The mention of it made Erik think of how no one seemed to have much in the way of family with them. Fulla even mentioned marriage. People married young when she died. It was strange.
“Tove, are Ósk and Raggi… how did they meet, do you know? The bakers?”
She looked at him. “A strange thing to ask.” She thought about it a moment. “They must’ve met in Kvernes. It’s a town of strangers. Or, they were strangers.”
“But you said your brother—”
She made a noise and walked ahead of him. Erik left the thought alone and waited, hoping she would fall back into line or talk to him again, especially as night fell. They rejoined the main road with her still walking ahead of him.
The moonlight was as strong as it had been the night he arrived. It allowed him to see well enough ahead of them to tell that there were three people standing in the middle of the road. Tove froze and Erik came up, putting himself in front of her. He recognized two of the men when they started forward. They were from the day before. He could guess who the third was.
Tove screamed from behind him. “Go home, Vali! You’ve no business here!”
“Quiet!” Vali’s shout caused Tove to shrink.
Erik put a hand out in front of her. “I don’t know—”
“I have no intention of listening to your false words, snake! You’ve come to kidnap my sister and bring ruin down on Kvernes. Puppet of the gods, don’t think I don’t know about you.”
“I’m not planning to kidnap anyone. Now let’s just calm down.”
Vali motioned to his friends. “Bring her here.”
They started forward and Tove turned, rushing from the trail into the woods. The men followed her in and Erik started to go after them but Vali ran at him, pulling a knife. Erik jumped back, taking a few extra steps just to put distance between them.
“Filth like you keeping yourself near my Tove. She doesn’t know things. Always talking of leaving. She doesn’t know the world beyond our Spring. I do. I’ve seen it.” He ran at Erik screaming. “And you would take her there?!”
Erik dodged backward, keeping his footing. Vali seemed so slow that it was almost effortless to keep his distance. He had time to think, even.
Vali stopped, seething, and started to circle around. Erik looked to the woods as he circled, half-expecting to see one of the men there, but there was no one. Vali dove at him anyway, hoping to push him into the brush, but Erik moved to the side, dodging the initial thrust and another enraged swing.
Erik had backed along the edge of the road when he heard Tove shout from the woods and then a man’s pained scream. It drew his eyes away from Vali and the madman took the opportunity, knocking Erik to the ground.
Vali swung the knife up and slammed it down to the side of Erik’s head. The panic was setting in and whatever speed Vali seemed to lack disappeared now that the man was on top of him. Vali pulled the knife down across Erik’s shoulder as he pulled it back into the sky. There was no other choice in Erik’s mind but to grab at his wrists, so he did.
“Let go! Let me kill you!”
Erik wrenched his torso to the side as best he could, pulling Vali over. It was a valiant try but Vali kept rolling, pulling himself back onto Erik, this time lying flat on him. Erik’s eyes searched frantically for where the knife was when he saw the moonlight glint off of it, still in the hands of his attacker. Vali pushed his own knees down onto the ground and rose up. He pulled the knife to the side, aiming it at Erik’s ribs. The grin was that of a man lost to the world and he let out an insane, cackling scream as he began his swing.
Erik’s eyes were wide open when he saw the flat of a pan connect with the side of Vali’s head. Tove had put her shoulder behind it and taken a running dive into her brother’s head. The speed of her charge pulled Vali over and onto the ground under the full weight of the girl, pan still pressed firm against his skull. There was a sick crack and the knife fell from Vali’s hands into the dirt of the road.
Tove was quick to her feet, dragging Erik up.
“Are you hurt? He didn’t?”
“I’m fine.”
Tove ran to the knife, kicking the twitching body of her brother before grabbing Erik by the hand and dragging him toward the woods in a frantic run.
“What about your brother? Is he going to be okay?”
Tove shook her head. Her voice was manic, shaking with adrenaline.
“It doesn’t matter!”
chapter|9
Tove kept ahead of him the entire time they ran. His lungs were burning after the first twenty minutes, but she showed no sign of stopping. It was the best part of an hour when she finally decided that they’d run far enough, looking behind them, breathing hard. Erik collapsed onto the ground as soon as they stopped, wheezing, his shoulder still burning though the bleeding had already stopped.
“Should have spent the day making cheese.” She laughed before bending over to catch her breath.
Erik rolled over onto his back. “I don’t think they would have let me. Not that I know how to make cheese. Mozzarella maybe.”
Tove pulled the pack off, sitting down. “What’s that?”
“Huh? Oh, it’s just a kind of cheese.”
“Is it good?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty good. Like the stuff we had today but firmer and not sour.” Erik was close enough to being able to breath properly that he sat up. “So which way is Kvernes from here?”
“We can’t go back there,” Tove said, laughing. “Not now.”
“It wasn’t
