by S. T. Bende
“We’re touching down,” Erik shouted over his shoulder.
A tight head nod was the only response I could muster.
My cheek pressed against Erik’s back as Deathknell swooped in a low circle.
“Scan the forest and its surrounding region for threats,” Erik said, quieter this time. “It looks to be unpopulated, but if you spot anything, say the word and we’ll find another place to make camp.”
“Okay.” I removed my face from Erik’s spine and studied the ground beneath us. We’d flown a few miles inland—close enough to the shore that we’d hear any ships docking in the night, but far enough away that we could pack up and make a run for it before we were discovered. I didn’t see any signs of civilization . . . but if there really were dark mages in this world, that didn’t necessarily mean much. For all I knew, an entire dark settlement was cloaked somewhere down there, just waiting for us to touch down.
My stomach knotted as fear coursed through me. So very many things could go wrong.
“Looks clear to me. Did you see anything?” Erik asked.
“No.” I hoped we weren’t missing the obvious.
“Good. Bakke.”
Erik steered Deathknell downward. The dragon rounded a grove of trees before landing in an adjacent field.
“Stay put,” Erik instructed. “We’re going to ride into the woods.”
“I don’t think I could move anyway. My legs are frozen.”
Erik chuckled. “We’ll remedy that. Just hold on.”
He guided Deathknell into the forest, crossing sticks, rocks, and a series of creeks before selecting our camping spot—a secluded dry patch located inside a circle of trees. Their roots had grown together to form almost a room, and their branches were so thick that we had protection not only from the elements, but from most sightlines. It was as safe a spot as we were going to find.
“We’ll spend the night here.” Erik jumped off of Deathknell and looped her lead around a nearby boulder. She immediately busied herself sniffing the ground before burying her nose in a hole and coming up with a mouthful of root vegetables. I dug my heels into her sides to avoid getting tossed as she went in for seconds.
“L-looks like there’s f-f-food.” My teeth chattered.
“Let’s get you warmed up.” Erik reached up to help me slide down Deathknell’s back. I slipped into his arms, my knees buckling when I touched down on the dirt.
“I’m pretty sure my legs froze.” I ignored the creaking in my joints as I took tentative steps forward. I’d naïvely believed that long sleeves, a thick wool tunic, and a heavy cloak would keep me warm. I was definitely going to have to layer up for tomorrow’s flight. Though I wasn’t sure how many more layers I actually had.
“If you want to start the fire, I’ll unpack the dragon,” Erik offered. “Just build it in the center of that tree formation—too close to the edges, and we’ll need to find another place to camp. One we don’t set on fire.”
“Thanks,” I said drily, before turning toward a fallen tree. I studied the thick log, assessing its branches before snapping off what looked to be the driest ones. When I’d removed a sizeable pile, I carried the bundle into our campsite and arranged the sticks into a triangular formation. I’d never actually started a fire before, but we’d gone over this in both my exploring and survival and subterfuge classes, so I was pretty sure I’d be able to handle it. Plus, I didn’t want Erik to think I wasn’t Viking enough to pull this off.
Once the logs were in place, I scanned the forest floor for anything that could pass for kindling. It took me a minute to find leaves dry enough to do the job, but I figured that between the bits of moss I’d gathered, and the pine needles I’d found outside the tree cathedral, I’d be able to piece this together.
Now I just had to make a spark.
I pulled the fire-starter from the pouch at my waist, and stared at it. We’d gone over fire-steels in class, but I’d never actually used one. The practical components of both exploring and S&S were supposed to come after the snow melted.
I supposed I could always ask Deathknell to sneeze on a stick or something.
Erik chose that moment to deliver a load of what looked like camping equipment. “Everything going okay?”
“Yeah. Definitely.” I waved him away. “Just keep unpacking.”
“You sure?” Erik eyed me skeptically.
“Of course, I’m sure.”
Please, God. Don’t let me embarrass myself in front of my Viking boyfriend.
“Okay then.” With a shrug he returned to Deathknell.
