by Lee Savino
I ran out, and stopped dead. Grey Men emerged from the trees on the hill above the ravine, pale and stinking as maggots A hissing sound came from them, loud enough to contend with the fire. They held spears. If they came quickly, they could avoid the fire. The spears would reach Haakon and…
“Go, lass. What are you waiting for?”
“I’m the prize the Corpse King wants, right? The Grey Men will not hurt me.”
“They will try to take you! Wait for Ulf—”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered. “I cannot obey.” Then I raised my voice and waved my hands, scrambling down the hill towards the fire. “Hey! Over here!”
The Grey Men poured from the tree line, headed in my direction. Some seemed to hesitate at the hot flames, but when one stumbled, another knocked it down and walked over it, taking its place.
“Come on,” I shouted, and coughed. The smoke was growing thick. Bending over, I ran with streaming eyes until I found what I wanted. A long branch, its end dabbed with pitch. Grabbing it, I ran through the oven hot air, and thrust the branch into the blaze. It flared immediately.
The Grey Men could try to take me. They would burn.
Coughing on smoke, I took my torch and whirled towards my enemy.
“You want me? You can have me.” Flaming torch high, I ran at the group of Grey Men. Several recoiled.
The Grey Man nearest to me lifted his spear so the end pointed skyward. I felt a rush of triumph. I was right; they would not dare kill me.
I thrust my torch at him, and confirmed my second hunch. Grey Men were corpses—old ones at that. The torch set the one before me alight.
Dry skin and bone crackled under the flame, crumbling to dust.
I screamed, and choked on the vile smoke.
The Grey Man fell, engulfed by flame. It rolled in the bush, spreading the fire to its comrades. Dead hands reached for me, and I set them all alight.
With hissing cries, the Grey Men fell under the fire.
Eyes and nose streaming, coughing, I ran back the way I came, but everywhere was fire.
“Laurel!” Ulf stood on the crest of the hill.
“Here,” I shouted, throat raw, and shied as more bushes around me burst into flame. Any Grey Men left in this forest would burn.
I only hoped Haakon would not burn with them.
Ulf raced towards me, slowing as he avoided patches of flame. Sweat rolled down his body. His scarred face was a mask, but this time I could read his expression. Fear.
The sap in a pine tree exploded and I covered my head against the raining sparks.
“Laurel,” Ulf called. “Come to me.”
“Ulf, I can’t! The flames.”
“Come to me. I won’t let you burn.”
But when I ran towards him, the heat crackled in my face, hotter than the hottest oven. I thought I could bear it, but I could not.
With a roar, he ran through the fire to me. The creature who reached me was half man, half beast. The flames tore at his furred body.
He caught me and ran back up the hill. Past the trees, not falling as the fire consumed them from within. Past the flaming remains of the Grey Men. I kept an arm over my eyes to protect them from the smoke. The breath left my lungs, my skin blistered in the heat, but he held me close.
“Are you hurt? Are you burned?”
I clung to him.
I shook my head. It hurt to speak.
All around, the flames devoured the forest.
What had I done?
“Ulf—” I choked out, my throat raw and screaming for water, “we must get Haakon—”
“Too late.”
And I realized what I done. I’d killed him. I’d killed my mate.
I dropped my arm, rolling in Ulf’s arms to look back at the red waste. The world blurred. Smoke filled my lungs.
“Laurel? Laurel! Hang on—”
I let the darkness take me.
22
Laurel
Someone was calling out to me from the darkness. I had to reach them--
I woke to cooling cloths suffusing my face.
“Ulf? Haakon—” I whimpered and thrashed, ripping at the bandages like they were chains.
“Shhh, Laurel.”
“Sister Juliet?” I recognized one of the nuns. She used to be an orphan, but had taken vows.
“Just Juliet,” she told me with a sad look. “The abbey is no more.”
I wanted to answer that her vows were still intact, but she looked shaken, so I held my tongue.
“How are you feeling?” she asked. I lay in a lodge on a soft bed, clad in a new, clean shift. My burns were bandaged and my face felt chapped, but didn’t throb too much.
