The Mercenary's Valkyrie: Book One

Wolf Among Sheep

"Kaden, for the love of the Gods put the Devil's sneeze down!" I hissed.

"But would she actually burn? Or simply smoke?" Kaden retorted.

I slapped a hand across my face.

"She can make you damn well blaze if you do not drop it now." I growled.

He raised another hand in innocence before chucking it to me. I caught it carefully before glaring at him.

"What is that?" The very same Valkyrie said as she emerged from the make shift tent.

I drew it quickly behind me and shrugged.

"Just a mixture of oils for my crossbow."

"You mortals are such hideous liars." She said rolling her eyes skyward. "The least you could do is be creative."

I scoffed. "Excuse me, I am an excellent liar. It has kept us alive."

She grinned at me. "Lying to idiots is easy. It's when you come across another liar, that's when things start to become difficult."

I glared at her and she only shrugged. "Simply giving you helpful information. I should know."

"Yes, yes you are very omnipresent." John said dismissively. "Now I have my horse and of course Tayah's trusted steed, Parsnip, but we–"

"You named your mount after a vegetable." The Valkyrie exclaimed.

Kaden snickered the way she put it. But I was entirely unimpressed.

"That vegetable is worth ten of you." I blurted without hesitation.

Her eyes took on a light like the stars as she gazed coldly back at me. "You would deem a Valkyrie, an immortal and daughter of Odin lesser than a common herbivore named, Parsnip?"  She seethed.

Kaden exploded into laughter and fell back into the ferns. John turned to bury his head against a tree trunk and I was the only one left to fight the urge to laugh. She was right, it was an impossible task for her not to kill us, let alone protect us...

Before she could test that theory she turned swiftly and cracked a fist into a near tree with lightning wrapped around it. A deafening split followed and the tree fell backwards a moment later with a colossal crash and scattering of birds. So, there was the rage of Aries I'd heard about.

"Are we finished?" She murmured, eyes still bright silver.

We nodded our heads.

"Good."

* * * * * 

John, Kaden and I took turns between riding our remaining mounts. It was clear that Kaden's war horse had spooked off back to Ravensbrooke during the attack. He'd track it down soon enough when we returned.

There wasn't any other sound but the wildlife and the clop of hooves on the dirt road in the forest. It would take another twenty minutes to clear the woods. Then a further hour to enter the walls of Ravensbrooke.

Great.

"How many mortals have you killed?" John said suddenly.

The Valkyrie continued walking alongside our horse as if she hadn't heard him.

"I've killed fifty two as of today." He said casually, hoping to draw more from the wordless demi-god.

"Seventy four." Kaden boasted. John scowled over his shoulder at him.