by Lee Savino
I sent the ball flying deep into the knot of undead. Balefire blew right in the center of their ranks. I stood firm and faced it, my face singed with the heat but nothing else. Dust and limbs rained down on the draugr as Thorsteinn and Vik swooped in, closing in on either end and hacking down the enemy until they met in the middle and faced out again to pick off any standing undead.
“Almost done, little warrior,” Vik shouted.
And then I saw it. High above the fray, in a dark cloud, seething with fog and flashes of lightning, the shape of a tall skeleton. It couldn’t be real. The Corpse King couldn’t be here. But he’d appeared this way before, and each time, it was real enough.
“No,” I shrieked. Loading my sling, I threw. The rune stone exploded above the warrior’s heads—they dove for cover. But the balefire did not touch the dark figure.
I stumbled backwards and was swallowed by a patch of mist. And then I was not safe on my side of the boundaries. The draugr’s scent surrounded me. Draugr, everywhere. Grey faces pressing on me, bony fingers dragging me.
I cried out and kicked backwards, fumbling with a rune stone. It slipped from my fingers—
“Sorrel, no!” Vik dove and landed before me, catching the fallen rune stone. As soon as he caught it, he sent it streaking into the draugr’s ranks. Another boom and a stinking veil of charred bone covered my face and suffocated me.
“The Corpse King,” I screamed, and choked. Thorsteinn was shouting something.
Vik grabbed me and, bent double, racing from the boundary. I kept my head down, burrowing against Vik’s chest to find the leather and fur smell of him instead.
Finally, we were clear. The sun shone around us, and there was no boundary, no mist, no Corpse King apparition hovering in the air. Just a clear sky and clean air. I sucked in lungfuls, collapsed against Vik.
He held a cup to my lips, and I drank long, greedy draughts of the cold water. “Are you all right?”
“Better.” I gasped while he filled another cup.
“More,” he ordered, and I drank again. He wiped my face with a cool cloth.
“Forgive me,” I said. “I thought… I thought I saw the Corpse King. There was mist, and it surrounded me. It took me somewhere.”
“We saw. There was mist, Sorrel, but you were still with us. You ran across the boundary.”
I shook my head, exhausted. “I was confused. The last time the Corpse King appeared…” Rosalind nearly died.
“You were captured,” Vik finished for me. He knew about the first time. Not the second.
“We remember,” Thorsteinn said, his voice taut. “We never would’ve taken you to that place if we knew…”
“How it would affect me?” I scrubbed my face. “You couldn’t know. I didn’t.”
“You were taken with your friends,” Vik continued, “but you never wanted to speak of it before.”
“I didn’t like remembering. I didn’t let myself remember.” It had blurred away like a bad dream.
“It might help to speak of it,” Thorsteinn said.
I nodded. So many memories I’d locked up, but it’d done nothing to help me.
Vik rubbed my back. “Are you ready to tell us what happened?”
I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t share what happened that fateful day with Rosalind, but I could tell them what happened last fall. It was so long ago.
“We came upon the Berserkers fighting the draugr. You left me in the tree,” my voice wavered. “And ran into the fray.”
“We thought you’d be safe there,” Vik murmured.
“I was,” I covered my face with my hands. I had never told them this. “I would’ve been… if I hadn’t left.”
“What?” Thorsteinn’s growl ripped into me.
“It was my fault I was taken. I heard my friends screaming… and I couldn’t stay safe while they were taken.”
Silence. My warriors were angry with me. I might as well tell the rest.
“I ran to save them. I did not know what I would do. But after the mating bite, I felt stronger. Fast. Powerful.”
“The bond at work,” Vik muttered.
“I did not think I could save them, but I had to do what I could. I had my sling. I came upon one draugr and beat it back.” I hadn’t known what I faced. The mist was swirling thick, I only knew I was living a nightmare. “I reached my friends in time for him to appear.” I shuddered. “And then we were someplace else.” I shook my head. I knew what I described was impossible. “I woke up laying in a stone hall. My friends lay around me, asleep. Almost all of them.” One had been awake, her golden head shining in the gloom. Rosalind. “There was a… figure… in the darkness. Tall, taller than any man. Dressed in robes, but so thin.” My voice dropped to a whisper. “He was barely a skeleton. A corpse.”