“Where am I?” I croaked.
She lifted a horn of water to my lips and I drank.
“You’re at the home of the Berserkers, along with all of the captives.”
“How many are here? Did they escape the Corpse King? Where are my mates?”
Juliet hushed me, tipping the refilled cup up so I could drink.
“You’ve been asleep for a day and a night. A Berserker with a scarred face brought you in.”
“That’s Ulf,” I said, eager for news. “Is he here? Was he badly hurt?”
“Perhaps another could answer questions better than I,” she stepped back, looking so sad, I wanted to comfort her. But then I saw a familiar face poking around the tapestry lined enclosure where I lay.
“Hazel,” I cried. The tanned, lovely face split into a grin. She stepped forward, clad in a fine gown, her hair twined with flowers and braided. She wore a torc around her neck and boots trimmed with fur. Her face glowed.
She jumped up onto the bed and hugged me tight.
“Laurel! You’re alive—and well.”
“So are you,” I marveled at my friend. “I thought you were dead.”
“We thought the same of you. The Corpse King attacked many as they left the abbey, but most escaped. My mate tells me often, not much can kill a Berserker.”
I almost laughed at her imitation of a gruff warrior, remembering my own mates. Then I seized her arm. “Hazel, where are the others? Are they safe?”
“Many are. Sage and Willow have returned. Sister Juliet is watching over the young ones here. You were brought in unconscious from breathing smoke, but there are powerful healers here.”
“And my mates? Haakon and Ulf? Is there word?”
Hazel’s brow furrowed. My stomach turned.
“Please say something. Is Ulf at least here? May I speak to him?”
“I don’t know, Laurel,” Hazel grasped my hand. “Give me a moment. I will ask my mate.” She closed her eyes and got a look of intent concentration I recognized from Ulf and Haakon, when I guessed they were speaking mind to mind. The seconds crawled by as I squeezed Hazel’s hand.
Beyond the curtains surrounding my bed, young voices wafted up to the rafters, along with Sister Juliet’s.
Hazel started, and blinked.
I couldn’t stop myself from blurting, “You have a mate?”
“Yes,” she said breathlessly, flushing a little. “He wasn’t happy that I was asking him about another Berserker. I had to explain. He’s, um, protective.” The soft look in her face told me she loved it.
“Was he able to tell you…”
“Yes. Ulf carried you here, and left with a pack to find his warrior brother.”
“And?”
“That’s all my mate knows,” Hazel whispered, “I’m so sorry.”
I dashed at tears on my face. “It’s all right. It was too much to hope.”
“Keep hoping,” she said. “And wait. Berserkers are strong. It’s obvious you care for them very much.”
“They are my mates,” I said the words I’d fought for so long. It felt like something I’d known all along.
A shadow passed over my friend’s face. “Hazel? What is it?”
“I didn’t know you had bonded to anyone.”
“I… I mean, I haven’t. Ther
e’s no link into their mind. But that can take a while to form, right?”
“It can,” Hazel said slowly. “But that is not why I wondered whether or not you have a mate.”
“I do have a mate. Ulf and… Haakon.” If Haakon was still alive.
There was a touch of pity in Hazel’s face.
“Tell me,” I begged.
“You’re in the lodge for the unmated spaewives. Sister Juliet and the younger girls, none of them have been claimed. The Alphas decreed that a woman must go into heat before she can be claimed.”
“But what does that have to do with me?”
“Ulf and Haakon built a lodge for their future mate. But Ulf brought you here. I’m sorry, Laurel. I don’t think Ulf would’ve left you here, where any warrior might claim you, if he was truly your mate.”
I ran through the burning forest, dodging falling branches. The whole world was on fire. Soon it would come down on me.
“Ulf!” I screamed. “Haakon!”
“Laurel?” a faint whisper drew me through the gathering gloom. I started towards it, wading through the thick darkness like water.
