philtucker

Chapter 98: Homecoming

They set sail on the Sea Wolf while the morning sky was yet dark. The last of the stars still glimmered in the west, while to the east the black sky was lightening toward dove gray.

Skadi sat beside Damian on their sea chests, oars extended through the oar locks, war shields slid into the grooves that ran along the gunwale. The air was brisk and chill, and the black sand of the beach darker than the night itself. All around them hundreds of warriors were on the move, many carry...

Chapter 99: Devastation

The thin scent of burnt wood hung in the air, and she could see that some of the buildings were charred. The streets were empty but for the crows that sat in thick, serried ranks upon the longhall’s roof. The pier that they were drifting up to was stained with dried blood which contrasted sharply with gauges in the planks that showed bright against the weathered stain.

It felt as if the wet, heavy wings of a raven were opening in the back of Skadi’s throat, making it impossible to b...

Chapter 97: Valka

Events moved quickly after that.

With their course set, the warriors at the Giant’s Rest began to break down the camp. Navigators consulted the weather and gauged how favorable it would be to set out at dawn; the provenance of the wicked storm confounded them, but in a world dominated by gods and their vagaries they didn’t spend too much time worrying about it. Gear and equipment were loaded into the ships, tallies were taken of foodstuffs, and payments negotiated between the jarls ...

Chapter 95: Holmgang

When Skadi emerged from her tent she put her doubts and fears aside and brought all her focus to what was to come. The path to the holmgang square was lined by warriors, men and women who’d turned out to cheer her on, clap her on the shoulders, scream their approval, and cause the very air to shudder with their violent approbation.

Skadi tuned it all out. In moments she’d be fighting for her life. The world became fuzzy around the edges; the screams and yells came from a great dista...

Chapter 96: Warnings

The body was carried away by men of Havaklif, and Baugr stood there, bereft and somehow diminished as if a candle flame in his soul had been snuffed out. Skadi was jostled and cheered as the men surged over the birch branches, but she fought her way through the crowd, laughing and with tears in her eyes from the sheer exhilaration of the fight, to elbow herself free and stand before Valka.

Who stood, lips tremulous, eyes glassy with shock, her hands knotted together and pressed tight ag...

Chapter 94: No time for tradition

Skadi ignored the clamor that followed, as did the Stórhǫggvi. They stared at each other through the shifting crowd as men rose and shouted at each other, as Damian tried to pull her aside, as her uncle berated Baugr while the other two jarls sued for peace.

Slowly, carefully, she drew Natthrafn from its scabbard. The feel of its leather-wrapped hilt was comforting in her palm. With her vision sharpened the All-Thing was a mess of tangled wyrd threads, each blazing forth from a chest ...

Chapter 93: Challenge

The morning dawned fresh and clear, with only a few high, insubstantial wisps of clouds left to the north to indicate where the storm had scoured the earth. The energy over the camps was tense and expectant, and to Skadi’s relief, Kvedulf wasted no time in beginning the proceedings.

As their jarl conferred with the other three men, Skadi caught up her friends on the events of the night; they had seen a mist swirl about her, and when it had cleared, she’d been gone.

Famished, S...

Chapter 92: The valkyries followed me like crows

The rumbles and crackling of thunder still sounded from the north when Skadi returned to the Giant’s Rest. Dawn was but hours away; Freyja had set her down a good ten or more miles north of their meeting place.

Still, Skadi’s emotions alternated between morose and exultant, pensive and awed. Had she truly ridden with a goddess through a storm of their own making? Had she chosen the right course of action? On the face of it, delaying or shipwrecking Afastr was an obvious win; but Ás...

Chapter 91: Goddess

Her uncle was still awake, a lantern lit within his tent, a rough group of warriors seated before it, unofficially at the ready even at this late hour.

“Ho, Skadi,” hailed Auðun, but she strode through their midst and entered the tent abruptly.

Kvedulf sat at ease with Marbjörn, a bottle of chwisgi on the table, a cup in each of their hand. They seemed to have settled into a meditative silence by the time she arrived, both frowning thoughtfully as they stared at the floor. 2022-08-30 14:06:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Chapter 90: Revelations

The hour was grown late. The feasting and festivities had begun to die down, with most of the attention now focused on the drummers and the ever-larger circle of men that shuffled and danced around the flame, lost in private visions fueled by mead and delirium

The bonfires were dying down. Most of the older warriors had already retired to their tents. Others sat around smaller campfires sipping on the last of their ale, reminiscing of days long gone. Some lay tossed here and there, snor...

