“Aye, girl,” he chuckled. “Fifteen to seven, and they had the high ground advantage and an archer. We would have been hard put to come out on top without more casualties.” Odin solemnly looked past the bonfire to the wrapped body of Forsk that was slung over one of the horses.
Aldo had gone on ahead and brought him back to camp. He would be brought back to the village and his body given to his family.
A sad howl filled the night, which made Odin jump and curse. “Darn wolves,” he swore. “They are what tipped the scale in our favor, and I’m grateful, for if it weren’t for them we wouldn’t have made it. But why do they continue to hang around?” He walked away and picked up a stick and threw it into the woods, screaming.
The wolves spooked Odin and many of my clansmen. They wouldn’t understand that they were there because I asked them to stay and guard us. I was already getting strange looks from Eviir, Gotte, and Hemi, who were kept in the dark about what I had done to heal Bearen. They knew something had happened, because they saw him go down, but no one wanted to voice aloud any speculation. Because what I had done, no matter how good, or how right it was, went against everything they believed in. I knew deep down that it was too soon to tell them about the wolves.
Bearen was propped up against a stump and was staring into the large bonfire. He hadn’t spoken since I healed him and I wasn’t yet ready to address the situation either. I was a coward. I also hadn’t seen to the other small injuries of my clansmen. They set to bandaging and stitching up each other’s wounds with practiced ease. Thankfully, they were only light flesh wounds.
The men had stripped down anything of value from the dead bodies and found nothing to signify who they were or what clan they were from. They could have just been a band of mountain bandits, but Fenri didn’t think so.
“We came this way four days ago, and saw no sign of bandits. We don’t tolerate them on our lands. Most people know better than to trespass. This was something else.”
He was right. I had to agree. But that was hours ago, and now all I wanted to do was sleep and I felt my eyes start to droop when I felt another touch in my mind.
Nothing’s out here but rabbits. Want to chase rabbits. Rabbit is good.
I felt my mouth start to drool at the thought of eating rabbit, but the flavor that came to my mind and mouth was not cooked rabbit, but raw and bloody. I coughed to try and clear the taste out of my mouth. That was weird. I can usually see through Faraway’s eyes if I wanted to, and we can sense each other’s feelings, but this was the first time I had shared taste. And with the wolf, no less.
Ughhh, I grimaced. Ummm, that’s all right, you don’t have to share with me.
My answer was a panting laughter. But since the wolves were still here and hadn’t run off, I decided to ask him how he was able to get the pack to come and stand guard if he wasn’t the alpha male.
I did not give them a choice. I made them come.
A confused set of images flooded my head.
I don’t understand?
Vorl is good Alpha for the pack. A mental image of the brown wolf I had originally tried to ask for help popped in my head. He is strong and fierce. When I leave here, Vorl will be leader again.
You took over the pack, just to help us. How could you do that?
You needed me. You needed us. I’m strong.
Where are you going?
Another panted laugh filled my mind.
I’m searching.
For what? He didn’t answer. Will you be able to control the wolves to guard us until we leave? You’re not leaving before then are you?
Yes, we guard as long as you are here.
Thank you.
Ja, burning humans make us hungry. We hunt rabbits but still guard.
And then he was gone out of my mind. I was still confused on what exactly the wolf was, when Faraway decided to interject.
Don’t worry about him. He knows his duty.
What duty? I don’t understand.
He’s a guardian. He’s on a journey to find his chosen one. Though, I think he was a little disappointed to find out that you already had me. I am after all, the finest guardian.
You mean there are more like you?
Faraway snorted. Of course there’s no one like me. I’m—
How many more? I interrupted.
My horse became silent and refused to speak further on the subject, but it was the most he had ever disclosed about guardians. And knowing that the grey wolf was a guardian and was watching over us, eased my mind.
Odin said we would reach Valdyrstal’s clan home in another two days, depending on how slowly we took our pace for Bearen. But I too needed sleep, because I was exhausted and I knew that Faraway was equally tired.