“Haakon? I’m here. Tell me where you are,” I begged. The world shrunk and I crawled through it like a tunnel. “I hear you breathing. I know you live. I will find you. Stay awake, my love. Stay awake!”
I woke with a start.
“How’s she doing?” A voice beyond the curtain, muffled. Sister Juliet—or Juliet, as she insisted to be called—answered in a voice too low for me to hear.
I did not know how much time had past since Hazel left my side. It did not matter. My life, my time no longer mattered.
Haakon was missing, and thought to be dead. Ulf had left me to be claimed by another.
I rolled to my side, empty of tears. I wished to god I hadn’t set that fire. Ulf hated fire. How much more did he hate me for killing his warrior brother with one?
“Laurel?” Hazel pulled back the curtain. “There are two here who want to see you.”
The two turned out to be Sage and Willow, my old friends. Fine gowns, fur boots, flushed faces: the very image of Berserker brides. I embraced them but didn’t feign happiness.
“Oh, Laurel,” Sage stroked my hair. With her pink cheeks and flaxen hair, she looked much healthier than when I last saw her, as if she’d been eating well for weeks, not just days.
“You’re looking so well,” I murmured, unwilling to face anymore pity.
“My mates,” she said, blushing. “They like to…care me.”
Willow and Sage told me their stories while I dressed. The old Laurel wouldn’t believe their tales. So much had changed for all of us. We had changed. We weren’t the same girls in the abbey, anymore.
Sage had finished and sat brushing my hair when Juliet interrupted, looking harried. “Laurel, can you help me?”
“Of course.” I hastened to follow.
“Our captors brought us food. But—” She waved a hand at the large carcass lying next to the hearth.
“I see,” I said. “Hazel, can your mate better prepare this for us?”
“Yes, but not here. None of the Berserkers are allowed to come in here, on pain of death. The Alphas decree,” Hazel explained.
“They could’ve at least skinned it.” Willow prodded the dead game with her foot.
“This isn’t the first time we were delivered raw meat. In fact, meat is all we have had to eat. Perhaps your… mate,” Juliet’s nose flared in distaste at the word, “will find us more suitable food. We are not used to such a rich diet.”
Hazel drew herself up. “I’m sure our saviors,” she emphasized the word, “will be happy to provide whatever we need.”
“No need to fight,” Sage murmured. “We’re on the same side.”
Juliet nodded stiffly. She wore a sturdy gown much like ours, but had covered her hair with a veil as the abbey nuns did. Her eyes looked a little red. “In the meantime, what shall we eat?”
“I can make a porridge,” I told them, “If you will give me a pot and the grains.”
“Oh, Laurel makes the best porridge,” Clover, one of the young ones, spoke up. “She even puts plums in it.”
“I don’t know if we can get plums,” I said.
“The Berserkers can get anything,” Hazel said. “Though it is harder right now, with the Alphas restricting travel because of the Corpse King.”
“Who?” one of the other young girls asked.
“A king, dearest,” Juliet stepped in. “He’s at war with these… warriors.”
“We’ll explain more later,” Hazel said, raising a brow at Juliet. “They need to know at some point.”
Juliet gave a stiff nod. “Come,” she told her charges. “Let us see if the guards will let us go to the meadow to pick daisies again.”
“What is wrong with Juliet?” I asked as soon as the place was clear.
“I don’t know,” Sage frowned.
Hazel shrugged. “She is unhappy that she is here.”
“Where are the other nuns?”
“They were given a choice to come or run. Juliet was the only one who chose to stay—to watch over the younger girls and do what she could to protect them. The rest ran to save their own skin.”
“I’m glad they aren’t here,” Willow announced. “They were cruel to us.”
I shivered, remembering some of the punishments.
“They probably didn’t survive,” Sage said softly. “The Corpse King turned all the men of the village into Grey Men, and attacked the abbey. And then there was a great earthquake. The place was destroyed.” She raised her eyes to the three of us gaping at her. “Or so my mates tell me.”
“I shall ask Juliet if she is well. The Alphas won’t allow her to be mistreated,” Willow said.
