Page 19 of Shared By the Vikings

“Not if you’d prefer raw, Tali?”

He shrugged, grin still in place, and brushed his finger over his cheek, leaving a smear of bloody dirt over the freckled skin, just below his gash from the storm. “Ah, I could, but as we have a fire...”

“So we’ll cook.”

His smile dropped and he squatted down next to her. “You have a pain here?” He tapped his hand on his chest. “Now Raud has gone.”

She tipped her head and looked at her toes sprinkled with sand.

“He knew your secret, didn’t he?”

She nodded. The answer wasjato both of his questions.

“It was wild at sea,” Tali said. “Hard to see or do anything once Aegir had made his mind to take us.”

“Did you see Raud?”

“I saw him go over, the same time I did.” He scratched his head and glanced at the horizon. “We landed in the water together, the raging sea filling our ears with promises of death.”

“Yet you survived.”

“As did you.”

She was quiet for a moment. “How did I? I couldn’t have swum. Why didn’t I drown and go to the gods?”

His attention turned to Erik and Gunnvar who were constructing small crude shelters with branches and bracken. “No, you couldn’t swim.”

“So who...?”

“Erik.” Tali’s voice lowered. “He grabbed you, like this.” He bent his elbow at his neck. “Kept your face above the waves as we made toward this land.”

“Erik saved my life?”

Tali nodded. “It would be good to remember that.”

“I will never forget it, and my father will be in his debt.”

“Your father?”

She turned away and picked up a rabbit. “Never mind.”

“Your father is a warrior?”

“Ja. But he is in other lands now.”

She wondered if Tali would push further for information, but he didn’t, instead he walked over to the other two Vikings and left her to tend his catch.

After finding a short, sharp dagger in the box Gunnvar had delivered, she set about skinning the rabbits, keen to prove her worth. As she worked she watched the construction of three lean-to shelters. With roofs of undergrowth, they faced southerly, toward the fire and hopefully away from the prevailing wind. Tali was setting more bracken on the bases to act as bedding.

She hoped she’d be allowed one of them and that the base would be better than the cross-sections of the longboat for her aching spine. If she wasn’t permitted to use one, she’d get on and make herself one.

With the rabbits now cooking and the chicken ready, she sought four large logs and rolled them to the fire to use as seating. The sun had dipped behind the forest and shadows stretched on the sand. The birds that had been chattering to each other in the woodland had fallen silent. Now it was just the sound of the waves, the flames, and the men working.

She checked her clothes. They were no longer dripping but were far from dry. Sitting near the fire, she held the fur closer to keep off the chill. Thankfully the sharp ache in her head had faded to a dull throb, like a drum banging in the distance.

Again she thanked the gods that her injuries weren’t worse.

“You believe the other boats were north of here?” Gunnvar said to Tali as he took a seat to her right.

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