Winter's Fury

by A. E. Rayne

  ‘Of course.’ Branwyn rushed to get up. ‘I’ll ask Berta to heat some water for you. That sounds exactly what you need. Maybe some of your dreams will come back to you while you soak? Perhaps things will be clearer then?’

  ‘I do hope so,’ Edela sighed. She was already wandering far away again, desperately searching her memory for more clues. The note had been written in a woman’s hand; she could see that very clearly. And that hand had a very distinctive ring on it; a ring she knew. And if she could just remember who it belonged to...

  ‘And he hasn’t opened his eyes since?’ Biddy wondered, peering down at Eadmund, her eyebrows pinching tightly together; he did not look well at all. Thorgils and Jael stood beside her, and all three faces registered deep concern.

  ‘Not once, and one of us kept watch all night,’ Jael said quietly, her eyes straining to stay open.

  ‘But he’s breathing,’ Biddy said, almost to herself. ‘That’s the main thing.’

  ‘He looks as pale as snow, though,’ Thorgils murmured. ‘And the stink...’

  ‘Yes, perhaps I need to air things out a little in here,’ Biddy suggested, resisting the urge to gag. How anyone had managed to sleep in the vile stench was a miracle. Vella and Ido ran around her feet, sniffing everything; there was a lot to keep their noses occupied with this morning.

  ‘What do we do now?’ Jael wondered. ‘He still hasn’t finished the tincture. But what if it’s not even working, just slowly killing him?’

  ‘Of course it wouldn’t be killing him!’ Biddy scoffed with as much confidence as she could muster. ‘You trust Edela, don’t you? With your own life, I’m sure. She would only have prepared something she believed would save him, not hurt him. Never that.’

  Jael sighed and scratched her head. She was anxious; anxious about Eadmund, worried about Tig and Leada needing a ride, not to mention poor Fyn, who would be wondering what had happened to her. But most of all, right then, she was starving. She sat down and dove into Biddy’s basket, and Thorgils came to join her, along with the puppies, who had decided that the basket filled with food was the best smell in the room by far.

  Thorgils pushed their wet noses away and peered into the basket himself, his face troubled. ‘I’ve never seen a thing like that,’ he muttered, shaking his head. ‘What happened to Eadmund last night.’

  Biddy glanced over her shoulder at Jael, as she grabbed a broom and started sweeping. Jael didn’t say a word.

  ‘How did you know what to do?’ Thorgils continued, stuffing his mouth with a boiled egg.

  Jael chewed slowly and thoughtfully; her eyes far away. ‘My eldest brother, Stellan, had seizures like that, sometimes. Nobody knew what to do when it happened, except my grandmother. She would tell us to put him on his side, that it would keep him safe. And it always worked, and he would recover quickly.’ She stopped chewing and looked up at Thorgils. ‘One day, he didn’t come back from a walk, and my father found him in the woods, lying on his back, dead. He’d died, I suppose because he was all alone when he’d had a seizure. There’d been no one to help save him. He was only 12-years-old.’

  Biddy walked past and opened the front door, letting in a blast of fresh, icy air.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Thorgils said, glancing towards the bed. ‘That is no easy thing, I know. But thanks to your brother, you knew how to save Eadmund.’

  ‘This time, yes,’ Jael said thoughtfully. ‘But who knows what else is coming his way. Who knows what the tincture will do to him next.’

  ‘That worm Tiras has been having fun, creeping about in the snow,’ Tarak laughed loudly.

  Ivaar glared at him, motioning with his head towards Isaura, who was well within hearing distance; although with three children all talking to her at once, it was unlikely she could hear a thing, but still... ‘Have some thought in your head about where you are,’ Ivaar growled. ‘If we have private business, we can discuss it in a private place. And anything to do with him is very private indeed.’

  Isaura wandered off after the girls, who were chasing their crawling brother, and Tarak moved closer to Ivaar, who was drinking by the fire. ‘He tells me that the Brekkan bitch has been holed up in your brother’s cottage these past few nights.’

  Ivaar almost dropped his cup into the flames. ‘What?!’ That was unexpected. He had planned to seek Jael out shortly, hoping to go riding with her but now...

