“Mine,” the Jarl said softly.
Brochael swore softly under his breath, and Skapti drew himself up sharply. “You? It’s come for you?”
Wulfgar shrugged.
“Then you can’t risk yourself hunting it!”
Angrily the Jarl stood up. “It’s killed one of my men. I have a responsibility to his family and to the rest of them. I have no choice but to hunt it. Tomorrow. This afternoon I’ll send messengers to all the holdings. We need every man they can spare.”
“But—”
“Don’t argue with me, Skapti! I have to go. You know that.”
They all knew it.
Into the silence Vidar said, “I agree. It kills like a beast—we must hunt it like one. Despite the danger.” He glanced at Wulfgar then; a dark flicker of a look that made Jessa uneasy.
Kari stirred beside her. “I don’t think hunting it is the answer.”
Wulfgar glared at him. “Why not?”
“Because it’s not a thing of flesh and blood.”
“Then what? Fight sorcery with sorcery?”
Slowly Kari nodded. “Perhaps. If I knew what it searches for. But there’s one thing about it that I do know, that I can feel right now. It’s hungry.”
Wrathfully Wulfgar sat down. “Do you expect me to feel sorry for it? Do you?”
Kari shook his head. His eyes were bright and sharp. “Not just hunger. I mean this.”
And for one piercing second he made them all empty, without heart or thoughts or memories, so that inside each of them was a black, raging nothing that swelled out and engulfed them, and they had no names anymore, no friends, nothing but a searing hunger that tormented like flame.
And then it was gone.
White-faced, Jessa let her fingers slowly stop trembling. She glanced at the others’ shocked faces.
“I’m sorry,” Kari said quietly. “But I wanted you to know. That’s what you will be hunting. And whatever it hungers for is here.”
Wulfgar stirred, brushing hair from his forehead. He looked sick and shaken but his voice was steady. “Then destroying it would almost be a mercy. I won’t change my mind, Kari. Tomorrow, early, we leave.”
He stood up, and everyone else did the same. “Stay here, Vidar,” the Jarl said, “I want to talk to you. Skapti, ask the thrall Hakon to come up, will you?”
Hakon ate the bread slowly. It was the best and softest he had ever tasted, but he didn’t want anyone to see that. And the Jarlshall was so huge, all built of stone like the halls of Asgard, the meat spitted and crackling over its fires. And the tapestries! His eyes followed them as they gusted and stirred; great dusty faded hunts, the intricately sewn adventures of the gods, Odin with both his ravens, Hammer-Thor, Loki, Freyr. There was nothing like this at Skulisstead—a dark, greasy house, full of cooking smells and fleas and drying fleeces. This was how lords lived.
Skuli was drinking at the nearest fire. Drinking too much. He’d be here for the afternoon at least, downing the Jarl’s hospitality, and then, Hakon thought with a brief smile, he’d probably sleep it off. For him it was a day free of work, and that was so strange he hardly knew what to do with it.
Then the tall man, the poet, came over and beckoned him with a long finger. “Come with me, Odin-favored. The Jarl wants you.”
Following him, Hakon muttered, “Don’t mock me, master.”
Skapti grinned. “They say Odin isn’t to be trusted. Those birds that saved you belonged to Kari Ragnarsson.”
“The Snow-walker?”
“The same. So you owe him for your rescue.”
Hakon set his mouth in a tight line and said nothing.
Jarl Wulfgar was waiting for him in a small room with a fire. He waved Skapti away and told Hakon to sit down. The skald went out and closed the door reluctantly.
“Now, I want to hear it again. What you saw.”
Hakon nodded. He already liked this dark, lazy, almost dangerous man. After he’d finished, Wulfgar asked a few sharp, relentless questions. Then he sat still.
There was one other listener there—the one they called the priest of Freyr, with the pale coat and the scar down his face. Hakon hadn’t noticed him at first; now he saw how the man held that cheek away, in shadow, and he understood that. His own useless hand lay on his knee; he had learned how to make it look normal. Until he tried to pick anything up.
The man listened and said nothing until the Jarl turned to him. “Well?”
