Curse Of Blood: Gods & Monsters

Chapter XXX - Brenna

"What sort of attack?" she asked Heida, stepping over a decaying log as Renic removed his mantle and spread it over her shoulders to hide the torn overdress. It would not do to have her mother see the damage or the blood stains.

"They think it an animal attack." Heida bit her lip, watching over her shoulder as Brenna's wound disappeared behind the wool. "Perhaps a wolf or a bear? I cannot say, I was not allowed to see the man's body for myself and instead sought you out at Aila's behest."

"The body? He is dead then?" Renic halted abruptly, causing both girls to stop and look back at him. "Who died?"

"Please, Renic, ask your mother. I only came to fetch you thither." Heida's eyes gleamed with unshed tears.

"Who was he?" His voice became glacial and unyielding.

"Old Gunnar. He was found on the beach above an hour ago."

There was nothing more to say. With a curt nod from Renic, all three of them thereat began sprinting northward between the dense trees and nettles, Renic taking up the rear again and Heida in the lead. At length they cleared the woods, and its grasping fingers, and jogged along the incline, amidst the fragrant heather, towards the giant longhouse looming atop the hill where the long streams of gossamer smoke poured from the vent. 

Although most were like as not still abed, Aila was waiting beneath the gable, watching their steady approach with foreboding stillness.

Brenna reached an inconspicuous hand out and slipped it into Renic's, giving it a gentle squeeze to gain his attention. Almost instantly his light blue eyes met hers askance and, seeing that she wished to say something, he bent his ear to her lips.

"Do not tell my mother," she whispered, flicking her eyes to the concealed wound, and hoping, in the process, that her words did not reach Heida whose hearing was that of an owl.

He gave an imperceptive shake of his head, reciprocating her gesture with the reassuring pressure of his fingers before he withdrew from her. She was satisfied he would say nothing. She smiled her thanks and looked ahead to see that Heida's back was yet turned forward.

Aila's arms were folded over her chest and, as they neared, Brenna could see that each of her lineaments were pulled to grim effect, thereby further dampening Brenna's spirits.

When the three of them halted before the chieftain, she squeezed her eyes shut a tense moment afore she opened them and suspired loudly. "Where is your brother?" She had fixed her cold eyes to Renic, her voice modulated, but chilly withal.

"I have not seen him since sunset, Mother." He kissed her good morning and she angled her cheek to accept the greeting as was her maternal due.

Brenna was struck anew by how utterly incongruous the pair were — how disparate their relationship was compared to Eydís and Søren's. Had Brenna not watched Renic grow from a boy, she would have sworn that he and Roth were merely Aila's brothers and not the fruits of her womb.

They looked of an age with Eirik; not Søren, who was in fact the elder of the three. And Aila herself was curiously timeless and as immutable as a goddess. The passage of the years had seemed not to affect her in the least. 'Twas all so odd. But then so had her night been... Normalcy, or so she thought, was in short supply these days.

Aila transferred her gaze to Brenna. "And you, my dear, had better seek out your mother. I fear she is-"

"Brenna!" Four pairs of eyes turned towards the shrill sound of Epona's enraged call as she approached them.

There was no need for Aila to complete whatever warning or dire assessment she had been about to offer for Brenna's mother was already running up the hill towards them, her face awash in fury and her arms waving violently in the air as she muttered a thousand different maledictions whilst she stampeded her way through the grass.