Page 107 of Warrior of the Wild
“If you are not welcomed back, then I’ll face Peruxolo alone. Because if your villages still treat you as outcasts, then there’s no way my father would show up to witness my battle against the god. But if your village takes you in with open arms? I will formally challenge Peruxolo. I will face him publicly, in the clearing where the villages make the Payment each year. Soren will do his part and invite all seven villages to watch the battle.”
“Are you sure?” Soren asks.
“I’m sure. Let’s head for Restin tomorrow. Then we’ll set our plan into motion.”
PART 4
THE
GOD
CHAPTER
22
Before heading out, Iric takes me to his forge.
He comes to a stop at a wooden chest tucked underneath a table full of tools. He bends down, fiddles with a latch, and then hoists up the lid.
Shiny black armor winks from within.
Iric pulls out a gleaming breastplate and holds it out to me. I take it, rubbing my fingers along the bottom edge.
“How?” is all I can manage as I stare at the beautiful craftsmanship.
“Wasn’t easy. I made this piece from a single sheet torn from the back of the largest ziken we caught. Had to hammer at it for hours to get it into the right shape. Trimming the edges down was even more difficult. Had to take my ax to it. You should know, now thatthe armor isn’t connected to a living creature, the regenerative properties don’t work anymore.”
“That hardly matters. It’s wonderful.”
“Would you like to try it on?”
I replace my iron armor with ziken hides. The new armor is lighter, but just as strong. I walk through a set of warm-up strikes, amazed by how much more quickly I’m able to move.
“It’s fantastic! I’ll never wear iron again,” I say, rubbing my arm over where the guards are tucked into my sleeves.
“Shall we start our journey now? Or are you too busy admiring yourself?”
I smack him.
IRIC LEADS USback to Restin. He is most familiar with the way, having traversed the path once a month for the last year to exchange letters with Aros.
“We’re going to see Mother and Father,” Iric says feebly, as though he doesn’t dare to let himself get too hopeful. He carries his own sack on his back. With all the salt inside slowing the decomposition of the hyggja head, I can’t imagine how heavy it must be.
Soren carries his feather on his back, with all our bedding squishing it tight so it doesn’t budge. That leaves me to carry all our food and supplies for the three-day journey.
“You are,” I say. “You’ll see everyone you left behind.”
I just hope it will be a happy reunion. At my own banishment, I seem to remember Father mentioning something about what would happen if I actually completed my mattugr, but I hadn’tbeen listening by that point. At the time, I never thought I’d get to go home.
But now, with Iric and Soren heading for their own home, my hope is brighter than ever.
SOREN GIVES ME Aquick kiss just outside the borders of Restin. “We won’t be long. Wish us luck?”
“You don’t need luck,” I answer. “You’ve already done the hard part. Go see your family.”
“Thank you again, Raz,” Iric says. “For everything. We’ll be back out before nightfall.”
And then they weave around the inna trees, until they come to the stone archway leading into Restin.
