Nine

The days shortened and the nights lengthened, and tightened around us like a rope around a throat.

The wonders grew.

Any beast that went near Tor’s grave went mad, and we were heavy to put it to death.

Sightings of the dark figure became common, though no one actually saw Tor face-to-face, to say it was him. But they said he moved like a shadow between the barns and the houses, there one moment, gone the next.

Two more beasts were found, ripped apart, their blood sucked away from them.

The first was another dog.

The second was a winter hare.

When I saw the hare something entered my heart, a small splinter of ice, and no matter how hard Eirik held my hand, it would not go away.

I knew what it meant.

*   *   *

Two days later, as we were returning from the fishing boats in the early evening, a scream came to us from the longhouse.

We were twelve, and without fear: we ran into the great hall, almost bursting the doors from their hinges.

There stood Sigrid, the old, screaming and screaming.

When she saw us, she fell to the ground, silent.

We saw what she had been screaming at.

There was a body on the dirt. A human body this time, a young girl, called Bera. And over Bera’s body crouched Tor.

As we burst in, he lifted his head, and we saw the blood running freely from his lips, from where he had been drinking from Bera’s throat.

He stood, and pointed at us.

At Eirik, I mean. And me.

Then he spoke, in a voice thick, choked from the blood that was still trickling down inside.

“I want my children.”

He walked toward us.

Father, and some of the other men, were quick, and grabbed burning logs from the fire, waving them at Tor, thinking that fire would harm this evil, and they seemed to be right.

Tor squealed like a pig that has been cut, and suddenly was gone.

Just gone—we did not see how, as if he had moved so fast that our eyes could not see it.

“We all sleep in here tonight,” said Father. “That way we will be safe.”

So we did as Father said, but he was wrong.

We were not safe, and when we woke, another youngling, a boy called Jon, was gone, right from where he slept among us.