Chapter 89: Foolish plans

Skadi and her companions moved amongst Kráka’s warriors as darkness fell upon the plain. Fires were everywhere lit, and ale flowed in profusion. Cattle and swine had been brought aboard knorrs, and these were now slaughtered, drained of blood, butchered, and set on spits to roast and fill the air with the mouth-watering scent of sizzling fat and cooking meat.

A group of men sat about a central bonfire, each with their own drum, some as large as a shield, others small as one’s palm,...

Chapter 88: A Gathering of Jarls

Jarl Einarr arrived on his two ships later that morning, one of which was the Sea Blade captained by Tryggr Ramundrson. Word passed through the camp like an ocean wind, and men ceased killing time to stand and turn and watch the cliff’s edge that looked out over the sea.

Warriors appeared like blood welling from a wound from the top of the stairs, bunching at the top and then streaming down behind their jarl, most of the men carrying bundles and barrels, chests and packs. Ska...

Chapter 87: Snarfari

The next day dawned brisk and chill. Skadi crawled out of their tent, rose, and yawned as she stared out over the camp. Gone was the allure and mystery of the fire-lit gathering; now everything seemed bleached of color and dampened by the morning mist. Guttered bonfires stood in blackened mounds, errant warriors lay where they had fallen drunk, snoring in the harsh light, while others moved slowly about, as if stunned by the enormity of the day to come.

Glámr crawled out next and rose ...

Chapter 86: All Thing

Six Days Later

Dusk was falling as Skadi’s knorr rowed onto the packed black sand of a broad crescent beach, sloping cliffs hiding the land beyond, seagulls wheeling in the final shafts of sunlight that speared like bloody gouts from the great anvil-shaped clouds to the west. The sunlight reflected off the thin surf that rolled up the beach, turning the wavelets into hammered sheets of blood and gold before they gave up on their assault and fell back toward the sea.

Oth...

Chapter 85: Conference

Skadi opened her eyes. Morning light filled the enclosure. She lay stretched out on the dirt, her body stiff and cold. With a start, she rolled over and sat up.

She was alone.

Natthrafn was at her hip, Thyrnir stood propped against the far boulder. The fire was little more than coals furred in white ashes.

Astrilda was gone.

Skadi knew this was best. That the other woman had been right to forgo an awkward goodbye. What more was there to say?

Skadi rose. The axe a...

Chapter 84: Don’t change too quickly

They sat in a silence that was only broken by the crackling of the fire. A branch broke, collapsed into the growing pile of embers, and sent forth sparks like those which had escaped Muspel to form the stars.

Astrilda stared off to one side, her lips pursed, brows furrowed, then sat up straight once more and forced a smile. “There. We’ve come to it at last. What a cheerful evening we’ve spent together.”

Skadi frowned at the other woman. Slowly turned Thyrnir about in her f...

Chapter 83: Wolf-age

They sat in silence for a spell, Skadi’s words and the need for her to make a decision seeming to hang in the air between them.

“Out of respect for the dead,” said Astrilda at last, “may I put my companion’s bodies to rest?”

Skadi shifted uneasily. “Good idea.”

Astrilda stood and, with slow, careful movements, dragged Dálkr through a winding gap between the boulders. Skadi followed, intuiting that Astrilda wouldn’t run, but not wishing to tempt the woman�...

Chapter 82: Innocence, once lost, is never regained

They found a ring of great boulders that rose from the leaf litter and undergrowth like a primitive fort from ages past. Slipping between the great rocks made shaggy with moss they found a narrow space within, like the gap between the palm and fingers of a loosely clenched fist.

Great trees towered around them, vainly trying to claim the empty space above the rocks with outstretched branches, but even so, Skadi could make out a ragged circle of night above them, resplendent with stars. ...

Chapter 81: A Meeting by the Waterfall

Skadi emerged into the morning to find herself cautiously watched by everyone she passed by. She’d noticed this after her return from Djúprvik, but now it felt different; where before people had nodded and smiled, now they glanced away or pursed their lips.

They were wary, she realized. Not resentful, but unsure. Of what? She was still herself, the woman who had slain Kagssok, who had helped defeat Queen Grýla, who had cleansed Djúprvik. Why should they be wary of her now?

It...

Chapter 80: The greater the challenge, the greater the glory

To her uncle’s frustration, Skadi excused herself shortly thereafter; his significant stare made it clear he wished to converse, but Skadi smiled at him with feigned blitheness and rose, leaving him to preside over the end of the feast.

The rest of the night passed with torturous slowness. Begga, Ulfarr, and Kofri bedded down as soon as they were certain she was safe, and Aurnir had already been snoring when she arrived.

She smiled fondly at the half-giant. “Some lookout you p...

