|
But those many questions were lost on Bror. Different sort of questions were spinning on Bror’s mind. More and more as the minutes went by in silence. Finally he opened his mouth, but the words stuck in his throat. He lacked the ability to handle the emotion that Skald’s story gave him. His eyes were empty for a moment, trying to grasp in full what Skald had just imparted. Riv had asked him to do what? But he wasn’t going to die! He couldn’t! Riv had asked him to-
‘Look after Unna and Leifre and Ginna?’ Bror burst out, mid thought. ‘But Riv’s not going to die! Skald, he can’t die! He has - he has a wife, and...and two children!’ His voice was rising without his taking notice of it. He leaped up and backed away, as though he could run from the trouble he faced with. ‘And you can’t die either. I’m not the next Stonecut in line, I’m the last. The last, Skald. I can’t do that.’ He lifted his hands and dug them into his eyes, trying hard to calm himself. But his head had begun to hurt in the midst of Skald’s speaking, and now it pounded, and the blood churned in his ears.
The night of the conversation with Uncle Orin came back to mind, and from there it drifted to his short scouting excursion, and the horrible sight he had seen. Involuntary tears stung his eyes and he ground his teeth to keep them back. He heard Skald get up and come towards him a few paces. He began to speak but Bror stopped him.
‘No, Skald. Don’t explain.’ He was calm enough to talk sensibly now. ‘It just took me by surprise. I can’t...I don’t understand, though. Orin said that we won’t be fighting in open battle. He has hopes that we won’t, anyway. Is it...are we going to, then? Is it a certainty?’ He still held a small hope that what Orin had said may still be true, but the more he heard this evening, the more he came to think that avoiding fighting would be impossible.
He lifted his eyes to meet Skald’s and the look that he encountered was so full of uncertainty and fear and grief of what may be to come, that he was sorry he had asked any further into the issue. He walked backed towards the table, dropping his gaze, and waving his hand.
‘Never mind. It won’t do us any good speculating.’ He sat down heavily and laid his head on the table, a posture he hadn’t taken for years. ‘Where’s Riv?’
|