Page 85 of A Curse Carved in Bone
They began to pound weapons against shields, fists against chests, their inhuman shouts wordlessly filling the air. Then their ranks parted, a face as familiar as my own walking through them to stop before me. My brother, skin ashen, cheeks bloodless and torn, and eyes no longer amber but the virulent green of the undead.
“Freya.” Geir’s voice was like nails scratching over stone. “Sister.”
“Geir.” A sob rose in my throat, because seeing him like this madehis death so very real. My niece or nephew would never know their father, Ingrid would have to struggle alone, and no amount of magic could undo that. “I’m so—”
He lifted a hand, cutting me off. “We all went into battle knowing death might be our fate, Freya, and so it has come to pass. You have offered us another chance to fight the trickster’s army so that we might protect the families we left behind and earn our place in the Allfather’s hall. Will you hold to the promise you made in Helheim?”
“I will hold to it.” My chest was tight. “Will you fight alongside me in battle, brother?”
“No,” he answered, and my heart skipped. “But I will follow you.”
“I don’t deserve your allegiance.” I looked over all the men and women who’d died because I’d been fooled by Harald. “I’m not worthy of the honor of leading you.”
“You escaped the trickster. You outwitted Hel. You defeated the serpent Nidhogg!” Geir shouted. “You have earned our respect, shield maiden, so we choose to follow you for you will weave our fates with glory and Valhalla!”
The Skalander draug pounded weapons against shields, fists against armored chests, their unnatural voices all chanting the same name.
Freya.
Skalander warriors from a dozen different clans stood dead before me, yet united as they had never been before. This was not the future I’d imagined when I’d heard Saga’s prophecy, not the glory I’d envisioned, but it was a moment that had been achieved by taking my fate into my own hands. A moment that I’d woven.
Lifting my shield, which glowed fiercely with my magic, I shouted, “For all of Skaland, let us to war!”
“It isn’t going to work,” I said, watching Ylva where she sat next to Ragnar near the helm. She had wept for a time when we’d first boarded her drakkar but now sat in grim silence, eyes blank as she stared at the rolling waves of the strait. “Harald will suspect that you know his secret and kill us all. You’re smarter than this, Ylva.”
“Harald very likely has my son.” Ylva didn’t look at me as she spoke. “I will not risk his life with trickery and games. Harald will trade him for you, because you have more value. Whether he kills you or binds you, I care not. I will take Leif, and, with these men, we will sail away to make a home somewhere far enough away that we are beyond concern.”
“You’d abandon Skaland to be ruled by Harald? By a child of Loki?” I asked. “You’d abandon all those in Grindill who swore allegiance to you in exchange for your protection?”
“Yes. For my son’s life, I’ll do what it takes.” Her throat moved as she swallowed. “It was Snorri who they swore allegiance to. Snorri who they believed would protect them. Snorri is dead.” She blinked once. “Byyour hand.”
I needed no reminders of my actions, but I understood her need to give them. Ylva had seen what I’d done through Freya’s memory. Had watched my father refuse to fight me, and how I’d cut him down anyway. I deserved her hate and all that came with it, but I felt the same toward her, because she’d abandoned my Freya to die, to freeze alone on that island. The only reason that I’d not called flame to my bound hands and lit the drakkar on fire was that I could no more swim back to the island than I could sail this vessel alone if I killed the entire crew.
Freya had both water and wits, which meant that she’d survive while I found my way out of this situation and back to her. Yet doubt was climbing in my chest that it had been an error forcing her not to call Hel’s power to stop Ylva. That I’d overestimated myself and Freya would pay the price.
Except I’d seen what a burden using her magic was to her. Knew that she’d been desperate not to curse anyone else again, for it would only compound the guilt she felt. It hadn’t felt necessary in the moment, because I’d been so certain that it would be nothing for me to get free.
It’s only been a few hours,I reminded myself. Yet I could not help but think of Freya alone and exposed. She always got so cursedly cold, and a vision of her shivering and suffering while she fought to survive caused Tyr’s fire to flare across my palm.
Enough,I silently snarled.Impulsivity will not save her.
“He won’t let you go free,” I said, shifting to alleviate the ache in my arms, my fingers losing sensation as Ragnar had bound them tight. “If Harald has claimed Grindill and taken Leif prisoner, he will be keeping him alive for a reason. He knows that you’ll come for your son and, in doing so, walk right into his trap. In one swoop, he’ll destroy the last link holding the Skalander jarls together and name himself king. Be smarter.”
A tear trickled down Ylva’s face.
“You’re going to get my brother killed,” I shouted at her, the fragile hold I had over my temper evaporating. “You are allowing grief to make decisions for you, and they are the wrong ones. Snorri is dead. Ikilled him. Neither of us can escape that truth, but wallowing in it helps no one.”
“Be silent!” Ragnar roared, and I gritted my teeth as he kicked me hard in the ribs, adding to the multitude of bruises he’d already delivered upon me. He’d been loyal to my father, and though he’d not seen what Ylva had seen, his grief still weighed heavy.
“You know I’m right,” I shouted back at him. “You are supposed to advise and support Ylva in all things, yet you let her sail to certain death!”
“What would you have me do, Bjorn?” Ylva leaped to her feet, nearly falling as the ship hit a swell. “What solution do you offer?”
“Fight him! Turn around and release Freya from that prison and we can defeat him!”
“You would have me release death upon the world?” Ylva scoffed in disgust. “Of course that is the solution you offer. Freya has controlled your mind through your cock since the moment you set eyes on her. She killed hundreds of warriors. Worse than killed, for she condemned their souls to Helheim when they might have joined the Allfather’s ranks to fight in the glorious last battle. Freya is amonster.A curse upon the world who should not be suffered to live.”
It had been Freya’s magic that had killed them, but it was me who’d forced her to do it. Yet I did not think Ylva would be swayed by that fact. “She is not a monster! Harald tricked her, so the deaths of all are on his hands, yet you care not for punishing him.”
