CHAPTER NINETY-TWO VARG

CHAPTER NINETY-TWO

VARG

V arg set a stone from the stream upon Glornir's barrow and stood back, Vol stepping forwards to put the last one in place. The Bloodsworn stood around the three barrows laid over Thorkel, Glornir and Spert all of them silent, lost in their own thoughts, their own memories. Slowly people walked away, Varg hearing the sound of a fire pit being scraped, brush and deadwood gathered, a fire kindled.

He was thinking about the first time he had seen Glornir, standing in the courtyard of Jarl Logur's hall as he was about to fight a duel with Einar Half-Troll. That was when R?kia had named him No-Sense.

Much has changed since then. The world has changed since then.

"Come, No-Sense," R?kia said to him.

Not everything, though , he smiled. R?kia is still telling me what to do. He remembered his first sparring session with her, how she had beaten him bruised and bloody.

"What?" she said to his smile.

"Just remembering how I hated you," he said. "For the pain you gave me on my first day with the Bloodsworn."

She grinned, as big a smile as he had ever seen on her face.

"Ah, but I enjoyed that," she said.

"No-Sense," Svik called out, "some ale and cheese?"

Varg walked to the fire pit and sat beside Svik, took the offered cheese and cup of ale. They were all spread around the courtyard, eating, drinking, talking. Orka was sitting on the steps to her old hall, and Breca was showing Refna Strong-Hands the beehive.

"Strange," Vol said, looking at the new buds and leaves in the woodland beyond the steading's walls, "how so much has changed. So much loss, so much grief. Gods have fallen, and yet the world goes on the same."

"Aye," Edel said. "But for us the world has changed. We no longer have to hide what we are, no longer have to live in fear of the iron thrall-collar." She blew out a long breath. "I still can hardly believe it."

"To Elvar Chainbreaker," Svik said, raising a horn of mead.

"Elvar Chainbreaker," they all said, and drank in her honour.

"What now, then?" Halja Flat-Nose said.

"There are things to be done, to be sure," Gunnar said. "Rurik and the survivors of his fleet are still riding around Vigrie, for one."

"And there is Rotta to hunt, the nieing whore-son," Edel said, sitting with her hound and feeding it chunks of salted cod. Varg had thought the rat-god was dead for sure, after being dropped from the sky by Grok and Kló, but after Lik-Rifa's death Ulfrir had gone in search of his body and found that it was gone.

"We could do with building a new drakkar and earning some silver," R?kia said.

"Ulfrir will pay us the silver Elvar promised," Vol said.

"I know that, but …" R?kia said.

"She likes the raiding," Svik said.

R?kia shrugged, not disagreeing.

"The Bloodsworn need a chief," Sulich said. He looked to Vol.

"I know," she said, heaving a sigh.

"You?" Sulich said to her.

"Me! No," Vol said. "My heart and soul are bruised and battered. You are all closer than kin, but my head, it is a fog. I am not strong enough up here to be chief." She tapped her forehead, and then she looked to Orka.

"No," Orka said. Then smiled, something Varg had not seen touch her face before. "I tried that once," Orka said. " It did not work out so well."

"How about Svik?" another of the Bloodsworn said. "He is a fine warrior, and he is fox-cunning."

"Svik!" R?kia laughed. "Every job we took on would be paid for with cheese ."

Svik gave a mock-offended twist of his face, then smiled.

"Probably true, to be fair," he said.

Varg cleared his throat. "I have been thinking," he said.

"Oh no," a chorus of voices rang out, chuckles rippling around the Bloodsworn.

"I have been thinking," Varg repeated with a smile, "that as much as we need a chief, we also need a home."

"A home?" Gunnar Prow said. "Our drakkar is our home."

"Aye, well, it was," Varg agreed. "But I have been thinking about why Orka and Thorkel left. No offence, Skullsplitter," he said to Orka's flat look.

"None taken," Orka said.

"They left to raise a child. To live in peace. That will come to us all, most likely, if we live that long."

"Do you hear that, R?kia," Svik said, others chuckling. "He is making plans for you already."

"I make the plans," she said, looked at Varg. "You want a wolf-cub child?" she asked him.

He stuttered a few half-words. "One day," he managed to get out.

R?kia shrugged. "As do I," she said.

"And I have been thinking about Einar and how he wanted to look after half the Tainted children in Vigrie," Varg continued quickly. "Breca is part of us, and Refna and the others", he waved a hand at them. "Growing up on a drakkar is a hard life. And what about when we are old and slow and stiff, and would prefer to sit around the hearth-fire and listen to skáld-songs rather than be in them?" He looked around at them all, saw they were thinking about his words. "I think we need a steading of our own. Where we can live our lives, those who wish to go raiding can, those who wish to raise their children in peace, can."

"Peace," Taras echoed. "Peace sounds good to Taras."

Iva patted his knee.

"To me, too," she said.

"Yes, peace for those too old, too joint-stiff or battle-weary to live the raiding life. If we had a home they would have a warm fire and young arms to protect them," Varg said. "This is Vigrie, after all."

There were heyas and hooms of agreement.

"I agree," Vol said.

"This is a rare day indeed," Svik said, "a sensible idea from No-Sense." More laughter rippled around the courtyard. They talked about the idea some more, passing it around them like a jug of mead, tasting it. In the end, all agreed.

"Where, then?" Halja said.

"How about here?" Vol said, eyes drawn to the new barrow raised over Glornir's body. She looked around the rest of the steading. "It is a good spot. Much of the land has been cleared, and foundations are here. We are high, have a view for miles. It would be hard for any enemy to take this steading by surprise. There is timber to build with, and to craft a new drakkar , and there is a fjord at the bottom of the hill for us to sail the whale road."

"And meadows for horses not too far from here," Sulich said.

"And a stream for Gand to swim in," Vol said, patting the serpent whip at her hip. She looked to Orka. "How would you feel about that, Orka Skullsplitter? Would it be too painful for you to stay here?"

Orka looked from Vol to Thorkel's barrow, to Breca sitting with Refna by the stream where Spert had lived.

"I think it is a gold-browed idea," she said.