Hello everyone, I hope that some of you are still reading this far. This novel is now getting to the last few chapters as the story builds up to the big finale, so I hope everyone likes how the story is going. I'm not sure exactly how many chapters are left, maybe eight or ten? Anyway, just a heads up that we are nearing the end. I would love to hear what you all think of it so far, so please leave a review if you can, thanks!
41
"We should be on the move right now!" Anjolnr said fiercely, glancing around at the people gathered to hear his argument. "We should strike the enemy while they are weak, not stay away like we're afraid of them!"
"They aren't the enemy," Skjoldr said firmly, his deep voice carrying all the way to the front of the mead hall. "They do nothing but sit in their little fort, and they leave the rest of the island to us. They are nothing, so why should we waste our breath on them?"
"They cannot be trusted!" Anjolnr insisted, jabbing his finger forward to emphasize his point. His bright blue eyes blazed with energy, and I could feel the passion in his voice. The other warriors were enamored with him, and I could sense that Skjoldr was already losing this argument.
"The Imperial Legion has never been an ally of the Nord people! Everyone knows this, all the way to Skyrim they know this! If we let them stay here, it will only make them bolder."
"But they have been here for years, as you said yourself," Skjoldr said quickly, cutting him off. "That fort was built when you were still suckling on your mother's breast, Anjolnr, and ever since then, the Legion men there have done nothing but shiver in the wind."
"Yes," Anjolnr said with a knowing nod. "But that was before they found their precious ebony in the mountains. The greed of the Imperials knows no bounds, and now that they have found ebony, they will come for more of it. Everyone knows this."
All around me, I could feel the gathered crowd nodding and whispering their agreement to each other, and the entire room seemed to shift in Anjolnr's favor. By the look on his face, he knew it as well, and he jumped forward to cement his advantage.
"But they are weak now! They grew fat and lazy, and a band of criminals managed to almost wipe them out completely! We should go down there and finish the job!"
"Do you think it will be that easy?" Skjoldr snapped, gripping the handle of his sword. "You haven't even been tested in battle! The Legion will not just lie back and let us sweep their army into the sea. They will come back with ten times as many men, and those men won't be like the pathetic rejects that were stationed at the fort. They'll be the strength of the Legion, from the heart of Cyrodiil itself."
"Then let them come! This is our land, this is our honor at stake!"
"The honor of Nords is not so weak that a group of lazy Imperial thugs could ever threaten it," Skjoldr said.
I understood now why Wolf-Runner was the clan chief here. Outsiders rarely got the chance to see internal Nord politics at work, and many probably suspected that the strongest warrior in the village became clan chief by default. But even the Nords valued intelligence and cold logic, and a clan chief had to be a master of words as well as a master of weapons. Skjoldr, it seemed, had earned his authority in Thirsk.
Anjolnr was momentarily taken aback, although the crowd was still mostly on his side, and he quickly recovered. "Every minute that those Legion troops remain on our shores, our honor is being stripped away. And you mock me for not being proven in battle, when you are the one who chooses not to go to battle in the first place! Here you have an entire room of brave warriors, and you do not use them! And then you mock them for not facing battle!"
I clenched my teeth and glanced back across the faces of the spectators, and could see that more and more of them were going over to Anjolnr's side. Skjoldr won a brief respite, but he was losing this debate, and soon it would be obvious. I climbed down from the bench and began to inch forward through the crowd.
"So tell me this, Anjolnr," the clan chief said harshly. "If you are so eager to face the Legion in battle, why is it that you never made these grand claims when the Legion fort was still at full strength? Do you only wish to fight against an enemy that is little more than a sitting duck? Is this the great battle you wish me to send my warriors on? You wish to prove your worth in battle by attacking a bunch of weak, wounded men and unarmed cultists? Killing those who can barely defend themselves isn't bravery, it's cowardice."
Anjolnr reeled back as if he'd been slapped, and I winced myself at the unbelievable insult that Skjoldr had just thrown at him. Suggesting that a Nord was a coward was the most grievous insult you could give him. I commended Skjoldr for twisting Anjolnr's words like that, but it was act of a desperate man, trying to win the argument by force of will.
"Cowardice?" Anjolnr spat. "You're content to remain here, warm and comfortable, unwilling to face our enemies, and you dare call me a coward? Those stinking criminals who attacked the Legion have shown more bravery then you ever have! Are we going to let trash like that fight our battles for us from now on? It is a sad day when proud Nords sit back and let the Legion steal their land and their wealth, and let a bunch of thieves and criminals do all the fighting!"
