I looked back inside the room. A tallow candle sat on Fundinn’s bedside table. I moved to it, and not far away was flint and steel. I lit the candle, and with a candle in one hand, a knife shoved into the babe’s fur sling, and my other arm under my child, just in case, I entered the hall.
It was nothing but a dark, cold, stone hall for a time. When the light of the door behind me shrank to little more than half a door, a warm wind blew onto the left side of my face. I held the candle out to my left. The passage curved out that way. I gave my son a kiss on the head, and followed it.
The warmth grew with every step I took until it felt as balmy as a spring day. The stones beneath my feet became rougher. Suddenly, the passage opened into a larger room. The light of the candle bounced off the walls of the room.
It was made from blocks of the same rough-hewn stone as the floor. The stone looked old, older than the castle’s. I touched a piece where the bones of some ancient creature were frozen in the stone. The shadows of the candlelight played around some figures in the back of the room. They were statues, had to be, and still as stone. I walked toward them and what was strange about them became apparent.
They were wolf men. The strangeness came from their profile. Their heads had the ears of wolves and the beginnings of the wolfish snout and jaw that resembled Ulfvaldr when he was half-transformed. They had their claws, on hand and foot extended and the beginnings of tails. They wore furs, carefully rendered in the stone, and on each of their head sat a crown.
It was the same crown on each head. I touched my hair and found the now familiar weight of gold missing, back in my chambers. On their heads were the same crown that I bore, and my father before me.
“Then we are,” I whispered and reached for the wolf in the center.
I ran my hand down the center of his chest. It caught on something. The clasp to his cloak stuck out and seemed loose. I pressed on it, curious to see if it would give way in spite of my desire to preserve the beauty of these statues.
It depressed into the chest of the wolf and with a grating of stone that was like a wail, the statue swung inward. Behind it was yet another dark room. From it seemed to emanate the source of the balmy air.
With my babe clutched to my chest and my candle held out in front of me, I stepped in.
In the center of the room, a fire burned blue in a grate with no wood.
“I don’t know what to make of this.”
My eyes adjusted to the light from the fire and I could see the rest of room. It was decorated in carvings that very much resembled Ulfvaldr’s tattoos. They seemed to tell, like his marks, a very old story of wolves and bears and eagles, of men and gods, and of this castle. In front of the grate there were inscribed some runes. I knelt before them. When I did, the fire flashed brighter and flew up a foot. I shielded the babe, but nothing caught aflame. The child was still sound asleep.
I inspected the runes. They read, “Here is the hearth of Wolfholm.”
“Wolfholm,” I repeated the word, “but if Ulfvaldr called his caves the home of wolves, was he wrong? Is this his land?”
As if in answer, I heard a knock on the wall behind me. I spun. I might not have seen it otherwise. Above the door hung a sword. It was beautiful.
The sword was shorter, as they were in the old days. The metal was folded, creating the waved pattern so difficult to do well. Its edge looked sharper than any I’d ever seen, even from this distance. I reached for it.
In runes, above the sword, it said, “Here rests Silver Wolf for the time when Wolfholm needs him.”
The message made me pause. Did I need this sword? What was Wolfholm, truly? I looked back to the statues in the other room, to the crowns on their head, to my child. If anyone was meant to take this sword, deep inside the secret belly of this castle, through a door in my father’s chambers, it was me. I could feel it.
I wrapped my fingers around the hilt and drew it from its place. For a moment, it seemed to flash blue, but when I looked at it harder, it was only iron. I nodded toward the fire. I do not know what it was, but I felt like it could see me.
I closed the door formed by the central wolf statue and walked back through the passageway. A worrisome pit had formed in my belly. I knew Ulfvaldr was not safe, now, but how unsafe, that I did not know.
I pushed the door shut in my father’s chambers and covered the pried open wood with the tapestry, for what it was worth. It seemed like a place not meant for everyone to venture. I thought to take a moment to inspect the sword, when I heard shouting in the halls. I burst through the chamber doors to find a shocked page. He only screamed.
“They’re here! I found them!”
“Yes, I’m here,” I said to him.
The boy realized what he had done and paled, “Sorry so sorry your majesty,” he bowed.
“Boy, what is going on?”
I looked down the hall. The nurse and the midwife were running toward me. The nurse was a mess. She looked like she had been pulling at her hair. It hung out of her braids in frazzled clumps.
“We thought we lost the babe!”
“But not me?”
“I...I could not be sure,” the nurse stopped in front of me, panting.
The midwife joined her. Guards followed, and one of them was Finli.
“Your majesty, all is not well with Ulfvaldr and his envoy. Their ships disappeared off the coast.”
“They sailed too far out to see, you mean.”
“No, your majesty. The fisherwomen and men who did not go were watching from offshore. They just disappeared.”
Chapter 6
Ulfvaldr
I awoke sore all over. My hands were bound. There was a light above me and around me, men groaned. The sway of the ship was gone. We were on land.
My eyes focused on the light. Iron bars above me crossed it. Above, gray clouds swirled in the sky. I heard footsteps and the bars above creaked open.