  ‘Mmmm...’ Tarak was triumphant, unable to contain his glee. He hated how obsessed Ivaar was with Jael, but this was surely the beginning of the end now. ‘Yes, she’s barely left the place, he said.’

  ‘Is that all?’

  ‘Well, he did mention that the big, red idiot has been there as well, much of the time.’

  Ivaar frowned, feeling the burn of anger as it surged up into his throat. Had she been playing with him? Was that possible? ‘Tell our friend to keep his ears open. I want to know what’s going on inside that cottage.’

  Tarak smiled, the look of rage on Ivaar’s face warming his heart. It seemed that the bitch’s downfall was about to pick up speed.

  Edela found him in the stables brushing Sky, the horse who finally had a name. He was talking to her softly as he ran one hand over her rich, red coat. She smiled sadly; life had been hard for him lately. If only she could promise him that it was going to get any better, but unfortunately, her dreams warned her otherwise.

  ‘Awake at last!’ Aleksander grinned when he saw her. He’d left the house early to go riding, desperate for some air that felt fresh and non-Tuuran. He hated the close, cloying feeling of the place and its people as they squirmed about miserably beneath its growing walls. ‘I thought you’d decided to sleep the day away?’

  ‘Oh, if only I could!’ Edela chuckled. ‘Imagine that? But at my age, I’d probably just end up stiff, sore, and even more crotchety. Better to be shuffling about in the freezing cold looking for you!’ She wandered over to Deya and gave her a carrot.

  Aleksander glanced around, noticing that the stable boy had left; they were alone. ‘So you’ve had a dream, haven’t you? I can tell by that crease between your eyes. Whenever you’ve been dreaming, you walk about with that big line all day.’

  ‘Do I?’ Edela had never been told that before. She laughed, relaxing her crease a little. ‘It’s hard, at my age, to keep hold of the dreams. You might not think there is much work in having them, but dreams are like clouds. They all float past you, and you have to grab hold of those things you think could be important, go after them, follow them, go deeper. Until you learn that, it all just feels like a muddle, and you can’t tell which are true visions, and which are just your fears and desires leading you astray.’ She sighed and walked over to pat Sky. ‘I cannot hold onto them as I once did. I suppose I am old.’

  ‘Well, yes, you are!’ Aleksander laughed. ‘But think of all that you have been able to find out so far. We are only here because of you, and now we know we have to get to Oss to help Jael. Don’t be hard on yourself. You are the only reason we have any idea about what’s going on.’

  Edela reached out and patted his hand, then froze. She looked up into his deep, dark eyes and she was back in her dream, seeing the hand with the ring and the note. She shivered. That golden ring, with a blue sapphire, set in a gold star; she could see it so clearly now. That beautiful ring had belonged to Fianna Lehr. And Fianna Lehr was Aleksander’s mother.

  Jael yawned as she stepped through the snow, which seemed much deeper today; walking felt harder than it normally was. Or perhaps it was just that her aching limbs were as tired as her aching eyes. But she thought of her bed and smiled; that was enough to spur her on. Biddy had sent her away for some real sleep, and as worried as she was about Eadmund, she realised that without sleep, neither she nor Thorgils would be able to keep watch over him.

  Jael sighed as she caught sight of the stables. Tig and Leada had been so neglected while she had been looking after Eadmund. She would try to take Tig riding tomorrow, but she couldn’t face asking Ivaar to ride Leada, a
nd there was no chance Thorgils could come with her. Leada would have to wait for another day.

  ‘Ahhh, there you are!’ Ivaar called as he walked towards her, smiling. ‘Perfect timing. You look all dressed for our ride!’

  Jael tried to keep her shoulders up, and her face calm as the entire contents of her body sagged. She had really led herself into a thick forest with this stupid plan of hers. She took a deep breath. ‘I was actually thinking about coming to find you,’ she said with effort, cursing herself for the stubborn creature that she was. Eadmund was not going to be strong for some time, and if she could keep Ivaar busy and away from him, even for a while, then it was worth it. ‘I may be ready to ride with you again. If you promise that you’ll only try to kiss Leada this time.’

  Ivaar came closer, wanting to see her eyes. ‘I can only try,’ he breathed softly. ‘But I can promise you, it won’t be easy.’

