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  Frayka smiled, taking his meaning to heart. She relished her childhood memories of all the far-fetched stories her father spun. Stories about his days in the Northlands with Rognvald when they were brigands and the bad men who hired them. Stories about a Northlander woman covered with scars from being chewed up and spit out by a dragon, and how she became a blacksmith making swords for dragonslayers. Stories about dragons and ghosts and people who could change how they looked just by thinking about it.

  Secretly, Frayka believed every word to be true. And now that she’d travelled and seen far-fetched sights with her own eyes, no one could convince her that anything her father told her was exaggerated or made up.

  Catching Njall’s gaze, she saw the same conviction on his face. “What happened next?” she asked Rognvald.

  Rognvald draped a conspiratorial arm around Njall’s shoulder and pulled his son close. “Me and Thorkel went to the waterfall and met the sprite.”

  “Sprite?” Njall said. “A water sprite?”

  Thorkel nodded. “Or some such creature. Pretty little thing. Standing like a woman in front of the waterfall, but made of nothing but water herself. Voice as sweet as morning dew.”

  “That’s what you say about every female,” Rognvald scoffed. “Sounded irritating as a bleating sheep to me.” To his son and Frayka, he added, “But she claimed you two was safe.”

  “She said you be coming home soon,” Thorkel said. “And we should expect you to marry. She likes you both quite a lot. Spoke fondly of you.”

  Again, Frayka caught Njall’s gaze, and the solemn expression on his face convinced her they were thinking the same thing.

  Norah. Last year we helped a water goddess. We assumed she’d abandoned us, but she helped us instead.

  “Enough of this,” Frayka’s mother said, her voice hostile and coarse. “You spent the past few weeks building a house they’ll never use. Frayka has no intent of marrying Njall or anyone else. I dare say we’ll be stuck with her for life.”

  The five sisters glared at Frayka as their mother herded them out the door.

  Njall, his family, and Thorkel remained inside the house with Frayka.

  “Be that what you want?” Thorkel said to Frayka. “Or be you wanting something else?”

  When Njall smiled at Frayka, she remembered her long-ago portent that told her she must marry Njall because he alone had the ability to father children who would carry on Frayka’s ability to foretell the future. She remembered how her fondness for Njall had grown when he proved himself through kindness, loyalty, and respect. And during their return home by ship, they had spent every night becoming as intimate as a husband and wife.

  The portents may not always come true exactly as I see them, but they do come true.

  Frayka returned Njall’s smile. “I believe today is just as good a day as any to get married.”

  CHAPTER 4

  Frayka spent the morning soaking in the hot springs a short distance from Blackstone, and then returned to her family’s home feeling ready to face the world. Within minutes, the world seemed to close in around her.

  Frayka’s mother shooed Thorkel out of their small stone house. Walls lined with the sleeping pallets to accommodate their family of eight surrounded its central hearth. She faced Frayka and turned her nose up. “Didn’t you ever launder those clothes? They reek!”

  The five sisters surrounded Frayka and mimicked their mother’s disgust. The youngest shouted, “You stink!”

  Frayka lifted a handful of her own straight black hair and sniffed it. “I smell fine. I washed in the hot springs.”

  Ignoring Frayka, her mother spoke to her other daughters. “Didn’t I just say it was her clothes? Didn’t you hear me ask if she’d ever laundered them? Think of how long she’s been wearing them!”

  “A year!” the youngest shouted. “A whole year wearing the same clothes and never cleaning them!”

  “Not quite a year,” Frayka said with a frown. “And I did launder them from time to time.”

  If you count getting doused in a river or a rainstorm the same as laundering.

  Her mother yanked on Frayka’s outer dress. A loud rip tore down the back.

  “Hey!” Frayka yelled in protest.

  Still ignoring her, Frayka’s mother said to the five sisters, “See? These clothes are so worn and old and filled with stench that they’ve become little more than rags.”

  Shrieking with delight, the sisters swarmed around Frayka and ripped her clothing apart until she stood naked. One sister held her nose with one hand while gathering up the remnants of Frayka’s outfit with the other, tossing the rags out the door.

