Jarl stared in awe and stayed completely motionless, certain that the creature was about to bring its large, heavy hooves down on top of Astrid and crush her to death. Astrid didn’t flinch as it slammed a foot down on the ground next to her. The ground shook violently. What a marvel this creature was; its entire upper body made of knotted roots and vines, like muscles overlapping each other.
It leant its head down towards her, and Astrid looked confidently into its eyes. The monster slowly reached down and removed her veil. It started and stepped back for a second, shocked by her appearance, before reaching with its other hand towards her face. While gently stroking the side of her cheek with its rough wooden finger, it gave a low, sympathetic growl.
‘We will not hunt till we have passed your borders,’ Astrid said gently, reaching up to its flat face and stroking it, with a wisp of a smile on her lips. The large creature slowly stood and looked over at the others before motioning towards the path with its long arm.
Astrid bowed one last time, re-attached her veil and turned to walk ahead. The others quickly followed her.
The creature watched them warily, Halvard and Skad especially.
‘How did you know it was there?’ Halvard asked.
‘Next time I’ll let you walk ahead,’ Astrid replied, ignoring his question. ‘I cannot protect you if you will not let me.’
‘How did you know it was there?’ Halvard repeated.
‘I heard him.’
‘Heard him?’ Halvard asked, confused.
‘I heard his heartbeat.’
* * *
‘No worms here?’ Knud asked, nervously looking over at Astrid as he laid out his sleeping blanket.
Astrid smiled under her veil and shook her head. ‘No. None here. They like stone, not mud.’
‘Do we have to worry about that tree thing?’ Halvard asked, and looked guardedly out at the dark forest. The light was fading by the second. The sun had set a few minutes ago and the dark had already begun to take over.
‘No. The Leshy don’t break their word, provided we keep ours. We’ll have left his territory in a few days’ time, then we can hunt.’
‘Seeing as ‘he’ didn’t technically say anything, I’m still worried.’
‘Don’t worry. I’ll protect you,’ Astrid replied, not meaning to sound condescending, but judging by his face, Halvard had taken it that way.
‘I don’t need you to protect me, human. I could kill that creature if it attacked me.’
Not caring to argue with him, Astrid stood, picked up her hammer axe and walked away. She pulled the wolf-skin head over her own for warmth.
‘Where did you get that hammer axe?’ Halvard called after her.
Astrid stopped in her tracks.
‘I’ve seen that emblem before. It’s dwarven, The House of Hvass.’
‘Halvard, stop it.’ Skad warned.
Halvard was irritated that the old, grumpy dwarf who never stood up for anyone was now suddenly defending the human woman. ‘Why? We know nothing about her, and what kind of human parent calls their child Astrid? Why would a human call their child a dwarf name?’
‘Halvard!’ Jarl and Skad shouted at him simultaneously.
Jarl was shocked at his friend, and Astrid stiffened at the mention of her name and glared back at Skad. Her eyes looked like they might burn a hole straight through him. She slowly turned her gaze back to Halvard.
‘I’m not your friend. I am your guide. That is all you need to know,’ Astrid said quietly, her voice restrained. She quickly turned and walked into the forest.
Halvard turned to Jarl. ‘There’s something wrong with that woman. She’s not normal.’
‘Nobody who protects strangers for free is normal.’ Skad laughed at him.
‘We’re paying her,’ Jarl interrupted. ‘When we get there.’
‘And let me guess…one hundred, two hundred Fé?’
‘Two hundred and seventy five,’ Halvard replied.
‘Phsht! That’s for free. I charged four times that amount in my day.’ Skad laughed, rolled out his blanket and lay down.
‘Jarl, I’m telling you we have to leave. Skad can protect us. That woman is trouble.’
‘I can’t protect you!’ Skad laughed from the floor, and settled his bag behind his head like a pillow. ‘I always took the Austr road. I never took this route. I’ve never liked this side of the Riddari Mountains. She knows it far better than I do.’