“I don’t know. Freyr spoke obliquely, as the gods do.”
“But if you don’t think it was this creature he was warning me against, then what, Vidar? And even if it threatens my death, I can’t let it win.”
“Jarl.” The priest came forward. “You know what I think. May I speak again, of things you won’t like?”
Almost angrily, Wulfgar glared at him. “I’m not Gudrun. You can say what you want.”
Vidar nodded and sat down. “Then let me say this. I don’t think Freyr meant this creature at all. Perhaps it is just an ice bear, driven south by hunger. I think Freyr was warning us of a nearer danger, an evil, sorcerous threat.”
The Jarl turned his head quickly. “You mean Kari.”
“Yes.”
Wulfgar clenched a fist but Vidar said, “Listen, Wulfgar, hear me out. I know you trust Kari. But you’re the Jarl, and my friend, and I can’t let any harm come to you. I have to say this.”
Hakon sat silent. They both seemed to have forgotten he was even there. He was just a thrall, after all.
Wulfgar gazed into the fire bitterly. “Kari’s my friend, too.”
“Is he?” Vidar pressed him closer. “How much do you really know about him? Really?”
“He drove Gudrun away. Jessa saw it. There was some sorcerous battle of wills. You can’t deny he did that for us.”
“No!” Vidar said eagerly. “He did that for himself! Now that she’s gone he is the most powerful. He’s her son, her image. You saw how he twisted our minds just now—he has her blood, her secret, evil guile. You can’t ignore that. And his father was the Jarl before you—perhaps he feels he should have been chosen. He wants to be Jarl himself!”
Wulfgar shook his head, but slowly. “He had his chance.”
“No, he didn’t. He was too young then, not ready. What has he been doing up there in Thrasirshall for two years but gathering his powers, weaving runes, knotting the forces of air and darkness together? Now he’s ready! And the words of the god mean him. A pale creature, come from the north. Remember that he arrived then, at that moment.”
Barely breathing, Hakon watched the Jarl. He was staring grimly at nothing. “I won’t believe this.”
“You must! You must, Wulfgar, and not let what you see as a debt of honor blind you! Kari is strange, ambiguous, dangerous! And the creature may even be his!”
The priest gripped Wulfgar’s wrist with his hand; the Jarl stared at him. “His?”
“He does not want us to hunt it. Why not? What other reasons can there be but that he brought it here? To kill you. Then he will take over.”
Wulfgar shrugged him off. “And Brochael? What about him?”
The priest spread his hands. “It would be better not to trust either of them.”
“Not Brochael too…” Raising his head wearily, Wulfgar saw Hakon and glared at him. Then he said, “Get out.”
Hakon went to the door quickly.
“Wait!”
Wulfgar stood up slowly, as if a great burden was on him. “You’ve been helpful to me, Hakon, and I thank you for that, but you’ve heard words here you shouldn’t have heard. That should not even have been spoken. I want you to forget them.”
It could have been a threat. With Skuli there would have been a blow, to reinforce it. Not just this uneasy sadness.
You won’t forget them, Hakon thought. But he nodded and went out of the room.
Halfway down the stairs he realized that he was free. Let the Jarl worry about traitors. He had some time without work!
/> Slipping through the hall, he saw Skuli loudly voicing some slurred opinion, so he edged through the door into the sunlight and wandered into the hold. Freedom washed over him—no one giving him orders, no backbreaking fetching and carrying! In a dream of delight he explored the Jarlshold, watched the boats unload fish and casks and bales of cloth, climbed aboard merchants’ longships and fingered their silks and engraved silver rings. There were swords there he would have given almost anything to own, to be able to use them, to wield them well. As he watched Wulfgar’s picked men whetting their blades and laughing on benches in the sunshine, something moved in him like an ache of hunger. He forced himself not to feel it, and with long practice, almost succeeded. None of that was for him. He was a thrall, a possession, something owned. And seared by a cold sorcery.
As he turned bitterly away he saw the skald again, sitting with his long legs stretched out, touching the strings of the kantele into soft, tuneless notes. Next to him sat the girl Hakon had noticed that morning, her long hair loose, her sharp, clever eyes watching him.
