DEBTS (Vinlanders' Saga Book 3) (13 page)

“Were there only the four of them?” the first woman asked, drawing Annikke’s attention.

Benoia answered. “They’re all we saw.”

The woman nodded, and spoke to the other two women. “Kellan, scout the area.”

Kellan acknowledged the order with a tip of her blond head, then disappeared back beneath the trees.

“I’m Norva,” the first woman introduced herself, “and that’s Halageth.” She indicated the plump woman.

Annikke noted that the woman didn’t use their patronyms in her introduction. Were they Outcasts? Even if they were, they’d just saved Benoia from being abducted by Lord Tholvar’s men. For that alone, she owed them courtesy, even if their actions were likely to make a bad situation worse. Lord Tholvar would no doubt blame Benoia for the death of his men. “I’m Annikke Torrsonsdatter, and this is my foster-daughter, Benoia Fornosdatter. I thank you for your timely arrival and intervention.”

Norva nodded. “Merely repaying a debt, since you found and cared for Lord Vali.”

Annikke lifted a brow and looked down at the youth in his blankets. “
Lord
Vali?”

“Aye,” Hallageth said as she rose from cutting the young man free of his bonds. “This is Lady Solveig’s son, and heir to Forsvaremur. Did you not know?”

A slew of questions crowded Annikke’s tongue, but she kept her answer short. “No. He didn’t choose to confide that to us.”

“I renounced my inheritance. I’m not a lord anymore.” Vali,
Lord
Vali, struggled to his feet.

It was Norva’s turn to look surprised. “You did
what
? Are you daft, boy? I mean, my lord.” In a voice half directed at herself, she said, “Lady Solveig’s messenger said nothing of this.” She waved her hand. “Never mind. That’s between you and your lady mother. All I know, all I care about, is returning you to her.”

Vali drew himself up. “I’m not a lost puppy.”

“Could have fooled me,” Hallageth muttered.

Norva shot her companion a quelling glance. “Nevertheless, my lord, Lady Solveig has tasked everyone able to leave their duties with finding you, even the Daughters of Freya.”

Halageth steadied him as Vali wobbled.

Norva looked alarmed. “Are you unwell, my lord?” She speared Annikke with a fear sharpened gaze. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Emergence Exhaustion. You wouldn’t happen to have any
stirkedrikk
, would you?”

“Baldur’s bright shiny … buttons,” Norva swore. “What were you thinking, to leave when you were in Emergence? My lord.”

“I wasn’t
in
Emergence when I left.”

Vali began to shake, and Benoia moved to bracket him with Halageth on his other side.

“You’d best sit down before you fall down,” Benoia said, helping him back to his nest of blankets.

“Damn,” Norva swore, “I don’t have any
stirkkedrikk
.”

“Yes, we do,” Halageth said.

Norva looked at her companion, brows raised.

Hallageth shrugged, her expression sheepish. “The messenger said to bring some, just in case. I threw a flask in my pack and forgot about it.” She left to retrieve her sack from the forest. A few minutes later Annikke had administered the extremely sweet draught while Vali made a disgusted face.

“Bleh. That’s vile,” he complained.

“Will that be enough?” Norva asked.

“I don’t know. Aren is out hunting. It will be a while before he returns, but until then we’ve got journey-bread.” Annikke matched words to action, handing a piece to the young lord.

Vali made a face but took the dry round and bit into it with a crunch.

“Here.” Halageth dug into her pack and produced a wooden cup into which she poured an amber liquid. “Soak it in this cider so you don’t break a tooth.”

“My thanks.” Vali accepted the cup and fell upon the journey-bread with a ferocity only seen in starving wolves and youths in Emergence.

The women watched in silence with a kind of awe that he could still be that hungry even after drinking the
stirkedrikk
. Vali had barely finished and set down the empty cup when his eyes drooped.

Annikke knelt to pull the blanket close around his sleeping form.

