Fault (Book 1 of the Vikings Series)

Chapter 7

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. I shake it away. No, I can’t think like that. Saga and Briar are together. They always have been. Besides, it’s Briar. I don’t think he’s capable of talking to me without insulting me.
I sit down in the trampled grass and rewrap my hands in cloth.
Eat. Train. Sleep. Eat. Work. Sleep. Train. That’s what my life becomes. Throw in a few extremely uncomfortable conversations with Singrid, most of which revolving around the ever suspicious Antrapar and the fact that Kori now lives with us as a Thrall and that would basically sum up the last three months in their entirity. Kori won’t tell me anything about Antrapar and gets especially quiet whenever Singrid’s around.

A few weeks ago, Saga found out about our dawn training sessions and basically invited herself to them. Thankfully Singrid hasn’t found out about them yet. I finally asked her about Briar going on Raid when Östen returns to uphold my end of the deal. She agreed, probably just to get rid of him. When I had told him, you would’ve thought I’d handed him a chest of gold by his reaction. He’s basically been beaming ever since.
During my walk up to the bluff that morning, the village is particularly busy. People rush supplies down to the docks, preparing for the single ship’s arrival. Crates of supplies are already lined up on the docks as I walk past them.
As soon as I step onto the bluff, I’m greeted, in an unpleasant fashion, by Saga and Briar. They both let out war cries and rush towards me, weapons drawn. I dive forwards into a roll, grabbing a shield from the ground. I swing the heavy shield behind me and it smacks into Saga’s side. She staggers to the side. Briar comes at me, swinging down with a sword. I shove the wooden shield up and it connects solidly with his wrist. The sword falls to the ground. I lean casually against the shield, satisfied with my results.
“Hello to you, too,” Saga groans, holding her side.
“Eh, amateur,” Briar teases.
“I miss the days when you just wouldn’t spar,” Saga complains.
“Is it considered sparring if you didn’t bother to give me a weapon?” I joke. Both Saga and Briar look like they’re about to lunge at me.
“I can’t believe you break my wrist as a going away present,” Briar elbows me in the side.
“It is not broken,” I roll my eyes. Briar laughs.
“Seriously, though. It looks like this is goodbye for awhile. You’ve done well pupil.”
I scoff.
Briar looks down into the harbor at the ship. The water around it glimmers with sunlight.
Saga stands beside him, wraps an arm around his waist and snuggles into his shoulder.
“Don’t die, alright?” she smirks. He pulls her in closer.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Briar grins. I intentionally cough obnoxiously, breaking up their little moment.
“Guys, come on. There are other people this side of Valhalla that don’t want to see that,” I joke.
“Sorry Bri, I forgot that poor Elin here is allergic to affection,” Saga teases.
I purse my lips, annoyed by her attitude.
Briar continues the joke, “Don’t worry,” he tells me, “I’ll be gone soon and you can go back to whatever it is you do when the men aren’t around.”
I poke a stiff finger into his chest.
“Listen here,” I start.
Briar casually pushes my hand to the side.
“Calm down, Elin. It was just a joke,” he chuckles.
“Hey!” a voice calls from behind us. We all turn to see Kori running up the path. Her sword bounces on her thigh as she moves. That’s one thing that set her apart from the rest of us. No matter what we said, Kori wouldn’t leave the sword. Her response, “I’m a warrior till’ the day I die.” I couldn’t be happier with her stand. No one else in Havredal seemed very pleased with the idea of having a ‘warrior’ around, especially Singrid. Nevertheless, she refused to take it off.
Kori stops once she’s a few feet away and holds up a finger while she catches her breath.
“Östen wants to talk to you,” she stammers through breaths and points at Briar.
He turns to Saga and they hug for what feels like ages. All I get as a goodbye is a punch on the shoulder and a lame, “Don’t get soft while I’m gone.” To which I respond with, “As if.”
Briar eyes meet my own and he smiles briefly. 
As he walks down the path, Kori follows, probably to go get her next task from Singrid.
“Where do you think they go?” Saga asks.
“Antrapar,” I say before thinking better of it.
“What is with you and Antrapar?” Saga exclaims.
“It’s the way Singrid acts when I mention anything about it. And that Kori won’t say a word about it.”
“Maybe they just don’t know,” she shrugs. “If you want to know so badly then just go find a map on the ship.”
My eyes widen and a grin crosses my face.
“Let’s do it!”
“I was kidding!” Saga groans.
“I’m not. What’s the worse that could happen?”
I take off down the path with Saga reluctantly on my heals.
Saga and I run along the docks in the morning light. The last of the crates are being loaded on and we slip in behind some of the men.We rush up onto the deck of the boat and duck behind some crates. Vern, Briar and Östen stand up on deck at the helm but so far none of them appear to have seen us. More people are already milling around the docks. We’d have to make it out of here quick.
“We just need to see if they have the map below deck and then we have to get out of here,” I whisper. She nods in agreement. We dart down into the hatch and I open the door under the staircase. Inside, supply crates line the walls. I move from door to door finally finding the map room. I tare through the books and scrolls, looking for anything mentioning Antrapar. Saga works beside me. Shouts start to echo through the wooden ship.
“Hurry up,” Saga urges. The floor shifts slightly and I stumble for balance.
“What was that?” she asks.
“We’re on a ship, the harbor gets wavy sometimes,” I explain without taking my focus from the maps. Something else bangs on the side of the ship. I clutch the wooden desk to keep my balance. More shouts from above.
“Uh, Elin. That was pretty big for a harbor wave,” Saga says nervously.
I push two more large pages aside. Still nothing. I search all corners of the room. I huff in frustration.
“Where could it be?” I groan.
“Elin, we need to go,” Saga says nervously. I sigh and start for the door. Something catches my eye. There, in the corner a vase stands. Inside are several rolls of paper. I grab the first one. A small red cord runs around the center with a label. “Antrapar,” is scribbled across the tag.
“Gotcha,” I whisper.
“Alright, now we can go,” Saga mutters. We race back the way we came. Saga is the first up the ladder and I follow closely behind her. She pokes her head out off the hatch and ducks down immediately. When she glances towards me, I see that her face is completely white.
“We aren’t in the harbor anymore,” she says in horror.