‘Fight dirty like that again and I’ll beat you to a pulp!’ he hissed.
Astrid wrinkled her nose at the stink of ale on his breath, but her eyes remained fixed on his. For a brief moment his grey eyes reminded her of Arnbjörg.
‘You are a Goðgá, a damned Brojóta burðr, and if you do that again I will leave! You can let the old fool teach you how to fight.’
‘I’m sorry!’ Astrid repeated.
Skad stood quickly as Dag walked into the house, a bundle of fresh firewood in his hands.
‘Everything ok?’ he asked, flashing the pair a suspicious glance.
‘Everything is fine,’ Astrid lied.
* * *
Astrid held her blanket around her and looked up at the light the moon had left on the slanted ceiling as it shone through the hole she had created in the opposite side of the roof. She had made a little thatch overhang to protect the hole now, and Ragi had even made her a small door which could fit over it with a lock. She had fitted it a few days ago.
Of course, Dag hadn’t noticed the hole. The old warlock tended to be completely oblivious to things such as that, and rarely ventured into her room. A fact Astrid greatly appreciated.
Astrid reached up and played with the wind catcher she had made earlier that week. It consisted of brightly coloured feathers, a few eggshells and small pieces of beaten copper she had scrounged from Ragi. It wasn’t even close to the one that had hung in her old room, but it was close enough.
On the wall at the end of her room she had sketched out the final drawing of her parents. The dozens of trial drawings were still scribbled onto her floor, most of them smudged now. Astrid had not bothered to clean them away. The eyes she had painted with some of Dag’s brightly coloured inks that she had borrowed when he wasn’t looking.
Downstairs she could hear Dag talking with Skad, both of them forgetting for the millionth time that she had her mother’s hearing. She pulled the blanket over her ears so as not to hear them, determined to ignore them, but she sat up quickly upon hearing her name.
‘You should stop being so hard on Astrid,’ Dag said, his tone more suggestion than command. Skad instantly took offence that the old warlock would question his training methods.
‘I train students how I see fit. I’ve always trained them this way. If she’s too weak, I have many students in Bjargtre I can teach instead.’
‘I’m just saying she’s a child.’
‘So? She’d better get used to it. If she ever leaves, you won’t be there to mollycoddle her. She’ll have to protect herself or die. My money is on the latter.’
‘Don’t even joke about that!’ Dag said quickly.
‘I wasn’t joking. How do you think people are going to react when they see her? She’s a half-blood. A royal half-blood at that, and she’ll just draw more attention to herself dragging some stupid weapons around.’
‘Astrid is never leaving.’
Astrid felt her heart drop as Dag said the words. She was shocked and dismayed by them.
‘She’s staying here with me, where I can protect her.’
‘Then what’s the bloody point of me teaching her if you’re going to be around? Am I just her cheap entertainment?’
‘She wanted to learn how to fight.’
‘Then she’s smarter than you. At least she knows she’ll be fighting for most of her life. The child will always be an outsider.’
Astrid closed her eyes and pressed her nose into her pillow. She inhaled the smell of jasmine and curled up into a ball, pulling the blanket around her like a nest. Even as sleep finally crept over her, she couldn’t stop thinking over what she had just heard. She played the two possibilities over and over in her mind.
If Dag made her stay she would be trapped. Stuck in this forest that seemed separate from normal time, broken away from the word, and in a way, never growing.
If she did leave, what would she find? A world she could escape to, or another nightmare? An endless circle of hate for being the product of two people who had loved each other?
‘I will always be an outsider,’ Astrid whispered to herself.
Fireflies
With a loud howl, Jarl was ripped from his sleep. The sound tore through him like a knife and he jumped to his feet, sword drawn. Skad did the same. Knud sat up and looked over at Jarl, frightened. Halvard scanned the area from where he had been taking watch by the smouldering fire. He readied an axe in his hand.
The sun hadn’t risen, and the sky started to turn from dark blue to purple, while the horizon turned to shades of pink and red.
‘What was that?’ Knud asked. He kicked off his blanket and stood up.
