Tove put a hand on his arm. “Promise me.”
He turned to look at her, his expression softening.
“And promise you’ll come for me when there are few enough guards that you can kill them.”
He nodded wordlessly as the guards came into the area with the door. There were at least four behind the familiar pair who were waiting just across the threshold, others no doubt waiting in the hallway beyond. He had no idea what they were there for, but stood ready in case they came in holding weapons. The door opened and the normal two came in first.
“Alright, girl. Back to the dark.”
Erik took a step forward, but he felt a tug on his torn shirt. Tove walked past him quietly, looking over her shoulder with a smile.
“I will be waiting.”
He nodded stiffly, trying not to scream or curse or do anything that they might take out on her when she was gone. She was led away with the door still open. Erik went back to his bed when she was out of sight, no longer caring what the commotion was about. He heard the guards outside shifting into the area outside the cells and Haki the Lost spoke up as they did.
“Ásví! I know… that sound! That… dress on… the stone. Ásví… h-have you come… to see me? To… see Haki?”
A metal rapping sounded against the cell door next to his and Haki whimpered, saying nothing more.
The guards formed a wall outside of the door, parting to the side forming a small row and putting clenched fists over their stomachs. Erik heard the quiet click of wooden shoes on stone and the light dragging of a heavy fabric across them.
A woman came into the room, deep red hair falling down over a cloak with fur shoulders and heavy silk trailing behind. She was in her mid-twenties by every estimation Erik could make, whatever that might have meant in Helheim. She unbuttoned the cloak and let it fall behind her as she stepped into his cell, walking to the center and facing him as he sat on the wooden bed.
“Clothes!”
They were the first words the woman said, and not to him. The guards gathered up her cloak and another came in holding a set of very soft looking cotton clothes, the pants brown and the rest dyed light blue.
They were placed on the bed beside Erik. He looked down at them and then back at the woman whose gaze met his.
“Well? Dress yourself.”
Erik raised an eyebrow, looking to the guards and then back to her.
She sensed his hesitation. “I’ve seen more than one cock in my time and I mean to see yours today, else the clothes would have come before I did. Now dress.”
Erik did as he was told. He could feel the eyes of the woman on him as he took off his clothes, trying his best to be naked for as little time as possible. When he was done, she gave a wry smile.
“You’re better looking than was reported, I’ll hand you that. But not much muscle.” She lifted her chin toward the bed. “Sit.”
Erik did as he was told, his eyes moving to the guards regularly. They had again formed their wall in front of the door, ready, in orderly fashion, to burst in should they be needed.
“Tell me your name.”
“Erik.”
“The whole of your name.”
Erik looked at the wall, where his neighbor so often came through, knowing the man was listening. It made him hesitate.
“Go on, boy.”
“Haki Erik Styrsson.”
The woman raised her eyebrows for a moment but made no further comment. “I am called Ásví. My husband is jarl of this city and the attendant lands but he often finds himself away pleasing himself with farm girls under the pretense of seeing to the needs of the people. As such, I am responsible for your being brought to this place.”
Erik shot up from the bed and the guards started in, but Ásví raised a hand, stopping them. Erik ignored them. “Then you know why Tove is being punished. And you can stop it.”
Ásví was calm. “I do. And I will not. She aided one of Odin’s chosen in violation of an accord that stretches back much longer than you can imagine.”
“How could she have known?!”
The woman did not so much as shrug, but delivered her answer in a flat, cool voice. “She could not have and it would have made no difference. But I have questions for you.”
She walked over, leaning in to his neck. He could feel the warmth of her breath on his skin and she inhaled deeply. She pulled her face around to just in front of his and narrowed her eyes to study his. She turned away, returning to the center of the cell before facing him again.
Ásví rubbed down the fabric on the front of the heavy, deep purple silk dress she wore. “You have a smell about you. I am not so keen to them as some, but I know it well enough. But your body does not lie. You know not the first thing about battle. How is it that you made a valkyrie bring down a building to stop you? Is Thor your god, perhaps?”
Erik let out a sarcastic laugh. “Made? I couldn’t make a valkyrie do anything.”
Her expression turned to steely suspicion. “Is that how you see it?”
His brow shifted to show his confusion. “How else would I? The fight barely lasted twenty seconds.”
There was an immediate murmur among the guards.
Ásví’s face returned to the calm it had been. She smiled, almost warmly. “You don’t know enough to lie, do you, Erik?”
“Why would I bother? I’m trapped in this cell, so what’s the point?”
“Trapped?” She put a hand over her mouth, covering a tiny laugh. “The doors in these cells do not lock. You are free to go as you like.”
“Bullshit!”
“Have you tried them and found them locked?”
Erik’s jaw fell open. He
