She turned then, going to the door. It opened before she got to it, the men forming columns for her to pass by. A guard came in and took the chair as the rest of the procession made their way down the hall. No one bothered closing the door to his cell and they left more quickly than they came.
They left the mattress and Erik went over to it after shutting the door. He left it on the floor and pressed over the length of it, suspicious that it might contain something dangerous. He was unsure whether to be disappointed or elated when it turned out to be just a normal mattress. No part of him wanted to accept comfort from Ásví, not after her threats. Even without them, it was clear she had plans for him that weren’t built around his concerns.
Another meal was brought shortly after Ásví had left. It was the closest they’d brought food in such a short span. Her threat repeated in his brain as he looked over the food. It may have been something else. Another gift so that he would consider how kind she was, maybe. He could find no reason to skip the meal if they intended to feed him. There was no strange smell or taste to it and Erik couldn’t imagine Ásví was the sort to derive entertainment from poisoning him alone in his cell.
He was only a few minutes past finishing the meal when he heard the sounds of the large procession coming down the hall again. His door swung open and the familiar columns were in their place, oddly with swords drawn. And men in full plate armor came in. It was a piece of armor he hadn’t seen on anyone, even when he fled across the yard.
“Ásví has sent for you.” The man’s voice was muffled by the heavy helmet, but Erik was sure he’d heard it properly.
He stood up and the man in full plate took a step out of the way of the door so that Erik could pass by. There were more guards in the room than came with Ásví. It was strange, but there must have been a reason. A second man in plate moved ahead of him and the columns formed to his sides. He was boxed in as they walked down the hallway toward the administrative room. Was this how they moved the prisoners? Would the valkyries ignore them?
They came to the door that led to the yard. All at once the man in heavy armor tore it open, rushing out of the way. Before Erik could grasp what was happening, the man in full plate behind him dove into his back, forcing him out of the door into the yard. The door shut behind him as he slid across the stone beneath.
He was to his feet as the hissing came into his ears. He looked up to see Hrist and Mist already charging. The longer-haired held the spear in her off hand, but it wouldn’t have mattered. The searing blades plunged into his chest before he could move. The air up through his throat felt like fire. They pulled the blades out and pushed them in again, through his stomach. They were pulled free once more and Erik fell forward. He looked across the yard and saw Ásví standing in the center, staring. There was a scowl on her face like she’d never shown in the cell.
He felt the weight of a scalding hot maul land on his back. A radiant wave of pain poured through him before his body fell limp. His limbs refused to move and he knew that he would wake in agony. He clenched his jaw, using the last of his strength to look up at the valkyries who stared down at him with angry eyes. It was their revenge and they wanted him to know it. They never looked away as he bled to death on cold stone he could no longer feel.
chapter|16
Pain was, for once, something Erik was more than happy to be able to feel. It didn’t stop him from screaming or tears from pooling and falling, but he knew that what the valkyries had done had been undone when he returned to the stone room.
Ásví had proven a point, that much was clear to him in the hours he was forced to lie in the bed. When his mind cleared enough that he could form thoughts, his head flooded instead with incoherent rage and plans for revenge. They didn’t leave, even well after the pain subsided enough that he could once again sit himself up. He saw the rolled mattress exactly where he left it.
He chuckled, in spite of himself. “Give with one hand…”
There was an immense feeling of weight on his lower back, or at least his brain told him there was. It didn’t stop him from standing, but there was no way he could manage to walk cleanly. A few weak attempts to waddle around ended with him losing his balance to one side or another and Erik decided it would be better to wait a bit longer to try and get himself around.
The futility of walking brought a bit of clarity into his head, at least. He knew he would have to escape and there was nothing to do except play against the woman who’d sent him to be slaughtered. What she must have expected was to have her actions serve as a sort of warning. “Look what I can do to you,” she seemed to be saying. The more Erik thought about it the more he decided