‘A wolf! Where the devil is Ast...the Outlander?’ Halvard shouted, looking around him.
Another loud howl to their right set them on edge and they all saw the shape of a large gangly wolf run through the trees, accompanied by a flurry of fireflies.
‘Where is Astrid?’ Skad shouted, and looked around him frantically. He almost sounded worried.
‘Doesn’t matter where she is,’ Jarl said quickly, and Knud flashed him a shocked look. ‘She’ll find us. We have to leave.’
Halvard kept a watch while the others quickly packed their things. Knud wrapped his sleeping blanket up into a roll and tied it at the top of his rucksack. He pulled the bag onto his back and watched as Jarl, Skad and Halvard did the exact same thing before quickly mounting their ponies. They were all set to ride in the opposite direction of the howls, when Jarl noticed that Knud’s pony was missing. Jarl permitted Knud to ride his, and ran alongside it as fast as he could, his hands on the reins. The ponies were frightened out of their wits, and all of the riders struggled to keep them from bolting in fear. Knud held on to the pony with all his might, his fingers wound into its mane. Thankfully, before long, the howling grew fainter.
Jarl looked back and saw that the firefly swarm that had been chasing the wolf suddenly appeared behind them, their glowing tails burning the trees as they flew.
I’m slowing them down, Jarl thought to himself, and let go of the reins. He ordered the others to ride ahead.
Knud slowed to a halt.
‘I’m not leaving you!’
‘Go! Now!’ Jarl bellowed at him.
Skad quickly pulled at Knud’s reins and Knud struggled and shouted, screaming his lungs out, begging them to not leave Jarl behind.
Jarl watched them disappear into the forest and took a deep breath. He lowered his sword and the fireflies bore down on him. Their wings beat together so loudly it sounded like a large beast of the forest growling. A smaller swarm darted to ground level for a moment as a rabbit ran for cover. They circled in a flurry of bright lights, and the rabbit shrieked as its fur was set alight by the intense heat produced by them. It fell to its side and squirmed in agony before going still. The fireflies settled on the corpse and began to eat at it with their small but powerful jaws.
Jarl stood still and lifted his head proudly, awaiting the moment they would strike. There was nothing he could do, nowhere nearby he could hide. No matter how fast he ran, there was no way to outrun something that could fly that fast.
Without warning, Jarl felt arms around him, and then something wet suddenly being wrapped around them both in one quick movement. Astrid’s face was barely an inch away from his, her breathing heavy, and panting.
‘Don’t move,’ she whispered, her hands raised, holding the top of a black sheet she had wet in a nearby stream and had wrapped around them. Her fingers were the only part of her exposed. The fireflies buzzed around them, charring the wet sheet but unable to burn the occupants. Astrid winced each time one of the swarm settled on her fingers and burned them.
It was then that Jarl noticed her veil was gone, and recognised the material around them.
‘Your veil.’
‘It comes in handy,’ Astrid replied. She turned her face away from him, nervous at his proximity, his hands dangerously close to her waist.
The fireflies, however
, still circled them, their light glowing through the veil like demonic stars. They were so close that they could hear their jaws snap, and their sharp little feet rubbing together alongside the flutter of wings.
Astrid bit her lip in pain as more of the fireflies singed her fingers. She closed her eyes and bowed her head so that Jarl couldn’t see her expression. Her head almost rested against his chest and she gritted her teeth.
Jarl looked up and saw that her hands were shaking and knew that the fireflies were burning her fingers again and again, evidenced by the smell of burning skin wafting down towards him.
‘Just a few more minutes,’ Astrid whispered, more to herself than to Jarl. She clenched her fingers together more tightly.
The light around them changed as the sun rose, but still had not yet breached the horizon. Several of the fireflies sensed the approaching daylight and started to leave, but most of them stayed on the wet veil. Steam began to rise from the material; the heat from the fireflies had begun to dry it.
Jarl, as close as he was to Astrid, could see just how deep the scar across her lips ran, just below her nose, where it cut through the fleshy part of her upper and lower lip. The scar had healed some, but it left a pink groove down the centre.