Halvard growled in frustration, turned and punched at the air. ‘I say we put up with her till the Salt Monasteries and then pay her. We will then leave her and find someone there to take us the rest of the way.’
‘Halvard just go to sleep. You’re not thinking clearly.’
‘You’re not listening!’ Halvard shouted louder, and even Skad looked up from where he was trying, despite his nerves, to sleep. Halvard’s voice echoed through the dark forest.
Looking up, Jarl stared as Astrid hung from a branch of a tree above them by her knees. She pressed a rag over Halvard’s mouth and held it there for a few seconds. Halvard tried to struggle but something soaked into the rag made him queasy and he finally passed out. His eyes rolled back and he dropped to the ground. Jarl successfully caught him before his head hit the floor.
‘What did you do?’ Jarl asked, worried that Astrid had harmed him.
Skad just laughed and turned his back to the group under his blanket so he could sleep.
Astrid dropped down from the branch and tossed the rag into the fire. A burst of blue and green flames glowed from it as the fire consumed it. ‘He’s fine. The effect will wear off soon. I saw him eating some mushrooms earlier; he must have picked Red ‘shrooms.’
‘No, they were brown. I saw him eating them,’ Jarl said, confused, and looked to Halvard who snored loudly on the ground in an undignified heap.
‘They’re called Red ‘shrooms because they make you see red,’ Astrid explained calmly. She gripped Halvard under the arms and dragged him away from the fire. She tossed his blanket over him for good measure. ‘He shouldn’t eat the food here. It might look familiar but a lot of it is poisonous. He was lucky. If he were any other species he’d be dead.’
‘He’s an idiot,’ Jarl grumbled.
Astrid agreed with him, a small trace of laughter in her voice.
‘I’m sorry for what he said,’ Jarl apologised. ‘He didn’t mean it.’
‘You’re wrong,’ Astrid replied. Her eyes held a hint of sadness. ‘The Red ‘shrooms make you angry, but they don’t make you lie. He meant every word.’ She silently walked away.
Jarl very nearly went after her, but decided against it. Moving over to his bag, he pulled out his own blanket and sat by the fire. He wrapped it around his shoulders and looked into the flickering heat. The air was colder now and the moon, fully risen, shone its cold white light everywhere.
Astrid always did this, walked away and patrolled the area, only to return when she thought they were all asleep. She sat down and wrapped her wolf-skin around her, conscious to sit as far away from the ponies as possible. She remained as motionless as stone, only her green and grey eyes swivelled and glinted in the yellow firelight.
Halvard or Jarl would normally wake a few hours before dawn and take watch, but Jarl knew Astrid would never sleep near them. In fact Jarl had never seen her sleep in the whole time they had been travelling together. She was inclined to wander off as if to patrol the area again, returning just before the dawn.
There was something about her that Jarl couldn’t help but be intrigued by. For all the air of mystery and danger surrounding her, there was also something underneath all of that which he couldn’t quite pin point. A strange mixture of sadness, kindness, and a desperate need to be around people, yet all the while fearing them. She was brave and kind, and that fascinated him.
Secret
37 years ago...
‘I’m leaving tomorrow,’ Skad said loudly across the table. Astrid and Dag looked up at him in surprise. ‘I’
m not spending the winter here, I’m going back to Bjargtre. I’ll be back in the summer for two months next year.’
It was all Astrid could do to hide the small smile that crept up from the corners of her mouth. To be rid of him for some time was an appealing thought. Quick as lightning she looked down at her food and dropped her spoon in the soup.
Skad noticed the little twitch as she tried to hide the smile. ‘Don’t be too happy or I’ll train you even harder when I get back,’ he snapped.
‘Don’t talk to her like that,’ Dag said gruffly. ‘She didn’t do anything.’
Skad growled his displeasure at being silenced and left the room with an air of embarrassment.
‘Astrid, leave me for a moment,’ Dag said gently, and turned to her with a forced smile. ‘I need some time alone.’
