If I’m honest, I’d forgotten what life with a puppy was like…and now I had two. We’d slept with them inside our tent, curled around our feet, and early in the morning while it was still dark, they reminded us that they were there. Jane gave me her patented “I’ll kill you for this” smile and tried to take the two puppies out of the tent, but they wouldn’t have it. I creaked and groaned my way up off the ground and took the little bastards outside. They were hungry, so I fed them more of the meat scraps from the night before. After they ate, they wanted to pounce around at the shadows of the trees in the moonlight, rather than do their business and let me get back to sleep.
I took them outside the circle of carts, around to the opposite side of the camp from the horses, and found two sticks. We invented a new game: I threw the sticks, and they stared at me a moment before attacking my feet. They frolicked and romped, growling and yipping at the shadows, never straying more than a few feet from me. It seemed to me that they’d already grown an inch.
When the black shadow detached itself from the trees on the other side of the road, Keri and Fretyi came to me and stood, one on either side, tails erect, ears up, and eyes glued to the black shape. Growls rumbled from deep in their chests.
“Are you going to tell the Dragon Queen where we are again?” I asked.
Kuhntul solidified out of the shadows, a beautiful woman dressed in black armor and a black cloak. “Why do you accuse me of this?” she snapped, eyes blazing.
“The last time we met, we got a visit from her not two days later.”
Kuhntul snorted. “Two days? If I were in league with the Black Bitch, she’d have found you that very night, back on the beach, and you’d never have seen me. I told you: I do not serve her. I serve the Nornir.” She cocked her head to the side, and her pale green eyes roved my face. “You have eluded the Dragon Queen. For now, it remains to be seen if you will continue to do so or squander this advantage by acting the fool.”
I sighed and bent to rub Keri and Fretyi behind their ears, trying to settle them down. “My pups don’t seem to approve of you, Kuhntul.”
“Animals,” she said as if that explained everything. “Tell me, Tyeldnir. What is your plan? To where do you travel?”
“Why would I tell you? For all I know, you wish me harm.”
She cocked her head again and gazed at me for a protracted moment, reminding me of the way the pups cocked their heads when I said a word they liked. “Why would you think that?”
I gestured at her armor, her cloak. “You are wearing black.”
She shook her head, a wry smile dancing on her lips. “Do you accept everything your Isir cousins tell you?”
I shrugged and suppressed a sigh. “They know more about this place than I do. Who else should I listen to?”
She tossed her head. “A fair point, but they don’t know everything.” She ran a hand down her side. “I’m dressed this way because this is a mission of stealth. At night. I can hardly expect to go unnoticed if I flip around in white, can I?”
“What is it you want?” Keri and Fretyi couldn’t be distracted from Kuhntul. Their eyes stuck to her as if she was a dangerous predator. Maybe she was.
“Why must I want something?”
“Because you’re here. Again.”
“I come as an advisor—an interested, but unattached advisor. I have nothing to gain, so my advice is clean, unfettered by personal desires.” She arched her eyebrow at me. “Can your companions say the same? Any of them?”
“It’s true that these Isir have an agenda, but that agenda coincides with my own.”
“Does it, Tyeldnir?” She shifted her weight forward, and the two pups added a ragged note to their growls. Kuhntul glanced down at them and made a face. “Send these creatures away.”
“I don’t think they would go, even if I was willing to send them, which I’m not.”
“The Tisir are above such low forms of life.”
I chuckled. “Was that a pun?”
She looked at me, the skin between her eyebrows wrinkled. “Do you mock me?”
“No. You’re floating in midair, and these two are a foot or so high. Above these low forms of life, indeed.”
She eyed the varkr pups and drifted a few steps farther away. “The time of your betrayal approaches, Tyeldnir.”
“I wish you wouldn’t call me that,” I snapped. “My name is Hank.”
“Will you go to the executioner’s block arguing about trivialities, or will you listen to my counsel?”
“What I will listen to are facts. No more riddles. If you have something to say, say it plain.”
Kuhntul sighed and shrugged. “You demand plainness, here is plainness. You will be betrayed in your quest for control of the preer. The person who betrays you will be one of your party and the betrayal will come at a high cost.”
“Tell me who the betrayer is.”
“I can’t—I do not know who it is. The Sisters refuse to disclose that. If someone in your party practices saytr or has the syown—”
“Wait. I know what syown is, but what is saytr?”
