Wizard's War 02 - The Curse of Slagfid by Elizabeth Boyer

Author:Elizabeth Boyer [Elizabeth Boyer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2015-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

“Someone left the lock off,” was Hogni’s grim verdict, after silencing Starkad and briefly inspecting the granary.

“I brought him his food this morning,” Syrgja said in a shaken voice. “I made certain I put the lock back on. He’s so likely to wander away, imagining things. I wouldn’t have left it off.”

Scowling, Horgull scratched his scalp and said in his gloomy voice, “I brought him more straw for his bed. Maybe I left it off, but I doubt it.”

“We’ve got to search for him!” Syrgja demanded. “He might have gone into Skera-gil! Either trolls or jotuns will have him before dawn!”

“You took a sledge up Skera-gil this morning!” Starkad declared furiously, the awful revelation dawning upon him. “Svanlaug saw you in her fylgja form. Leifr and I saw sledge runner marks at the granary. You’ve taken him into Skera-gil and abandoned him to die!”

“You must have taken him early this morning,” Syrgja said in a voice that shook with fury. She twisted her reddened hands in her apron. “Then you returned for breakfast, like black-hearted demons, as if nothing had happened. It’s not his time yet. He’s not ready to give up this life. We’ve got to go find him and bring him back. He won’t be far, walking on such poor swollen feet. Starkad! You’ll go with me to find your uncle. No one else seems to care about the fate of a sick old man.”

“I’ll help,” Leifr added with a defiant glower at Hogni and Horgull. “Locked in a granary is no place for an aged relative, no matter how his wits have strayed.”

“This is a family matter,” Syrgja said. “Starkad, you know the direction he takes when he escapes.”

“Aye. Skera-gil,” Starkad said reluctantly.

“Fetch a lantern, it’s darkening.”

Hogni glared at his aunt. “It’s a fool’s mission,” he said. “You’ll regret it if you bring him back. What is, must be, and you can’t go against nature.”

“I can, for a while,” Syrgja replied coldly.

Silently the Grimssons led the way back to the house, leaving Syrgja to stand outside waiting. Thurid scowled like a judge as he seated himself before the fire, his brow knotted with incredulity and wrath. “I’m straining to believe you didn’t have such evil intentions as the youth accuses you of. We shall investigate, and if it appears a crime of this nature has been committed, serious steps will have to be considered. If this is true, your chieftain will receive a complaint against you.”

“You have no proof of any crime,” Hogni said. “The lock is off, but it wasn’t intentional. We took the sledge up Skera-gil this morning to rebuild a gate. There’s much you don’t know, wizard. Leave it be the way it is.”

“It’s the curse of Slagfid,” Horgull said, his voice hoarse and unexpected. “Skera-gil always draws the old ones to their doom.”

“He wants to go out,” Hogni said. “Is that worth nothing? Does not a man have that final choice?”

Thurid responded, “Not when his sanity is in question. If Ketil were in his right mind, he might not want to die.

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