Shardfall, The Shardheld Saga, #1

CHAPTER 1 - SKYSHARD (part 1)

It had stopped snowing. At the foot of the Silfjall Mountain, Eidungruve Hold lay exposed to the frosty blue of the Long Night.

Elward, the young watchman at the top of the gate tower, leaned on his spear. He stared at the crows, circling over the roofs of the buildings, while he waited for the end of his watch. After four hours on the tower, the cold was getting to him. His breath froze in his hairy face, forming icicles in his mustache. For a moment he thought of his wife below in the warmth of the longhouse. She was pregnant. He knew he shouldn't worry, but it was their first time, and it made him nervous.

He started pacing again, the snow crunching under his heavy boots. Six feet forward, six back, the length of his little kingdom.

Something flashed on the edge of his vision. Elward looked up and froze. A tiny ball of light hurtled down from the blue bowl of the sky. It hit the top of Silfjall with a flash, brighter than Thor's bolts. A terrible light engulfed him. He yelled, clutched his eyes, terrified by his sudden blindness. His spear fell to the floor with a thump. He groaned, half bowed, paralyzed with fear, waiting for the end. But the sparks before his eyes died and through his fingers the familiar Long Night returned. By Thor, he thought, still shaking. I thought it was coming for me. His fingers clawed the railing as he looked at the Hold. He sighed, the longhouse, the barns and the mine buildings beneath him, all were as before. He turned and his heart missed a beat. High up the slope of the Silfjall burned a blue fire. Oh Gods, what's that? With trembling hands, he sought the signal horn and blew a single, long note in the silence. The crows fled, cawing in distress, seeking shelter in the woods.

The headman appeared from between the buildings below. He started and stared at the glow on the mountain. Abruptly, he turned around and ran into the longhouse.

Elward shook his spear at the headman's back. 'Damn you, I'm up here, nitwit! I've got a report.' No one heard him. He glanced at the light, pulsing on the mountain like something evil.

The headman returned with someone else and Elward stiffened. Lord Holder Alman's wide-legged walk was unmistakable. For a moment, the men on the ground stared at the light and then they came up the ladder to his high post. The Holder moved slowly, as if his old wound pained him.

Elward slammed his fist to his shoulder in a salute as his lord stepped onto the platform.

Holder Alman nodded toward the blue glow. 'Where did that come from? When did it begin?'

'Only just now, Lord,' said Elward.

The Holder's eyes narrowed in their hollow sockets. 'Be precise, man. How long is just?'

'About half a watchman's round of the palisade,' said Elward, keeping silent about his moment of blindness. Stiffly, he made his report, conscious of his lord's searching gaze. He let out a sigh of relief when the Holder turned his head back to the light on the mountain.

'It is in the high pasture,' said the Holder. 'Is it a sign? But of what?'

Disaster, thought the watchman. He didn't dare voice his thoughts. The Holder would think it a sign of weakness and Alman hated weaklings.

The Holder turned to his headman. 'Send for my son.' Without another look at the light, he climbed carefully back down.

Kjelle stroked Ema's cheek and blew a strand of blonde hair from her ear. She giggled as he put his hand on her breast. Her pose shifted, as if she invited him to lie down next to her. His thumb stroked her nipple and she moaned. 'Yes, oh yes.'