“They talked of someone called Wodnaz a lot. And Odin.”
“They are different names for the same traveler,” says Ylvin while nodding. “What more, my dear? What more?”
“Oh, I didn’t know.” I scratch my head. “Toward the end, I thought Verthandi would kill me. She lifted me into the air, turned me upside down.”
“Fascinating,” whispers Ylvin.
“She said blood is flowing. Green mountains topple. Blue waves crash.”
“Classic Norn stuff.”
“She said I had made my choice,” I say. “Like Odin.”
“Did you debate them? You contradicted them?”
“I… they said it was all decided… I just…” I’m afraid of Ylvin’s reaction. Will she be angry? Call me a hot-headed wench? “I asked what the fucking point was.”
Ylvin throws her head backward and howls in laughter, like a wolf mocking the moon. Her grin shows her teeth. Sharp.
“Wonderful, Kilda,” she says. “You’re tougher than I thought.”
“You’re not angry?”
“Of course not, child, you are a Volva. You decide what words you utter.”
“I just thought?—”
“You must tell me more later,” interrupts Ylvin. “But now, you must eat and drink. Then rest.”
She hands me a firm piece of cheese and a slab of dried meat. I bite into the cheese as she refills my cup from a bucket. First she drugs me, then she feeds me.
“Sleep after you have eaten.”
“I’ll go to the tent then.”
“Eat now. The men are outside. I’ll make them move and keep quiet. You need to sleep well, as long as you need. No distractions. Those are my orders.”
She moves toward the tent flap.
“Ylvin,” I say. She turns to me. “She also said… she said the giants walk again. What does that?—”
“I am not surprised, my dear,” she responds. “Not surprised at all.”
She exits.
I rip tendons of meat with my teeth, chewing so it blends with the cheese already in my mouth. What a crazy experience. Ylvin, that sly wolf. I’m sure she’s hiding something from me. She knows. She knows more than me.
A shiver runs down my spine. Verthandi had warned of giants. Giants walk. The Thurisaz curse dances through my mind. Jotnar. The end times. Ragnarok.
Ylvin should share with me. I know less now than I did before she drugged me. There is so little I know. I can learn to enchant by myself. Ylvin has fooled me. Tricked me. Lied.
What if I am cursed now? Doomed.
Ari, selfish piece of shit. Ylvin, lying piece of shit. At least Elof is friendly. Elof is a humble wife-lover. That man has no secrets. Every woman should hope to find a man like Elof.
He’s a brute, yes, but he’s soft, caring. I can see it in his eyes.
Ylvin doesn’t deserve him—she deserves a lonely death. Who’s to say it’s not a deadly poison in my cup next time? She deserves what’s coming. I don’t know the future, but I know what she deserves.
