And then we found her—along with King Geir.
He and Bjørn exchanged blows, neither giving the other an opening. Randi used her magic to bolster her husband as well as fight off warriors that other allies weren’t engaged with.
Leif charged ahead, renewed with vigor through the lust of battle and the desire to protect his family. Astrid used her magic to shield as many warriors as she could. I rushed for Geir. I would crush him with my bare hands if it were necessary.
Bjørn stumbled back from a hard blow by Geir. And the king did what I feared. Instead of attacking Bjørn again, he charged Randi. The witch blocked him with her shield, but she wasn’t strong enough to withstand the strike and stumbled back.
The world around me slowed as Geir thrust his sword and pierced Randi. She stumbled back, eyes wide, and choked. Blood gushed out of her wound, and soon it dripped out of her mouth.
Astrid screamed, and a concussive force sent a host of enemy warriors flying. But not Geir. His form shimmered with the protection of that gods-forsaken völva under his command.
Bjørn roared and attacked the king with more burning rage than the enemy expected. Geir cried out when Bjørn’s sword sliced into his shield arm, nearly severing it.
I rushed in, rage burning and roiling. He’ll pay for that!
Geir did not expect me, nor for my hands to wrap around his pathetic head. He cried out in pure agony and scrabbled at my fingers in vain as I squeezed. His skull cracked and blood spurted out of every orifice until his head exploded under my pressure. Blood, brain matter, and everything else that was his head splattered over my hands and the ground.
With fury-infused ragged breaths, I dropped Geir’s lifeless, mangled body and turned. Bjørn held his wife in his arms, while Astrid knelt in front of her, trying desperately to heal her. Her hands shook and her breaths came heavy with the effort.
Leif hovered, shield and sword ready to defend them, along with the remaining warriors.
“No… no… no, no, no, don’t fail me now!” Astrid shrieked, her voice quaking as fear set in and her magic faded.
She was too exhausted, too inexperienced to handle the strain of battle and now this.
Randi gently grasped her daughter’s hands and weakly smiled, blood trickling out of the corner of her mouth. “You, my perfect daughter, will do great things. Don’t you ever forget that.”
The woman’s eyes glazed, though not from death.
The god’s favor you will have
A life forever none can understand
The balance of justice and war you will be, a healer of souls to complete
But be wary of the snarling wolf
Cloaked in shadow he’ll prowl close
Snapping teeth and drawing blood, he’ll follow the fallen Valkyrie to her other life
Randi’s focus returned, and she smiled at her daughter one last time before she turned to Leif, smiled and told him she was proud of him as well and that he and his line would do great things.
She turned her attention to Bjørn as he held her. He whispered sweet words to her, and with her last breath, she did the same.
Her eyes dulled and her hand fell. Randi’s chest stilled.
She was gone.
“Mother…” Astrid said. “No… Mother…”
I wrapped my arms around Astrid and held her against my chest in a tight embrace, desperate to ease any of her pain that I could.
A screaming sob tore through her. The ground quaked and shifted. Earth and rock jutted out and briar grew and snarled until the battlefield was nothing more than a tormented landscape, a reflection of the grief and agony my Valkyrie felt in this moment of loss.
Whatever battles had continued after the king’s demise now ceased. All sounds died to nothing, allowing Astrid’s sobs to carry through the bloody and body-littered battlefield.
Fenrir and Baldr bowed their heads.