Seriously, Saga. Just do it.
My palm closed around the figure-eight shape of the fire-steel. With my other hand, I reached into my pouch and withdrew a striking stone. It took a few tries, and more than one scraped finger, but eventually I managed to create a spark close enough to the kindling to make a flame. I nudged it beneath my wood pile, blowing gently until I had a nice little fire going. By the time Erik returned, our makeshift quarters were several degrees warmer, and I’d turned my attention to the pile of camping gear.
“Well done,” Erik praised. “It doesn’t look like rain, so I don’t think we need to enclose the shelter—the tree walls and the fire should be enough protection. I’ll go get a few more logs if you want to set up our bedding and food supplies. Then we can call it a night.”
“I think we’re okay on wood. And it’s still light outside,” I pointed out.
“It won’t be for long. And it’s going to get real cold, real fast once darkness falls.” Erik headed back into the woods while I opened the bag containing bedrolls, thick blankets, and two mercifully downy pillows. I set them out a few feet from the fire, then dug through the food bag. Since I’d been tasked with instructing the kitchen staff on what to pack, I knew exactly what I was looking for. I was about to pull the sandwiches from the bag, when I heard Erik’s cry.
“Saga. Some help!”
Panic seized my chest as I leapt to my feet. Was Erik hurt? “Where are you?”
“Over here—toward the ocean!” he called. “Bring that water-resistant fabric with you!”
I dug through the net until I located the closest thing we had to a tarp, then took off in the direction of Erik’s voice. I hadn’t gotten far when he called again.
“Stop! If you get trapped too, we’re both dead.”
“Trapped?” I scanned the forest until I spotted Erik. He was knee-deep in mud, and appeared to be sinking. “Oh my God, is that a bog?”
“It is,” Erik said grimly. “I thought there might be more dry wood out here, but apparently, I misjudged the ground conditions.”
Skit.
“Do you want me to get Deathknell? Maybe she can fly low and pull you out.”
“I don’t want to risk trapping her. If she falls in, she won’t be able to free herself, and then we’re really in trouble.” Erik ran one hand through his hair. “Throw me the fabric. If I can create an air pocket, I can crawl my way out of here.”
I shifted the tarp between my hands. It wasn’t very heavy, and Erik was a solid thirty feet away. There was very little chance my throwing it would result in him catching it.
“Give me a minute.” I looked around until my eyes settled on large rock. It was slightly smaller than my head, which I deduced to mean it would toe the line between being light enough to fling yet heavy enough to transport the fabric. I hurriedly wrapped the tarp around it, and walked to what seemed to be the edge of the bog. “Okay, here goes. Sorry if I splash you!”
“Getting splashed is the least of my concerns.” Erik held out his arms. “Let me have it!”
“Okay.” I drew a deep breath, and did my best to remember the lone football-throwing lesson Uncle John had given Olivia and me. Neither one of us had managed to learn a spiral, but we’d both been able to chuck the ball far enough to appease her season-ticket-holder dad.
Here goes everything.
“On three. One. Two. Three.” I drew my arm back and flung t
he stone. It hurtled through the air, covering the distance between us and landing in front of Erik with an unceremonious plop. I flung both arms in the air with a jubilant, “Yes! And, sorry.”
“It’s fine.” Erik wiped the fresh coat of mud from his face. “Let me just inflate this, and I’ll be right over.”
I wrung my fingers together as Erik unwrapped the tarp and folded it into what looked like a pillowcase. He blew into the opening until he created an air bubble, then tucked it to his chest and lay down on the mud.
“Is it working?” I asked as he pulled himself forward.
“My legs are in pretty deep,” he grunted. “Give me some time.”
It took another minute of wriggling before he’d managed to extract his legs, and another several minutes of army-crawling before he’d made it out of the mud. By the time he reached my side, he was caked head-to-toe in thick, black ooze, panting, but alive. He rolled onto his back and blinked up at me.
“I didn’t get the firewood,” he said.
