The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne

Author:John Gwynne [GWYNNE, JOHN]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Orbit
Published: 2022-04-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

BIÓRR

Biórr turned his back on the vaesen pit as Lik-Rifa and Ilska led their band south. To the east reared sharp crags that marked the eastern edge of Vigrið, beyond them the Icebound Sea, and they were going to follow those crags south for the last leg of their journey, until they joined the eastern tip of the Boneback Mountains.

“One last sprint to finish the race,” Fain said to Biórr and Storolf as they set their eyes south, in the distance the land shifting from green to grey to white.

To snow.

“A sprint will be best,” Biórr said, “to keep the blood warm.”

“Aye, and to stop our stones from freezing, snapping off and rolling down our breeches,” Storolf said.

“You seem uncommonly worried about such a thing,” Biórr said.

“If your stones were as big as mine, you’d be worried, too,” Storolf grinned.

Biórr chuckled and took one last glance over his shoulder at the orange glow and shimmering heat haze that marked the molten river of the vaesen pit. At the rear of the column he saw Kráka sitting on the driving bench of a wagon, two children next to her. One was Bjarn, and the other was Breca Thorkelsson, the boy who had had the bones of his hand broken by Brák Trolls-Bane. Biórr could see the gleam of linen bandaging around Breca’s hand.

Biórr had not spoken to Bjarn yet, although he had been tempted to seek the lad out. But guilt held him back. He had arranged Bjarn’s abduction back in Snakavik, was responsible for the lad’s separation from Uspa, his mother. And finding him with a thrall-collar about his neck had not helped ease his guilt.

The collar is gone now, though.

I’ll talk to Bjarn tonight, see if he wants a game of tafl, Biórr thought. He pulled his cloak tighter about him, feeling the bite of an easterly wind, and trudged on.

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