“Thank you, Svala,” he said. “You can go and join the other warriors now. But take this with you.” He stripped away Katarina’s head covering and handed it to the woman.
Svala bound it over her head and hurried forward. If Arik happened to look back toward his men, he would only see a woman who looked similar. He might not even know his wife was missing.
So that explained Svala’s offering. She had plotted this from the beginning.
Katarina remained frozen in place, unsure of what to do. If she tried to fight Leif, he would overpower her within moments.
“I should have known not to trust you,” Leif said. “You always lusted after Thorgrim, didn’t you? But you belong to me.”
The malice in his voice went beyond anger—this was hatred. She couldn’t understand why he seemed to loathe her.
“What do you want?” she asked quietly. Demure behavior had usually soothed his vanity, and she used it as her first weapon.
“You had no right to go to him or let him use your body. We were promised.”
Katarina didn’t apologize but instead faced him.Arik, come back,she thought silently. Surely he would notice she was missing and return for her.
But what if he didn’t? She had no way of knowing whether Hrafn’s disappearance had anything to do with Leif, or whether it had only been a distraction.
She started to walk back toward the jarl’s longhouse, hoping that some of Dalla’s men were still there. Even if there was no one, it was safer to be surrounded by thethralls.
But Leif caught her wrist and jerked her toward him, covering her mouth with his hand. “Come with me, Katarina. I want to have words with your husband before he dies.”
His iron grip upon her wrist was hurting, and she called out for help. The moment she did, he backhanded her face, and she saw stars. Two of thethrallscame running, but Leif never let go of her. When the first man charged, Leif swung his battle-ax with his left hand and sliced the man’s throat. The second man held his wooden shield as he unsheathed a sword, but Leif seized the shield and kicked the man’s legs out from under him. Seconds later, the warrior was dead. To the other men gathered at the longhouse, Leif said, “I am taking the woman back with me. If you try to stop us, you will join your friends in death.”
The men hesitated, and Katarina shook her head in warning. She didn’t believe Leif meant to kill her at this moment, but thejarl’smen would die if they interfered.
Leif seized her by the arm and dragged her in the direction of the lake. Katarina hoped the men were watching and could tell Eric where she’d been taken.
She stumbled as he pulled her into the darkness. The crescent moon gave only the barest hint of light, but the sky was filled with stars. Katarina glimpsed the reflection of water in the distance, but he drew her further away.
“Where is Hrafn?” she demanded.
“Your brother is waiting for us.”
After several minutes of walking, she spied the glow of a fire. The light blazed with an otherworldly fury, and the closer they walked, the more her heartbeat quickened.
Leif had bound her brother to a post, his head hanging low. He was unconscious, and at his feet, she saw stacks of wood and hay. Sparks flew from the fire, and she was terrified that one would catch hold of the hay and ignite it. Leif’s purpose was clear enough—he meant to burn Hrafn to death.
Her blood turned to ice, and Katarina sent up a silent prayer for help. “What is this about, Leif? Why would you threaten Hrafn?”
He released her wrist, and she stood beside the fire, staring at the madness in this man. “Do you remember when I came to Rogaland, Katarina?”
She shrugged. “Yes. It was a year ago.” She recalled that he had come alone, with hardly any silver, and he had used his fighting skills to gain a place among them.
“It was not the first time I came here. I was seven years old when my mother brought me to Valdr for fostering.”
Since she had been a young child then, she never would have remembered it. But Katarina held her silence and waited for him to continue.
“Valdr turned her away. My mother pleaded with him, but he refused.” There was a hard glint in his eyes as he continued. “She was forced to leave. Your father, Lars, dragged my mother outside, and she begged him to let her go back to thejarl. He shoved her hard, and my mother fell into one of the cooking fires. I can still remember her screaming. Her clothing caught fire, and they could not save her. She died within a few minutes.” Leif’s eyes hardened. “I lost my only family that day because of Lars. And I vowed that I would have my vengeance upon him and every child he sired.”
Every part of her felt as if it had been turned to stone. Katarina had mistakenly believed that Leif was acting out of jealousy. But this went far deeper than that.
“You killed my father, didn’t you?” Her hands were shaking, but she forced herself to continue. “The day you found my father’s body, you said he had died when a boar sliced open his stomach. But it was you.”
Leif’s expression held only satisfaction. “It was. And I told him before he died that I would kill every last one of his children.” He stared over at Hrafn, who was starting to revive. Her blood ran cold when she understood how easy it would be for him to take her brother’s life. She had to keep Leif distracted until Eric and his men arrived. Katarina prayed that her husband would discover her gone and come to help.
“If what you say is true, it must have been an accident,” she told Leif. “My father would never have deliberately harmed a woman.”
