The idea coalesced like clouds around a mountain peak. The expenditures seemed endless, a search for a single feather amongst a flock of birds. What if, instead of bribery, she searched for Klaernar deaths? More specifically, those who had risen to fill vacant spots.
Her body pleaded for sleep, but Saga threw back the covers and marched to her trunk. She still was poring over the records two hours later, when Sunnvald began his Rise.
Chapter Twenty-Four
KOPA
Jonas strode along the black cobbled streets of Kopa, hands dug deep in the pockets of his cloak. People bustled about with irritating cheer, going about their day as though nothing was amiss. As though their lives had not been smashed to bits. Jonas’s gaze trailed above the spires and rooftops, past the tangled towers of Ashfall Fortress, to the fire mountain they called Brími.
It loomed over the city, green and treeless, a dusting of snow at the top of the dome. Jonas knew he could thank Brími for the warm baths he’d come to enjoy, that the heat from underground made Kopa a pleasant place to live during Íseldur’s harsh winters. Long had it been dormant, yet there was still a hint of menace from the volcano—the ever-present thought that the past could be made present easily enough.
Do you ever think that perhaps our past is not our future?
Jonas jolted at his brother’s remembered words. Chest tightening, he forced himself to breathe. Forced himself to keep walking. Memories like this speared through him a dozen times a day, grief’s piercing pain never seeming to dull.
Rounding the corner, the mead hall came into view. Jonas blew out a long breath, striding toward it. He was running out of halls to visit in this black city—he’d been kicked out of nearly ten now, for brawling. Some might call him an undisciplined warrior, a bringer of trouble. The fact was fighting was the only time Jonas wasn’t thinking of everything he’d lost.
Reaching the mead hall’s door, Jonas paused.
Rey’saxe eyesglowered at him from a birch plank nailed to the door. The burn in his stomach ignited at once under the judgment of those eyes.Betrayer, they seemed to say.Deceiver.
But Jonas’s gaze strayed lower, reading the letters scrawled beneath Rey’s likeness.
Reward for information about this man. Seek Kaptein Ulfar, eastern garrison hall.
Some unshakeable part of Jonas, still Bloodaxe Crew to the core, smiled at that. It seemed the Klaernar’d had no luck in capturing his former brother in arms and were now changing tactics.
With the hint of a smile, he pushed into the hall.
Lit by a pair of hearths and a large iron chandelier, the mead hall was busy with a late-afternoon crowd. Jonas was proud of himself for not rolling his eyes at the establishment’s choice in decor. As if two full-sized taxidermied bears weren’t enough, Ursir was everywhere he looked. Jonas scowled at a tapestry—depicting the Bear God’s great battle with the Moonwolf—while ignoring all the tattooed faces looking his way.
Jonas sighed. He should have guessed the mead hall closest to the garrison hall would be a haunt for all the Klaernar in this gods forsaken city.
He spotted a space at the long table and slid onto the bench. A barmaid quickly found him, setting down a horn of ale. Jonas took a long draught, gaze unfocused. Seeing Rey’s likeness left him feeling unsteady, making Jonas’s thoughts drift to better days. As the weeks passed, his grief for Ilías melded with a new sort of sorrow. Jonas had not only lost his brother, but the people who were as good as kin. He missed the Bloodaxe Crew more than he’d imagined—missed the camaraderie and banter. Missed knowing that someone had his back, no matter what. He considered how restless he’d grown in recent years, how he’d been ready to move on. But now Jonas questioned the rationale of such thoughts. Had it really been so bad, sleeping on the hard earth, traveling about the kingdom?
If this was the alternative, the answer wasno.
Jonas felt unmoored, utterly lost. The rage he’d felt in the aftermath of Silla’s escape had cooled, grief settling heavily in his chest. And with it, the guilt. Jonas didn’t feel an ounce of regret for handingherover—she’d deserved it and so much worse. But he’d left his Bloodaxe brothers and sisters without so much as a goodbye. It had been a selfish thing to do, a thing Ilías would have despised. And slowly, his guilt was eating him away.
For all his life, Jonas’s goals had been clear, sharp things. But now, he lived in a state of in between. He hadn’t enough funds to buy back his family’s lands, yetthe thought of seeking another mercenary crew made his insides twist. Fighting alongside others—without Ilías—was more than Jonas could bear right now.
And as he thought of Gunnar, Hekla and Sigrún in Istré, his spirits sank lower. Would the job proceed without him and Ilías? Without Rey as their leader? He should be fighting alongside them, helping them rid Istré of its deadly problems.
Jonas took another long draught of ale, trying to drown his guilt.
Laughter down the long table caught his attention, and despite Jonas’s desire to wallow in his misery, he found his ears straining toward them.
“Aye, we’ve had leads, plenty of kuntas trying to sell false information.” The speaker appeared to be a Klaernar of rank, based on the bear pelt wrapped around his shoulders.
“How can you tell it’s false?” asked his comrade.
“We’ve withheld some details of the pair. When the deceivers don’t have the right answers, we know it’s false tales they peddle.”
“Are you not concerned, Ulfar?” asked his comrade. “The more time that passes, the harder they’ll be to find.”
“All we know is Svangormr Pass,” grumbled the kaptein, his sigil ring catching the light as his fingers drummed on the table. “But it’s been weeks now. Damned warband should’ve found them. Vanished into the Nordur wilds, it seems.”
Kalasgarde, thought Jonas bitterly. Rey had mentioned his tiny hometown in passing during one of the countless nights they’d spent drinking brennsa around the fire. Though Rey had never expressed a desire to return to Kalasgarde, it didn’t seem outrageous to think he’d have allies there.
