Halvard felt HER. She approached, like a fog creeping from behind trees.
A seer appeared before him, like a ghost in the night, her skin seemed white, like snow against a black dress. She looked at the water below, lowering the folds of her skirt, and her hands hung helplessly along her body, like the wings of a raven.
He closed my eyes, expecting her to disappear, like that night in the forest. As happened at the altar, when her image dissolved in the air, like the smoke of a sacred fire. But she did not disappear. Suddenly she raised her eyes and hugged him, meeting my eyes. And the already familiar feeling that had once seized me in Utan returned again, running goosebumps on my skin. Before he first saw her in a clearing, I had never experienced anything like it, but now this feeling seemed familiar. And so natural.
Looking around the forest behind her, he pulled a dagger from his belt.
- You are alone? - the wind blew his voice from the cliff.
But she stood still, as if expecting Halvard to disappear.
"Yes," she answered, stepping back from the edge of the cliff.
Her eyes fell on the dagger in his hand. The braids scattered over her shoulders were disheveled, locks of hair wet from the rain stuck to her face. Halvard tried not to watch how streams of rainwater flow in streams down her skin.
The wind ruffled her long dress, she grabbed her fingers into the ends of the braids, picked up by his gusts. He slowly held out his hand to her, and her lips parted quietly in a silent sigh as he grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him. She turned out to be real. It was not the ghost I saw in the forest. There was a cut on the back of her palm that crossed a yarrow tattoo, and her skin was as cold as ice, but still it was made of flesh and blood. However, something ghostly was felt in it. More darkness than light.
"You really are here," Halvard said, letting go of her hand.
She clenched her hand into a fist, hiding the tattoo that he touched, and stepped back.
- What are you doing here? he asked, trying again to approach her.
"I came to warn you ..." but she didn't finish, excitedly shifting from one foot to another, and removed the curl that had been pulled out of the braid by the ear. Pulling my ax from the belt, she handed it to him. The blade covered a thick layer of dirt.
Taking it, he rubbed the blade with his thumb until the yew tree engraved on its surface sparkled.
Trembling, she wrapped her arms around herself.
"The Swell army is heading for Hailey."
"You think I don't know that?" - Halvard raised his voice, shouting the noise of the waves beating on the stones below, and she recoiled.
Turning to the water, she clung to her bow, thrown over her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," her lips said words, but Halvard didn't hear them. Suddenly she became so tiny. And defenseless.
He sighed, putting his ax in the scabbard that hung on his hip.
"Why did you help me?" he asked, and his voice warmed.
His question seemed to surprise her, and she looked at me for a while before answering.
"Because you must not perish."
"If I should not perish, then I will not perish."
She continued to peer at me, and he suddenly felt a growing weakness.
- With fate, it is not so simple.
The moon swam out from behind the clouds, illuminating the eye that was visible in the open collar of her dress. He, without blinking, looked at her.
- And how then?
- Fate is constantly changing. In every next moment. I am trying to fix what happened. Laying out the runes, I did not know that they ...
"So, then, is it because of you?"
She said nothing, and her eyes were guilty in reply.
- I did not know.
But it was just awful. The whole village was lost. And Agi died.
"What are you doing with the Swell clan?"
"I am no longer with them," she trailed off, "I want to help you."
Halvard tried to read her thoughts. She was scared, and although he had never seen war, he knew people well. He did not trust her, however, bruises left by my hands were still visible on the neck of her white skin, I noticed them even in the dark. She came here, despite the fact that I almost killed her a few days ago.
"And I have nowhere else to go," she swallowed, burning with shame.
He squinted, and suddenly a lot became clear to me. Emptiness emanated from her. And tiredness.
- I can help you. I can try to save your life.
"You can't help us." - he removed the dagger from the belt and, turning away, moved forward along the path, but she followed.
- I beg you. She grabbed Halvard's sleeve, trying to stop, and he winced at the touch of her icy fingers, feeling their coldness even through his shirt. She squeezed his hand, and he swallowed a lump in my throat, looking into her face. Tattoos covered her skin with a solid pattern, I saw them in the open collar of the dress, and I peered intently until they disappeared.
"I want to help you," she squeezed his hand harder.
"If I die protecting my people, it will be a worthy death." I will earn the respect of the gods. And meet with my father in the afterlife.
She tilted her head to one side, her eyes sparkled as if she had read my mind.
"I'm not afraid," Halvard said hoarsely.
She stepped closer, and her palm slipped to his wrist.
"Halvard ..." she whispered.
Hearing her say my name, I drew back my hand, struggling with the desire to grab the dagger from my belt again. I did not like the feeling that gripped me when she spoke my name. As if a spell had broken from her lips.
- What's your name?
She smiled, and from the feeling as if his chest was pulled together with tight ropes, his breath caught in his throat.
- Tova.
He leaned towards her.
"Why are you so worried about what will happen to us, Tova?"
- Because our fates are connected. You and I are connected, "she answered simply.
And he was already beginning to believe that it was true.
- And what does it mean?
She looked at Halvard thoughtfully for a while.
- I do not know. But tomorrow you will not perish. I saw it. She lowered her hand, but a burning sensation of her touch remained on my skin.
"Did the runes say that?"
She nodded.
- Yes, the runes.
"So you decided to go over to our side, because the runes suggested that luck would be on our side?"
"I left Swell because my place is not there." My place is here. - Tears flashed in her eyes. "Laying out the runes, I did not know that the Swell clan would go to war against the people of Nadir." I did not expect that this could happen.
- But it happened.
"I know," she breathed heavily through the approaching sobs. "I'm sorry," she said again and squeezed her hands so hard that her knuckles turned white.
The forest was empty. But as soon as the Swell warriors find that their Seer has disappeared, someone will surely go in search of her. But by then the battle will begin.
He looked at the black water below, looking at the white crests of the waves, breaking on the rocks and again carried away into the sea. He was not interested in runes and predictions of the future. But she was with the Swell clan. She saw how they fought, and knew their numbers. It is foolish to refuse her help.
However, beneath the thickness of these thoughts hid something that he did not want to admit even to myself. He did not want to drive her away. Now that she was here, I did not want her to leave.
She slowly drove her fingertip along the cut on the yarrow stalk in her palm, and Halvard realized that she was waiting for his answer. She stood motionless and did not seem to even breathe.
She tried to save not only Nadir people . But also yourself.
- I can read the runes for Nadir. I can…
"No," he did not let her finish.
Raising her eyebrows, she looked at him.
"You don't want to know?"
- No. - Halvard turned away and went forward, not waiting for her. - If I'm going to fight, then I only need to remember that I win"