The Clan Hakon Series

2. Chapter 1

I’ve seen a toothless, starving hag fight harder to chew a piece of stale bread than you’ve been fighting all morning,” Freya yelled down at me where I sat. She’d put me on my backside at least two dozen times in the past hour as we sparred. I could tell the other shieldmaidens, though dutifully continuing their own training drills, watched me out of the corners of their eyes.

I snapped, “If the hag is starving, then, of course, she’s going to fight hard to chew a piece of stale bread. It’s called survival instinct.”

“Survival instinct? Is that the problem?” Freya asked. “You don’t feel your survival is being threatened enough to fight? I can easily remedy that.” Throwing down the wooden training sword she’d been holding, she pivoted toward Babs. “Bring me two swords.”

“Freya,” Torben’s deep voice called, sending a clear warning from where he stood twenty paces away.

The shieldmaiden leader faced him, then narrowed her eyes. “You put me in charge of the female fighters. Told me to train them to be as deadly as the males. You told me you wouldn’t interfere. Right now, she,” Freya pointed to me, “is not your bride or my queen, she is a warrior, a shieldmaiden of Clan Hakon. The girl will learn to fight correctly, or she will be killed in battle. If it takes a true threat to get her to pull her pretty princess head out of her a*s, then so be it.”

Torben pursed his lips, but he didn’t respond. Babs was back by the end of Freya’s speech. The woman grinned at me like a feral wolf just let loose in a pen of sheep. I wished I could say the sight didn’t unsettle me. After handing Freya a sword, she walked over to me. She held out her hand, pulled me off the ground, then took my practice sword and replaced it with the real one. Fantastic.

“Most fighters have a tell,” Babs whispered. “Something that gives away their next move. Find Freya’s tell and you will find a c***k in her armor. I’m not saying it will allow you to defeat her, but it will give you a better chance of walking away from this unscathed.”

“You mean I’ll just get my rear end handed to me instead of actually getting killed?”

“Exactly. And at the end of the day, isn’t that what really matters? That your rear end, which has been thoroughly kicked, is handed back to you?” Cackling her usual disturbing laugh, Babs stepped away from the sparring circle.

“Thanks a lot,” I yelled at her retreating back. I could feel Torben’s irritation and worry through our bond, but I pushed it out of my mind. Freya, no matter how much I loathed to admit it, was right. I had to be able to fight, even when my emotions were a mess. If I couldn’t focus in a controlled setting, how on earth would I focus in the heat of battle?

Stretching my shoulders, I bobbed my head from side to side to help loosen the tightened muscles. Then I bounced on my feet a few times, still adjusting to the unfamiliar footwear they’d given me. They were leather boots that came all the way up my calf to just below my knee. The leather was thick, and Freya had said it helped prevent injury to the ankles and lower legs. It still felt weird not to be wearing a dress. It wasn’t that I’d never worn pants before, but it was rarely and usually only when I went on long rides.

The leather pants fit close against my skin. They allowed easy movement without being cumbersome. The jerkin I had on came to mid-thigh. Over that, I wore a thick leather vest with several straps and pockets, mostly for holding daggers. On my forearms, I wore leather cuffs with silver rivets running up them. In a real fight, Freya said I would also wear light chainmail under the leather vest for added protection. Moving without awkwardness in the new clothing took some practice. Moving quickly and efficiently in the contorted ways often required for battle, well, that was next to impossible. But I’d better make it possible in a hurry. Otherwise, I was in for a lot of pain…or worse.

The short sword Babs had given me was familiar. Torben and I had trained with it for hours. In the evenings, he would teach me the correct way to wield it outside our hut. Though it exhausted my sword arm after only a few minutes, I’d known I was growing stronger and more capable. Holding a sword was one thing, but actually swinging it around and hitting things with it took an amount of strength I didn’t yet fully possess.

Just as I lifted the sword, Freya roared and lunged at me. I got my blade up just in time to meet hers as it stopped inches from my face with a loud ringing and reverberation I felt all the way to my shoulder. I pushed back as hard as I could, throwing Freya away from me. She took a couple of steps back, then began circling. My feet moved in tandem with hers as I tried to watch for the infamous tell Babs spoke about. I felt the chances of finding it were about as high as Torben learning to do needlepoint.

“Freya,” Torben rumbled.

“You aren’t doing her any favors, Jarl,” the shieldmaiden leader snapped even as she continued to circle me.

“Torben, I have to learn,” I called without taking my eyes from the warrior across from me. “I doubt a real enemy would back up and let me catch my breath…or wait until I get the grip on my sword just right.”

“I understand that better than you know, Princess. But that doesn’t mean Freya has to put any slashes on you. You can learn without being put in real danger.”

Freya lunged forward at the same time she yelled, “Wrong!”

I was so caught off guard I had to backpedal quickly to avoid the jab of her sword. As soon as I had my footing and she stopped her forward attack, I hoped to catch Freya unaware. I stepped toward her while slashing with my sword. Surprisingly, the maneuver almost worked. Frey blocked my stroke only just before it hit her shoulder.

Freya smiled. “That’s more like it.”

“Damn it all,” Torben muttered. “By the gods, woman, you will be the death of me.”

I didn’t so much as glance his way as I responded. “Only if you annoy me too much. I rather enjoy the marriage bed activities, and it would take a lot for me to give that up.” I hoped my words would shock Freya and possibly distract her. They did.

