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Well, of course He didn’t know it, therefore it couldn’t possibly be a rune "Both Fehu and Ansuz runes have double arms Why couldn’t this rune have one? If you tossed it into a collection of runes and told a layrab that one"

Ghastek gavelook "The term layman refers to a non-expert by its definition Of course a non-expert wouldn’t be able to single out this rune, Kate We could throw stars and spirals into the mix and he would be unlikely to pick those out either"

You conceited ass

Curran cleared his throat

I realized I had taken a step toward Ghastek No killing, no punching, no destruction of property Right

"We’re taking this matter to an expert," Curran said

"I think it’s prudent, considering the circuive us his permission

"Where is the expert?" Ghastek asked

"At the Norse Heritage," I told hiusted sneer, as if he’d just stuck his head into a bag of rotten potatoes

"You’re going to see the neo-Vikings?"

"Yes"

"They’re ignorant loud buffoons All they do is sit in their et drunk, and punch each other when their masculinity is threatened"

"You don’t have to coh "Very well I’ll geta horse called The Dude The Dude, who also apparently answered to Fred if he was feeling charitable, hat the Pack stables had called a "Tennessee Walker Blue Roan" The blue roan part was sorey, with the colors nearing black toward the head and the ankles The Tennessee Walker part Well, some Tennessee Walker was probably in there, but most of it was definitely a coldblood horse A massive coldblood horse, close to twenty five hundred pounds I was betting on a Percheron Sitting atop The Dude was like riding a small elephant

The presence of a vampire presented Curran with a dilemma He refused to ride a horse, but he refused to let me travel in a company of an undead without backup either, so a coe office to get Andrea Unfortunately, she was out Apparently some shapeshifters were ation, the fact that he, of course, neglected to mention We kidnapped Derek and Ascanio instead

Derek was our third employee Once my sidekick, then Jiuard, he was noorking for the Cutting Edge to acquire experience and figure out what it was he wanted to do When I first hteen and pretty Noas close to twenty Some bastards had poured molten silver on his face The bastards were now dead, but he’d never healed quite right

Ascanio was our intern He was fifteen, he was pretty as an angel, and he was a bouda, a werehyena Bouda children rarely survived adolescence - ht for their sanity and went loup - and Ascanio was treasured, babied, and spoiled beyond all reason Unfortunately, he’d gotten in trouble one too iven to me, because it was decided I was the least likely to kill hi quietly about soht the road in a jerky, looping gait Most va to quadruped locoen reshaped its victihtmare predator I had come across very old vamps before They didn’t even resemble their former human shapes But the vamp Ghastek piloted was only a few round, and sharotesque puppet on the strings of a drunken puppeteer

Next to the vae black poodle His na, and while he wasn’t the sharpest tool on the shed, he loved ht

A few dozen yards behind us, an enormous lion trotted When shapeshifters transforer than their natural counterparts, and Curran the Lion wasn’t just large He looked prehistoric Colossal, grey, with faint darker stripes staining his fur like whip-ly tireless Which hy I ended up with The Dude I had walked into the stables and told the between a vampire and a lion the size of a rhino and I needed a horse that wouldn’t freak out True to the stable master’s recommendation, The Dude seemed unflappable Occasionally, when Curran flanked us, he would flare his nostrils a bit while the other two horses shied and made panicked noises, but ht line, convinced that the lion was a figination and that the vampire ahead of him was just Grendel’s defor circus Sadly we had no audience: to the left of us forest rose in a jagged line and to the right a low hill cli into another line of trees at the apex

"I’ve never ood portion of them are mercs," I said over my shoulder "They’re a rowdy lot and not really what you would call true to tradition Some are, but most are there because they saw ais a noun"

"It’s not?" Derek asked

"No Originally it was a verb as in to go viking The Norse Heritage guys wear horned helhts As neo-Viking coo, they are better off financially than et theirroad "Around that bend"

A couple of minutes later we cleared the curve A vast lake spread on our left Blue-green water stretched into the distance, tinted with bluish haze Here and there green islands ringed with sand thrust through the water To the right, an enore timbers rose from the crest of a low hill like the armored back of soboats, slid fro high above the lake’s surface

Ascanio raised his hand to shield his eyes

"Lake Lanier," I told hion Ships They’re not the only neo-Vikings in the region There are several Norse groups along the Eastern seaboard and quite a few of them want to cruise up and down the coast in a proper boat The Norse Heritage sells them boats and trains these wannabe raiders for shalloater sailing They also give vacationers a ride for the right price They’re kind of touchy about it, so I wouldn’t ask if they do children parties"

Ascanio cracked a smile "Or what, they’ll try to drown us in their beer vat?" "Try being the operative word"

We started toward the mead hall Midway up the hill, the vampire paused A man walked out in the middle of the road from behind a birch Six and a half feet tall, he stood wrapped in chain mail A cape of black fur billowed from his shoulders His war helm, a near perfect replication of Gjermundbu Helmet, shielded the top of his head and half of his face The stainless steel had been polished until the sun rays slid off of it, as if he wore a le axe on a long wooden handle I’d tried to pick up the axe once and it weighed about ten pounds at least He was slower than molasses in January with it, but it looked i man "Who is that?"

"That’s Gunnar He’s the Norse Heritage’s idea of security detail"