Viking's Ransom (Viking Ancestors: Rise of the Dragon, #4)

by Purington, Sky

  “It is curious,” Vigdis said softly, her steady gaze on Kenzie rather than the horizon, “that the weather that lent your sister Shea strength was lacking on her adventure and now by all appearances, the weather that lends you strength will be lacking on yours as well.”

  “Because of Skáld then?” Kenzie frowned. “Can he control the weather on Midgard like that?”

  “He can control men,” Eirik reminded, equally troubled. “So why not the elements?”

  “Right,” she murmured. “But I bet he can’t in Níðhöggr’s Realm.”

  “No,” Eirik agreed. “Even so, we should not expect the elements to be any more predictable there.”

  She supposed not considering how the Great Serpent seemingly influenced the environment on both Sage and Shea’s journeys.

  “So if you can’t access Helheim,” she said. “I take it that means you can’t shift us from place to place anymore?”

  “That is correct,” Eirik confirmed, scowling once more as he looked to the ocean before his eyes skirted over Rokar and Magnus. “We have a ship moored here and agreeable enough seas. Traveling by water would be far faster.” He shook his head. “But if we leave Magnus and Rokar behind, there will not be enough people to man it.”

  Right, because Rokar wouldn’t go near the sea and sailing with Magnus would weaken their magic considerably.

  “I may know another way,” Vigdis said softly as her gaze swept over the dragons then met Magnus’ eyes. “Though most here will find it uncomfortable.”

  “The Ancient, in particular, will not like it,” Magnus said darkly, evidently catching Vigdis’ meaning.

  “What do you intend?” Kenzie asked, glancing at Leviathan with concern who in turn vowed he would suffer whatever it took to get Eirik to his son faster.

  “It is similar to what your sister Sage accessed when she worked with Magnus to help Håkon defeat their enemy,” Vigdis said. “It uses my powers in combination with Magnus’ demon powers to shift us quickly.” Her eyes went to Leviathan’s. “Because you are so closely related to original Múspellsheimr dragons it will be worse for you.” Her eyes drifted to Rokar’s. “And perhaps you too now that you are marked with the First Blade.”

  “It does not matter.” Rokar’s eyes went to Eirik’s. “As long as it gets us to your son faster.”

  There was no doubt Rokar meant every word. In fact, she had the feeling if push came to shove he would board a ship to help Eirik. He would face the sea if it meant saving a child.

  Eirik nodded his thanks before his eyes went to Kenzie, better yet Floyd who was perched on her shoulder. “What of Kenzie’s cat?” His gaze returned to Vigdis. “Can Floyd travel within this power of yours?”

  “Yes,” Vigdis confirmed, a flicker of amusement in her eyes. “I suspect the transition will be easiest for him considering he possesses no magic.” Then she looked at Kenzie. “Though I would not carry him because it is hard to know how your inner dragon will react...any of your inner dragons.”

  “My dragon’s fine with my animals,” she assured.

  “Even so,” Vigdis said. “I would not risk it. Allow the cat to flee if it needs to.”

  She eyed the seer for a moment, unsure before she complied and set Floyd down.

  “Are you sure you want to do this, Wife,” Magnus said, his voice dark and gritty as his eye remained on Vigdis’ face. “You understand the repercussions, yes?”

  “What repercussions?” Eirik said, glancing back and forth between them.

  “Nothing we cannot handle,” Vigdis said.

  “What are they?” Eirik repeated. “What risks are you not telling us about?”

  “They are not risks to you or your kin,” Magnus murmured. “Only to my wife and me and the distance between us.”

  “Because he soaked up magic I once possessed,” Vigdis said before Eirik could intercept again, “combining our magic now will be...more intimate. Powerful in its own way.”

  Kenzie glanced between them as she spoke into Eirik’s mind. “Why do I get the feeling there are going to be a whole lot more fireworks between those two if they do this?”

  “It is nothing Magnus does not truly want,” Eirik replied. “And Vigdis too though she will not admit it.”

  “You sound pretty sure of yourself.”