Norva squatted on lean haunches on the other side of Vali. “Is that normal?” She didn’t try to keep the worry out of her voice. “I’ve never seen Emergence take someone like this before.”

“Nor have I,” Annikke answered. “But he is late coming to it, and he’d used his Talent unknowing for days before we found him. Had Aren not been able to track him…”

“We think that he’ll be all right as long as we keep him fed and let him rest,” Benoia added.

“Thank the gods. The Daughters of Freya owe Lady Solveig much. I wouldn’t want us to be the bearers of tragic news.”

“I think instead that you’ll be bringing her the happy tidings that not only is her son restored to her, but he is fully a man with a powerful Talent, and able to inherit his place as Jarl.”

Kellan emerged silently from between two trees and answered Norva’s unspoken query. “No sign of others, except for one set of tracks that are candlemarks older than theirs.” She tilted her head at the men lying on the ground. “The tracks lead off yonder and don’t intersect with the way these four approached.” She pointed back the way she’d come, in the same place Aren had disappeared into the dappled green.

“Those would be Aren’s tracks,” Annikke said. “He’s hunting, since we’ve fed most of our food to Vali.”

Halageth rose to pace the perimeter of the small clearing and Kellan took her place watching the forest over Norva’s shoulder.

“If it’s not a secret, will you tell me about the Daughters of Freya?” Benoia asked.

“It’s not a secret,” Norva answered. “We are wives and mothers and daughters who couldn’t find justice from the men who had power over us. We had nowhere to run to until Lady Solveig gave us the use of fallow land.”

“That’s why you don’t use your patronyms?” Annikke asked.

“We see no reason to use the names of men who beat us, or used us against our will, or sold us into thralldom to pay their debts. At home we call ourselves by our mother’s name. There I’m known as Norva Maeligsdatter.”

“I like that. That’s how I’d like to be known. Benoia Annikkesdatter.”

“You have a mother,” Annikke said softly.

“I do, but she never stood up for me. She let Da beat her, and me. I’d rather be known by your name.” Her fierce expression suddenly turned doubtful. “Is that all right?”

Annikke blinked, willing her tears away. “Of course.”

Benoia nodded as if it was all settled. “Do all of the Daughters of Freya know how to fight the way you did?”

“Most of us. Sometimes an angry father or husband comes looking to reclaim the woman he drove away. We learn how to protect ourselves.”

“I’d like that,” Benoia said. “What do I have to do to join you?”

“Benoia,” Annikke protested. “You don’t know these women.”

“I know I don’t ever want a man to touch me the way Sveyn did. I don’t ever want to be afraid like that again. And what if my father stops selling me to you? What if you can’t pay? Should I let him sell me to someone else, or let him beat and starve me again?”

Annikke twisted her hands together. She and Benoia hadn’t talked much about what her life had been like under her father’s roof. Annikke had just been fiercely glad to trade her healing potions and hangover remedies to keep Benoia away from Fornos.

The look Norva slid between Annikke and her foster-daughter held shrewd understanding of the loss Annikke feared. “You would be welcome as well,” she said.

“Even Fey-marked as I am? Are the Daughters of Freya so welcoming?”

Norva remained silent and looked away. Annikke shook her head. “I thought not.”

The older woman stood. “We have housekeeping to do. Let’s get these bodies out of camp.”

Norva and Benoia moved the bodies of Morlegg’s companions away from their camp. Annikke cleaned and bound the stab wound Len had inflicted that Halageth finally admitted was paining her, and used a touch of her magic to keep the shallow puncture from festering. Halageth raised her eyebrows at the sensation, but said nothing beyond offering her thanks.

The three Daughters of Freya traded the duty of patrolling the forest around their little camp twice. Annikke fed Vali again, and again he fell asleep as soon as he’d eaten. Kellan taught Benoia how to break the grasp of a man by unexpectedly moving closer, and to not run until her opponent was down and disabled. Annikke’s heart ached as she watched Benoia’s brows draw together in concentration as she knocked the plump woman on her arse and faked a blow to her groin.

