Corpse in the Mead Hall

by Cate Martin

  But what burst out of the thicket was only Kara. Relief washed over her face, and she pulled me into a tight hug.

  "I'm okay," I said, patting her arm. Mjolner meowed in objection at the way she was jostling him about, and she stepped back from me with a sniffle.

  "We thought we'd lost you," she said.

  "We did lose Freygunnar," I said.

  "You saw it happen?" she asked.

  "I didn't see it, but I was close by," I said. "And this morning I saw the marks on the snow, the same as yesterday after Freylaug was taken. I'm sure she's gone."

  "Jóra is going to be heartbroken," Kara said. Then she looked up at me with a different sort of sadness in her eyes. "But Thorbjorn is going to be so relieved."

  "Kara," I started to say, but she just shook her head.

  "Never mind," she said. "We should get back." Then she turned and started to head east at a fast pace.

  "We can walk and talk," I said after I had run a few steps to catch up with her.

  "There's really nothing to say," she said, not looking over at me. "I never had any claim to him. Never even tried to make one. He never seemed ready. I always thought something would happen, in the fullness of time, but it didn't." Then she did sneak a quick glance my way, but only for an instant. "You didn't do anything wrong, and I have no right to feel sore at you."

  "Kara," I said, grabbing her arm and pulling her to halt, which she reluctantly allowed me to do. If she hadn't, I would've been dragged behind her for sure. She was a lot stronger than me. But she looked me in the eye again, waiting for me to say my piece. "Kara, I'm sorry for how you were made to feel. I didn't intend to get in your way, or to make you feel like I was trying to take your place or anything."

  "I know," she said with a sigh. "Thorbjorn talked to me this morning, during the long, torturous hours before we could go outside to look for you. He told me some things I wished he would've told me a long time ago."

  "About how he knew about how you felt?" I guessed.

  She nodded, but then she added, "to be fair, I'm not sure if he had been more direct that I would've heard him anyway. I think my heart would still be sure that at the end of the day, he'd come around. I suppose in the long run I'll be relieved that I didn't wait around any longer."

  "But not yet," I guessed.

  She shook her head. "No, not yet. It still hurts."

  "I'm sorry for that," I said.

  "I know," she said. "Let's go. The others are out of their minds with worry, and we shouldn't leave them like that longer than we have to. And we have to tell them about Freygunnar."

  "No, you're right," I said, and fell into step beside her again as we continued through the woods.

  "Ingrid, can I ask you something?" she said suddenly several minutes later.

  "Of course," I said, although my stomach knotted in instant tension.

  "Have you decided where you will remain when your training is done?" she asked. "Will you stay in Villmark like your ancestors did, or will you live in Runde like your grandmother does? Or even leave this part of the world entirely like your mother did?"

  "Definitely not the last one," I assured her. "For the rest, I honestly don't know yet. Both worlds feel like my world to me. I don't know how I can choose."

  "Or why you should have to, maybe," Kara said.

  "I would like to be free to move between both," I admitted. "But I don't know if that will be possible."

  "And until you do know, I suppose there are a lot of other things you can't decide about yet," she said. I knew she was thinking about Thorbjorn again. I hoped she wasn't looking for one last reason to keep carrying a torch for him, but I couldn't figure out any way to say so that wasn't way too blunt.

  "You're right," I said simply. "I have lots of decisions in my future, but I can't make them yet."

  Then we were in the clearing in front of the hunting lodge and there was a clamor of voices as the news of my arrival was shouted from the shed to the stable to the lodge itself.

  Then I was caught up in a tight bearhug that ended only at Mjolner's very irritated yowl of protest.

  "Sorry," Thorbjorn said as he set me back down on my feet. Mjolner dug his claws into my back as he launched his way out of my hood and zipped off into the lodge. Thorbjorn watched him run away, then turned back to look at me. The look in his eyes made my stomach knot tighter than ever. "I thought I had lost you."

  "Something saved me," I said.

  "What? Who?" he asked.

