A-Viking (Betrayed by Faith Book 3)

by Paul C. Middleton

  Griffin considered this new information carefully. He was trying to figure out what it changed. It didn't seem to change anything. He thought back on to what he knew of the Greek gods. Athena was a war Goddess, but she wasn't your typical war deity. She was more about the planning, training and strategy for war. She was also the Goddess of wisdom. That meant he was descended on both sides from gods of knowledge. Well, that explained why he couldn't leave a book alone if he had time to spare.

  As he was considering all this, he lost track of what was going on between Nin and Brianna. Brianna had given the older woman a challenging look and then took her top off. Nin had stopped giggling. This man was her natural mate, but she felt something equally strong in her connection to this young woman. She didn't care that Brianna had decided she wanted to take the first crack at melting Griffin's resolve. It was obvious the younger woman still felt she competing with Nin. Nin wasn't sure she'd ever really felt she was competing against the younger woman and was happy to let her be the first of them to bed him.

  While Brianna was taking off her top, Nin made sure Griffin was distracted. So she started at his shoulder with soft kisses, and just as he seemed about to turn his head to face Brianna, Nin licked along his ear, then drew him into a kiss.

  Near the Bitterroot Mountains, Montana, March 29th.

  Agnar was ambivalent about the task that his King had given him. He did not see the point in trying to apprehend Griffin. Griffin had finally left the Order, he was no longer a threat to the Norskrinjar, but orders were orders. Until someone challenged the King successfully - someone descended from Odin - they were bound by tradition and law to follow him. Agnar didn’t even let himself think of the King’s name because he had been ordered not to. Agnar’s word, like that of most Norskrinjar, was his bond. What worried him most right now was the arrangement that his King had made with this Sisterhood. Or at least its current leader in the U.S.

  The King had only confirmed the existence of the Sisterhood recently. He felt that suborning such a hidden group into the Norskrinjar would likely go unnoticed, or at least uncondemned, by the other Conclaves. If he succeeded, it would be a boost to their numbers and power base. He had lucked out when Sara had reached out to him for assistance when she had seen an opportunity to restructure the Sisterhood more to her liking in turmoil.

  For their ally, Sara, to become the sole leader in the U.S., the Norskrinjar had to use many of its resources to capture and detain people. At least those who could claim authority equal to Sara in the Sisterhood cells, and several other individuals who were in contact with Joy. They did not want Joy to be able to inform Griffin what was going on. It was not an optimal solution, but they had blamed the disappearances on the Order.

  This waste of forces made it unlikely the remaining group of Norskrinjar could fulfill their end of the deal the King had made. They'd never been a particularly large group in the U.S. Agnar was also not sure how many of his men it would take to keep this Griffin restrained. He knew Griffin was the King's son and therefore a second generation descendant of the gods. No one on his team was closer in heritage to the gods than a Third Generation. He wasn’t sure if his team could stop Griffin, as he only had two Thirders available apart from himself.

  Beyond that, if it took enough of his resources to restrain Griffin for transport, then he would definitely default on the deal that had been made with the Sisterhood. He was sure the King's assessment of the Sisterhood's membership was incorrect.

  The Sisterhood had stayed outside the politics of the major and minor Conclaves and hid too well from the Order. They had been protecting and trying to train people to channel the planes for generations. It was a small mercy that they were abysmal at that training, having a limited understanding of how it was done. But people who didn't really know what they were doing when they channeled the planes could still be dangerous.

  If restraining and transporting Griffin made him and his followers fail their part of the deal then the Sisterhood might, in a self-destructive act of revenge, kill whomever they knew remained from his Conclave. The King had them stretched too thin in the New World. He was too focused on retaining his position in the Old World. All the Major factions tended that way.

  This leader of the Sisterhood had made a big mistake in asking the head of a major Conclave for assistance. She would end up being replaced by a man, one the King felt he could trust. Her organization would end up being subsumed by the Norskrinjar. It was how the major Conclaves worked.

