East of the Sun

Chapter 10

"Get in the house, get in the house," she cried, leaping from her prone position and flying back to the doorway. Pushing Skuld inward, she reached for the sketchy wooden slab and pushed it shut. She hesitated a moment, thinking about the brothers who remained out, before slamming the bar down. They were clever little fish, she knew they would stay away, and safe as soon as they spotted such danger. Please let them stay away. As much as she sometimes hated the little brats, she couldn't live without a single one of them.

"What is going on here? I demand you let me out!" the priest's voice traveled from behind her father and Skuld, who now crowded behind her, so they might all peer through the cracks in the slab door. Unfortunately doom still approached, actually doom came far to close. She scrambled back from the door a pace as the men closed in.

"Ah... that's not a good idea right now," she wasn't sure if the pirates would give deference to the man, or just kill him on the spot.

"I call the holy man," one of them snickered, "it has been too long since my blade has tasted pure blood."

Huh, no deference there. Apparently kill him on the spot was the chosen option. She turned back to see if the priest had heard the declaration or still demanded his freedom. He said nothing, but his face rivaled a set of freshly fallen snow. He wiped his brow with a trembling hand.

"Get out here wench so I can use your intestines to string my new lute."

Gross.

Pirates, Bryn noted, were vengeful, disgusting creatures.

"Go away!" she yelled, rolling her eyes at her self. That wasn't going to scare them off. She needed to think of something quick.

"You owe us for what you stole," the pirate with a taste for holy blood, snarled.

"You stole from pirates?" Skuld demanded turning his gray eyes to her incredulously.

"Why is this so hard for people to believe? They are not honorable citizens, how do you think they get their stuff in the first place?"

"Bryn, that guy is going to break down the door in two seconds..."

"You are a sorcerer! There is no other explanation for this! This is the consequence of magic use!" the priest declared. "You deserve your fate, prepare to face Vare's wrath!"

"His wrath is going to get you too, so hush up," she told him firmly.

"Bryn!" Her father gaped. He was worried about propriety now?

"What does he want?" Skuld urged, gesturing to the door. "Even you couldn't have angered him so much that he would seek you out just to kill you."

"Your confidence is inspiring, thank you... He wants this," She held up her hand. Skuld glanced at the damaged finger, and then at the band upon it.

"Well then give it to him!" bellowed the priest. He crowded in with the other men, so close that his outburst hurt Bryn's ears.

She sighed. "I can't, it doesn't come off."

"Brynhildur Skadi!" Her father growled in frustration--his favorite way to say her name. Any moment he would break into a lecture. Fortunately, or rather unfortunately, a large fist chose that time to burst through the door. Splintering wood, and widening the crack through which it emerged.

Bryn squealed and peddled backward, stumbling against her father, who caught her gently.

How had the pirates even found her? And weren't they worried about the beast-man...er... Rute? Did they somehow know that he left her?