To Find a Viking Treasure (Norse Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

her to keep silent and stay out of the way?
    She’d lived all her life doing that. Not anymore.
    “I know the island you seek.” Her voice rang clear in the longhouse. “I’ll lead you there.”
    Brandr grabbed her, the slanted line deep between his eyebrows. “How did you gain this knowledge?”

Chapter Three
    Skalds claimed Odin fashioned the earth from the remains of defeated giants. He tossed their broken bones aside, the fragments forming islands. This morning the Norse god dressed Uppsala and her islands in thick, white mist, an innocent color when blood would spill and homes would burn.
    The swirling fog kissed Sestra’s skin and messed with her curls, the damp air friendlier than her companion. She faced a churlish Brandr in a tiny boat cluttered with nets and baskets.
    They were out to fish should anyone ask.
    The Viking had showed up at sunrise with Lord Hakan at the Fyris River and swore an oath to protect her on this quest for stolen treasure for none doubted Gorm had stolen it. They were to deliver the hoard to Lord Hakan’s farm further upriver where someone would wait for them. Yet, all through the stealthy journey, Brandr hardly spared a word nor did he give reason for staying.
    “You missed the ship to Gotland,” she said, uncoiling her braid.
    “I know.”
    Their little vessel sliced through water, powered by muscle and sinew rippling under his tunic. The boat hugged a shoreline dense with ancient trees and mist, vigilant guards hiding sacred Viking burial mounds. Water gurgled past two weathered posts marking the Haga River, entrance to the healer’s forest. Passing the mouth of the Haga, Brandr smoothly steered their boat toward open water.
    She’d finger combed the wavy mass falling to her waist, the red vivid against her new black cloak. “I thought you wanted to get away from here, seek your new life on Gotland.”
    He shrugged, focusing beyond her. “I’ll take another boat.”
    “If there’s one to be found.” Head tipped sideways, she braided her hair with practiced ease.  “Don’t forget you said this wasn’t your fight.”
    The corner of his jaw ticked. “I remember what I said.”
    “Then why are you here?”
    He squinted at her as though she’d gone soft in the head. “Because I’m looking for the treasure with you.”
    With you .
    Her hands curled around her braid. Two words changed everything, bound them together and made them partners in this hunt. But more went on than his curt explanation gave. Brandr pulled long and hard on the oars, searching the distance, his hawkish eyes reading the mist the way others read runes. He avoided eye contact, a feat considering their knees almost touched from facing each other in the small boat.
    She cast a nervous glance over the side rail. The size of their vessel on open water didn’t help her confidence.
    “Is that how you want this to be?” she asked, tying the bottom of her braid. “We work around each other instead of with each other?”
    “I lead, you follow. That’s how it’ll be.”
    She nodded sagely at his edict, refusing to let him get under skin. “Well, you’re not in this for the silver and gold. I saw your face when Lord Hakan offered the reward. You were just as surprised as I was.”
    “I didn’t stay for the reward, but I’ll take a palm of silver coins.” Brandr’s voice was stone rasping stone.
    A palm, the Viking measurement used in trade, equaled a handful. Lord Hakan had told them upon the treasure’s safe return, they could both take one palm as reward. She cupped her hand. Would she grab twenty coins? Or thirty? Under her lashes she studied Brandr’s big hands wrapped around the oak oars. He’d grasp twice as much as her.
    “You surprise me.” Her fingers skimmed morning’s vapor crowding the boat. “I’m beginning to think you are a man of honor.”
    Water swished from Brandr’s long, determined strokes. His body flowed back and forth, a rhythm that was as calming as it