Chapter 79: Wedded to the shield and seax

Skadi wished she could remain hidden in Afastr’s temple forever, but it wasn’t her nature to hide from a problem. After giving the völva a hard hug, she adjusted her weapons and descended from the mountain meadows to Kráka below.

The moon had emerged and bathed the slopes and dark forest in silver light. She could hear the distant roar of over a hundred drunk men, but it was thin and distant, and in the cool darkness felt almost unreal. Another world, one of smoke and fire, as if ...

Chapter 78: Ascertaining the Truth

Skadi stared up into Afastr’s face, hypnotized by the very power of his certainty, then tore her gaze away and stood.

“Excuse me,” she muttered, ignoring the stares, and made her way to the side door and then out into the night. Sidestepped and leaned against the wall, her whole body shaking from the intensity of her emotions.

It couldn’t be true. She couldn’t be fated to be just a mother. To bear Afastr’s child and spend the rest of her life in his shadow. She was des...

Chapter 77: Afastr's Vow

Skadi avoided the great hall for as long as she could but eventually was forced to enter with her friends as dusk fell and the feast began.

Nobody summoned her, but she was raised as a jarl’s daughter. She knew that she couldn’t escape this obligation by skulking in her home. Thus she dressed in her cleanest furs, braided her brown hair into a single rope, washed her face, and gathered her weapons and völva staff.

“Ai, you’re going to dinner, not battle,” complained Beg...

Chapter 76: Evaluating the Enemy

Kvedulf invited Afastr up to his longhouse, and the two jarls climbed the street speaking amiably as if the threat of war didn’t hang over them both. Skadi chose to remain behind on the docks to watch the other warriors of Kaldrborg unload and stream after their jarl to be feasted. 

“The hall’s going to be full tonight,” whispered Damian, watching in awe as the Kaldrborg fighters trudge past them.

Skadi fought hard not to be impressed by their grim appearan...

Chapter 75: Afastr

The harvest month of Heyannir drew to a close. The days passed after Skadi’s triumphant return, and though she itched to set sail, she couldn’t fault her uncle for the tardiness; he insisted on outfitting his great dragon ship, the Sea Wolf, with fresh cordage and plenty of food and water, and examining the ship carefully for flaws, mending a weakness in the sail where the cloth had begun to fray.

Further, she hadn’t anticipated the number of warriors who insisted on duel...

Chapter 74: Home

Kráka’s gate came into sight and the sight felt almost like coming home. The very warmth of emotion that suffused Skadi’s chest made her feel a pang of guilt; was she so quick to replace Kalbaek?

“Why the frown?” asked Damian as he strode beside her. “Not excited by the prospect of a hot bath and cooked food?”

“Just wish we were coming home to Kalbaek, is all.”

“That’ll happen soon enough,” said Glámr from behind. “Kvedulf has no choice but to grant...

Chapter 73: Reap the Rewards

Bölvun went down with a muffled cry, slamming into the ground with such violence that she bounced.

Aurnir glared at where she lay. “Bad lady.”

And like that, the fear was gone. It felt as if a massive vice had released her, and with a gasp, Skadi fell back onto her ass. She sat there, stunned, as she watched the fordæða crawl toward her front door.

“Stop her,” Skadi croaked. “Aurnir. Stop her.”

With oddly careful precision, the half-giant placed his foot...

Chapter 72: Bölvun

Skadi crept along the narrow road toward the tannery. The villagers must have sensed trouble in the air as they remained indoors; the street were empty and still. The sky was gradually lightening, the gray giving way to softest blue, and the air was damp and suffused with the mineral tang of rain.

Glámr was a shadow by her side, his axe held low by his thigh, his gaze constantly scouring their environs for trouble. Skadi took great reassurance from his presence; after a night spent alo...

Chapter 71

Skadi raised her chin and strode forward, hand resting on Natthrafn’s hilt. “It should be obvious as to what I’ve done.” “Even to a coward like you,” she almost added.

The crowd spread out, the body between them and her, their faces ashen with fear.

“Who are you? What are you?” demanded Snorri. “There is no way in all of Hel that a merchant’s daughter could have done this.”

Geirr, the long-legged young warrior who’d been munching an ...

Chapter 70: What have you gone and done?

Thyrnir burst through the berserker’s temple and into his brain. His whole body spasmed, his grip on her neck faltered, and then they were both falling, her halfspear torn from her grip to crash upon the sodden boards.

Skadi bounced back to her feet, coughing and gasping as she grasped her neck, ready for the impossible, for Rauðbjorn to somehow rise laughing, but he lay still, kicked out on his side, head pulled around by the weight of Thyrnir’s shaft.

With a hiss, Skadi dar...