Page 8 of To Tame a Viking Warlord

"Yes, but Fez has stood for centuries."

"Nothing is certain anymore." He said it quietly. Then, after a moment, "It is not only the Almoravids. The traders came in a man short. Yaqub. He left Sijilmasa with them and never reached the wells at Tazarine." He turned the ring on his finger, slow. "And he is not the only one taken from that road this season. What the traders would not say plainly is that most of the missing have been women."

Samira went still. "Women traveling the road are taken more easily. That is not new."

"It is not the taking that is new. It is the manner of it." Dawud looked at her. "Only certain women are taken, and men sent after them find nothing. As though they were never wanted for selling at all, but for some other purpose no one will name."

"What purpose?"

Her father's gaze landed on her and for a moment he looked almost frightened. Then he said, "Just stay close to the house, Samira. Today, and until I understand this better."

She nodded.

He rose, and at the door he paused. "You remind me so much of your mother, sitting there." His smile was a sad one. "She would have been so proud of the woman you have become." He gave her a sad smile then left the room.

Samira felt a tear run down her cheek and smiled after her father.

***

THAT AFTERNOON, SAMIRA passed the doorway to her father's study. It was slightly open. She caught her father's expression.

He was holding a clay tablet, already broken open. Whatever it said had changed the set of his shoulders in a way she had not seen before. The arrival of something long expected and long dreaded.

He did not see her looking.

But somehow, she could not let it go. She sensed that this was something important. She'd been having that feeling for some time now. Her mother had always told her not to ignore it when the earth and wind spoke to her. To read the sky, the clouds, the expressions of people around her. Remain alert.

Samira touched the birthmark as it began to tingle slightly. And she knew, something or someone was coming.

***

Chapter 4

1048 Spring - Birsay, Orkney Isles

The cold moons had passed in preparation, and now, with the last of the spring thaw upon them, Torstein's thirty-two oar snekkja and fastest ship on the sea sat low in the water, his hand-selected crew working steadily around her.

The quay was a hive of activity. Torstein checked the lashings on his sea chest and would check them once more before they sailed regardless. Around him the yard was loud with the sound of men in motion, barrels rolling toward the cart, oilcloth bundles stacked and counted.

Torstein was aware of Leif approaching before he heard him.

"Looking forward to our grand adventure, Torstein Hagansson?" Leif asked.

"Is it writ so plain upon my face?"

"Only to those who know ye well." Leif joined him at the cart.

Torstein and his men were always in good spirits when the call of the ocean was about to be answered. They'd spent a long hard winter training, learning languages and customs with Brother Aiden, stocking supplies and mapping out sea routes. Torstein had studied hard, and together with Jarl Thorfinn they had laid out several contingency plans to ensure a successful mission.

But it had not been the training that made the winter long. It had been the unwanted attention of a persistent female.

Estrid Kolbeinsdóttir had made herself a fixture of the cold moons, turning up wherever Torstein happened to be. At the forge when he came to collect mended blades. At the hall when he sat to eat. Once at the very threshold of his own homestead. She had plied all manner of tricks through those long dark months to become his bed mate, and each rejection had only sharpened her resolve. Twice Njal had turned her away from the path to Hrafnaklett, Torstein's homestead. Mathias had even caught her paying serving women coin to report on Torstein's comings and goings and listen in on private conversation.

That last had unsettled Torstein more than he let show. A woman who paid for a man's secrets was a threat.

"There you are." A woman's voice rang out amongst the din.

The voice made both men turn.