Blood of Wolves (39 page)

“Dead,” Gard said, his voice filled with pain but fighting to remain even. “She will return her brother's body to the village and prepare him for the Field of the Chiefs.”

“After she is named chieftain, I don't doubt.” This from Reave, who sounded a bit admiring. Desa cuffed him sharply against the side of the head. “Damn, woman!”

There was no laughter. Wounds and the loss of so many good warriors were still too raw for that. But there might have been a grim smile or two. For his part, Kern simply nodded his farewell to Longtooth and staggered back to the bluff's edge to stare down the long drop he had made with Grimnir in tow.

Better they both had died in that fall. Better for Cimmeria, anyway.

Daol and Hydallan joined him first. Reave and Desa and Ossian. They came limping up singly or in pairs after that, like rogues called back to the pack. Only Wallach Graybeard was missing, taken to the shaman who watched over the other wounded. And Ehmish.

But they were all alive. Crom had truly favored Kern's warriors with strength and their will to live.

“Now?” Reave asked. A simple question, but one that limped out under the weight of so many weeks' travel and fighting.

Now. That was the decision Kern had to make. “We are not done,” Kern said. “Not while Grimnir lives and the Vanir raid Cimmeria. He'll come at us again. And again. I've no doubt.”

“So we chase after and bring the fight to him,” Desa said. Her voice was little more than a savage growl. There were nods of assent around the small circle.

“No.” Kern looked about until he found what he needed. A broken spear, with half its shaft and the tip still in place. It was bloodied several times over, with the blood of Cimmerians or Vanir—it didn't matter. Very much like the one Gard Foehammer had used to summon help from the valley clans. A symbol every chieftain of Cimmeria would have to consider. “We carry this to other clans,” he said. “They have to know that the danger is getting worse. That it is time to rally against Vanaheim.”

“How many?” Brig asked. He stared at the bloody spear, and at Kern Wolf-Eye. “How many clans?”

But Kern only had eyes for the northern horizon. And the passes into Nordheim. “All of them,” he finally said.

“Starting with home.”