by AJ Adams
“And your medicine. That green tonic is working wonders. I can practically feel the bones knit when I take it.”
“Freyja loves us. She’s happy I can help.”
“She’s talking to you now?”
Bliss’ answer flowed beautifully. “The goddess doesn’t talk the way we do, but you can’t mistake her message.”
“It’s what you tell the Prydain?”
“Hey!” She tried to sound outraged, but she wasn’t. “It’s dangerous to offend the Lady!”
“Sure it is, but is she really here right now?”
For a moment, Bliss hesitated, and then she sighed. “Look, Siv, the sisters of Freyja specialise in healing. The first tonics came from the Lady herself, and so we praise the goddess for her generosity each time we help heal someone.”
“So she’s not actually talking to you.”
“Oh, shut up!”
The flashing blue eyes told me I was pushing too much, and my brain reminded me that annoying a witch isn’t smart. Still, I was curious about her powers. She would be a terrific asset to my brothers and me. “I’m just trying to understand how it works, that’s all.”
She snapped to attention, “Figuring out my value?”
Odin’s balls! The pain in her voice! Despair, fear, and anger, all mixed up. Bliss had read my mind and I knew she was thinking of the Brighthelme sibyl. The girl thought I was looking for a way to use her.
I was filled with pity, not something I feel often, and so I took her hand, “It was just a thought, Bliss.” She was twitchy, looking like she’d run away. Or maybe blast me. “I mean you no harm. I give you my word.”
The eyes were luminous, and for a moment she stood stock-still. “That’s the truth,” she sighed.
“You’re reading me?”
“Yes.”
She moved away, shaking off my hand.
“Can you see them now?”
“Yes. No. It’s not the same.”
“You need to touch me to read me?”
“I think so, but it doesn’t work all the time.”
So Bliss was limited. “Any time you want to know what I’m thinking, just hold my hand.”
Bliss was open mouthed. “Seriously?”
“Why not? I’ve nothing to hide.”
I still can’t believe I said that. I was thinking the Prydain are liars, and we Skraeling would die rather than cheat. As if that were the only issue! I was a damn fool, and that’s the truth. Arrogant, stupid, self-involved, and worse. If I’d known what it would lead to, I would have kicked myself in the balls straight away.
As it was, I spoke from the heart, and that’s what Bliss saw. It was easy to see she was relieved. “Everyone loves hearing news of storms and lost beasts, but even now they still see me as an outsider,” she sighed. “I thought mind-reading would have everyone screaming for the woodpile.”
“I don’t know if all of us will be happy that you can walk through our thoughts.” I was thinking that Rune was particularly private, “but they won’t be afraid, that’s for certain.”
Hesitating, Bliss reached for my hand. It was odd, but for a moment I almost pulled away. I forced myself to relax. “Go on,” I said to her. “Rummage away.”
We stood in the kitchen, Bliss looking intent and me hardly breathing. I couldn’t feel a thing, but then again, I hadn’t felt anything before, either. I’d seen Bliss stiffen, and her eyes had been strange, brighter somehow, and bigger, but this time she looked perfectly ordinary. Well, beautiful but not like a witch.
Bliss shook her head and sighed, “Nothing,” she moaned. “Absolutely nothing!”
“You can’t switch it on and off?”
“No. It seems not.”
So she hadn’t even investigated her own talent. She must have been terrified all this time that someone would discover her. Poor Bliss.
“I think I get blocked when I’m scared,” she said. “And when I’m tired I can’t do it, either.”
“What about the visions?” I asked her gently, but I was praying to all the gods that she could control that better.
“The Lady talks when she wants to. You can’t force a goddess.”
The reply was automatic. Although her mind reading was so secret that it was a mystery even to her, she’d obviously answered questions from the duke, the sisters, and the villagers often enough.
“What’s it like, having the goddess talk to you?”
Bliss thought for a moment. “Remember when your boat sank, and you went under water?”
“Yes.” Who could forget?
