Page 17 of The Magic of Vanaheim

“Gunnlaug.” Shifting his stance as if readying himself for a fight, the boy covered Håkon with his whole body.

With a quick flick of her staff, thevalasent the guards holding her down crashing against the walls. But the next wave of herseiðrwas countered by the boy almost effortlessly. Håkon could feel both of their powers sizzling across his tattoos. He tried to get up. Surely the boy would be distracted enough so Håkon could shake off hisseiðr’sgrip and bury a knife in his back.

He couldn’t.

“Stay put,dróttning,” the boy chastised mildly, not even glancing back at Håkon. His gaze never left thevala.

And did he just call Håkon ‘princess’?

“I must say, I didn’t expect you to have the guts to come back after you sold us out to theJötnarall those years ago,” the boy said.

Håkon felt dizzy. Bergelmir had aVanrsorceress to provide him with information about Saeborg and its defenses? Was this the woman who had undone the harbor chain for them? Håkon was seething with rage. All this lost potential! If he could’ve questioned her before the raid began, if Bergelmir hadn’t sent him into battle when it was almost too late, the raid could have succeeded. And even this accursed plot to assassinate theVanrchieftain could have been so much better planned if his father had simply trusted him with some of his secrets.

“Your family should’ve respected the power of the priestesses! Now you’ll taste the consequences of your ignorance!”

Thevalaflung anotherseiðrat them, the whole room shaking under the onslaught.

Håkon had never seen such powerfulvölurfighting at close range, and the energy saturating the air took his breath away.

“Where are my mothers?” the boy roared, but he was only met with laughter. “Where are they?”

Anger clearly written on his face, the boy hissed an incantation, and the bathing water rose from the basin to encapsulate the priestess. She was lifted from the ground, and Håkon could see her floating inside the perfect bubble of water, arms flailing and mouth opened in a silent scream.

Håkon had never seen anything like theVanr’sbattle magic.

Throwing a spear at the trapped priestess, Frekegar ended her suffering, and Håkon watched with a mixture of awe and horror how the water turned red from her blood.

“I would’ve preferred to ask her some questions,” the boy snarled.

But Frekegar merely shrugged. “Do you have any idea how dangerous she was? You should’ve killed her on the spot instead of playing cat and mouse.”

“Fretting old man,” Talvi grumbled, but he already sounded rather amused than mad. “I’ll take care of theJötnar. Put my betrothed under arrest.”

Betrothed? Håkon must’ve misheard. What was the boy talking about?

Turning to him, theVanrleaned down to pluck the dagger from Håkon’s unresisting hand. “Behave,dróttning,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

Too stunned to resist, Håkon didn’t struggle as theVanrguards pulled him to his feet and bound his hands behind his back.

seven

The Vala

?alvi

Arngrim met him and Perhonen on the battlements when theJotunnwarships had sunk to the bottom of the fjord.

“You’ve already stopped them, I see,” Arngrim said mournfully.

“Don’t you dare complain. You killed Gunnlaug,” Talvi snarled, still furious about Arngrim’s rash decision to kill the priestess. “We could’ve interrogated her.”

“You think we should’ve listened to her lies until she managed to wreak more havoc or even flee?”

Talvi rolled his eyes. “Anyway, it wasn’t a full-blown attack, just a test of our strength.”

“Bergelmir isn’t a fool,” Perhonen said. “The lives of a few warriors are of no importance to him, but if his plot had succeeded and you died, they’d have had a good chance of taking the city with minimal losses.”

Talvi shrugged. “They wouldn’t. Should I die, I expect the both of you to protect the realm and the throne until my mothers return.”