Aenir Read Online Free Page A

even lower than Adras and gently lay Milla down. The Icecarl didn't move.
    Tal hurried over. Milla must have hit her head harder than he'd thought. He knelt down beside her and mentally ran over the healing spells he could cast with his Sunstone. But if she had a really serious head injury there was nothing
    Suddenly he found himself on his back, with Milla's knee on his chest, and her bone knife at his throat. She leaned close, her eyes wild and her mouth set in an animal snarl.
    "Traitor!" she shouted and dug the point of her knife into his neck, hard enough to draw a thin trickle of blood. "You sold my shadow!"
    "But we had to " Tal tried to say. Milla was really going to kill him this time, he suddenly knew. The knife hurt and she would need to slide it in only a little bit more.
    "I
    should kill you," hissed Milla. "Shadow-stealer!"
    She returned the knife to her sleeve. Tal sighed in relief. But his sigh was cut off as Milla suddenly pushed her thumbs against two nerves on his neck. She pushed quickly three times. On the third push, Tal's eyes closed and his head fell back.
    Milla stood up. The two Storm Shepherds looked at her.
    "I suppose I should defend my companion," said
    Adras, looking down at Tal's unconscious form. "I felt that, too, you know."
    "But then you would have to fight me, brother," said Odris.
    Adras shrugged. "He seems to be unhurt."
    "Give me back my shadow!" Milla screamed. She drew her Merwin-horn sword and cut at Odris, but the sword just went straight through the cloud-flesh. The bright Merwin horn could cut shadow, but here in Aenir, Odris was not a shadow.
    "I can't," said Odris plaintively. "We are tied together now, until the end of our days. I will go with you to your "
    "No! No! No!" screamed Milla, hacking away at the Storm Shepherd. But her furious blows only exhausted her. Odris bore them without flinching. Adras merely watched Tal, crouching at his side like a huge statue carved from fog.
    Finally Milla stood back and took several very slow breaths. She was using a Rovkir exercise, to prevent the onset of berserk fury.
    "You'll get used to it," said Odris.
    "No I won't," said Milla. "I will give myself to the Ice."
    "There isn't much Ice on Aenir," said Odris.
    "There might not be any. It's a hot place, on the whole "
    "I will return to the Dark World," Milla stated coldly. "I will find the Chosen Enclave and force one of them to show me how to cross back.
    Then
    I will give myself to the Ice."
    "Why?" asked Odris.
    Milla stood staring into space for a moment, then she whispered, "I cannot be an Icecarl without my shadow. I cannot be a Shield Maiden without my shadow. I am no one without my shadow."
    "But I'll be your shadow when we " Odris started to say. Before the Storm Shepherd could continue, Milla turned and ran out into the star-flecked darkness.
    Odris sighed, a big sigh that swept up a cloud of charcoal dust that blew over Adras. He growled, and puffed himself up a few times to shake it off.
    "I have to goafter her," said Odris. She sounded a a bit surprised. "It feels very odd to be bound to a person rather than to a
    place."
    "It does, doesn't it?" agreed Adras. "I hope mine wakes up soon."
    "I will try to bring mine back," said Odris. "Make sure you tell the wind where you are, Adras, so I can find you. And don't go across to the Dark World without me."
    "I will - won't," replied Adras. "I mean, I will tell the wind and I won't cross."
    The two Storm Shepherds slowly billowed their arms out to touch palms. Then Odris leapt up into the sky. She drew the wind around her and set off after Milla.
    Adras sat back down and looked at Tal. Somehow he could feel that the boy was all right. He was only sleeping now.
    It was odd being bound to a person, Adras thought, as his own breathing matched Tal's, and he felt his lightning-charged eyes begin to close. Storm Shepherds rarely slept, but he felt like it now.
    As his eyes closed, his body lost its form, arms and legs spreading till