Astrid left immediately, walked outside and closed the door. She headed towards Ragi’s hut.
Skad was ahead and she approached him. Normally he was good in company, and kept his snide comments to Astrid’s training sessions, avoiding her for the rest of the day and at times even avoiding eye contact during meals.
Today, however, she had let her feelings slip with a smile that showed her pleasure at him leaving. She had let frustration with him and the long, early hours training with Ragi show with just that slight smile.
‘Don’t humiliate me like that again, Brojóta burðr.’ Skad snarled and knocked her to the ground without warning. He laughed down at her, and for a brief moment she saw red. She retaliated and snapped her ankles to either side of his right leg and twisted her whole body to the side. She effectively threw him to the ground, a smirk prominent on her face as she did so, though the emotion was short lived. Skad lay there and looked like he was about to murder her, with rage in his eyes.
She couldn’t lie to herself; it had been immensely satisfying to knock him down. With an urge to retreat to a safe distance, she got to her feet and walked away.
Deeper in the forest, she smiled as she saw Ragi sat with a stone pestle and mortar, grinding some of the hazelnuts he had dried over the last few days. He scooped up a handful of them and spread them onto a sheet of coarse cloth that had been stretched over a wooden frame to keep it taut. Once done, he placed it out in the sun to dry over a series of raised planks he had built alongside his hut.
‘Can I help?’ Astrid said. Ragi smiled as he saw her and stepped aside. He poured more hazelnuts into the mortar and passed her the pestle. ‘Ragi...what does Brojóta burðr mean?’ she asked casually. Ragi reacted as if she had smacked him across the forehead with the word.
‘Where did you hear that?’ he asked in shock.
‘Skad said it.’
His upper lip curled and Ragi snarled. His green eyes turned slightly yellow around the pupil, and stretched upward with an appearance like that of a snake.
‘It’s a horrible word, Astrid. Next time he says that, tell Dag.’
‘But what does it mean Ragi?’ Astrid asked again, her curiosity piqued. She refused to back down and insisted he tell her.
‘It means...unwanted child,’ Ragi lied.
Astrid’s eyes grew wide. She was shocked and hurt. There was something he was hiding from her and that was unlike him.
‘What does it really mean?’
‘Rape. It means rape child,’ Ragi finally said, and looked down at his feet. Deeply ashamed that he had had to explain such a disgusting slur.
‘Skad thinks my father -’
‘No! It’s just a cruel word dwarves use for half-bloods. Skad doesn’t think anything about your parents. He doesn’t know them, he’s just cruel.’
‘Do the goblins have a word like that?’
‘Yes...yes we do,’ Ragi confessed, and the tips of his ears turned red with embarrassment. ‘So do the elves. We all do.’
‘Why? Why do you all...hate me?’
‘I don’t hate you!’ Ragi said, and took her hands in his. ‘You’re my little wild child.’
‘Why? Why don’t you hate me?’ Astrid asked.
Ragi was appalled that she would even ask such a thing. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Everyone else hates me. Why are you different?’
‘Everyone else doesn’t hate you. If your parents had just been commoners I don’t think anyone would have cared. But Sylbil, your mother, was royalty, she should have been queen. There were many people who would have seen what she did as a betrayal of her race. And Arnbjörg was second cousin to Vígdís. Most people wouldn’t care, it’s just because of who your parents were.’
‘They were brave,’ Astrid whispered, pride and sadness in her voice.
‘They were! Immensely brave! It would have been very hard for them to leave you,’ Ragi said fondly, and gently rested his hand on the side of her face.
‘I wish they hadn’t,’ Astrid confessed, bowing her head in the knowledge that Ragi would be shocked to hear her say such a thing.
‘They loved you! That’s what you do for people you love. You give up your life for them!’
‘It’s mean.’ Astrid growled, her eyes blurred with tears, but she refused to let them run down her face. ‘They shouldn’t have left me alone!’
‘You have Dag, and me.’