“I think we have enough, anyway.” I dropped to my knees and threw my arms around him. The peat-scented goo covering his chest squished up my torso to my neck, but I didn’t care. I was grateful to feel the thundering of his heart against mine.
After half a minute, I released Erik and got to my feet. When he struggled to stand, I offered my hand for balance. He took it with a rueful grin.
I turned my attention to the tarp, swiping it free of mud before folding it into a square. “What happened?”
“I was throwing rocks at a dead limb, trying to get it to drop. It was thick, and looked like it would have burned for a few solid hours. I guess I didn’t watch where I was going.”
“Well, you got yourself out of there.” I shivered. “Professor Kristensen would have been proud.”
“Been enjoying his class, have you?” One corner of Erik’s mouth quirked up.
“As much as my other classes, yes.”
“Mm-hmm.” Erik chuckled before turning back toward camp. “I need to change before it gets any colder. We can grab that broken log on our way.”
I followed his finger to a thick branch lying on the ground. “I still think we’ll be fine.”
“It’s better to be safe than freeze in the middle of the night.”
Fair enough.
We returned to our campsite, log in tow. Erik used an axe to chop it into manageable pieces, then exchanged his mud-covered clothing for a clean set. By the time he was settled, I’d arranged our dinner by the fire.
“Tonight, we’re having chicken and cheese sandwiches.” I passed two parchment-wrapped parcels to Erik, then pointed to the containers on the ground. “We also have fruit, and for dessert, lefse.”
“Very nice.” Erik unfolded the cloth I handed him, and set it down. We ate in easy silence, leaning back against the tree trunks as we polished off our lefse.
“Some of our meals will require a bit more work on our part,” I said as I licked the cinnamon from my fingertips. “But I figured we’d be too tired to cook anything tonight.”
“Good call.” Erik held out his arm, and I tucked myself into it. “You know, I’ve never seen meat and cheese on bread like that. It was very . . . tidy.”
“Yeah, I had to explain what I wanted to Celine a few times,” I admitted. “Sometimes I forget how different things are here.”
“And how does this compare to the camping you did back home?” Erik idly stroked my arm.
“I don’t have a ton to go off—I wasn’t a huge camper,” I reminded him. “But I never had to start the fire on my own. My uncle always did that part for us. And he certainly didn’t start it with a fire-steel.”
“What did he start your fires with?” Erik asked.
How do I explain a lighter?
“With . . .” I bit down on my bottom lip. Ah! “With something that had a little switch. When you flicked it, it created a flame.”
“Like a fire-steel?”
“Okay, kind of.” I supposed it did sound pretty similar.
“Mmm.” Erik nodded. “And what foods did you eat?”
“S’mores,” I said immediately. “In my world, no camping trip is complete without loads of s’mores. If I ever figure out how to make marshmallows, I will definitely introduce you to them.”
“I look forward to it.” Erik’s lips parted in a yawn. “We should probably get some sleep. I’ll go tend to the dragon if you get a few more logs for the fire.”
“Sounds good.” We parted ways for several minutes. I was the first to complete my task, and by the time Erik returned to our campsite I’d created a nice pile of firewood, and tucked myself into my makeshift bed.
“Deathknell’s asleep.” Erik grinned as he pulled his bedroll closer to mine. “She snorts tiny clouds when she snores. It’s amusing.”
“I’ll bet.” My pulse quickened as Erik set his blankets down directly beside mine. Apparently, propriety went out the window in the woods. “Um . . .”
His eyebrow quirked. “You okay?”
“Great!” I chirped. “Just, um . . . you’re sleeping here?”
“Would you rather I sleep elsewhere?”
“No,” I said, much too quickly. “Here’s fine.”
Erik’s throaty chuckle sent a wave of heat coursing through me. He removed his boots and slipped beneath the covers before throwing his arm around me. “Come here.”