Chapter 4
Three more very slow days of rocky travel brought us to the home of the Valdyrstal Clan. Cresting a hill, I had my first view of my home and my heart flip-flopped in anticipation. The village, which lay amidst the Shadow Mountains in the Iodin Valley, consisted of many large wooden buildings that could easily hold multiple families apiece. Each was decorated with beautiful carvings of animal designs in the columns of their homes. High pointed roofs sported multiple fireplaces per building to fight off the obvious cold winters the people faced each year. Each home had painted wood shutters over their windows and large giant sized doors. On rare occasions, when the winter was too harsh, they would bring the horses and cows into their homes to help produce body heat.
I could see the fires of about fifty dwellings within the valley. Odin explained that there were branches of our clan that lived farther up in the mountains and preferred to spend the winters up there trapping, bringing in the sought-after furs. Breathing in the smell of cold air and stew cooking, I had a feeling of completeness— of being home.
Fenri took out a silver tipped horn and blew three short blasts into the chilled air, the sound echoing through the valley. A light was lit in a watchtower and the returning sound of another horn announced our arrival. Torches were lit and doors opened as men, women and children poured out of their homes to greet the returning clansmen.
I had lost feeling in my toes late yesterday and Fenri had wrapped my boots with fur that he turned inside out. Many of the men were used to the cold weather and barely blinked at the drop in temperature, and they still wore their arms bare.
Fenri, noticing my chattering lips, shook out a soft white fur cloak and I gratefully accepted it as I wrapped it around my shivering body.
“We came prepared in case we found you,” was all he said.
I could tell it was of the highest quality and I felt a brief flash of heat to my cheeks as I rode past all of my clanswomen. Many gasped in surprise and whispers followed us. I saw cold expressions and many women wouldn’t meet my gaze. I wondered what I had done in the past to receive such a welcome. We rode past them and up to the largest wooden dwelling with a giant wolf carved into the highest peak of the home.
Aldo took Faraway, and Odin stood next to Bearen protectively in case he needed help getting down from his horse. Bearen made only a small groan as his feet touched the ground; I kept my distance and waited until he entered our house first.
The room was large with a fireplace on one end, wooden benches, chairs covered in fur and a large table and bench for meals. The kitchen was on the other end of the room and another fireplace, which was burning already. Stairs by the kitchen led to upstairs to more bedrooms.
Bearen crashed into a large chair by the fireplace and buried his hawk like face into his hand. A small tired groan escaped him. I went to the kitchen and started water boiling for some kava. When it was done and I brought him a cup, he looked at me in surprise before taking it. He gave me a look before taking a small hesitant sip and drinking the rest of it down in a greedy gulp.
“It seems that someone taught you to make kava.”
Surprised, I asked him, “Did I not know how to before?”
Turning his large form in his chair he looked at
me carefully before speaking. “Thalia, you would never touch the stove or the wash. But here you are, cooking, tending to your father, fighting in a battle in which you have no business doing, and caring after a bewitched horse.”
“I don’t understand.”
Shaking his head, Bearen sighed. “Siobhan does all of that. As the Clan Leader’s daughter, you are given a level of status that is second only to mine. You don’t have to do any of it, we have other’s that cook and clean for us. He stared off into the distance and his words started to slur together a bit.
His words shocked me a bit. I had become so self-reliant over the past months that I didn’t know if I could go back to being waited on by others. I saw my old self in a different light and I didn’t like what I was learning. “Did I have any friends?”
“You were the closest to Siobhan, my brother Rayneld’s daughter. But Thalia, you didn’t make a lot of friends among our people. You understood that a strong leader is more important than a friend. If something should happen to me, before your lifebonded, then Rayneld would be the head of our Clan. ”
“What?” I felt myself go weak-kneed at the sudden talk of marriage.
Looking at his tired and aged face, I could see that Bearen, despite his gruff appearance that would ordinarily instill fear into a man’s heart, was lined with worry.
