Page 27 of Hungry Like a Wolf
“And now my son, Thormod, awaits me.” Ravn stood. “And he will need a new mother, so I will take her.” He pointed straight at Carmel. “A mother with royal blood, if not Viking blood, will do nicely.”
“What?” Carmel’s mouth hung open as she stared at Ravn. “I will not go with you.”
“It was not a question, but a statement.” Ravn shrugged.
Her vision of returning to her castle, her mother and brother, and with views of the sunset over the sea shrank from her grasp. “No. I refuse.” She turned to Haakon. “Please, Your Grace, I beg you.”
Haakon frowned. “Why would I let you take our hostage, Ravn?”
“Ja, you cannot take her. She is mine.” Orm jumped up.
Ravn ignored him. “It makes perfect sense,” he said. “When the army comes for her, you can say she was taken by invading forces to a land faraway. It will prevent a battle, avoid the spilling of more Tillicoulty blood, and it is the truth.”
Haakon looked at Kenna, who gave a small nod.
“What! No!” Carmel rushed up to Haakon. “It’s a crazy idea. I can’t leave these shores. This land is my home.”
“You don’t get a say in it,” Haakon said. “You attacked our people and now you are our prisoner.”
“Aye,yourprisoner, not his.” She pointed at Ravn. “He wasn’t even here when I arrived.”
“She is my prisoner, my thrall. I captured her.” Orm slammed his hand into his fist. “I will not let you take her, brother. I will chain her to…to…to me.” He glanced around as though looking for the ankle chains.
“But it is a solution,” Noah said. “We get to save face because we have not handed a hostage over, yet there is no need for a battle. What would they gain by attacking if she is not here?”
Ravn nodded slowly and crossed his arms. He gave Carmel a look of smug satisfaction and ignored Orm, who ran past him and out of the meeting.
“No!” Carmel said, marching up to Ravn. “I will not go with you. I will not be a mother to your motherless son. He is not mine. I did not birth him. I will not do it. I will not leave my beloved homeland.” She pressed her hands together and looked upward. “Dear Lord Almighty, please be with me in this time of need.”
“He will not help you and you will leave with me,” Ravn said.
Ravn was so sure and calm, it made her blood boil. “You are a selfish boar-head and no wonder loneliness is your best friend.” She jabbed his hard chest. “You think only of yourself.”
He scowled at her. “That is not true, I—”
She turned and stomped past Noah and Anna, going out the door into the bright daylight. She didn’t want to hear Ravn’s deep, accented voice full of excuses for his barbaric behavior.
The first thing her eyeline settled on was the watchtower and she made straight for it. She’d go. Run away. Take her chances. There was a very strong likelihood her mother’s army was at the valley campsite right now. She only had to reach there and then tell them to retreat with her in tow.
Or maybe attack but with advance warning of the Norsemen’s hideous tactics.
“Carmel!” Anna called. “Wait.”
Carmel ignored her and pushed into a sprint. She wasn’t hanging around to be stowed onto a longboat and taken to foreign shores against her will.
“Hey, stop!” Anna called again, her voice a little closer.
Carmel sped up, her hair whipping behind her and her breaths quickening.
“You there. Halt!” a villager on the watchtower shouted down at her. “I order you to halt in the name of King Haakon.”
Again, she ignored the instruction to stop and flew out of the village. She took the track between the neat rows of crops that led east, toward the forest. The dark shadows of the trees were welcoming; they’d embrace her, hide her.
On and on she raced, thankful for the fact that she’d always been a good runner. She tore past rows of beans on poles, sprouting cabbages, and spring greens. Making it past a couple of horses grazing, Carmel found new hope springing inside of her.
She was gaining on the forest. Anna wasn’t calling her anymore. She’d done it. She’d gotten away from the devilish Vikings who sought to own her.
“Carmel.” A deep, breathless voice.
