West of the Moon

Chapter 39 - Kersten

Chapter 40 - New Beginnings

Part Three

Chapter 41 - Far Away in Vinland

Chapter 42 - Water Snake

Chapter 43 - ‘Be careful what you wish for”

Chapter 44 - The Nis Amuses Itself

Chapter 45 - The Journey Begins

Chapter 46 - The Winter Visitor

Chapter 47 - Ghost Stories

Chapter 48 - The Nis at Sea

Chapter 49 - Lost at Sea

Chapter 50 - Landfall

Chapter 51 - Spring Stories

Chapter 52 - Serpent’s Bay

Chapter 53 - Seidr

Chapter 54 - Disturbances and Tall Tales

Chapter 55 - A Walk on the Beach

Chapter 56 - Single Combat

Chapter 57 - Losing Peer

Chapter 58 - “A son like Harald”

Chapter 59 - Down the Dark River

Chapter 60 - Thorolf the Seafarer

Chapter 61 - War Dance

Chapter 62 - The Fight in the House

Chapter 63 - Death in the Snow

Chapter 64 - Peace Pipe

The background to Troll Blood

Glossary

Also by Katherine Langrish

Copyright

About the Publisher

Part One

Chapter 1

The Coming of Uncle Baldur

PEER ULFSSON STOOD at his father’s funeral pyre, watching the sparks whirl up like millions of shining spirits streaking away into the dark. The flames scorched his face, but his back was freezing. The wind slid cold fingers down his neck.

Surely this was all a bad dream? He turned, almost expecting to see his father standing behind him, his thin, tanned face carved with deep lines of laughter and life. But the sloping shingle beach ran steep and empty into the sea.

A small body bumped Peer’s legs. He reached down. His dog Loki leaned against him, a rough-haired, flea-bitten brown mongrel – all the family Peer had left.

The pyre flung violent shadows up and down the beach. Friends and neighbours crowded around it in a ring. Their faces were curves of light and hollows of darkness: the flames lit up their steaming breath like dragon-smoke. Above the fire, the air shimmered and shook. It was like looking through a magic glass into a world of ghosts and monsters – the world into which his father’s spirit was passing, beginning the long journey to the land of the dead. Was that a pale face turning towards him? A dim arm waving?

What if I see him?

Beyond the fire a shadow lurched into life. It tramped forwards, man-shaped, looming up behind the people, a sort of black haystack with thick groping arms…

Peer gave a strangled shout.

A huge man shoved his way into the circle of firelight. Elbowing the neighbours aside, he tramped right up to the pyre and turned, his boots carelessly planted in the glowing ashes. He waited, dark against the flames, until an uneasy silence fell. Then he spoke, in a high cracked voice as shrill as a whistle.

“I’ve come for the boy. Which is Ulf ’s son?”

Nobody answered. The men close to Peer edged nearer, closing ranks around him. Catching the movement, the giant turned. He lifted his head like a wolf smelling out its prey. Peer stopped breathing. Their eyes met.

The stranger bore down on him like a landslide. Enormous fingers crunched on his arm. High over his head the toneless, reedy voice piped, “I’m your uncle, Baldur Grimsson. From now on, you’ll be living with me.”

“But I haven’t got an uncle,” Peer gasped.

“I don’t like saying things twice,” the man said menacingly. “I’m your Uncle Baldur, the miller of Trollsvik.” He challenged the crowd. “You all know it’s true. Tell him – before I twist his arm off.”

Brand the shipbuilder stepped forward, shaking his head in distress. “Dear me! This – that is to say, Peer, your father did mention to me once —”

His wife Ingrid pushed in, glaring. “Let go of the boy, you brute. We all know that poor Ulf never had anything to do with you!”