Snow-Walker (6 page)

The girl shrugged. “Because of your father.”

Jessa got up and wandered over to the fire. So that was it. They were Wulfings' men. She thought about the promise she had made the peddler—that stupid promise!—and then about the black, monstrous building somewhere far out there in the snow. Not to have to go there, all that long journey. But he had seemed so sure. And Gudrun—would she really be fooled?

“What do you mean, that you're protected here?” She turned quickly. “What protects you? Is it sorcery?”

The girl's black eyes looked up at her. “The shamanka does it. When Gudrun looks at us here, she sees only mist. The shamanka knew you were coming.”

“Can I speak to her?”

The girl thought, then nodded. “Very well. Tonight. I'll arrange it.”

“Good. And tell your father”—she paused—“that I thank him, but he must do nothing. Not yet.”

Again the girl nodded.

“And you can keep the brooch, too,” Jessa said, “if you like.”

Jessa woke suddenly, her eyes wide. In the darkness someone was crouching next to her; a hand was gripping her shoulder tight.

“Come with me,” the girl's voice whispered in her ear.

With a sigh Jessa heaved off the warm covers, slipped on her coat and soft leather boots. Then she followed, silently, through the swinging curtain of the booth.

It was dark in the hall, and smelled of ale and meat. The fire had smoldered low, and some of the oarsmen lying in the corners snored. Carefully the girls slipped between them. One dog raised its head and watched. As they passed Thorkil's booth, Jessa paused, but the girl shook her head. “Only you. No one else.”

At the door Helgi's guard was breathing heavily, slumped against the wall. All at once Jessa realized that the men had been drugged—no trained warrior would sleep as heavily as this. She stepped over him thoughtfully.

Outside, the world was black. Water lapped against the shingle far off, and up on a hill a breeze rustled stiff branches. The girl led Jessa between the houses to one by itself at the edge of the settlement, and as they walked, their feet splintered the puddles on the open ground. Above them the sky suddenly rippled and broke into light. Looking up, Jessa saw the eerie flicker of the aurora above the trees; a green and gold and blue haze over the stars, its gauzy shape flowing and rippling like a curtain.

“Surt's blaze,” the girl remarked. “The poets would say they were feasting in Gianthome.”

Jessa nodded, caught in the strange light that made the snow glimmer. Then she ducked her head and followed the girl into the low doorway.

Inside, it was dim and smoky; at the far end she could see someone sitting over the fire. She fumbled forward slowly, and sat on an empty stool. The room was stiflingly warm; around her the walls were hung with thick tapestries, dim woven webs of gods and giants, trolls and strange creatures.

Opposite her sat an aged woman, her face wizened and yellow. Her thin hair was braided into intricate knots and plaits; amulets and luckstones were hung and threaded among her clothes. She wore a stiff cloak sewn with birds' feathers, glossy in the dimness. As Jessa watched, the old woman's hand, its skin dried tight over the knuckles, drifted among the stones on the table in front of her, moving one, turning another over—small, flat pebbles, each marked with its own black rune.

“Wait outside, Hana.”

The curtain flickered as the girl moved through it.

Jessa waited, watching the hands turn the worn pebbles. Then, without lifting her eyes, the woman said, “It is not that I have her powers. You must know that. I do not know what sort of a creature she is, this Gudrun No-onesdaughter, or what gods she worships, but she is strong. Still”—and a pebble clicked in the dimness—“I have something, some slight skill, gathered over the years. I have spread my mind like a bird's wing over this kin. Here, we are safe. She cannot see us.”

“Then if we were to stay here—Thorkil and I…”

“She would not know of it. But you would not be able to leave. Her mind is the surface of a lake—all the world's reflections move across it.”

Jessa edged away from the fire, which was scorching her knees.

“Yes, but escape … it would mean the men would be killed?”

“Men!” The old woman looked up, her mouth twisted in a grim smile. “What are men? There are plenty more.”

Chilled, Jessa was silent a moment. Then she said quietly, “I won't have them killed. I won't have that.”

The pebbles turned. “There is no other way. They cannot go back—she would make them speak.”

