CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Kate laughed at the sheer freedom of riding through the hills near Ishjemme. Every time she’d been out in the countryside before, there had been a purpose to it. Now, she was just exploring, wandering for the sake of it with her cousins.
Perhaps that was part of the reason for her happiness: that she had family to share the moment with. Ulf and Frig argued with one another constantly, but Kate could see how inseparable they were, and how well the two worked together as they rode across hills and through small woods of pine trees.
“We come out here to hunt,” Frig said. “Ulf might be a dullard, but he can stalk prey.”
“Frig might be a loudmouth, but she knows how to track,” Ulf countered.
When Kate saw the herd of elk spread out in one of the valleys below, she knew wh