I nestled against him, placing my head on his chest and listening to the slow cadence of his heartbeat. His lips brushed my forehead, and I sighed happily as his thumb made slow circles on the small of my back. Being this close to Erik usually sent my pulse skyrocketing, but either the stress of our mission had caught up with me or I was just too exhausted to process the fact that I was sleeping beneath the stars with the guy I loved. Either way, I quickly gave in to the overwhelming relaxation that poured over me.
The last things I remembered were Erik’s heart beating against my chest, his hand resting lightly atop my back, and the absolute peace that came from falling asleep in his arms.
The fire didn’t last through the night. At some point, Erik must have added the additional logs I’d stockpiled, but when we woke, our heat source was little more than a pile of ash. The air still carried the early morning chill I’d come to expect in Norway, only instead of gearing up for a day of classes, I was about to undertake another multi-hour journey on the back of a dragon. I had goosebumps just thinking about it.
“You have got to be kidding me,” I muttered as I stared at the white flakes drifting slowly through the branches. “It’s snowing. In April?”
“Good morning to you too.” Erik shifted his arm beneath me.
“Sorry. Morning.” I turned my head to the side, trying not to drool at the way his blue eyes sparkled in the early morning light. Or the way his long hair had just the perfect touch of bedhead.
“Everything all right?” Erik’s lips quirked up at the corners.
“Never better.” Heat ran across my neck. “Just, uh . . .”
Erik pressed his lips to mine. He pulled back so he stared into my eyes when he whispered, “I like waking up with you too.”
I instantly morphed into a puddle of pure hormones.
“But if we want the chance to wake up together again, we’d better get moving.” Erik frowned. “It’s going to be rough flying in a storm, and we’ll need to stay over land if we don’t want to get off-course. We’ll have to be extra vigilant to avoid being seen.”
“Right.” I nodded. “I’ll just get breakfast ready, and we can leave.”
“Dress warmly.” Erik stroked my hair. “It’s going to be worse than yesterday.”
“Fantastic,” I muttered.
Erik packed up camp while I pulled food from our supply bag. We ate a quick breakfast of bread and dried fruit, then boarded Deathknell, and took to the sky.
And went straight into a blizzard.
The winds were easily twice as bad as they’d been yesterday. Not only were they st
rong, but they whipped tiny pellets of ice at us—bullet-like balls that pummeled what little skin we’d left exposed with the force of an angry giant. By the time we were thirty minutes into our trip, my cheeks were raw, my lips felt bruised, and I was fairly certain my nose was going to fall off. It would be a miracle if I made it back to Valkyris without a massive case of frostbite.
“Any ch-ch-chance we can t-t-t-take a b-b-break?” I asked Erik two hours into our frozen journey.
“I wish we could,” he called over his shoulder. “We’re directly over one of the mid-northern settlements, and I don’t want us to dip any lower. Without knowing whether they’ve aligned with Bjorn or not, we have to assume touching down would be suicide.”
Well, skit.
Erik reached up to clasp my hands. I hadn’t released my hold on his chest since we’d taken off. Since we’d both worn mittens for this leg of the trip, I had no idea if he could tell that my fingers were icicles. But he slid my hands up to his neck, then tucked them inside his shirt.
“I’ll make you even c-c-c-colder,” I objected, even as his body heat seeped into my mittens.
“I’m fine,” Erik said. “And I need my negotiator alive.”
“Yeah, but—”
“We’re not good to Valkyris if one of us freezes to death before converting anyone. Your hands stay, woman.”
I rested my cheek against his back, enjoying a brief respite from the wind. “Th-th-thanks.”
“I have you,” Erik said easily.
The remaining hours passed in varying states of misery as Erik navigated us through a series of storms. For her part, Deathknell handled the trip beautifully, showing no sign of exhaustion until we’d nearly reached our destination. Her wings trembled slightly as Erik lowered his head and directed her down through a cloud that had, mercifully, eased up on its production of snow. We landed on a beach that was covered in a light layer of frost, and Deathknell trotted slowly toward a rocky outcropping at the base of a cliff. It was the first time we’d been sheltered since we took off. I relished the lack of bone-chilling wind.