The Broken Crown

~6~ Asyn

She tiptoed across the stone floor, taking caution not to awaken the sleeping noidae in the tavern. Golden Hills Valley was a dangerous place to be if you were human. Asyn wasn't, but she kept her distance nevertheless.

Finally, the wandering noida caught sight of her childhood friend. Ysta lay on the table, her gray skirts spread over the smooth stone.

"Ysta." Asyn shook her. "Wake up, please."

No answer. Neither from her friend or the other sleeping noidae. Or were they sleeping? Asyn walked around and noticed blood pouring out from some of the men and women. She put a hand to her mouth to stifle a gasp, for the thought that their killer could still be around.

Suddenly, a gloved hand covered her mouth and her hands were tied immediately. Coincidentally, Asyn forgot why she was at the Tavern in the first place. She didn't even recognize it. "If you scream or move, I'll kill you right away," Asyn's captor grunted. He struggled to finish tying her wrists and place a gag in her mouth. The cloth tasted like øl, and the alcohol remnants stung her throat as she swallowed.

With a mouth Asyn had no control over, she mumbled a series of words she didn't recognize. "adhvrta monit jorvikia." She almost collapsed at the effort it took.

"Okay princess, whatever you say," the gruff man breathed as her reached into his sheath. Asyn didn't recognize his voice either, but something was familiar about the cool slice of the sword through her stomach.

×××

She woke up in a cold sweat, her breathing fast and shallow. Immediately, Mila rushed to her side. "Asyn," she said.

The noida couldn't answer. In her dream, those three words hadn't made one bit of sense to her. But now, it was like she knew them. No, she felt them.

"Asyn!" Mila said louder this time. She put a hand up to Asyn's forehead and pulled away quickly. "You're burning up," she commented.

Asyn took the time to adjust to her surroundings. They were still in the cave, and it seemed to be the middle of the night. Klaus was asleep, and Kai was nowhere to be found. Mila sat fully dressed at Asyn's side, her blonde hair in a matted ponytail. "Did I wake you?" Asyn asked.

"Shut up," Mila replied. "What happened?"

After Asyn explained the contents of her dream, Mila repeated the phrase. "Adhvrta monit jorvikia," like she was trying to implant the words in her brain. "It's in Old Jorvik," Mila said for the tenth time.

"Do you know what it means?" Asyn asked, suddenly curious. Her dreams were rare, but when they did happen, they often left poor Asyn in shock.

Mila shook her head. "All I can recognize is 'Jorvik' from the common tongue. But Kai might know the rest. All krigere learn the ancient language of our people."

"Where is he?" Asyn asked, suddenly uncomfortable in her drab tunic and pants. But Mila just shrugged her shoulders, wearing the same grave look she had worn when walking through the Firgrove Forest with Asyn. Not her alert, brave face, but a much deeper one that made Asyn want to throw up.

Asyn lay against the wall for a while after that, unable to sleep. Thankfully, Mila couldn't sleep either.

"Do your dreams ever mean things?" Mila broke the silence.

"What do you mean?" Asyn asked.

Mila sat up and moved across from Asyn. "Well," she began, "you're a hjerne noida I'm guessing, and maybe a fysisk, but can't some hjerne tell the future?"

"They can." Asyn nodded. "But my powers are mixed because I am a stave. I cannot tell the future." That wasn't the whole truth exactly, because of a dream she'd had once before her adoptive parents left her and her village was burned by krigere. The next day, Jorvik soldiers came to visit her small village of Goldbygd and they burned down the houses of powerful noidae. That was when her parents fled to the Southern Peninsula, a land completely out of Regina's control. But what she told Mila was mostly correct.