Silver Winds

Chapter 15

Astra took long steps as she entered the clearing. Her hair bounced against the back of her neck as she made her way toward cabin five. Several boys were milling around, though none were from her Munrskipan. Hopefully that meant they had done what she had asked them too, she thought.

She cursed as she remembered she should have asked Volos to grab her savings, also. There wasn’t much, especially because they hadn’t used currency for twelve years, but it was something they might need.

She stepped up the creaky old steps and pulled the door open. It hit something with a gentle ‘thunk’ and she slid into the narrow gap. She looked around the room to see almost everyone there. Everyone except for Volos. A gentle smile appeared on her face when she saw who she had hit, Birgir. He was rubbing the back of his head while muttering curses.

“Sorry about that,” she murmured, moving further into the small one roomed house. She sat in the corner with her back to the wall. “You should probably move before Volos comes back, though. He’s probably got a trunk full of stuff.”

Birgir shuffled over toward Jon and plopped down. His brother made a face, but said nothing. Astra looked around the room and her face lit up in realization of something.

“You don’t know each other yet, do you?” she asked. “Not all of you, at least. Why don’t we do that while we wait for Volos to return?”

Silence greeted her. Jun stroked his hair in the corner adjacent to Astra, Drago tapped his fingers against the worn floorboards, Jon and Birgir had decided upon a flicking contest, and Enok and Rune were sitting next to each other in the middle of the room, silent and leaning on each other. Ameqran sat in the corner opposite Astra, his face void of any emotion, and Nikolaus and Kay sat next to each other against the wall.

“All right . . . Jon, you start, and we’ll make a circle,” Astra eventually said.

“What about us?” Rune and Enok asked, but it was syncopated. They glanced at each other in surprise, then shrugged and resumed their leaning.

“Pick a wall,” Astra commanded. Rune grabbed Enok and dragged him over to the wall in between Astra and Jun.

Jon cleared his throat. “Well, I’m Jon Stern, I guess, and four of these kids are my brothers.” He looked at Birgir, who crossed his arms.

“I’m Birgir Stern, and as the idiot already said, five of us are brothers.”

Jon made a cry of protest and jumped at Birgir, but Astra stood slowly and stalked over to them. The look on her face was enough to slow their movements, and they were frozen by the time she had made it halfway across the room. Birgir was holding one of Jon’s wrists, and Jon was wedged in between his brother’s legs, his other arm stopped in its path toward Birgir’s neck. She frowned at them.

“You’re brothers. You’re stuck with each other, so deal with each other as such,” she growled, and made her way back to her spot.

Blushing furiously, they backed away from each other and huffed. Their expressions were the same as they stared at the floorboards. Astra made a gesture that told Drago to continue where they left off.

“Well, my name is Drago Stern, and Birgir and Jon are my brothers,” he murmured, almost so Astra couldn’t hear him. She didn’t feel like lecturing anyone else, though, so she just moved her gaze to Ameqran.

“I’m Ameqran Outlier, and I’m a Surlander,” he muttered, a dark expression on his face. Astra gasped, but the rest of the boys didn’t have half the reaction she did. In fact, it was almost disappointing. Ameqran looked at Astra and sighed. He stood. “I understand that my parents and their parents before them have done horrible things, but I came to this country with my sister in order to get rid of the stigma. Some of us . . . some of us aren’t that bad.”