Heroes of the Valley

by Jonathan Stroud

  Aud shouted: 'Halli – the neck—!'

  For a moment it seemed to Halli that he heard something: the faintest noise inside his head, a little voice piping as if from far away.

  Stop! I am your Father, the Founder of your—

  Halli dived low, came up at the figure's back. 'Oh, we've been through all that. You're nothing but bones and air.'

  He jumped high, swiped with the claw with as much force as he could muster, feeling his shoulder wound tear as he did so. The claw bit through the weakened vertebrae, parting it with the driest of cracks and coming out the other side so that the moonlight sparkled bright upon it.

  Halli swung the claw back, striking the neck again, spinning the head round even as it knocked it sideways.

  Helm over skull, skull over helm, the head flashed through the air, cracked upon the rock, lost its jaw, bounced, rolled and came to a halt upside-down halfway along the crag-top, with the teeth grinning up at the moon.

  Then it shattered.

  An empty helmet rocked gently to and fro.

  The rest of the body took two steps backwards, the remaining hand slapping ineffectually at the air. A third step – into space. Over the edge of the crag it went. It toppled away; the mists enveloped it. It was gone.

  Silence on the crag. Silence in the mist. Silence in the valley and the ridge.

  Halli turned: he saw Aud standing on the crag with knife in hand. She was alone. Bare rock and darkness surrounded her, nothing more.

  He walked over to her, passing without a second glance a rusted sword and helm that lay discarded on the stone.

  They looked at each other without speaking.

  'Bloody hell,' Aud said finally. 'Your relations.'

  Dawn was near. Bruised, cut, shivering with cold, they huddled together on the centre of the crag and waited.

  'What I'm wondering now,' Halli said, indicating the Trow claw that lay on the stone in front of him, 'is if perhaps this thing isn't quite as fake as I once thought.'

  He looked at Aud. Her shoulders were slumped, her legs outstretched before her. It reminded him of when she'd fallen from the apple tree. She wore the same expression of faint surprise. She shrugged at him, smiled, said nothing.

  'Here's another thing I'm wondering,' Halli said. 'Where'd you get my knife? I'd lost it. They took it from me.'

  Aud said: 'Ah, there's a story there. Your uncle Brodir gave it to me. At least. one moment he was near me, carrying it, the next he'd skipped away – and the knife was left lying on the rock.'

  Halli stared at her. 'You really think . . . ?'

  'I do think so.'

  Halli thought for a time. 'Good,' he said at last. 'I'm glad.'

  Below the crag the mists grew ever more faint and lacelike, until the moor could once again be seen, empty, barren, nothing but grass and gorse rolling to the higher ground. Little by little the moon's power faded too; it drew back, sickly and afflicted, as a pale golden light advanced upon the eastern sky. The distant sea was lit first, then the snowy tops of the southern mountains.

  With the valley still in darkness, Aud and Halli sat watching the light gather on the far-off places, the places they had not yet been.

  Not long afterwards, birds began singing among the cairns.

  LISTEN THEN, GIRL, AND I'll tell you again of Halli Sveinsson, hall-burner, Trow-tamer, great Halli Short-leg, who won the Battle of Svein's House in your grandmother's time, and so made us the richest people of the valley.

  Here's how his story ended.

  When the fighting was at its hardest, Halli and Aud, she-wolf of Arne's House, lured the enemy away under cover of mist and led them beyond the cairns. No living person saw what happened then, but awful screams echoed from on high. Some people thought that Halli had summoned the Trows to kill the Hakonssons; others that great Svein himself had come to help Halli in his hour of need . . . Only one thing's sure. Not one of the Hakonssons came back down the hill.

  Neither Halli nor Aud spoke of that night, except perhaps to Arnkel Sveinsson, whom they visited on their return to the House. He died a day later, and afterwards Halli helped bury his father in a cairn atop the ridge. Then Leif, the new Arbiter, together with his mother, Astrid the Lawgiver, went down-valley to the great Gathering at Orm's House, where the Council awarded them the lands that make us so powerful today. But Halli and Aud stayed quietly here, and spoke little to anyone.

  And it was not long after that, with the first green flush upon the trees, and the days grown newly warm, that Halli and Aud vanished from the House. It's said they left Svein's silver belt lying on the Law Seat, together with an ancient helmet and a rusted sword, which hang upon the wall of treasures to this day. Only Halli's old nurse spied them go: she came hobbling after, and they embraced beyond the wall, down where Halli's Gate is now. Then she watched them as they went across Long Meadow and straight up the ridge, past Svein's Mound and away over the hill, and that was the last anyone ever saw of Halli Sveinsson.

  Now, some say they crossed the mountains and came to another valley and are living there still, but I say the Trows got them. That's much more likely.

  No – of course no one else went over the hill. Who would want to, when we have so many fields to work and cows to milk and crying mouths to feed? We've more than enough to keep us busy here.

  So. Take that dreamy look off your face and snuggle down. You pay too much attention to these silly tales. If you need to go, the pot's below the bed, but hop back sharp or the Trows will get you. Till morning then, my dear, Svein keep you safe.

  Sleep tight.