hungry. The tallest one, all skin and bones and dirty hair, stepped in front of the group and leaned on a long walking stick.
“Give us your food,” he snapped at Audun. Two of his companions started moving off to either side. “And your shoes. And everything else you’ve got. Then we’ll let you live.”
“Please,” Audun said. “I don’t want trouble. I have nothing to give, and it won’t be much of a life if you leave me naked in the woods.” The slope behind him was a tempting option, but turning his back on these men felt like a bad idea.
“Farms round here,” said the tall man, trying to sound reasonable. “Or you might find someone stupid enough to be walking through the forest alone. Everyone’s got to hunt these days.”
Audun looked at the tall man. Stained, pointy teeth. Clumps of dried blood in his beard. Where were the others? The blacksmith’s head spun. “I don’t think I will. Thank you,” he mumbled. “Now go away. Please don’t start—”
A tree branch thick as a man’s forearm thwacked across his shoulders. He stumbled, nearly lost his footing, and grabbed hold of a branch for support. Instinct kicked in and he shifted his weight to the left; another attacker stumbled past.
The tall man strode forward with murder in his eyes. “Grab him!” he snarled.
Pain exploded in Audun’s lower back.
He twisted around to see a wild-eyed man wielding a fallen branch and getting ready to strike again. Backpedaling, Audun slipped and fell. Something hard smashed into his hip and set his leg throbbing. He fumbled around for purchase, dodged a vicious strike from the makeshift club, and caught his hand on something sharp.
Fist-size rock. Jagged edge.
Without thinking, he flexed and hurled it at the next moving target.
There was a dull crunch as the club-wielder’s head changed shape. He dropped to the ground. His friends screamed in rage, but the noise was almost distant to Audun. The rich, iron-tinged smell of spurting blood stroked him, lured him, called to him.
“Oh no . . . ,” he muttered.
A feral grin spread on the blond man’s face as he rose to his feet.
An attacker charged him, armed with a rock of his own. He swung hard overhead and screamed in pain as his wrist was smashed by a blocking forearm. His cries were cut short when a straight right from the stocky blacksmith drove the man’s nose up into his brain.
The tall, gaunt leader approached with caution. He had a stick with a point. The lunge was sudden and surprisingly fast. The blacksmith saw the wood pierce his side, felt it rip into his flesh and didn’t care. Wood wasn’t metal.
Horrified, the tall man glanced past him a moment too soon.
The blond man grabbed the spear, held on to it, and stepped backward into the path of the third attacker. A hard elbow broke the scrawny sneak’s sternum, crushed his rib cage, and sent him coughing and wheezing to the forest floor with blood bubbling out of his mouth. Fear blossomed on the tall man’s face as he scrabbled to get away, but his feet betrayed him on the slippery surface. As he fell to the ground, an iron grip seized him by the back of the neck. Another grabbed his crotch, squeezed mercilessly, and lifted the tall, gaunt and screaming man off the ground, grunting with the effort.
The blacksmith threw the scrawny man down the hill, watched him flailing and screaming as he flew until he bounced off a tree, watched the lifeless body fall and crash into the ground, roll down through the undergrowth, and come to a stop at the foot of the hill.
He looked around, but nothing moved. Slowly, almost gently, the thrumming in his temples slowed and the pain returned. Audun’s right leg spasmed and collapsed underneath him, sending him to the forest floor. The wooden spear throbbed in his side. The suffocating feeling of bile exploding from his stomach threatened to overwhelm him until he managed to roll over and vomit.
After the first convulsion, Audun reached for the long spear, pulled it out, screamed, and lost consciousness.
When he woke, he was wet and cold. His mouth tasted sour and his head throbbed. For the first couple of moments, old dreams confused him. The shivers and the stab of pain from his side cleared his head soon enough, though.
The hill.
The fight.
Audun looked around. The promise of rain still hung in the air. As he moved, an opportunistic fox scampered away from