  Jael shuddered as she glanced into his cold eyes; something was wrong. It was the sort of shudder usually followed by an urge to grip her sword, to feel the cold comfort it provided when she felt under threat. And right now, for some reason, she felt in danger.

  ‘What is it?’ Aleksander grabbed Edela’s hand. Her face had gone completely white, her eyes blinking at him in horror as she stumbled in the hay. ‘Edela, what have you seen?’

  She closed her eyes in an effort to calm her rising panic. Aleksander loved Jael; she knew that. Aleksander would never, ever hurt Jael; she knew that. She trusted him... didn’t she?

  ‘Oh, it’s nothing, nothing,’ she mumbled, suddenly overcome with the need to sit down. ‘I just saw a vision from my dream again.’ She glanced around and lowered her voice. ‘It was about the two girls, the beheaded ones. I saw more this time. Someone collected their blood, took some of their hair.’

  Aleksander’s thick eyebrows shot up. ‘That sounds like magic.’

  ‘It does, most certainly,’ Edela agreed, although she was only half listening. The other half of her was desperately trying to think of a way to find out more information about his mother, without causing him any distress. Fianna had been one of Gisila’s closest friends. Why would she have sent those men to kill Jael, especially as they ended up killing her and her husband? It made little sense to her muddled mind.

  ‘So, we have to find out who those girls were, don’t we?’ Aleksander frowned. ‘There must be a reason you are being shown them again. As though you missed something the first time?’

  ‘Dreams can be like that,’ Edela agreed unsteadily. ‘Sometimes there are just too many pictures and not enough of me to make sense of them all. As I said, I’m getting far too old for this now.’

  Aleksander slipped Sky a piece of bread from his pocket and wrapped his arm around Edela’s shoulders. ‘I’ll take you back to Branwyn. It’s too cold to stand about in here too long. Unless you’re a horse, of course, and even then I’m sure they’d much rather be sitting by a warm fire given half a chance!’

  Edela smiled distractedly and allowed herself to be led away, her heart sinking with every wet squelch of her boots. If Fianna Lehr had conspired to have Jael killed, what did Aleksander know about it?

  They’d ridden so fast that the bitter slap of wind on her face had managed to keep her awake. As much as Jael needed sleep, she also needed to feel free from the confines of that horrible cottage, and the worry that lay cloaked around Eadmund. Although, there was the nagging problem of what was wrong with Ivaar. His mouth was tight when he smiled; his eyes were evasive and yet predatory. Something had happened, but what? Pulling on Tig’s reins, she decided to find out.

  ‘Had enough already?’ Ivaar breathed as he slowed Leada to a stop. His eyes lingered on her, but although they were still full of desire, there was no warmth in them anymore.

  ‘No, not yet, but it’s hard to talk when we’re chasing the clouds like that,’ Jael said, smiling as brightly as she could manage; it wasn’t only Ivaar who could play games, she decided. ‘Besides, I wanted to know what was wrong.’

  Ivaar blinked, his eyes shifting about uncomfortably. ‘Wrong?’

  ‘Mmmm, you’re not very good at hiding your feelings,’ Jael said. ‘Did you know that? You look ready to kill me today, rather kiss me.’

  ‘Kill you?’ Ivaar looked horrified. ‘Why do you say that?’

  ‘Well, there is some dreamer in me you know. I do have the occasional vision. I can see things more deeply than most,’ Jael almost-lied, wondering how easily she could tease the truth out of him.

  Ivaar opened and closed his mouth, surprised by that. ‘Well, I...’ He ran one hand over his cropped hair, suddenly anxious under Jael’s stare. Her bluntness had disarmed him, and now he just felt confused. ‘I know about you and Eadmund.’ His blood ran hot again just speaking his brother’s name, before it was whipped away from him on the wind. They had stopped the horses in a wide valley, and the wind raced around them with a ferocity that matched his darkening mood.

  Jael tried her best to look only puzzled, but her mind was racing, trying to quickly piece together what that actually meant. She looked at him and smiled. ‘Ahhh, so you’ve made friends with Tiras, have you?’ It was a guess, but what other explanation could there be?