“It is why we mustn’t speak of what you did in the past, because by our own laws, you would be banished into the mountains, without food, water or horse.” His knuckles popped as he clenched his fist tightly. “I have just gotten you back and I don’t want to lose you again. And I definitely don’t want my brother to know what happened. So keep quiet around Siobhan. If he learns what you did, he’ll try and have you banished.”
“Can’t you change the law? You’re the Clan Leader, surely you could.” I broke off as Bearen shook his head sadly.
“The law is what we hold most holy here. It is why we have survived for so long in the wilderness that no one else wants to inhabit; it is our lifestyle. Our children are taught the laws from birth, and we pride ourselves on being pure, unlike the Denai. It’s only the land border that says we must be a part of the Denai infested Calandry.”
My eyes began to widen as I started to take in what he was saying. “Do you mean that…” I couldn’t finish.
“Valdyrstal is, always has been, and always will be a vassal to Sinnendor.”
Chapter 5
“Then why pretend? Why pretend to be loyal to Calandry?” I shouted, frustrated and secretly torn.
“Bah! We have never pretended to be loyal to those heathen pigs.” Bearen lunged forward and spat into the fire. “It is why we don’t go to the council meetings, and why we deny their heathen ambassadors entry onto our land. We are the direct descendants of the banished king of Sinnendor, King Branccynal II who was sent to the Shadow Mountains.”
My mouth dropped in confusion and shock. It finally made sense. The protectiveness my family had over pure bloodlines… but I wasn’t sure how it was possible. “How? How can that be?” I blurted out in confusion.
Bearen leaned back in his chair and grabbed his pipe before going on. “You know the story of the war between Avellgard which is now Calandry and Sinnendor. When Sinnendor’s King Branccynal II was defeated by the Denai, he couldn’t return home. His army was destroyed and his younger brother forcefully took the throne of Sinnendor. So the king and what was left of his loyal followers sought refuge in the cold, undesirable Ioden Valley to live a quiet life in disgrace.” Neither one of us spoke for a minute, as I let his words sink in.
“Look at our crest.” He pointed above the fireplace to a barely discernable warn out tapestry. On closer inspection I saw that it wasn’t a tapestry but an old and faded black war standard with a silver wolf. “We kept our family crest and renamed ourselves Valdyrstal.”
“Valdyrstal means wolf of steel,” Bearen chuckled. “ The crest is the same as King Bryanccynal’s II, who was my forefather. Therefore you have royal blood in your veins; you are his direct descendant. And I will fight for the right for you to rule our clan of Valdyrstal over my brother any day. King Tieren of Sinnendor doesn’t have anything of your heritage. If Branccynal had never been banished, then you would be the heir to Sinnendor. Alas, that is not the path chosen for us. And it is why we live up here in the mountains and seclude ourselves from the Denai way of life and detest them so.”
“Does King Tieren know about us? Does he know that the line of Branccynal still lives?” I asked.
“Of course,” Bearen growled angrily. “It’s the reason we can’t go home to Sinnendor. They have made it very clear to us what they would kill us if we ever went back to Sinnendor. They won’t attack us because no one dares set foot in Calandry for fear of the Denai. But he keeps a careful eye on the Valdyrstal clan. Don’t be fooled Thalia, Tieren knows all about us. He has his spies.” Bearen coughed. I was worried that his healing lungs, but everything looked healthy.
“If only he knew that we have become content with our way of life. Thalia, we may still be vassals to Sinnendor, and live in Calandry, but we are our own people and have been for years. We are now just Valdyrstal clan,” Bearen said sadly.
I couldn’t believe it. The Denai must know that the Valdyrstal clan was from Sinnendor, yet they still acknowledge them as a part of Calandry and have even tried to give them a vote on the Council. This changed everything. I was about to say so to my father when he interrupted my thoughts.
“I hope you regain your memories quickly, because I’ve been doing my best to distract the men from asking too many questions about you.” Turning his beady blue eyes towards me, he held me frozen in his gaze. “They know that something’s different about you. Because no matter how much I try and deny it, you are not my daughter that went missing from here months ago. You look the same, but you’re different.”