  “I am.” He remained as blunt as ever as his eyes met hers. “Like ours, their attraction is unquestionable. Only circumstance stands in their way.”

  Fire flared beneath her skin at his directness, but she liked it. Him. He wasn’t one to mince words. But then his life hadn’t required a lot of finesse, had it? Just distance.

  Until now.

  Her thoughts went to the night before. The taste of his kiss. The unexpected passion. For some reason, she hadn’t seen it coming. Not like that. Not so strongly and instantaneously, that she would have taken him then and there if Floyd hadn’t interrupted them.

  It was probably for the best though because even if she weren’t eventually handing herself over to Einnar, she would want more for Eirik than her. He deserved it considering how much he had already suffered. He deserved, if possible, perhaps Tess or Ava. A dragon that like her, might be able to get close to him. Or so she hoped. More than that though? A dragon that could give him what she couldn’t.

  Eirik frowned at her, obviously catching snippets of thoughts she wasn’t burying deep enough. He had questions. She could see it in his eyes. But they would have to wait because Vigdis and Magnus had begun chanting. Thankfully, Eirik pulled her into his arms and sheltered her against what turned out to be a grueling experience.

  The magic the seer and sorcerer created was not just nauseating but extraordinarily powerful as fire whipped around them before hissing away in a shower of sparks. When it did, Leviathan and Rokar were on their knees, their heads hung as they held their mid-drifts. Both visibly trembled in pain as they battled through whatever they were feeling.

  “They will be all right,” Vigdis murmured, her eyes a little hazed as they remained locked on Rokar.

  That’s when Kenzie realized smoke curled off of his back, off his tattoo.

  “A connection has been made,” Leviathan said through clenched teeth as he braced his hand on Rokar’s shoulder. “I can feel it in my blood.”

  When Kenzie looked at Eirik in confusion, he only shook his head before he stilled and seemed to sense something. “The Ancients just connected with their ancestors on Múspellsheimr.”

  “What does that mean?” she murmured.

  “It means we have more allies,” Rokar said softly as he lifted his head. Fire sizzled in his eyes for a moment before it faded. “Our distant ancestors will help us.”

  “This is good,” Vigdis said, nodding once at Magnus, acknowledging that this was likely the reason Hel wanted him with Eirik. So he could not only help Eirik get to where he must be but to help spark Rokar’s blade and gather more allies.

  Magnus nodded once as well, his eye lingering on Vigdis for another moment before he looked at Eirik. “I have served my purpose. Now I must continue on to Skáld’s Domain so you and your kin can regain your strength. Vigdis can find me now if I am needed again.”

  Then, poof, just like that he was gone in a sizzling puff of fiery smoke.

  “He’s a man of few words, eh?” Kenzie murmured. She eyed their surroundings with curiosity as Floyd rubbed against her legs, having made the journey just fine. Though she had heard about Níðhöggr’s Realm, nobody mentioned how beautiful it was with its sparkling trees and gorgeous rivers. Then it occurred to her they might not be where she thought they were. “Are we in Níðhöggr’s Realm or Helheim?”

  “Níðhöggr’s Realm,” Eirik confirmed. “Though its coloring can sometimes replicate the beauty of Helheim.”

  “I see that,” she murmured, all too aware that he continued to hold her hand.

  “From what I can tell, we have arrived on its eastern border,” he began before he trailed off and narrowed his eyes at a fork in the strea
m up ahead.

  “What it is?” she said as the men slowly pulled their blades free and eyed the same location.

  Seconds later a warrior appeared, shimmering as if half there, half somewhere else.

  Einnar.

  She knew it without question.

  Her dragon roared to the surface, and she growled before fear and rage made breathing nearly impossible. She wanted to rip into him, tear his heart out then shred him to pieces until there was nothing left of him.

  “Are you all right, Kenzie,” Eirik said into her mind as he and the other men formed a ring of defense around her, effectively keeping her from heading in that direction. Any direction for that matter.

  “Let me pass,” she ground out, anxious to end their enemy despite the nugget of fear still churning in her gut. “Let me get to him.”

