CHAPTER SIXTEEN

The First Talisman

Saga’s knees clunked together under her furs as she stumbled towards the white-bear den, losing her bravery with each step. Her breath rasped and her palms sweated in her mittens.

She was deeply afraid. Ignoring the silent crowd watching her, she climbed into the round opening.

At least nobody else could see her now.

Swivelling her head from side to side, she blew out a sigh of relief that she hadn’t immediately come face to face with the white bear.

The den was empty.

But there were two more tunnels leading off from it – the space was bigger than she’d thought. A shaft of moonlight shone down into the main chamber where she stood, but the other two tunnels would be dark inside. She couldn’t spot a talisman and her heart sank – she’d have to try to use magic again. Stealing over to the nearest tunnel, Saga peered inside, listening. Nothing. Holding her breath, she crawled through as fast as she could, until she felt the space open around her into another little ice chamber, where she could stand up again.

It was as dark as a moonless night.

Saga tore off one mitten with her teeth, preparing to carve a rune for light, but her hand was shaking too much, her stomach clenching. Then her eyes adjusted. There was no bear here either, though across the chamber something glimmered. Saga darted over and snatched it up, desperate to flee before the bear appeared. It was a gleaming silver coin with an engraved rune: Reið, the rune of both physical and spiritual journeys, which looked like an arrowhead with two legs, one of them kicking out as if making the first step on that journey. The talisman.

Magic thrummed through it, on to Saga’s bare hand, and, as it did, something else flickered along her fingers: a frosted-blue shimmery light. Saga gasped, suddenly dropping the talisman. The light vanished at once.

Quickly, she pulled her mitten back on and picked the talisman up again, shoving it deep into her pocket as she turned to rush out of the den.

But the entrance was blocked by the white bear.

Saga froze. Bjørn was twice as big as she was, and she’d been expecting this bear to be the same size. It wasn’t. The white bear was easily three or four times bigger than her and much wider than Bjørn too, with paws the size of Saga’s head, tipped with long black claws. Saga inched backwards. Ice crunched beneath her boots.

The bear growled.

It was deep and fierce and suddenly Saga didn’t know if she was more scared of the white bear or the magic she’d have to use to escape it. If she even could use magic; each time she’d tried, it had made her ill. She hesitated.

The bear threw back its head and roared.

Saga screamed and drew Afi’s dagger.

But before she could defend herself the frosted blue light appeared again. And this time it was shimmering over all of Saga. Its magic crackled and spat, and the white bear flinched. Surveying Saga through its beady eyes, it swiped a fast paw at her. Saga leaped back too slowly to avoid its claws. She braced herself, but the claws bounced off the magic, almost like …

‘It’s the shield!’ she gasped.

The white bear let out a whine that sounded too similar to Bjørn, making Saga feel guilty for the dagger she still clenched in her hand. She slid it back inside her furs, grateful that she hadn’t had to hurt the bear or lose the contest before it had even properly started. The bear slunk away.

Before it clambered back into one of the tunnels, it swung its big head round, meeting Saga’s eyes for one last look at the girl humming with magic. Then, it left her alone.

Saga’s heart was still fluttering when the shield vanished again. Only this time, she knew her parents’ last wisp of magic wasn’t truly gone. It was living under her skin, ready to snap over her and protect her from any threat, just like it had done back when the trolls attacked her outside the village. Saga’s throat was too thick to swallow. Though the idea of having that much magic living within her was scary, it had also felt like a hug from her parents, and that was something she had missed very much. With that thought, a bit of her fear suddenly melted away.

Aware that the bear could return any moment, Saga fled from the den.

When she reached the opening, she held the first talisman high, its rune twinkling like star glitter. Ruvsá cheered, Canute gave her a brief nod and Elof whooped.

‘How … surprising,’ Rollo said, watching Saga as she rejoined the group. ‘Keep hold of that talisman, child. We shall use that to track you in future challenges. Who would like to try their luck next?’ His smile revealed too many teeth. ‘The bear sounds in a foul temper now.’

Elof danced from foot to foot. ‘My turn next, my turn!’

‘No!’ Unn broke through the crowd. Her hood was pushed back, her red hair half frozen. ‘This cannot be allowed – he is only a child!’ She gestured at Saga, Ruvsá and Canute. ‘As are those three. I am certain even the eldest boy doesn’t have an arm cuff from his Jarl yet – he has not come of age. Surely there must be rules against young ones entering.’

Canute reddened. ‘I am old enough to have an arm cuff,’ he snapped.

Unn hesitated, surveying him. ‘Yet you do not? There must be a reason for that.’

Saga’s curiosity about Canute deepened, but she felt sorry for him. Unn was digging into his secrets in front of everybody; she would have hated that too.

Canute’s voice raised in pitch. ‘Nothing that concerns you! You want me to prove myself to you? Fine, watch this,’ and with that Canute stomped straight into the white-bear den.