“That's it, then. We must go on.” She said it as firmly as she could. Only her word was keeping a dagger out of Helgi's ribs, yes, and the others too. And this wasn't the way.

The old woman turned a last pebble and gazed down at it. “So the runes tell me.”

Jessa edged forward. The room seemed darker; something rustled behind her. The old woman's amulets clicked as she moved.

“Do you know,” Jessa whispered, “what lives in Thrasirshall? Is there anything there still alive?”

“There is fear there. Yours. Your cousin's. Gudrun's.”

“Hers?”

The woman chuckled. “Oh, hers above all. Her eyes are always this way. Nine years ago Brochael Gunnarsson landed here. There was one with him, so muffled in coats and furs against the ice that no one could see him. So it has always been. But I have felt her thought stretching out like a hand, touching, jerking back. Oh yes, there is something in the hall, something alive, and she fears it, as she fears her mirror.”

Jessa touched one of the stones. It was cool and smooth. “What do you mean, her mirror?”

“Gudrun never looks in a glass.” The shamanka turned and spat into the fire. “The runes have said her own reflection will destroy her. There are no mirrors in the Jarlshold.”

And then with a rustle of feathers the old woman reached out and caught Jessa's wrist—a tight, cold grip. “One thing: she will have not let you go without some link, some tie to bind you to her. Find it. Break it. Whatever it costs you.

“As for Kari Ragnarsson … sometimes, in the darkest part of the night, I have thought that I felt … something. A cold, strange touch on my mind.” She shrugged and sat back, gazing at Jessa. “But I do not know what he is. When you find out, you might come and tell me.”

The road was an ancient one, built by giants. No one used it now—after only a few miles it dwindled into a frozen track wandering through the boulders and scree of the fjordshore. The six horses and the pack mule picked their way along it, sometimes sinking fetlock-deep in the icy bog. Jessa was stiff from jerking forward to keep her balance.

They were already four hours out from Trond, the wind howling at them down ravines in the steep rock face. They had started before dawn, but even now it was barely light enough to make out the track as it began to turn inland, toward the hills. Muffled in cloaks and coats, only their eyes visible, the riders had spread out in a straggling line, urging on their slithering, nervous horses. Helgi went first, with Thorkil and Jessa close behind him. Then came the three men who had drawn the marked stones out of Helgi's glove at Trond, when the oarsmen had argued about who was to go farther. Thorgard Blund and his cousin, the thin man called Thrand, and the big, loudmouthed Steinar, called Hairyhand. Jessa wondered how they felt now; there had been some bitter words back there. Now the three kept together, watchful and resentful.

The track climbed up, moving slowly above the snowline. Now the horses strode in one another's hoof holes across a great snowfield, dazzlingly white, broken only by streams that gurgled under their seamed, frozen lids. These were invisible, and treacherous; once Thorkil's horse lurched forward into one, almost throwing him. After that they kept direction only by the sun, but the sky slowly clouded over. By late afternoon they had lost the track altogether.

Finally Helgi stopped and swore. The narrow valley down which they had come was closed by a sheer rock face, glistening with icicles and glassy twists of frozen water. He turned. “We'll have to go back. This isn't it.”

Jessa saw Steinar glance at his colleagues. “What about a rest?” he growled. “The horses need it.”

Helgi looked at Jessa. She tugged the frosted scarf from her mouth. “I'm in no hurry.”

They found an overhang of cliff and sat under it; Helgi fed the horses, then he joined Jessa and Thorkil. They ate slowly, listening to the bleak wind in the hollow rocks. The other three sat apart, talking in gruff, quiet voices. Helgi watched them. Finally they called him over, and when he came they stood up. Steinar was bigger and heavier than the younger man. He put his hand on Helgi's shoulder. Talk became hurried, noisy, almost an argument.

“I don't like the look of that,” Thorkil muttered.

Jessa raised her eyes from a daydream. Helgi was shaking his head angrily. He snapped something sharp and final.

“They're scared,” Thorkil said. “They don't want to go on.”

“I don't blame them.”

