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Relief rushed out of my chest when I caught sight of my boy’s light hair, sweaty and on end, but attached to his moving body. His breathing body.
“Aesir.” I pulled him against my chest.
The boy trembled. His blade was gripped firmly in one hand, and his other wouldn’t release the tunic of another man on the sand. “I-I-I tried to get them off, Daj. They kept biting him and . . . I tried.”
I froze, a bit of horrid stun stiffened my grip on my boy. As though turned to bleeding stone, I couldn’t tear my gaze off the bloody face, the body twisted and mangled in the sand, the gashes in his tunic, the silver chain on his neck that his damn wife had only gifted him this last Jul.
I dug my fingers through Aesir’s hair and breathed him in, “You make me so damn proud, boy.”
“I couldn’t save him,” he said. The tremble in his voice gave up how desperate he was trying to keep steady. “He saved . . . he saved us, but I couldn’t save him.”
“There was no saving him,” I murmured, more as a reminder to my own sensibilities that there was nothing we could have done. Therecouldn’tbe anything we could’ve done, or I’d swim in the guilt of this blood until the Otherworld called.
“Once their teeth are in, there is no saving anyone,” I whispered. “He chose right. He chose to defend you and the other young ones. We’ll . . .” I clenched my eyes against the sting. “We’ll send him to the gods with honor.”
Aesir let his forehead burrow into my chest and his narrow shoulders shuddered. I shielded him, doubtless he wouldn’t want his fellow young warriors to see. They’d all learn soon enough, tears were as plentiful as blood during battle.
Sol, Tor, Stieg, and three more warriors mutely lifted Mattis’s body off the sand.
They carried our regent,our friend, to the Sun Prince’s horse. It was a sign of honor, of respect, for a royal to walk a fallen Ettan defender back to his family.
Every Ettan warrior slammed a fist over their chests. All I saw was Siverie. Elise. Valen. I saw the way Mattis had defended my favorite TimoranKvinnafrom the beginning. He’d been her friend and confidant when he was a mere carpenter in Mellanstrad.
He’d loved Siverie through betrayal and war. He was a good man. A good friend.
He’d saved my son.
Away from the unit, I lowered to one knee. I kissed my fingertips, traced Mattis’s name in the sand, then closed my eyes. A silent prayer rolled over my thoughts, a plea to the gods to write Mattis Virke into the sagas of the brave. I prayed House Atra would never cease speaking of his sacrifice. I prayed the gods would welcome him into the great hall with cheers and the sweetest of ale.
I flattened my palm over his name. “Farewell, my friend. Save me a place and we will share bawdy tales again one day.”
Back at Aesir’s side, I kissed the top of my boy’s head, uncaring if any of the youth saw.
“What’s your word?” Torsten was stalwart and stoic when he returned to my side.
I kept my hand on my son’s shoulder, watching Mattis’s body fade into the night on the Sun Prince’s horse.
“Send the signal. He’s returned.”
Chapter3
The Memory Thief
Felstad Ruins—Klockglas Region
“I’m just sayin’they coulda taken me.”
I chuckled as Jonas gave a rather aggressive swipe of his knife against the wood he was whittling. The eldest of our twins, Jonas had the proclivity to pout when his father and Raum left him out of Kryv business.
“It’s dull work today, son.”
He blew out his lips with another swipe of his knife. “That’s what you say when it’s thebestwork.”
I grinned and closed my eyes, letting the sun heat my cheeks. I’d embraced shadows when I fell in love with the Nightrender, but as of late, I preferred daylight vastly over the night.
A new crimson moon had put every region on edge. Kase had hardly shown his true eyes in days; they were always shadowed, always blackened with fear as he doubled down on the protections of our kingdom.
In truth, the Kryv were adding more spiked gates on this side of Klockglas, not the normal feckless schemes in which they allowed Jonas and Sander to join.