"You agree with the criminals now?" Skjoldr shot back. "Maybe you should go join them! They dressed in furs and wolf skins to trick the Legion into thinking that we were responsible for the attack!"
"Maybe we should have defended our honor and our homeland in the first place!" Anjolnr shouted passionately. "And if the Legion could be ignorant enough to fall for such a trick, then we could never trust them anyway! When that girl came here to tell us about the attack, she warned us that the Legion might come here seeking vengeance upon us! Remember that? The Legion already believes we are their enemy, and still we do nothing!"
With a start, I realized that Anjolnr was talking about me. Urgently, I shoved forward, apologizing insincerely, and pushed my way through the crowd until I pushed out right in front. I stepped in front of the onlookers, right in the middle of the area where Anjolnr was giving his speech, in front of Skjoldr's throne. He stopped in mid-sentence and stared at me in disbelief.
"Are you talking about me?" I asked, glaring at him.
Voices began to speak up in surprise, but Skjoldr silenced them all as he slammed his fist on the arm of his throne. "What in the hell do you think you're doing here?" he growled at me, eyes blazing.
The mead hall was completely silent except for the sound of nervous breathing, and all eyes were on me. I ignored the eager crowd as well as Anjolnr, who stood angrily a few feet away. Right now I only had time for Skjoldr.
"The mining camp at Raven Rock was attacked by the same men who attacked the fort," I said simply, not sure where else to begin. "They killed many innocent miners and other people there. The Legion followed their trail and discovered where they are hiding. Like you said, they were hiding in the mountains. The Legion knows where they are now, and the Legion also knows that the Nords were not responsible for the attack."
"That changes nothing," Skjoldr said darkly.
"They have also received their reinforcements from Vvardenfell," I continued. "The fort is at almost full strength now."
I managed a sideways glance at Anjolnr, who stared daggers at me as he stood among his fellow warriors. Each one of them probably wanted to cut me down in cold blood, for several reasons. But Skjoldr Wolf-Runner merely nodded, as if to himself, although his expression did not soften. He had no love for me either, but he wasn't stupid, and he knew that he would have eventually lost to Anjolnr if I had not shown up. For the moment, at least, he and I were allies.
And Skjoldr was a smart one indeed. He also understood immediately that I had handed him an opportunity to solve both problems at once. "So," he said thoughtfully, "If the Legion has located their enemies, then they surely must intend to track them down and destroy them?"
"Yes," I said.
He peered up at Anjolnr. "You men want me to send you to war? Perhaps you can prove yourself in battle against the true invaders to our island, our real enemies."
"We have no proof of any of what this girl says," Anjolnr said, waving his arm dismissively, stalking toward me. "She's not one of us, and she works with the Legion, she's admitted as much! We already know that she wishes to prevent a war between the Legion and the Nords, isn't that right?" he asked, staring right at me.
"That's correct," I said calmly. "I do wish to prevent war."
"See? She admits it!" Anjolnr said with a laugh, and the crowd began to swing in his direction once more. "And now she shows up unannounced, just in time to tell us that the Legion no longer seeks to harm us? How convenient!"
"Are you calling me a liar?" I asked, my voice low.
Anjolnr hesitated uncertainly, but shrugged it off and called to the crowd. "We don't even know who this girl is! She might have been born a Nord, but she's not one of us! She's done nothing but defend the Imperial Legion each time she opens her mouth. Why should we trust anything she has to say?"
He probably didn't have to make his point so forcefully, since it was clear to me that most of the crowd already didn't trust me, and they were more than willing to go along with what Anjolnr wanted. I was an outsider as far as they were concerned, and nothing I was going to tell them would change their mind. Skjoldr looked at me for just a moment, and what little help I had given him was now erased. In fact, my support of Skjoldr would now be nothing but a detriment to him.
I didn't want to do this, but now I didn't have a choice. Anjolnr paced back and forth in front of Skjoldr's throne, basking in his victory, and he turned to face me, a mocking smile on his handsome face.
"You want to know who I am, Anjolnr?" I said loudly, my voice silencing some of the growing noise. "You really want to know? Well, you're in luck, because I'll tell you."
His smile wavered, and I could almost feel his uncertainty mirrored by the crowd at my back. Behind him, Skjoldr leaned forward, staring expectantly at me.
"My name is Sasha Snow-Crown!" I cried out defiantly. "My father was Orden Snow-Crown, a man that some of you might know as the Snow Wolf! And I've waged war against the Imperial Legion more than you will ever know. And I've paid for that in ways you can't even imagine."