Loki’s gaze jerked back to hers. “How did you know, missy?”
“I knew because I lived in a place like that, too. I love you like a son, and I want you near me, so there will be no arguments.”
Loki rolled his eyes. “All right. I know you need someone to hug.” He reached over and put his finger to her lips. “Shush. Listen.”
A group of drunken men argued not far from them.
“Loki, do you remember where you were when you last saw Inga?”
“Aye, but hush,” he put his finger up to his lips. “I do no’ want us to be discovered. You wait here while I check to see where those men are.”
Celestina hid in the bushes while Loki crept out. He picked out a stone, placed it carefully in his slinger, and let it fly. A few seconds later, a man yelled out a torrent of curses she did not understand.
Loki ran back to Celestina with a grin on his face. “Got him, missy.” He covered his mouth and giggled.
“Loki, be careful. He is no’ English or Scottish. Whoever you hit must be Norwegian,” she whispered. “He’ll kill you if he catches you.”
“Och, missy angel. My job is to find Nicol or, if I can no’ do that, hide you until Master Brodie comes. I am just following my orders.”
The lad snuck out of the trees again and came back a few moments later. “There are only three that I can see, but they look mean. I’ll take care of them, missy.”
Loki ran back out, and she whispered softly, “Be careful. I do no’ want anything to happen to you.”
He rushed back to her side with a sly grin on his face and patted her arm. “Och, I ken you love me. ‘Tis all right.” With that, he disappeared again until another string of curses rang out in the air. He tore back to their hiding spot in gleeful delight, clearly quite proud of his accomplishments.
“Have you seen any signs of Nicol at all, Loki?”
“Nay, those big lads are in my way. They just keep pacing the path with their great big packs over their shoulders as if they are waiting for someone. I’ll get rid of them.”
Twice more he ran out and peppered them with stones, before returning to their hiding place.
Then one of the men discovered their hidden spot and charged toward them with a finger pointing.
Celestina shrieked, grabbed Loki, and they turned and ran around the back of the building back through the trees. Celestina started to head into the forest, but Loki turned toward the well beaten path in the middle of the village. “Nay, Loki! This way, not the lane.”
He ignored her, so she followed behind him, racing as fast as she could with her skirts swirling around her legs. She could let nothing happen to him. She broke through the trees in time to see wee Loki tearing down the middle of the path with two big warriors chasing him. She noticed one lying on the ground asleep. Had Loki actually managed to knock one of them out?
Chugging after them, she started to think Loki was going to get away when the front runner finally picked up speed and grabbed the wee lad by the arm and plucked him up off the ground, hanging him upside down for his friend to see. He beatthe boy’s bottom five times, and then his friend grabbed Loki and dumped him in a nearby water bucket head first while keeping a hold on his ankle.
Something snapped inside her. Without making a sound, Celestina ran into the trees and found the largest piece of wood she could find. She came out swinging and clubbed one man in the back of the head so hard he tumbled to the ground, clearly in a dead faint. The other one still held Loki with one arm, so she strolled up, swung her club, and hit him square in the chest with an angry scream. She could tell she’d stunned him, but he retained his grasp on Loki. He reached for her, but she managed to dance out of the way.
“Let him go, you big oaf. Leave him be!” Her voice reached a fevered pitch, her anger building from years of mistreatment, hours of pain, and mountains of shame.
Loki, who’d pulled his head out of the water, managed to draw out a few more stones from his pocket, which miraculously hadn’t tumbled out when he’d been turned upside down, and slung them at the brute.
“You have no right! No right. You churlish bastard!” she shouted, continuing to swing her weapon. “Leave him alone.” She dodged his grasp without difficulty, mostly because his movements had slowed, both from drink and the combined attack of her and Loki. He staggered in her direction, but she did not, could not stop. When he saw her arms swing high above her head, he dropped Loki and the boy sprinted away. Grinning stupidly, the man tried to grab her, but she managed to elude him again. He almost fell, but then righted himself and turned around with a dazed expression, reaching for her. She took the club and hit him as hard as she could.
His dazed expression turned dark and angry. The viciousness of his growl would have normally caused Celestina to back down, but not today. The man tried to walk towardher again. In her own mind, she knew she had lost control, but somehow she felt justice was being served.
Stalking toward him with a vengeance and a purpose previously unknown to her, she hollered at him. “No right, you have no right. Do you hear me? How dare you pick on someone smaller than you?” Visions of Loki hanging in the air fueled her anger. Tears ran down her face and she continued to swing. “You are three times his size and you pick on him. Leave him alone.”
Another couple of blows, and he fell to a sitting position. Still, he continued to stare at her. Anger bubbled from within her. “Who gave you permission to touch me?” She held the club in front of her, gasping for air now. She needed to replenish her energy because she was not done. Her arms lifted again, heavy with retribution for this unknown assailant, this man who now represented all the atrocities she had ever been forced to endure. “Leavemealone.” She swung again, and the man toppled face first into the dirt.
Powerless to stop, yet empowered with a freedom she had never before known, she continued. Her arms reached as high as possible and she hit him again. “Leave.” She heaved again. “Me.” She bellowed with her last swing. “Alone!”
Her tears turned to sobs when she realized the man no longer moved. She whirled around, searching for Loki, but didn’t see him anywhere. She started down the road, tears blurring her vision. Another group of bellowing Norsemen was running directly toward her. She ran back and picked up her piece of wood, now drenched in blood.
She charged down the middle of the road with her club over her head and screamed, “Nay!”
