Page 14 of Shared By the Vikings

Alive,ja, but it was as if she were constructed of wool spun on the spindles of her aching bones.

And cold, so cold. Goosebumps tingled over her breasts and her nipples tightened. As another groan rumbled from her chest she became aware of the ebb and flow of water around her feet and lower legs. It dragged shingle with it, scratching her flesh.

But the scratching was naught compared to the pain still growing in her head. She remembered the creaking longboat, the falling mast, the agony that had spread for the tiniest moment of time before she was stolen from her plight.

And now where was she? Asgard? Valhalla? Would she feast with the gods and Valkyries tonight?

“Wake up.” A smooth hard object touched her bare hip.

“Mmm, what?” She recognized the voice but was unable to place it.

“Wake up... boy.”

The breeze skittered over her body, and the warmth of the sun, not a fire, smoothed over her skin.

It was then she realized she was utterly and totally naked. The fluttering air and the mellow warmth didn’t lie.

She cracked open her eyelids. The dazzling sun seared her retina and she moaned and bit on her dry lips.

“I said wake up.”

Ja, she did recognize that voice. It was Jarl Erik.

“What... what is happening?” She’d had to peel her tongue from the roof of her mouth to speak.

“Open your eyes, you have explaining to do.”

“Raud... where’s Raud?” She raised her right arm, her shoulder shot pain up her neck and her elbow creaked. She shielded her eyes and managed to open them wider.

Above her three male faces peered down, the brilliant bright sky behind shining like golden crowns around their mussed hair.

“What happened?” She looked between them.

Erik; his short dark beard laden with sand and his dark eyes peering at her from beneath heavy brows.

Gunnvar; topless, his ink swirling over the shaved sides of his head and his long, roped plait hanging over his right shoulder. The charcoal swiped beneath his eyes had streaked down his face.

Tali; a leather tunic cut around his thick biceps, and his rusty hair also heavy with sand. He had a gash on his left cheek, slashing through his sprinkle of freckles.

“Where, where are we?”

“Where are we?” Erik said, shaking his head and a small sandy storm leaving his beard. “I think there is a more pressing question.”

“Ja,” Tali frowned. “There is.”

Odin have mercy, but her head hurt—and her back, and legs, and her left ankle. She wished for her handmaiden to help her into bed and bring her broth and warm mead.

“Start explaining,” Gunnvar said, gesturing from the top of her body to her toes. “Now.”

It was like having molten iron poured into her stomach as she realized what they were talking about. She’d been so distracted with the axe-grinding ache in her head, her pains, and thinking of Raud that the fact she was naked had come and gone.

But it hadn’t passed by the Vikings she was traveling with.

Not a chance.

They were staring at her bare body with a mixture of curiosity, anger, and disbelief.

Hurriedly, she pushed to a seated position, drawing her knees up and hugging them. She thought her head might explode as her vision blurred.

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