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Erik glanced down at the thick scarlet blood oozing out of his wounds but didn’t say anything. “My father wasn’t a coward. He wanted to spread the Viking way and tame wildlands. What could be more honorable than that? He made peace with a Highland clan and settled in a new part of the world, but he did not have to sacrifice anything to do it. He kept his way of life, and I know that I am no less a Viking than you. This place…my father would be horrified to see what is happening here. Ivar is a brute.”

“On that, we do not disagree, but I think you have a different vision of the Viking way. I think you have been told lies and taught to be kind and patient and weak,” she spat. “That is the way of the Highlanders, who get raided and pillaged and killed because they cannot defend themselves against our might. No wonder you did not tell me your true name. I would be ashamed as well.”

“I’m not ashamed,” he said sharply, but then he sighed and twisted his body. Sigrid wasn’t sure if her words had hurt him or if he was moving due to aches from his wounds. “Have you ever been to the Highlands?” he asked.

Sigrid flinched at the question. It was a source of great shame for her that she had never been taken on a raid. “I have not,” she said.

“Then you do not know of what you speak. Let me know when you raid the Highlands and see what kind of resistance you meet. You may find that they’re stronger warriors than you think.”

“I think not,” Sigrid scoffed again. “I will be included in a raiding party soon. Ivar will not be able to deny my talents for much longer, then I will go and remind you traitors how true Vikings are meant to live. You have betrayed our way so much that you cannot remember what our way is.”

“I think it’s you who cannot remember the way,” Erik said, glancing at the other prisoners. “Do you really think using these prisoners as slaves is honorable? Do you believe that beating me until I’m bloody pleases the gods?”

Sigrid rose to her feet, towering above him. She sneered and clenched her hands into fists by her sides. “The gods have not been watching us for a long time.”

“And you say I am the traitor,” Erik said in a soft voice. Sigrid bit her tongue and turned away. She slammed the cage door shut behind her and locked it before striding away and telling the guard to get back to his post and focus on the prisoners. She had no idea why what Erik said had gotten under her skin to such an extent or why she was letting herself be riled by him. But he certainly wasn’t like any man she had ever met before, nor any Viking. He spoke without bluster and without bragging, which was so unlike the examples she had been used to.

As she walked away, her thoughts turned to her parents. She blinked furiously to prevent tears from filling her eyes, but she failed in her endeavor.

The stars danced around the moon. The night was cold. Sigrid was just a child. Her father held her dangling legs as she sat upon his shoulders. Her hands reached to the heavens as she tried to touch the stars. Her father laughed.

“Maybe you’ll be able to reach them when you’re older,” he said, “or maybe they’ll fall down to be with you.”

“Do you really think so?” she said in wide-eyed awe.

“I think if you’re good and obey the will of the gods, then you get everything you want in life. I have always followed the will of Odin, and I have been given a good life. I have a beautiful wife and a pretty daughter. The gods have been kind to me, and they’ll be kind to you as well if you show them kindness.”

“Mother says that I should be kind to everyone because any of them could be gods,” Sigrid said.

Her father chuckled warmly. “Your mother is a wise woman, and you would do well to listen to her. That’s right. The gods could be anyone, and if you’re unkind to one, they’ll know, and they’ll punish you for it. That’s why we have to try and be our best and honor them whenever we can.”

“I promise I will, Father. I’m even kind to the animals. I know some gods like turning into animals.”

“That they do.”

“I think if I was a god, I’d turn into an animal as well. I’d like to be a bird and fly across the sky, or be a fish and swim in the ocean, or…” Her voice trailed on, and her father listened with an amused smile on his face, astounded by the mind of a child.

Sigrid had been kind to the gods. She had been kind to everyone because she wanted the gods to favor her, but either her parents had lied to her, or they had been wrong. The gods could have come down from Asgard and prevented her parents from being killed if they wanted to, if they were really up there. She had seen men pray for their lives and be killed. She had seen men beg the gods for mercy and to show them freedom, but they had fallen prey to Ivar’s whip all the same. It seemed foolish that anyone should believe in the gods when it was so obvious they were either cruel or they didn’t care.

But then her mind turned to Erik again. He had come from across the sea, and he seemed so different from everyone else she had ever known. If she were a child, she would have probably thought that he was a god. She laughed at the absurd notion, grateful that she wasn’t a child any longer.