  "I don't know," I said, but before I could say more, we were surrounded by the others. Nilda pulled me into a tight embrace, but even as I hugged her back I could see Jóra looking all around me and seeing no sign of her daughter.

  "I'm sorry," I said. "Freygunnar's gone."

  Jóra said not a word. She didn't cry out or shed a tear. She just collapsed onto the snow as if her legs could no longer carry her. Then she just sat there, staring dully straight ahead as if she could no longer hear me.

  "What happened?" Roarr asked, elbowing past some of the others to stand closer to me. I saw Thorge had also come closer, and although he was standing beside Kara, that didn't seem to be why he had picked that place to stand. His body language was more combat-ready than besotted youth just wanting to be near his crush.

  Then Thormund too came up close behind Thorbjorn, and I realized they were all putting their bodies between me and the others. I couldn't exactly look over any of their shoulders, but when I leaned over to peek around Thorbjorn, I saw the dark looks on Raggi's and Báfurr's face.

  And the expressions on Manni's and Yngvi's faces were darker still. Clearly, they blamed me for the loss of two of their sisters-in-law. And I hadn't even told my story yet.

  "I woke up in the middle of the night," I said. "The Hunt wasn't here, but it felt like it was coming. The rest of you were like you were trapped in nightmares, unable to wake. But I saw Freygunnar was gone. She wasn't in the lodge, and yet the bar was still over the doors."

  "It wasn't," Raggi said.

  "No, not when the rest of you woke," I said. "I opened it to get outside myself. Whatever brought her outside without disturbing the door, I didn't have access to the same means."

  "What's that supposed to mean?" Raggi demanded.

  "She's talking about magic," Roarr hissed at him.

  "Oh, I suppose you know all about that," Raggi shot back.

  "Enough!" I said, raising a single hand to quiet them. I knew I could compel them to do it if I put the magical power in my voice, but that felt like the wrong thing to do just then.

  "You went outside without waking me?" Thorbjorn asked.

  I didn't answer right away. I wasn't sure how to tell him that the thought had never entered my mind. I had just gone outside, alone, because that had felt right.

  He was never going to understand that.

  "You were all caught in sleep," I said instead. "I could see it wasn't natural, but I didn't have time to figure it out. I knew the Hunt was coming, and I wanted to get to Freygunnar first."

  "Did you?" Manni asked. His voice was less aggressively distrustful than Raggi's, if not particularly friendly.

  "I did," I said. "It was like she was under someone's spell. She wouldn't stop walking, not even if I tried to physically restrain her. She was superhumanly strong. But her eyes were like she was blind. She didn't respond to me. She just kept walking and walking until the Wild Hunt caught up with us."

  "Then what happened?" Thorbjorn asked.

  "I couldn't save her," I said. "I had to leave her, but I was still close by when they caught her. I heard her cry out, but I didn't see it."

  "You couldn't see it," Thorbjorn said. "If you had, you would've been taken too."

  His eyes darted towards Jóra, and I saw him bite back another expression of gratitude that I hadn't been a victim of the Wild Hunt. But I gave him a little nod to let him know I understood him.

  "She was lured out by magic," Roarr said. "You're sure?" He had a haunted look in hi
s eyes, but also a fiercely determined one. I understood both emotions. He and I had both been compelled to behave like puppets in Halldis' power. It had been a horrid experience, and not one to be wished on anybody.

  "I think so, yes," I said. "I didn't have time to examine things at the moment, but that was certainly what it looked like."

  "So you can fix this?" he asked.

  "I don't think I can bring them back," I said. "I don't think that's how it works."

  "No," Gunna agreed from where she was squatting beside her sister, who was still sitting numbly in the snow. "That's not how it works. They're gone."

  "But you can stop it from happening again?" Roarr pressed.

  I felt all those eyes on me, the ones that looked to me with suspicion, the ones that looked to me with unquestioning faith, all of them.

  "I will," I promised. "I will figure out what's happening here, and I will stop it."

  14

  The others went back inside the hall to confer with each other and take another vote. But it didn't really matter to me whether they decided to stay or to go. Either way, I wasn't going home until I knew what had happened to Freylaug and Freygunnar.

