of his breath, he’d fallen asleep propped against a tree.
Hod did not want to approach; it would startle him. Hod was many things, but he was not especially stealthy when he navigated unfamiliar surroundings.
His own weariness burned in his back and dulled his senses. He could not remember the last time he’d slept. It was only yesterday he’d climbed aboard the provisions wagon and rolled the final miles to the mount, surrounded by Northmen and two repugnant kings that thought they each held the better hand. They’d circled each other warily for the better part of two weeks, each of them pulling Hod aside to divulge the other’s secrets. Gudrun had threatened and Banruud had implied, and Hod had kept his mouth closed.
Hod needed rest and food, even if it was just an hour, propped against a tree like Bayr. He found a thicket not far from the water and crawled behind it. In minutes he was asleep, dozing in the embrace of his shield and his bow.
When he surfaced again, he did not move or stretch but found his brother’s heart.
It had quickened and Bayr breathed through his nose, as though he tried to hide his presence.
The woods were crawling with drumming human hearts.
A thick wall of them moved toward the mount. Big men, from the echoes in their chests. They did not speak, but they rustled and rattled distinctly as they walked. Bones. Leather. Blades. They were Northmen. Gudrun had brought an army after all.
Hod didn’t move, not even when one man stopped and urinated into the bush he was stretched out behind. The foul stream kicked up the dirt and shook the brambles; a few drops pinged against his shield. He prayed the man would not investigate the inconsistent sound. He didn’t. He shook himself and proceeded on.
When Bayr began to follow them, staying a safe distance back, Hod picked up his staff and trailed after them as well.
The Northmen stopped before they reached the forest’s edge, and they waited as morning grew into day. For what they waited, Hod didn’t know. A signal? A sign? They created a sort of sound barrier between Hod and the mount.
He could hear Bayr, hovering at the rear of the small army. Within the group were recognizable rhythms—he knew some of the Northmen—but his range was interrupted by the sheer number of them.
There were Bernians among the Northmen too. It seemed some of Benjie’s men had seen the shift in the winds and thrown in with the conquerors. They’d been the ones to guide them in.
Mayhaps Benjie knew. Mayhaps he didn’t. It mattered little now. It was yet one more example of how fragmented the clans had become.
Hod put his palms to his ears for a moment, trying to focus his senses. He breathed in and out, his back to a tree, his feet planted. Then he focused, narrowing in on the hearts he needed to hear.
There was Bayr. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
He let his awareness rise over the drone of the Northmen.
Ghisla . . . Where was Ghisla? He suspended his breath.
Ah. The sound was faint, like tinkling glass in a storm, but he found her.
She was still in the temple.
He wanted to shout in fear and frustration. Instead he breathed, in and out, in and out, and found her sisters and Ghost. Alba too. They all remained on the mount.
Mayhaps it was better, he realized suddenly. Had they entered the Temple Wood, they would have come face-to-face with the Northmen.
Panic bubbled but he bit down on it and beat it back.
He had to get around them. He had to get back onto the mount. He was useless this way. He couldn’t stop an army, and he couldn’t guard his brother if Bayr ran headlong into the battle.
And that was exactly what Bayr would do.
Hod scanned the mount with his ears, trying to feel his way into a strategy. It was an anthill, crawling with clansmen and chaotic sound.
He had to warn them.
That realization brought a wash of helplessness more debilitating than all his years in the dark. He didn’t know what to do.
The bells began to clang and horns sang from the ramparts. The Northmen in front of him began to shift, moving north toward the village at the entrance to the mount, hugging the tree line all the way. They didn’t hurry, but they were clearly moving into position, and Bayr trailed behind them.
Suddenly, from just above the base of the hill, he detected a familiar cadence,