VIKING: Thunder Horse (Norse Adventure Series Book 2) by Aiken Ritter Katie

Author:Aiken Ritter, Katie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-One

The tallow-renderer guided his horse along the road towards the small settlement where he worked, looking for a waiting figure. A maroon shawl, yes, there was his wife. He waved, eager to share the amazing news. This year they would celebrate the spring dísablót festivities as never before.

At his wave, he saw her entire body change from stiff worry to relief. She lifted her skirts and ran towards him, mindless of the deep mud on the trackway.

He leapt from the horse. Her arms went around him as his feet touched the ground. “It went well!” she cried. “I can see it in your eyes! Tell me everything!”

He buried his face against his wife’s shoulder. The long ride home had filled him with hope. So much could happen now.

. . .

“Just think! Our grandchild in Naldrum’s own household! Living on that grand farm, in that house!” He looped the horse’s reins around his arm. Hand in hand, he and his wife walked back to their modest dwelling.

“Is it true that Naldrum has a glass window in his longhouse?”

“It is. I saw one as we walked through. I wanted to go over and touch it, but no one is allowed.”

“But you saw it!”

“I did. The sun shone through it onto the longhouse floor!”

She marveled. So many years of struggle, of worry, now perhaps at an end. She asked him over and over to repeat Naldrum’s words, and he said them, laughing. ‘All will be well!’

She felt like a girl. “I can’t wait to tell our daughter! Walk faster!”

“Wife, I’ve ridden so long,” he protested, but she would have none of it, and laughing, dragged him into a run. He dropped the horse’s reins to let it graze, and together they tumbled through the longhouse door, calling to the fretting young woman who held a tiny bundle in her arms.

. . .

Kel had followed, keeping his horse Thor-Thunder at a distance as he always did. Rounding the same curve in the road, he watched as they went inside. He yearned to turn around, to leave them to their happiness. The ache in his chest flamed.

I can’t do this again. But Drikke rode behind him, sulking.

Kel gritted his teeth. Just this year. If that one girl comes, if she gives me proof, I’ll go back to Mani and file a claim. Either way, after this spring, I’ll find a way to be free of Naldrum. I’ll find Aldís, bodily put her on a ship to another land, and put the knife in Naldrum where he cannot recover.

He groaned. What would Aldís think of what he was about to do? What he had done so many times? She would detest him even more. But she would be safe from Naldrum’s threats as long as Kel carried out his headman’s grisly orders.

At least he, unlike Drikke, could show the family some respect and kindness in this dreadful deed.

. . .

Kel willed himself to become iron. He dismounted his horse and forced himself to walk towards the small dwelling.

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