A Blaze of Valkyries by Melinda R. Cordell

Author:Melinda R. Cordell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Vikings, dragons, Norse, fantasy, YA fantasy, epic fantasy
Publisher: Rosefiend Publishing
Published: 2022-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

SMOKING HOT

Dawn came too early, too soon. Dyrfinna, who had somehow managed to fall asleep despite the screaming from the enemy lines below, dragged herself awake before the first light of dawn, feeling sick to her stomach. But there was nothing to be done about that. Sick, scared, exhausted, it didn’t matter – she still had a battle to fight and people to lead.

Dyrfinna sat up, vigorously rubbed her face, got up, and shook out her sea cloak, which she’d wrapped herself in last night, as she looked over the piles of stones at the enemy’s camp.

Skeggi yawned, trying to wake himself up. “Is anybody still alive down there?”

“They’re up and about,” she said, looking around the ships at the bottom of the long slope. “Nobody’s screaming anymore. I’m curious if they actually managed to put Arne’s draugr to rest, or if he’s sated and hiding from the sun.”

Indeed, the enemy camp seemed unnaturally quiet this morning, and not as many people were going about their business around the cookfires.

“Perhaps they’re demoralized by the draugr attack,” Dyrfinna said. She felt a little glow of pride from having led a draugr against the enemy.

But then that deflated when Skeggi said, “But Arne’s body is still wandering the world, unhallowed, filled with rage. A warrior like him should be sitting in Valhalla in peace.”

“Yes. He should be,” Dyrfinna said, her heart low.

Skeggi frowned over the rocks. “If he’s a draugr, then his spirit is not in Valhalla, but is likely wandering in the nether regions, lost.”

“Ah.” This was even worse. “I’ll have to talk with one of the Moors about reclaiming his body – if we can find it.”

“But if we find him during the day, we could possibly send Arne to his rest while the sun makes him powerless,” Skeggi said.

“If they’ll let us do this. The child-killers would pitch a fit if the Moors helped us out.”

Skeggi ran his hands through his thick brown hair. “I can’t stop thinking about this. Did I do the ritual wrong? Did he become a draugr because of me?”

“I doubt that,” she said, heartbroken at the anguish in his face.

“I thought I did everything correctly.” He rubbed his hands over his face, hard. “But I left something out of one of the prayers. Something that tore the spirit from him ... that allowed the body to walk...”

Dyrfinna wanted to put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him – wanted to take him in her arms and kiss the grief from his face.

She cleared her throat and shook her head. “It wasn’t you. There are dreadful things afoot here, things that will happen in this haunted place, even if you do your best to keep them at bay. First things first, though,” she said briskly. “We need to see to the battle lines and our warriors.”

She and Skeggi went to talk to the fighters who were preparing breakfast or gathering in their lines of battle. Dyrfinna walked from place to place, making sure her fighters were ready and awake, and that every point of attack against Nauma’s army was defended.

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