“Only the one?”
“Only him.”
A ladder was dropped. Four men came down and seized me. I bit at them, but they pushed a leather device over my head and clasped it round my mouth. They dragged me up the rope ladder and into the light. I tried to recall what had happened.
When I did, I laughed.
That got me a boot to the head.
But it was too funny, I thought. I had cut down easily ten of those warriors, and my men much the same, before the felled us. It was through sheer number, not skill that they won. It was funny what poor excuses they were for sword wielding.
Either I was laughing again or just smiling because I got another swift kick to the stomach. That brought up thoughts of Varghoss, wounded, bleeding. I hoped to Hel and back he was safe and that the ride to the shore had not killed him.
“Make him presentable,” the voice barked.
It was that gaping-hole-for-a-mouth captain of the ship. I could smell his rotten breath. They pulled me to my feet and dragged me forward. My hands were still bound in front of me. I could see where we were going now, up a staircase hewn in stone on a rocky shore. The sea lapped at the rocks. I looked to where my men were, still underground. The water was close to the grate.
My heart stopped. My eyes widened. If the tide came in, it would drown them. I let loose a terrible howl and threw off the men who held me. Two tumbled from the stairs onto the rocks below. I kicked another after him. The last who tried to take me went over my back with a scream and a crunch. I turned my sights on the captain.
“You think I care about them? We are all just bodies here to serve our master. And you will serve as well.”
He reached out a hand. There was a flash of blue. Pain seized my innards. I crumpled forward. He grabbed me by the restraint around my face. I tried to pull away, but the only movement afforded my body was the ability to walk up the stairs toward a tower that soared out of the rock, so tall, it looked like a needle trying to prick the sky.
Chapter 7
Varghoss
“And what chance
have we, with a quarter of our armed men, not even enough to fill the old slave ship and the warship that’s left?” a man called out.
“We will fight, and we will bring our fishing boats.”
“What?” I turned to the twenty or so fisherwomen who had been standing by silently.
“We have our fishing spears. We fear not death, but we do fear that whatever made that ship disappear will come for our children. Let us join you.”
I remembered the old witch’s words, her laments that women no longer fought in this kingdom as they did in the old days. I put a hand to the sword at my hip.
“Women once fought alongside men,” I said, “and if you are defending your home, I think you have every right to. We will not leave for several hours. Send the pages to fetch them spare armor and what spears we have that might do better than theirs,” I turned to the one who spoke, “You have my gratitude, and I will have you in a fight as armored and with a shield as a man, if you volunteer to fight like one.”
“Thank you, my king,” she curtsied, and the women with her did as well.
In a few hours the ships were packed with warriors. A skeleton force was left at the castle. Somehow, the nurse’s distress when she thought she’d lost the prince was comforting to me. I felt like I could leave him with her as long as I needed. Still, winter was here, and the wolves, and who knows what else, would come nosing around if they sensed the castle and the villages it protected were weak. I prayed to whatever sea gods there may be, to the god that had helped me before, that this was a speedy journey.
But a journey to where? No ship in sight meant no ship to follow. I put my hand to the pommel of my sword. It seemed to spark.
“We’re ready, milord!”
The fisherwomen had proved more than useful. They had readied the ships and knew how to sail them all. In their armor they looked only like men of small frames and feminine faces. Perhaps that witch was right. If she was, and if we retrieved Ulfvaldr with the help of these women, she was owed more mead than I had in all my kingdom.
We set sail in the direction of the other ships’ disappearance. I thought of the chilling sight of the ship with blue flames burning on its masts, and shuddered. I had let Ulfvaldr go to his doom, but if he lived, I would save him yet. I pushed the thought of his death from my mind. For now, I would only accept that he lived, and that he waited for me.
The ship cut through the waves. I had the wind at my back, and a sword in my hand, ready.
“Perhaps you could rest, my king,” said Finli.
“No, I will be ready.”
I looked at him. His eyes held genuine concern. He had helped take Fundinn in the battle, and I had never truly spoken to him of it.
“Finli, why did you side with me?”
He sighed, “As if my wife does not give me all the hard questions.”
I smiled.
“Fundinn was not a fair ruler. Those that gain from injustice or those that like seeing others put down a peg would have liked him. Me, I just wanted to know that one day could be the same as the next, far as how my ruler saw me, that there would be no power games, no fits of rage. I never saw such from you. And…” he trailed off.
“What?”
“We were boys together. Do you remember?”
I shook my head.
“I went to play with you in the yard. We were sword fighting. You were good even then. Course, I was good to. My father pulled me away. He said no boy who wanted to keep his fingers ought to play with the prince,” Finli laughed. It was a bitter sound, “I asked ‘is he that good with a wooden sword?’ and my father said, that no, the point was none was allowed to play with ye, or they’d have their fingers cut off.”
I looked out at the water.
“I remembered that. I thought about the little prince sometimes, who never got to sword fight with the other boys. I mean, it was rare. I had my own life. But as you grew older, nothing changed. No one would much dare to be near ye, lest he lose something.”
