Page 23 (1/2)

Prologue

Isle of Skíð (modern-day Scotland)—ad 877

The wourdsson was alone, his body cradled a above hiht at his throat

He stared up at her, absently wondering who she was and where she’d coave up the effort and closed his eyes His head and chest were throbbing So, too, was his pulse, so hard and fast it felt as though his heart were trying to force its way through his ribcage

Considering how much blood he’d lost over the past few hours he was surprised it could still suth to beat at all, but at least the pain in his ar to nury, red gouge where the blade had caught hih skin andhi

The rustle of leaves overhead had already faded to a dullaround the edges like a tunnel collapsing in on itself, enveloping him in darkness

Soain It was the woainst his skin What did she want? Was she threatening him? If she was, then she didn’t need to At that ht with a kitten

The very air felt heavy, pinning hi across his chest He was going to die whether she i to protest either way Perhaps it was best that she went ahead and put him out of his ain—but at least it would have been while trying to fulfil his oath

He curled the fingers of his good arm around the hilt of his sword, Bitterblade, deterht back, but the woman didn’t move as much as a muscle As far as he could tell, she didn’t even blink He felt a flicker of unease, wondering if she were soination or apparition She looked like one, her narrow, expressionless face streaked with grey ses while her hair tumbled in such wild, half-braided, half-loose disarray that it reseolden hay around her shoulders She was a lot like a spear herself, he thought, sleek and slender with a flat chest and shoulders the sa Apparently it was true what Rurik had always said: Danr would still be looking at woh perhaps it was only fitting A woht hioing to take hie for all the ones he’d known and discarded in between

He waited, feeling increasingly uneasy beneath her silent scr

utiny Even froround he could see that her eyes were pale and striking, like oyster pearls, rey speckled with flakes of silver that looked a lot likesnow?

Soh up out of his chest This was truly the end, then He hadn’t even realised that it was cold enough—or late enough in the year—for snow, though now he thought about it he could see whispery coils of air e from his mouth From hers, too, which at least proved she was a real flesh-and-blood wo the air all around theauzy white layer After everything that he and his brothers had gone through, after they’d travelled so far and fought so many enemies fro to die here in a forest all on his own and be buried in snow His body would probably lie where it was forMaybe Hilda would be the one to eventually find him and know that she’d won

He gave a grunt of disgust and then froze, the hairs on the back of his neck rising at the sound of an answering growl With an effort he lifted his head, his already pounding heartbeat redoubling in speed at the sight of a wolf—no, tolves—stalking through the undergrowth towards him, their teeth bared in twin snarls, no doubt drawn by the scent of his blood

Quickly, he shifted his gaze back to the wo with his eyes since his throat was too dry to speak, but she appeared not to notice, her expression unreadable as the wolves came to stand on either side of her like a pair of dark sentinels Maybe she really was an apparition after all, Danr thought with a shudder, an unforgiving ice maiden like the ones of which his mother had told him and Rurik as boys, a supernatural force able to control the animals of the forest as well as the elements If she were, then he was entirely at herhe could do to stop her

He saiting for her to decide his fate At least a spear would be quick, whereas being torn apart by wolves Surely not even he deserved that?

Did he?

He dropped his head back to the ground and closed his eyes for a few seconds, feeling the kiss of cold flakes on his lids and lashes, but when he opened theone and the wolves were nowhere to be seen All he could see was snow

Chapter One

Six hours earlier

It couldn’t be this easy

Danr stood a a solitary figure walking along the stony shore of the sea loch below He could see only the side of her face, but there was no doubt in his mind that it was Hilda Even if it hadn’t been for the braid of dark hair hanging down to her knees, there was the familiar stiff posture, the self-important tilt of her head and the imperiously raised chin He didn’t need to see her expression to knohat it would be She’d wielded it against hiant look that proclaimed she was the only woman in Maerr who urd’s wife, a hundred times more important than Danr’s dead mother who had been his concubine

Not any more