“By all the gods!” Ragnar yelled, and kicked his horse’s sides. “I’ll kill it!”
“Nay, Ragnar! ’Tis my wife!” Magnus kicked Thorgell into a gallop. He rode to her, leaned down, and scooped her up with one arm. He was laughing, deep and freely, and he was holding her tightly against him and her arms were around his neck.
He pulled Thorgell to a halt. He looked at his wife, filthy, smiling, her eyes bright with relief. “You would have held me off with your sword? Right there in the middle of a swamp?”
“Aye. I was very angry, you see.”
“I see,” he said, and leaned down to kiss her. “You are also very filthy.”
“Magnus,” she said into his mouth, and tightened her hold around his neck. He grunted and pulled her across his lap. Thorgell pranced to the side, not liking her weight or the swamp smell of her.
“Ingunn is out there hiding.”
Magnus called his sister’s name. She rose and stood silently under the moonlight.
“Ragnar, take her up with you.”
“We must hurry,” Zarabeth said, panic flaring suddenly. “Orm must be conscious by now. He will be coming after us.”
“Good.”
She heard the pleasure in his voice, the anticipation. There was nothing for it. He was a man and a warrior and he wanted his enemy.
She said as calmly as an old campaigner, “There are six of you. There are only three of them. They have one woman who is a slave.”
Magnus wanted to find Orm immediately. He wanted to kill him slowly and he wanted to do it himself.
She smiled at him, her fingertips touching his mouth. “Thank you for coming after me. I would like you to catch him, Magnus. He is like a dangerous animal. He must be stopped.”
“I am worried for you.”
“I have his sword. I am a dangerous woman. Let us go.”
He kissed her again, squeezed her against him until she squeaked, and click-clicked Thorgell forward. He shouted for his men to follow.
They rode back from across the meadow, slowing down to get through the dense pine forest.
“So close,” Magnus said against Zarabeth’s temple. “I feared he would be gone with you. He has a vessel near, does he not?”
“Aye. I don’t know why he waited. He veered inland, then came back north to the viksfjord. Perhaps he wanted you to come. Perhaps he wanted to face you and fight you.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“He did not rape me. He would have, but Ingunn struck him down. I tied him with his cross-garters and then we ran.”
He hugged her. “You did well, as did my sister.”
When they neared the camp, they rode single file. Then Magnus called for a halt. They dismounted and he bade Zarabeth wait there with the horses. She watched him silently make his way to the edge of the trees.
She felt sick to her stomach. Ingunn came to stand beside her.
There was a shout. “He’s gone! The bastard is gone! The miserable coward.”
The women looked at each other, then ran forward.
Eines was on his knees examining the fire and the ground around it. “I don’t think he tried to catch the mistress at all, Magnus. I think he came back here—see, his prints show that he isn’t steady on his feet—I think he simply decided it was too dangerous and they all left.”
All but one. They found the woman slave naked and dead beside a tree, strangled.
