He was right. As fast as I was riding, the drakkar had a strong wind at its back. But I had to try. Had to do something.
Through the trees, I watched the drakkar lower its sail, the rowers maneuvering it to the single, empty dock. They’d have been spotted by now, and everyone would be racing to find their children. To grab weapons.
To hide.
“Freya! Stop!”
In my periphery, Bjorn’s bigger horse gained ground. I urged my mount for more speed but the mare was spent, and as the trail widened, Bjorn moved alongside me. I tried to widen the distance, but he leaned recklessly far off the side of his horse and caught my reins, pulling both mounts up.
Hissing, I leapt off my horse and broke into a run. Boots hammered the ground as he gave chase, easily catching me by the arm. I fought against him, but Bjorn swept my legs out from underneath me, both of us falling hard.
“Quit hissing like an angry cat and look,” he snapped, pinning me to the ground. “They aren’t attacking!”
“I can’t see anything!” I squirmed, trying to get loose, but Bjorn was infinitely stronger than I was, his hips holding mine against the dirt.
“Listen!”
Instinct demanded that I struggle, for my people needed me, but I forced myself to stillness. The only sound was Bjorn’s ragged breathing, the wind, and the waters of the fjord lapping against the shores. No clash of steel. No screams.
Easing off me, Bjorn led me on hands and knees to the edge of a ridge overlooking the water, from which I could clearly see Selvegr and Skade’s drakkar tied up to its dock. Some of the warriors had exited the drakkar, but most sat idle, waiting.
“That’s Skade.” Bjorn pointed, and I made out a woman with crimson hair standing and speaking in earnest to a villager, no weapon in sight. “She’s looking for you, not a fight.”
“Then why does she have a full raiding party of warriors on her drakkar?”
Bjorn didn’t answer for a long moment, then said, “That’s a good question.”
There was an edge to his voice that made my skin prickle, but when I tore my eyes from Skade to look at him, Bjorn’s face was unreadable. “A better question is how do they know we are here at all?”
His brow furrowed.
“The only person who knew where we were going was Ylva.” My guts twisted. “I was a fool to trust her.”
Bjorn gave a sharp shake of his head. “It doesn’t make sense. When you accused her of leaving the message with the runes, she denied it and Bodil confirmed she was telling the truth.”
“What if Bodil was lying?” The thought hollowed out my core because I’d trusted Bodil. Put my faith in her. To discover that she’d lied to me, conspired with Ylva, with Harald…
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Bjorn argued. “What could Bodil have possibly had to gain from such an alliance? And why would Ylva give you up when she’s sacrificed so much to achieve my father’s destiny?”
“Because she’s lost her nerve for it! You saw her face when your father wished to abandon Halsar in favor of ambushing Harald when he left Fjalltindr. Her distress when we returned to find it burned and her anger when your father refused to rebuild. Her fear when she listened to Steinunn’s song. Ylva wants no more of this, and what better way to put an end to it than to give us both over to Harald?”
“You must have hit your head when I knocked you down,” Bjorn snapped. “It makes no sense to hand you over to her enemy. A better answer would be poison in both our cups. Ylva is no ally of Harald’s.”
“Then who? Because we know there is someone in our midst who is a traitor!”
Before Bjorn could answer, a flurry of motion on Selvegr’s docks caught our attention. Skade had returned to her drakkar, and my stomach sank as half the warriors climbed out onto the dock, following the man Skade had been speaking to into the village.
And exiting out the other side.
My skin turned to ice as I realized the direction they were walking, where the man was leading them. “My mother.”
Bjorn grimaced. “She might just question her, Freya. It’s you Harald has sent her to find, else Selvegr and all its people would be dead or dying.”
“Are you certain?” I demanded, my pulse roaring. “You clearly know Skade from your time in Nordeland. If my mother won’t help her, are you certain that Skade won’t kill her out of spite?”
Bjorn stood, pulling me up with him and then drawing me back to the horses. “Do you honestly think your mother won’t tell her everything she wishes to know?”