Yet far and wide the rocky beach was barren.
His harsh breath met the icy air in foggy puffs as he spun again, convinced he was having some sort of episode. It wouldn’t be the first time.
“Heidrek!” he roared. If anyone could hear him, it would be his brother. He had been right next to him, and they were closer than most. When he didn’t respond, he said his name again but telepathically.
No response.
“Loki’s Hel!” he roared and started racing up the shore only to trip over a bloody body that suddenly appeared. He stumbled and regained his balance, his eyes wide on the carnage around him. Twisted corpses. Gutted people. Nothing he hadn’t seen before.
Until his eyes locked on Sigrunn.
His wife.
Mutilated.
He stumbled toward her only to drop to one knee, stunned, as he stared at the multiple weapons protruding from her. Then his eyes drifted to the body nearby. His sister. Freydis. Just as grievously wounded.
Somewhere in the distance, he heard Bjorn cry out to Heidrek. His brother had wounded himself and was trying to bait the enemy. But where had he been before? Where had he been when this happened to their kin?
A rush of anger blew through him.
Where had he, himself, been?
He stumbled the rest of the way and pulled Sigrunn into his arms. Perhaps there was still life in her. But no. She was gone. Then he went to Freydis and did the same. Held her. Hoped. Yet it was far too late.
“Come, Cousin,” Tait roared as he grabbed him around his chest and yanked him toward the water, toward their ship.
“No,” Matthew roared in denial, unwilling to leave his wife and sister only to bolt upright. He blinked several times, still trying to catch his breath as the nightmare faded.
“Is rest always so fitful for you then, Uncle?” Sven murmured.
His nephew was sitting near the entrance, his eyes on the sun as it sank into the ocean. Honestly, he was surprised he slept at all. He rarely did lately, especially when traveling. As he pulled on his boots, Matthew didn’t answer Sven’s question but asked one of his own. “Did you get any rest?”
“Some.” Sven shrugged a shoulder. “I do not need much.”
He continued eying the boy as he took a deep swig of water. Sven was as twisted up inside as he was, yet he suspected their reasons were different.
“We should travel soon,” Matthew said.
“Yes,” Sven agreed.
After that, they again fell into an easy silence. It wasn’t all that unusual for them. At least not since the raid. The day that would forever haunt him. Before that, they talked far more. At least Matthew thought they might have. It was hard to know now. Until he met Lauren and they started talking about trees, he had forgotten a time existed when he liked to chat. Smile. Laugh.
Though it was too far out for the human eye to see, a storm was brewing in the north as they started walking. One that would limit their travel time. But worse than that, they would soon be in enemy territory. Nonetheless, Matthew knew this land well. Like Bjorn, he once spent hours tracking and mapping all of these mountains and forests, enemy or not. There was no greater peace to be found than in the highlands and woodlands.
“Hunt as you travel, Sven,” Matthew said. “Our window to seek shelter will be small once the storm arrives.”
Sven nodded. He knew. And like Matthew, he understood they would be facing colder conditions and more inclement weather the further north they went. More provisions would be necessary.
They walked for several hours, their eyes on the horizon and their dragon senses alert. Except for a few travelers that never knew they were there, all was quiet. Eventually, the storm drew close enough that shelter would soon be needed.
“Come.” Matthew headed down a path. “We must seek a bear.”
To seek a bear did not mean they meant to kill one. Rather, borrow from it. It was something only Heidrek and Matthew were able to do. They never knew why until recently when they learned his brother’s spirit guide was a bear. They still weren’t entirely sure why Matthew possessed the same gift. Likely because they were brothers.
Sven followed him without comment for several minutes before his words entered Matthew’s mind. “I have heard of this thing you and Uncle Heidrek can do and look forward to seeing it. Do you need anything of me?”
“Only that you remain silent,” Mathew replied. “Unseen and unheard. And it goes without saying, downwind.”
“Of course, Uncle.”
