East of the Sun

Chapter 18

"Bryn!" Eydis cried when she entered the parlor. The younger girl threw herself into Bryn's arms.

For a moment Bryn forgot her anger with Rute and hugged her younger sister tight. Squeezing the small body to her and inhaling a deep breath in the girl's hair.

"Bryn, I have my own room, you have to come see," Eydis announced, tugging Bryn's arm.

"Bryn, welcome home," Víðarr called over Eydis' noise. He was standing at the arch that lead to the kitchen. No small surprise to find him there, when the boy had hit his fourteenth summer he had begun to eat as if competing with a grown man...or two.

The last month had been good to him, no longer was he the slender youth gone too many days hungry, but a healthy looking almost-man. He had grown taller in her absence too, now well above her head.

She held out an arm and he joined Eydis in an embrace.

"Have you finished your task?" Víðarr questioned, pulling back. "Will you stay home now?"

"I am only here for a short time... where is father, and Skuld?" she had expected them to be the first to greet her. She still hadn't decided whether to tell them the truth-that she had been released from any duty to Rute-or give them a story about returning home for a visit. Either way she expected resistance when she proceeded to leave on her own, and it would have to be soon too. She felt that she had a good idea of where Rute would go next, to the library in Manarfell, but he wasn't likely to wait long.

The faces of her two siblings fell from a state of joy to unhappy disquiet.

"They are gone, Skuld left shortly after you did, he was angry with father for letting you go. They had an argument and Skuld left. He hasn't been back," Víðarr told her, shifting uncomfortably.

Bryn battled with frustration, she told Skuld she went willingly. Worry soon took over though, even if he were to travel to Skrattafell and back he should have returned by then. Where was he? "And father?" she asked.

"Trading," Víðarr gestured to the kitchen and Bryn followed, her mind on Skuld and the many possible things that might have gone wrong. "There were enough water sapphires in the store room to make an initial trip, we will need the coin from that to purchase what is being put out from the mine. It won't be easy either," Víðarr sat down to a bowl filled with some sort of porridge. "There are already two traders that sell the sapphires, and they don't seem too keen on sharing the business."

Of course not, you cant just throw a house and some gems at a family and expect them to become traders, most people spent a lifetime learning that business. But it looked as though the family was at least fed well.

"So where has he gone to trade?" Bryn asked. She had thought to encourage a trading trip to Manarfell, but now with Skuld gone she wasn't sure what to do.

"Drangavik," Víðarr replied, watching her closely. "Any closer village is already controlled by the other traders. Like I said, they aren't happy about sharing business. I didn't know traders were such a vicious lot."

Bryn's eyebrow raised. She could have guessed, they always seemed a desperate bunch to her. Desperation was dangerous. She cursed inwardly, Drangavik was nearly a week away...in the wrong direction, what should she do now?

A hollow knocking stopped the conversation. Víðarr and Bryn looked cautiously toward the parlor, but Eydis, who had been bouncing on her toes nearby dashed to the door.

"Njord?" Bryn asked hopefully, who else would it be?

"Njord is on market duty, Kristján and Ásbjörn are hunting, and none would knock, or use the front door. They would come in through the servant entrance down that hall," He gestured to a narrow passage out of the kitchen.