When dawn broke, they consigned the bodies to the waves. It was a gloomy ceremony, the gathered sailors still and bleak-eyed, Damian and Begga once more intoning their words of ritual and parting. The deck refused to dry, and Skadi wondered if some curse from the salt hag lingered still.
“It’s the Draugr Coast,” said Ulfarr after the ceremony was done. “These are cursed waters. There’s a reason none but pirates and bandits choose to homestead here.”
Nobody cared to rep...
2022-06-19 17:05:11 +0000 UTC
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The Draugr Coast came into ever greater relief as Ulfarr guided their ship closer to the shore, until the smudges broke apart into separate peaks. Their lower halves were serried with thick pine forests, bristling near black and impenetrable, while the upper parts gleamed jagged and white, rising to vertiginous heights.
On the fourth day the wind blew up from the southwest, allowing them to scud through the waves before it, and Skadi found herself leaning against the gunwale and half li...
2022-06-19 17:04:34 +0000 UTC
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The ship grew steadily larger. Lethargy befell the ship’s crew, and everybody stood at the gunwale, watching, waiting.
“If it comes to a fight,” said Biolfr quietly by Skadi’s side. “Will you give us weapons?”
“No,” said Skadi. “If it comes to a fight, I don’t trust you to fight for us.”
Biolfr bowed his head and stepped back.
The ship drew ever closer. The dip and pull of their oars were hypnotic. Details became evident. There were easily some tw...
2022-06-19 17:04:02 +0000 UTC
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The four Skrímslaeyjan sailors huddled at the prow, soaked and dispirited. Skadi took up Natthrafn and approached. They flinched when they met her gaze and looked away.
What had they seen that night? How had she appeared to them?
No matter. She’d use it to her advantage.
“We sail for Kráka. You will help us, or I will cut your throats and toss you overboard for the salt hags. Your names?”
One by one they introduced themselves. Young Kylfa with fiery red hair an...
2022-06-19 17:03:31 +0000 UTC
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Damian’s gasps resembled those of a dying man, sharp and spasmodic. His hands shook, he swayed, and when the golden light faded he burst backward, scooting across the deck until he fetched up against the gunwale.
Skadi knelt by Aurnir’s side and gently touched the skin around the wound. The cut was sealed but the trauma hadn’t been completely healed. Though Aurnir’s lips were no longer blue, he was still pale as a winter fox and when she pressed her fingertips to the side of his...
2022-06-19 17:02:57 +0000 UTC
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Skadi fell upon the four men like a bolt from the roiling heavens. She felt lithe and limber, infused with power, raw and burning with hatred.
The four sailors cried in alarm, tried to draw back so they could swing their bearded axes. Skadi didn’t give them the luxury.
The battle was all soaked timbers beneath her feet, the flash of steel in the night air, the press of large bodies, the whites of their eyes.
Natthrafn flickered out like the tongue of a serpent. She was a f...
2022-06-19 17:02:18 +0000 UTC
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The Skrímslaeyjan longship slid away from the dock into the deep waters of the fjord. The traitors manning the oars hailed from Sanda. Huddled in the belly of the boat, Skadi watched them pull expertly at the oars. Last year these had been honorable men, part of the Kingdom of the North.
Now? They sailed at the Archean Empire’s command, happy to ferry prisoners across the Shattered Sea to the slave blocks.
“What happened to your honor?” she wanted to ask. “Wh...
2022-06-19 17:01:47 +0000 UTC
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“It tears my heart to see you all so cruelly treated,” said Jarl Leifr, his voice rich with sorrow. He stood before the prisoners, resplendent in a black, fox fur coat, his broad belt gleaming with jewels, a mantle of black wolf fur about his rounded shoulders. “I remember all too well the generosity with which Jarl Styrbjörn received my son and I last year, how he took us into his home and thought of nothing else but helping me recapture Lexa from the cruel invaders.”
Skadi gl...
2022-06-19 17:01:16 +0000 UTC
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Patroclus favored big, dramatic swings of his blade. Stepping onto the trestletable was an invitation for him to hew at her legs - and he took it. Gliding forward smoothly, he slashed at her knees, looking to sever her limbs as he’d done to Iofast.
Skadi leaped into the air, her body alive with vitality and power, the huge blade passing under her as she dropped beside the kentarch and slashed at his face with her seax.
Patroclus swayed back, laughing, then stepped away again as ...
2022-06-19 17:00:34 +0000 UTC
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Her friends and family were sitting in a line against the longhall’s rear wall, backs pressed to the familiar tapestries. Riki lay with his head in their mother’s lap, still unconscious. A half dozen Archean soldiers stood guard, everything about them from the sounds of their voices and loud laughter to their postures indicating their sense of ownership over the situation.
Six soldiers. Black quilted gambesons, broad belts, leather caps, short swords at hand. Some were availing them...
2022-06-19 16:59:56 +0000 UTC
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Skadi dropped upon the captain without a sound. Her seax flashed silver as she stabbed it where his neck met his shoulder, two fisted, her falling weight behind the strike to drive the point all the way down into his black, beating heart.
But the captain jerked aside at the last moment, his laughter cutting off, to twist and stare at where she’d fallen into a crouch, his face pale, his one good eye blazing with incredulity and then amusement.
Skadi could only stare up at him, un...
2022-06-19 16:59:22 +0000 UTC
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The air was brutalized by screams and shouts, the bright clangor of weapon meeting weapon and the first hints of burning thatch.
Skadi half-crouched, her two-inch blade held before her, the waxed boards slick beneath her wet, bare feet.
“Are you a water sprite, come to offer me gifts?” Bardas’s voice was distracted, his eyes flat and hungry like those of a stoat that has seen a fledgling fall from a nest. “Hmm? Will you invite Bardas down into the sea with you, to braid sh...
2022-06-19 16:58:39 +0000 UTC
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“Gæð a wyrd swa hio scel.”
Fate goes ever as fate must.
~ Beowulf
“Heppnin er hugrakkur.”
Fortune favors the bold.
~ Common aphorism
Skadi scaled the raw boulders and strode up the occasional goat path toward Widow’s Rock with fierce resentment. The chill wind that blew down the length of the fjord from the Shattered Sea did nothing to cool her anger, and she climbed over outpourings of stone bramble and b...
2022-06-19 16:57:54 +0000 UTC
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Hello!
I've not used Patreon much over the years, but deeply appreciate everyone who's chosen to support me here regardless. As such, I wanted to give you a head's up as to how the entire universe is going to change next Monday (June 6th).
I'm beginning an experiment called Skadi's Saga over on Royal Roads where I'll be releasing a new chapter for a Norse-inspired progression fantasy story every day of the week, and will use this platform for readers to gain access to advance chap...
2022-05-30 17:03:00 +0000 UTC
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