‘Then act like it: fetch me mead and be silent.’
‘Lord, we must speak to you.’
Hogni grabbed at his arm. Vali glowered at him. ‘Do you presume to touch your prince?’
‘You must leave this place. You must leave now,’ said Hogni.
‘Why?’
‘It is cursed. A calamity is about to befall these people.’
‘What sort of calamity?’
‘We have only heard whispers, lord. Some say it will be a plague, some say the Danes are coming, but your mother wants you out of here by the next full moon.’
‘Tomorrow.’ Vali smiled. ‘Well, my mother can wait. You have a choice: stay here and share whatever fate befalls us, or go back to my father and do the dead lord’s jig, should he keep his temper long enough to hang you. Personally, I think your chances of survival are vastly better here.’
Hogni and Orri stood tall.
‘We are warriors and not afraid to die.’
‘Then prove it. Stay to the full moon and then I’ll be happy to accompany you back to my father’s court. You are dismissed. ’
The Horda men walked away, overcome as much by the change in Vali as by his refusal to go with them. He was no longer the daydreaming sword-shy boy he had appeared before, but now acted in a way they would expect from the son of Authun the White Wolf.
Vali watched them go. The Rygir were beginning a celebration. A horn of mead was shoved into his hand and he drank it down. Something was happening, he didn’t know what, but his mother would never have acted on hearsay. What was most likely? A plague? There was nothing he could do about that. His mother might have seen it through a witch’s vision, he supposed, but Yrsa had a well-known dislike of magic. What else? He made himself think practically. Pipes were playing inside the hall; Jokull the Skald was already singing a song about him. The only eventuality he could do anything about was a raid. If that was going to happen then he should stay to defend the people who had raised him.
Vali looked down at the little port. It was empty save for a few fishing boats. Forkbeard had taken his three drakkars with him and the knarrs were all away on trading missions. He had chosen a bad time for glory, he thought.
He pulled the wolfman down from his horse and tied him to a birch tree near Forkbeard’s hall. He called out in a loud voice, declaring the man his prisoner and warning that no one should do him any harm until Forkbeard had seen him. More mead was offered to him. He accepted. Then Adisla was there, running down the hillside, calling out his name. She was laughing, almost jumping with joy. Vali couldn’t help but start laughing himself, the sort of laugh that comes from someone who bends to tie his shoe and feels a rock whizz past his head.
She fell on him and hugged him, and he kissed her as she clung to him.
‘I have to say,’ she said, ‘I didn’t have a great deal of faith you would make it back.’
‘We’re so alike,’ said Vali. ‘Neither did I.’
She laughed again, although when he looked down at her he could see she was crying.
‘How did you do it?’
‘I don’t know. I’m waiting to hear what the skalds come up with. I’m going to say I challenged him to three competitions, eating, drinking and fighting, and made him so drunk with the drinking that I tied him up. What do you think?’
‘They’ll say you fought him.’
‘Well,’ said Vali, ‘let them then. Who knows, maybe I did. I would have fought a score of wolfmen for you.’
‘Only a score?’ said Adisla.
‘There has to be a limit,’ said Vali, ‘and a score is mine. One more than that and you’d be on your own.’
This joking and teasing was familiar to them but there was more to it now, something more insistent. Vali felt that his only way forward was with this girl, the only way he could see the future. He had to tell her what had been between them since the moment they met but neither of them had ever quite managed to say.
‘I love you.’
She looked into his eyes. ‘Yes.’
‘You don’t say you love me.’
‘Because the feeling is too strong. If I speak it I would never be able to deny it.’
She hardly managed to get the end of the sentence out, stammering into sobs and putting her hand to her face to disguise her tears.
‘Do you intend to deny it?’
She said nothing and turned her face away.
‘You cannot forget me, Adisla.’
‘I’ll never forget you.’ She threw her arms around him and wept into his shoulder.
‘Will you marry him?’
Adisla stepped back from him, composed herself and looked directly into Vali’s eyes. Even through her tears she looked so pretty, thought Vali. He wanted to stop her crying, to make it all all right for her, to see her smile and hear her laugh, but he knew that he was the cause of all her miseries. He was a hair’s breadth from everything he had ever wanted — the girl he loved, a beautiful summer afternoon, the sun warm beneath the fresh breeze — but it may as well all have been an ocean away.
‘You will?’ he said.
‘Vali, I will not be your concubine and I cannot be your wife. What choice do I have?’
Vali nodded. ‘Drengi is a fine man. He’s been a good friend to all of us. I wish you could have picked someone who I could have consoled myself by hating.’
‘I didn’t pick him, Vali. How many men are there to choose from? Five farmers’ sons in the whole area, and three of those wouldn’t look at me because I have such a skinny dowry. And I am old, Vali, three summers past the time most girls are married. Fate put us together.’
‘No,’ said Vali. ‘Fate put us together. Our skein is woven into one cloth. The wolfman was given to me — I didn’t need to lift a finger. The gods were on my side.’
‘I’ve never heard you mention the gods before.’
‘I’ve never needed them before. I swear, Lord Odin, give me this girl or I will move against you in whatever way I can.’
On a tree behind the hall two ravens alighted.
Adisla’s eyes widened. ‘Well,’ she said, stroking Vali’s cheek, ‘he’s heard you now.’
Vali felt tears come into his own eyes, though he chuckled. ‘Well, listen to this then, you couple of mangy chickens. Tell your master that if I don’t get what I want then I’m coming for him. He should keep his spear by his side because if he defies me the gods’ final day starts here!’ He tapped his sword.
The ravens took off again, moving low across the buildings, their black shapes rising up and over the hill like forgetful little pieces of the night flapping out of the day.
‘Sshhh!’ said Adisla, almost ducking. ‘What if those are his intelligencers?’ She laughed but Vali could see that she meant what she said.
He smiled. ‘Let’s hope they are,’ he said, ‘because I want him to hear the message.’
Vali wasn’t sure at first if the blow had caught him on his chest or his back. It was so hard that it nearly knocked him into Adisla. He turned to see Bragi, the old man’s face glowing and his arms wide.
‘You did it, boy, you did it. I never had a moment’s doubt. How could you fail with the training you’ve had? You did it.’
‘Thank you, Bragi,’ said Vali. ‘I couldn’t have done it without you.’
The old man almost danced a jig.
‘Let me see the old girl,’ he said, taking the sword from Vali’s scabbard. ‘I bet you had a good sup of wolf blood, didn’t you, my lady?’
Vali looked at Adisla. There was the destiny he wanted — home, hearth and love — ready to walk away from him. He looked at Bragi, the destiny that had been thrust upon him, and for the first time saw it was useless to resist.