Nothing more was said as Matthew continued tracking. It wasn’t long before he spotted what he was looking for. A healthy female bear. They were just on the cusp of hibernation season so her size was substantial and her coat rich. She was drinking at a stream, her cave not all that far off.
He crouched and urged Sven to do the same.
“Stay here,” he said to Sven as he removed his fur cloak, every last weapon, then headed her way.
This was the first time he had done this since he was hit by the dart and his dragon was repressed. He could only hope it still worked. His approach was measured, careful, very slow. The moment her eyes met his, he slowed even more.
It was important she didn’t feel threatened.
She remained perfectly still as their gazes held and he branched out his magic. As it had when he did this before, the world shifted around him. It was very slight. Almost as if it shined a little brighter, especially around her. Colors were crisper, more vibrant, even at night.
Several feet from her, he sank to his knees and lowered his body as much as he could while still keeping eye contact. By doing this, he maintained their connection but at the same time showed her respect and submission.
If she wished to take his life, she could.
“Hello, Great One.” He kept his words soft, confident they would translate. “I travel north to find my cub. I ask for your guidance, warmth, and protection on my journey.” He whispered a chant and filled the stream at her feet with fish. “In exchange, I offer you nourishment.”
Unknown to most, much like the gods, certain animals could grant boons to those they found favor with so long as something was given in return. Now he could only hope she chose the fish over him for nourishment.
The bear continued to eye him as the wind increased and the trees cracked and groaned. Snow fell in heavy, slow drifts, almost as if suspended in time. It was as though he had crossed into another reality. One in which time seemed to slow, and he and the animals understood one another.
Yet this time he wasn’t so sure.
Matthew could only hope Sven obeyed him when the bear rushed forward. He lowered his body even more, kept his breathing even and never lost eye contact even when she stopped a few short feet away.
She was upset.
Steam poured off her as her temper increased.
Then it happened. He lost eye contact when she stood up and released a mighty roar. Something was wrong. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Even so, he remained perfectly still and repeated his previous request. He continued repeating it as she crashed down over him and lowered. Not enough to put her weight on him but close.
She was unhappy and wanted him to know it.
What would she do next? Was this the end of him? Because even if he had weapons, he wouldn’t use them. Not on her. Not on any living creature he summoned like this. It would be a cruelty upon their spirit, and they didn’t deserve that. So he worked to settle his thundering heart and embraced peace. Acceptance. He focused on thoughts of his son. He prayed to the gods they would lend Håkon protection where his own father could not.
Because surely one of the gods must hear him in this odd place.
This place of in-betweens where the spirits of humans and animals communicated.
When a low growl sounded, he thought, at first, it was her. The bear ready to end him. Or maybe even one of the gods. Soon enough, he learned it was neither when he turned his head ever-so-slightly and saw the last thing he ex
pected.
A white wolf with blazing blue eyes.
Teeth bared, it continued growling softly at the bear as it circled them. He had never seen a wolf behave like this without a pack to back it up. What’s more, he never saw a bear do what she did next. It left Matthew and engaged the wolf. Not in battle. Not yet. No, they just circled one another and growled.
At first, he didn’t understand what was happening until he heard a soft whimper from the shadows behind him. That’s when he realized the wolf wasn’t protecting him but someone else altogether. His eyes narrowed on Sven. More so, who he held.
Emily.
What the Hel was she doing here?
Soon enough, things only grew worse when he spied Shannon lying beside them. His eyes narrowed further. Why did she appear so white? Despite how hard he tried to keep it under control, his heart began to thud heavily again. Was she dead?
His eyes whipped back to the animals when the bear reared up, and the wolf’s hackles stood on end. More than that, its eyes grew even brighter. That’s when he realized. Somehow he knew. This was Sven’s wolf. Better yet, Emily’s. His eyes swung back to his nephew only to find his eyes firmly locked on the wolf’s.
What happened next surprised him even more.