  She might have retained her position if she’d approached the Keltoi, but they would not have been likely to help her gain such a superior position. Assist them to defend themselves against the Order, sure. Interfere with their internal politics, no. The minor Conclaves were more closely in contact with the Keltoi than any other major Conclave precisely because they seemed to have no ambition to take over.

  Most disturbing of all, however, was the fact they had no identification on two of his traveling companions, just names. Nin and Brianna. He did not understand who these two mysterious women might be. Nor did he have any idea what they might be capable of.

  It also seemed that Griffin respected these women. Agnar had no problem with this, but many within the Conclave would. Many of the men in the Conclave felt they were superior to women regardless of their heritage, calling themselves the Old Way. Many did not, knowing it was a fallacy that the Old Way had invented. But it could cause a split if Griffin knew he had every right to challenge the King, and he succeeded. From what the Norskrinjar had learned over the last eighty years, Griffin had been responsible for the relatively equal treatment of women in the Order. Those that held to the Old Ways wouldn’t like it.

  Agnar felt a level of disgust at the entire situation. The King should have taken Griffin from the Order, no matter the cost, more than eighty years ago. This Griffin had been raised a certain way. He had fought for what he believed was right, based on how he'd been raised. He’d done it well. Griffin had deserved to know the truth far earlier than it had been revealed to him.

  It didn’t matter. He’d sworn an oath to follow his King’s orders. His honor was in fulfilling his oath, not in preventing his ruler’s disgrace. If… no, when, the fallout of this landed on his King, his honor would be secure.

  It still left a sour taste in his mouth. At least he had gathered a team of fifteen to aid him in this task. He’d have to see who else he could shake free of other duties. He wanted the largest possible force to confront Griffin and his allies.

  Temporary Sisterhood Camp, Carajás Mountains, Paras, Brazil. March 29, 2014.

  Griffin woke the next morning more relaxed than he'd been in well... decades. He decided this was definitely something he could get used to. He hugged both Nin and Brianna closer to him, and they responded by snuggling in deeper in their sleep. It made him feel part of something different. Not something so much larger and more important than he could ever be, like the Order, had made him feel. Something smaller than that, far more intimate, and he found happiness in its importance to him. He was glad they had been pecking away his own resistance to the opportunities presented to him. He supposed it wasn't a bad thing.

  They all needed to prepare for their day, and the camp was already bustling with the sound of morning tasks. He felt a twinge of regret, but they had a job to do. It was time to get ready for the possible dangers of the day ahead, so he woke them. They insisted on a little more cuddle time, and he found no reason to object.

  Once they were up and moving around the camp, Brianna headed to get all of them breakfast while Griffin checked the weapons they would use in the next few days. All three of them hoped that their fears of a trap were unfounded.

  When he encountered Joy, the only indication she knew anything had gone on the night before between the three of them was a slight smile on her face. Griffin had wanted Brianna to stay in the camp in South America, but Nin had ganged up with her to convince him to let her come. He still wasn't happy with the situation
. After breakfast, they gathered their equipment, Nin borrowing couple of single-edged short swords and a spear. It might seem odd to take a spear, but a spear could be useful with its reach in getting through gaps in any barricades that were thrown together to block them.

  Neither he nor Nin were especially comfortable with firearms, but Joy had taken the time to teach Brianna to be more efficient. If it were a trap, Grey would know what to do. Magdalena and Joy had alerted the rest of the Sisterhood’s leadership of their suspicions. The Europeans - more correctly, their pagan contacts - said something was going on amongst the Norskringar. They weren’t sure what this meant. The only information they were receiving from their allies within the Conclaves was that there were some people unsettled by something. The main Conclaves were all relatively skilled at keeping dissent internal. There was nothing like open disclosure. All these groups had similar opinions on the general populace finding out about the Godsborn. Although the Order playbook on that long-held opinion may have changed with their new direction.

