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Toiling across theof reasons not to go With gritted teeth I put in the effort needed to catch up to Snorri at the head of our trek
“This Broke-Oar of yours He’s a war leader, ist his people?”
“He has a reputation His over-clan is the Hardassa” Snorri nodded “Many followers, but he doesn’t rule in Hardanger He’s feared more than loved He has a way about him When he focuses on awith his energy—but when he turns away, often that ain”
“Even so” I paused to recoverto spend year after year sitting in this little fort in an icy wasteland? Not a man like that? You can’t expect to find him where you left him?”
“We weren’t just buying furs in Trond, Jal” Snorri glanced back at the stragglers Well, straggler Tuttugu “There’s no other place in the North like Trond for finding out what’s going on Tales co up and down the coast The Waylander and Crassis clans in Otins Fjord, the Ice Jarls in Myänar Fjord, and the Hørost on the Grey Coast All of thehtered And last reports have hi there for him except the trek to the fort He’s set to winter there Ice locks up all the high North in the long night Everyone draws in, holds fast, waits for spring The Broke-Oar reckons himself secure at the Black Fort We’ll teach him a different lesson”
I had no answer to that, other than that I was a worse teacher of lessons than I was a pupil, and I was a terrible pupil
• • •
We trudged on,skyward frohts Weariness took ht of y for that Several ti ht At last I fell into a kind of reverie, plodding on whilst replaying the highlights of hts in particular All of a sudden it hit me The man who had stepped in, lowered his hood a fraction, then ducked outa band of raven-dark hair, greying to the sides
“Edris!” I stopped in my tracks “Snorri! That fucker Edris Dean was there In town!”
Up ahead Snorri turned, raising a hand to stop the quins “I saw hier Another reason we left in a hurry The Red Vikings are a significant force in Trond”
They waited until Tuttugu and I caught up “We’ll ca up the slopes”
Sleeping on mountains is a miserable business, but I have to admit that it’s less miserable in a thick fur-lined sleep-sack with a canvas and leather awning to divert the worst of the wind around you Snorri and the others had spent their ht
Co we broke fast on black bread, cold chicken, apples, and other perishables fro we’d be back on hardtack and dried s At least like is who happen to be stuck on a mountainside
“Why the hell is Edris in Trond?” I asked the question I’d been too bone-tired to voice the previous evening
“The thing we’re chasing—being dragged after—it seeded its trail with trouble for us” Snorri chewed off another piece of bread, attacking it likelies behind all this, and he collects ht kind of man he’ll draw to him Men like the Broke-Oar and this Edris”
“Edris will be chasing us now?” I hoped not Theabout hih individuals like Maeres Allus, Edris had his measure of it too An understated menace—the kind you know that when it does speak will be worse than any threat or posture from men capable only of common cruelty
“Trying to get ahead of us,until his bones creaked “He’ll ai at the Ice first If they’re warned we don’t stand much chance”
We didn’t stand a chance in any event I kept that opinion to myself Perhaps if Edris did warn them, the others would see it was hopeless and abandon the effort