The bear released a mighty roar, landed on all fours and finally gave Matthew what he had asked for. Actually, more than he had asked for. She shook hard, and in this other place that they were, she shed. Not just two, but four thick warm, ready-to-wear pelts. After she was done shaking, still as covered in fur as ever, she nodded at Matthew then lumbered back to the stream where she proceeded to feast.
By the time his eyes returned to the wolf, it was gone.
Then, just as quickly, the night returned to normal.
Gone were his mystical, strange surroundings.
Matthew quickly strapped on his weapons, put on his cloak, wrapped Shannon in one of the furs, scooped up all but one and started through the forest. Sven wrapped Emily in the spare fur and followed. The bear’s cave connected to several other ones she couldn’t access, so Matthew knew where to take them.
By the time they settled, just off the ocean, the storm had arrived.
In little time, a fire was lit, the few rabbits they had hunted along the way were cooking and Shannon and Emily were resting. But why were they here? How? Samantha hadn’t helped them travel back in time. Had she? No, if she had, she would have let them know.
Either way, it didn’t matter because they were safe. At least he thought so at first. When he glanced back, he realized how wrong he might be.
Shannon’s eyes were wide open and focused on him.
More than that, they were blazing blue.
Just like the wolf’s.
Chapter Three
SHANNON SHUDDERED AND tried to remain calm. One second she was in her garage in Maine, the next somewhere far different. She and Emily were in her daughter’s new boat as it made its way through soupy, brackish water. A river of some sort that was thick on either side with warped, twisting trees. The air was cold and the sky non-existent. Yet things were brighter here. Colors more intense.
“Mama,” Emily whispered, her eyes wide and terrified. “Am I dreaming?”
Shannon put a finger to her lips, shook her head then pulled Emily onto her lap. “It’s all right,” she whispered in her ear. “We just need to be really quiet right now, okay?”
Emily nodded and cuddled closer as Shannon tried to figure out what had happened. One second she had been calling on the land of the dead, the next, this. And this was not what was supposed to happen at all.
“Who dares cross into my world?” came a whisper on the wind. “Who dares comes uninvited?”
Where the hell had they ended up? Shannon worked to still her thundering heart, so Emily didn’t grow too upset. Should she respond or remain silent? It was always hard to know how the dead would react. Would they consider a response respectful or arrogant? Because if nothing else was true, she was in their territory. Not the other way around.
“Do you choose to ignore me then, dragon?”
So this wasn’t just the dead she was dealing with but something that knew what she was. Which meant it was likely connected with the Sigdirs. Shannon squeezed her eyes shut and focused on remaining calm before she opened them and kept her voice level.
“My daughter and I mean you no harm,” she said. “We are only trying to find our family…the Sigdir clan.”
“You lie already,” came the whisper on the wind. “They are not your family. You belong to Bjark, do you not?”
Shannon frowned. Whoever this was knew about the first three dragon lineages. Because she and her sisters descended from Bjark, one of the first three dragons. In truth, they weren’t related to the Sigdirs at all.
She could deny everything at this point but felt bone deep that would be unwise.
“Yes, we descend from Bjark,” Shannon said. “Destined, it seems, to end up with the Sigdirs.”
When Emily stirred, she knew her daughter was processing that. Was she happy or upset? Happy about confirmation she was a dragon for sure. As it turned out, she was reacting to something else because she whispered, “Look at the big wolf, Mama. Is that what’s talking to us?”
Her eyes widened as a huge white wolf with blue eyes stalked through the forest, keeping pace with their boat. Shannon glanced at the sail as the wind caught it and they moved a little faster. Like the wolf, it was white with a blazing emblem on it the same color as the wolf’s eyes. She recognized the Nordic symbol. A ‘Y’ with a line between the ‘V’ part of the letter. The Laben-rune. The life rune. Better than the Toten-rune she supposed. That was the same symbol but flipped over. It symbolized death.
Her eyes returned to the wolf.
“I don’t know if it’s the wolf speaking, sweetheart,” she whispered.