  Her youngest sister pressed her nose against Frayka’s bare arm and sniffed. The girl wrenched her face in revulsion. “By the gods! She still stinks!”

  “I won’t have her smelling up the fine new clothes your father demanded we make for her,” Frayka’s mother said. “Scrub her down good.”

  One sister tossed clean rags to the others, who dipped them in a small bucket of cold water resting on the floor. Despite Frayka’s protests, they rubbed her skin raw with the cold, wet rags.

  Still standing naked, Frayka crossed her arms while her mother looked her over.

  “Are you actually going to marry Njall?” her mother said. “You’re going to go through with it? You’re not going to change your mind at the last moment?”

  “Of course, I’ll marry him,” Frayka said, drawing her spine so straight that she stood slightly taller than her mother. “I had a portent telling me he’s the only one who can father children with my abilities.”

  The five sisters went wide-eyed with horror.

  Not this again.

  Frayka refrained from kicking herself. She’d been gone from the Land of Ice so long that she had forgotten how little the women in her own family thought of her.

  “You’re a grown woman, Frayka,” her mother said. “You’re too old for such nonsense.” She pointed at a pile of new clothing on the nearest sleeping pallet.

  The five sisters snapped to and pulled a pale cream-colored under-dress over Frayka’s head.

  The scent of fresh linen, never worn, filled Frayka with the realization that she’d forgotten what clean clothing smelled and felt like. The new linen felt stiff against her skin, but she relished the crisp sensation.

  “My portents are real,” Frayka said with an even temper. “Everyone knows that.”

  The five sisters giggled, and one of them said, “Everyone laughs at you behind your back.”

  “They blamed you for bringing the ice dragons to our doors,” another sister said.

  Frayka frowned. “I protected everyone from the ice dragons. I knew the ice dragons existed because of my portents. Those portents warned me the ice dragons would attack Blackstone. You’re alive and well because of me.”

  “We’re alive despite you,” her mother said. “It was your thoughts that brought them to us.”

  Frayka struggled to keep the proper respect for her mother. “That isn’t true. Father knows it. He understands the portents.”

  The sisters lifted Frayka’s arms and yanked a bright yellow over-dress over her head.

  Her mother’s voice took an angry tone. “Your father is a fool who believes in tales about fairies and dragons and all sorts of things that aren’t real.”

  “Dragons are real,” Frayka interrupted. “And I don’t mean the ice dragons—they were things made by sorcery. I’ve seen real dragons.”

  The sisters burst into laughter and mimicked Frayka, each shouting that she’d seen dragons, too.

  “Enough!” their mother shouted. “You girls give me a headache with all your silliness.”

  Startled with alarm, the sisters inched back toward the nearest wall.

  Picking up the last item of new clothing, Frayka’s mother held it up for her to see: a bright green coat embroidered with silvery thread.

  Frayka turned her back to her mother, allowing her to slip the coat sleeves over h
er arms and then pulling the green coat in place. “It’s beautiful,” Frayka said. “Everything you made is beautiful.”

  Her mother snorted. “I imagine that’s your way of thanking us.”

  “Yes,” Frayka said, baffled by her mother’s brusque manner, even though she realized it shouldn’t surprise her. “It is my way of thanking you.”

  “It’s a mother’s duty, even for a wild and neglectful daughter,” her mother muttered. She sounded bitter and exhausted.

  Frayka felt as if a porcupine had shot all its quills into her heart.

  “Don’t worry, Mother,” the youngest girl said with a step forward. “Today we get rid of Frayka! She’ll be keeping her own house instead of bothering ours!”

  “Today is the day you finally grow up,” their mother said to Frayka with resolution. “I don't care how brave the fools in this town think you’ve been, it's time to keep house for your husband. No more dashing around with your friends. No more nonsense about your portents. From this day forward, you will become the keeper of the keys to your own house. You will do a woman’s duty and in good time you will do a mother’s duty.”

  Frayka held her tongue, filled with a new gratitude that no such thing would be happening.

  At least not in the near future, and that was all she cared about for now.

