Kalfr let out a choked laugh, and shook his head. “No, naught like that, son,” he said, though his eyes were glancing rather urgently around them. “And ach, what is that up the tunnel? Does Iyolf have a…dog?”
He squinted with increasing disbelief up the tunnel, toward where there indeed seemed to be a furry creature sniffing around at the walls, while Svein grinned and nodded. “Ach, Papa!” he exclaimed, as he grasped Kalfr’s hand, and began tugging him up the tunnel. “The dog ran away from the bad men and the big fire, and came to hide with us instead! Iyolf said we can keep it, and we can, can’t we?”
Kalfr’s expression looked both fond and exasperated, but he accordingly allowed Svein to tug him up the tunnel, with Raye and Gaelfr close behind. And once the dog caught scent of Kalfr, it immediately ran over to circle and jump around him, whimpering — but thankfully it didn’t bark, and even the whimpering subsided when Iyolf came over to gently stroke the back of its neck.
“Svein has named him Mr. Snoofles, of Clan Terror,” Iyolf informed them, his face grave. “Thus, we must keep him.”
Eyolf had come over to stand behind Iyolf, smiling cheerfully and nodding, as if fully approving of hisástvinur’s impeccable logic. “Iyolf has always wished for a dog,” he told Kalfr, in a wheedling voice. “You would not deny him this, would you?”
Kalfr crouched to pet the dog too, scratching behind its floppy ears with his claws. “No, I ken I cannot,” he said, with a chuckle. “So long as my mate andástvinuragree with this, also.”
But Raye and Gaelfr both smiled and nodded in unison, and Raye knelt down to greet the dog too, feeling the warmth of its silky fur beneath her fingers. “You’re not nearly so scary when you’re not hunting us, are you?” she murmured. “You’ll make a good friend for Svein too, I think.”
Svein returned this with a leap and an excited whoop, so loud that it echoed through the tunnel, and perhaps out beyond it, too. Enough that Fengr shot a sharp look back in the direction of the cottage, his hand spread flat to the tunnel wall. “This is a good time for you to go,” he told them. “The fire will burn for a while yet, and the men remaining have begun to disperse. But take the longer route around, just to be sure.”
Kalfr nodded, and glanced back down the tunnel again. “And you do not mind staying a spell longer?” he asked Fengr. “I ken Joarr and Olarr will settle what to do with Sybil for now, until the clan can gather upon this. I should be grateful if you could help take her wherever they deem best.”
Fengr easily nodded, and jerked his head toward Skirvir, who was hovering closely behind him. “Ach, we well know how to handle her,” he replied. “Do we not, big brute?”
Skirvir eagerly nodded, his cheeks betraying a distinctive flush, and Fengr smirked as he waved Kalfr off. “Now go, and take your kin and your new pup home,” he said. “And mayhap stop for a bath, also.”
His nose wrinkled as his gaze dropped to Kalfr’s ash- and blood-streaked body, and Kalfr smiled back as he clasped Fengr on the shoulder. “Thank you, brother,” he replied. “I ken we may not have gained this today without you, and your great gifts.”
Fengr huffed and rolled his eyes, but there was no mistaking the look of gratification on his face as he again waved them off. And once Kalfr had thanked Skirvir, too, their group headed toward the exit together — Kalfr and Raye and Gaelfr and Svein, and Eyolf and Iyolf, and Mr. Snoofles, too.
It turned out that Fengr had been right, and there was no sign of any men as they crept out of the tunnel’s opening together. However, there was a distinctive reek of smoke in the air, along with the distant sounds of popping and snapping. Raye’s beloved little cottage, still burning to the ground to keepthem safe, and she spoke a silent prayer of thanks to the goddess as they headed into the cover of trees. They were together, and they were safe.
It still felt too new, too fragile, to be real, but with every step away from the cottage, it settled steadier in Raye’s chest. The smell of smoke was fading, there was no sign of men following, and Svein seemed surprisingly calm and content, alternately clinging onto Kalfr and Gaelfr’s backs, and giggling as he watched Mr. Snoofles prance around Eyolf and Iyolf up ahead. And soon they found a bubbling creek, where they stopped and drank and cleaned up the worst of the blood and dirt and soot, washing it away into the clean, cold water.
Once they’d finished, Kalfr murmured something to Eyolf, who then loudly suggested to Svein that they play a game of catch with Mr. Snoofles. And as Svein gleefully began racing around the nearby trees with Eyolf and Iyolf and Mr. Snoofles, Kalfr squared his shoulders, and turned toward Raye and Gaelfr.
“I wish to speak to you both,” he said, on a heavy exhale. “And tell you — I am sorry.”
