Page 37 of Viking Beast
It was true. It’s what they all would think.
I had to keep him talking. Eldberg might be out here. He might have heard me scream. I just needed time.
“What have I done, Sweyn?” I spoke softly. “What makes you hate me? Why are we here?”
“Why?” Sweyn hurled the word back at me. “You think you’re so special? It’s him I want to hurt!”
I didn’t understand. My head was throbbing. Had I hit it when I fell? Nothing made sense. Sweyn had authority, status, and respect. Why was he doing this?
I made my voice calm. “You won’t harm me, Sweyn. You know it’s not right. You’ll be killing the baby as well as me. What do the gods say about that? What do the ancestors say? Aren’t they close tonight? Aren’t they watching?”
“Shut up!” Sweyn leaned on my arms more heavily, and I cried out in pain. “You know naught about it. You don’t belong here. You’re nothing!”
Of all the things he might have said, this cut deep.
I’d spent a lifetime not belonging.
But I wasn’t nothing.
I looked into his face, summoning all my strength to speak clearly. “They tried to kill me in Svolvaen, but they couldn’t. They bound me to the pier, but I escaped. I lived in the caves, and I climbed up through the cliffs. Do you believe an ordinary woman could do that? If I was nothing, do you think I’d still be alive!”
Sweyn’s eyes narrowed.
He was unsure; I felt it.
Some had believed me an enchantress. I had no magic. I wove no spells. But I had other power. That of a woman who refused to be cowed. No matter what happened, I knew myself. I’d made mistakes and paid for them, but I was a survivor.
If I could make Sweyn fear me, I might yet live.
“I vow by my own god and all those that govern here, harm me and I’ll curse you. Every foul pestilence I’ll visit on you, until you’ll wish yourself dead and that you’d never laid eyes upon me!”
He let go of my arms, leaning back.
He was afraid.
From somewhere in the bushes, there was a rustle. I doubted Sweyn would have noticed before, but his attention darted up, ears straining.
“Go quickly while you have the chance. Go, Sweyn! Leave me here to the animals of the forest if you like, but run while you can.”
“You think to fool me with such nonsense?” He frowned.
Somewhere, far off, an owl hooted.
“So be it.”
I froze as he pulled his knife from its sheath. After all I’d said, was he still going to take my life? I watched in horror as he took the blade to the hem of my gown, tearing off a long strip, then another.
The first he used to bind my ankles. The second he wound around my wrists, placed behind my back.
“If the creatures take you, it won’t be my doing. You’re in the hands of the gods now. Let them save you.”
I feared he was right.
My fate lay in who would find me first—Eldberg or the predators who roamed this dark place.
15
Elswyth