“Having visions is just like that. There’s so much power that you can’t breathe, can’t think, can’t even feel.”
“Exciting!”
“If you think being drowned is exciting, yes.”
She’d moved away, but we were still so close to her that I could smell her perfume. She had a quality of the forest, clean, fresh, and green. It was yet another thing that was totally Skraeling. The Prydain love their cities, but we’re much closer to nature.
I looked at the beautiful face, the stunning eyes and the firm, lithe body. She was perfect, and she was mine. I’d make her happy, too. She’d love being surrounded by her own people. I’d take her with me, and we’d make a life. It would take a few weeks to travel north, time that we could spend getting to know each other.
“I’m not Skraeling!” She was breathing quickly, tense as a bowstring. “I’m not going with you! You can’t make me!”
“Of course I won’t make you.” The Prydain are always telling lies about us Skraeling. “Bliss, we’re not fighting.” I touched her hand so she could read me. “We kill our enemies, raze their homes, and take their women. But only if we’re at war.”
“You’re saying there are rules?”
“Of course!” I kept hold of her hand. “I’m your guest, Bliss. I would no more hurt you than I would hurt Saga.”
The sapphire eyes were scanning me, looking right into my soul. “It’s the truth,” she sighed.
“All is fair in war, Bliss, but only a blackheart would break the rules of hospitality.”
She saw the truth and nodded. But she was still nervous. “I’m staying here.”
“If you come with me you’d be home among your own people.” A vala and a mind-reader. She’d be welcomed with open arms. “You’d be accepted.”
But Bliss had seen my thoughts coveting her skills. “You just want to use me!”
Saga was anxious, looking from her to me. I put my hand on the wolf’s head and stroked her ears. “Valas are honoured, but we don’t abuse them, Bliss. It’s not the Skraeling way.” I could see Bliss didn’t believe me. “Look at my thoughts and you’ll see.”
And that was my mistake. Like a damn fool I was thinking of the journey north, how we’d have to travel west to avoid the dangers that lurked in the forests and remembering how it was when my brothers and I made the journey the winter before.
It had been a hard run, being burdened with carts as well as the Guildsmen’s daughters.
“We’ll need to go easy on them,” Rune growled. “We’ll not be able to keep them or ransom them for wergelt if they’re dead.”
I opened the cart door, looked inside and spotted Lizbeth, her eyes wide with terror.
“They all deserve to die.” But as I spoke, I felt lust fuel me.
“Ohmigod!” Bliss was moving away from me, eyes wide with horror. “What did you do? Those poor girls!”
For a moment I was totally taken aback. “Bliss, they were the enemy. They’d burned our ship!”
She was shaking her head. “They’re not fighters!”
“When their men win, they win. They’re in it together.”
But she wasn’t listening. “No, they’re not! They have no say in what goes on!”
I’d heard that before, but I didn’t believe it. “I’ve never heard them speak against their men, have you? They’re all the same, Bliss. All Prydain are greedy and treacherous.”
She was looking at me as if I were a monster. Her anger and disgust were clear as day. “How could you?”
“It was war! And they started it!”
“Right, you’re not the type to attack and slaughter!” Bliss was shaking with anger and fear. “You’re honest and true! Not Beasts at all!”
“Hey!”
But Bliss was shouting now. “You think I don’t know what you’re really like? Why do you think I’m here? Because one of you raped my mother!”
She whirled away from me, running into her room and slamming the door shut. A second later, there was a click. She’d locked it.
I fell into the chair, finding myself shaking. It wasn’t fair. War is vicious, and she’d seen for herself that we had the right, that it was the Prydain who’d started it. It wasn’t right that she’d thrown her own birth at me, either. For all she knew, her mother had been working the docks somewhere and found herself a Skraeling customer.
I know. I was shoving away memories of that trip north, refusing to see the truth. Fact is, I didn’t want to remember because it shamed me. Instead of taking a good long look at myself, I blamed Bliss for being unfair.