Raye blinked, while Kalfr took a breath, and clasped her hand in his. “For… you were right, Raye,” he continued, quiet. “With what you told us, this morn. I have not… trusted you. And I have not trusted you, Gael, either.”
Raye’s glance toward Gaelfr found him watching Kalfr intently, and Kalfr reached his other hand to catch Gaelfr’s, too. “But you ken,” he went on, his voice rough, “I have not trusted anyone, as long as I can remember. Not my father, not our clan, not our leaders nor our mountain. None of this was safe, ach? It was never, ever safe. I never learnt how to do this — untilyou, Gael.”
He gave a half-smile, half-grimace toward Gaelfr, lacing their fingers together. “And mayhap my way of learning to trust you,Gael,” he added, lower, “was to test you. To push you away, with all my strength, and see if you would come back.”
Raye swallowed, searched Gaelfr’s face — but to her vague surprise, he was already nodding, and fondly smiling toward Kalfr’s face. “And you think I do not know this,ástin mín?” he replied, his voice soft, even gentle. “I have always known this. I am glad for you to test me. I am honoured to prove my love and fealty to you, as oft and as long as you need this from me.”
It sounded genuine, utterly sincere, and it tugged at a too-familiar strand in Raye’s tangled thoughts. This was Gaelfr — caring again. Tending again. Offering up his help, his strength, his stubborn steadfast support. Drawing upon something that was bound deep into the core of him — something that perhaps had always been there, or that perhaps he and Kalfr had woven together, through all these years of pushing and pulling between them.
Kalfr’s smile back toward Gaelfr was fond too, suggesting he wasn’t surprised by any of this — but he shook his head, and took another deep breath. “But again, Raye was right,” he countered, hoarse. “This was not fair to you, Gael. It was not fair for me to make you watch whilst I took a mate without you. It was not fair to break my vow to you, to push you away from me across the sea, all that time. And it was not fair” — he twitched a grim little smile — “to expect you to stay true and blameless, amidst all this. I should have seen that all my tests would drive you to hide from me, and speak false to me. I should have seen that I might drive you into deeds that would hurt not only us, but those we care for, also.”
His sad eyes flicked toward Raye, and his hand gently squeezed hers. “I should not have been surprised,” he continued slowly, “that you pushed Raye as you did, Gael, and sought to test her, and make her prove herself to me. For this is what I have always taught you to do, is it not? This is what you knewI wished for. This is the only way you knew to please me, and grant me peace.”
He fell silent for a moment, as the cheerful barks and yelps from Svein and Mr. Snoofles rang through the air around them. “And mayhap,” Kalfr said, almost too quiet to hear, “Raye was right about how this began between us, all those summers ago. Mayhap I… Iwishedyou to swear that vow to me, Gael, to make me yourástvinur. Mayhap I even pushed you into this. For this then underpinned all else between us, did it not? It granted me all the power over you, all the safety I craved — and it granted you a lifelong debt you should always be fighting to repay.”
The sun had come out above them, beaming bright through the afternoon sky, but Raye felt a flicker of that old darkness, as the miserable truth of Kalfr’s words burrowed deep into her thoughts. He really hadn’t trusted them. He really had been testing both her and Gaelfr, all that time. And could Sybil have been right, after all? Could he still be a lying duplicitous snake, constantly watching and plotting against them…
But then Gaelfr’s breath huffed out, harsh and exasperated, almost a growl. “Ach, enough,ástin mín,” he snapped. “Mayhap you were not always right in this, but I was not, either. And you forget all the rest, ach? All the times you have soothed me, and helped me, and made me laugh, and brought me peace. All the pleasure and safety you have granted me in return. All the cleverness you have wielded on my behalf. Ach” — his eyes flicked toward Raye — “even how you chose the perfect mate for us. Knowing just what I longed for most, and then seeking this out for us.”
What? Raye’s hand spasmed in Kalfr’s, and she stared back and forth between them. There was no way that was true, no way Kalfr had been thinking ofGaelfrwhen he’d first come to her — but curse him, Kalfr grimaced, and his eyes on Gaelfr looked caught.Guilty.
“Do not even try to deny this,ástin mín,” Gaelfr continued, with a purposeful nod toward Raye. “You just happened to find this quick, brave Bautul woman, born ripe and plump and comely from her garden, weaving the goddess’ own magic. Not only this, but she is hungry and shameless and greedy for us, and revels in my care and tending, and in our command. She is perfect,ástin mín, the utmost I could have longed for in a mate, and you gained her not just for yourself, but forme.”
His words struck Raye breathless, reverberating too hot and powerful through her chest. Gaelfr really thought all that, about her? He thought she was ripe and plump and comely? The utmost he could have ever longed for?Perfect?