“So you think to just pass through,” came the strange whisper again before the sail filled even more and they started moving faster. “I do not take kindly to strangers passing through my world without permission.”
This time, the voice was clearly feminine.
Seconds later a shadowy figure appeared at the front of the boat with its back to them. It slowly took the shape of a woman, her skirts blowing in the wind like ink curling and twisting into a glass of water. Weightless, almost.
“We never meant to be here,” Shannon said. “Please let us go.”
This is what she got for not heeding her mother’s warning.
“You never meant to be here,” the shadowy woman echoed. “Though you summoned the dead.”
“I did,” Shannon admitted. “But I never meant for my daughter to be involved. Please let her go. She shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither should you, dragon,” the woman roared and turned her head.
Emily whimpered, and Shannon did her best not to shy away in fear. While the woman’s features were beautiful, there was a crippling power in her eyes that made you feel diminished. Not worthy.
“I am curious,” the woman continued as she cocked her head and eyed the sail “You have been marked by the dead with life.” Her eyes returned to Shannon. “That can only be done if you have been here before. And only if there is something powerful here protecting you.”
A chill shot through her at what sounded like an accusation. “I have no idea who that might be.” She held Emily tighter. “Again, please let my daughter go. Let her return home.”
“Home,” the woman whispered. “Now we both know that is the last place she should be.”
What did she mean by that? She might be frightened for her daughter, but she had to know who she was dealing with. What spirit this was. “Who are you?”
A small smile ghosted the woman’s face before she seemed to sense something and looked at the wolf still keeping pace. A moment later, her gaze returned to Shannon. “You can tell Matthew Sigdir that I have been watching him. Waiting. That soon enough he will be of my world. He will be of Helheim.”
> For a split second, she could have sworn she felt Matthew’s presence. More than that, she got the feeling he could sense her too.
“I swore I just saw Sven by the wolf,” Emily whispered. “It’s so good to see him again.”
Suddenly, the wolf growled, and its hackles rose.
Shannon glanced at it only to get caught in its stare. The next thing she knew, it almost felt like she peered at the world through its eyes. When she did, she saw a bear. Then her daughter was no longer in her arms but in Sven’s.
Seconds later, she was looking directly at Matthew.
“Shannon?” He gripped her shoulders. “Come back to us. Do not stay where you are.”
She blinked and tried to speak but could not. The air was too sparse. Nearly unbreathable. He cupped the back of her neck and pulled her close. “Feel my heart. My warmth. And return to us. Return to Emily.”
Emily? She tried to wrap her arms around her as if they were still on the boat but of course, they weren’t. Instead, she was holding onto Matthew. Confused, she blinked a few times as the world shifted, colors faded and things started to return to normal.
“Emily?” she croaked as she became more and more lucid.
“She’s here,” Matthew said softly. “She is safe. Resting.”
Shannon pushed away and looked around, trying not to panic. As promised, Emily was close and sleeping beneath a heavy fur.
“Emily,” she whispered. She was careful not to wake her as she looked her over and made sure she wasn’t harmed. She seemed safe and resting well.
They were in some sort of torchlit cave. Wind howled as a fire crackled nearby. As far as she could tell only Matthew and Sven were here. She sat down beside them and kept her voice soft so she wouldn’t wake Emily. “Where are we? How did we get here?”
Sven handed her an animal skin. “First, drink and calm your spirits, then we will tell you what we know.”
She nodded, fine with the idea of a calmer spirit. After a quick swig that had her coughing and her eyes stinging, she murmured thanks to Matthew when he put a fur around her shoulders. He nodded in return, his expression grim as he sat again. Yet even with a dour look on his face, there was no mistaking how handsome he was. With lips made for sin, thick hair that only seemed to be growing darker and startling emerald green eyes rimmed with light green, she found his good looks almost unsettling.
Fury of a Viking (The MacLomain Series: Viking Ancestors' Kin Book 4) Page 4
