Page 76 of Storm of Fury
“You could have used it on Solveig.”
Heat flashed in Marduk’s eyes. “I doubt it would have worked. And Solveig is a war marshal, not a regulardrekiguard. If she’d sensed me using my magic, then she would have been free to retaliate with her own. They don’t call her the Storm with Teeth for no reason.”
“This way,” Tormund said, heading down a tiny goat track that led down the mountain.
They ran down the hillside, trying to keep their feet in the light layer of snow. His heart raced. At every tree, he could have sworn he saw movement flashing out of the corner of his eye.
But it wasn’t until the track suddenly vanished at the edge of a cliff face that he realized they’d been tricked.
Tormund skidded to a halt. “Shit.” He stared down as the ground dropped out from under him.
Marduk eased to a halt at his side, the wind rifling his golden hair.
“Go,” Haakon told him curtly. “Fly home and get your brother.”
But Marduk sighed and turned back toward the forest. “We’re not alone. Anddrekido not leave debts behind them.”
A pair of warriors slipped from the shadows of the nearest tree. A branch moved to the right. And then a fourthdrekiguard materialized to the left.
Trapped.
With their backs against the wall. Tormund weighed the odds.
“Going somewhere?” called the tallest blonde, dressed in enough fur and pierced with enough gold that she clearly had to be mimicking her leader. Someone had smeared kohl across her eyes.
“You’re not even half as scary as your blackhearted warlord,” Tormund told her, because he was still too furious to bite his tongue. “Solveig looks like she could spit fire and fart lightning. You just look like you’ve been playing in her jewelry case.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Seize them.”
Tormund grinned, tossing his axe from hand to hand as he settled into a fighting stance. “I’ll warn you…, I really want to fight right now. This may not play out as easily as it did back at our camp, when you had the advantage of numbers.”
Marduk caught his arm. “Lower your axe, friend Tormund. This doesn’t have to end in bloodshed.”
But I want it to end in bloodshed….
Marduk shook his head tightly. “They’re stalling us, you fool. They can communicate psychically, which means that right now, another half dozendrekiare no doubt wheeling through the skies toward us.”
Fuck. He wanted to throw the axe. “So we’re done?”
“We’re not done,” whispered a voice in his mind. Marduk’s voice. The prince stared very intently at him. “They don’t want you. They only want me. If I surrender, then you’ll have a chance to escape.”
And leave you here?
Unlikely.
The enormous prince caught his gaze, his hazel eyes blazing with gold fire. “There are too many of them. Get to King Harald. Tell him where I am and what has transpired here. He’s the only one who can counteract Solveig’s plans. I’ll distract them.”
The threedrekiguards advanced, spears held low. Behind them, the sound of running feet slapped on hard stone from within the mound.
Tormund swore under his breath. He knew bad odds when he was staring at them. “How?”
“Climb down the cliff,” Marduk said, stepping forward with both palms outraised.
Wind stirred through the leaves, and a fir shed its cloak of snow. The blondedrekiwarrior snarled, her braids whipping over her shoulder. The sudden gust of wind almost drove her off her feet.
Tormund looked down.
Then up at Haakon.