I sat through the night, thinking I should have said this, or maybe that. It should have calmed me down, but actually I just got madder and madder. It infuriated me to have a girl like Bliss within reach and not to have her.
At dawn her door opened. She was dressed in cream and yellow, looking like the goddess herself. Her expression was closed and her lips pursed. “Good morning.” She sounded okay.
“Bliss, you have to listen to me.”
“No, actually, I don’t.” She was using that calm voice she’d tamed the villagers with. The one with icy overtones. “This is my home and I’m staying here.”
“But—”
“You just want me because of my powers and because I look like your people.”
“But—”
“I’m staying here, and I am Prydain. That is the end of the discussion.”
“I want you to be my wife!”
The words hung in the air. After all, I had decided to say, it just came down to that.
Bliss sighed and shook her head. “Siv, you don’t even know me.”
“I know I want you!”
“But I don’t want you.”
She said it quietly, without anger or any emotion. It was final.
For a moment, I considered taking her. It would be simple. It takes more than a couple of broken ribs to slow me down.
Bliss knew because she stepped back. “Don’t you even think of it!” she warned me. “I’ll kill you!”
She meant it, too. This was no weeping Prydain who’d scream and weep for mercy. I might be able to take her, but I had no doubt that she’d gut me at first opportunity.
We stared at each other, and my sense returned. In war, you can take what you want. There are no rules. Winner takes all. Odin help me, but as I stood gazing at the woman in front of me I actually considered abducting her. Yes, that’s how low I sank.
“Don’t you dare!” Bliss saw the truth. “Have you no honour, Siv Olafson?”
That cut me to the soul. I lifted my chin and pretended I’d never ever had the evil thought. “You’re quite safe from me, Bliss.” But I couldn’t help adding, “Not that you or anyone could stop me if I had a mind to take you.”
Yes, I know. I’m a damn fool.
Saga was up, looking from her to me. She was worried, sensing the tension, and as I was nearest, she nosed my hand. At that, Bliss hesitated. The wolf liked me, and it reassured her.
Bliss nodded and relaxed a fraction. “The rain has stopped. Soon the water will drain, clearing the paths.”
She wanted me gone. Like Lizbeth, she was rejecting me.
I couldn’t stand it anymore. Being around her and not having her would drive me insane. The thought of having a vala, one who might learn the fate of our people, was just as tempting. I reminded myself that she’d saved my life and I was her guest. To harm her would kill my honour and that of any sons I might have. But in my heart I was terrified that I might forget myself and try to take her by force.
I needed to get out, away from temptation. “There’s no need for you to worry,” I told her. “I won’t be insulting you anymore. I’ll be on my way.”
Chapter Nine: Bliss
“I’ll be on my way!” Siv was fuming. The eyes were dark, the fists were balled and the tattoos were bristling. This time it didn’t worry me at all. Siv was mad because I’d rejected him. He was leaving because he’d accepted it. I wasn’t in any danger.
“The water’s too high.”
He was on his feet, determined to go. “I’ve seen worse.”
Maybe I should’ve let him go, but he was so close to me that I was blasted by his emotions. Rage and hurt on top of deep despair.
Without thinking about it, I touched him. All gone. Thule, my people, my family, and now my honour. The loss surging through him brought tears to my eyes. I almost took her. I am her guest, in her debt, and yet I was tempted. I’ve truly become a Beast.
I’d rejected him for good reason. The Beast wasn’t worried about slaughtering the Brighthelme guards or the Guildsmen. Siv was Skraeling through and through. Might was right, and he was proud of being his people’s toughest warrior. But in all my thinking, I’d overlooked this: he was touchy, violent and bad-tempered, but he was also the most principled man I’d ever met.
The Beast would rather die than lie. He also followed a rigorous honour code. Just a stray thought about being tempted to break it hurt his pride and shamed him. I’d seen that for myself. I also knew without doubt that any of our nobles, from the duke to the squire, would take what he wanted, equating his wish with right.