Jessa Horolfsdaughter. The sorcerer’s friend.
She beckoned him over.
For a moment he hesitated; then habit took over and he went.
“How can I serve you?” he asked sullenly.
“I don’t want you to serve me.” She laughed. “We thought you might like some wine.”
Astonished, he watched her pour it. The cup was gilt, with tiny red enameled birds around it, wingtip to wingtip. He picked it up, left-handed, awkward.
“We saw you watching the war band,” the skald muttered, twanging a string near his ear. “A short life, the warrior’s.”
“But a proud one.”
They both looked at him.
Jessa said, “We think you did well, saving the children. Skuli should have been grateful, though by the look of him I doubt that.”
He shrugged.
“Have you always been with him?” Her tone was friendly, and though he resented the question, he answered it. “Not always. I was born a free man. But my parents died and I was no use on my uncle’s farm, not after… Well, I was sold to Skuli to pay off a debt.”
They were both silent. Distaste, he supposed. Good, let them feel it.
“But your hand.” The poet turned his thin sharp face. “You can’t use it?”
“No.” Hakon was used to this curiosity. He lifted it with the other, feeling the cold of the skin. “There’s no feeling, nothing, from the wrist down.”
They didn’t ask, but he told them anyway. “It was done to punish me. For theft.”
Jessa looked startled. “You stole?”
“I was five years old. I took some food from a plate when my uncle had guests. Important guests. I was beaten, but then she said that wasn’t enough. She gave me her own, lasting punishment.”
Skapti sat up. “She? You don’t mean…”
“Yes. The Jarl’s wife. The witch. She touched my hand with one long finger, and it turned to ice. There was no pain, nothing, but I couldn’t open my hand and I never have been able to since. She seared me with her sorcery and she laughed. I remember her, every look of her, and when I saw him today I saw her again.” He stood up. “Your friend’s mother did this, lady.”
Jessa frowned at him. “She did worse to her son. You can’t blame him.”
Hakon nodded calmly. “But he’s still her son. He has her blood, her powers.” Remembering Vidar’s words, he echoed them, deliberately mocking. “You can’t ignore that.”
Seventeen
The fleetness of the serpent
wound itself together.
Jessa knocked on the wooden door and Brochael opened it.
“Come inside,” he said abruptly.
The small room was dark, with only the fire to light it. The shutters hung half open; a few stars glittered in the deepening blue sky.
Kari sat on the floor, his knees drawn up and his thin arms wrapped around them. His eyes were closed.
“Is he asleep?” she whispered.
He looked up at her then and said, “No. Just a bit tired. Sit down, Jessa.”
Brochael had eased his weight down on the bench, so she sat on the floor, leaning back against his knees. In the warm comfort of the room they were all silent for a moment, but there was an underlying unease, as if the two of them had been quarrelling before she came in, though she could hardly believe that.
Kari watched the flames. Their light flickered on the pale edges of his hair.
“Can you see anything?” she asked eagerly.
“Not yet. Give me a while.”
She flicked a satisfied look at Brochael, but it faded instantly as she saw how he was watching Kari, with an unhappiness in his face that shocked her. Then she saw the reason.
Tied around Kari’s wrist, half-hidden by his dark sleeve, was a small, knotted bracelet made of snakeskin.
She recognized it at once, with a kind of horror.
It was the bracelet Gudrun had worn. Two years ago the witch had taken it off as she left and thrown it down on the floor—a reminder of her power, her long tyranny over them all.
“Keep it,” she’d said.
But Kari had thrown it away; he’d locked it in the dungeon far below the hall, the damp cell where he had been a prisoner as a small child; a child without speech, unable to run, not knowing what people were, what the outside air was like. It had been there ever since, she supposed.
And now?
Jessa’s mind raced. He’d obviously been down there. He’d opened the room, picked the snakeskin from the ashes … but why? Why would he? She tried to catch Brochael’s eye, but he wouldn’t look at her. His usual cheerful smile was gone; she had never seen him look so confused, so miserable. She glanced back at the bracelet. Kari must have a reason for this. They shouldn’t start thinking stupid, unforgivable things. He wasn’t Gudrun. He wasn’t.