  “We are too weakened to fight him,” Leviathan said into their minds, reminding them that they had recently been under the influence of demon and seer magic. “I can barely hold my blade let alone use my dragon magic.”

  “I don’t think we will need to fight him right now, friend,” Eirik responded. “He is not entirely here but caught between Helheim and Midgard.”

  Emotions bombarded Kenzie as she glared at the monster just a few big leaps away if she embraced her dragon. A few leaps away from ending up in her jaws and torn to shreds. She had never felt such livid rage mixed with sadness. Such pure loathing for another creature. Tall, muscled and blonde, Einnar might be considered handsome by some, but she just saw his hard angles.

  His dead eyes.

  His blasphemous soul.

  Though her dragon seemed to sense it, her human half couldn’t quite grasp where her hatred came from only that it was well deserved. That pure evil existed inside Einnar, and she intended to squelch it out...once he thought he had her that is.

  Which helped her human half surface and think straight.

  “I could go now and lay the prophecy to rest.” She looked at Eirik. “Because if I went with him now, Einnar would have no reason to take Dagr.”

  “No,” Eirik ground out, pulling her against him before she had a chance to take matters into her own hands. “I am not handing you over,” it was clear he struggled with his words, “until I know Dagr is safe. Until I know this is not some sort of trick.”

  Trick? What was he talking about? If Einnar had Dagr, she didn’t doubt he'd say as much no matter which world he was in. He would find a way to communicate that he had Eirik's son and propose an exchange. Demand that she be handed over.

  “Eirik,” she said, keeping her words stern and detached. Well aware of what she needed to do. “You’re only thinking this way because you finally get to touch a woman other than Hel. Because you’re caught up in all the emotions of it.” She frowned, shook her head and said the last thing she wanted to but had no choice. “It’s time to be strong again because right now you’re not protecting your son. If anything, you’re putting him in harm’s way and threatening his life by not letting me go.”

  “No,” he ground out again, his jaw tight and his eyes still locked on Einnar as he switched tactics. As he came up with random excuses because he didn’t want to let her go. “Hel would not have had us come here if Dagr were truly in danger.”

  Though she agreed and had said as much back at his lair, this seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up. So she argued her point. “How can you be so sure?”

  “I am sure,” he said softly, his body trembling ever so slightly as he warred with his emotions.

  “I agree with Eirik,” Vigdis said. Her eyes narrowed on Einnar as she began chanting and sauntered his way.

  Though Kenzie and her fellow dragons might be weakened, the seer certainly wasn’t as she flung out her hands and their surroundings rippled like a wave before hitting the enemy dragon. When it did, he shimmered away. But not before Kenzie saw the fury in his eyes as they locked with hers before narrowing even further on Eirik.

  For a split second, a harsh chill swept through her and pain lanced her womb, before it vanished almost immediately. The flash of pain had been almost identical to the one she had felt when Skáld spoke through Vigdis at the Sigdir’s Lair. This time, however, she was ready for it and didn’t let it cripple her emotionally.

  Even so, Eirik sensed it and eyed her with worry, clearly set to scoop her up before she shook her head. “No, I’m okay this time,” she said softly, stronger by the moment, determined to not be weakened like that again.

  Meanwhile, Vigdis’ eyes slowly turned her way and narrowed. “Einnar is trying to remind your dragon of something.” She cocked her head, her eyes not hazed but her magic certainly at work. “He is threatening you with a very dark memory, child. One that will cause your dragon to act rashly...” Her voice dropped to an eerie whisper. “One that could make it lose its mind with grief if you are not careful.”

  As another harsh chill coursed through her, she instinctually put her hand over her womb and shook her head. “He won’t win.” Then she spoke without knowing what she meant. “Not this time.”

  She frowned, trying to make sense of the random emotions sweeping over her. How had she known Einnar in another life? How had Eirik? Because, as seen clearly in his hateful glare, the enemy definitely knew them both.

  While she struggled to find answers deep within her Ancestral DNA, it seemed Eirik had a bit more luck. Or so said the blazing fury in his eyes as he stared at where Einnar had just stood.