  Considering the situation with the local Sisterhood leadership’s unease towards them, they had not given the North American Sisterhood the location that Nin had imprinted on. Where they were to meet their allies was the better part of a mile away from where they arrived. They also decided not to give warning to these allies due to the suspicious nature of what was going on.

  The walk would be a nice warm-up for them, whether it was a simple stop for this meeting with the Sisterhood or not, they were still carrying the equipment they needed. If they had to rest and camp before they assaulted the villa, they could. They had prepared in case they needed time to recover from overcoming a trap, and they had to assault it by themselves. Not a prime situation.

  When they arrived at the site they'd arranged to meet the U.S. representatives, no-one had arrived yet. This was unexpected as they had given Sara, the only Sisterhood leader they were still in contact with, an hour’s notice they were coming. Brianna and Nin insisted on taking up hidden positions, blending in with the crowd at the roadside diner. It was unlikely the final meeting would take place here. It was also unlikely that any shenanigans would go down here. Meeting in public was for the best, as it would give them the opportunity to feel out if whomever they were meeting had ill intent.

  Griffin had reluctantly agreed to let Joy do the talking, as she had at least met Sara. She hadn't told the others, but this North American leader was not someone she had any trust in. Sara was flighty and self-absorbed. Maybe this entire situation was a power-play by Sara backed by another group.

  Sara arrived fifteen minutes later, just as Griffin and Joy were finishing their first cup of coffee. With her was a tall, blonde haired, beefy guy that neither Griffin nor she recognized. There was an aura of competence and controlled aggression about the man.

  He looked absolutely ridiculous next to Sara. His massive six-foot-three frame dwarfed her tiny, barely five-foot, petite body. Like Griffin, he let Sara do all the talking in the diner. He wasn't even introduced. He did, however, send a message from his phone to someone. It seemed to Griffin that this strange man was the center of whatever trap was about to be sprung.

  “Why have you brought this down on us?” Sara asked Joy, cutting straight to the point in the tone a superior would address a junior with. Joy grimaced internally at this. Sara always thought more highly of herself than those around her, and she seemed to have a need for the validation.

  They were equals, sort of. Although Sara was responsible for more people, that was solely because leaders in the Sisterhood were responsible for areas of a similar geographical size, not population base. There was only so much travel they could do to see the people they were responsible for. They avoided phone, mail, and internet communication if possible.

  “I brought nothing down on us. You know the Order’s been moving with more and more resources against anyone with powers. At least if they don’t have some other way to control them. We all knew that. When they killed a pregnant woman in my region, they crossed a line that even their former champion,” she twitched her hand to indicate Griffin, “wouldn’t have crossed.”

  “Oh, and what convinced this ‘Paragon of Virtue’ to abandon the Order then? Hiding from him has been one of the greater challenges for the Sisterhood!” Sara said with a mixture of rage and sarcasm.

  “His brother convinced him, that’s who, or as you put it what. You know how orphans are raised in the Order. We all do. How can we fault him for acting based on his beliefs? He didn’t know the whole truth. Now he does. Besides, I know from personal experience he didn’t target the Godsborn out of a belief they were evil per se. He also fought vampires and werewolves. He thought he was protecting humanity, and once he discovered the truth about what the Order calls Demonspawn, he left the Order. Without his knowledge of the Order, we wouldn't already have three successes against them. When he found out what was going on with the Order’s new direction, he felt there was no choice but to act.”

  "So now you've let him drag us into a conflict we are unlikely to win. The Sisterhood is too widely disbursed to have a chance against the organization of the Order," Sara said. Although her tone and face didn't show it, you could feel the sneer in her voice.

  Joy shrugged it off. They had more things to worry about than this woman's ego. "We already discussed this, Sara. You agreed to review our successes and decide then whether to help or not. Since it seems you decided not to help, we'll be leaving." She nodded to Griffin and they both turned to the door. Sara raised her hand, forestalling them.

