Rescuing Kadlin Read Online Free Page A

Viking demanded. She answered him with an unwavering stare. He stomped across the dooryard until he was looming over her. “I forbid it!” he thundered.
    Kadlin looked up at him and tilted her pretty head to one side. “Do you remember your promise, husband? On this very spot, you swore to love me and to honor me, to protect me and to share all that is yours. Our handfasting was not some silly rite. It was a solemn joining of the two of us as one under the witness of the gods. Just as you pledged yourself to me, I gave myself over to you. Your journey is mine, Bjorn, and we will take it together.”
    Bjorn dropped his head forward and closed his eyes. “Please, wife. Please do not ask this of me. Who will care for the boy and…”
    “Agata will care for Hjortr until we return.”
    He opened his eyes and stared down at his beautiful woman. “And if I can’t protect you as I swore to the gods?”
    Her face softened as she reached up and cupped his jaw. “You will, my love. I have given myself to you because you are worthy of that gift. I willingly hand over to you my heart and my life. Without you, I am lost. I understand that you must accept this quest, and you must understand that I have to be a part of it, just as you are the greater part of me.”
    * * * *
    They had ridden for four days, and Kadlin’s body ached. By turns, the hot summer sun beat down on them and the cool forest air sent chills over her skin. As they neared their destination, they kept off of the main thoroughfares, opting instead to travel on narrow, wooded paths. Bjorn said that he could not risk being recognized once they’d entered Jarl Arn’s realm.
    Countless times, she bit back the urge to ask her husband to stop and rest for a while. It was not her place to set the itinerary. She had insisted on accompanying him, and she was well aware that he would have preferred she had stayed behind at the farm. She had leveraged his faith to persuade him to allow her to come along, and she hoped the gods wouldn’t frown upon her because of it.
    Her husband, it seemed, was impervious to the toils of the journey. He was up at dawn and pushed his horse forward until dusk. When they finally made camp, Bjorn barely had time to start a fire before darkness engulfed them. Sometimes they would hunt on the trail, but more often than not they would nourish themselves with dried meats and stale bread. The mead had run out on the third day, and they were careful to fill the skins at every source of fresh water. As they made camp near a stream on the fourth night, Kadlin wondered if they would ever reach the land Grima had made him see in his dreams. In fact, she wondered if the dreamland existed at all.

 
    Chapter Three
     
     
    It was dusk on the sixth day when they arrived at the estate. The house was grander than any Kadlin had ever imagined. The peak of the roof stood taller than five men, and great carved dragons’ heads flanked the huge double doors. Torches had been lit outside the entryway, and in the gardens, but the place seemed deserted.
    “This is yours?” she whispered. Bjorn stared at the building. “No, wife, this is ours.”
    They hitched the horses to a pine tree at the edge of the deep yard, and Kadlin studied the intricate labyrinth at its center. A couple was just completing their walk through the maze of mounded earth. They embraced and kissed before the tall, thin man—with white-blond hair and skin so pale that it shone in the twilight—hurried to his horse and rode off.
    The woman waved to him then turned toward the house. She began to sing, and the crystal clear lilt of her voice filled the night. The visitors stopped and watched her. She was so tall that Kadlin thought she would be able to look Bjorn in the eye if the two stood toe to toe. Kadlin ducked behind her husband but craned around his side to watch the lovely creature. Even in the dim light, her beauty was apparent. Long, light hair fell in loose waves that almost