The Dark Horse Read Online Free Page A

they took their Lawspeakers upon death.
    Gudrun, thought Mouse. The Wisewoman. Olaf ’s hound, Frost, would make a better Wisewoman! The sea gave no fish, the crops were poor, and still everyone put their faith in Gudrun. But in Storn there were reasons for everything, and Gudrun’s invulnerable position was no exception to this.
    Feeling sorry for herself, Mouse lay in the heather. Instinctively she curled into a ball and began to lick the backs of her hands, as if cleaning them, like a dog, like a wolf, though they were not dirty. After a while she realized what she was doing and made herself stop. Olaf and Freya would be cross if they knew. She rolled onto her back and stared at the sky instead.
    There! A crow.
    In a moment Mouse left her body and flew up to the bird. With that crow’s mind she swung high, surveying the whole coastline. There lay the village. Even from a thousand feet high she could see Olaf setting off with Frost along the shore. What for? She didn’t know. There was Freya, pulling a bucket of water from the burn. There was Thorbjorn, the blacksmith, an ally of Olaf ’s. The village was up and awake now, and there . . . there was the thin figure of Gudrun, leaving Horn’s private broch. At this time of the morning! No doubt Horn had been asking her advice on a point of magic.
    Magic. What use was Gudrun’s magic? Mouse swung away with the crow, which began to head north, along the coast.
    This
was
real
power.

9

    Confusion:
    “No, not with words.”
    “Why haven’t you spoken till now?”
    “I have, but not with words.”
    “Then how are we supposed to understand you?”
    “The hounds understand me.”
    “But we’re not hounds! How do you speak to them without words?”
    “I know what they’re thinking. I just need to be near them.”
    “And is it only dogs?”
    “No, not only dogs . . . the wolves . . .”
    “You understood them?”
    “Why did you hurt them?”
    “Did you understand them? How did you come to be with them? What were you before then? How can you speak?”
    I watched all this from the back of the crowd. I felt the pain they were subjecting Mouse to, trying to force answers from her. But Mouse had fallen silent.
    She would speak no more, would answer no more questions. Whether because she did not want to or because she did not know the answers, I do not know. But the faraway look had come into her face again, and she was silent. As silent as she had been before.
    All I sensed in her then was pain, and I wished everyone would leave her alone. As soon as they were busy arguing amongst themselves, I went up to her.
    “Mouse?” I said quietly.
    She didn’t say anything, but she looked at me. Her eyes were filled with tears that did not fall.
    “Come with me,” I said.
    And I took her away from the fuss and the noise, and we walked on the low hills behind the village. The sun was setting.
    We sat and watched it sink.
    I looked at Mouse and suddenly felt very sorry for her. She was all alone in the land.
    She leaned her head on my shoulder.
    “Sigurd?” she said.
    Somehow I knew what she meant, though she hadn’t
spoken
the words.
    “Yes,” I said, “I will be your brother.”

10

    “He’s gone? He can’t have just gone!”
    “It’s true, Mouse,” said Freya. Mouse could see she was trying not to cry anymore. It
was
true.
    Olaf stomped around in the background. Frost, the hound, lay exhausted in the corner. They’d walked all day north along the coast but hadn’t found Sigurd. No one had seen him since the affair with the box in the great broch.
    “I’ll go south,” said Olaf, “tomorrow.”
    “No,” said Mouse. “Let me look for him. I just need to find a bird to—”
    “No,” said Olaf sharply.
    “But I could search much quicker than—”
    “Not that way,” said Olaf. “This family is in enough disgrace as it is. If you go parading your . . .
self
in front of everyone, it’ll only get worse.”
    Freya put her hand on Olaf ’s