Page 103 of A Curse Carved in Bone
Guthrum was silent, holding his hands above the flame. He was skinny as a rail, and his ill-fitting clothes looked to have been stolen from a clothesline. Yet he was also alive, and though I was not certain what side he was on, there was comfort in standing next to the living.
“I’m sorry I ran,” he finally said. “It felt like I was caught in a trap, and so I thought only of escape.”
“In fairness, you did wake up surrounded by corpses.” I tried to laugh but it sounded more like a sob. Sitting before my knees could betray me, I motioned for him to sit next to me. “Where have you been?”
“In the wilds.” He rested his elbows on his knees and stared at the fire. “Kaja showed me some of what happened during the battle on the strait, though once I fell from the boat all she looked for was me. Shetold me that it was you who pulled me from the water and chastised me for not listening to you, but I have not lived this long by ignoring my instinct to run.” He shrugged. “We’ve been watching you and yours. Watching those at Grindill. The alliance between Snorriand Harald. Nothing made sense to me, and so I sent Kaja to speak to Bjorn.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “She saw him? Is he well?”
“Wellis a stretch but he’s alive and in the cells beneath the fortress with Tora as his guard. He told Kaja all that had happened and she relayed it to me, along with his request that I aid you. It was…quite a story.” He stuck a hand in his pocket and withdrew a handful of berries, which he ate in silence. “I struggled to believe it. Still struggle to believe it, for I have been in Harald’s company most of my life and never once had cause to question he might be a trickster. Kaja has since watched for proof of such a nature but has seen nothing.”
I kept silent, for if Bjorn’s story and days of watching had not given him the proof Guthrum needed, then nothing I said would.
“But what she has seen, time and again, is Harald and Snorri referring to you as a monster.” He ate the last of his berries. “You and I once talked about what it means to have a monster in you, Freya, and I said that we all do. But I think I was wrong, because no part of you is the villain. I was on that drakkar. I know the lengths to which you went not to use Hel’s magic, and I know that it was Bjorn who forced your hand, just as I know that it was Saga who drove him to it. Saga, who has mysteriously vanished from the world with nothing but a vague explanation that Bjorn or you killed her in the battle.”
I kept silent, waiting to see where this wouldgo.
“Harald saved my life. I owe him a life debt and I will not turn against him,” Guthrum said. “But neither will I fight for him in this, because my respect for him is tarnished. I know your goal is to rescue Bjorn, but the cost of doing so will be high.” He hesitated. “Kaja has overheard that Snorri intends to send you a message offering you the chance to surrender. If you do, he will give you a swift and merciful death, and Bjorn will be sent into exile. If you decline, it will be the blood eagle at dusk for him.”
My despair swelled at the reminder of the fate that Bjorn would face if I failed to rescue him. The most torturous of deaths where thevictim’s ribs were separated from their spine, skin and bone pulled outward to form macabre wings before the victim’s lungs were removed from their chest. A horrible and slow way to die, and one that surely denied the victim Valhalla.
Guthrum rose to his feet, so I did as well. “I will leave you to debate your course of action. Goodbye, Freya Born-in-Fire,” he said, then melted into the darkness.
Geir moved into the firelight. “Do not agree to this offer, sister. Not only would you grant victory to the enemy, there is no certainty that Harald will hold to his agreement. Already crowds gather to see the brutal end to one of the named traitors, so imagine how many would come to see the blood eagle of two.”
“I know.” I resumed my spot in front of the fire, rubbing at my scarred hand as I tried to swim above the fear that threatened to drown me. “Grindill’s walls are manned mostly with Skalanders. If we attempt to take the fortress by force, many of our people will die. Bjorn might be killed in the chaos of the battle, and if it looks as though it is going badly for him, Harald will merely change form and escape with the masses. It will all be for nothing.”
“What about your magic?”
“It won’t work on the Unfated,” I muttered. “And it especially won’t work on one of Loki’s children. Hel feels some degree of solidarity with her father, I think.”
Geir toyed with the hilt of his sword. “I know you love Bjorn, but maybe it’s time—”
“No.” My scarred hand balled into a fist. “I’ll not sacrifice him. I’ll die to save him.”
“Your death will not save him,” my brother muttered. “Even if Harald allows him to go free, he’ll only get himself killed trying to avenge your death. You know this.”
I did know it, but I said nothing.
“We can try to climb the walls while it is still dark,” one of the other draug suggested. “They may not know the capabilities of the undead.It may be that we can break Bjorn free before they even realize we are inside.”
“Steinunn knows the capacity of the undead.” My voice caught. “And she is no friend of ours. What’s more, if Skade gets any of you in her sights, her arrow can easily end you. Likewise Tora’s lightning, and it is she who stands guard over Bjorn.” Although there was no doubt in my mind that Tora did so under duress.
“We are dead, Freya Born-in-Fire,” he answered. “Life in this realm will never again be possible, but what comes next is unknown. I, for one, would gladly take that step for the sake of avoiding battle with our friends and family who stand against us on Grindill’s walls.”
It didn’t feel right to ask the draug to take such a risk when I’d already taken so much from them, but I knew he was right. This was why they’d come back. Not to hide in the woods, but to do battle against Harald and win a place in Valhalla. To deny them that was worse than killing them in the first place. “All right. But we must be quick. In another hour, there will be full light.”
—
Geir sent his best warriors to attempt to infiltrate the fortress, but it was for naught. After our failed attempt to sway Steinunn, Grindill had been rendered virtually impenetrable. No one was allowed in or out, the gates were kept shut, and the patrols on the walls were doubled. Even so, the draug might have succeeded.
If not for Skade.
She was calledthe huntressfor a reason, and the magic in her blood proved its worth, for she shot all four draug who made the attempt. They burst into ash just as had those beneath Fjalltindr when they’d encountered Bjorn’s axe, and I sent a prayer to the Allfather that he honor their bravery.
As the sun moved high in the sky, a single rider approached the new camp we’d made on the ridgeline overlooking the fortress, it now seeming pointless to attempt to hide our presence.
“King Snorri offers terms,” the messenger shouted. “If the Hel-child known as Freya Born-in-Fire approaches the gates alone and surrenders herself, she will be given a swift and honorable death and her lover will be granted exile. The Hel-child has until dusk to surrender, else her lover will die a traitor’s death. A blood eagle in front of all he betrayed.” Without waiting for a response, she rode back to the gates of Grindill.