They watched the bitter, hissed argument. These were soldiers, Jessa thought, trained how to fight, to deal with things, but how could they deal with this? The horror of whatever was in Thrasirshall had caught hold of them; it was wearing at their nerves.

“Do you think he'll make them go on?”

“He'll try. But it's three to one.”

“Three to three.”

Thorkil flashed her a brief grin. “You're right. But remember, if we were … out of the way, they wouldn't have to go on at all. They've probably been thinking about that.”

Helgi flung Steinar's hand from him and turned away. He marched past Jessa and caught the horse's bridle.

“Ride close to me,” he muttered. “And pray we find the place soon.”

It was a hard thing to pray for. Jessa swung onto her weary horse and gathered up the reins, moving out hurriedly after Thorkil. Looking back, she saw that Steinar and Thorgard Blund were still listening to the thin man, Thrand. His voice was a quiet echo under the cliff. Steinar laughed and turned, catching her eye. He put his huge hands up to his horse and hauled himself up.

Jessa and Thorkil rode close together. Neither spoke. The path ran along the edge of a vast pine wood, its branches still and heavy with snow. In there it was dim and gloomy, the trees receding into endless aisles, only a few birds piping in the hush. Once a pine marten streaked across the track.

Helgi was guessing the way now, and they all knew it. The sun became a cold globe, sliding down into mists and vapors; twilight turned the world black and gray. The snow lost its glare and shimmered blue; crystals of ice hardened on the tree trunks.

Without turning his head, Helgi muttered, “Thorkil. Can you use that knife of yours?”

“What knife?”

“The sharp one you've been keeping under your coat.”

Thorkil grinned. “It's not the only thing that's sharp. Yes, I can use it.”

Jessa glanced back. Three wraiths on shadow horses flickered through the trees. “Listen, Helgi—”

“Don't worry. It may not come to that. It wouldn't help us if it does.” His eyes moved anxiously over the dark fells. “I'd be glad to see that hellhole now, troll or no troll.”

Silence, except for the swish of snow. Jessa loosened the blade in her belt, warm under her coat. Night fell on them, like a great bird; the stars glittered through the trees. She thought of the peddler, his urgent voice saying, “Wait for me.” But where was he? He had abandoned them.

Then the voice came from behind.

“Captain!”

With a clink of harness, Helgi drew his horse to a halt. He sat still a moment, his back rigid. Then he turned around.

The three horsemen waited in a line. Their swords gleamed in the starlight. Ice glinted on their clothes and beards.

“We've come far enough,” Steinar said. “We're going back.”

“Go on. I should have brought braver men.”

The man laughed. “What's courage against trolls and monsters? Come back with us, man.”

“What will you tell the Jarl?” Helgi asked, his voice clear across the frost. “And what will you say to
her
?”

Steinar glanced at Thrand.

“My father was a poet,” the thin man remarked. “I can feel a story coming to me, too. It concerns two children who fell overboard in a storm.”

With a slither of sound Helgi drew his sword. “Not while I'm alive.”

Suddenly the pack mule jerked. A black shape flapped down through the branches, dusting snow into Jessa's hair, and another followed it; two enormous, glossy ravens that clung and settled on the bouncing branches.

Helgi laughed grimly, his hand tight on his horse's mane. “Look at that. The High One has two birds like that. He sends them out to see everything that happens in the world. My job is to take these two to Thrasirshall and keep them safe on the way. If you're coming, come. Otherwise go back. But don't think I'll keep your cowardice quiet.”

Steinar's harness creaked as he moved forward. “It's a waste, lad. Though I suppose the wolves won't think so.”

The ravens karked. Snow swirled in the darkness. “Better ride, Jessa,” Helgi growled, but she was ready; she dug her heels in and the horse leaped forward into a sky that tore itself apart in front of her. The aurora crackled into a great arch of green fire and scarlet flame; Jessa thundered into it over the hard snow, could feel the eerie light tingling on her face. Branches loomed at her and she ducked, lying low and breathless on the warm, sweating skin of the horse. Voices yelled; Thorkil shouted; something whistled over her head and thudded into the snow.