I looked away. My throat was tight.
“That kind of fear was something I was ready to be done with. When you came back, and you took your kingdom. It was the best day of our lives, even if we don’t know it yet.”
“Finli,” I took in a ragged breath, “I-”
“Look, we’ve all had a long day. You don’t have to say nothing,” he said.
I nodded and stared out at the water. We stood like that for a long time.
When I did move, I could have sworn I heard the crack of ice in my hair. Finli’s red beard was touched with frost. The white and red reminded me of foxes in snow.
That was when it appeared. A tower, spiraling toward the sky. The fisherwoman who had spoken to me earlier ran to my side.
“We have been out this way and I have never seen this before.”
Her dark hair waved in the wind and her dark brows were furrowed.
“You know the sea better than I. What do you make of it?”
“I think we’ve found what you’re looking for,” she said, “and I think we had better all stay together.”
“Sound advice,” I turned and cupped my hand to the side of my mouth.
“Dock the ships! Arm yourselves! We are here!”
We pulled in onto silent shores. The wind blew, and the sun hid itself behind ever-darkening clouds. By the time we set foot on the small ground rocks of the shore, the sky was a deep purple.
“Looks like a storm,” said Finli.
“Looks like no storm I’ve ever seen,” I said.
I looked around the shore.
“Nothing grows here,” whispered the woman.
She was right. There was not a plant to be seen, nor animal, nor insect. It was only rock and sea and crusted salt.
My men and women crowded around me. I realized they were waiting for orders. My eyes caught a set of steps, not far away. If there was any way to go, that was it.
“Come! And be quiet. If they have not seen us, we might yet have an advantage.”
“How can you be sure this is it?” asked Finli.
“Two ships disappear. An island appears. The two must be connected. We will find them. I have found too many things recently not to be sure of this.”
At the base of the steps, we heard moans.
“Look about you!” I hissed.
It was the fisherwomen again who found the grate. They were prying it up before I could get there. It was half covered when waves would crash on the shore, and half full of water. The men inside were bound and near drowned. We pulled them out. Thannen was among them. I clapped him on the back and he spat up seawater.
“Twice,” he coughed, “Twice, Varghoss you have unbound me,” he said as I cut the ropes that held his hands in front of him.
“What happened?”
“Magic. Fell magic took us and the ships. They came for Ulfvaldr. He’s up there.”
I looked up. The purple clouds were collecting around the top of the tower. They swirled around it like it was that which had called them.
“Rest here,” I said to Thannen and the men.
Thannen shook his head, “No, what lives here means to do us harm, and he has taken one of our kings.”
One of our kings rang in my ears. I saw men nodding. The armed men with me drew their extra knives and handed them over, a few, their shields. Ulfvaldr’s wolves refused weapons and, instead transformed. The fisherwomen watched, wide-eyed. The guards who had seen before looked only wary. The wolves shook the wet from their fur and bared their teeth. It should have felt strange to lead wolves, but it felt right. I drew my sword.
“We must hurry,” I said.
They followed me up the steps, paw and boot alike pounding on the stone. We reached the top to find the tower gate open. The Iron Gate’s spikes hung down like teeth. I held out my arm. They stopped. We paused and there was a rustle from inside the entrance.
“Ambush,” Thannen said.
I nodded, “They won’t come out.”
One
of the wolves let out a soft growl. It sounded frustrated.
“We’ll run in, straight past them. Don’t stop running until you reach the other end of the room. They’ll expect us to come in slowly. On my count of three. Pass it back,” I whispered to Thannen.
The orders traveled by whisper from man to man, and from man to wolf. We aligned, and I put my hand in the air. I lifted my first finger, then my second, and with the third, we ran.
The door was gone in an instant. We were right. On either side were masses of men in black armor. We pushed past them. I cut two down before making it past the group that crashed together like a wave. I turned and my men and wolves had done the same. Finli slashed at a few at the rear.
“Charge!”
At my cry, we met them head on. I’d never fought with so sharp a sword. It pierced armor and bone alike. Ten men fell before me. One managed to cut my arm with a spear before I chopped his weapon in two and ran him through. I pictured Ulfvaldr, the danger he was in. The fire in my heart fueled my limbs. I cut and slashed and screamed in the mass of sweating bodies and black armor. I cut through a flurry of wolves’ teeth gnashing and red blood on men’s swords and fisher women's spears.
The tumult quieted until the last sound was the squelch of a man’s head leaving his body with the arc of my sword. He crumpled to the ground. I looked round. We had lost two. A wolf and a man. The women pulled them from the mass of armored bodies and laid them out next to each other.
“We will return for them.”
The rest of my people wrapped their wounds with what scraps of cloth they could tear from their clothes. The wolves licked at the bloody cuts made by swords and spears.
A scream echoed through the chamber.
“What was that?” Gasped Finli.
My face was cold. I ran for the stairs.
I did not know they followed until I heard Thannen behind me.
“Whatever ye men and women do, remember this, we must save our kings.”
Claw and Crown Bundle: A Gay Viking Historical Fantasy Shifter Romance Series Page 11