CHAPTER FOURTEEN
A week later
The roar of a war horn cut through the air as Donna and Sigurd ate breakfast at the long table, their arms and hips pressed against each other like schoolchildren’s.
Since Donna had begun archery training, they no longer saw each other for most of the day, but their nights were full of fire. When they were apart, Donna felt as if a weight pressed on her lungs. Once back in Sigurd’s bedchamber, she could breath again. They were drawn together like waves to the shore, and held each other close until first light, when it was time to go their separate ways.
They did not speak much, just whispered against each other’s skin as they made love.
And once or twice, when he was deep inside of her, bringing her to ever-greater levels of ecstasy, Donna caught the “I love you” that almost escaped her mouth like a prisoner longing for freedom. It was born somewhere in her chest and rose up her throat like a bubble, only to be stopped by her gritted teeth.
How would she ever leave? How would she live without him?
The horn continued to sing its heart-gripping song as Sigurd’s and Donna’s eyes locked.
Death came knocking. Fear chilled Donna to the bone. She’d give everything to see Sigurd unharmed.
“Don’t you dare die.” Her lips barely moved, as hard as wood.
Tears welled in her eyes, but she forbade them to spill. Sigurd cupped the back of her neck and planted a kiss on her mouth. It had the aftertaste of goodbye, cutting Donna’s stomach like a million knives.
Sigurd stood up, took his ax, which lay next to him on the bench, and shouted, “The enemy is here! To your places!”
He called one of the teenage boys to help him put on his war gear, and they went to the bedchamber. Donna followed him there to take her bow and arrows, and Sigurd told her to put on his leather armor while he put on his brynja, which shone with thin iron chains and must have been as heavy as half a car.
Then they rushed together towards the watchtowers hand in hand. Men were already fully armored, and women archers stood in position.
The fortress was still not finished. The beachfront palisade had a gap on the right side, where Donna and Sigurd had made love two weeks ago. The eastern side was also still under construction, but Fuldarr didn’t know that. The only completed site was the stone arch. Two watchtowers stood solid. The third had only the supporting pillars and was, therefore, useless. Under Thorsten’s guidance, villagers were quickly piling earth up by the gap, planting long spikes into it at an angle. Female archers were already waiting there together with two dozen fully armored warriors.
The gate was still open, and the sight through it stopped Donna’s heart. Eight longships slid towards them at full speed, oars rising and falling. Five or so ships had bright red-and-blue sails, but the rest had different ones: green, and yellow, and plain white.
“He found allies,” Sigurd spat out the words. “Vigdis did not lie.”
Donna thought about the violence and the deaths that those ships would bring. She had to try a peaceful way. “Sigurd, let me go negotiate. It’s what I do for living. I can—”
“You are out of your mind if you think I’ll let you do that. You are no one to Fuldarr and have no negotiation power. What is to stop him from killing you on sight or taking you prisoner?”
Donna clenched her fists. She was afraid for him, and she could not sit and wait for him to be killed. “Let’s go together then. I will be useful. I am from the future, remember? I know tricks. Maybe we can resolve this peacefully so that no one has to die.”
Sigurd bared his teeth and looked up at the approaching ships from under his eyebrows. “There’s more chance that Loki will stop plotting. No, Donna, there won’t be peace today. Blood will spill—Fuldarr’s blood.” He touched the Thor’s hammer pendant around his neck, seeking the god’s protection. “But you are right. We can win some time for the people to do last-minute preparations. Get your tricks ready, maiden of justice.”
Sigurd took Floki and five of his strongest warriors to accompany Donna and him, and they stood on the beach waiting for the ships to arrive.
Donna’s knees shook as the ships approached. Her heart tap-danced, and sweat broke out on her skin in a sticky film. Fear melted her bones. She had never been so scared in her entire life. They said New York was dangerous. New York was a piece of cake compared to this. Real war came at her like a train at full speed. And she could not do anything to stop it.
She could only run. Yes, that was an option. Run, right now, to the arch and disappear in time, back to the safety and the warmth of the twenty-first century.
But she would be damned if she did that. Because the man her heart beat for stood by her side. The bravest, the strongest, the dearest man who had her—body and soul. And she must be brave and strong for him. Someone he could rely on—him and his people. Donna’s chin rose and she gripped the bow till her nails dug into her flesh.
The first ships arrived, and for a moment, no one spoke. Warriors on the boats had already built a shieldwall.
“Fuldarr, show yourself!” Sigurd yelled. “Let’s talk.”
A tall man with long, straight black hair appeared. Something about him reminded her of that night in her Manhattan bedroom, of Joseph, who had gone through her mom and Donna’s life like a tornado, leaving them broken and empty, and never the same. Her chest tightened and her mind went hazy.
“What do you possibly want to talk about, Sigurd? I am about to finish what I had started last year.”
