"You said it yourself. The sword is not the way, Brother. Neither is song. It has wrought us a bloody path."
"Then what is?" Hallad’s words rushed out. He shook his head back and forth.
Astrid turned to the Shadow, peeling her sight away from her brother's fallen face. "You will draw back your army."
The Shadow squeezed the wolf-beast's arm, and the creature disappeared through the shadowwalk. The man closed his eyes momentarily. The echo of clashing weapons came to a halt. He blinked his lids open and smiled once more.
Astrid focused her vision and witnessed the battle ending. The army retreated. The remaining reindeer broke through the men, scrambling to Emma and Erik's group of survivors. Daidu grabbed Erik and threw him up and onto the back of a reindeer with Emma following behind. They leaped over the broken bodies with wolves at their heels out of the battlefield and into the safety beyond.
Rota, with Whitefoot clinging to her, straightened as the king's warriors disengaged. Jorn collapsed over Olrun's body.
"Does she live?" asked Rota.
Jorn settled his ear over her mouth. "Barely."
Rolf held a blonde-haired girl in his arms. She sobbed, cradling an infant. The fierce young warrior-girl stood over them, making sure the army would not return.
Satisfied, Astrid stepped toward the Shadow. Hallad grabbed her elbow, pulling her back. She bit her lip and forced herself away from him.
The Shadow grinned, reaching out for her, offering her his arm. "I told you this day would come."
Astrid strode by the Shadow, ignoring his gesture and led his retreat. She sensed him follow at her heels. She felt his heart quiver with both excitement and sorrow.
What she didn't feel was Hallad's heart break, but she knew, from whatever ties that remained between them, that it did.
Astrid walked the long line of soldiers; they fell in behind her and the Shadow as the snow blanketed them in its whiteness, depositing flakes onto their shoulders and heads. She spoke softly as they retreated, hoping Hallad would hear her voice.
"The sky is dark and the hills are white
As the storm-king speeds from the nordr tonight...
And this is the song the storm-king sings,
As over the world his cloak he flings..."
***
Hallad watched as his sister paced down the corridor of soldiers with the Shadow at her side. Her words—not a song, but still ringing as beautifully as any choir—touched him. His heart trembled. He wanted to reach for her but knew it would do no good.
Arms wrapped him from behind, and a calm voice spoke in his ear. His mother took over the chorus as Astrid's voice diminished in the distance.
"Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep;"
He rustles his wings and gruffly sings:
"Sleep, little one, sleep."
Then Astrid, the Shadow, and his army disappeared through the broken streets of Glitner.
His mother's voice remained steady as she said, "But we will not sleep, Son. It might look like the Shadow won today, but we still live for tomorrow. I believe your sister has more light inside than she realizes, and I have faith that your bond, regardless of its warding, has set the seeds that will allow it to grow. The Shadow will not fool any of us ever again."
Chapter 50
Erik and Emma rode over rubble and ruins to the snow-laden pasture that was the reindeer's summer meadow; what remained of the wolves, the herd, and their callers accompanied them.
"Gather any survivors here. We'll attend to the injured as best we can," said a deep, commanding and familiar voice. Erik slid off the back of his deer, helped Emma down and then surveyed the surroundings.
Amidst the makeshift camp of weary men, women, and children, Erik spotted Hallad giving directions and trying to make order out of the remains as best he could. Erik’s mouth twitched up at the ends; he strode to Hallad and slapped his shoulder.
"Blood-brother, you're alive!"
"Barely," said Hallad with a hollowness Erik had never heard before.
Emma barreled past Erik and grabbed her big brother around his waist, squeezing. Erik wasn't sure where she found the strength.
"I'm so relieved to see you!"
Hallad stood in Emma's grip like a lifeless tree as she continued her enthusiastic hug.
Erik glanced around, searching for Astrid but when he didn't spot her, a heaviness entered his chest. "Where's your sister?"
Hallad shook his head, unable to meet Erik's eyes.
"Dead?" pressed Erik.
"Worse."
"The Shadow." It wasn't a question.
Emma pulled away from Hallad's waist and stared up at him with rounded eyes, but Hallad interjected before she could ask any questions.
"Can you help get these people warm and any injuries treated?" Hallad’s tone remained devoid of emotion.
"Of course," said Emma at the same time Erik nodded. They turned and set to the task, though Erik's heart tied up in knots at the thought of Astrid with the Shadow.
Seretta stood in the distance, wavering as she watched someone. Erik jogged to her, asking, "Where's my brother?" to which Seretta pointed.
Rolf kneeled by a girl—not just any girl—but the girl from Hummel's farm. She held a baby in one arm as Rolf held her hand in his, kissing her knuckles like an overzealous hero in a bad romantic tale.
Erik walked up behind him in time to overhear their conversation.
"Why did you risk your life to come for me?" asked Ginna.
"When I saw you, I just... it's just that you... well, you laughed at all my jokes. There was something about you… and I just can't put it into words."
"A scald without words?" Ginna laughed, and so did Rolf. The young warrior woman standing behind them scowled.