“The word means ‘string magic,’ but here it refers to string magic of prophecy.”
“You know Frikka and Freya are members of my party. You know they practice prophecy.”
She gazed at me, waiting.
“Now that we’ve established there are members of my party with the syown or who practice this saytr, what about it?”
“As I was saying, a saytr practitioner could cast an augury that could tell you the betrayer’s name. Or someone with the syown might see it. You could kill the betrayer—”
“No.”
“Come, now, Tyeldnir. You have killed men.”
“Yes, in battle…when I have had no other choice. But killing in cold blood? An execution? No, that’s not me.”
She squinted at me for the space of three breaths and shook her head. “Such hollow distinctions, Tyeldnir.”
“I won’t murder anyone, saytr or syown notwithstanding.”
She sucked in a breath, though I doubted she needed to do anything as pedestrian as breathing, and blew it out her nose. “At the very least, you could expel the person from the party—”
“Is that your goal with all this? To split us up?”
“Tyeldnir, I’ve already said why I am here. Why can’t you—”
“And yet all you advise me to do involves killing a member of the party or sending someone away. That weakens us. Together, we are strong, and we’ve faced down the worst the Dark Queen has to offer. We—”
Kuhntul laughed, her cackle echoing down the road like the cries of carrion birds. “You’ve hardly seen the worst the Black Bitch can bring to bear. Haven’t you been listening to the stories of your companions?”
Keri spun around and growled at something lost in the darkness behind me. “What is it, boy?”
“Nothing to fear,” muttered Kuhntul. “It’s your pet Tverkr.”
Althyof stepped out onto the road, a dagger in either hand. He was chanting something too low for me to catch, his eyes welded on Kuhntul. I felt the heavy presence of the strenkir af krafti singing in the air, wrapping around me and the two pups.
“Oh, please, Althyof,” said Kuhntul with a forbearing sigh. “You know your triblinkr can’t stop me if my desire was to harm him. Why bother with this farce?”
Althyof finished his chant and stepped across the road. “So you keep telling me, woman, and yet my paltry abilities seem to keep working.”
“I have no wish to hurt Tyeldnir,” she said. “Nor his…animals. I guess your mastery of the strenkir af krafti will continue to be unchallenged by me. What is it you want here, Althyof?”
“Want? I want nothing, unlike you. Hank is an honorable man, who doesn’t deserve the rank manipulation of your kind.”
Kuhntul shook her head and gazed up at the stars. “What would I gain from such manipulation? Why would I invest such time? Why wouldn’t I take whatever it is I wanted? None of you could stop me.”
“Your mastery of the strenkir af krafti remains untested, woman. I beg you to try.”
“Enough,” I said. “This isn’t getting us anywhere.”
Kuhntul arched her eyebrow at Althyof. “No.”
“Do you have more to say?”
She shook her head. “You’ve listened to my counsel. Act on it sooner rather than later.”
A phrase uttered by an uncountable number of lawyers back home came to mind, and it was perfect. “I’ll take it under advisement.”
“Somehow I think that means you will ignore my advice.”
Althyof chuckled. “You’re not as dumb as you look.”
She sighed and shook her head. “What must I do, Tyeldnir? What must I do to prove myself?”
“Well, to start, you can stop calling me that.”
“And you can go back in time and stop yourself from manipulating the Tverkar into fighting in the war,” said Althyof.
She laughed, but no amusement reached her eyes. She snapped her fingers and disappeared without even a pop.
“You two really don’t get along,” I said, feeling the weight of my illness like a mantle of stone.
“No, she’s a duplicitous, double-dealing, deceitful, duplicitous—”
“You said that one already.”
“Well, she’s doubly duplicitous then.” He glanced down at my hips. “You shouldn’t be roaming around without your weapons, Hank. There are dangers here.”
I shrugged. “A varkr already attacked me tonight. I figured my dance-card was full.”
“I don’t get that reference, but trust me, Hank, you are never safe here. Not until the Dragon Queen has been dealt with.”
“Yeah, I don’t need the reminder.”
He pointed at my hips with one of his daggers. “Seems you do.”
“Yeah, okay. I’ll be more careful.” I picked up another pair of sticks and threw them. Keri and Fretyi watched them fly, and as soon as the sticks hit the ground, they pounced on my ankles, one to a leg.
