A Game of Horns: A Red Unicorn Anthology by Gregory D. Little & Raphyel M. Jordan & Frank Morin & Victoria D. Morris & Scott Eder & Nancy Dimauro & Brandon M. Lindsay & Joy Dawn Johnson & John D. Payne & Kristin Luna

Author:Gregory D. Little & Raphyel M. Jordan & Frank Morin & Victoria D. Morris & Scott Eder & Nancy Dimauro & Brandon M. Lindsay & Joy Dawn Johnson & John D. Payne & Kristin Luna [Little, Gregory D. & Jordan, Raphyel M. & Morin, Frank & Morris, Victoria D. & Eder, Scott & Dimauro, Nancy & Lindsay, Brandon M. & Johnson, Joy Dawn & Payne, John D. & Luna, Kristin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781614753520
Amazon: 1614753520
Publisher: WordFire Press
Published: 2015-09-04T04:00:00+00:00

Odin’s Eye

Frank Morin

Ragnar Narwhal stood at the tail end of a half-circle of better men. He scanned the younger, stronger faces of mighty warriors, already veterans of many seasons of violent struggle in the harsh northland.

By Idun’s wrath, they were barely more than children to him. He was the last of the old warriors. The most blessed of his brothers in arms had fallen in glorious battle. The unlucky had succumbed to festering battle wounds, and a few had suffered ignoble deaths by dying in their sleep.

Ragnar had outlived them all. He’d been a great warrior. Too great.

Now he suppressed a grimace as he struggled to stand tall without the aid of his crutch. He rubbed his hands across his best leathers and the concealed pockets inside. He had never resorted to subterfuge before, but today he faced his last and greatest challenge. Even if he outlived the coming winter snows, his last chance of a glorious death in battle had passed years ago. Today would be his final opportunity to earn a place with the blessed einherjar in Valhalla’s halls of glory.

The warriors stood in the center of the village before a roaring bonfire that held at bay the last of the autumn night’s chill. The heat felt good on his bad leg. Outside of the circle of heat, the rest of the villagers hovered in the fading shadows.

“She comes,” cried Horik Vermundson, clan chief and the primary contender in today’s contest.

Ragnar stiffened, bringing his thoughts to the present while his companions straightened, hands tightening on axe handles worn smooth from long use. He followed Horik’s gaze into the northern sky, gray with the coming of dawn, and spotted the approaching figure.

The Valkyrie descended from the cloud-laden sky astride a mighty red unicorn. The eight-legged creature was a wonder, the pride of Odin’s stables. Ragnar had seen it once before, the last time the Valkyries had come to the village to honor their clan with a choosing. The unicorn was longer than a mortal stallion, but only a little broader. As the other warriors gaped in wonder, having been too young to remember the last Valkyrie visit, Ragnar glanced to the left where the maidens waited.

Dressed in their finest, the girls whispered among themselves as the magnificent unicorn galloped from the sky. His own Nora, one of the eldest of the candidates at sixteen, reassured Unfrin, the twelve-year-old daughter of mighty Ref-Nose Gimrson. Nora was always helping, and he smiled to see her acting true to her nature even today, when others might have suppressed qualities often deemed weak or undesirable. She was dressed in a fine linen dress with an elaborately worked leather vest and covered in a snowy white bear pelt she had helped him cure. As the village tanner, he had saved the finest pelt for her.

The unicorn came to ground with a sound like the striking of Thor’s hammer, stirring up a cloud of dust. By the time the air cleared, the Valkyrie had dismounted.