Shardfall, The Shardheld Saga, #1

CHAPTER 9 - HELMSHAVEN

'It must have been Eidun,' said Kjelle the next morning. His voice and the glint in his eye betrayed his rage. 'Why would our founding father show himself to you, and not to me, his descendant? You're not a man of Eidungruve, not a Nord, not ...'

Muus heard him in silence, his mind elsewhere.

'It was a vision,' said Birthe, while she breastfed Búi. 'It wasn't about your ancestor at all, Kjelle Almansen. That old Runemaster was the focus.'

'What?' Kjelle avoided looking at her while she had the babe to her breast. He has seen breasts before, the rabbit. Is he jealous of Búi? Muus thought absently. Then Birthe's words registered. 'The Runemaster?'

The girl half turned towards him. 'Of course. He left that vision behind for someone who has rune magic. It was a last will. People like him know when they shall die.' Her voice trembled. 'My Völva must have known her death, too. All that time she kept it a secret from me. Freya help me, she knew it.' Leaking tears, she held up Búi until he burped.

Kjelle, only half-convinced, muttered, 'Why all the fuss? Couldn't my forefather have taken that cursed bone?'

Had Birthe been a Runemaster, her glance would have burned the Holderling on the spot. 'What would you have done? That bone caused a deadly lightning. It possessed power that scared the crap out of you and its rightful bearer had just died. Would you have picked it up and put in your pocket?'

The Holderling colored. 'No.'

The girl shrugged. 'Neither did your ancestor. That Runemaster must have known he would not.'

'How could he have had a vision of something that happened after he died?' said Muus.

Birthe looked at him. 'He didn't, the Kalmanir made it for him. The standing stone knows everything that was, is, will and can be. A Völva like Asgisla has the strength to ask for such a vision. Your Runemaster must have done the same.'

Muus looked at his hand and remembered the pain. At least that old one managed not to burn his fingers.

A few hours later, after a meal of toasted bread and venison, they left. Birthe had the lead, with Búi on the sled, asleep in the folds of the tent. The path down from the Vrakken Pass brought them back to King Hurald's Way and from there the rest of the journey went without mishap.

Five times Moon had ridden across the sky when they reached Helmshaven. It was less cold there and the snow lay wet and mushy on the fields. The sky was cloudy over a dark sea and none of it showed the old harbor town in a favorable light.

'It's all just as I remember,' said Muus. He stared at the small huts of salt-bleached wood and thatched roofs, at the muddy and narrow streets where foraging pigs and geese demanded right of way, at the stone quay where longships swayed with the swell, and in spite of himself he shuddered.

'That's a big town,' piped Hraab. 'So many people.'

'About two thousand in summer,' said Birthe with indifference. 'Now it's less, because many merchants have gone south for the winter. You see it at its best; most of the time it's raining, snowing, blowing a gale or all three together. Helmshaven is not a pleasant place to live.'

'Do you know the town?' said Muus.

'I was born here.'

Muus looked at her in surprise. 'You were? I thought your father was a hunter?'

The girl flushed. 'Later he was. When I was small, we lived here in Helmshaven. You see that house in the center, with the shingled roof? That was ours. Now Skid Largassen owns it.'