Viking Warrior, Unwilling Wife

A sudden burst of applause as the skald reached the high point in his recitation of the saga about the Lindisfarne raid forcibly reminded her that she could not simply stay here, pressed up against a wall for ever. Her muscles tensed as she prepared to run to the next group of shadows. Vikar called something out to the skald and the place erupted in laughter. Coarse rough laughter from men who had filled their bellies with meat and ale. At the sound, she darted. Made it.

She kept to the shadows and reached the tunnel’s entrance without being challenged. The outlines of the trapdoor were clear for anyone who knew where to look. She would make it through. The way was clear. There were not hidden twists or turns. She simply had to keep going until the end.

‘Concubine?’ she whispered before raising Kjartan’s horse over her head in triumphant. ‘I choose another path.’

The trap door creaked slightly as she lifted it. She descended a few steps, pulled it firmly shut and allowed the blackness to envelop her.

‘Vikar,’ Ivar said in an undertone as the skald began another song. ‘The food has been delivered to your prisoner.’

Vikar drained his horn of ale, wiped his hand across his face and lifted his gaze to the shadows. ‘I know.’

‘But how can you know? The guard has just returned. He was waylaid in the kitchens. There is a lusty serving maid who caught his eye.’

The shadows shimmered and parted as a figure moved stealthily along the wall. Vikar permitted a smile to cross his face. He knew his former wife well, even after all these years. It pleased him that she had been so accommodating, so willing to take the opportunity and so foolish not to see that the way had been made clear for her. And she would be his, on his terms in the end. ‘The mouse has taken the bait, as I predicted she would.’

‘You are taking an awful risk, Vikar.’

Vikar raised an eyebrow. ‘It is a risk, yes, but it is the fastest way of discovering where our host for this feast is hidden.’

‘Someone else should go.’

‘No.’ Vikar banged his fist on the table and the skald stopped speaking, looking at him in amazement.

Vikar winced, remembering Bose the Dark’s reputation. The skald probably thought the tale had invoked his displeasure. He gestured for the man to continue with his saga.

Once the skald’s words flowed again, Vikar continued. ‘We have been over this, Ivar. This is my quest, my duty. You are to remain here and direct any defence that is needed. I know what my former father-in-law is like. I and I alone will bring him back for the surrender. Then, none in the Sorting will whisper and plot.’

‘I will do as you ask.’

Vikar knocked his horn with Ivar, before he drained the remainder. ‘Take care of the men until I return.’

‘May Odin and Thor speed your journey.’

The grey light, which a few steps ago had seemed only a cruel twist of the tunnel, grew brighter. Sela heaved a sigh of relief. She was nearly through the tunnel without incident. Her earlier fears seemed foolish now, but still she would be pleased when she made it through to the woods, when she no longer had to worry.

She reached the exit and gulped the fresh pine-scented air, a welcome relief after the close stale air of the passageway. She had lost count of the number of spiders’ webs she’d had to brush through, a sure sign that her father and Kjartan had gone a different way.

But they would be in the hut. They had to be. Sela clenched her fists, refused to give way to panic. They had agreed.

She dashed across the few open yards and made it to the screen of trees. There she waited to see if the alarm would be raised, but, except for the lone bark of one of the elkhounds, the yard was silent. She thought she saw the shadow of a man, but it vanished so quickly that she decided it was a trick of the light.

Her knees gave and she sank into the soft moss under the silver birch. A jay scolded her slightly and then flew off lazily into the hazy sky.

She listened to the sound of her heart beating and fingered Kjartan’s wooden horse.

Safety of a sort. After her breath had returned, she’d be away. And would not return except to free her people from Vikar. First her son, then her people. Somehow. Some way. She would prevail.

‘This is not the end, Vikar. This is only the beginning. I will regain everything. Everything!’

Sela raised her fist in the air and shook it towards the hall. Useless bravado she knew, but the little gesture of defiance made her feel better.

Her hair fell forward and she pushed it back behind her ears, pressed her fingertips into her eyes, concentrated on remembering the landmarks and their correct order.

