“I’m not the one who built a fucking forge inside of a small box of rocks.”
“I like the heat! Reminds me to keep breathing.”
“How the hell does it do that?” Erik pulled the steel without being told and ran it to the anvil where Völundr started working it.
“Couldn’t say!” He laughed as the hammer powered down onto the steel. “It just sounds good!”
They finished working the metal into bars. It was dusk by the time the door of the smithy opened for them to leave. There was plenty of cleaning to be done, even with Völundr helping. Tove ran up to Erik as soon as he was out in the yard.
“Erik! Have you made anything exciting?”
He huffed a laugh. “Mostly rectangles of metal. Nothing that cuts anything.”
Völundr came walking past them, chuckling at the sight. “He’ll not make anything. They’re my hammers, girl.”
She didn’t respond to the statement, simply followed Erik as he walked by. Völundr pointed off toward the setting sun before they reached the house.
“Hot spring off that direction. Should be good enough for a bath. I’d rather smell my own terrible cooking than your stink, Erik.”
Erik stopped dead. “A hot bath? You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”
Völundr stopped, turning to look at Erik. “No, you earned the right. And with a girl cooing after you so bad, I’d feel awful if I let you go on smelling so terrible. Not much I can do for your clothes. Doubt you’d fit into mine.”
“I wouldn’t ask for anything else. Oh, man… Völundr, you know how to end a day of work.”
“Go.”
Erik didn’t wait to be told twice. He immediately set off toward the west, finding a small trail that had been cleared away. It was only a few hundred yards to the spring. Tove had followed him along and Göll was coming down the path as well. Erik chose to ignore them, stripping off his clothes and tossing them into the spring. He followed them in, sinking into the water with a loud, long moan. Tove snickered behind him.
“I’m not going to look back there and have your mockery ruin my bath.”
He waded over to his clothes, rubbing them together to get some of the dirt off of them. The dirt came away, clouding the water but the muck flowed away toward a crack in the rocks. Völundr most likely built it, if the flat slate along the bottom was anything to go by.
“Today was terribly boring.” Tove spoke up when he’d ignored her for too long.
“What can I do about that, exactly?” He turned around.
Tove shrugged. “Nothing, yourself. But I want to train.”
Göll had been standing quietly until she said she wanted to be trained. “No. I refuse.”
Erik sunk down into the warm water. His muscles felt as if they could melt away in the heat of the pool. “Why?”
“I have no responsibility to this girl who has attempted to steal what belongs to you.”
“Fair enough,” Erik held up a finger to stop Tove’s immediate move to complain. “But you know I don’t plan on leaving her, so what good will it do us if she can’t fight?”
“It is not my responsibility,” Göll repeated with an annoyed look. “And I’d likely kill her, even with a dull blade.”
“I don’t care about dying.” Tove was insistent. “I want to learn. It’s not as though I am helpless with a sword.”
“That you think it’s a question only of skill shows you as the silly girl you look to be.”
Tove puffed up, annoyed. Before the argument took off, Erik pulled in a deep breath and submerged himself in the spring. There was only the sound of a trickle of water through the rocks. It was calming, something he knew couldn’t last forever. There would be pain, the valkyries would find them or be waiting for them. All the more reason to enjoy what was in front of him.
When he came back to the surface, Göll and Tove were still arguing. They’d completely forgotten he was there from the looks of it. Erik watched them, drawing their attention when he could no longer hold in a small laugh. They both turned to him at the sound.
Tove pointed a hand at Göll. “Tell her to train me!”
Göll scoffed. “And why would I listen?” She looked at Erik in the spring. It was the most emotion he’d ever seen from her. With complete sincerity, she said, “Tell her I’ll never train her!”
He could feel a stupid grin spread across his face and without saying a word to either of them, he took another breath and disappeared back under the warm water.
chapter|20
The boot connected with his ribs square and Erik doubled over, gasping for air. He’d managed to get to sleep easily enough after the relaxing bath, even though he’d been forced to sleep without his clothes while they dried.
He looked up to see Völundr’s dark face staring at the door. It was a very different expression than he’d had at dinner when he was mocking Erik for walking around wrapped in a sheet.
“Come. Assist me.”
Erik nodded, standing himself up, the pain in his ribs dulled but still present enough to tell him the kick was not simply something meant to wake him up. He pulled on damp clothes and Völundr led him out to the main room. Göll was standing there and watched as they went by. She started to follow but Völundr turned to her.
“You stay here valkyrie.” The blacksmith’s voice was grave and Erik could smell liquor wafting out of his mouth. “You swore I’d have an apprentice so long as you stayed here.”
Göll stayed in her place, looking at Erik with just the slightest hint of concern in her barely furrowed brow.
Völundr led him out the back and, to Erik’s relief, opened the door to the workshop. Inside, the smith began rifling angrily through stacks of