“The Corpse King,” Vik growled, and I startled, remember I was telling them. “He was speaking to Rosalind. His hands reached out to touch her head and I-I had to do something. I still had my sling.”
“You attacked the Corpse King?”
“I d-didn’t mean to,” I stuttered. “I wasn’t thinking. I knew he would hurt her. I just knew. I flung a rock at his head. I ran forward and grabbed Rosalind. Suddenly we were outside, back in the forest. All of us. We roused the others and kept moving. You found us again.”
“You saved them. Your sister orphans.”
“I just did what I had to do.”
“Does Rosalind remember this?”
“I think so. She hates me though.” How else could I explain her coldness, her stinging remarks?
Thorsteinn and Vik exchanged glances.
“Sorrel, when… if Rosalind wakes, will her story damn you?”
I shut my eyes. “Yes,” I whispered. I had used my sling again. I had shot her. “Forgive me. I didn’t know what else to do.”
“You shot her for a reason. Just as you shot the Corpse King when you were taken on the journey from the abbey to our mountain.”
“Yes.” I let my head fall back with a thunk and a hand passed over my brow.
“Rest now, little warrior. You’re safe here. We will take care of everything.”
* * *
The dream played in my head with the confidence of reality. Rosalind’s bright head glowed against the shadowy figure who loomed over her. Skeletal hands reached down. I swung my sling and let the stone fly. But unlike the first time I shot the Corpse King, the missile did not harm him. It disappeared into the mist, and the menacing figure continued reaching for my friend.
The moonstone, Rosalind had told me. We must fetch it before he does. If he gets it, all is lost, for it feeds his power. And here she was, faced with the Corpse King, offering up the glowing stone.
I did not hesitate. Feeding another stone into my sling, I swung hard and fast—and hit my target—Rosalind’s golden head. She dropped to the ground. The shadow of the Corpse King hovered over her, hissing. I raced to claim the moonstone—and ran into a thick mist. The fog swallowed me whole. I could not see my arms in front of my face. My foot hit an obstacle and I stumbled and came face to face with Rosalind’s still features. She lay on the forest floor, blood leaking from her skull. The moonstone was gone. So was the Corpse King.
A squawk above my head had me searching the trees. A black bird sat on a branch above our heads and in its beak the moonstone gleamed.
“Give it back,” I said, rising with sling in hand. I did not have another stone. “Please. We must keep it safe.”
The raven ruffled its wings and disappeared. I stared at the empty branch. It wavered a little as if a bird had just launched from it, and for that, I was grateful. Otherwise I’d know I’d gone mad.
At my feet, Rosalind bled into the dirt. She’d led me all this way, tricking me into helping her find the moonstone, only to offer it to our enemy in the end. Did the Corpse King own her mind? Was she tricked?
Before I could drop to my knees and bind her head, a shout made me raise my empty sling. That was how the Berserker
s found me, useless weapon upraised, my fellow orphan and spaewife unconscious at my feet.
They bound me and brought me back to the mountain. I tried to explain about the Corpse King, moonstone, and raven, but they thought it nonsense. I did not tell them what Rosalind had done. How could I name her traitor when she had no voice to defend herself?
“Sorrel,” someone called across a great distance. “Sorrel, come back to us.” Thorsteinn and Vik. But they couldn’t want me. Even if they did, there was another figure striding towards me out of the mist, bony hands outstretched to take me—
“The corpse King, I thrashed. He is coming.”
“He’s not here,” Thorsteinn’s deep voice intoned. His fingers smoothed my cheeks. “We’re here.”
I opened my eyes. “You left me.” I lay in the dark tree lodge, two warriors outstretched on either side of me.
On my left Vik cleared his throat. “We left because we are cursed. Without a mate we will go mad.”
“I thought I was your mate.”
