Silence Deep as the Snow » Sihtric || The Last Kingdom

A Knife At Dawn

A wandering Saxon once took refuge at our hillfort. I was only a child, but I listened at the door of the throne room as my parents spoke with him. He was a grown man, built like a warrior, but broken. He sniveled and wept. 

He spoke of dead places and bodies ravaged, both animal and human. There had been much blood spilled. But mostly, he spoke of silence. That was what the Danes left in their wake, silent cities. 

I never forgot the fear in his eyes as he was led away. He never spoke again. Like the city from which he had fled, the Danes made him a silent ruin as well. He lived another few years in the care of the monks, but died of a weakened heart.

That memory haunted me when I awoke after only an hour or two. Behind me, Sihtric's broad back lifted and sank with even breaths in a deep slumber. He had saved my life. He wasn't like the rest of his kin. Was he?

A disturbance of birds shattered the peace with the razor sharp flap of wings. Sihtric roused without hesitation and whipped onto his side, hovering over me as he scanned the forest with his unsettling glare. He pressed a hand to my upper arm and motioned the hilt of his knife over the stern line of his mouth. I obeyed and bit my lip, lying still he rose to his feet.

Sihtric disappeared into the brush. I held my breath. After everything that had happened, I fully anticipated it to be a Dane raiding party. Or thieving brigands. Perhaps a horde of angry fairy folk sent by my vicious stepmother. It was all so probable, I almost laughed.

After a heart pounding minute, Sihtric reappeared. And then he grinned like an imp. I was too shocked to respond.

"What was it?"

He produced a freshly killed grouse from behind his back. "Breakfast."

I had never played a direct hand in the cooking of my food. It was always done for me. I knew my way around a vegetable garden and I was well trained in healing herbs, but I was a sheltered girl. So I watched with rapt curiosity and disgust as Sihtric beheaded the thing and plucked it's feathers.

"There, now if you'll just clean it, I'll sharpen a stake for us," he said, holding out the naked carcass with his knife to me.

"I just- I don't- how do you do that?" 

"What?" He scoffed.

I sniffed and lifted my head. "I've never cleaned a bird before. For eating."

"You've delivered babies, difficult births, but you've never cooked," he said, his angled jaw remaining loose.

I shook my head. "I was raised as a princess. It wasn't done."

"Clearly." He crouched next to me and put the knife in my palm. "Then I suppose I should teach you."

With Sihtric directing me, I managed to not ruin our first chance at a meal in nearly a day. When all the innards had been cleaned from the grouse, as I tried to hide my grimace, he strung it over our campfire. My repulsion soon turned ravenous as fat dripped from the meat, Sihtric turning it as it cooked. 

I burned my fingers tearing into the white flesh. Sihtric did too. We didn't speak, but ate till there was nothing left except for the bones. Afterwards, Sihtric kicked dirt onto the flames.

"We'd best be on our way and try to find our companions."

We made our way back to the river, hoping our best chance at finding our friends would be to follow it. A little after we started, Sihtric stopped hard in his path. I almost ran into him.

"Do you know how to use a weapon?" He took out the short dagger that I had used to clean the bird. "Your people in Welas are known for being fierce warriors. Were you ever shown?"

I shook my head, eyeing the blade nervously as he held it out to me. "It was unneeded for me."

"Then, perhaps. But not now. Take this." He took my wrist and pressed the knife into my palm once more. "If you need it, know it is best to stab up and under the ribs. Like this."

He guided my hand to his torso and showed how to jerk the blade up into a man's body, his expression stony as ever. 

"Or reach for the neck, under the arm. Or your lower back." He grazed a hand over the base of my spine and I tried not to react at the swift touch. "I do not know what we will meet out there, but you must be prepared to defend yourself. If not, you must run. Understood?"

I wet my lips and nodded mutely, fear making my heart race. Or perhaps I only told myself it was fear as Sihtric glared down at me, standing close enough to touch. I took a modest step back and looked down at the knife in my hands. He handed me a sheath for it and strode away. Silently, I followed.