  “He was my closest friend,” he said through clenched teeth as his eyes drifted to hers. “And he did something truly terrible to us both.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  THERE WAS NOTHING more infuriating than feeling such rage and knowing his enemy was close, only for his nemesis to vanish and his rage to have no outlet. Not just that, but he knew nothing beyond what he just told Kenzie. Nothing beyond the friendship he had shared with Einnar then the horrible certainty that his foe had destroyed his and Kenzie’s lives.

  “We will rest up ahead and regain our strength,” Eirik said as they made their way up a well-forested mountain on the opposite side of Níðhöggr’s Realm from Hvergelmir’s River.

  “You seem to know your way around this Realm well, friend.” Leviathan eyed the area with distrust. “I heard the land shifts every so often so how do you know where you are? What is up ahead?”

  “I explored the area when Shea and Davyn were on their adventure,” he replied, keeping a close eye on Kenzie who had become very quiet. “And though I cannot be sure things have not changed, I can only travel in the direction that makes the most sense based upon what I discovered before.”

  Leviathan nodded, as his eyes slid to the seer once more in a mixture of distrust and lust. A typical reaction for men and dragons alike. Yet, ever since this war began, Vigdis was not her usual lusty self. If anything, she was more withdrawn, and it was clear why after watching her and Magnus together. She might have her doubts when it came to her long lost husband, but her heart was invested. She cared about him despite how much she denied it.

  As usual, Rokar remained quiet, but he felt a shift inside his cousin. Something had changed, not just since arriving in Níðhöggr’s Realm but before that when the First Blade appeared on his back. After somehow bringing their distant Múspellsheimr ancestors into the fold. A tribe they had heard nothing from since this all began.

  While he was grateful they had accrued more allies, he remained bothered by what he and Kenzie had experienced. Though they had yet to battle him in hand-to-hand combat, Einnar was getting to them in other ways. One of which Eirik sensed Kenzie might know more about. Because she was keeping something from him. Something he needed to understand if he hoped to keep her safe...until he had to give her up.

  He scowled to himself as they settled in a well-protected area about three-quarters of the way up the mountain. A cozy alcove nestled next to a river, it was almost entirely surrounded by rock faces cut through by paths with dead ends. Nobody could sneak thro
ugh the back way into this location, so it was easily defendable.

  Vigdis pleaded for time alone to refocus her magic and Rokar and Leviathan went off to hunt which worked out well. He needed time with Kenzie to better understand what was going on with her. So he led her down one of the paths to yet another alcove with a small pool of water in which they could bathe. Naturally, Floyd stalked alongside her, behaving more like a watchdog than a cat.

  “I brought a change of clothes for us both from the Lair,” he said. “Emily had clothing there that might be big on you, but we can adjust it.”

  She remained silent as she eyed the water then him. “So we’re bathing together?” Her brows furrowed. “I think you’re losing track of your mission, sweetie.”

  He understood what she was getting at. She thought he was growing too attached to her and bathing together would not help. That he would not be able to let her go when the time came. But he knew he would...he had to.

  “I am not trying to seduce you,” he said softly. “I just thought you would like to bathe and relax after what we experienced earlier.” He eyed their surroundings. The moss covered rock and towering pines blowing in the wind. “This place is soothing, is it not?”

  “It is,” she said just as softly, her eyes on him as he pulled off his boots. “But considering your behavior with Einnar, more so me, I really don’t think us getting naked together is going to help matters.”

  Probably not but he was going to anyway and hoped she would too.

  “I will not touch you, Kenzie,” he assured as he pulled off his jerkin and turned around. “And I will not look your way until you’re in the water.”

  “But you’ll peek,” she countered.

  “Not if you don’t want me to,” he replied, perfectly honest.

  He didn’t miss the humor in her voice nor the sound of her pulling off her own boots. “You’ve changed since I met you...and that wasn’t all that long ago.”

  “Can you blame me?” He yanked off his pants. “It’s an indescribable feeling being near people again without affecting them adversely.” He searched for the right words. Ones that didn’t sound too affectionate or caring. “It is...a true honor to be near you.”