‘Come on,’ Astrid whispered, aware that the steam was starting to carry the faint smell of burning cloth.
The veil began to slip and Jarl quickly reached his arms around her and grabbed it before it slipped away and exposed them to the fireflies. Astrid shivered at his touch, his strong arms against either side of her waist.
She’s frightened! Jarl thought to himself, shocked. Quickly, he moved his arms apart so that they did not rest on her sides.
Astrid looked up at him for a second, a thankful look in her eyes before she looked back down again.
The steam around them now held the unmistakable smell of burning and Jarl heard the veil start to crackle under the heat of the fireflies.
‘What do we do?’ he asked as calmly as he could.
‘Wait for the sun to come up,’ Astrid replied. ‘They don’t like the sun.’
Inhaling sharply, Jarl felt a large firefly, which had been perched on the veil behind his head, burn through it, and the smell of smouldering hair filled the veil cocoon.
‘Don’t move,’ Astrid whispered, and fixed her eyes on his. Jarl did the same and tried to focus on her eyes and not the fact that his long, thick hair was about to burst into flames.
‘Any moment now,’ Astrid said, her eyes looking away from his for a moment to watch the light of the rising sun start to shine through the veil.
Suddenly, like a silent order had been given, the fireflies rose as one from around the veil in a glowing wave, and flew in the opposite direction of the oncoming rays of sunlight. Finally the sun peeked out from over the horizon.
Jarl and Astrid breathed an almost synchronised sigh of relief.
Astrid lowered her arms and opened up the veil, only to drop her arms around Jarl’s neck. She then used the veil to extinguish the risk of his singed hair catching fire.
Jarl reached behind his head and quickly took the veil from her hands. He placed it against the back of his head till he was sure everything was put out. After a time he dropped the veil to the ground and felt the back of his head, relieved to feel that only a little of his hair had been burnt.
Astrid stepped back and visibly shivered. She turned away from him and looked at her hands. Everything from her fingertips to her knuckles was a patchwork of red, burnt and blistered skin, and her fingers shook with the pain.
‘Let me see,’ Jarl said gently. He turned her to face him and took her hands in his. Astrid moved as if to pull away, but not enough for her hands to move from his.
Jarl checked her hands and wondered how she had found the strength to hold them still during the attack, let alone hold the veil over them. Just the thought of how painful it would have been made his own hands itch.
‘Can you heal them?’ Jarl asked. ‘You healed Knud!’
‘No, they will heal by themselves,’ Astrid said quickly, pulling her hands out of his. ‘I don’t waste Jakkito on myself.’
‘Jakkito?’ Jarl asked, unsure of the strange word. Astrid’s accent had changed to a strange soft tone as she had pronounced the word.
‘We should leave.’ Astrid silently cursed herself for the use of Axeti. A wave of relief washed over her as she realized Jarl had not recognised it as an elven word. ‘It will be hard to catch up with them if we wait any longer.’ She picked up the scorched veil and wrapped it around her waist once more, then her neck, before using the end section to cover her face. She finally tucked the sides into the edges of her turban.
‘What about that wolf?’ Jarl asked, turning to look around them warily.
‘It’s dead. Fur is not the best with fireflies.’
‘You don’t say. Your cloak is damaged,’ Jarl said, pointing at her wolf-skin. Most of it was badly singed.
‘We should leave,’ Astrid repeated, and ran ahead in search of the others. Jarl followed her, each of them tracking the marks the ponies had left on the ground. They came across Knud’s missing pony; the creature lay dead on the ground, most of it eaten down to its bones, the rest of it smouldering.
* * *
‘Stop crying!’ Skad barked at Knud.
Knud ignored him, with a sniff and a rub of his eyes.
‘We need to go back!’ Knud shouted at him. ‘We can’t leave him.’
‘We did leave him,’ Skad fired back, remorseless. He slowed the pony into a gentle trot.
