Fault (Book 1 of the Vikings Series)

Chapter 6

My head clouds with pain and I try to do anything to shake it away. Saga takes my hand and runs some water over it. It feels good at first but then starts to burn even worse. I flinch away, squeezing my eyes shut. A familiar noise pounds itself into my head. The sound of drums? Or maybe footsteps? No, they were far too loud for footsteps. Horses? Yes! Horses. There are a few shouts around us, at least one of them male. Obviously Briar, who else?  Someone pulls my head into what I guess to be their lap.
“Elin, you need to stay awake,” the person commands. I peak an eye open and see Singrid looming above me. I cough a little bit and my throat feels raw. Unfortunately, once the coughing begins, it doesn’t seem to stop. Finally, once it seems like I’ve coughed away all the air that I once held in my body, I’m able to take a deep breath of fresh air. My head starts to clear up and I weakly push myself into a sitting position. I peer down at my hands and see that angry red blisters have already taken up residence on my callused fingers.
“What happened here?!” Singrid turns on Kori.
“I don’t know,” the girl says, confused.
“That’s not good enough,” my mother growls.
“I woke up to this. I have no idea what happened. All I know is that everyone is gone. Sailed out before the village was even halfway gone,” Kori explains.
“It’s like they knew it was coming,” I croak. Everyone spins to look at me. Saga points a finger out to the harbor while she thinks through my exact thoughts.
“Elin’s right,” my friend says. “They were out of the harbor long before this happened.”
“No matter how it happened, we are where we are,” Singrid interrupts. “What’s important is that we get back to Havredal.”
The rest of the day seems to fly by. Singrid wraps my hands in cloth and I spend most of the day just sitting around our house. To be honest, I feel fine. Beat up, maybe but that’s not out of the ordinary. I guess my head hurts a little but other than that, nothing. The pains of earlier have diminished.
 I find Kori and Saga later that day by the harbor and we all watch the sunset together. Briar comes strolling up to the docks just as the sun dips below the horizon. He sits beside Saga and wraps his arm around her shoulders. She leans her head into him and I can’t help but feel a little bit jealous. Kori seems to notice and stands up with a loud yawn. Just when I think that I’ll have to resort to awkwardly leaving Saga saves the day.
“Hey, you two,” Saga calls to Kori and I. She dips her hand down and reaches into the water. She scoops up a large handful and flicks it in our direction. Kori bursts out in laughter, immediately returning the favor. Briar, in the middle of it, pushes Saga away.
“Go fight your own wet battles,” he laughs. Saga jumps to her feet and the two girls go sprinting from the dock, giggling as they run. Saga sprints across the shore with Kori just steps behind. Kori finally lunges at Saga and they both roll to the ground in a mess of flailing limbs. I chuckle softly. Briar slides in my direction and nudges me gently.
“You’re not have bad, you know that?”
I can’t help but scoff sarcastically. “Yeah?” I glance over at him and he meets my stare with a grin.
 A cool breeze blows across the dock and a shiver runs up my back. I pull my knees to my chest and lean my chin atop them.
“You know, I’m actually serious,” Briar says. “Not half bad.”
I shrug. “The thing with Kori? Anyone would’ve done that.”
“Doubt it,” Briar insists. “I’m going to teach you to fight, for real now. Tomorrow at dawn up on the bluff?”
“I thought you already were going to teach me?” I question.
“Maybe the basic stuff but after today I can’t say you don’t have the guts to fight like the rest of us.”
“I almost got crushed by a burning house. How does that prove anything?” I ask.
Briar puts a hand on my knee. “You make it incredibly hard to give you a compliment,” he teases. I feel uncomfortable under his touch. Is this him.. flirting?
 My eyes flicker to Saga and Kori who seem to have finally stopped battling. They start walking this way. All at once, everything starts to overwhelm me. Raid, Vern, Briar, the rings, Antrapar, Limerick, Kori, everything. I flinch away from Briar and bury my face into my knees. Briar lays a hand on my back.
“Elin, what’s wrong?” he asks. I shake my head, still not looking up. “What’s wrong?”
I jump to my feet and start down the dock. Briar starts to follow me and I break into a run. Saga and Kori chat their way in my direction.
“Don’t worry Elin, I taught Kori who’s-” Saga starts but stops as I run past them. I don’t stop, not until I’m safely back into my loft. I sit down along the edge and dangle my feet in the air. Slowly, I pull the three rings from my pocket. Since when was my life complicated? What was I even doing with these? None of them belonged with me. I couldn’t protect myself today, how can I be expected to protect anyone else?

