CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE VARG

CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE

VARG

V arg used sand, oil and a crumpled ball of wire to scour the blood and grime from his weapons, axe, cleaver and seax laid out on the ground before him. He was sitting with a handful of the Bloodsworn, R?kia and Svik, Gunnar and Halja and Edel, Lif and S?unn, Orka and Breca, all of them going about the cleaning or repairing of their battle kit. Orka was casting a whetstone across the blades of the two seaxes at her belt. Varg did not think they were blunt, or indeed could be any sharper, but the look in Orka's eyes stopped him from mentioning that to her. Many in the camp were doing the same, tending to their kit, or sleeping. It was late into the night, though the snowfall gave off a soft-sheened glow, reflecting the flicker of dappled firelight.

Glornir and Vol were huddled with Ulfrir and the other captains, trying to navigate some plan that would give them even the smallest chance of surviving the next few days. Vesli flew out of the night, spiralling above Ulfrir and the others, squeaking with excitement.

"I have found them, I have found them," she blurted, flapping down to alight upon Ulfrir's shoulder. He looked at her with one raised eyebrow, but she did not seem to notice.

"Well done, Vesli," Ulfrir said. "And where are they?"

"Spread close to the riverbank before your hall. Or what is left of your hall," the tennúr said. "They have guards, but not as many as they did. The rat and the dragon are there," she paused and shivered. "And the serpent. Vesli not like him."

"I do not like him, either," Skuld said.

"We are in your debt," Ulfrir said, "and one day I hope to repay you for your courage and loyalty."

"Teeth. Lots of teeth," Vesli said without a moment's pause.

"If it is in my power, you shall have a mountain of teeth," Ulfrir said with a smile.

Vesli grinned, revealing her two rows of teeth, and flickered into the air whirring over to Breca, landed on his legs.

"Vesli tired," she said, and curled up on Breca's lap, wrapping a wing over her shoulder and head, Breca stroking her.

Footsteps and Varg looked up to see Frek the úlfhéenar approaching them. The sides of his head were shaved, like Varg's, and the long hair above it was braided and tied at his crown. He wore a blood-crusted coat of mail, sword and seax at his belt. Walking into the circle of the Bloodsworn he looked down at Svik.

"The last time I sat with you Bloodsworn I was a thrall," he said, his voice a rasping snarl, like sand scraped over mail.

"And now you are free," Svik said to him.

"I am," Frek said, rubbing his hand across the stubble growing on the sides of his head. He squatted down beside Svik.

"You told a tale, when I travelled with you. About the way of the world."

"I did," Svik said with a smile, which faded. "Einar liked that tale."

Varg remembered Einar laughing. It had been about a troll stuck under a rock, and Svik had named the troll Einar.

"I liked it, too," Frek said. "I especially liked the part at the end, where the young lad set the wolf free, and told the wolf that we decide the way of the world. In our thought-cage." He tapped the side of his head with one finger. "I liked it, but I thought it was no more than a tale, never to come true. But Elvar did that. She changed the way of the world, by thinking it," he tapped his head again, "and deciding to do it."

Heyas of agreement rippled around the Bloodsworn.

"Our choices matter," Frek said. "I did not think they did, I did not think one decision could change anything, but I was wrong."

"We just need more people to make the right choices," Varg murmured.

"Come, sit and drink with us, Frek the Free," Svik said, and offered him a cup of ale. Frek took it and sat with them.

"Orka set me free," S?unn said, and eyes turned to her, moving on to Orka, who just continued to scrape the whetstone across her blades. Voices murmured approval.

"I am free," S?unn said, as if she whispered of finding treasure. Then she stood and strode into the shadows of the trees to relieve her bladder.

Lif began to sing, a slow, mournful song telling a tale of love and loss, of family and tragedy, of good times shared. His voice was sweet, ebbing and flowing like the tide, making Varg think of rare memories with his sister, when they had shared a stolen honeycomb on Kolskegg's farm, and had to scrub their fingers for fear of giving themselves away, of when she had pushed him over an anthill in the grass and when he had screamed as the ants bit him she had laughed so hard she fell over. Lif's voice trailed off, singing of love between sweethearts, fading slowly. He glanced at Halja.

"No," Halja said, not taking her eyes from her sword, where she was working at a notch in the blade with a whetstone. She paused and looked up at Lif. "You have proven yourself in battle, you have a warrior's heart, and I have no doubt that you will find the vengeance you seek. But I am not for you," she said. He blinked at her, then looked down, his neck and cheeks flushing.

"It is not because I find you weak, or foolish, or irritating," Halja said, continuing to run the whetstone rhythmically across her blade. "Well, perhaps sometimes irritating. It is because you are a man. Men are not for me." She shrugged and Lif nodded. "But you have my respect, and my friendship, always. And if you wished to join the Bloodsworn, I would gladly call you brother and trust you to stand beside me in the shield wall. I hope that counts for more than a hump in the bushes."

A smile spread across Lif's face at that, and laughter rippled among their group.

S?unn walked back out of the gloom.

"Her, though, I think she would enjoy a good hump in the bushes with you. I have seen the way she looks at you."

Lif blinked rapidly. And flushed red again, glancing sideways at S?unn.

"What?" S?unn said to those looking at her as she returned.

"Ask Lif," Gunnar Prow said, and smiled. It was the first time Varg had seen him smile since he had returned without Revna.

Varg went back to cleaning his kit, tested the blade of his cleaver and slipped it back into its leather cover at his belt. He felt a prickling in his skin, the wolf in his blood stirring, and he turned to see R?kia looking at him, an unsettling intensity to her gaze, amber flickering in her eyes.

"What?" Varg said, looking around, thinking there must be some danger somewhere.

"I am not like Halja," she said.

"Huh?" Varg grunted.

"I do not prefer women to men," R?kia said.

"Oh. I see," Varg said.

"No, you do not see, No-Sense," Svik chuckled, sitting close to them.

"I thought …" Varg said, and R?kia continued to look at him with that burning intensity. "That you did not like men."

"Most of the time, that is true," R?kia said with a shrug. "Most men are idiots. Especially men like Svik. But you, Varg No-Sense." She leaned forwards and put her hand upon his, her skin rough and calloused from years of blade-work. Squeezed his hand. "I choose you."

"Choose me?"

"Yes. I choose you." She stood, pulling him up, and he rose to his feet, his heart abruptly hammering in his chest, in his head, in his throat. R?kia turned and led him away from their group, walking past Ulfrir and their captains. As they drew near Ulfrir rose.

"Where are you going?" Orlyg asked him.

"To see what I can do about finding an ally," Ulfrir said.

"Before you go," Hrung said, "I must tell you something." Ulfrir and all the others looked at him. "Elvar had a plan," he said, slowly, as if the words were sticking in his throat.

Ulfrir sat back down, and R?kia was leading Varg out of earshot, into the gloom of the trees.

"Where are we—" Varg mumbled and then R?kia was turning, pushing him hard against a tree.

"What are you—" he said but forgot the rest as R?kia's lips were close to his, her eyes dark, shining with flecks of amber and reflected snow, her breath smelling of apples and mead.

"I choose you, Varg No-Sense," she said, and her lips were on his and he was kissing her in return, her hands rising to his waist, finding his weapons belt and unbuckling it, dropping it with a thud in the snow, tugging at his breeches.

"I choose you," he whispered back to her, and then they were sinking to the ground.