  "I didn't say I wouldn't help. I want both of you to know I'm not happy about this situation, but it's a situation we're in." She scowled and said in a very unhappy tone. "I don't like that you took it upon yourself to put the entire Sisterhood at odds with the Order. Neither did most of the senior sisters that have disappeared since this all started. As far as I'm concerned, you're to blame for that. We haven't had so many members disappear in the history of our organization. I have already contacted some of the senior sisters in Europe. Several of them will travel to America shortly, and we will convene to judge your actions."

  Joy shrugged and responded, "We were already at risk. I told you about the slaughter of an entire family that were members, at the Order's hands. In placing the blame for this whole situation, you are ignoring the fact I was forced to act." She turned to Griffin. "It looks like we'll be better off working on our own. It's a shame, but obviously, that's how the Sisterhood in the U.S. has played it. I will not be judged by them for trying to protect people in my area and attempting to give the entire Sisterhood some breathing room."

  Both Joy and Griffin already knew the leaders from Europe were coming, not to judge Joy's actions, but to investigate how so many leaders had disappeared without actual reports of Order activity. Sara raised her hand again. "If this attack is successful, I won't actively condemn you. I won't support you either, but at least you'll have a neutral in the proceedings."

  Joy and Griffin glanced at each other. They'd made Sara feel like she was in control of the situation. It was now Griffin's turn to speak. "Tell us where to meet those you've gathered then. I want to assess their skill before I allow them to join the assault. Amateurs will just increase our casualties." Sara apparently thought her plan was moving along smoothly.

  "We'll take you to them," she said. Although she kept her tone and face steady, she didn't manage to keep the smile of victory out of her eyes. Griffin nodded, and they headed for the door. "I hope you have room for our companions," he said as Brianna and Nin rose from the table near the door. A flicker of concern flashed over Sara's face, and her male companion stiffened slightly. Sara recovered and answered with a curt nod. She took them to a nearby SUV, and they all piled in. It was a tight fit, but they were shortly on the way to what was now, obviously, a trap.

  While they were driving, Griffin studied the taciturn man. He was tense, apparently not sure whether they thought this was a trap. Sara was relaxed, confi
dent that her ploy had worked. When they arrived at their destination, things would get interesting.

  Middle of Nowhere, Montana, USA, March 29th

  They took half an hour to travel to where Sara and her mysterious companion were telling them the assembly point was. It amused Griffin slightly in that it was in almost precisely the wrong direction of travel for the Villa. They exited the vehicle in a quiet campsite on the edge of Federal land.

  There was no-one visible when they arrived. There were a couple of vehicles parked around the camp site. None of their occupants or owners were visible. Griffin decided that now would be a good time to introduce himself to whomever, or whatever, the man was. After they'd all exited the SUV and stretched after the cramped confines of the vehicle, he walked up to the tall man. Holding out his hand, Griffin said, "I'm Griffin, who might you be?"

  The man looked at the hand, contemplating something for a moment. And he looked at Griffin's face, shook the hand, and replied, "My name is Agnar. It is... interesting to meet you."

  Looking around the site, seeing that there was no-one there, Griffin took his weapons out and checked their condition. Agnar looked like he was about to object to Griffin's actions, but thought better of it. Any objection would simply confirm that this was a trap for Griffin and Joy if they already suspected. Griffin took a few practice swings with his weapons. Then he went through several training drills to loosen his muscles.

  After Griffin had warmed up, he turned to Agnar and said, "What are you doing? You need to warm up. Since none of the others are here yet, I figure I'll start my testing with you." Agnar blinked and shook himself slightly, then turned to the boot of the vehicle and removed his axe and buckler. Following Griffin's example, he went through a basic drill with his weapons.

  Once Agnar had gone through several iterations of his arms drill, it was evident to Griffin that he was Norskrinjar, not Order or any other group he had yet encountered. His drill was identical to Griffin's brother Einar's. Griffin considered his options. He knew Einar was afraid of what their father might do to him or Griffin.