For a moment, I felt regret. Despite our differences, Siv was honest to the bone. If it had been different, I might have liked this man. As it was, I couldn’t let him just walk out. It would be his death.
“Please, Siv. Don’t go like this.” I stood in his way, barring the door. “You need supplies, and even then, how will you get home?”
“I’ll walk,” he growled. “I don’t need anything.”
Stubborn bugger.
“Please, Siv. At least let me pack some food.” He was still tense, determined to go. “Weapons,” I said quickly. “A knife and a sword.”
He paused. “You don’t need to do that.” But the longing was clear in his voice.
“I can give you a knife. I don’t have a sword, but I can get a sickle. Will that do?”
“Yes. But I don’t need—”
“Please, Siv. I’d worry if you went off like this.”
“You’re a vala. Can’t you see the future?”
And that was the bugger of it. The one glimpse I’d had, had shown a danger that was now gone. The rest was a blank, probably because I was so damn uptight.
“You can’t see?”
He’d known me a matter of weeks, and he’d been asleep for the most part, but he could read me, no problem.
“I’m blocked. It happens sometimes.”
“Because I’m here.”
It was bitter, and I didn’t know what to say without giving him false hope. “The water will go in a day.” It was a lie, but as I wasn’t Skraeling I crossed my fingers and fibbed. “As soon as it goes, I’ll go to the smith. I can be back in a few hours.”
He’d stay another night, three if I were any judge of floodwater, and I’d find time to talk to him, to find the right words. He was difficult, aggressive, and altogether impossible, but I didn’t want him to leave angry. I liked his honesty and I respected his self-restraint. Also, I felt a deep pity for him.
“Siv, maybe in the next few days I can see your people.”
At that, his eyes blazed. “You think you might?”
“I have no idea.” I couldn’t lie. Not about the gift from the goddess. “I’ve never seen your people before, not even when you razed Brighthelme, but I’ll try.”
He was hesitatin
g, thinking it over. “You see the village, but do you ever have visions of the outside?”
“Yes, I’ve seen our duke a few times,” and felt sickened by his actions, “and I’ve had a glimpse or two of the sisters in Llanfaes,” which were comforting. “I think I only see things that are connected to people I know. But I’m not sure.”
“I’ll stay.”
He said it instantly, but I knew he was still worried about that shameful impulse to abduct me. He would rather die than do so, so I wasn’t concerned for my safety at all, but I didn’t like the hurt that came from him.
The Beast lived by pride, and so I testified, “Siv, of all the men I’ve met, you’re the most honourable.”
The fierce eyes fastened on mine, widened in disbelief. “What?”
“You’re right, you could make me do anything you want. Our duke certainly would.” That brought back memories of nasty visions. It sickened me, so I pushed the images out of my mind. “You are a man of honour.”
“But you don’t want me.”
Straight to the point, Siv Skull Crusher.
“My home is here.” I was gentle but firm. “But please, stay till the water subsides.”
The rage was subsiding, as was the hurt. I didn’t need to touch him to know he was wondering if a few more days might persuade me.
He nodded abruptly. “Thank you.”
There was an awkward silence. I decided being brisk was best. “I’ll get the logs in if you make breakfast.”
“It’s raining.”
“Yes, but you cook better than me.”
You know, he tried to convince me to let him do it all? “I’ll get the logs and cook.”
“Fair is fair,” I was firm. “I do the logs. You raid the pantry and cook what you like. Surprise me.”
I was building up the fire, listening to the sizzle of butter when the vision hit me. “Suffer not a witch to live!” The Patriarch was roaring from the pulpit. “Drive out evil wherever you may find it!”
Abruptly the vision cut off. I sat on my heels, wondering what the old bugger was thinking. I had the duke’s endorsement, so the accusation of witchcraft was moot. Clearly though, the Patriarch thought he could get to me still. I’d have to be careful.
Siv came in, carrying two plates and followed by the three girls, all of them salivating. “Pancakes,” he announced. “With honey and bacon.”