  Tig hated the shriek of the wind and jiggled about restlessly under her. Jael soothed him with a pat, leaning down to murmur in his ear, giving herself a chance to think. What would Tiras have found out? Eadmund’s walls were very thin...

  ‘Well, I thought he would come in useful,’ Ivaar said carefully.

  ‘To spy on me?’ She tried her best to look hurt.

  ‘No, no, not you, in particular.’ Ivaar looked down at his reins to avoid her eyes. ‘But I’m going to be king in a place I no longer know, with loyalties I need to determine. There will be a lot of people unhappy with Eirik putting Eadmund aside. I need to know of any problems I will face before I have to face them.’

  ‘And you see me as one of those problems all of a sudden?’ Jael wondered, her hair whipping across her face. ‘Because Tiras told you I was with Eadmund?’ She was putting it all on him, making him do the work, not backing away for a moment, her eyes constantly challenging him.

  ‘Well, weren’t you?’ Ivaar demanded sharply.

  Jael nudged her stubborn horse closer to Ivaar. ‘You make me an offer of friendship, and then a few days pass, you hear a rumour, and suddenly you decide we’re enemies? I think it would be hard to be friends with someone like that, someone who is so quick to judge, who has a spy follow you.’

  Ivaar could see her point and felt cross with himself, but still... ‘You told me you loved Aleksander Lehr. That you were waiting for him. How easy is it for me to be friends with someone who lies?’

  ‘Ha! Lies?’ Jael looked cross now, although truly she was cold, wind-whipped, and desperate to end the game of words and race home to bed. ‘I was with Eadmund because Thorgils asked me to go, begged me to help him because Eadmund is a mess. He has drunk himself into such a state that he is now bedridden. So, I’ve been there, in that rancid hole, looking after someone I don’t want to be married to, while he vomits and shits all over the place, and your little spy creeps around outside! Maybe next time you should tell him to knock on the door, ask to come in and see what’s really going on, because I can promise you it is nothing like either of you have imagined!’ And with that, she turned Tig’s head, tapped her heels firmly into his flanks, and steered him for home.

  Ivaar stared after her, his mouth gaping open, the sting of her words sharp on his cheeks. That had not gone as he’d planned.

  43

  Gisila bit her tongue so hard that her mouth filled with blood. Next to her, Axl spluttered Lothar’s expensive wine all over the table, Amma choked on the tough piece of chicken she had been gnawing on, and even Gant coughed in surprise. The only person who carried on eating his meal without pause was Osbert.

  ‘I hardly think it’s that shocking!’ Lothar laughed, looking around at the startled faces. ‘I just thought it made sense t
o bring the wedding forward. Come spring, we only need to be thinking of the invasion, not of feasts and guests. Surely you agree, Gisila? Our focus must be on Hest.’

  Gisila’s tongue ached, but the pain of Lothar’s news was worse. ‘Five days? That is not much time at all.’

  ‘Well, it’s time enough for our needs. You will have plenty of dresses to choose from, I’m sure, from your time as queen... if the moths have been kind. It will be dark, so it doesn’t need to be that new anyway, does it? And as for the ceremony, we can make do with whatever we can organise in time. Surely the most important thing is that we’re married and can be together... properly.’ He gave her a look that left everybody sitting at the high table in no doubt as to why he was rushing the wedding forward.

  Lothar may have been king, but Gisila had been determined to keep him at arm’s length until they were married, so he had decided it was time to remove the remaining obstacle and finally claim her. He had dreamed about having her since the first hairs sprouted on his face; watching as Ranuf took her for his bride, all those years ago. She had always been the most beautiful, desirable woman in Brekka, and even now, he was tortured with need to claim her for his own.

  ‘But Father, what about Jael and Edela? What about Aleksander?’ Amma wondered quietly. ‘Gisila’s family will not be here.’

  ‘No, that is true and unfortunate,’ Lothar mumbled cheerfully between large gulps of wine. ‘But this is not your first marriage, and you are no longer at an age where that sort of thing matters, does it, my dear?’ he smiled, leaning towards her. ‘Besides, I already have plans for a large feast when we get back from Hest. I’m sure Eirik and all his family will be here then, ready to celebrate our victory and our union.’