“We tried,” Thorsteinn said. “We claimed you. But after you were taken by the Corpse King the bond was broken, and nothing we did could revive it. You were closed to us and in time, we thought you would choose another.”
“It was easier to accept patrols on the far side of the island, than to stay here and try to make you love us. If you did not want us, we would go mad,” Vik smoothed my hair from my face and bent his until our foreheads touched.
“Forgive us, Sorrel. We did wrong. I had a woman, long ago. Hildr was a shield maiden, a woman warrior, like you,” Thorsteinn said. “She and I disagreed right before we went into battle. I wanted her to stay safe; she wanted to fight. In battle, I told her to wait for my signal. She disobeyed and ran into the enemy’s ranks herself. They cut her down before I could reach her.”
I put my hand to Thorsteinn’s cheek, and he leaned into it. “I lost my first love because I could not make her obey. And Vik’s mother left him and his father over and over.”
“We could not make her stay,” Vik murmured. “Sometimes it is easier to leave before your loved one leaves you.”
“And now,” I rasped. Vik reached behind him and handed me a cup. I drank and repeated. “Now, what will you do with me?”
“We’re not leaving. We’re never leaving you again. We swear it.”
I lay back down between them. My hand slipped to Vik and found his hand. Thorsteinn clasped the other. Perhaps we would never be mates, but we would be together.
* * *
I woke between the warriors. A heavy pelt covered my body. I slung it off. I was hot, too hot, with sweat trickling down my back.
At my side Vik muttered something. He rolled and his arm flopped around me. Another mumble, and he pulled me I close.
I wriggled around in his arms. His eyes were shut, dark lashes fanned over his tattooed cheeks. His nose was crooked at the top. His mouth, perfectly formed. I craned my neck and touched my lips to his.
His eyes opened.
“Thorsteinn,” he growled. “Wake.”
“What?” Thorsteinn grunted.
“Sorrel. She’s in heat.”
I arched my body, tugging at my jerkin. The leather was too heavy, too rough for my body. I writhed, trying to get free.
“Easy, easy,” Thorsteinn murmured at my back.
“I have to… I need…” I was almost crying, tearing at my collar. Vik rose up and helped me strip out of my clothes, a snake shedding its skin. Cool air hit my body, but it wasn’t enough. I kicked out of my breeches and lay back, panting.
“Shhh,” Thorsteinn hushed me. His hand lifted the hair from the back of my neck and pressed a kiss there. The tender touch shot through me like lightning, illuminating the storm. My hips rocked, I rolled and threw myself at him.
“Sorrel,” he mouthed, his lips moving under mine. I grabbed his braid and jerked him closer, mashing my mouth against his.
“Sorrel,” he was laughing. I rubbed my breasts against the coarse hair on his chest, arching like a cat, purring with pleasure at the perfect abrasion.
Fist in my hair, he tugged me back. “You’re in heat.”
Rolling my hips against his, I nodded. I had experienced this once before, at the abbey. I had hidden myself away and suffered. This time, I would not have to hide or suffer.
Vik cursed.
“You want this?” Thorsteinn snapped his hips upward. His hardness met the needy space between my legs and my eyes rolled back in my head. I shivered and moaned.
“Tell me,” he ordered, still gripping my hair, keeping me from moving the way I wanted. “Beg for my cock.”
“I want,” I licked my lips.
He ground his cock against me. “Say it.”
“I want you,” I hissed, digging my fingers in his shoulders, panicked that he might pull away. “I need this.”
“This?” His left hand tugged my hair as his right fished in his breeches, drawing out his perfect length. “You need my cock?”
“Yes.”
Vik was behind me, his hands spanning my waist lifting and holding me aloft long enough for Thorsteinn to guide himself inside me.
I exhaled happiness, kneading the muscles on Thorsteinn’s chest. “Ah, yes. Yes.” Lightning sizzled along my spine, awakening every inch of my body. I felt Thorsteinn from the tips of my toes to the top of my skull. My nipples hardened to points.
“Show me,” Thorsteinn commanded. “Show me how much you need me.”