In many ways, escaping from the hall was the easy part. Now she had to find her son. The thing she wanted most in the world was to scoop up Kjartan, hold him tight and never let him go.

She took a deep breath and plunged into the wood, picking her way along the faint track and keeping her eyes peeled for the faint signs her father had left to show the way—a cut in the bark here, a pile of stones there. To keep her spirits up, she hummed one of Kjartan’s favourite songs, a great rollicking one about a brave warrior.

Twice she lost her way and the track vanished into a pond or off a cliff, and she had to retrace her steps, going ever deeper into the woods. She kept one hand clasped around the dagger at all times.

A noise caused the hairs on the back of Sela’s neck to prickle. She stiffened and tightened her grasp of the hilt.

An animal? Bear? Wolf, or worse—one of the berserkers who had lost their minds and become more bear than human?

She half-turned, caught a flash of dark blue cloth. The energy drained from her body. So close and yet she had achieved nothing. She could throw herself down on the soft moss and weep.

‘You have had your amusement,’ she said, carefully enunciating her words so there could be no mistaking them. She put her hands on her hips and stared at the place she was certain he had concealed himself. ‘I wonder that you let me get this far. When did you plan to let me know that my attempt was pitiful?’

‘Your escape showed faint glimmers of ingenuity, Sela, I will give you that, but they have faded. Will you never learn about concealment?’

Chapter Four

‘Only a glimmer of ingenuity, Vikar? You wound me.’ A huge wave of disappointment washed over Sela, crushing her to the ground with its intensity. The birch and pine that had provided shelter a heartbeat before closed around her, imprisoned her. She had thought herself to be free, but it had been the merest illusion of freedom. ‘I considered my escape magnificent. A complete triumph.’

‘Did you think you could escape that easily? How little you know me, Sela. Details and planning. I learnt your father’s lessons well.’

Vikar came out from behind a tall birch, a little way from where she had thought he might be. The sunlight streamed from behind him, making his frame appear larger and casting his features into shadow. He stood there with his hands on his hips, much as a god might survey the earth.

Sela judged the distance between them—no more than fifty strides lay between them. Her leg muscles tightened, tensed in preparation for flight. There was a small opening between two larches.

But could she make it?

Sela hesitated and glanced again at where he stood, glowering. Vikar was one of the fastest runners at court. Whenever they held competitions at the court in Kaupang, he won. He could easily cover those lengths before she made it to the trees.

With a sigh, she rejected the idea, released the air from her lungs, and forced her muscles to relax. A dark misery swamped her senses. He had timed his entrance well. She already had experienced enough humiliation for one day, for a lifetime. He had anticipated her every movement, appeared to guess her secrets. Not every secret. That one she hid. And she would keep it hidden for ever, if the gods allowed her to.

Sela pressed her hand to her mouth, holding back a sob. Her head collapsed on to her chest, but at the sound of his derisive snort, she raised her eyes and glared at him, daring him to make the first move, to reveal what he intended to do next.

‘It would appear that I misjudged the situation,’ she said carefully. ‘I thought no one had noticed my departure.’

‘Once away from the hall, you failed to remember the need for stealth and concealment,’ he said, leaning against the trunk of a birch with a deceptive casualness. ‘Did you disregard my advice from long ago or were you simply seeking attention?’

The hint of amusement in his voice was clear, a noise calculated to get under her skin. He had toyed with her! Allowed her the appearance of escaping, when all along he had been tracking her, intending to recapture her.

‘I did nothing of the sort!’

‘You sounded like a wild boar rummaging in the undergrowth,’ he continued remorselessly, the amusement growing in his voice. ‘I would have thought Bose the Dark’s daughter would have been more cautious in how she walked through the woods, particularly when those woods have such a sinister reputation in her father’s saga.’

‘I should have been.’ Sela tilted her head upward and met his green gaze. Two could play at this game. She was no longer the naïve woman who had been his bride; she had matured. He no longer had any power over her. ‘What is one shadow when you are fleeing for your life?’