  Frayka’s mother turned to the rest of her daughters. “Come, girls! Let’s get your sister married off.”

  CHAPTER 5

  The two families crowded around Frayka and Njall as they stood inside their new home next to a sleeping pallet made for two, wearing fresh, clean clothes.

  Thorkel clapped an enthusiastic hand first on Frayka’s and then on Njall’s shoulder. “This be a mighty fine day for our kin to come together. Me and Rognvald been friends all our lives, and now we be family by blood.” He hesitated with a catch in his throat and fought back the tears welling in his eyes. “Can’t think of no better man for my girl than Njall.” Losing the battle, Thorkel wept with happiness. “Be happy together.”

  Rognvald cleared his throat. “Let’s make it official. We, your families, stand witness at your marriage bed. Frayka Thorkeldottir and Njall Rognvaldson: we witness you become husband and wife.” He winked at Njall. “And now we leave so you can put your marriage bed to good use.”

  “Not yet,” Frayka’s mother interrupted. She stepped forward, extending a set of iron keys looped on a large metal ring. “Here are the household keys for the front door and storage boxes.”

  Frayka accepted the keys and admired the craftsmanship. “They’re beautiful. Which is the one to the front door?”

  Giving a brief nod of satisfaction, Frayka’s mother pointed at the largest key.

  “As my new father-in-law said,” Frayka whispered, “it’s time for us to be alone.”

  Now smiling with approval, her mother said, “Good.” Turning to Frayka’s five sisters, their mother herded them out of the stone house. “Let’s go, girls! Shoo!”

  Lingering, Thorkel and Rognvald stepped side-by-side toward the door as the last to leave.

  Frayka wriggled her way between them, slammed the door shut, and locked it with her new key. Looking at Thorkel and Rognvald, she said, “Not you two.”

  Rognvald frowned, and Thorkel shifted his uncomfortable weight from one foot to the other.

  Njall stepped forward. “The marriage bed can wait. We need to tell you something important. Something no one else will believe. Something that happened while we were away.”

  Thorkel brightened. “Does it have to do with portents?”

  “No,” Frayka said. “It has to do with gods. Our Northlander gods. They spoke to me.” She hesitated, thinking back to the day it happened. “Well, actually, just one god. The All-Father.”

  “The god of gods,” Rognvald said, his face slack and pale. Looking unsteady, he reached to pull up a bench and sank down on it.

  Thorkel sat next to him, puzzled. To Frayka, he said, “You had a portent about the All-Father?”

  “No. A shaman took me to the world where the gods live.” Frayka paused, considering the best way to explain her experience. “A portent is like a dream, and it began in a portent. But then it was very real.”

  Stunned, Rognvald said, “She met the All-Father in his house.”

  Njall pulled up a bench to sit across from his elders. “From what I saw, she appeared to be having a portent, like she was standing up in her sleep. Frayka didn’t know anything happening around her. Maybe her spirit went walking between worlds.”

  Thorkel drummed his fingers against the bench. “Could be. I heard stories about my grandmum doing something like that. Can’t say for sure.” Giving Frayka a piercing look, he said, “Why did the All-Father want you in his house?”

  The gods wanted me dead.

  “Our gods are angry with us. The All-Father says sometime long ago there were Northlanders who befriended Far Eastern gods. All of our gods appear to be offended. I think they feel rejected.”

  Thorkel and Rognvald exchanged worried looks.

  Njall leaned forward. “What do you know about this?”

  “We be innocent of any wrong-doings!” Thorkel protested. He fidgeted like a child caught disobeying.

  “Ain’t no one did nothing wrong,” Rognvald said. “Ain’t our fault our gods got sensitive feelings and got them hurt. What do they want now?”

  “The Northlander gods need a mortal who walks with a foot in two worlds,” Frayka said.

  “Two worlds?” Rognvald said, perplexed.

  “I walk with one foot in the Northlander world and one foot in the Far East,” Frayka said.

  Rognvald stared at her with a start. “I forget. Always think of you as pure Northlander.”