Unn gasped and clutched Leif, who drew her away. The shieldmaidens looked intrigued, and Torben and the other raiders muttered between themselves, disgruntled that they hadn’t been able to go first or second to take the glory. Everyone else fell silent. And waited. Saga shuffled from foot to foot to keep warm and distract herself from Canute disappearing into that hole. Though he was annoying and she was still sure he was hiding something, she didn’t want him to end up as bear dinner.

Without warning, an almighty roar shook the land. Icicles fell from the entrance of the den. The hair on the back of Saga’s neck shot up.

‘What was that?’ Elof gulped, grabbing Saga’s arm.

‘Was that the white bear?’ Saga asked Ruvsá, who looked equally alarmed.

‘I’m not sure.’ Ruvsá’s eyebrows drew together.

With another shattering of falling icicles, Canute was suddenly rushing out of the den, his face pale but smug. He opened his mitten to reveal the second talisman.

Torben chortled. ‘Looks like you underestimated these children.’ He threw a pointed look at Unn, who glared at him. He then handed his spear and axe to a wolfish-looking raider with shaggy grey hair and tufted eyebrows, and leaped into the hole. His war cry echoed behind him. Nothing else was heard until he emerged from the den with dishevelled furs and another talisman.

After that, there was a steady stream of various raiders and shieldmaidens going and having a turn, cheering each other on by yelling ‘Tyr!’ and various battle cries, and a few contestants that seemed to be loners and had not banded together with the others. For some, like the shieldmaidens, scarcely any time had passed before they stalked back out. Others were met with the bear’s wrath. Like Leif, who managed to claim his talisman but re-emerged, ashen, with three long gouges on his arm. Unn took so long Saga began to fret that Rollo would be reclaiming her body soon, but she eventually came back up with her red hair sticking out in every direction, and a talisman. A few didn’t succeed and joined a growing group sitting on the snow to one side.

‘When will it be my turn?’ Elof demanded. ‘I have to win the magic ice crystals!’

Saga gave him a nervous look. He was just so small. ‘You know, that bear in there isn’t like mine,’ she told him as Ruvsá nodded seriously at her side. ‘He’s much bigger, with terribly sharp claws.’

Elof swallowed loudly. ‘I’m not afraid,’ he said stubbornly. ‘I need the magic so I can have my own sledge pulled by a team of sled-cats. Like the goddess Freya and her chariot of cats.’

‘Err …’ Saga found herself at a loss for words.

‘Cats don’t really make good sled-dogs,’ Ruvsá commented. ‘They’re not big or strong enough and they wouldn’t enjoy it.’

‘That’s why I need the ice crystals.’ Elof looked at them as if they were stupid. ‘To make big magic cats.’

Canute started laughing.

‘It’s not funny!’ Elof stamped his foot in the snow. ‘Mother said I can’t have more cats, but –’

‘Elof.’ A tall man appeared behind him. ‘I thought I was having a nightmare when I saw you, but of course you’re here.’ He let out a long-suffering sigh.

‘Hello, Filpa,’ Elof said in a small voice.

Filpa was winding a strip of cloth over a badly bitten hand; he was one of the contestants who had been chased out by the bear before finding a talisman. ‘I would ask how in the gods you managed to wind up in the Far North, but I have a horrible idea I already know the answer.’

‘Are you from the same village?’ Saga asked.

‘We are.’ Filpa nodded. ‘This one must have sneaked on to my sledge before I left. His mother will be frantic by now.’ He seized Elof’s hand with his uninjured one. ‘I’ll be taking him home now.’

‘No! What about my cats?’ Elof yelled as he was pulled away. Ruvsá quickly returned Squirrel to the little boy, who clung on to his kitten as he miserably waved goodbye.

‘That’s a relief,’ Saga said. ‘Are you going to miss your warrior friend?’ she teased Canute, who snorted and muttered something that sounded like ‘cats’.

‘Who’s next?’ Rollo called out. His hawkish eyes scanned the crowd for the bear’s next victim.

Ruvsá walked over. ‘Me.’

She entered the den as silently as a snowflake. Saga’s stomach was a thrashing sea as she disappeared into danger, but Ruvsá had barely vanished from sight when she appeared again, climbing out with a wide smile and a talisman clenched in her fist.

‘How did you do that?’ Saga breathed in astonishment.

Ruvsá gave her an evaluating look. ‘Are we swapping secrets now, then?’ she asked.

Saga clamped her mouth shut again.

When the challenge had ended, Saga looped her arm through Ruvsá’s for the long trudge back to the ice castle. She couldn’t wait to see Bjørn; she didn’t remember the last time they’d been apart for this long and suspected that they never had been. But with the success of completing the first challenge, the warmth of walking arm in arm with Ruvsá and knowing that her parents’ protective magic had never left her, Saga didn’t feel alone any more.