Althyof grinned, watching the pups worry at my feet. “You have the luck of an Alf, Hank.” He looked up at me, and his face grew serious. “But that won’t be enough to save you.” He glanced away, shaking his head. “No, not enough. Tomorrow, ride by my side. I will begin to teach you the ways of the runeskowld.”
My eyebrows shot up. “You told my son that no Isir had ever learned—”
“No, I said no Isir had ever mastered it. You may not either, though by my judgment you are the best of them.” He glanced at my expression and laughed. “Relax, Hank. That isn’t saying much.” He squatted and stroked Fretyi’s rump. The pup spun to face him, growling, and snapping. “Oh, he’s a fierce one, isn’t he?”
“I guess so.”
Althyof stood up and glared at me. “Now, if you’re done raising such a ruckus that no sane Tverkr could sleep, I’ll go back to bed!” He whirled and stomped off, but not before I saw the twinkle of amusement in his eye. Fretyi stood, still as carved stone, and watched him, a low growl rumbling in his chest.
“Don’t worry, pup-pup. He’s not as cantankerous as he pretends to be. I trust him, and so can you.” Althyof paused a moment, the flap to the tent he shared with the Alfar held open, but he didn’t glance over. I had the impression that every word I said had carried to his ears. “But he is as ugly as a stump.” Althyof chuckled and ducked inside, letting the tent flap fall closed behind him.
“You were never in danger, Hank,” said Skowvithr’s disembodied voice. “I was with you all along. Kuhntul would not brush aside my abilities as she thinks she could the Tverkr’s.”
“What, are you and Yowtgayrr standing watches now?” I asked the empty air, but there was no answer. Of course they were standing watches. I should have guessed they would be after the first meeting with Kuhntul. I picked up a stick and threw at the space the voice had come from. The puppies watched it arc through the air unobstructed, glanced at one another, and then attacked my feet. “Some watchdogs you two are turning out to be. We’ll have to work on your situational awareness.” Keri looked up at me and yipped before going back to trying to kill me from the ankles up.
The puppies weren’t interested in going back to sleep, so I played with them until the sun cracked the horizon and announced the coming day. As if they had alarm clocks, Lottfowpnir’s thralls awoke and climbed out of their tents, joking and teasing one another until they saw me and pulled on their professional faces. They set about getting the caravan ready to depart, feeding and caring for the horses, packing up supplies that wouldn’t be needed during breakfast, and settling bundles in the carts, since we would ride our own horses that day.
Some were curious about the varkr puppies, others feared them. None of them wanted to approach, whether it was because of the wild puppies or because of me, I couldn’t tell. They kept their heads down and worked.
Veethar was the first of the party to exit his tent, and he walked straight over and crouched beside me, holding out his hand. He uttered a low whistle, and Fretyi cocked his head and trotted over. Keri was still more cautious around others, but Fretyi seemed to have gotten over his natural wariness—at least of Veethar. The pup sprawled at his feet and rolled over for a belly rub, which Veethar seemed delighted to give. “They are in good health,” he said.
“They should be after the amount of meat they wolfed down.”
A small grin stretched Veethar’s lips. “Wait a month or two.”
“Have you had varkr before?”
He shook his head.
“Kuhntul dropped by again last night.”
Moving slowly, Veethar turned his gaze to mine. He quirked his eyebrow, which, given I was speaking to Veethar, was like someone jumping up and screaming: “What?” I shrugged. “Same old thing. She wants me to get Frikka, Freya, or Yowrnsaxa to identify the betrayer. She thinks I should kill him. Or maybe her.” I glanced at the tent Freya and Pratyi shared. “Althyof came out to play, though, and scared Kuhntul away.”
Veethar nodded, eyes pensive, lips taut.
“What do you think about all this? Meuhlnir implied you were the expert on the Tisir.”
Veethar shifted his weight and stared down at Fretyi, scratching the puppy’s belly while Fretyi preened and rolled around. He made a non-committal sound.
“Do you think she’s out to help us or drive us apart?”
Veethar rolled his shoulders. “You shouldn’t worry about Freya.”
“No? I got the feeling you and Meuhlnir don’t trust her.”
Veethar glanced at me, his pale blue eyes almost glowing with the intensity of his feelings. “You misunderstood.”
“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “I don’t know the story, but I’ll take your word for it. I have no reason to mistrust anyone in this camp.”
Veethar nodded and patted Fretyi’s tummy. “Good pup,” he crooned. He stood with an economy of movement that I envied and turned away, walking over to the horses.
“Good talk,” I muttered.