“It’s too dangerous for out there, anyway,” Hazel huffed. “The Corpse King is desperate to rise to power. At least here, we are safe. No one will care for us like the Berserkers.”
I pressed my lips together. Hazel had almost been sacrificed to the Corpse King, and barely escaped when her mate rescued her. She had a different opinion of the Berserkers than the spaewives who’d been carried off in the middle of the night. Of course, Willow and Sage were also happily mated. I decided I’d talk to Juliet myself. If anything, it’d take my mind off Haakon and Ulf.
“So, where is this porridge?” I asked, looping my arms through Sage and Willow’s.
“We’ll show you,” Hazel brightened. “There’s a place here you might like to see. A sort of gift to you from the Berserkers.”
Hazel led us from the lodge, ignoring the guard left by the door until he lowered his staff in front of her.
“You cannot leave.”
“I can. My mate is waiting for me.”
“So are ours,” Willow said, though she didn’t look the Berserker in the eye. Sage played with the torc around her neck, eyes downcast.
“She is unmated,” the guard pointed at me. His words hit me like a blow. I stared back at him, until Willow grabbed my hand, whispering, “Eyes down.”
“We will escort her, and our mates will escort us. No one will get close to her. Unless you mean to…” Hazel pulled me forward, so my breasts almost touched the staff the warrior held. The guard yanked the staff up, flushing. I met his eyes boldly, and he jerked his head away, and didn’t stop us when we walked out.
“Come on,” Hazel tugged me along. I went reluctantly. For a moment I’d been distracted from my miserable thoughts of Ulf and Haakon. The guard had been a bit silly, but cute.
“No wonder there have been so many petitions to court you,” Willow muttered.
“What?” I drew my gaze away from the guard.
Sage shrugged. “The Berserkers can tell you’ve come into your heat.”
Three more guards hovered on the edge of the field where Juliet and the young ones sat making daisy chains. On this fine, warm day, they were heavily armed, and alert, as if expecting attack.
“The guards aren’t allowed t
o get too close,” Hazel told me. “And there are at least four of them present, perhaps more hidden in the woods. Morning, noon, and night. The Corpse King might never venture here, but the Alphas say we can’t be too careful.”
The home of the unmated spaewives was on a rocky ridge in an isolated part of the mountain. To reach the main paths, we had to climb around huge boulders, and make our way over a bridge stretched across a ravine.
“It’s like they’re protecting some precious treasure,” I muttered as we crossed the bridge.
Sage glanced back at me, her skirts lifted in her dainty hands. “They are.”
Two more guards waited at the bottom of the bridge, spears in hand.
Hazel waved to someone I couldn’t see—a shadow in the woods. “My mate,” she explained. “He’s escorting us today, but Willow and Sage’s mate don’t want him too close to them.”
I nodded, trying to pretend I was glad I didn’t have men so jealous of my attention. My three friends led me down a winding path, pointing out the way to the stream and their own lodges along the way. The day was fresh and fine. Between my friends and the flowers dancing breeze almost made me forget the war being raged beyond the sunny mountain. The Corpse King had routed several bands of Berserkers and the spaewives they escorted. The Alphas had patrols combing the countryside for the missing men. I still had no word whether Haakon was alive, and Ulf… well, there was a reason the guards thought I was unmated.
“Here it is!” Hazel tore up the slope ahead of us. The lodge rose from a flower-filled meadow, angled away from the forest to face a sweeping vista. Picking up my skirts, I climbed past newly hewn stumps, and followed a trail of wood chips to a large room built off the side of the lodge. The bright logs and the scent of new wood told me the place had just been built.
“Do you like it?”
I wandered through the wide space. A great stone hearth dominated the wall the room shared with the rest of the lodge. A door opened to the dark depths beyond, but Hazel didn’t venture back there, so I didn’t mention it. The room held enough to interest me. Sturdy counters lined the walls, and two large trestle tables sat in the middle of the room. Two doors and a long row of open air windows lent plenty of light.