Kellan laughed. “Well done! You’re a quick learner.”

Benoia grinned as she clasped the other woman’s arm to help her up. “I wish I’d known how to do this a sevenday ago.”

Annikke wished that, too, but even if Benoia had defended herself without magic, they’d probably have needed to flee anyway. Sveyn would still have sought revenge for his bruised pride.

Kellan smiled sadly. “None can unravel what the Norns have woven. At least you know it now.”

A nightingale trilled in the woods, and Kellan’s posture sharpened. She drew her knife. “Someone’s coming.” Then she faded into the trees.

*

Aren pulled up short some distance from where he’d left Annikke and Benoia to survey the ground, the foliage, and the trees. The signs were subtle, but they were there for any good hunter to find, let alone one with a Tracker talent. Multiple people had passed by here, and none of the tracks belonged to Annikke or Benoia.

Using all his woodcraft, Aren silently backed away a good distance, cached the young buck he’d shot and cleaned, then nocked an arrow. Spiraling around the clearing, he watched for watchers and listened for careless conversation, or, gods forbid, cries of distress.

He hadn’t gone far before he found the bodies of three men lying side by side. A spike of alarm jolted his heart. It was too much to hope that this violence hadn’t touched Annikke and Benoia, but at least it wasn’t their bodies lying here. Aren pushed down the impulse to rush into their camp to reassure himself that they were all right, and looked closer at the dead. The bodies were marred by arrow and stab wounds. Annikke and Benoia hadn’t killed these men. Others had done so, and it was far more likely to be the result of a falling out amongst Outcasts than it was to have been honorable men defeating ruffians. Even if there’d been a battle between good men and evil, these fallen could be the good.

Instead of following his desire, he continued on his inward circle until he found a place where repeated tracks indicated a path that had been traveled more than once by a perimeter guard. He obscured any trace of his own passage, then tucked himself back among the undergrowth and settled in for his second hunt of the day.

He hadn’t long to wait.

The sun had moved less than a handspan when Aren heard someone coming. A few moments later a tall, well-rounded woman passed by his hiding spot carrying a bow. She moved carefully, making little noise. Aren held still. The woman paused as she crossed the place where he’d stopped to read tracks, casting her gaze about as she examined the ground for sign. Aren held his breath. If the woman had a Talent for Tracking equal or better than his own, she’d see through his tricks.

He waited, watching as she searched the area. When the woman finally moved on, Aren released a pent up breath.

The next person to pass by his hiding place was a slender woman who was as silent as the breeze. She didn’t hesitate as she passed by.

Aren continued to wait. He’d seen seven different sets of tracks as he’d circled the clearing. He could assume that three of them belonged to the dead men. That left four.

The third woman didn’t follow the same route as the other two. She traveled a wider path, passing beyond Aren, but still not seeing him in his hide. When the first woman again passed by at the expected interval, Aren had seen enough. Only three women were patrolling the camp. He guessed these were Daughters of Freya, though why they were
here
, he couldn’t guess, unless it had something to do with Vali. That left one set of tracks unaccounted for. The others he’d seen were large and had to belong to men, and three of them were dead.

It was time to sort out this mystery.

Aren had heard the usual rumors about Freya’s Daughters, but since they apparently had defeated at least three men he wasn’t going to underestimate them just because they were women. The odds were at least three to one against him, and they’d already proven their willingness to kill. He didn’t think they would harm Annikke and Benoia, but there was only one way to find out if he’d already failed to repay his debt to the Elves. He stood up, returned his arrow to its quiver, and then made his way noisily toward the camp.

Chapter Fourteen

“Aren!” Annikke stood when she saw him, a smile lighting her face.

Safe
. Annikke and Benoia, sitting near Vali, were both safe. Aren released a breath he hadn’t known he was holding.

A second later the force of Annikke’s smile struck him. It transformed her, and for an instant all other thought left Aren’s mind. She was lovely without her perpetually worried expression, and he found himself smiling back as if they were the only ones in the clearing.