Of Gods & Valkyries: Book Three

A Thief Is It?

"A tale is but half told when only one person tells it." 

– The Saga of Grettir the Strong

– T A Y A H –

My eyes burned.

Not from the exertion or the wind and branches whipping into my face as we sprinted through the dense forest. But from the image in my head. From Parsnip's blank gaze.

We ran. We ran because my horse was no more. Because Kára's had fled. At least her horse now had a chance. 

Damn the gods.

There was no time to stop. Not with an assassin from the god of thunder ready to emerge at any time on the mortal realm. Gods knew what Ares fought now in other realms...

Our immortal energy pushed us faster than any mortal could attempt even without all of the armour and weapons. Even without the miles we had to cross to reach the nearest town between us and my original home. Then onto the hilltop of my dreams. A place where the stones concealed a truth we never knew of. One the gods kept far from us.

I switched my focus constantly as the wind dried the salt away from my eyes. I focused on the steady, controlled breaths my immortal took as she hurdled a felled tree or slipped past thick foliage. The soft whistle of the wind against her furs and the rustle of our leather meeting metal.

Kára seemed lethally single-minded however.

The confrontation with the gods and walking relic was nothing she had ever seen in all her centuries. Yet she had responded just as she had with every threat that crossed us. With a helmet slipped over her head, a ready shield and an electrified spear. She was a warrior until her last breath–and I loved that about her all the more.

It had been many slithers until we found a trail. The sun had crossed its full height and given way to thick clouds that concealed the time from us now, but it was slipping closer into the late afternoon. The darker clouds on the horizon promised a cool respite.

Kára reduced her sprint to a light jog before she paused on the edge of the forest trail. I came to her side. She silently scanned the town below and raised an eyebrow to me.

We steadied our breathing and recovered quickly.

"Scarfell." I stated.

"What a hideous name." She deadpanned.

I shrugged. "With good reason. The Thieves Guild began here before they found Vayleron."

She turned back to the ugly grey and brown town beneath us with a perpetual smog that matched its personality.

"We find horses and make for your old home." But she noticed the small flinch when she mentioned that word and briefly closed her star-silver eyes. The one-minded warrior vanished for a moment and she was again the woman I loved with everything in me. "–I cannot begin to understand. So I will not pretend. Your mount was a loyal steed and deserved more than that end. If I get the chance, Tayah. I will find a special place in the soul rivers for the being hiding beneath those relics." She finished quietly with burning promise in her eyes.

I processed her words for a few moments. Until I snorted humourlessly.

"Take your god with it." I answered in a steady voice, meeting her eyes steadily.

She stepped towards me and nearer my face to let the low words slip from her mouth for all those of immortal means to hear.

"Odin is not my god."