  Well, it didn't matter to me if everyone stayed. There were a few I'd rather keep with me.

  As if reading my mind, Thorbjorn lingered by my side. So did Nilda and Kara. Thorge was close beside Kara, speaking quietly to his brother Thormund.

  Roarr and Sigvin made it halfway to the lodge doors, then turned back to look at me.

  "Do you need our help at all?" Roarr asked.

  I thought he was only speaking for himself and Sigvin, but the way everyone else was watching me, I realized they all wanted to ask me the same question.

  "Don't you want to go in and place your vote?" I asked, looking mainly to the Thors.

  "It doesn't matter," Thormund spoke for them. "Whatever the others decide, we'll be staying here as long as you need us."

  "Thank you," I said. "But I don't know what I'll need. I don't even know what I'm going to do."

  "Maybe we should start with what you learned yesterday," Thorbjorn said.

  "It wasn't much," I said. "I have no idea why Freylaug was taken. And then her sister. It feels like a pattern, but I don't understand it. Does it bring anything to mind with any of you? They are your cousins."

  They exchanged looks, but in the end just shook their heads.

  "None of them have ever dabbled with anything that might bring them trouble," Thormund said.

  "They were looking for husbands," Nilda said. "But who isn't?"

  "In Villmark, sure," Kara said. "But here? Of those of us in the hunting party at this lodge? Not me."

  "Or me," Sigvin said.

  "Me neither. You're right," Nilda said. Then she looked to me.

  "No, nor I," I said. "But wait, are you saying Frigg will be next?"

  "She's a bit young to be looking to marry, isn't she?" Thorge asked.

  Kara turned away from him before rolling her eyes at her sister. Nilda pressed the back of her hand against her mouth to just hold back her laughter.

  "So she is next," Sigvin said.

  "Maybe not," I said. "Two data points don't really make a pattern. Not yet. If anyone is staying, which I guess at least those of us still out here are, we'll have to set a watch to guard the rest of us while we sleep."

  The Thors all exchanged glances again.

  "What?" I asked.

  "We tried that last night," Thorbjorn said.

  "After our conversation where I said that wasn't necessary?" I asked.

  He shrugged, unashamed.

  "And you fell asleep?" I asked. It didn't seem possible. None of them would ever shirk their duties. "Who? No, the important question is how?"

  "All three of us were planning to stay awake," he said.

  "It would've just been one night of missed sleep. We've done that plenty of times," Thorge said.

  "So what happened?" I asked.

  "We just fell asleep," Thorbjorn said. "Every single one of us."

  "That has to be magic," Kara said.

  "I didn't sense anything," I said. "Not inside the lodge."

  "But you were already asleep, so why would you?" Kara said, not unkindly.

  "We'll set a watch again tonight," I said. "But I'll be staying awake as well. Then I won't have any excuse for not seeing what's happening."

  "No one blames you, Ingrid," Sigvin said.

  "No one out here," Roarr grumbled.

  "Maybe it would be better if they all went home," Kara said darkly.

  "No," Thorbjorn said. "No, we need the meat. We need to continue the hunt." Then he looked at me, even though I hadn't been planning to speak my thoughts about that out loud. "I'm well aware that we can get food from outside of Villmark, but I don't want to have to do that. Relying on ourselves is what makes us who we are."

  "I wasn't arguing," I said, although I had indeed been imagining filling up a cart full of frozen meat at the nearest supermarket.

  "So, what do we do now?" Nilda asked.

  "Can you go inside and fetch my art bag for me? I'll need that," I said. She nodded and headed towards the open doors. "Kara, you're the best trapper I've seen since we've been out here. I think you should focus on making sure there's enough fresh meat for dinner, no matter how many choose to stay."

  "I'll go with you," Thorge said before she'd even agreed. She blinked in surprise, trapping rabbits not being an occupation usually associated with a Thor, but just nodded.

