Joseph Lewis - Freya the Huntress

The queen’s eyes flashed down to the grip of the rinegold sword and an uneasy look crossed her face.

Freya wet her lips.

Skadi’s held that sword before, and she saw whatever it is that Omar sees when he wields it. And it scares her!

“But there is some small cause for hope, Highness,” Omar said. “If your friends would be so kind as to stop hurting my arms, I’d be happy to tell you why all your troubles are behind you.”

The queen frowned a little deeper and stepped back from him. “You’ve come to talk about the king.”

“No, no, not a bit,” he said with a smile. “I’ve come to talk about your reaver problem. More specifically, I’ve come to talk to you about bloodflies.”

Skadi hesitated a moment longer, then nodded to the guards and they released Omar’s arms. The southerner rolled his shoulders and massaged his elbow.

“Well?” the queen prompted him.

“Hm? Oh yes, the flies. Are you quite sure you want to discuss it in front of so many people?” He glanced around the dining hall at the guards and the valas.

“I’m not afraid of your words, Omar. Are you?”

He shook his head. “Not at all. Well, I won’t bore you with all the details, but the salient point is this. I have, at this very moment, a nest full of an ancient breed of bloodflies busy as bees, laying eggs and raising their young just as fast as they can. I left them plenty of food and water, and built a charming little gazebo over them with some mud.”

He gestured whimsically. “Well, perhaps charming is a bit of a stretch. But it will keep them reasonably safe until there are so many of them that they can break out of the nest on their own through sheer brute force.”

“I hate bloodflies,” a guard muttered.

“And well you should, my burly friend, well you should. Nasty little creatures, as we all know. However, they do have a very useful skill in that they drink the blood of their victims, and these ancient bloodflies have an added virtue. They can drink the aether in the blood as well.” He paused to give Skadi a long, stern gaze.

Freya saw the understanding dawning in the queen’s eyes.

But is he telling her the whole truth, or a half truth, or none at all? I can’t read him.

“They’ll hatch soon?” she asked.

“Hours, mere hours,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything breed so quickly.”

“And when they hatch from this nest of yours, what will they do? Did you give them a taste for demon blood? Will they pull the plague out of the reavers and return them to their normal selves?”

“That was my first thought,” he said, rather seriously, his lips tense. “That was what I hoped to create. A true cure. But you can’t separate this disease from its host. You can’t take the bad blood out and leave the good blood behind, so to speak.”

“A poison, then,” the queen said. “The flies will infect the reavers with some disease that will wipe them out?”

“Not a poison,” he said. “A vaccine. If these flies of mine bite one of you, you’ll be protected from the reavers’ venom. It will be impossible for you to be turned into one of them. And if the flies bite a reaver, it will calm them. Or maybe pacify them. Actually, I don’t know exactly what will happen to them, but it will certainly be an improvement. I didn’t exactly have the time or materials to test it.”

Skadi paced a few short steps back and forth in front of him, her long black dress swishing across the bare stone tiles. “How did you make this vaccine, exactly?”

“With great skill, Highness.”

The queen frowned at him. “And where is this nest, exactly?”

“Close by, Highness.” He rested his hand on his sword, and the guards jerked forward, but Skadi waved them back, and he nodded his thanks to her. “You’re trying to decide whether to trust me, whether to believe me. I remember this same moment from when I first arrived and I told you who I was and where I came from. You doubted me then just as you doubt me now. And I know there is nothing I can say that will truly persuade you. So, Highness, I suggest we go to bed.”

Skadi slapped him.

Omar winced and touched his cheek. “My word…” And then he feigned realization, overplaying the part. “Oh goodness, no! Did you think I meant you and I, together, in bed? No, no, no. Whatever in the world would lead you to think that?” And his eyes snapped to the right to look at Leif for the first time since he arrived.

Leif swallowed, his eyes darting to the southerner. Freya grabbed his arm and bent his hand back, knocking his sword to the ground. Leif yanked himself out of her grip and stood a few paces away, glaring at her.

“You took your eyes off her. What did you expect?” the queen said dryly, though her gaze remained fixed on Omar. “I do believe you have something prepared. Whether or not it is truly meant to solve the reaver plague, I don’t know. It may even involve the bloodflies. You were ever one to muddle a lie with the truth. But I don’t believe you left your precious package unguarded in a hole on Mount Esja, or that you would leave your grand design to chance buzzing about on the wind. It’s closer than that, isn’t it?”

“As close as it needs to be, Highness.”

“Inside the city.” She turned to the guards. “Search the south wall, and retrace his steps as he came through the city from the gate to the castle. Look in open sacks, or on the low roofs, or in the shadows between the houses. Anywhere he might have easily tossed something as he walked by.”

The house carls frowned. “What are we looking for?”

“Anything that looks out of place.” Skadi paused. “But it probably is a bloodfly nest. And there may be more than one. Go. Hurry. Get as many men as you need.”

The guards hurried out, leaving Omar smiling in the center of the room. “I always said you were a very clever woman, Highness. Intelligent, educated, shrewd, suspicious, and untrusting. But you’re still playing the same games by the same rules, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re still dealing in power and control.” Omar winked at Freya. “Always trying to protect what you have while trying to get a little more for yourself. And that’s perfectly reasonable, as long as that’s what everyone else is doing, too. But I don’t think you’re prepared to deal with someone who wants nothing for himself, and cares nothing for what you have.” He reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small ball of dried mud.

Skadi drew back behind Thora as though preparing to use her as a shield against the brown lump in the man’s hand.

Omar laughed. “Are you really so afraid of-”

Leif snatched the ball from his hand and ran down the length of the hall and out the front door. Omar spun, staring after the one-armed youth. “No! You idiot!”

Freya gave Omar one last worried look, and she ran out the door after Leif.

Freya flew out the door, across the courtyard, and into the streets of Rekavik. Despite the late hour, there were still dozens of people in the lanes, standing in knots around the torches and open doorways, talking and glaring as they shivered in the night air. As she ran by, Freya saw curious and angry and exhausted eyes rising to follow her, and mouths opening to speak to her, but she had no breath for them.

Leif wasn’t far ahead. She could see him darting left and right around the people in the road, only thirty or forty paces ahead, but the warrior ran with the tireless strength of youth, and of one who had not spent the last two nights slaughtering reavers.

My spear!

Her hand felt light and naked at her side, bouncing along with no warm, sweat-slick steel clutched in it.