“Venison. The land is hard to work and there is little to sustain more than a few sheep. Most are used for wool, except those that come up lame or who grow too old.” She motioned a hand toward a plate of food. “The misfortune of a lamb is what allowed for the stew you eat now.”
“Lucky us.”
She nodded, smiling. “Very lucky indeed. Frigg must be watching over your journey to her husband’s great hall.”
He let out a sarcastic laugh. “I hope.”
The woman excused herself back to the rear of the shop and they finished their food. Tove filled her pack and they put them back on. The woman appeared to clear their plates.
“I hope Winter is not too harsh for you. And that the things you’ve bought here sustain you.”
Erik thanked her and they left back out into the street. The sky was shifting toward a darker blue.
“How much light left do you think?”
Tove looked up at the sky. “It seems to change the farther north we are. And we’ll be walking north again.”
“Well, not like we can just sleep in the road.”
They went back to walking, Tove complaining shortly after they’d passed the edge of town.
“How can they stand to live in such a place? This cold, always? At least winter passed in Midgard.”
“Hey, at least it’s not windy.” He half expected wind to start as soon as the words left his mouth, but thankfully none did. “It’ll get worse either way, so complain all you can while you’re still warm enough to do it.”
“I will!” She kicked at the dirt in the road. “Perfectly good land where the cold doesn’t bite at you and they choose to live where they’ll near starve without constant effort.”
“Seems dumb to me too, but then I’m walking through what I guess is an icy wasteland just so I can spend forever fighting, or whatever happens.”
“Serving Odin will bring you glory,” Tove protested.
“Yeah, yeah. It doesn’t seem so bad, really. I guess on some level I like the idea, even. I’m just saying that it’s hard for me to call them stupid from where I’m standing.”
She let the subject go, still grumbling about the cold as they walked. There had been maybe an hour of viable light left and before long they were talking in nearly pitch black, except for the moon. An overcast rolled in, draining the last of the light from the world as the clouds thickened in front of the moon. Erik felt his way to the trees at the edge of the road and called for Tove and Göll. Tove worked her way to him, grabbing onto his arm when she found him and not letting go.
“What the fuck is this about? How can it be this dark?”
He heard Göll’s voice from the dark, not far from his side. “There is not light in Winter except the sun and the moon.”
“Information that would have been useful before the clouds showed up.” Erik sighed. “Göll, can you make a fire?”
“I can.”
He heard steps move away into the woods, so he made his way around the tree he’d managed to lean himself against and looked off into the dark, unable to see anything else. Tove’s grip on his arm tightened as the minutes passed.
“It’s fine, we’ll be fine.” He didn’t believe it and the noise of Göll’s work gathering things to build a fire only made him convinced that the valkyries would be on them, not even needing to make a noise. They could see him, and he could do nothing. He suddenly remembered they hadn’t slept since Völundr’s and that the packs would be left for the valkyries to destroy or someone to collect come the day.
The quick shuffling of wood against wood was calming somewhat and when a light sparked in the distance, Erik started toward it, keeping Tove’s hand in his. Göll was only a few dozen yards away, but the fire was well-established by the time they got to her. The wood seemed to burn nearly of its own will and it didn’t char nearly as quickly as Erik expected.
“Why does it burn like that?”
Göll looked at the wood. “Fire is crucial to humans in Winter.”
It was all she said before turning her eyes to the woods and away from them. Tove dropped her pack and pulled her bedroll, Erik doing the same in short order. Small flakes had started to fall from the sky, but they dissipated as soon as they touched the ground. They seemed to be like the leaves in Fall, giving way to the nature of the world rather than any common sense. The ground was certainly cold enough for them to stick without melting. It was a fact that made Erik’s choice to put some distance between himself and the fire one he regretted, immediately moving his bedroll as close as he could manage. Tove had done the same already. It barely helped.
Erik stared off into the black beyond Tove and the fire. There was no joy in the wonder of a black world for him. As strange as it might have been, he couldn’t bring himself to feel wonder, only fear. The valkyries were out there, he knew it. He couldn’t be sure where, but he swore he could feel them watching. There was some small comfort in closing his hands around the cool steel in his palm, but sleep was the only thing that mattered now. He forced his eyes shut and hoped his mind would quiet enough that he could rest.
chapter|24
The small amount of wood they had used was still burning when the dim light of morning told Erik he’d be fine to get out of the bedroll. It was still cold and he’d only removed the topmost layer of the clothes he’d bought from the old man. He was quick to put them on, not getting too far from the fire while he did. He nudged Tove awake and went immediately to