I rocked forward,
“That’s it, little one. That’s the way.” He took my hips and steadied me. Vik stood beside us, gripping his own cock, his eyes hooded.
“Hold tight,” Thorsteinn said. “I will give you what you need.” His body hardened under my scrabbling fingers, his arms turning to granite as he slammed his cock into me from below. I howled and would’ve fallen if Thorsteinn hadn’t dug his fingers into my buttocks.
Vik took hold of my hair. “Suck me,” he directed his cock into my willing mouth. I tongued down his length, looking up for approval.
“Yes, that’s the way,” Vik crooned even as his hand guided me.
“This is the beginning,” Thorsteinn whispered as his fingers stroked my sides. My body tingled with his promise. “This is our claim. You belong to us, and no other.”
“Yes,” I cried as heat rolled through me, pleasure singing in its wake. My muscles tightened and my body bowed, thrumming with sensation.
“Again,” Thorsteinn said, and pulled my hips into his.
They claimed me over and over, mounting me again and again while I cried out for release. At last Thorsteinn pulled me atop his body and I rode him, too weary to speak, my body clenching around him until lightning flashed up my spine and I collapsed, and he had to roll me to the side and finish that way.
Outside the birds sung a new day.
* * *
The sun was high when the warriors and I finally left the lodge.
“Shall we spar today?” I asked, snacking on an apple. Even after a full breakfast, I was still hungry.
“Spar?” Thorsteinn ruffled my hair. “Is that what you wish? I thought we wrestled enough last night.”
I flushed and Vik stole my apple, biting into it with a wink.
“Sorrel,” Thorsteinn’s hand caught my shoulder, pulling me back just before I heard a shout. A warrior strode down the hill towards our tree home.
“Knut,” Vik straightened and greeted him. I hung back, even as Thorsteinn squeezed my shoulder reassuringly. I knew I shouldn’t look at the warrior directly, but something in the visitor’s face set warning bells inside me clanging, and I couldn’t look away.
“How goes it this morning?” Thorsteinn called.
“Thorsteinn, Vik,” Knut greeted us in a deep voice. He looked at me. I shrank behind Thorsteinn. “Have you completed your bond?”
Thorsetinn’s hand flexed on my shoulder. “Why? Do the Alphas wish to test us? It hasn’t been a moon.”
“You’ve
run out of time.” Knut looked from one warrior to the other. “Rosalind has woken up.”
6
Sorrel
The warriors bundled me in a cloak smelling of them, walked me quickly to a side of the mountain I’d never been before.
“I’ll leave you here,” Knut said as we came to the mouth of a cave. “The Alphas are waiting.”
“Come,” Thorsteinn pushed me towards the dark entrance. I shrank back, my legs turning to stone.
“Shhh, it’s all right. See?” Vik bounded inside. “It’s not a dead end. It’s a secret entrance into the mountain.”
“What are we doing here?” I asked now that Knut was gone. The past minutes, my stomach had sloshed, threatening to expel everything I’d eaten. I clung to the warriors until my knuckles were white.
“The Alphas will summon us to check our bond.” Thorsteinn said and motioned me inside. “Here,” he said to Vik, who’d found a torch by the entrance and lit it. “This is as good a place as any.”
“What are you doing?” I asked when they lifted me onto a rock and faced me. The light of the torch surrounded us with flickering shadow. Outside the small sphere of light—darkness. I swallowed.
“Sorrel, do you remember when we said the bond could break a spell?” Vik asked.
“Yes.”
“It’s time to try.” Thorsteinn said, leaning close. Open yourself, little one. Do not be afraid. I startled as his voice echoed in my mind.
“It’s all right,” Vik gathered my hands in his. “This is the way.”
“I can’t—” Where there once was a barrier, a door blocking the way, there was nothing. But there was no light either. Only darkness, and I recoiled from it. “I can’t do this.”
You can, Thorsteinn said from just beyond the door. The darkness shrank and he stepped through.
Show me what happened. Don’t speak. Show me.
