Page 44 of The Girl the Sea Gave Back
He shrugged. “He has to.”
But Latham wasn’t the kind of man that could be made to do anything. After Espen, he was the oldest leader of the Nadhir and if he rejected me, I knew the others might follow. Maybe they should.
“I would understand if he didn’t.”
“They chose you, Halvard. They agreed.”
But that wasn’t what I meant and he knew it. Espen and the other leaders hadn’t chosen me for this.
We sat in silence as Bard fell asleep, and Asmund watchedhim, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the tree. He was worried. “Will he be alright?”
“He won’t fight,” I said, “but he’ll be alright.”
“He won’t like that.” He laughed.
I spread the salve over the burned skin and rewrapped it carefully as Asmund settled down to sleep and Kjeld took the place against the tree beside me, cleaning the blood from his axe.
“Who is she?” I asked again, sucking in a breath as I tightened the knot of the bandage.
Kjeld wiped the curve of the blade against the thick wool of his pants. “Someone who’s not supposed to be alive.”
He let the axe fall back into the sheath at his back and rolled over, and I looked up to the sky, still shrouded in thick cloud cover. We’d be back in Hylli before the day was out. Back to the salty smell of the fjord and the silvery light on the water. I tried not to close my eyes. Sleep held too many faces I didn’t want to see. Voices that made my insides ache. I stared at the glitter of light on the rippling water of the river until the sun was overhead, painting everything in yellow light.
And as the warmth of the sun came, so did the remembering. It wedged its fingers inside my ribs and grabbed hold of my heart, squeezing. Because those days were gone. For all of us. So many mornings, Asmund and I had drifted out into the current as boys and thrown the nets against the wind. We’d sat around fires at night, laughing and listeningto the stories my brothers told. And I wondered if this was my last story. The thought lifted like a wall of fog creeping toward me.
I was a torch in the wind.
I was flickering out.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
TOVA
There were no omens for this. No signs or rune stones or prayers to be uttered.
I walked through the forest, Jorrund and Gunther at my back, with the cold weight of the head in my hands. I clutched it to my chest, the blood staining the front of my dress and the face turned up at me. Mouth open. Skin yellow and gray.
He’d known me. The Kyrr’s eyes had held recognition when they met mine. I didn’t know why he was on the mainland or why he was with Halvard, but he’d known me. And if he knew me, then he knew my story.
I looked down at the open eyes cradled in my arms, glad the man wasn’t alive to see my face. I’d stood alone in the silent village as the Svell searched the forest, bringing the axe down before me and cutting the head from the corpse.
I would never forget that sound.
The camp was still awake when the fires came into view, the Svell feasting on the livestock they’d taken from Utan to fill their bellies for battle. Gunther opened the tent before me and I ducked inside. He hadn’t spoken since we left the village and I’d noticed the strain on his face growing with each day since we left Liera. He stood beside me, his hands tucked into his vest as Vigdis looked up from where he sat over a bowl of steaming, roasted meat.
His hand froze on the spoon as his black eyes landed on the head in my hands.
The table shook as he set his hands down onto it and stood. “Is that him? The one who killed my brother?”
I pulled in a steadying breath, trying to keep from trembling. “It is.”
He came around the table, taking the head from me and turning it around so that it faced him.
Really, the man looked nothing like Halvard except for maybe in the color of his hair. Even his eyes were wrong. A deep brown instead of the sparkling blue. I could still see them in my mind, filled with tears as he wrapped his hands around my throat. I reached up, gently touching the bruised skin above my collarbone. If the Kyrr man hadn’t come from the forest, I wondered if he really would have killed me.
But no one looked themselves in death, and I hoped it was enough to convince Vigdis. He lifted the head before him, as if looking the dead man in the eyes. His brow furrowed as he studied it.
“They arrived in Utan in the middle of the night. Hekilled two of our warriors before I took him down.” Gunther spoke beside me.