  Warmth spread through Frayka’s heart. She couldn’t have chosen a better father-in-law than Rognvald. “The Northlander gods want me to seek out the gods of the Far East and convince them to make things right.”

  “How you plan to do that?” Thorkel said. His voice broke with worry.

  “First I need to find the dragon gods,” Frayka said. “Tell me how to get to the Far East.”

  “No!” Thorkel protested. “You have no Far Eastern speak. And it be too far!”

  “Ignore the gods,” Rognvald said. “Forget the Far East. Forget the dragon gods.”

  “If I ignore the Northlander gods, they’ll kill us all,” Frayka said. “The All-Father said I’ll die, and I saw the rest in a portent.”

  Thorkel and Rognvald paled.

  “I’ll go with her, of course,” Njall said.

  “No!” Frayka said.

  It’s too dangerous for Njall to come with me. I won’t let him risk his life!

  Njall wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled Frayka close. “We’re husband and wife now. We’ll be together.”

  “The gods gave this task to me, not you,” Frayka said. “Those horrible, selfish Northlander gods who care only about themselves.”

  “You had no husband back then,” Njall said. “Now we face all tasks together.” Whispering in her ear, he said, “If we face peril, we will fight side by side. We are stronger together than apart.”

  Njall’s words melted her heart. As much as Frayka hated the idea of being stuck inside a house to take care of, she equally liked the idea of having a strong partner by her side when making her way through the world.

  Maybe we’ll both be safer by traveling together and keeping an eye on each other.

  “Of course, Njall goes with you,” Thorkel said. Pointing at Rognvald, he said, “And us as well.”

  “Father, no,” Frayka said. “You’re needed here. And it might anger the gods if I bring more than Njall with me.”

  Rognvald jabbed an elbow into Thorkel’s ribs. “Girl’s got a point. Anger the gods and they’re likely to keep good on their first promise to kill her.”

  Thorkel gave a reluctant nod. To Frayka, he said, “I got old maps stored away. Maps that show how to get to where my grandmum lived.”
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  “You always talk like she died long ago,” Frayka said. “Do you think she still lives?”

  Thorkel shook his head. “Doubtful. But could be others in the family that converse in Northlander like she did. Worth trying to find them.”

  “And weapons,” Rognvald said. “We’ll suit you up with the best weapons and supplies.”

  Nodding her thanks, Frayka stood and unlocked the door. Opening it, she led the way out of the small stone house. Once Njall and Rognvald stepped outside, Thorkel pulled Frayka back inside.

  “Try not to be so hard on your mum,” Thorkel said.

  Frayka’s feelings hardened. “My own mother doesn’t even like me. She’s trying to make me into someone I don’t want to be.”

  “I know,” Thorkel whispered. “And she got no right to do it. And don’t you ever let her!” Anger flared in his eyes for a moment, but then the look in them softened again. “Your mum got problems. She used to be like you, but no one cared for her much.”

  “Father!” Frayka crossed her arms, offended at the implication that no one liked her.

  “Hear me out. Took her a painful time to find friends, and they find you and me strange. Your mum wants friends, and she does what she does to keep them. Don’t mean there’s anything wrong with us.”

  Frayka saw love and compassion on her father’s face, and it startled her. “How can you love someone like that? Someone who’s become so unkind to you?”

  Thorkel’s tone hardened. “You’ll be speaking no such words about your own mum! She brought you into the world and cared for you when you needed it!”

  It made no sense to Frayka. She had no use for anyone who acted as if Frayka needed to change her very self in order to be loved or accepted. Then again, she understood her father had a soft heart and sometimes turned a blind eye to the faults of others. While she admired her father’s kindness, she believed it went too far.

  But it made no sense to tell him, because his feelings would be hurt.

  If I hurt my father’s feelings, how am I any better than my mother?

  Frayka calmed herself. “Then what would you have me do?”

  “Think,” Thorkel said, as if that one word answered all questions. “Your mum looks at you and sees what she lost. She be mean, but I feel sorry for her. She sees who she might be if she only had the courage.” Thorkel kissed Frayka’s forehead. “Don’t you never lose who you are. It be the most precious thing you ever possess.”