  "Roarr, Sigvin and Thormund, I'd like you to go inside and join the discussion in there. Make sure the others know what we're planning for tonight. Keeping watch, I mean. Anything you can do to keep everyone calm and not accusing each other would be great."

  "Surely," Thormund said with a little bow of his head, and the other two followed him through the doors.

  "That just leaves me," Thorbjorn said. "What service will I render?"

  "Don't feel slighted, but I really need you to just stand behind me."

  "Just stand behind you?" he repeated, puzzled.

  "While I draw," I said. As if summoned by my words, Nilda appeared in the doorway and started to cross the snow-covered clearing, my art bag over her shoulder. "I want to see if I can summon any details by drawing, like I've done before. But I've always had the best success with that when I've done it beside the ancestral fire."

  "That's very far away," he said.

  "I know," I said, reaching out to take the bag from Nilda. "Thanks, Nilda. Thorbjorn and I are going to search for clues. Can you let the others know we'll be back by dinner?"

  "Don't be late," she said, lifting an admonishing finger at me.

  "We won't," I promised. Then I turned back to Thorbjorn. "I know the fire is far away. That's why I need you. Maybe it's because you're a guardian of that fire, but I get a lot of the same connected energy from you. You anchor me with our ancestors, I guess. Look, I just need you to be there while I draw. That's all."

  "In that case, why should I feel slighted?" he asked. "It would be my honor to perform such a service for you."

  "I've already tried drawing at the place where Freylaug was taken. I think we should walk back to where Freygunnar was last night. I'd like to try drawing there."

  We walked without talking back the way I had come just minutes before. It seemed a much shorter distance than it had this morning or late the night before. The sun was now climbing towards midday, and the weather was even warmer than it had been the day before. Under different circumstances, it might've been a nice hike through the snowy woods.

  But any lightness in my heart faded when the two of us reached that clearing on top of the hill again.

  "It's the same as the other, isn't it?" Thorbjorn asked. "They circled around her, and she leaped up into the sky."

  "I think so," I said. "But I want to see how I draw it and compare the two."

  "Here," he said, taking off the cloak he wore over his wool jacket and spreading it over the
snow. I sat down and slipped the strap of my art bag off of my shoulder. I took out my sketchpad and a pencil. Thorbjorn was standing directly behind me. The sun was at his back, and the shadow of him standing with feet widely planted and arms crossed fell over me and my sketchpad both.

  He didn't look self-conscious at all. Like he was asked to shade someone drawing while they sat in the snow all the time.

  I forced myself to focus on the task at hand. I looked up at the snowy hill, but when I started to draw, my fingers did not trace any of the forms before me. Instead, they filled an entire page with the Ur rune, then another. Only after I had filled a third page with overlapping, tumbling repetitions of that letter did I finally find myself drawing the scene.

  My mind drifted free while my fingers worked their own sort of magic.

  I don't know how much time passed while I drew, but when my eyes blinked back to an awareness of reality, the page spread on my lap was filled with a highly detailed drawing of what must have happened the night before.

  "I'm done," I said to Thorbjorn as I put the pencil away. He sat down beside me on the cloak and looked over my shoulder at the drawing.

  "There's Freygunnar," I said, not quite touching her upturned face, afraid I would blur her image. I had a feeling her mother would want to see this drawing as well.

  "And the Wild Hunt with the hounds," Thorbjorn said. "What's that tree back there?" He too pointed without touching the page.

  "That was where I was hiding," I said, lifting my eyes from the drawing to the world before me, then pointing out the tall, leafless tree on the far side of the hill. "I was hoping I would draw what saved me, but I don't see anything."

  "Maybe if you drew just the tree?" Thorbjorn suggested. "We can walk over there so you can get closer."

  "Not just yet," I said, glancing up at the sky. I sighed. "It's nearly noon already. There are so few hours of daylight this time of year."

  "What is that, the face in that rock?" he asked. At first I didn't know what he was talking about, but then I realized he was still looking at the picture. I leaned in, tipping my head to one side until the contours of a rock I had drawn at the edge of the clearing became very like a craggy face.