“Then you haven’t.” She laughed in spite of her attempts to maintain her demeanor. “I had thought you were wary enough not to try. But you only…” She drew in a breath, composing herself.
“What about Tove, then? You’re torturing her. And you brought me watery oatmeal. And now I’m supposed to believe this isn’t some trick? What do you even want from me?” His mind was racing, but he didn’t have an answer for why any of it was how it was.
“I regret that we did not expect you on the first day.” Ásví walked back over to him, placing a hand on his chest and letting it run down to his stomach before pulling it back up. “I will say it plain so you understand. Your girl will be punished for nine days and nine nights. Then she will be free so long as she does nothing more.” She leaned in, whispering in his ear. “You will be killed by valkyries if you so much as step out the front of this place.” She leaned back, pushing him down onto the bed. Her voice rose back to normal. “That is the extent of our accord with them.” She put on a coy half smile. “And I will watch it each and every time.”
Erik looked up at the woman. He had no idea if she was a friend or an enemy or something altogether different.
The smile faded and she turned, walking toward the door, the guards forming their passage again. “I expect to be entertained, Haki Erik Styrsson.”
chapter|14
It took him hours to get to sleep after Ásví had left the room, and even then he did so sitting in the far corner of the cell from Haki’s frequently used entrance.
The smile on Tove’s face as she walked back to be tortured was something he couldn’t manage to shake from his mind. His brain would reach out, trying to quell the guilt of what was happening to her, reminding him that she had joined herself to him in Kvernes and that he hadn’t asked her to come along. No matter what excuses came, the guilt didn’t go. Her constantly repeated joke that they were a warband had wormed its way into his mind and he’d started to count on it being true. She must have as well. She’d saved him from being pulled into the speed of life in Kvernes, that was something he’d had time to realize sitting on the floor of the cell for what must have been two days by now.
He couldn’t help counting every waking hour since they took her from the cell, wondering what they were doing and when he could get to her. Ásví had told him the door was open, but he’d been sure it was a joke. Parts of him screamed that he should check it. It had made it all the harder to sleep, but he knew the guards would likely make their rounds as scheduled even with the important visits he was offered. And there would be food soon enough as well. They would be fuel to test the limits of what Ásví had claimed he was allowed to do.
Erik stood after a few minutes spent looking at the far wall, waiting to see if Haki would come and harass him again. He hadn’t moved the stone since Ásví’s visit, or more accurately since Erik raised his fist.
Without realizing it, Erik had slept with his fists balled and they’d stayed that way for however few hours it was. The tendons were slow to stretch so he walked the cell, pressing his hands open on the walls while he spent nervous energy. He had confirmation of his worries over timing when the guard pair started their rounds of the cell area. Erik put himself by the door to listen as they came by.
The sounds of boots stopped at his door. One of the guards pulled on the door as he looked in, ignoring that he couldn’t see Erik at all, and continued on. The pair stopped in front of Haki’s door, continuing a conversation Erik hadn’t heard the beginning of.
“No real sense in her worryin’, but talk of valkyries in town gets people that way, I reckon.”
“That’s women though, eh? Love to worry, them.”
It must have been the guard who wore a longer beard that checked Haki’s door, because he heard the gruff voice of the man call out.
“Ah, shit it all.”
Erik heard feet stumble back away from the door, so he stood to see. The guard who’d stumbled back was holding a hand over his mouth.
“He’s not gone and done it again.”
“He only fucking has.” The guard pulled his hand down and wiped his beard flat.
The more kempt of the two, a stout brown-haired man who looked thoroughly unfit to guard much of anything, walked to the door. “Yer turn ain’t it?”
“Fuck off, it ain’t.”
“Gods be good, I… fine.” The stout guard opened Haki’s door.
From his cell, Haki started talking to them. “A… visit. How pleasant… a… pleasant visit.”
“My bloody arse it is. Out”
Haki scampered out of the cell but stuck to the wall nearest. The stout guard went in, complaining, while the other moved to Haki.
“How many fuckin’ times we told you? How many’s it been?” Haki did not answer. “Stop shittin’ in your cell! There’s rooms for it, down the hall. Fresh wool, better’n I use at home. Use them if you need a shit.”
“Can’t… they’ll come. They’ll kill.” Haki started a fit of hacking coughs and the taller guard gave up chastising him.
“Just push it down the fuckin’ hole and let him sleep in the stink. Not like he cares. It’ll dry soon enough.”
The stout guard returned from the room. “What you think I was doin’?”
The guards didn’t usher him back into his cell or do anything of the kind. They just started walking away, continuing their conversation.
“Maybe the new one stays inside so that’s an end of it.”
They walked off down the hallway. Haki followed the guards