“Look!” he said to her suddenly, and she jerked her bewildered gaze back to the flames and saw there was something there. It drifted and blurred; became shapes that moved behind the peats and black, smoldering chars of wood, but she couldn’t see it clearly. And then suddenly, it was Gudrun.
The sorceress was looking out at them, as if reflected in a pool or a lake, the water rippling over her face, her silvery hair, the ice blue dress she wore glinting with crystals and snow shards. She was speaking, and Jessa heard the words close, almost inside her ear, so that she put up her hand and scratched at it.
There are plans working here. And not only mine. And each one thinks he plans for himself and is unseen. But I see.
Jessa looked at Brochael and saw that he heard it too; his lips were tight with distaste. Kari sat silent, knees bent, looking away. Then the image dissolved into flame light and the ripple of heat over wood, but her voice still hung and echoed as if from somewhere far distant.
Feast yourself. Take the dark one if you want, the Jarl, the arrogant one. But leave my son alone.
Kari looked up at that. He looked so much like Gudrun that Jessa almost thought it was he who had spoken.
“Who’s she talking to?” Brochael asked gruffly.
Kari shrugged. “Perhaps this beast of hers.”
“So it’s Wulfgar she wants dead. I’d have thought it would have been you.”
Kari watched him sidelong. “So would I. We may have missed something. She may be keeping something worse for me.” He twisted the laces of his shirt around his fingers. There was silence a moment, then he said, “And is this your thief, Jessa?”
Vidar sat among the flames. It was some dark, shadowy place, and he was leaning forward, and her heart leaped as she saw the thin rat-faced man drinking opposite.
“That’s him!”
“Looks a skulking little cutthroat,” Brochael observed.
“He tried to cut mine. Where is he?”
“I don’t know.” Kari watched the men. “I think he’s near, in the hold or not far outside, but I can’t tell. I do know this is happening now
, right now.”
“Vidar’s got his sword,” Brochael growled. “He doesn’t wear that in the hold.”
“But he can’t be far because he was here an hour ago.”
“One of the farms then. It’s fair to think he’d get this scum away, if he thought you’d seen him. What are they planning?”
But the images spluttered, became burned wood. Kari shook his head wearily. “I’ve lost it.”
Brochael looked at Jessa. “Will you tell the Jarl?”
“No!” It was Kari who answered quickly.
“Why not?”
“Because he trusts Vidar. He doesn’t trust me. And we have no proof.”
Surprised and uneasy, Jessa said, “Of course Wulfgar trusts you.”
“No, Jessa.” He gripped his fingers tight together. “Vidar is turning him against me. I know that, I can see it, the fine threads of mistrust that he’s spinning, like a web over this hold. It began long ago, before you came, before we came.”
“That’s nonsense,” Brochael said gruffly.
“No, it isn’t. Think about it, Brochael! To Vidar, I’m the pale approaching danger. I’m Gudrun’s son. I was the last Jarl’s son. He wants Wulfgar to see me as a threat.”
Jessa clenched her fists without noticing. “But Wulfgar knows you!”
“Does he?” He turned his strange, colorless eyes fiercely on her. “None of you know me, really! Sometimes I don’t think I know myself, what I might do. This is her curse, remember, that you’ll never quite trust me, that I might turn on you as she did.” He looked away bleakly. “And I might! I can feel it in myself.”
“We can all do evil—”
“Not like I could!” He gripped her fingers suddenly; she felt him trembling, as if he suppressed fear.
“Power, Jessa. Feel it? It’s burning in me. Sometimes I want to cry out with the strength of it, let it rage in a crackle of light and flame. Things call to me out of the snow, out of the endless wastes—wandering things, spirits, elements. And people—I can’t be near them because I want to change them, to move them, to slide into their minds and make them do what I want them to do. And I could, and they’d never know! But I daren’t, because that’s how she started....”