by Lee Savino
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 Berserkers 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 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?”
Thorsteinn’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.”
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.
Vik’s hands tightened on mine. “Close your eyes, Sorrel.” I stared at him and a smile quirked the corner of his mouth. “For once, do as you’re told.”
Thorsteinn smiled. The flame flickered over his faces, but there was no anger or blame there.
I could do this.
I closed my eyes—
Midnight. The moon was a sliver of light reflecting off leftover patches of snow when Rosalind left the lodge. Moonlight glinting off her bright hair as I followed her. It wasn’t like her to leave.
“Sorrel?” Juliet was outside, huddled in the shadows. She hid out there often because she went into heat. A former nun, she was terrified the Berserkers would find out, and force her to mate.
“Did Rosalind come this way?” I asked.
Juliet nodded her face pained. “I should go after her. She’s been acting strangely lately.” Juliet didn’t have to explain. Rosalind had been quieter than usual. At night, she tossed and turned with bad dreams. During the day, no one was spared her sharp tongue, not even her beloved sister Aspen.
“I’ll do it. I’ll see what she’s up to.” I brushed Juliet’s shoulder as I passed.
“Bring her back,” the former nun called after me.
It made no sense, I thought as I tracked Rosalind through the trees. She wore a cloak but didn’t bother to cover her bright head. The moon turned her blonde hair to silver. Why would she leave now? She’d mocked me about my plans to live in the wilderness, but her teasing had a jealous edge. She made no secret of her dislike of the Berserkers and her desire to escape, but I never thought she would act. The Rosalind I knew would never leave her sister behind.
Fog lay across our path. I hurried through the milky mist, trying and failing to catch up with Rosalind. Through the trees, firelight flickered, and men’s voices rose, rough and deep. Our guards enjoying their midnight watch. I slunk in the shadows, hiding behind trees. Rosalind did nothing to hide herself, but still, no warrior looked up or took note. And so, we made our escape off the mountain.
All night we walked, and I kept waiting for Rosalind to hear me and turn. The night was still. No Berserker patrols, no howling wolves, not even a hooting owl. The further we hiked away from the mountain, the more my dread grew. Any minute we might come upon a host of draugr and be captured, but whenever I tried to catch up to Rosalind to warn her, I never could.
It went on for hours, like a dream. The mist grew thick between us. I knew if I didn’t catch up to her now, I never would. So, I ran. And eventually, I caught her.
“Rosalind?” Her eyes were glassy, vacant as a deep pool. Could she be sleep walking? I shook her, but she never woke. Her gaze fixed on some spot in the distance, she marched onward.
Nothing I said or did made her stop walking. She seemed almost asleep—until first light. Dawn struck her face, and she came awake. “Sorrel,” she greeted me. “You’re here. We must find the moonstone.”
“What moonstone?”
“I had a dream of a stone of great power. The Corpse King sought it long ago. It was formed by the magic of the spaewives, the women he took to wife. In his hands it could increase his power, make him unstoppable. But we can stop him, if we find the stone. In the right hands, it can bind him for a thousand years.”
“And you know where to find it?”
“This way,” she said, and hurried on. I did not like it, but I followed. Rosalind was with me when we were captured by the Corpse King. He had spoken to her. Perhaps that is how she knew of the moonstone.
I didn’t realize she was in league with him, until too late.
We walked for another day, maybe a night and a day. The mist surrounded us, and time blurred together. I thought it strange there were no draugr. But perhaps Rosalind was right—she’d had a dream, a vision, and her journey was blessed by the Goddess.
I know now that the Corpse King led her on by the mist and kept his own forces away.
We came to a stream. We followed it until I heard the roar of the waterfall.
“Here. The moonstone is here,” Rosalind said. We walked the mossy bank of the pool, overturning clumps of dead leaves. I kicked over a rock and it rolled, breaking through a screen of leaves and branches of a fallen tree. And there it was: a hint of milky light at the bottom of a great pit.
“Look,” I got to my belly and peered into the pit, deep enough to cover three man standing on each other’s shoulders. The moonstone shone at the bottom. It was the size of my hand and the glow drew the eye...
“You’ll have to climb down,” Rosalind said. “And fetch it.”
“Why me?”
She motioned to the breeches I always wore.
With a sigh, I got a long branch and tried to fish for the stone. The pit was too deep for that, but Rosalind was right. I could climb down. I just didn’t want to. I couldn’t stand the darkness, or the feeling of being closed in.
But the light drew me. Rolling up my breeches, I took the branch and used it to aid my way down. The moonstone pulsed brighter as I grew close. For a moment I thought I heard a chorus of women’s voices whispering in my ear—
“Lift it up,” Rosalind ordered. I was reluctant to release it, but it would be easier to climb without the stone in my hands. It was heavier than I’d imagined, set in silver, with the remnants of a chain. I snagged the chain with a branch and lifted it up to Rosalind. As soon as she grabbed it, sh
e drew back from the pit.
“Help me up,” I called. “Rosalind?”
But she was gone. The walls of the pit closed in. It was like the torture I endured back at the abbey, trapped in a dark space. My palm still tingled where the moonstone had touched it. Closing my eyes, I found new strength to climb up.
When I reached the top, the mist was so thick, I could no longer see the waterfall.
“Rosalind?” I called. Her footsteps led away from the pit. The leaves were turned in such a way, I knew from my lessons in tracking she was in a hurry.
I fought my way through the mist, which seemed as thick as water. I was not surprised when I came upon Rosalind gazing up at a tall cloaked figure. I’d seen her in such a position before, when we were first captured by the Corpse King.
Only this time she held the moonstone. In his hands it could increase his power, make him unstoppable.
My hand was on my sling before I could think. I had one shot. After that, the Corpse King would know I was there. I loaded and wound up the sling and aimed for Rosalind.
As soon as the stone struck her temple, she fell. The moonstone hit the ground. I ran forward. There was a flash of light, like balefire, and the tall apparition disappeared.
Before I could reach it, a raven swooped down and grabbed the moonstone, and flew up to a tree branch. The raven also disappeared.
The mist swirled away, and I was surrounded by Berserkers. Rosalind lay there with blood on her head. I had a sling in my hand. The warriors knew what happened. They pounced on me and tied me up. They told me I’d be put to death. I told them I didn’t want to hurt her, but they didn’t believe me. I was guilty. Guilty…
“Sorrel.” A hand cupped my chin. I startled at its warmth. Thorsteinn looked down at me, sober face creased with intent. “Are you with us?”
“Yes,” I said, and even though I felt sick from remembering, but I felt lighter.
“Good girl,” he murmured, drawing me into his embrace. His arms went around me, and he tucked a pelt around my shoulders. “You did well.”