Pulling my hand from the arm of his chair into my lap, I looked at my hands, head down. “Is different bad?” I asked quietly.
Leaning forward, he rested his large hand on my head. “Oh, Thalia, what am I to do with you?”
Those words rang over and over in my head throughout the night and most of the morning. I got up at the first ray of light that peeked through my green shutter and went downstairs to start breakfast. I was very grateful that Tearsa had put me to work in the kitchen and had been hard on me. Turning over the ham on the fire and pulling out a fresh batch of sweet corn cakes from the oven. The old Thalia would never do this, I thought. But I didn’t care; I wanted to do this for my father.
The sound of the door opening and closing with a thud made me almost drop the bread as I turned in surprise to see a girl about my age, dressed in blue with a red fur cloak. Pulling the hood back revealed dark braids pulled up intricately and secured with ribbons and the darkest brown eyes.
“I’m so sorry that I’m late, Thalia. I wasn’t feeling well last night and I just heard the news you came home this morning. I won’t do it again.” She stammered, rushing over to me, stopping when she saw the bread in my hands.
The heat was soaking through my towel and I needed to turn and drop it quickly on the oven before I burned myself. Turning back I saw her mouth quickly close and she smoothed her skirts down. “Why, umm,” she went on.
“It’s okay, Siobhan. I can handle breakfast for father.” I smiled at her and I saw one petite eyebrow raise in question.
“No, really, I’ve learned how to cook over the last few months,” I said reassuringly. Her eyebrow rose even higher and I felt myself burst out laughing in response. She was shocked by my outburst and slowly let herself start to laugh with me, when my father’s voice boomed out from above.
“What’s going on down there? Can’t a man get any well-deserved sleep?”
“Not if you want any cooked ham, fried eggs and fresh baked corn cakes!” I yelled back.
“CORN CAKES!” was the only retort I could hear, followed by a loud scuffling upstairs. What followed could only be described
as the sound of two bears fighting followed by a loud thump before a door was thrown open and Bearen lumbered downstairs in a slow and somber manner.
“Well, ahem, if you made corn cakes then we shouldn’t let them get cold,” he said in his most nonchalant voice. “How about I, uh, help you put them on the table.” Reaching for a hot cake, he jumped back and put his large fingers in his mouth. “MFFFHOT!”
“Of course they are hot. I just pulled them out of the oven.” Rolling my eyes, I caught Siobhan looking at me as if I had sprouted horns. Oh dear, I thought. I failed again. Sighing, I brought everything to the large table and set it out for everyone to eat. Siobhan stayed to eat at my insistence, but she seemed ready to bolt at the first chance.
She asked me if I would need her today and I couldn’t think of a reason to have her stay, but I decided to invite her to stop over tomorrow. She left looking confused and relieved at the same time.
“Well, so much for taking this slow and not scaring everyone off,” Bearen grumbled, the evidence of corn still apparent in his black beard. “Keep cooking like this and soon everyone in the village will know that you are not the same girl, I guarantee it.”
“Father, I don’t know how to be that girl again.”
He just grunted in affirmation. “I have business to attend to with the elders.”
“Should I come? Do you need me?”
“No, this is business that would be better handled by your absence.” Bobbing my head in understanding, I watched Bearen leave.
After cleaning up the mess I had made, I looked around the house to find something to occupy my time. Since nothing fit that category, I went upstairs to my room to change into warmer clothes. I found a blue wool short sleeve jerkin with hood, trimmed in white rabbit fur, white doeskin boots also lined with fur in my armoire. At the bottom on the floor was an intricate wooden box, carved with flowers and birds. The box contained elaborate armbands. Some were silver with aquamarine stones, and others were gold with rubies.
Feeling like I was treading on someone else’s life and not mine, I gently fingered them before selecting a silver armband that had a unique design and sliding it up my arm. I was shocked when I looked at myself in the mirror. Granted, I was wearing my own clothes, but the person staring back at me was a stranger. A cunning, strong hearted woman that lived by clan laws. I swallowed nervously as that image disappeared and I saw myself. A fraud.