Eyes widening, Freya inadvertently lowered her sword. Only a slight movement, but it was enough. I rotated left, turning my body in a complete circle while shuffling closer to her. In an instant, the point of my sword rested at her neck.

“I’m not sure what has made me prouder…” Freya said. Smiling, she knocked my sword aside as if it were an annoying fly. “The fact you finally bested me, that you used a dirty trick to do it, or that you joked about your marriage bed activities in front of your husband and our jarl.”

“It’s okay to be proud of me for all three. It’s a big moment.”

When I glanced over at Torben, I found him gazing at me as if I’d grown a second pair of breasts, equal parts awe and l**t.

“I am in awe of you, Princess, and I am most definitely in l**t for you, second pair of breasts or not,” he said through the mental connection our anchor bond gave us.

“That’s a good thing, Northman, because a second pair of breasts will never happen.”

“Never say never, my love. Not when magic exists in the world. Miracles do happen.”

My eyes widened as I stared at him. “Miracles?” I sputtered “Umm, even if magic could make that happen, I would never concede to it. Maybe you should have a pair attached to your chest, then try swinging a sword or running in a tight jerkin. They quickly go from asset to liability.”

“I, along with the entirety of the male population on every continent in the world, would disagree with you…most ardently.” He flashed me a wicked grin.

“I’ve missed something, and I feel, perhaps, I shouldn’t be present for this conversation,” Freya said idly. “Yet, I also feel the need to stay. I’m sure it’s bound to become even more hilarious.”

“We should stay,” Babs said. “In case the princess decides to attack her mate with that long arse sword she’s wielding.”

“Is training over for the day?” Torben asked, his eyes never leaving mine.

“Afraid not.” Freya sighed, though I knew she wasn’t a bit remorseful. The sadist loved torturing me. “We still have endurance to work on. Some hill sprints should do the trick.”

Groaning, I threw my head back. Thankfully, I wasn’t the only one. A collective moan came from the surrounding shieldmaidens.

“Quit your whining, you lazy milk jugs,” Freya yelled. “You won’t be upset about the hill runs when you’re able to stay upright after hours of battle. As females, we are naturally weaker than most men. That means, when we fight them, we must find other advantages. We need to be able to outlast them. Fatigue makes a coward of the strongest man. That is when they show their weakness.”

“She’s right,” Torben agreed. “Endurance is one of the things that makes shieldmaidens so dangerous. It’s as important, if not more so, than wielding a heavy weapon.”

No one seemed particularly heartened by their words. With much muttering, we shuffled over to a storage barrel and unceremoniously dumped our weapons into it. Then we marched, panting, with heads bowed, to the hill, a steep mound of earth that rested ominously about a kilometer away. I’d dubbed it the Devil’s Anvil because it never yielded, and it made my life hell. The other shieldmaidens seemed to appreciate the moniker. This hill had become the bane of my existence. I even had nightmares about it.

“Wait,” Freya hollered. “Don’t forget your shields. Wear them on your backs as you run.”

“She’s trying to kill us.” Astrid huffed.

“We’ve been trying to tell you that for years,” Taina, one of the twins, said.

“I’m sorry I doubted you,” Astrid said. She smiled at the twins, who I noted were rarely far apart from one another. Didn’t Torben tell me Talia once had a fling with Brant? Wonder if Taina hung around for that?

It was t*****e, but I knew Freya wasn’t trying to kill us because she never ordered us to do any training she didn’t plan to complete herself. In a few minutes, she’d join us on the hill with her shield and probably her sword as well. And that was why I respected her as a trainer and leader.

The next hour was filled with much sweat, burning lungs and leg muscles, as well as few bouts of awful retching. I’m happy to report, however, no one passed out. When Freya finally called for a halt on our last run, each of us collapsed where we stood on top of the hill. I rolled onto my back, staring up at the darkening sky. I could hear the labored pants of the other shieldmaidens that matched my own. Though my thoughts were fleeting, I realized Freya’s training was doing more than hardening our bodies and sharpening our skills. It was forging us into something greater than our individual selves. There was something about straining and suffering alongside another human being that formed a bond not easily broken. The mutual misery was like glue. I realized then, because of what we were experiencing together, that each of these women would lay down their lives for me, and I for them.

I grumbled between gasping for breath. “I’m pretty sure…there are parts of…my body…that hurt, which are definitely not meant to hurt.”

“Can you walk?” Babs asked.

“If I say yes, does that mean I will have to do more training?”

“Maybe,” she answered. “Depends on Freya’s mood.”

“I’m too tired to listen to any more bellyaching from you slugs,” Freya barked. I realized the sound came from somewhere above me. She was the only one left standing. “Let’s call it a day.”

“Thank the gods.” Astrid sighed, and several around her echoed her prayer while trying to shamble into upright positions.

“Need help up?” Lakin asked. I was finally beginning to learn all their names. Now, I didn’t feel like such an i***t from continually having to say, ‘hey you’.

“That would be great,” I said, placing my hand in her outstretched one. She pulled me to my feet with ease. “Okay, now I feel even worse because you just lifted me as if I were a child and you haven’t been training all day.”

“You’ll get stronger,” Lakin assured me. “You will probably get stronger than you expect because you have much motivation to do so.”

I couldn’t argue with her there. Battle was coming quickly. If I weren’t prepared, the Devil’s Anvil would be the least of my worries.