I didn’t care what he said about me. The whispers haunting me all week made his words run off me like cold drops of water down a cup.
But dragging Lika’s name like this?
Viljan let out a short warning breath when I lifted my chin further.
“No,second,” I replied quietly. “I’m no gossip, and my brother is a great Viking.”
My father would have scolded me for my tone. He didn’t want us to use our rank, as daughters and sons to a chieftain, as leverage, but always cautioned us to keep mentions of hierarchy to ourselves because we held so much power over others. But this man was trying to intimidate me, and I could allow that as much as I could the karls threatening me.
Someone behind Guner expelled a sharp breath. My eyes narrowed on Darcke.
Then my head flew to the side and pain exploded across my cheek, the taste of iron filling my mouth.
“So you think you don’t have to fight karls?” the king’s second spat.
I didn’t have time to react before Guner punched me again. My nose took the brunt of it this time, and while blood began spurting, I didn’t hear a crunching sound as I tried to get my body to collaborate with my foggy mind. The third strike gave me time to turn my head, but the force of it made me fly backward, landing me on the grass.
I blinked hard when a snarl ripped through the darkness flickering before my eyes. Five of the warriors who’d stood behind Guner had Viljan by his arms and were dragging him backward. Rakkel’s guard had moved to stand before her, but as he tried to block the female heir from approaching me, he, too, was surrounded by the king’s men and forced back.
Rakkel started toward us when Guner raised a hand. “Don’teven think about it, heir. Not unless you want your family to pay for your disobedience.” His grin was manic. “I heard your brother isn’t doing too well…”
The girl paled so fast her skin mirrored the white fur lining the edges of her tunic and trousers.
Butdisobedience?
As if what either of us had done was anything other than our normal customs?
I let out a dry laugh that made Darcke’s face twist with a sneer identical to the one Guner bore. Wewerea violent people. Since we were at war so often, we had to be. The path to becoming a warrior began at the cradle, and ever since my feet first found themselves on a longship’s deck, I’d been broken and bloodied more times than I cared to count. But I hadn’t been beaten like this before.
There was no wisdom in Guner’s strikes, only the weight of a ship trying to break the waves to its will. I spat blood on the ground, anger racing hotly through me. I wasn’t about to be touched by anyone like this, regardless of hisstandingwith the king.
Guner crouched before me when I opened my mouth. “I heard your father has become quite lenient with his people in his old age—that there is something strange happening at your hearth.” His smirk was colder than the lake behind him. “Perhaps we need to send someone to check on Oenskan?”
My stomach bottomed out, but I didn’t respond—refused to even wipe at the blood dripping down my chin.
“You see,” Guner continued, “some of the karls from your fylki broke during the initial sifting.”
I frowned. What did he mean withinitial sifting?
All the karls who joined the Hird received additional training so they would be able to wield axes and bows and even swords, although the blades were only meant for jarls. They were also evaluated to ensure the chieftains hadn’t lied about their abilities. That’s what the karls had been doing every day this pastweek, too—and it was probably one of the only reasons I was alive.
But sifting? I hadn’t heard of this before.
Guner laughed, although there was not even an ember of warmth weaving through it. “Did you not wonder where they were?”
I pressed my hands into the ground at his expression.
His brows jumped. “We have new rules this year. All karls who were sent to join the Hird were evaluated prior to the summer trials, as always. But we had to make the evaluations a bit more exciting for some fylkis. You see, we’ve found that some of our people aren’t as loyal to the king as they should be.”
It was like being wrapped in a harsh, biting wind. My skin prickled beneath my leathers as my head turned on its own toward the beach where the groups of karls were spread out, all standing with their attention aimed our way.
I hadn’t searched for my people for the same reason I’d kept Viljan at arm’s length.
Had that been another mistake?
Guner chuckled. “You won’t find your people here. Despite the information they provided us, karls who spoke up—who betrayed their chieftains—cannot be trusted to roam our kingdom. They received the…” He sucked his teeth. “Appropriate punishment. So did the ones we interrogated from other chiefdoms.”
An image of the seven men and women we’d said goodbye to a moon prior—the ones to whom my father had gifted a ship for safe travels, who’d wished to join the Hird because they hoped for more adventure than our small, safe village would provide—assaulted my mind.
