knife last week. Almost took out my eye when I tried to take it from her,” Tova said.

Our younger sister was bouncing down the hill as fast as her little legs could carry her, calling our names at the top of her lungs. “Tova! Rune!”

“You can train with us if you want, but you’ll need your own shield,” I shouted as she came closer. “Tova’s broke.”

“Rune broke it,” Tova said as if that made any difference.

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