Page 52 of Polestar
“A gang?”
“Young Barentians rove from village to village, recruiting the strongest among them to join their gang, and off they go.”He paused, listening as the elder continued to talk.“At first, they thought the king was forming an additional guard to protect the territory from what the priests and priestesses knew was the coming darkness, but it seems not to be the case.”
“Whatarethey doing?”
She shrugged.“No good,” she said in English, her accent thick as she handed them each a glass.
Ana sniffed at the liquid.
“Barentian ale,” Magnus said with a smile.He drank the entire glass.“Ah, I’ve missed this stuff.”
“What did she mean, your father is different?”Ana took a tentative sip.
“I assume it means he’s accepting outsiders to the island now, since we weren’t met at spear point when we arrived at the dock.”
“Except that’s what you argued about and were banished for?”
Magnus nodded.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“No, it doesn’t.”
Heavy footsteps sounded outside the door before it opened.The young boy appeared, chest heaving, speaking between breaths.
“He notified the relay.We can go,” Magnus said.
Ana turned to offer her thanks to the woman for her hospitality.
The elder went to the altar, glanced along its surface and retrieved an artifact, cradling it on her palm as she returned to Magnus and Ana.
The elder reached for Ana’s hand, surprising her.
Magnus translated her words.“Don’t let the darkness touch your heart when it comes; but even the light can be a barrier.And when it’s imperative to open your heart, the bear will be your polestar.”
Ana looked at the talisman in her hand.A polar bear carved in polished ivory.Flipping it over, she studied the etched symbol on its back.The top of the talisman had a drilled hole with a metal link so it could be worn on a necklace or bracelet.
“Thank you,” she said, pulling Gran’s rosary and crucifix from her pocket while the woman continued to speak to Magnus directly.Ana attached the bear talisman next to the crucifix, considering it.She was about to tuck it all back into her pocket when, instead, she looped it around her wrist and tucked it under her shirt cuff.
Maybe it’s just the weird warning about light and dark.
Or how the village elder reminded her of her grandmother.
Or something else entirely that Ana couldn’t define.
Priestess Beyla Jorgansdotter led Magnus and Ana back out of the temple so that they might continue their journey.
The villagers had remained outside all that time, and observed their departure inland.Their somber faces, hopeful auras, and the elder’s strange warnings coiled through Ana, twisting up her insides, adding to her deep unease about this mission.
Despite the mention of outsiders no longer denied access to Barentian territory, she doubted an extraction team could rescue them, should things go wrong—as her gut told her they inevitably would.
FIFTEEN
Duringthelongwalk,Magnus ruminated over what the village elder had told him.
Everything about Barentialookedthe same.
Everything about Barentiafeltdifferent.
