The Boy in the Dark: Book 4 of the Middengard Sagas by June Wilson

Author:June Wilson [Wilson, June]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-13T22:00:00+00:00

MIDDENGARD

Chapter 14

They left the cottage before first light. By Ellie’s calculations they were less than a day’s ride from the Vale and she wanted to reach the boundary before nightfall. Despite her standing as a daughter of the Gods, this was new territory for her. She was both apprehensive and curious at the thought of seeing the mysterious land that welcomed the dead but not the living.

As children she, Geraint and Jonas had been fond of scaring each other with stories of the Vale. It was full of monsters twice the size of any troll; it was full of wraiths that lured the almost dead into the mists then stole their bodies. She knew better now of course – or at least knew as much as anyone was allowed. The Vale of Tears was under the jurisdiction of the goddess Hel, who claimed the dead as her due. All souls passed through Hel’s Hall on the journey to the afterlife, but it was said the goddess could be fickle. It was said some suffered in the Vale for eternity, lost in the mists of time.

Ellie shuddered. She had spent twelve long years imprisoned in Niflheim and she knew what it was like to suffer. And whilst Freya had overall jurisdiction in Middengard and all the related realms, Hel was powerful. The Goddess was greedy for the misery of others, enslaving those souls whose longing for life suited her purposes.

Ellie’s thoughts slid back to the previous night’s conversation with Orla. Isolde had seen Jonas with a girl. What girl? The idea nagged at her. Could it have been Ellie herself? But if so, why not mention it? No, it had to be someone else – someone that Isolde was trying to protect. But who? The old woman had few friends and no kin, now Mathilde was dead. There was Stanor of course and…

Ellie almost cried out. She’d been such a fool! It was Stanor that Isolde was shielding – Stanor and his daughters. In the vision, Jonas had been by a lake and the beautiful lake of Glassmere was less than a day’s ride from Skellstor. Jonas had often ridden outside the city walls, sometimes disappearing for hours on end. What if he’d met Helaine, Stanor’s wife, on one of those excursions?

Ellie cast her mind back, ticking off the years. If Jonas had met Helaine the same year he’d tried to take Ellie’s Doom Stone, it would have been before Stanor and Helaine married. Was it possible there had been a romance between them? It didn’t seem likely. Jonas had been in love with her - or so he’d claimed.

Irritated, she took the reins from a surprised Daisy and urged the horses to a faster pace. Whatever Isolde’s vision had meant, she refused to think there had been anything between Helaine and Jonas. But Helaine herself was an interesting possibility. Stanor had told her the famous story of how he had first met his wife – the heroic rescue of a maiden who had upturned her boat on the lake.

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