"Rolf?" said Erik.
Rolf spun around, leaped up and hugged Erik with everything he had. "Oh, thank the gods!"
Erik raised a brow at his brother, then switched his gaze to Ginna.
"Oh, right. You remember Ginna, don't you? From that farmer's house we stopped at before the Village of Gnarn?"
"I remember, but what about the baby?"
"It's not mine," said Rolf. Uncertainty crossed his features; his mouth rounded as his brows shot upwards. "It's not mine, is it?" he asked Ginna, panicked.
She giggled. The drengmaer-girl behind her smirked. "You do know how babies are made, right?" she asked.
"Of course!" A deep crimson blush crept up Rolf's neck.
"But we didn't..." Rolf stammered. "I drank so much mead that night," he said.
"So much so, I am surprised you even remembered me," said Ginna.
"I couldn't get you out of my mind," said Rolf.
The two continued to stare at one another until Ginna broke into giggles. "The baby isn't yours, Rolf. It's not mine either, but my sister’s."
An audible snort of air released from Rolf's chest. Erik slapped him on the back. Rolf kneeled back down, and asked, "Have I ever recited the Lay of Rig? Where Edda gives birth to a son who is dark and—"
"Come quickly!" Emma gasped and strode from Erik's side, waving for him to follow as Rolf absorbed himself with Ginna.
Rota staggered into the meadow with Whitefoot riding her shoulder. Jorn strode beside her; they both carried Olrun between them, her legs dragging the ground, her head hanging to her chest. Emma rushed to them as they laid the big drengmaer down. Emma instructed the two to cut back the leather folds of Olrun’s breastplate where the sword had pierced straight through.
"The bleeding has stopped, but the wound is deep," Emma said.
"Will she live?" asked Jorn.
Rota leveled her gaze on the man. "She would already be dead if it weren't for you, Jorn. You took the blow meant for her like any sal drengmaer would have."
Jorn shrugged his shoulders as if he brought her a biscuit instead of having risked his own skin.
"If we..." Rota cleared her throat. "If I hadn't have been fighting you in the first place. The blame is
with me."
"The blame is not with anyone," Jorn said. "Battle takes nei mercy on what is right or wrong."
The two held one another's gazes until Olrun grunted. Her eyelids peeled open. "Do I have to take sword to my gut to get you two to kiss and make nice?"
After a startled silence, they all laughed.
Erik pulled Emma aside, leaving the three to their reconciliation. "We're lucky to be alive," said Erik.
"Nei." Emma shook her head. "Not lucky. With you..."
Emma twitched. She reached up and patted the front of her gown.
"What is it?"
Emma fished inside the neck of her dress and produced a key, Erik's betrothal key. Her smile spread her face wide. "I thought I lost it, but it was with me all the time!"
Erik smiled back. "So it was."
"I don’t even remember putting it there!"
Emma turned her gray eyes upon him, looking at him with an urgency. "I'll marry you, Erik Sigtriggson," she said.
"I know you will. Someday, when the time—"
"Nei," she pressed up against him, craning her neck back to see into his eyes. "Not someday. Now."
"Now?"
"Now."
"With all this," Erik swept his arm around the devastation. The sky was so dark they could not even tell if it was night or day. Snow still rained on them, and the blanket of whiteness seemed gray in the lack of light.
Emma's eyes glistened. She smiled wider—that grin Erik loved so much.
"Are you sure?"
"I have never been surer about anything in my entire life, Erik Sigtriggson. Make me your bride, tonight."
***
That night, amid the snow-laden fields of Glitner, away from the devastation of the Palace, surrounded by reindeer, wolves, and one wily polecat (and not one among them vying to harm another), Emma and Erik spoke their vows.
Emma wore the dress Alfridr made her for her wedding to Lothar. When Hallad had asked about wearing the gown, she had confessed that the dress was a tribute to the life of Alfridr, the songvari lost in the battle of dark and light, and any feelings attached to Lothar fell away when they lost Alfridr earlier that day at the edge of the Gap.
Ase presided as the two stood before the group.
From Hallad's vantage, he could have sworn Erik looked ten feet tall, standing beside his smiling bride.
"We are without old traditions to rely upon, here," said the priestess. Ase stood in the center of the gathering, facing the two lovers. She thumped her stick for ceremony, and Gisla stood by her holding goblets and the marriage ribbon.
"Neither the rituals of Scandia nor Alvenheim seems appropriate in our merged lands. So I will speak with wisdoms that have always been for all people, throughout time."
Emma and Erik joined hands without any prompting from the old priestess.
"A little impatient, now are we?" she winked at them.
The crowd laughed, reindeer snorted and even Arvak barked.
Only the moon peering from the separating clouds kept light on the gathering, and animals and people pressed into one another to keep the chill from their skin and hides.
"When two are joined," continued the priestess, "One is not lost in the other. Two are not merged into one as most believe. Nei, these two souls come as equals, and each brings strength and individuality to grow as a whole. Oneness is not without the individual spirit. As these two join, they commit to nurture the individuality of one another that feeds the greater wholeness of the couple."