Astrid smiled and wiped at her tears with a sleeve. ‘I’m sorry. I’m just being silly.’ She paused for a moment, swallowing back the sadness. ‘Oh, I knocked Skad down today,’ she said, changing the subject.
Ragi raised his eyebrows so high they were very nearly lost in his hair line.
‘You didn’t.’
‘I did! Knocked him right on his butt.’
Ragi burst out laughing, his laugh a quite terrifying cackle. His ears lifted up and his eyes glinted at her. ‘I wish I’d seen it!’
Astrid giggled and picked up the pestle. She ground the hazelnuts some more.
The sun started to set and she ground them a little faster so Ragi would be able to spread the produce out on the cloth trays he had made before the last of the sun disappeared.
‘Why do they hate each other?’
‘Who?’
‘The goblins. And the elves and the dwarves.’
‘The goblins said the dwarves attacked them and destroyed Angh-’
‘Angh?’
‘An old city. I don’t think it existed, if I’m honest. My tribe said it was in the Riddari Leggr but I’ve heard other people say it was in the Outlands.’
‘Where’s that?’
Ragi sat down, reached for a stick nearby and began to draw in the dirt. He sketched out a rough map of Ammasteinn on the dusty ground. Astrid crouched next to him and watched with interest.
‘These mountains here are the Riddari,’ Ragi said, and drew a mountain line which stretched across Ammasteinn. ‘If the mountains are the shape of a horse, the Aldwood is in its stomach, and the Riddari Leggr are here, where its legs would be.’
‘Where do your people live?’
‘Here, above the Riddari in the north, and there are a lot of us near Lake Krewa near Bjargtre.’
‘If I went there would they hate me?’
‘Don’t ever go there, Astrid,’ Ragi said firmly. ‘Goblins don’t even trust goblins who aren’t from their tribe, they would kill you.’
‘Because I’m a half -blood?’
‘Because you’re not a goblin.’
The sun had completely set, and Astrid heard Dag call for her in the distance. She stood up and smiled at Ragi. ‘So I’ll go to the human lands.’
‘They’d... probably be curious.’ Ragi smiled.
‘I should ask Dag to take me.’
‘Why? He’s not human.’
‘He’s not? Astrid asked, confused. She had assumed that since he did not have pointed ears that he was human.
‘No, humans have darker skin. Dag is...actually I don’t know what Dag is,’ Ragi said in surprise. ‘He’s not an elf, and he’s not a dwarf...’
Dag’s calls for her became insistent enough for Astrid to say goodbye. She hugged Ragi
quickly and ran off, grinning cheekily, before he could scold her for hugging him. Ragi shook his head at her but smiled as soon as she was out of sight.
Reaching the house, Astrid smiled as she saw Dag but looked around warily.
‘Where’s Skad?’
‘He’s inside. Are you alright? Skad said you hurt your head a little today, tripped and fell?’
‘I’m alright,’ she said, and tried not to sound too cheerful. She thought nothing of Skad’s sudden interest in her injuries. ‘Is he ok?’
‘Who?’
‘Skad...I..I accidently knocked him over.’
‘I don’t know. He seemed angry, as usual.’
Astrid tried not to grin at Dag’s remark and slowly walked towards the house. She stopped and took a deep breath before she entered. If Skad was angry before, he would be furious now. She opened the door and walked cautiously inside.
Skad looked up from the table and glared at her, a flask of Dag’s ale in his hand. His grey eyes looked terrifying in the firelight.
Astrid closed the door firmly behind her and stepped up to the table. She did her best not to flinch at Skad’s glare.
‘I’m sorry...I didn’t mean to trip you,’ Astrid whispered, frightened that the proud dwarf might suddenly decide to leave.
As much as she hated his cruel words at times, what he had taught her made her feel strong, less helpless. In a sad way, he was the only tie she had to her father. It was better to have him and tolerate his insults than have another small tie to her parents severed.
Skad rose and crossed to her. He straightened his back so that he towered over her, and glared down at her. He leant forward till his head was barely an inch from hers.
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