Page 92 of A Curse Carved in Bone
“Kill him!” Ylva shrieked, and the Skalander warriors unsheathed their weapons. But Harald-as-Snorri only waved a hand and said, “Skade, deal with this, please.”
Bound, bleeding, and gagged, there was nothing I could do asSkade’s bow appeared in her hands, the green brand spiraling in loops and arcs around the room, punching through throats in rapid succession until every one of the warriors was on the ground gasping. Dying.
Harald-as-Snorri had clapped his hand over Ylva’s mouth to silence her screams. When Skade’s arrow had finished its bloody business, he moved his mouth close to her ear. “Behave or I will gut Leif in front of you. Am I understood?”
She gave a tight nod, and he kissed her cheek before letting go of her. Ylva staggered, gagging once before regaining her composure. Harald-as-Snorri walked away from her. Just as before, his skin seemed to move like softening wax, shifting in shape and color, until he was Harald once more.
Motion caught my eye. Skoll and Hati rose from where they’d sat in the shadows, moving to Harald’s side. He stroked their fur, tracing a finger over the markings painted onto their heads that ensured their loyalty.
“This is why killing people is rarely the best solution.” He gestured to the bodies. “It’s always such a mess to clean up. Tora, think of a solution that makes this disappear.”
“There are drains for waste that lead into the river,” Tora said. “The bodies will be unrecognizable after they go over the falls, and what is left will go to the sea.”
“See it done,” Harald ordered. “Then clean up the blood. I wish it to be as though they were never here.”
“Most have families in Grindill.” Ylva stared at the faces of the warriors that she’d brought to their deaths. “There will be questions.”
“For which you will provide answers that steer them away from suspicion.” Harald stroked Hati’s head, again tracing the markings painted on the wolf’s fur. It was a nervous tic of his that belied his feigned composure. “Deceit, darling Ylva, is how you will earn your keep and ensure Leif’s continued longevity. By being the lady of Grindill, the wife of the king, the queen that all of Skaland trusts without question. You will keep Snorri’s rule alive.”
“Your rule, you mean,” Ylva whispered, her gaze tracking Tora as she carried the bodies of the fallen to the drains.
Harald let out the strange giggle he’d used on the island, then clapped a hand over his mouth. “Well, yes. Though all of Skaland will believe that Snorri and Harald have formed an alliance. Enemies who are friends again after slaying the Hel-child, who cursed Skaland’s warriors, murdered Saga, and then turned her sights on the warriors of Nordeland. If only we’d united sooner, your warriors might all still live.” He smirked.
My jaw clenched because there was no easy way to prove his lies, given that everyone who had witnessed what had really happened was dead. Harald’s gaze drifted to me. “Though I see we may have a problem with the latter part of my narrative. Tell me, is Freya alive?”
“I was told she remained imprisoned where you left her,” Skade said when Ylva didn’t answer. “I would happily travel there and put an end to her, Father. My arrow doesn’t miss.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Harald agreed. “Though the same cannot be said for your eyes. Where is this Ragnar?”
Skade’s cheeks colored. “Said he needed to piss. He’s likely in Grindill, somewhere.”
“Islikelygood enough given that Ragnar knows where the Hel-child is imprisoned, among other things?” The last came out in a vicious snarl, and I bit down on the gag as Harald backhanded Skade with enough force that she sprawled across the floor.
“Where is your man Ragnar?” he then demanded of Ylva. “What orders did you give him?”
“I know not,” she answered. “It wasn’t under my order that he departed.”
Seeing violence rising in Harald, I coughed around my gag and Harald turned his glare on me. Closing the distance between us, he wrenched the gag out of my mouth. Then he backhanded me. “Where is he?”
“Go fuck yourself.” I spat on the floor before him.
Reaching down, Harald unraveled the bandage around my shoulder,then shoved his fingers into the hole left by Skade’s arrow. I bit down on a scream even as the world around me spun with pain and stars, and when they cleared, I was sideways on the floor.
“You are predictable, Bjorn.” Harald loomed over me. “Your loyalty to those who earn your affection makes you so, just as it makes you easy to manipulate. There is only one place you would have sent Ragnar, and that is to liberate your lover.”
He turned away, and I started to laugh, spitting out blood as I did. “I told him to spread the word, child of Loki. To whisper into the ear of every person he sees that Snorri is dead and that it is Harald of Nordeland who wears his face. I told him to seek out the village gossips, the fishwives, and orphans who trade in information. To buy a cup of mead for every foreign merchant or sailor he meets and tell the tale of the king who wears faces and trades in lies and deception. Harald, king of tricksters, king of lies, and soon, I wager, king of nothing.”
A desperate lie, but I wanted them to search everywhere but the island where I’d left Freya. Ragnar was her only chance.
“He’s spinning tales,” Skade spat. “He’d not sacrifice his only chance to save Freya. Send me after her, Father, and I will lay a trap for Ragnar.”
“Ragnar would not free Freya,” Ylva said, and I wasn’t sure if she believed that or if she was trying to buy her warrior time to escape. “He knows what a danger she poses to us all.”
“Born-in-Fireisvery dangerous.” I dragged my legs under me, managing to get upright even though blood was running fresh down my chest and back. “And she has grown to be very cunning. Do you really think the daughter of death is so easily defeated, trickster? You should have killed her when you had the chance.”
“I tied the wards to Freya’s life,” Ylva said. “They will hold until she breathes her last. My wards are good—that monster will never walk free.”
I scoffed at her. “You think death will stop Hel’s daughter from having vengeance?”