Ase signaled Gisla. The girl handed both Emma and Erik goblets of wine.
"As you drink of the cups, you drink your own essence." Ase lifted her hands, gesturing for the two to drink; they did. Then they exchanged the goblets with one another.
"And as you drink of these cups, you drink of one another's essence."
Again, they drank.
Gisla retrieved the goblets and handed a length of red ribbon to Ase.
"Now," said Ase, "You may entwine your hands."
The two faced one another, reached out their arms and held one another's hands. The old priestess wrapped the ribbon around their wrists, binding them together.
"You are now bound as husband and wife."
Erik tried to scoop up Emma. His arms caught in the marriage ribbon and she giggled. She unbound one side of their hands, leaving the other entwined. He wrapped his free arm around her, picked her up and swung her around and around as he planted a kiss upon her.
Reindeer snorted, their breaths heating the cold air. Wolves howled. Even Livli nudged her newborn baby to stand. Hallad had learned the fawn was born in the midst of the battle, secreted away at the edge of the meadow while Emma, fighting to stay alive, soothed Livli’s labor through their mind connection. The long-legged critter wobbled in the merriment as people clapped.
Despite the strangeness of the ceremony, the newly joined couple seemed like a beacon of brightness in this unfamiliar world of darkness.
Hallad turned, sighing. He'd hidden himself at the edge of the gathering, far enough away not to be seen but close enough to hear his little sister's union. Ravenna disappeared soon after the Shadow, his army, and Astrid had left while Hallad remained to put together the broken pieces.
A soft crunch of footsteps sounded in the snow behind him. Ravenna?
Hallad waited, not caring who approached. Exhausted, he had only one thought sobering his mind: he had failed Astrid.
The steps stopped behind him, silencing, as if waiting.
Finally, Hallad turned. The priestess' apprentice, Gisla, stood before him, her soft doe-eyes staring up at him in the sliver of moonlight. She looked older from the events that had past—not harder, but somehow more determined. She held a kerchief in her hands.
"You haven't eaten," she said, unraveling biscuits from the fabric.
"Distribute my portion among the people," he said, waving her away. "Our rations will run out soon."
"You need your strength." Gisla picked up one of the biscuits and stretched her hand out to Hallad.
Hallad ignored the gesture. "I can't feel her," he said.
He sensed the young woman's eyes upon him. She plucked his limp hand and placed the biscuit inside, wrapping his fingers over the cold dough.
"You still need to eat."
He hung his head. "I have failed her."
This is what has come of it, of trusting Ravenna, of the Shadow's trickery of them all, of allowing himself to be so misled. He should have seen it. He could have stopped it before it got so far along.
"Failure is simply a step towards success," Gisla said.
Hallad snorted. "I was so caught up in trying to play the hero that I allowed myself to fall prey to the Shadow. I forgot what it meant to be together. But the truth is, I need her. Without her, all I feel is this bloody numbness inside."
"As much as you realize you need her, she needs you too," said Gisla.
"I know she's there, somewhere. With him. But if I can't feel her, how can I find her?"
"As long as she's alive, as long as her heart beats with yours, it's not too late, Hallad Avarson, Guardian of the People. I believe in your sister. But more so, I believe in you."
HERE ENDS BOOK TWO OF THE SHADOWLIGHT SAGA
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Gnarn: will he find his wife and children? How can he, one unassuming dwarf, rescue hundreds of his buried kinsmen?
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Credits
Copy Editing
Ann Mauren, AMDesign Studios
Proofreading
Rowena Muldal
Cover Design
AMDesign Studios
Acknowledgements
Of course any book requires a team of readers, editors, critique partners, supporters, and more. I have been inordinately blessed with many people rooting for the success of this series.
Thank you so much: Lance Matthews, May Hancock, and Kate Erickson. Special thanks to my editor Ann Mauren. I know you're beyond busy, and I appreciate all the time and attention you expend on my behalf to make this series shine.
Rowena Muldal, my proofreader, thank you for your eagle eye and inhumanly fast turnaround! I honestly don't know what I would have done without you.
Mary Endersbe, you've been there from the beginning. Your enthusiastic reviews and attention have kept me going in the times I thought I might give up.
Another advocate in my corner that keeps me going is Chandra over at Starry-eyed Heart Book Blog. Thank you so much for always your work on my behalf.
Colleen Pippin, your advice was invaluable, and I'm in your debt. Your encouragement touched my heart, and I'm blessed to have you on my team.
Deborah Lau, your analysis proved most helpful in tightening up any loose plot points. I appreciate your input.
Veronica Acuna, I am so glad we got to know a little about one another over this process. Thank you for the feedback and remember to keep your dream alive. Pursue it. You have the talent and passion.
For Beta readers Angie Carr, Katelyn Grace, Robert Piasecki, and Heather Small: I cannot tell you how much I appreciated your time, commitment and comments. Thank you all so much for the quick turnaround and in-depth feedback. Your comments helped me strengthen the story in ways I couldn't see.
Broken: Book 2 of the ShadowLight Saga Page 26