Briar spins into a kick that takes my feet out from under me. My body slams into the dirt. This is what I get for waking up early to train? I pause for a moment to regain my breath before standing up slowly.
“You just don’t know when to give up, do you?” Briar mocks me.
I dust myself off. “Maybe not. But I know when not to quit.”
The older boy laughs at me and throws another punch. I try to duck out of the way but I vaguely feel it clip my shoulder. I try to land a punch on Briar but he just makes a joke out of it. Finally, he catches my fist.
“Just give up,” he scoffs.
“No! I can’t. I won’t,” I persist. Briar rolls his eyes.
“Stop trying to beat me at my own game. Come up with something new,” he says.
“What?” I question.
Briar picks up a sword and shield and hands them to me. He stands behind me and wraps his hands around the top of my own. His head is right beside mine and, to be honest, it makes me want to vanish into thin air.
Briar guides my hands into a defensive stance. I use every ounce of willpower I posses to focus on the moves and not the fact that a giant is looming behind me. Forget about the fact that I’ve been on the receiving end of his punches before, but I’ve seen him duel other men and just in case you were wondering, he doesn’t lose. Briar will always be a wildcard, and that’s something that completely terrifies me. It’s also the reason that Saga likes him so much.
Focus, I tell myself. Somehow, I manage to relax and stay loose as he helps me move into the different stances.
“I’m confused,” I say, still following the movements. “I think we’ve already established that I can’t fight like this.”
“These techniques are centuries old, but they are still used by other tribes,” Briar explains.
I chuckle. “I hardly see any of the men on Raid doing this,” I reference the careful movements we’ve been cycling through. Briar lets go and picks up his own weapon and shield.
“It’s not for men,” Briar explains. He swings at me slowly and I block it away with the shield, more concerned with his conversation then the duel. “Östen’s told us stories of Shield Maidens. In other villages, women fight on Raid.”
Another swing of the sword, this time I meet it with my own blade. Briar pushes me backwards with the shield and I knee him in the side.
“Women fighting on Raid,” I say, thinking the idea through. I mean, sure I’ve heard of Singrid and Kori’s mother but that can’t be a normal thing.  “Wait a second, how do you know how to do this if it’s supposably only for girls?” I question, already doubting this whole story highly.
“I’ve only watched someone do the forms never duel, you idiot. What do you think I am, some thrall that needs to fight like a girl?”
“You said it, not me,” I laugh.
Briar swings angrily and I block it away, this time spinning through the way Briar had shown me a few minutes ago. I strike and Briar ducks out of the way, completely caught off guard.
He gasps with fake shock. “Were you actually listening to me before? I’m so proud. I taught you that. Now when you’re out slaying villages with your lame comebacks at least I can take credit for your one smooth move,” Briar laughs at the supposed ingenious of his joke. I switch my sword into the same hand that’s holding the shield and give Briar a playful punch on the shoulder. 
“I should probably be going,” Briar says, disappointment written across his face. “Are you coming down to the village?”
I shake my head. “Nah, I have to work on my one smooth move,” I wink.
Briar throws his head back in laughter. He starts walking casually down the path without another word. Before he’s too far away, he turns back just for a second but that’s more then enough to make me roll my eyes.
I finger the tip of the blade as I watch him disappear over the edge of the bluff. A small grin creeps across my face.