Halvard rode beside him with his head bowed. ‘We shouldn’t have,’ he mumbled.
‘He was smarter than you lot,’ Skad replied loudly. ‘At least he knew there was no point in everyone getting burned to death.’
Halvard shook his head at Skad, a disgusted grimace on his face.
Knud tried not to cry further but was unable to stop himself.
‘Oh for goodness sake,’ Skad growled, and hopped from the pony. ‘I’m surrounded by women. Stop crying Knud. You’re worse that Astrid.’
Knud snapped and suddenly threw himself at Skad. He clawed at his face, his curly red hair flying loose.
‘I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!’ Knud howled and kicked and punched at Skad who easily threw him off and onto the ground.
Knud fell with a loud thud onto the floor, the wind knocked out of him.
‘Grow up!’ Skad shouted down at him, his voice echoing through the forest around them. It startled several birds that quickly scattered and flew into the treetops out of harm’s way. ‘Jarl is dead. Get used to it. Everyone dies eventually.’
Hearing a twig break loudly underneath a heavy foot, Skad turned and Jarl’s fist caught him squarely on the jaw. Skad was knocked to his knees and spat blood from his mouth.
‘Don’t you touch him again!’ Jarl growled at him.
Skad looked over Jarl’s shoulder and saw Astrid in his shadow, her eyes shining. He knew immediately that she would have a satisfied smile on her face under the veil.
Jarl walked to Knud and helped him to his feet, and Knud threw his arms around him, which nearly knocked him to the floor. ‘I thought you’d gone!’ Knud half laughed, half cried.
Jarl knelt down so he was at Knud’s head height and ruffled his hair. Knud rubbed the tears out of his eyes and grinned.
‘I promised I wouldn’t,’ he said.
Skad spat again, this time in disgust, and stood.
Each of his companions glared at him. ‘Good grief! You lot would be dead without me!’
‘No, we’d be dead without Astrid.’ Knud smirked.
Skad glared over at Astrid who just stood silently behind them. Her eyes observed but she remained silent.
‘Oh that’s right...Astrid! Because she’s always been so good at protecting people,’ Skad jeered.
Jarl got the sense that whatever Skad had said had been like a knife to Astrid’s chest. Her eyes flinched as if in pain for a second,
but she ignored him and walked ahead. She expected the others would follow her.
‘That’s it. Walk away like you always do.’
‘Shut up,’ Jarl ordered , ready to lay another blow to Skad’s face if the old dwarf did not do as he was told.
Skad, surprisingly, obeyed him, and they all slowly walked after Astrid.
Halvard offered Jarl his horse, but he instead walked side by side with Knud and rested his arm over his shoulders.
Knud flashed Astrid an overjoyed smile as she turned to look behind for a moment. Her eyes lit up as she smiled back at him under her veil.
Jarl looked up and caught her eyes just before she turned to look ahead again.
‘Thank you,’ Jarl said quietly, once they had caught up with her.
Astrid nodded her head and turned away, preferring to look down at her hands. ‘Another scar,’ she said quietly to herself, None of the others heard her. She smiled to herself and closed her hands despite the pain it caused to move it.
‘Outlander!’ How long till we reach the Salt Mines?’ Halvard called over to her.
‘The monasteries. They’re called the Salt Monasteries,’ Astrid called back to correct him. She looked to her left and saw the tall ridge of the Riddari Mountains, which they had been walking along for the past few weeks through the canopies of the trees. ‘Another three days, hopefully. Depends how quickly we can walk now that there’s only three ponies left.’
* * *
The weather had suddenly gotten so much colder and the sun disappeared behind fast approaching clouds the minute it hit noon. Astrid pulled her cloak around her and felt the burnt patches in the fur.
Next to her, Jarl and Knud were sharing the same pony, Jarl still with his arm over Knud’s shoulders. Skad and Halvard rode slowly behind them, Skad looking like he had tasted something bitter, his face twisted into a nasty scowl. Astrid felt his eyes glaring at her back as they walked ahead.
‘Does Skad have to come with us?’ Knud whispered.
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