He gestured, and a woman appeared behind him. She was pale and thin, her shiny blond hair gathered up in an elaborate style. This must be Vigdis.
“Maybe you want to see your sister? All right then. Let’s go down, wife.” He jumped down into the water, and several warriors followed him. One pushed Vigdis to do the same.
When Fuldarr’s party stopped ten feet or so from them, Donna understood why Fuldarr wanted to come down with Vigdis. He wanted Sigurd to see her in every detail. A classic move to push the opponent’s buttons and make him emotional. Donna’s feet turned to ice as she saw Vigdis’s face. One eyelid was purple and so swollen that it completely shut the eye. Caked blood covered an eyebrow, a bruise bloomed on her cheek, and a cut split her lower lip. Donna glanced at Sigurd. His face looked as if it was carved from stone, which meant that he was beyond anger. She shifted towards him and straightened her back. If he was about to lose his mind, she should be the one keeping a clear head.
“What did you do to my sister?” Sigurd growled.
“That’s between my wife and me. Rest assured, she deserved it. You are not the only one she betrayed. It seems she can’t help herself.”
Donna saw from the corner of her eye how Sigurd’s hand started to shake, and the bones of his hand tensed so much from the strength with which he gripped the handle of the ax, she feared they’d rip through his skin.
She had to intervene, or Sigurd would explode. “What will it take for you to leave peacefully?” she asked.
Fuldarr’s eyes darted to her and he cocked his head. “And who is she, Sigurd? New wife?”
Donna felt Vigdis’s eyes on her and blushed, catching herself on the desire for Sigurd’s only family to like her. How silly.
“She is not my wife.”
This was true, but it stung Donna a little.
“Then why should I talk to you, woman?”
Sigurd was about to say something, but Donna intervened. “Because I am from the future.”
All eyes fell on her. Fuldarr’s body stiffened and he stared at her. “What?”
“A Norn sent me here from more than a thousand years in the future.”
“Donna!” Sigurd’s voice slapped her.
But she was too far into the plan. She wanted to scare Fuldarr, to intimidate him, to make him unsure and emotional.
“And I already told Sigurd all the secrets and technologies and innovations that he needs to know.”
Judging from Fuldarr’s body language, it was working. His brows knit together, eyes widened in surprise and—yes, small, barely noticeable—fear.
She pressed. “And behind that palisade, there are machines that spit fire and warriors made of iron that fight on their own.”
“You are lying,” Fuldarr growled, but his voice lost its confidence. “You are just a wench.”
“I am telling the truth—”
“Donna, stop!” Sigurd snapped.
Fuldarr’s eyes flicked between them and a slow sneer widened his lips. “What’s wrong, Sigurd? Last year you sent me your sister. Now you are hiding behind another woman’s skirt. Where did you lose your balls?”
Donna’s breath caught. She had not lived with the Vikings long, but she’d already learned that the worst insult to a Viking was to offend his masculinity. Sigurd had already been shaken. Now, he was about to explode. The reminder about his mistake with Vigdis, and what that had cost his family, was too much.
His face was twitching, his mouth distorted in a snarl, and his feet trembled ever slightly, ready to launch himself at Fuldarr.
And die.
Fuldarr saw it, too. A barely noticeable smile stretched his lips, and he lifted one arm, about to signal his warriors. Vigdis’s face froze in desperation. Sigurd’s warriors took their positions, too.
Donna had no time to spare, and just before the crazy Vikings clashed in a massacre, she threw her bow to the ground and stepped towards Fuldarr. “Wait!”
Everyone froze, their eyes on her. Good. A surprise. This would shake Sigurd’s bloodthirst. “Fuldarr, let Sigurd and his men go back to the fortress. If you do, I will give myself to you. I will tell you all the secrets from the future.”
She did not want to see Sigurd’s face. She could not. The pain he must have felt, of another woman betraying him like that, after he had trusted her with his biggest pain, after he had changed for her, after he had started listening to her advice.
She must have just stabbed him in the heart.
But better this than have him and the whole village slaughtered.
Fuldarr’s eyes shot to Sigurd, and from the triumph on their enemy’s face, Donna did not need to see her man to know that the hurt was written all over him. Fuldarr nodded, and with a sinking heart, Donna ran towards him and stood by his side, between him and Vigdis. When she turned to face Sigurd, blood froze in her veins.
He looked as if someone had just stabbed him in the gut, but he still stood in position ready to launch himself at Fuldarr. She had to do something.
“I am just joining the winning team.”
Sigurd’s eyes widened, and his face reddened as if she was strangling him. Tears blurred Donna’s vision. “Fuldarr, I never met a man with such a great army, even back in my time,” she said, her voice trembling. She hated herself. But it was working. Fuldarr’s chest puffed with pride, he believed she was on his side.
So did Sigurd.
His face hardened, and without saying another word, he turned and strode away, his head high, as if Donna did not exist.