The Mercenary's Valkyrie: Book One

The Night Is Long And Strange

The wind howled that night.

Despite our tent being hidden among the trees, I still felt the cold. I pulled the animal furs closer and buried my head into them. The light breathing and snores of Kaden and John were there. They could sleep like the dead even if I banged two pots together.

I turned onto my side and closed my eyes.

But something felt strange. A sort of off-ness in the air. I sighed and got silently into a crouch. I attached my dagger to my thigh and wrapped my fur over layer on top of my tunic and pulled on my boots. I moved to the tent flap and stepped into the night.

It was dead silent. 

What? Had I not just heard the winds howling? Not just felt the bite of the cold?

I let the furs drop to the ground and looked up to see the moon shining brightly through the trees. It painted half my face in white and turned the tree tops into silver spikes.

When my eyes dropped back to the ground they found a shadowed figure standing across the small camp. I flinched at the sudden appearance and glowing silver eyes. They were the only visible attribute of the immortal.

"You scared me." I said through a breath.

I noticed the smoke emanate from the words and suddenly felt the cold again. This night and its mood swings...

She moved silently. No words spoken, just a shadow in the night. Then the moon struck her and lit up one side of her face like a perfect contrast of day and darkness. Her eyes ever glowing, ever fixed on me as they moved closer, were impossibly beautiful.

"Are you not going to sleep?" I asked nervously.

If I was honest the silence and darkness made the immortal unnerving. I could feel my pulse singing in my veins in flight not fight. That was certainly a first.

She continued to near me in a slow swiftness that showed inhuman agility in each step. I fought the urge to stumble back when she arrived half a foot from my position. Those predatory eyes took me in slowly. Head to toe she analysed each piece of me before...

She drew up a hand and placed in against my cheek.

I froze into a statue. Into an unmoving, paralysed piece of stone. The stunning being held my face in one hand and an emotionless expression on her own. My thoughts could not even function as I held the breath I had taken seconds ago.

"What are you—"

She moved the hand to stop my lips. They brushed them lightly in lover-like slowness before returning to the side of my face.

"The fragility of mortality is so beautiful." She whispered, scanning her eyes across every inch of my face.

I felt such warmth and invitation in her eyes that I leant into it. I was captivated and trapped. Lost to the will of whatever the goddess wanted from me.

"Even more so when you end it." She finished with a twisted smile.

I frowned as I came out of the trance and realised the meaning in the words. But by the time I made to move from her I felt a sword drive clean through my stomach. I gasped in agony and shock as I looked down at her other hand that held the blade in my torso.

Blood flowed out endlessly and she let me drop to my knees before her.

The sword left in place, I began to choke on my blood filling my throat. The immortal dropped down to me and cradled my face in both hands, as if to saver the moment my life came to an end.

"So... beautiful." She whispered before yanking it out.

I yelled at the top of my lungs and flew into sitting position.

Gods.

"Odin's axe, Tayah! That is no way to rouse a man!"

"Agreed." Kaden grumbled rubbing his stubbled face with a giant hand. "What is the matter anyhow?"

I continued sucking in air as I held my chest and glanced at them. 

A dream? I didn't have any words for that. So I ripped the furs off me and darted outside. There could only be one cause of this and I needed damn answers now.

I found her with her back to me, tending a small fire.

"What in the hells was that?!" I snarled down at her.

She turned to look at me with a raised brow. "Excuse me?"

"You told me you would not enter my dreams, damn it." I growled, barely able to resist picking something up and smashing her face with it.

The confusion painting her face drained instantly and was replaced by humour.

"Tayah, I did not manipulate your dreams. They were your own." She said unable to keep the chuckle escaping. "Apparently I was in them none the less."

I flushed in shock and then realisation.

It wasn't her. It was my dream. Well, if the king could bury me right about now that would be ideal.

"You look like you've seen the dead rise. Was I truly that monstrous in your dream?" She asked curiously.

An image of her drawing my face up closely and running her fingers over my lips flashed before me. I whirled around and hid my embarrassment  from those sharp eyes. If that was my dream... I could not handle the thought and turned rapidly to stride back towards the tent.

"I think your mortal is broken." The Valkyrie informed John and Kaden as they emerged from it and walked past me with confused looks. I didn't answer anyone and yanked the flap back to enter it.

I heard grunts and sighs outside.

"Tayah has had worse nightmares. We usually sleep through it." John muttered.

"Certainly not that one though." Kaden snorted.

This got the immortal's attention. "Frequent nightmares?" She asked.

I heard more shuffling and pots being prepared. Ugh surely they knew how obvious their conversation was... I pressed my face into my furs but couldn't help hearing them talk.

"I can hardly blame her. A year after I lost my parents as a lad, I saw them in my dreams." Kaden admitted.

"I sometimes see the faces of men I have killed." John added, somehow being serious for once.

"And they persisted for years?" She demanded, as if this was important information.

"For me no. But for Tayah... well there are sometimes good nights. Sometimes bad." He murmured.

I growled into the soft fur, unable to hear anymore of this. Their inability to keep their moronic mouths closed about my personal life was at a limit. I rolled into a crouch and swiped my long bow and a quiver of arrows.

Hunting would put distance and calm into my veins.

I yanked the flap back and ignored the eyes of them on me as I wordlessly jogged into the dense forest away from them all.